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‘The Markets Peaked’ – This Historical Indicator Signals Potentially Huge Losses Ahead

‘The Markets Peaked’ – This Historical Indicator Signals Potentially Huge Losses Ahead

Understanding cycle theory is still one of the most important things an investor can do.

Buying at the peak is a surefire way to increase your downside risk – even if your investment is sound. And buying at the bottom gives you a thick margin of safety – downside protection.

That’s why the best investors pay so much attention to where they are in the cycle.

The value-investing contrarian who runs Oak Tree Capital – Howard Marks – has written about the importance of cycles.

In fact – in his book, The Most Important Thing Illuminated, he writes two key rules. . .

“Rule number one: most things will prove to be cyclical… Rule number two: some of the greatest opportunities for gains and loss come when other people forget rule number one…”

And I fully agree with him. . .

There’s a powerful indicator that shows global economic expansion and contraction – it’s known as the ‘Global Wave’ (GW).

And going back the last 30 years – within a year of when things peak (top), there’s either a recession or some market crisis. And when there’s a trough (bottom), it’s followed by growth and gains.

Today – the Global Wave indicator’s signaling economic growth has peaked for this cycle. And both markets and economies are going to underperform for at least the next 12 months.

To be fair – some post-market peak downturns were brief and didn’t result in huge market sell offs. But the ones that did – like the 2001 and 2009 recessions – were brutal.

That’s why we need to ask ourselves a very important question: what’s most likely to happen over the next 12 months – is the Global Wave Indicator just noise(useless) or is it a signal(useful)?

If we look at the history of the GW, it’s not hard to see that things are most likely going to go down from here. . .

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

This Chart Shows the First Big Crash Is Likely Just Ahead

This Chart Shows the First Big Crash Is Likely Just Ahead

The story on Wall Street and CNBC continues to be that we’re in a correction and this is a buying opportunity. Even Warren Buffett joins the chorus of stock market cheerleaders for the skeptical public. Well, I agree with the skeptical public, not the experts here!

The bull market from early 2009 into May 2015 looks just like every bubble in history, and I’m getting one sign after the next that we did indeed peak last May. The dominant pattern in the stock market is the “rounded top” pattern:

S&P 500 rounded top

After trading in a steep, bubble-like channel from late 2011 into late 2014, with only 10% maximum volatility top to bottom, the market finally lost its momentum… just as the Fed finished tapering its QE. That’s because the Fed was the primary driver in this stock bubble in the first place!

But the first sign that the bubble had indeed peaked was the break of that upward channel last August. Surprise, surprise! Without the Fed’s stimulus, stocks started to sputter out!

With that sign we can point to what now looks like a series of major tops, in one major index after the next, since late 2014:

  • Dow Transports, November 2014.
  • Dow Utilities, January 2015.
  • The DAX in Germany and the FTSE in the UK: April, 2015.
  • The Dow and S&P 500: May 2015.
  • The Shanghai Composite: June 2015.
  • The Nasdaq, Biotech and the Russell 2000: July 2015.
  • And finally, the Nikkei in Japan: August 2015.

The Shanghai Index crashed 45% in 2.5 months, similar to the Dow in late 1929 on its first 2.5-month wave down. That one was so obvious that when I said it was about to burst, it peaked that day and rolled over the next!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

An Expert That Correctly Called The Last Two Stock Market Crashes Is Now Predicting Another One

An Expert That Correctly Called The Last Two Stock Market Crashes Is Now Predicting Another One

Hussman ChartWhat I am about to share with you is quite stunning.  A well-respected financial expert that correctly predicted the last two stock market crashes is now warning that we are right on the verge of the next one.  John Hussman is a former professor of economics and international finance at the University of Michigan, and the information in his latest weekly market comment is staggering.  Since 1970, there have only been a handful of times when a combination of market signals that Hussman uses have indicated that a major market peak has been reached.  In 1972, 2000 and 2007 each of those peaks was followed by a dramatic stock market crash.  Now, for the first time since the last financial crisis, all four of those signals appeared once again during the week of July 17th.  If Hussman’s analysis is correct, this could very well mean that the next great stock market crash in the United States is imminent.

It was an excellent article by Jim Quinn of the Burning Platform that first alerted me to Hussman’s latest warning.  If you don’t follow Quinn’s work already, you should, because it is excellent.

When someone is repeatedly correct about the financial markets, we should all start paying attention.  Back in late 2007, Hussman warned us about what was coming in 2008, but most people did not listen.

Now he is sounding the alarm again.  According to Hussman, when there is a confluence of four key market indicators, that tells us that the market has peaked and is in danger of crashing.  The following comes from Newsmax

He cited the metric among the indicators that foreshadowed declines after peaks in 1972, 2000 and 2007:

*Less than 27 percent of investment advisers polled by Investors Intelligence who say they are bearish.

*Valuations measured by the Shiller price-to-earnings ratio are greater than 18 times.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Equity Valuations, Recessions and Stock Market Declines

 

 

Equity Valuations, Recessions and Stock Market Declines

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Last week I had a fascinating conversation with Neile Wolfe, of Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC. Based on the underlying data in the chart above, Neile made some cogent observations about the historical relationships between equity valuations, recessions and market prices:

  • High valuations lead to large stock market declines during recessions.
  • During secular bull markets, modest overvaluation does not produce large stock market declines.
  • During secular bear markets, modest overvaluation still produces large stock market declines.

Here is a table that highlights some of the key points. The rows are sorted by the valuation column.

Beginning with the market peak before the epic Crash of 1929, there have been fourteen recessions as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The table above lists the recessions, the recession lengths, the valuation (as documented in the chart illustration above), the peak-to-trough changes in market price and GDP. The market price is based on the S&P Composite, an academic splicing of the S&P 500, which dates from 1957 and the S&P 90 for the earlier years (more on that splice here).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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