Wicked Week!
Saturday, October 31st, 2009The week leading up to Halloween was definitely filled with ghosts and goblins… otherwise know as volatility. The most-watched volatility index, the VIX, jumped 38% from 22 to 31. That’s not high compared to levels we’ve seen over the past year or two, but something to keep an eye on. A rising VIX doesn’t necessarily mean falling prices (since a sharp jump in prices also increases volatility), but last week’s action was decidedly down.
WEEKLY REVIEW… The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped -4% over the week, with considerable up and down movement along the way… as positive economic news was rapidly replaced by negative news (and vice versa) on a daily basis. The S&P/TSX Venture Index was also down, though not quite as much… -3%. It’s still up 62% year-to-date.
51% of stocks in the S&P/TSX Composite Index still have positive trend values, although the median trend value is just barely above 0%/week now.
All but two of the sector indexes now have negative trend values, so last week’s sell off was widespread. The only comforting thought is that 5 of the 10 indexes are up 20-40% year-to-date. Only TELECOM SERVICES, UTILITIES and CONSUMER STAPLES are down since the beginning of the year… and all three down just 4% or less.
DATA & CHARTS… We’re publishing from a remote location this weekend and next, and don’t have our hardware and software optimised yet. Consequently, the latest updates to the Data & Charts section of the web site are looking pretty rough. We’ll try to improve these as soon as possible.
PREMIUM SERVICES… We’ll be launching a US stock subscription database soon, and offering pre-Xmas deals for first-time subscribers. Watch for them.
As you may already know, these services are not for casual investors. They’re primarily for those who actively manage their own portfolios and already make use of spreadsheets or technical analysis software to make their investment decisions.
TWITTER… We use Twitter for bulletins between our weekly updates. Usually, each entry is a headline, plus a link to more detailed material. If there’s room, maybe a terse opinion on the piece. If you’re already a Twitter addict, you know how the “follow” routine works. You can also view our “tweets” without getting involved with Twitter at all, We have something called a “badge” at each of our web sites, where our Twitter entries scroll by. We don’t have weekly newsletters like this one for Income Trust Trader or ETF TrendTracker, so our badges are larger there and serve as micro-blogs.
Full Twitter addresses for those who want them…
- TSX TrendWatch… http://Twitter.com/TSXtrendwatch
- ETF TrendTracker… http://Twitter.com/ETFtrendtracker
- Income Trust Trader… http://Twitter.com/IncTrustTrader
- ProfiTrend Enterprises… http://Twitter.com/ProfiTrend
The last one is dedicated to updates of more general interest to investors… not specific to any one area. It also includes our corporate updates, including commentary of our financial consulting and market research activities.