Look for our new Learning Management Website coming soon…
• This past week the DOW notched its 9th straight weekly gain (16% cumulative) which is the longest winning streak since 1995 and a rare “V” pattern is all but complete from a technical perspective…but this advance has been Global with the Shanghai Index up 12.4% (7th weekly gain), the Nikkei ended its 6th winning week in the past seven and is up about 12% and the European Stoxx had its seventh up week in eight ending up 12.6% from recent lows.
• Globally, Central Banks have backed off tougher monetary policies and markets have reacted very positively…the cumulative effect has been to add over $5.1 Trillion in wealth to US Investors alone…meanwhile, with all this euphoria, the VIX as a measure of market volatility has fallen for 9 straight weeks closing this past Friday at 13.51 from its peak in Q4 of 36.20…
• Hard Landings in the markets are typically characterized by the FEDs raising interests higher than necessary causing a market to sell off harder than anticipated and generally leading to a recession….in the history of Bull Markets there have been only 3 instances where the FEDs have generated a Soft Landing (1966, 1984 and 1995) and in each of these cases the FEDs actually reduced rates toward the economic expansion peaks and thus reducing downside stock market price action….let’s see how the FEDs play this current expansion but looking out in time the 30 day Fed Fund Futures markets are not predicting any further rate hikes this year and while this could change, for now, things seem to be rosy for price action…
• By March 9th this will be the second longest Bull Market ever and should we continue on thru June 29th it will be the longest bull run in the history of the US markets which is amazing since 2008 we also had the worst economic depression since, well the great depression in 1929…But looking at the cash still on the sidelines shows big money still lacks the enthusiasm shared by many retail traders…
Enjoy this week’s Weekly Round-Up:
Don’t Be A Rat Brain Trader — Trade Smart!
hpb
