Gold: Is It Too Late to Buy?

October 22, 2010

No one really knows the answer to that question, of course. It’s easy to find articulate analysts with intelligent arguments on both sides of the current debate. And really, it’s less about gold than it is about any asset that has had a good run of recent performance.

Whenever performance has been good, the question is always asked, “Is it too late to buy? Has the easy money already been made? Has the smart money already gotten out and moved on to the next big thing? If I buy here, am I going to be a sucker and a bag-holder?”

You can drive yourself crazy worrying about it because there really isn’t a good answer to the question. It all depends on human behavior-and good luck predicting the madness of crowds. For our part, we simply follow the trend. We hold assets that are strong and sell them when they begin to become weak. Sometimes trends flame out quickly, but often they go on much longer than investors expect.

I did see a stunning chart contained in a Paul Kedrosky post that reminded why trends can go on longer than anyone expects.

We all have very short memories. Relative to some past time frames-in this case, 1982-gold is not heavily owned in investor portfolios at all! Something to keep in the back of your mind.

Disclosure: some of our managed accounts currently have positions in DGL, GLD, and IAU.


Dorsey, Wright Client Sentiment Survey - 10/22/10

October 22, 2010

Here we have the next round of the Dorsey, Wright Sentiment Survey, the first third-party sentiment poll.

As you know, when individuals self-report, they are always taller and more beautiful than when outside observers report their perceptions! Instead of asking individual investors to self-report whether they are bullish or bearish, we’d like financial advisors to weigh in and report on the actual behavior of clients. It’s two simple questions and will take no more than 20 seconds of your time. We’ll construct indicators from the data and report the results regularly on our blog–but we need your help to get a large statistical sample!

Click here to take Dorsey, Wright’s Client Sentiment Survey.

Contribute to the greater good! It’s painless, we promise.

 


Sector and Capitalization Performance

October 22, 2010

The chart below shows performance of US sectors and capitalizations over the trailing 12, 6, and 1 month(s). Relative strength strategies buy securities that have strong intermediate-term relative strength and hold them as long as they remain strong. Performance updated through 10/21/2010.