11/30/2007

IBD follow through days

So IBD changed their interpretation of follow through day. Irrespective of what IBD does on this particular instance, let us look at the logic behind the IBD follow through method for confirming new rally start and see if it makes sense and is it logical. The fundamental hypothesis behind the IBD overall market direction is based on the logic that large investors like mutual funds, pension funds and hedge fund drive the market because of their large size. It uses a price and volume action as a proxy to figure out what these institutions are doing. So when a market is in rally mode, it looks for a possible top when there is a cluster of 5-6 high volume selling days. It calls those days distribution days. It defines distribution day as a day where the market was down and volume was up. When such distribution days are clustered in a short time frame it indicates that the large funds are selling or distributing stocks. So after 5 distribution days it says you should be preferably in cash. Besides that it uses list of market leaders (stocks which had outperformed the market in price and earnings term ) to see the health of the market. If majority of stocks in that list are going down below 50 day MA it describes the market as risky .

Now once a market goes in to correction mode as signaled by number of distribution days , then the next logical step is to see when to get back in to market. For that it uses again a proxy of large speculators buying to confirm possible start of a new rally. How does it do it, by looking at rally attempts. So in a downtrend it looks for a positive day. Once there is a positive day, it looks for second positive day on high volume. The second day should come in between 4 th and 7 th day of the rally attempt otherwise the rally attempt is considered a failure and you start all over again. It has tested the system on last several years of market data and it calls a turn in 80% of the time correctly.

The more important question which is not really been asked is should you follow it and do you have a better system. The IBD system has a context which is most important to understand and that in IBD model of CANSLIM, it buys stocks with primarily two main characteristics 1) those with earnings momentum and 2) price momentum. One of the primary characteristics of such stocks is that they outperform during market rallies and significantly under perform during corrections. So they will double quickly but give up 50% or more of their price gains when the market turns. While high growth is sexy there is a corresponding high risk associated with it. So by staying in cash during the correction phase , you significantly narrow the risk. If you are not trading those kind of stocks, it does not matter and you should not follow it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pradeep

I have to give my hat to you, thats the best explanation in plain english of follow thru days i have even seen and i think one of your best posts i had ever read. I think i need to write it down for reference. EXCELLENT!!!

I think you need to apply for a job at IBD as a EDITOR!!! I recommend you any time

Pradeep Bonde said...

Thanks

Anonymous said...

And i totally agree with you with CANSLIM and the main points of it.You still can take parts of it and apply it to your own system and make money and im an example of it.

verdacity said...

Pradeep -- have you verified this 80% accuracy claim, or done a systematic backtest of an IBD CANSLIM system (or know of anyone else who has)? Using IBD's exact rules, their long/flat market timing signal, and simulating with a 5-10 stock portfolio of he strongest CANSLIM candidates at any point in time (the way that Mark Boucher recommends), through bull and bear markets? I haven't subscribed to IBD in about 4 years, but from what I learned, their system did not give you that much of an edge, especially during the 2000 bear market.

gosu said...

CANSLIM is an absolute was of time, energy and money.
It does not matter whether there the markets is going up or down, CANSLIM does not bring you an iota of profits any more than investing in straight QQQQs.
Here is the proof - CANSLIM IS WASTE
Here is more proof

Pradeep Bonde said...

verdacity
CANSLIM by definition is not supposed to work in bear market.
CANSLIM is the top 10% performing system on AAII screens.
Most people who believe CANSLIM does not work have no in depth idea about it.
It is one of the best approach for individual investors who want to make money.
I have made ton of money using the logic behind CANSLIM but not exact rules.
Boucher method is a variation of CANSLIM approach.

Gosu
That fund does not follow the CANSLIM method as preached by William O'Neil. Mutual funds cannot get in and out of stocks fast enough to be successful with it.