ETF Pullback Choices: Aiming at Stability

This week's listing for the my ETF Pullback strategy (see Appendix below for details and performance information) probably constitutes as good a reminder as we're likely to see of an important element of technical analysis: buying when analysis clearly dictates otherwise because of an expectation that market dynamics will, at least for a short time (one week in the case of this strategy), produce a counter-analytic outcome. Here's this week's list:

Last week, my weekly ETF Pullback strategy was all-energy. This week, it’s still energy heavy, but not as pure. Here’s this week’s list:

Every now and then, we find little reminders that top-down investing, focusing on broad areas such as countries or sectors, can require more discernment than meets the eye. At first glance, the list produced by my ETF Pullback strategy (see Appendix below for details and performance information) this week looks as straightforward as can be – all energy. Here’s the list :

Last week, my ETF Pullback strategy (see Appendix below for details and performance information) went defensive with funds that focused on income and consumer-oriented ETFs. There’s one such fund in the new list, but on the whole, for this group to work, the market will need a bit of a bounce this week. Here’s the current list :

The two-week flirtation with silver engaged in by my ETF Pullback strategy (see Appendix below for details and performance information) is over, at least for now. The idea of this technical model is to look for recent corrections in the context of major uptrends, and play the prospect of the correction’s end. Here’s this week’s list :

I've never been among those who see fundamental analysis and technical analysis as being enemies facing off across no-man's-land. The price and volume trends studied by technicians are, actually, generated by the investment community's collective reaction to fundamentals, almost the way a film critic assesses a movie.

Last week, my ETF Pullback strategy (see below for details and performance information) played for a bounce in what would have to have been considered by pretty much any technical analyst to have been a badly oversold market. Here was last week’s list; a group you would not necessarily have wanted to have played had you anticipated trouble ahead :

After a period of extensive exposure to commodities, mainly energy and precious metals, my ETF Pullback strategy (see appendix below for details and performance information) started to switch gears last week and continued this week. Here’s the current list :