Intermediate-Term Stock Market Indicators FINALLY Long

It has been quite a while that our stock market indicators have gone long, and our results suffered accordingly.

The stock market closed today at 1920.  Our last update was 11 months ago.

• Happily, our long-term indicators kept us generally long (to flat or slightly long) in the stock market since they remained strongly bullish during the run-up.  
• Currently, the long-term indicators are moderately bullish.  The long-term indicator has its "foot off of the gas" due to the recent sell-off. 
• Our medium term oversold indicators are now fully long.  These indicators had been predicting a sell-off incorrectly for several months, keeping us from being fully long in the stock market.  

Over the long-term, we have a good record managing the ebbs and flows of the stock market.  This recent under-weighting of equities brings us back closer to the pack in terms of market-timing, but we have outperformed most.

Bitcoin - Good Q&A

Here is some of the best information we have read about the Bitcoin. It comes on the form of Q&A (questions and answers) from the Washington Post.

Q: What’s a bitcoin?

A: Bitcoin is an online currency that allows people to make one-to-one transactions, buy goods and services and exchange money across borders without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties. As a result, this exotic new form of money has become popular with libertarians as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators — and criminals. Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next.

Q: Is bitcoin particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting?

A: The bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals’ greed for the collective good. A network of tech-savvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn’t be an issue.

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/whats-a-bitcoin-a-look-at-the-digital-currency/2014/02/25/97f081a2-9e3e-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html

Richest 85 = Same Wealth as 1/2 of Population

According to a new report by Oxfam, the richest 85 people in the world control as much wealth as about one-half of the world's population.

That is 85 people compared with 3.5 billion.

A new report from Oxfam has been published in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

It shows the world's ultra-wealthy have not only recovered from the global financial crisis, they have positively blossomed.

The report shows the wealth of the 1 per cent richest people in the world is worth about $110 trillion, 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world's population.

It also shows the world's richest 85 people control about $1.7 trillion in wealth, equivalent to the bottom half of the world's population.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/richest-85-boast-same-wealth-as-half-the-world-20140120-314vk.html#ixzz2qxADr8d1