March 2010 COP Report                                      4/12/2010

Investment Gang

Last month I mentioned that the COP momentum data was not really providing valuable information because the market was not actually showing any consistent momentum or trends.  That was what you might call an eyeball assessment.  This month I updated and ran the Research Model (which I had not done for several months) to see how the model handled investments in this period that I had commented about.   I turns out that the model showed the same results as my concerns.  Attached is a color coded chart of one part of the model’s output.  Before you look at it let me explain the colors.  Each cell represents one month for each of the 51 different asset classes.  Think of the model as your investments.  Where a month for a given asset class is blue, you are not invested.  Then a yellow month shows that that asset emerged into the top 15.  Of course you did not know it so you do not own it when it is yellow.  But, because it is yellow you buy that asset the very next day on the first of the month.  Green shows that you own an asset that is in the top 15 so you are doing well.  The month that an asset drops out of the top 15 it is colored orange. You did not know it would drop so you still own it in the orange month.  An asset that is orange in a given month can be a loser or it could have just dropped to 16th rank or so – but you own it.  Maybe that is bad or just not as good as owning in the green.   Now look at the chart for the last few months.  Mostly yellow and orange in January and February.  That means that the model traded heavily each month and rarely hit a really profitable green month.  The model could not lock into a trend.  One of the strengths of this model is that in years such as 2001, 2002 and 2008 the model quickly got out of the losers and found some valuable asset even if it was cash.  This has not been the case for the last few months. It may be getting better since most of the top 15 this month are consistent with last months report.

Best, Mal


 

2009

2009

2009

2009

2009

2010

2010

2010

 

8

9

10

11

12

1

2

3

 

11

32

42

8

22

46

14

21

S&P500>SPDRs

66

66

40

66

65

2

66

66

Cat: Bear-Market

32

39

17

32

32

34

26

34

Cat: Conservative Allocation

16

23

23

25

17

38

12

29

Cat: Convertibles

37

4

13

5

12

58

39

8

Cat: Diversified Emerging Mkts

30

27

55

26

23

48

25

12

Cat: Diversified Pacific/Asia

31

30

5

36

37

15

27

31

Cat: Emerging Markets Bond

4

5

7

16

29

56

65

18

Cat: Europe Stock

14

19

47

21

30

59

62

24

Cat: Foreign Large Blend

24

16

41

14

24

55

57

17

Cat: Foreign Large Growth

7

20

49

28

33

57

63

27

Cat: Foreign Large Value

8

6

18

20

25

51

58

15

Cat: Foreign Small/Mid Growth

3

7

19

30

34

42

61

11

Cat: Foreign Small/Mid Value

28

26

3

35

18

3

28

32

Cat: High Yield Bond

23

8

16

44

36

8

21

39

Cat: High Yield Muni

42

45

11

42

62

9

55

61

Cat: Intermediate Government

38

43

8

41

59

6

33

40

Cat: Intermediate-Term Bond

13

64

65

65

27

11

23

10

Cat: Japan Stock

15

28

46

12

19

47

13

20

Cat: Large Blend

26

25

48

10

16

54

11

19

Cat: Large Growth

9

29

43

13

26

43

16

16

Cat: Large Value

34

1

2

2

8

65

15

22

Cat: Latin America Stock

35

42

51

38

66

5

64

65

Cat: Long Government

22

38

9

40

61

4

36

38

Cat: Long-Term Bond

10

17

57

19

9

41

6

7

Cat: Mid-Cap Blend

20

15

58

18

6

50

4

9

Cat: Mid-Cap Growth

5

14

54

17

10

37

7

6

Cat: Mid-Cap Value

25

34

39

23

28

39

22

30

Cat: Moderate Allocation

33

36

4

39

35

7

31

36

Cat: Multisector Bond

40

41

52

43

58

13

29

63

Cat: Muni tiol Interm

39

33

50

48

55

12

24

44

Cat: Muni tiol Long

47

46

44

47

57

17

35

64

Cat: Muni tiol Short

63

10

15

4

13

61

34

23

Cat: Pacific/Asia ex-Japan Stk

46

48

20

46

60

14

56

62

Cat: Short Government

41

44

10

45

56

10

37

42

Cat: Short-Term Bond

12

13

62

31

4

40

3

5

Cat: Small Blend

21

12

64

27

2

45

5

4

Cat: Small Growth

6

9

61

34

5

35

2

2

Cat: Small Value

43

18

66

9

15

63

19

14

Cat: Specialty-Communications

2

24

59

37

38

36

20

3

Cat: Specialty-Fincial

19

37

63

7

14

1

17

26

Cat: Specialty-Health

45

22

12

3

11

60

18

28

Cat: Specialty-tural Res

64

2

53

1

64

66

10

35

Cat: Specialty-Precious Metals

1

3

21

6

3

49

1

1

Cat: Specialty-Real Estate

17

11

56

11

1

62

9

13

Cat: Specialty-Technology

29

35

60

22

7

52

59

37

Cat: Specialty-Utilities

44

47

14

49

39

16

38

45

Cat: Ultrashort Bond

27

31

22

24

31

44

32

33

Cat: World Allocation

36

40

6

33

63

18

60

43

Cat: World Bond

18

21

45

15

21

53

30

25

Cat: World Stock

65

65

1

29

20

64

8

41

 Commodities

48

49

24

50

40

19

40

46

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr

49

50

25

51

41

20

41

47

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr

50

51

26

52

42

21

42

48

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr

51

52

27

53

43

22

43

49

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr

52

53

28

54

44

23

44

50

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr

53

54

29

55

45

24

45

51

Cash @ 2.4%/Yr