Dow up for 8th straight week – Don’t confuse brains with a bull market April 23, 2010
Posted by Marlowe Cassetti in EUO, MVV, QLD, SSO.trackback
Stocks rose Friday after a strong report on new home sales offset mixed news from corporate earnings reports. The market was held in check for much of the day after Greece decided to tap a bailout program.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed higher for the 11th time in the past 12 trading days. Friday’s gains wrapped up the index’s eighth consecutive weekly gain, which matches the longest winning streak for the Dow since a two-month stretch that ended in January 2004.
Gold and oil rose after the housing report, pushing shares of energy and materials stocks higher throughout the day. Dow rose 69.99, or 0.6 percent, to 11,204.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.61, or 0.7 percent, to 1,217.28, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.08, or 0.4 percent, to 2,530.15.(market commentary & photo courtesy of AP)
*********************************************************************
It is weeks like this that having a disciplined, objective trading system really pays off. Why do I say this? Because RSI makes the buy and sell decisions quite easy and as it turns out, rewarding. A few weeks ago RSI suggested moving into double long ETFs, which at the time appeared to be unreasonably risky. Yes, I didn’t immediately jump onto them, but rather I monitored them before taking a position in MVV, SSO, and QLD. Likewise with the platinum fund PGM has performed nicely. In fact all of RSI’s picks in the portfolio are in the green except for the ultra-short euro fund EUO which is in the red by 0.5%. Not too shabby.
I recently quoted the adage of “don’t confuse brains with a bull market”. This classic quote is attributed to Humphrey Neill. Neill was a stock market expert who literally wrote the book on contrarian investment thinking. It’s called The Art of Contrary Thinking. I am finding that most of RSI’s recommendations are contrary to what you see from most market pundits. This is an interesting point since the RSI modules were not specifically designed to reflect a contrary trade. However, some of RSI’s modules take positions after large price swings and on module is a counter-trend trade. But this isn’t the whole story. I’m still looking into this phenomenon. The skeptic in me is also thinking that I’m being fooled by confirmation bias. I need more data points before I can make any conclusions.
No picks to close out this week. Have a great weekend.
Comments»
No comments yet — be the first.