How the US is becoming an emerging market

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 Asset Allocation 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 a trading model, which is a blend of price momentum (is the Trend Model becoming more bullish, or bearish?) and overbought/oversold extremes (don't buy if the trend is overbought, and vice versa). Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the email alerts are updated weekly here. The hypothetical trading record of the trading model of the real-time alerts that began in March 2016 is shown below.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Sell equities*
• Trend Model signal: Neutral*
• Trading model: Neutral*

* 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 those email alerts is shown here.

Subscribers can access the latest signal in real-time here.


A pre-election stall?

As we approach the November election, the market may be setting up for a pre-election stall. President Trump, otherwise known as "Dow Man", is fond of benchmarking his performance using the stock market. The S&P 500 (SPY) has returned an impressive 64.5% unannualized since Inauguration. Its performance against the long bond (TLT) is less compelling, but it beat bonds by a total of 12.1% over the same period. 

The most disturbing metric is the market's risk perception. The VIX Index is elevated, and trades at a premium to EM VIX. The market is now pricing US risk like an emerging market. Market nervousness is rising, and traders will have to contend with a heightened risk environment until the November 3 election.

The full post can be found here.