To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
10/2/2015- A positive day with the Dow Jones up 200 points (+1.23%) and the Nasdaq up 80 points (+1.74%)
Despite today’s rally, this has been a relatively flat week for the market. What’s worse, all of the primary indices (the Dow, Russell, NYSE, Nasdaq and S&P) are now firmly in the negative territory for the year. That SHOULD cause some concern. Perhaps the analysis below can clear things up.
Below is a comprehensive longer-term review of the stock market and what the next few years hold.
In the early January of 2000, the US Economy wa s booming. The Dow was fast approaching 11,800 and the Nasdaq was a stone throws away from its improbable benchmark of 5,000. Everyone was making a ton of money and as far as most people were concerned, the future looked very bright. So much so, that very few people predicted a bear market of 2000-2002, let alone a secular 2000-2017 bear market that was about to begin.
The only way to do so was to know and to understand the cyclical TIME structure oscillating within the stock market. For instance, an analyst working with such time cycles would know that the stock market’s 17-18 year cycle was topping out in conjunction with the 5 year cycle that started at 1994 bottom. The bull market that started at the bottom in August of 1982 was coming to a conclusion. In fact, it would top out exactly 17.5 years after it had started or on January 14th, 2000 at 11,800. The 5 year cycle that started in December of 1994 would top out at exactly the same time; 5 years and 35 trading days after it had started.
What does this have to do with predicting a severe bear market of 2014/15-2017?
Everything. Based on my work the stock market is a mathematically precise entity. And while there are hundreds of TIME cycles oscillating within the stock market at any one time, I will concentrate on only two to prove my point. The 17-18 cycle and the 5 year cycles. We will look at these cycles over the last 100+ years and I will prove to you, without a shadow of a doubt, they work.
THE 17-18 YEAR CYCLE IN THE STOCK MARKET:
Long-term cycles within the stock market tend to oscillate going all the way back to the first day of trading, in May of 1790. If you would be inclined, I would encourage you to verify that information for yourself. For our purposes we will start our analysis a little bit later or exactly 100 years ago. As the chart above indicates, the stock market tends to oscillate in clearly defined 17-18 year alternating Bull/Bear market cycles.
*Note: It is important to address the 1929-1932 bear market and its impact on the overall 1914-1932 Bull Market cycle. It is a complex matter to discuss without sufficient background or understanding, but the final (short-term) structural composition of this Bull Cycle inverted over the last 3 years (1929-1932). Mostly due to a massive rally between 1924-1929 and a number of down cycles converging on this time period at the same time. Regardless, the overall cycle lasted 17.5 years.
It is important to note that the small variation (of +/- 1 year) in duration of these cycles is caused by smaller or larger cycles arriving at the same time. As such and based on the cycles above, we are no longer working in an arbitrary fashion when it comes to predicting the stock market. In other words, if the stock market repeats a clearly defined 17-18 year Bull/Bear cycle over a 220 year period of time (since 1790) and does so without interruption, it is safe to assume that the future is predictable and not random.
THE 5 YEAR CYCLE IN THE STOCK MARKET
One other easily identifiable cycle within the stock market is the 5 year cycle. These 5 year cycles represent one completed growth pattern or one completed Bull or Bear cycle. Typically, they tend to appear for 5 years, disappear and then reappear at a certain point in the future. While they are not sequential as the 17-18 year cycle above, once their place within the overall stock market is understood, they show up at exactly the right time. For instance,
One thing to understand about these 5 Year cycles is that they are exact. They have much lower level variance as compared to their longer counterparts. Essentially, we are NOT talking about 5 years +/- 6 months. We are talking about 5 years +/- a few days. For instance, the 2002-2007cycle started on October 10th, 2002 (at 2002 bottom) and terminated on October 11th, 2007. If you are counting, that is exactly 5 Years and 1 day or scary accurate. I encourage you to study the other cycles outlined above in order to prove to yourself how shockingly accurate they all are.
CONCLUSION:
In summary, predicting a bear market of 2015-2017 is rather simple. All 17-18 year bear cycles end with a 2-3 year bear market. For instance, 1912-1914, 1946-1949 and 1979-1982. And while most believe that the secular bear market ended at 2009 bottom, that is not the case. The secular bear market of 2000-2017 is still in effect and will terminate only when the year 2017 is reached. Although the final price bottom will be higher than the mid-cycle bottom reached in March of 2009.
Further, the 5-Year cycle that started on March 6th, 2009 bottom terminated on July 16th, 2014 (Look at NYSE for confirmation). Suggesting that the stock market is now ready to initiate its bear leg (despite recent higher highs). When I combine this cyclical analysis with the rest of my mathematical and timing work, the outcome is crystal clear. A severe bear market of 2015-2017 is just around the corner.
This conclusion is further supported by my mathematical and timing work. It clearly shows a severe bear market between 2015-2017. In fact, when it starts it will very quickly retrace most of the gains accrued over the last few years. If you would be interested in learning when the bear market of 2015-2017 will start (to the day) and its internal composition, please CLICK HERE.
(***Please Note: A bear market might have started already, I am simply not disclosing this information. Due to my obligations to my Subscribers I am unable to provide you with more exact forecasts. In fact, I am being “Wishy Washy” at best with my FREE daily updates here. If you would be interested in exact forecasts, dates, times and precise daily coverage, please Click Here). Daily Stock Market Update. August 7th, 2015 InvestWithAlex.com
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COT Reports: If you are not familiar, the Commitments of Traders (COT) reports provide a breakdown of each Tuesday’s open interest for markets in which 20 or more traders hold positions. In other words, it gives us a preview of what commercial interests are buying or selling. As the theory goes, we want to be on the same side of the trade as the big guys.
While not a good timing tool, currencies, commodities and the stock market (to a lesser extent) tend to move in the direction of the bets made by the commercial players. Not always, but often enough.
Latest data, as of September 29th, 2015
Currencies:
Conclusion: Based on the information above, commercial interests expect the US Dollar to decline while Canadian Dollar, British Pound, Euro, Japanese Yen and Australian Dollar rally.
Markets/Commodities/Volatility:
Conclusion: Based on the information above, commercial interests are now net neutral the S&P and Gold. Please note, commercials have substantially increased their net short position in VIX. That could be due to them expecting a market rally and/or us remaining in a trading range. Considering the fact that S&P is neutral, no definitive conclusion can be ascertained at this time in regards to VIX. Gold is likely to remain within its trading range.
Next Week’s Market Calendar:
COT Reports & Weekly Market Calendar – September 25th, 2015 Google
Best financial analysis you will get on what has actually transpired during my summer blogging hiatus or over the last two weeks. 
Just in case you were wondering whose playbook Chinese Officials are following. China Police To Investigate ‘Malicious’ Short Selling Of Stocks
Explanation: Being a bear while everyone else is bullish is one of the most challenging propositions in investing. For instance, ‘Short selling is an incredibly lonely proposition,’ billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman says. Yet, it can pay off big time if you get your TIMING right. However, since most people, even professional investors are terrified of shorting, I will introduce a quick series about short selling, proper risk management when short selling and the best way to maximize returns. This was to be a part of my never finished book (no time to finish it)…….
Finally, before we can answer which of the investment strategies above is the best one, we have to consider an important issue. We must first define what goals most investors have. Unfortunately, the investment industry has done quite a job cutting and dicing what should be a simple classification into a million different pieces. Anything from divorced housewives on fixed alimony income investing in high tech startups to 95 year olds with advanced derivative strategies.
Luckily for us, human nature and greed never go out of style. If given a chance, 99% of all investors, no matter the age or risk profile would want the exact same thing.
The real question becomes, which of the strategies above can get us to the above mentioned points the closest?
As you can probably imagine, none of them. Every one of the strategies above has their own shortcomings. For instance, most value investments take a few years to play out. Blowing our “short time frame” requirement completely out of the water. Investing in growth companies is inherently more risky and trading or overtrading rarely leads to large capital gains.
So, what is the ultimate solution?
As always, the answer lies somewhere in between. If we are to bring the strategies above together, we might just be able to achieve our ultimate objective. By taking the best parts and disregarding the worst, we might be able to stitch together a strategy that will satisfy all of our high return and low risk profile requirements. Let’s see if we can get it done.
Value Investing: (Minimizing Risk)
Growth Investing: (Maximizing Returns)
Trading: (Perfecting Timing)
Of course, the next step is to put all of the above selections together.
Won’t we end up with some sort of a Frankenstein monster?
Not at all. A clearly defined investment strategy below is the ultimate outcome.
Buy Low, Sell High, Go Short & Cover Investment Strategy:
To be continued tomorrow…..
It’s Hard To Be A Bear When Everyone Is Bullish. Part 6 Google
