Category Archives: Uncategorized

NLO Market Score – Our Proprietary Market Timing Tool

The concept of a market indicator or market timing tool isn't a new concept. While compounding is THE most power force in investing, market timing tools come in a close second. As the old saying, "don't tell me what to buy, tell me when to buy".

Our team has developed a proprietary market timing tool which we are calling NLO Market Score. In its simplest form, the tool assigns a score ranging from -6 to +6 to the market and is similar to market breath.

For example, the market score reached -6 on March 12, 2020 when the S&P 500 was at 2,481. Since then, the market have risen nearly +50% in less than a year.

However, the 2008 bear market pushed the score to -6 early in October thus leaving little upside if you did a one time purchase. No single (or multiple) market indicator will be accurate enough to call market bottom and that goes for ours as well. That being said, we've back tested the indicator with a reasonable success rate which we define as any positive return.

Below, in table A, we have summarize the outcome of purchasing the S&P 500 when market score reaches -6. In table B, we show the details of the trade/transaction.

Table A:

Table B:

A close observation and you will notice that there are purchase dates within days of each other. To adjust for that, we have taken only the first indication that occurs within that year. The result are summarized in tables C and D.

Table C

Table D

As a long-term holder of equities, we are pleased with an extreme high success rate coupled with above average (>10%) annualized return.

Secular Bear Markets and What Follows

Dow: 1906 to 1924

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Dow: 1921 to 1929

  • +504%

1966 to 1982

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Dow: 1978 to 2000

  • +1,478%

Dow: 2000 to 2016

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Nasdaq: 2000 to 2016

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We’re hopeful that a picture is worth a thousand words.  However, if narrative is required then read our article title “Dow 130,000 by 2032”.

Stock Buybacks: 1970-1973

Below is a list of stock buybacks in Forbes in the April 15, 1973 issue.  Worth noting is the quantity of shares being bought relative to shares outstanding.

Below we have sorted the same list above with the percentage of shares outstanding that were purchased from largest to smallest.

See also:

Chart of the Day: MoSys Inc.

According to Yahoo!Finance, “MoSys, Inc., a semiconductor company, develops and sells integrated circuits (ICs) for the high-speed cloud networking, communications, security appliance, video, monitor and test, data center, and computing markets.”

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The Study of Failure

"Successful investing is a lifelong process. Some years are better than others, and it is a mistake to denominate financial progress into 12-month periods. A lifetime of successful investing requires a lifetime to accomplish (Russell, Richard. Dow Theory Letters. Geraldine Weiss on Investing. January 22, 1992. page 3.)."

Oil and Gas Stock Index: August 2018

Below is the updated Oil and Gas Stock Index (XOI) for August 2018 and the performance of the respective fundamental categories.

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Investment Observations: ABM Industries (ABM)

ABM Industries is a leading provider of facility services in the United States. They provide janitorial, parking, and engineering services for commercial, industrial, institutional, governmental, and retail client facilities. The company was established in 1909. This mid cap company ($2.0 Billion) first appeared on our watch list back in March this year. The stock was trading at $35 then and lost 12% since.

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Bitcoin: March 2018

On February 17, 2018, we said of Bitcoin:

“…before a new high (substantially above the $19,343) is achieved, we expected a retest of the $6,914.26 level (or something close, like, $7,000-$7,200).”

We arrived the conclusion that the price should have a retest of the initial low of $6,914.26 after reviewing the three prior peaks and the subsequent declines and the retesting of the initial declines.

peak peak date initial low initial low date % change retest date final low total % decline
29.60 6/8/2011 14.65 6/11/2011 -50.51% 7/4/2011 2.05 -93.07%
230.00 4/9/2013 68.36 4/16/2013 -70.28% 7/5/2013 66.34 -71.16%
1,147.25 12/4/2013 522.23 12/18/2013 -54.48% 2/25/214 177.28 -84.55%
19,343.04 12/16/2017 6,914.26 2/5/2018 -64.25% ??? ??? ???

It (retest) doesn’t have to happen, however, according to Dow Theory, it would be wise to expect a retest of the prior peak or a prior low.  A retest of a low or high is also known as a double top when a new bear market is indicated or double bottom when a new bull market begins. For those with a bullish bias on Bitcoin, the following thoughts are appropriate for the current price action of the last two months.

"...before you can get a bull move, you have to establish a strong base -- and you have to test and retest that base many times." (source: Russell, Richard. Dow Theory Letters. October 18, 1989. Issue 1028. page 6.)

"Records of trading show that in many cases when a stock reaches top it will have a moderate decline and then go back again to near the highest figures. If after such a move, the price again recedes, it is liable to decline some distance.” (source: Hamilton, William Peter. Stock Market Barometer. Harper and Brothers. 1922. page 36.)

We think that the based on the price action we’ve seen with Bitcoin, there is going to be retest of the prior low at $6,914.26.  In addition, the failure or success of holding at the retest level will go a long way in determining the direction of the price, in a dramatic fashion.

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Transaction Alert

On January 23, 2018, we executed the following transaction(s): Continue reading

Transaction Alert

On November 22, 2017, we executed the following transactions: Continue reading

Performance Review: November 13, 2009

Below is the 8-year performance of our Dividend Watch List from November 13, 2009 to November 14, 2017 as compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

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California Real Estate Trends

Two indicators of the California real estate market that we’re tracking are the median price of existing detached homes and the violations of California regulations for real estate licensees, agents, brokers and non-licensed individual/firms involved in real estate transactions*.  Below we have the monthly and 12-month moving average data for these two series from 1990 to the present.

Performance Review: October 18, 2013

Below is the 4-year performance of our Dividend Watch List from October 18, 2013 to October 18, 2017 as compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

symbol Name total return
LLY Eli Lilly & 94.00%
SYY Sysco Corp. 89.40%
NWN Northwest Natural Gas 76.71%
CAT Caterpillar 74.84%
ED Consolidated Edison 72.60%
PPL PP&L Corporation 58.85%
PM Philip Morris International 54.29%
KO Coca-Cola Co 35.75%
T AT&T Inc 26.86%
VMI Valmont Industries, Inc. 25.31%
SCG SCANA Corporation 22.83%
MAC Macerich 18.13%
XOM Exxon Mobil Corp. 7.79%
IBM IBM 4.23%
  Average % change 47.26%
     
DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average 67.71%

The total return for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was +67.71% while the average total return for the entire watch list was +47.26%.

Performance Review: October 14, 2011

Below is the 6-year performance of our Dividend Watch List from October 14, 2011 to October 13, 2017 as compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

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Feb 2016 Canadian Watch List Highlights

On our February 17, 2016 Canadian Dividend Watch List we listed quite a few companies.  This is a review of standout performers and what investors might want to look for going forward.  The first company we’ll highlight is Ag Growth International (AFN.TO).  At the time of the watch list, AFN.TO was trading at CAN$26.64.  After just short of one year, the stock price for AFN.TO has doubled.  Below we have set downside targets and take a look at the Altimeter to determine the best points to buy and sell.

Transaction Alert

The NLO team executed the following transaction(s): Continue reading