Tuesday, January 31, 2012

2011, when stock pickers die

This is a year stock pickers (particularly the fundamentalists) do not perform. The summary of AAII screens confirm it and so are many mutual funds. Most investment advisers/newsletters are not doing good. Check the performances of your investment newsletters such as ValueLine and IBD. However, do not give them up. They may not perform for a short while but they will return back to the normal performances. It is a characteristic of a bottom market.

The market was volatile with most of the gains in the first half of the year of 2011. Traders (particularly the Technical Analysts) do good.

From data of about 300 stocks for a period of about half a year, I tested out which fundamentals do not work well in 2011 for illustration. They are analysts' grade, cash flow and the short %.  Normally, the stocks with analysts' grade A (or above 8 from Fidelity), cash flow (A from Blue Chip Growth) and shorter % (less than 5) would perform better than the average. Not this time. You can obtain these metrics from many other sources.

I'm adjusting my search criteria accordingly for swing trades. As of 3/2012, I'm not buying a lot and waiting for the big dip I expect it will come. However, when I see bargains I'll buy them and wait for years for the market and these stocks to recover.

1 comment:

  1. There are good exceptions. Einhorn, a hedge fund manager, shorted Chipotle that I should but did not. He made some good money in this deal.

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