Weekly Update

Welcome to the Bollinger Band Letter Hotline for Monday the 15th of May.

I am on the road in Japan. We are experiencing a server outage, which means that we will not be able to update Ice Breaker, the ETF portfolios, or the Value Line Plan until I return to the States on the 22nd. Given the current status of the market there are not likely to be any changes to any of our programs this week.

The market had another choppy week without much direction. I attribute this primarily to volatile crosscurrents in the news and lack of progress on the policy items the market cares about most. The good news is that market internals remain solid. New lows are running a bit higher than I would like, but there is no real damage in terms of price. The advance - decline line and the averages remain near their highs. Frankly, given the level of madness in the news, this is really very good performance on the part of the market. One of the first things we check in trendless/choppy markets when we are worried about a potential for a top / decline is the performance of our favorite leading index, Britain’s FTSE 100, which has just recorded a new high, giving an all clear signal in doing so. That action was confirmed by Germany's DAX Index, which adds confidence to our constructive view on the world's stock markets and suggests that the trend for US stocks remains up.

No changes this week; we should be back to normal by this time next week. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused by the data outage and will get that sorted out as soon as I return.

Until then I wish you well.

John Bollinger