Can It Be Trusted
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Bob Loukas is the founder of The Financial Tap. With over 20 years of experience in market analysis and trading, Bob is a life-long student of economics and has an abiding passion for the financial markets.
He is a leading expert in Market Cycles. His love of Cycles emerged from the study of the work of Walter Bressert, a pioneer in the field.
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Bob has been settled in New York City for the past 16 years. His background is in Computer Sciences, with extensive experience in the Financial Software arena. Prior to launching The Financial Tap, Bob served as a senior executive at various Fortune 50 firms where he led development of financial trading and reporting software.
This content is for members only
This content is for members only
This content is for members only
This content is for members only
This content is for members only
This content is for members only
The presence of a new series of lower tops and lower lows on the Investor Cycle chart is suggesting that 2015 is likely to be a very challenging period for the energy markets. Like all assets, energy moves through Cycles of varying timeframes. I believe that the record investment of the past 5 years has resulted in too much production, which will lead to a period of business consolidation and bankruptcy.
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This content is for members only
The equity markets are finally seeing action that has even the most hardened bulls running scared. In the past, I’ve been quick to dismiss selling periods – Cycle Lows – as natural regression-to-the-mean events. In a bull market, an oscillating Cycle pattern of two steps forward and one step back is what drives an asset higher. But this time is different…two steps back is completely out of character. So much so, that I now believe that the 3.5 years bull market is now in serious trouble.
If we were to look for reasons to explain the recent selling, there are plenty to be had. The most likely is not a specific piece of news or single data point, but that the collective herd of market participants is fickle and can be easily spooked. The current bull market has broken plenty of records, including the length of time – more than 3 years – since a 10% correction. This has resulted in double-digit market gains for consecutive years, and a near vertical rise over a sustained period of time. Against the backdrop of a soft world economy, this performance is nothing short of remarkable.