Weekly Update

March 17, 2019

Welcome to the Bollinger Band Letter Update for Sunday the 17th of March 2019.

As I expected the Value Line Program exited the market only to reenter immediately. We have discussed this problem before. While the VLP is very easy to use and works well most of the time, the volatility of modern markets have stressed it and finding a replacement that is similarly powerful and just as easy to use is rather hard. I’ll take this up again the in March Bollinger Band Letter, which will be posted next Saturday. I also have a new addition to the Bollinger Band Tool Kit ready for your delectation.

Larger stocks surged back into a leadership role with growth maintaining a slight edge over value. I remain constructive on the US stock market and most of the international markets as well. I am especially impressed by the FTSE’s ability to resist the Brexit madness and the Shanghai market’s ability to rally in the face of the trade troubles. I think that an important relative-strength theme will continue to be biotech.

I know that it is really easy to be bearish, but I think all that will earn you at present is an opportunity to miss out on higher prices for stocks. In my opinion you should be as invested as you are comfortable being, and perhaps even a bit more.

There are no changes to the ETF portfolios this week.

The Value Line Program is in the market, with the Value Line Geometric Average at 534.56, the Friday sell stop stands at 521.84.

The ETF Program portfolio holdings:

Style (21): IVW 2, IWR 8, IWP 1

International (21): EWH 1, EWL 2, EWZ 8

Sector (27): PBW 4, XLU 1, PSJ 3

Our allocations are 70% US stocks, 10% international, 10% yield and 10% cash.

Details on our Allocations, Ice Breaker positions and ETF portfolios along with your weekly Market Timing Chart Pack can always be found here:

https://www.bollingerbands.com/bb-letter/

Until next time, I wish you well.

John Bollinger, CFA, CMT