STEADILY SELECT SPLATTERED SECURITIES (March 29, 2020): A useful analogy to a bear market is to imagine that several dozen people carry buckets of brightly-colored paint up to various floors of a skyscraper and then simultaneously pour their buckets onto the street. The buckets which were carried to the highest floors will generally splatter more aggressively than buckets from lower floors but it will be a messy correlation rather than a clean linear pattern. In other words, some of the paint from floors which are not at the very top will end up splattering worse than some of the paint from higher floors due to the unpredictability of nature. The same is true of bear markets: the most overpriced assets will generally suffer but some undervalued assets and others which "shouldn't have" dropped so much will do so anyway. Because most investors aren't accustomed to trading in bear markets, especially now when we haven't experienced such a downtrend for eleven years, most people will be acting from confusion rather than with advanced planning. Even an inferior method is better to acting randomly or using emotions.
The weekly timing of the selling signals that the least-experienced investors are doing the most selling--which is when you should be doing your heaviest buying.
When do ordinary inexperienced investors sell? Definitely not at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday since they're busy working at that time. Most inexperienced people place market sell orders on non-trading days when they have time to do so. We saw this clearly in December 2018 when during the weekend prior to December 24 many investors sold in a panic with their orders being filled at the open that day, which triggered sell stops that led to additional losses. Investors had all of Christmas Day to place more market sell orders which were filled near the open on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 which triggered a final round of stop-loss selling followed by one of the biggest one-day rebounds in history the same day.
Do the opposite of the weekend warriors and follow the Nikkei 225 futures especially on Sunday evenings.
Nearly identical behavior has been occurring in recent weeks when ordinary investors have placed market sell orders during most March weekends which are filled at the open on Monday followed by stop-loss orders being triggered by those lower prices. The market then mostly recovers later in the week, only to experience the same behavior the following weekend. If you look back at the first quarter of 2009 then we had another instance of the same phenomenon. This kind of action has been true for decades. Experienced traders will do extra buying near the opening bell each Monday and on other days following non-trading days (like December 26, 2018) whenever fear is elevated.
Sometimes U.S. futures are trading limit down which makes it impossible to track how the global markets are behaving. Ignore the U.S. futures especially on limit down days and watch the Nikkei 225 futures which don't have limit-down restrictions. On Sunday evening, March 22, 2020, Nikkei 225 futures opened down about 11% and were down only 3% a few hours later, indicating that U.S. stocks would probably open lower but that better times probably were ahead. As I am writing this on Sunday evening we have similar albeit less exaggerated moves as Nikkei futures opened moderately lower and are now slightly positive. The exchanges' suspending trading during volatile moves is idiotic since most investors get especially nervous during trading halts. Some of my lowest purchase prices were achieved from fills which occurred within a few minutes of trading being resumed after an artificial halt.
When many investors and chartists are selling while top executives have been doing their heaviest buying since the last bear-market bottom in March 2009 then you know you should be gradually buying into weakness. Never chase after any recent trend.
Many ordinary investors have been confused by the market's recent plunge and have been either not buying into weakness or actually selling. Technical traders have been hit even harder by repeatedly chasing after short-term trends which usually reverse just after they are "confirmed." Do as the insiders do and gradually purchase whatever is most undervalued using ladders of good-until-canceled orders. Some of the best bargains have existed only for minutes or even for seconds on some especially-volatile trading days, so if you are trying to buy using market orders you are unlikely to succeed in getting the most-favorable prices. The ideal approach is one I use even in calmer markets: place ladders of very small orders of equal-dollar amounts which are spaced equally apart and which go very deep so the market never goes below the lowest rung in your ladder. It is better to buy very tiny amounts at truly compelling prices then to try to magically guess where you will profit from lump-sum trading.
When unusually heavy insider buying is combined with all-time record selling by inexperienced investors then that serves as an even stronger buy signal.
The best time to sell is when we have heavy insider selling combined with intense buying by the least-experienced investors; this is why I was steadily selling near the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Now we have an even stronger buy signal due to all-time record selling by the least-experienced participants in the financial markets:
A surprising number of stocks and bonds recently traded at or near multi-decade lows.
Bear markets are notorious for their capriciousness and usually end up erasing a significant percentage of the gains which had been achieved in recent bull markets. When U.S. equity indices had bottomed in early March 2009 they didn't just give up their gains since 2007 or 2006 but fell to 12-1/2-year lows for the S&P 500 which meant their cheapest prices since 1996 without adjusting for inflation. If you adjust for inflation then stocks in early 2009 had returned all the way back to their levels from the mid-1980s. Recently many traded shares fell to prices not seen since the early years of the 21st century or in some cases in a few decades without even adjusting for inflation. This has created compelling buying opportunities for those who have been alert to recent bargains while highlighting that the Boglehead approach of buying no matter how overvalued the stock market is doesn't work in the long run.
Those who bought U.S. stocks in August 1929 lost half of their money in inflation-adjusted terms if they held them for 53 years until August 1982.
There is zero political resistance to endless stimulus and literally printing money as rapidly as possible.
It is almost impossible for those who believe in restraining deficit growth to be seriously considered nowadays since the popular mood is for governments around the world to "do something about" the economic contraction caused partly by the severe restrictions required to fight the spread of coronavirus. The U.S. just passed a two-trillion-dollar stimulus package, the U.S. Fed is taking extraordinary action in other aspects, while governments worldwide are acting similarly even where they have a long history of being more subdued and conservative. This will have profoundly inflationary implications which aren't generally being considered by many investors except for insiders. Top corporate executives have been doing their heaviest buying in many companies which will benefit from rising inflationary expectations and massive global stimulus.
Housing prices have been collapsing but almost no one knows about it unless they are in the industry.
It is pretty clear why homebuilders and those who wish to sell real estate aren't eager to have it widely known that the much-publicized collapse for financial assets around the world has been accompanied by equally dramatic but mostly hidden losses for both residential and commercial real estate. REITs have plummeted but so many sectors have done likewise that this is often overlooked. Due to the coronavirus there aren't the usual selling procedures like open houses (scheduled public viewings) or even the ordinary procession of buyers meeting sellers. Most people naively believe that housing prices are remaining relatively flat. As wealth has evaporated worldwide this must inevitably lead to significantly lower prices for real estate, and since downturns for real estate usually last for a few years or more the pullback will likely continue for at least three years. If you are able to sell then do so as soon as possible, while if you have been considering doing any buying then I would strongly recommend waiting at least until 2023 before taking action.
The timing of lower highs will be of major significance in the U.S. elections scheduled for November 3, 2020.
Nearly all bear markets are notable in the way in which they form lower highs. The Russell 2000, consisting of companies 1001 through 3000 by market capitalization out of all 3600 U.S.-listed companies, topped out on August 31, 2018, formed a key lower high on January 17, 2020, and recently plummeted so deeply that it was recently trading below its levels from the final months of 2013. This wasn't widely reported in the mainstream financial media but it is immediately obvious on a long-term chart. We have likely begun a powerful rebound for risk assets around the world which will have major implications for the U.S. Presidential, Senate, and House of Representatives elections scheduled in just over seven months. If the S&P 500 and similar U.S. equity indices are completing important lower highs with the S&P 500 near three thousand around Election Day then Donald J. Trump has a good chance of being re-elected while the Senate will likely remain with Republicans holding a majority. On the other hand, if the current rebound stalls around some other time like Labor Day (September 7, 2020) and thereafter falls sharply then we could experience a meaningful shift toward the Democrats. During the 2007-2009 bear market there was a major plunge which began near the opening bell on the day after Labor Day which made it far easier for Democrats to sweep that year; during the 2000-2002 bear market there was an important top also around Labor Day of 2000 followed by a moderate pullback which may have made it possible for George W. Bush to squeak by in a disputed contest.
The media often discuss how the results of the U.S. elections will impact the markets but it is probably even more significant to consider how the markets will impact the elections. If Democrats regain both the U.S. Presidency and the Senate, and retain control of the House of Representatives, then significant tax and other legislative changes will become nearly certain for 2021 which could persist for several years or more.
Insiders have been buying at their most aggressive pace since March 2009.
The ratio of insider buying to insider selling reached its highest ratios since February-March 2009 with the following article discussing this topic:
Top corporate executives aren't permitted to sell the shares they purchase until at least six months after the date of purchase or else they have to surrender their gains. This means that they have not been buying simply in anticipation of a brief sharp recovery but are looking for a more sustained rebound.
Insider buying has not been uniform across sectors. Especially-undervalued securities in energy and travel are among those which have experienced multi-decade peaks of insider accumulation during the past few weeks.
TLT has been forming lower highs since the pre-market session on March 9, 2020, while VIX revisited the mid-80s multiple times two weeks ago and completed a significantly lower high when most major U.S. equity indices slid near the opening bell on March 23, 2020.
TLT, a fund of long-dated U.S. Treasuries, topped out at 181.41 three weeks ago on March 9, 2020. You won't find this number on your charts unless you use data which includes trading outside of regular hours since this top had occurred in the pre-market session at 7:56:29 a.m. Eastern Time. Meanwhile, VIX peaked several trading days prior to the March 23, 2020 bottom for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and many large-cap U.S. equity indices. This implies that the most-experienced investors who tend to purchase long-dated U.S. Treasuries and portfolio insurance became less eager to hedge at the same time that most ordinary investors were becoming increasingly nervous about their portfolios. This is analogous to the market's behavior in early 2009 prior to one of its strongest-ever ten-month uptrends from early March 2009 through early January 2010.
Summary: buying now will likely be profitable especially because we remain in a bear market for U.S. equities which began when the Russell 2000 topped out on August 31, 2018. Buying near the end of 2018 was highly profitable and buying in recent weeks will likely prove to be even more rewarding.
If you buy near an intermediate-term bottom during a bull market you will usually come out ahead. If you buy near an intermediate-term bottom during a bear market, especially when insiders are buying at their most intense pace in eleven years and in some sectors at all-time record levels, you will achieve greater annualized gains since bear markets tend to be far more volatile than bull markets in both directions. Those who bought in the final months of 2018 were well rewarded especially if they sold in late 2019 and early 2020. Similarly, those who have been buying the least-popular securities in recent weeks into the coronavirus panic and who keep buying into pullbacks will likely enjoy even greater annualized gains during some unknown period of months.
The bottom line: with all-time record investor outflows you know it must be worthwhile to be doing the opposite.
The most-experienced investors are doing their heaviest buying in eleven years while the least-experienced investors are doing their most panicked selling in eleven years. You don't need an advanced degree to figure out which side will come out ahead, and since we are in a long-term bear market the upcoming gains will likely occur surprisingly quickly. Whenever most people you know become excited about "getting back into the market" and insiders are unloading then it will be time to get out again.
Disclosure of current holdings:
From my largest to my smallest position I currently am long GDXJ (some new), the TIAA-CREF Traditional Annuity Fund, SIL, XES (some new), ELD (some new), FCG (some new), OIH (some new), PSCE (some new), bank CDs, money-market funds, GDX, I-Bonds, SCIF, MTDR (some new), URA (some new), PAK, EPOL, ECH, COPX (some new), REMX (some new), XOM (all new), PEO (all new), EZA (all new), GXG (all new), FXF, GREK (all new), EWW (all new), GNK (all new), EGLE (all new), IPI (all new), SBLK (all new), SALT (all new), FLNG (all new), EGPT (some new), GOEX, BGEIX, NGE, FXB, XOP (all new), CCL (some new), BA (all new), AA (some new), IDX (some new), EWM, RGLD, WPM, SAND, SILJ, KLXE (all new), and CHK. I am completely sold out of U.S. Treasuries, HDGE, SEA, SLX, ASHR, ASHS, TUR, FM, ARGT, RSXJ, LIT, EWU, EWG, EWI, EWD, EWQ, EWK, EWN, WOOD, EPHE, JOF, and AFK.
I have closed out all of my short positions which I will generally do whenever VIX reaches a multi-year peak. The only securities I would sell short now would be long-dated U.S. Treasuries and their funds including TLT. I would sell short actual houses if there were a way to do so. My cash and cash equivalents including bank CDs and stable-value funds (fixed principal, variable interest) comprise 17.7% of my total liquid net worth.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana). "Those who can remember the past but insist that it's different this time deserve to repeat it" (Steven Jon Kaplan).
The two previous longest bull markets in U.S. history occurred as follows: 1) from August 1921 through September 1929 which was followed by a bear market of over 34 months from September 1929 through July 1932; and 2) from October 1990 through March 2000 which was followed by a bear market of 30-31 months in duration (exactly 31 for the Nasdaq). The longest-ever bull market which began for the S&P 500 on March 6, 2009 may have ended for that index on February 19, 2020. This historical evidence suggests that the current bear market for the S&P 500 could last for 30-36 months which implies a major bottom for U.S. equity indices somewhere near the end of 2022.
The heaviest insider buying since March 2009 combined with all-time record investor net selling and repeated pullbacks near the opening bell worldwide especially on Mondays is likely signaling a major uptrend for most global risk assets. Keep steadily buying the most undervalued stocks and bonds and don't sell again until VIX is back down to the mid-teens. Some commodity-related and emerging-market securities may have begun major uptrends with triple-digit percentage gains while some individual shares have already doubled from their recent deep nadirs.
