So, How Are We Doing?

Despite a very choppy, sideways market, our current Chaikin Power User Portfolio is mostly in the green.  We set stop losses just below the orange Chaikin Trend (2 ATR below), but only move stops up never down.   We manage stops weekly.    We buy stocks only when the Power Gauge reads very bullish, but we hold them through neutral rating periods.   We sell if our stop loss is breached or if the Power Gauge turns bearish. 

Our weekly deep dive into relative strength ratings of bellwether ETF's suggests that the US is under-performing developed Western country stocks, with the EFA leading the way. 

  US sector trends favor Healthcare and Financials.  Consumer stocks have weakened.  The trend analysis is based not on past performance, but on the mostly fundamental rooted Power Gauge in Chaikin Analytics.  We find that trending the relationship between bullish and bearish rated stocks by sector gives us the opportunity to front -run areas of the market most likely to outperform on a 3-6 month basis.   We then look for strong industry groups and strong stocks that are in an up-trend. 

The overall fundamental look of the market is pretty neutral.   The relationship between bullish and bearish stocks in the S&P does not give us confidence that the market will break above resistance.  We are very cautious despite Friday's bounce.  There may be some follow through early in the week, but we are in selling mode as short opportunities present themselves. 

We hedge our long portfolio by selling call spreads on bearish stocks and ETF's. This strategy generates cash when the market is sideways to down trending.  That helps soften the volatility of our long stock portfolio.   This is an intermediate high probability options strategy with defined risk and high potential return on risk.   You can check our performance here or look below.   We teach this strategy to any full year Chaikin Analytics users who subscribe through our site.   Drop me a line here if interested.  Our users get a discount code for monthly and annual subscriptions