Stocks: Is the Worst Over or is there Worse Yet to Come?

Chris Ciovacco of Ciovacco Capital Management always presents a well-reasoned approach to the market in his “short-takes” video. He emphasizes that we need to look at the preponderance of the evidence but even that doesn’t “guarantee” any future market action. All that we can do is see what has happened in the past and determine the probability that it will happen that way again. Even if 90% of the time some indicator resulted in a rise (or fall) in the market one time out of ten the opposite could still happen so we need to be prepared and listen to what the market is telling us. In Yesterday’s video Chris Ciovacco looked at volatility (i.e. the VIX) and what it is telling us regarding the current state of the market. Interestingly, recent VIX activity was actually worse than in any other crash tracked since 1990 putting it on par with the 2008 crash and in terms of volatility it was actually worse than 2008.

Message from the Stock/Bond Ratio

The historical cases told us to be open to a period marked by bond underperformance relative to the stock market. Thus, it might be helpful to revisit the stock vs. bond topic as we near the end of July.

Do Facts Support Doom and Gloom or Higher Highs for Stocks and/or Gold?

Dating back to 1950, the S&P 500 has only dropped over 40% three times: 1973-74, 2000-02, and 2007-09. In each case after the big drop, something caused investors to change their attitude and behavior related to the attractiveness of common stocks. Major lows are rare and the shifts that occur in the minds of human beings near major lows are rare. History tells us valuable information can be found in rare market events.