This chart of the Wilshire 5000 says it all. The recent up-move from the U formation was strong, but the pullback was weak (when looking at the ADX). The A/D line suggests no distribution. Market players had decided to buy this dip, there was no distribution. The ULT suggests a small-pullback is in order though.
I say we pullback a little bit and then accelerate full-speed forward.
Now lets compare the ISEE sentiment indicators from different points of time. Here are different trends from different points in time. I dont have to put up complex charts to tell you that it was a great time to buy in October 2002 and September 2006. I can tell you that 2002 and 2006 represented pyschologically challenging times to buy.
In 2002, I was scared of the market. In September 2006 I was also very scared as well. Each time I was very scared represented a great time to buy. This, however, is not always the case. In 2000 when stocks started coming down, it was very scary. In 2001, it became even scarier. In 2002, it was the scariest and I wondered if I would ever go near the market again.
Fear doesnt neccasarily mean that we should buy the market. However, we should look at the charts and ask ourselves what is happening. When comparing past manias, crashes and panics, this is not a chart that would indicate to me that there is any type of mania, crash or panic taking place. Clearly we are moving up a primary trend line and experiencing different pullbacks and corrections.
From 1999 to 2000, the Nasdaq had doubled in price. This suggests a mania that had taken place. Now with any such mania usually comes crashes and panics. When looking at the total market, we are only up 17% since July of 2006. Its a strong advance, but hardly a mania.
Looking at the news websites and watching CNBC, we see people every hour on the hour come on and tell us about recession, correction and economic problems. We see hostages and threats to our energy supply. One has to think that a lot of this wall of worry is already priced into stocks. In 2000, I did not see quite the parade of naysayers on television or on websites telling us the world will end.
I say we go higher from here.
Current situation (10 day moving averages)
118
3/30/2007
118
3/29/2007
118
3/28/2007
117
3/27/2007
114
3/26/2007
109
3/23/2007
105
3/22/2007
99
3/21/2007
95
3/20/2007
91
3/19/2007
87
3/16/2007
87
3/15/2007
87
3/14/2007
89
3/13/2007
91
3/12/2007
90
3/9/2007
93
3/8/2007
99
3/7/2007
104
3/6/2007
107
3/5/2007
114
3/2/2007
117
3/1/2007
118
2/28/2007
120
2/27/2007
121
2/26/2007
123
2/23/2007
124
2/22/2007
124
2/21/2007
126
2/20/2007
September 2006 situation
114
10/11/2006
114
10/10/2006
111
10/9/2006
114
10/6/2006
116
10/5/2006
116
10/4/2006
114
10/3/2006
112
10/2/2006
108
9/29/2006
107
9/28/2006
108
9/27/2006
108
9/26/2006
107
9/25/2006
102
9/22/2006
102
9/21/2006
98
9/20/2006
99
9/19/2006
96
9/18/2006
95
9/15/2006
108
9/14/2006
106
9/13/2006
110
9/12/2006
110
9/11/2006
115
9/8/2006
114
9/7/2006
120
9/6/2006
October 2002
115
11/11/2002
114
11/8/2002
109
11/7/2002
109
11/6/2002
111
11/5/2002
108
11/4/2002
107
11/1/2002
104
10/31/2002
104
10/30/2002
102
10/29/2002
100
10/28/2002
96
10/25/2002
94
10/24/2002
94
10/23/2002
91
10/22/2002
92
10/21/2002
91
10/18/2002
93
10/17/2002
92
10/16/2002
94
10/15/2002
93
10/14/2002
99
10/11/2002
101
10/10/2002
100
10/9/2002
99
10/8/2002
101
10/7/2002
101
10/4/2002
99
10/3/2002
99
10/2/2002
99
10/1/2002