Is this what a regime change looks like?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models
We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Model is an asset allocation model which applies trend following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity price. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. In essence, it seeks to answer the question, "Is the trend in the global economy expansion (bullish) or contraction (bearish)?"

My inner trader uses the trading component of the Trend Model to look for changes in the direction of the main Trend Model signal. A bullish Trend Model signal that gets less bullish is a trading "sell" signal. Conversely, a bearish Trend Model signal that gets less bearish is a trading "buy" signal. The history of actual out-of-sample (not backtested) signals of the trading model are shown by the arrows in the chart below. The turnover rate of the trading model is high, and it has varied between 150% to 200% per month.

Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the those email alerts are updated weekly here.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities*
• Trend Model signal: Bullish*
• Trading model: Bullish*

* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends and tweet mid-week observations at @humblestudent. Subscribers receive real-time alerts of trading model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the those email alerts is shown here.


Tech rollover = Regime change?
Is the stock market undergoing a regime change? The Average Direction Index (ADX) is a trend indicator developed by J.Wells Wilder to measure the strength of a price trend. The higher the ADX level, the strong the trend. The chart below shows the relative performance of technology stocks compared to the market. Even though this sector remains in a relative uptrend, the ADX of the relative performance ratio began to roll over in late 2017. The weakness in trend culminated in the recent carnage of FANG and semiconductor stocks.

The enthusiasm for technology stocks may be overdone, as the sector has exceeded its weight in the SPX index, which last peaked during the NASDAQ Bubble.

There is a fundamental reason for the weakness in this sector. I had written about this possibility last October (see Peak FANG), where I suggested that the regulators would come for the Big Data companies in the next recession. Facebook and Google were the prime targets because they were in the surveillance business, largely because of the creepiness effect of their practices. Of the other FANG names, Amazon is also vulnerable because of their strategy to entice users into their walled garden by learning everything about them in order to sell them goods and services. The latest Facebook episode mane mean that the competitive moats of these companies may be already breached. A prolonged period of market performance may be in store, much in the manner of Microsoft after its anti-trust battle with the Justice Department.

In connection with the failure of FANG and technology leaders, the stock market is also showing signs of weakening. The SPX recently breached an uptrend line, and its ADX has also rolled over.

These developments raise two key questions for investors. If technology leadership is indeed failing, can any other sectors step up to take its place? As well, does the weakness in these high octane and high beta groups the sign of a top for the overall stock market?

The full post can be found at our new site here.