Excerpt from Barry Ritholtz’s
Understanding Contrary Indicators
"Yesterday, I mentioned in passing a fabulous cover story from a 1962 Time magazine. While these sorts of contrary indicators are subject to interpretation, they are worthwhile to those who can properly interpret them, as they can provide insight that is not readily available elsewhere.
I have been tracking these sorts of signals for many years. In 2003, I published a research piece, titled Contrary Indicators 2000 – 2003 Bear Market. I thought it was important to remind people that, despite the fact the market had been shellacked, there were plenty of signs of a major bullish reversal that could be followed by tradrs, fund managers, and investors..
That these indicators exist for both bullish and bearish extremes points to their agnosticism. However, these are easily misinterpreted. In this week’s Barron’s The Trader column, Kopin Tan discusses a specific JP Morgan research piece, which misuses a sentiment indicator, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence readings:
‘Some of you, of course, are miffed at how Wall Street is banking on your largesse even as they trade your pain. The Conference Board said last week that consumer confidence sank to the lowest in 16 years. Your confidence has been this morose or worse only five times since 1967, and each time the stock market has rallied soon after, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index producing average returns of 15% six months later and 23% a year after, according to JPMorgan.’
Unfortunately, consumer sentiment surveys are coincident, not leading, indicators. And while JP Morgan is correct that Consumer Confidence Index has only been as bad as it is presently 5 times before (the current reading is 57.2), in 3 of those 5 previous occasions, the index got considerably worse (Approximately: 1992 = 48, 1980 = 49, and 1975 = 44)…"
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