Great News! This Bull Market Is About to Collapse
Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016 Feb 01, 2016 - 05:08 AM GMTBy: Investment_U
Matthew Carr writes:By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that the East Coast was hammered by a Godzilla-sized snowstorm last weekend.
Ignoring the milk, bread and toilet paper, my wife and I loaded up on liquor, cookie dough and junk food in preparation of being snowed in for a few days. We made a list of all the movies we missed in theaters that are now On Demand. We took video of our dog spazzing out in the backyard.
All things considered, it was a pretty great weekend.
Then we were forced back to reality... and the 30 inches of snow that had been dumped on our neighborhood.
Which leads me to a bold prediction...
I can say now that I’m extremely bullish on the future of snowblower sales in the region. Because the cost of snowplow service has spiked to criminal levels.
My best friend who lives down the street was quoted $1,200 to have his driveway plowed on Sunday.
$1,200!
In all fairness, he does have a long driveway. But last winter, the cost was $150.
Demand drove prices into the realm of absurdity. Just think: You can buy two quality snowblowers for $1,200 - his and hers.
Most of the folks I know realize this and are content to wait. Let the temperatures rise above freezing, and the surge pricing will fade.
This certainly applies to what’s happening in stocks.
Fact is, all markets experience these crazy upswings - bullish movements that eventually price themselves out of existence.
Remember real estate? Home prices were supposed to gain 6% per year until infinity. It was madness.
Remember crude? Oil was supposed to stay above $100 indefinitely. I warned it was oversupplied in 2013 and would collapse. You could see the writing on the wall. And already this year, crude is down 20%!
And let’s not forget gold. Remember how it was supposed to go to $5,000 per ounce?
Now we’re looking at a brand-new bull market - one that has completely lost its grip on reality...
A bull market in negativity.
I wrote last week about how bullish sentiment has fallen to levels below the peak of the financial crisis. In fact, it’s fallen to the lowest levels in a decade.
Really? Is it that bad out there?
Now, admittedly, small caps on the Russell 2000 are in a bear market. They’re down more than 20% from their peak last June - and down 10.5% just in January.
Biotechs are in a bear market, down more than 27% from their peak last July. They’re down 14% since the start of 2016.
But just like their bull brethren, bear markets are self-perpetuating.
We can use Benjamin Graham’s theories to test the idea of betting against pessimism. Graham is considered the father of “value investing.” In the simplest terms, this is the idea of investing when negativity surrounding a stock or sector is high.
Graham’s famous proof of this was to create two portfolios: One with the lowest price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios on the Dow... the other with the highest P/E ratios on the Dow.
Expensive stocks - those with a high P/E - are en vogue, with lots of investor exuberance about their futures.
Cheap stocks - with a low P/E - are hated, full of negativity.
The results of Graham’s test were emphatic...
Over a 32-year period, a $10,000 investment in stocks with low P/E ratios grew to $66,900. An increase of 569%.
Meanwhile, $10,000 invested in stocks with high P/E ratios grew to just $25,300 - a 153% gain.
In other words, the most hated stocks on the Dow outperformed the most popular stocks nearly four times over.
At the moment, bearish sentiment toward stocks is continually increasing. The AAII Investor Sentiment Survey shows nearly half of all investors harbor a negative outlook toward the markets over the next six months.
Most investors make the mistake of selling when negativity is at a premium - instead of buying. Then they plow into stocks when optimism is at nauseating heights.
Right now, we’re in a bull market of negativity. Like all bulls, this one will eventually meet its end. But in the meantime, you should view investors’ rampant pessimism as a signal to buy.
Good investing,
Matthew
Source: http://www.investmentu.com/article/detail/49283/investor-sentiment-bull-market-about-to-collapse
Copyright © 1999 - 2016 by The Oxford Club, L.L.C All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Investment U, Attn: Member Services , 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 Email: CustomerService@InvestmentU.com
Disclaimer: Investment U Disclaimer: Nothing published by Investment U should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Investment U should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.
© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
