Tag Archives: nasdaq

Soft Drink Group Shows Signs Of Regaining Its Outperforming Ways

The stock market is always a case of, “OK, that was nice, but what have you done for me lately?” IBD’s soft drink group has outperformed both major indexes since the bull market began in March 2009. Going into Wednesday’s market, soft drinks were up 406% vs. 228% for the Nasdaq and 166% for the S&P 500. What, though, has the Beverages-Non-Alcoholic group done for investors lately? Year to date, the soft drink group has retreated 6% — less than the Nasdaq’s 11% drop but about in line with the S&P 500. However, beginning with Feb. 11’s closing lows, soft drinks are back to outperforming (up about 7% vs 4% to 5% for the major indexes). Let’s look at what’s happening among the highly rated soft drink stocks. Dr Pepper Snapple ( DPS ) cleared an 81.55 buy point in strong volume in August, but the stock immediately rolled over and triggered the 8% sell rule. The decline turned into a new pattern. The new pattern featured an entry at 83.67. The stock broke above that in low volume Oct. 9. However, let’s back up a little because this gets tricky.  On Oct. 5, the stock retook the previous buy point at 81.55 in volume 37% above average. The previous buy point was probably a more natural area of resistance because that’s where the failure occurred. Individual investors who re-entered on the retake are sitting on a 12% gain — not bad in this market. Dr Pepper currently has shaped a flat base-like structure on top of the prior base; the potential new buy point is 95.36. The stock has a Composite Rating of 96, putting it in the top 4% among all the stocks in IBD’s database. The Composite Rating combines all five IBD ratings into a single number. Coca-Cola ( KO ) is known as one of Warren Buffett’s long-term holdings. Coke is the third-largest holding in the Berkshire Hathaway ( BRKA ) portfolio, making up 13% of assets. The stock has a Composite Rating of 85, which is decent for a conservative blue chip. Coke is working on a flat base with a potential buy point at 44.01. Two other stocks in the group need to do some work on the right side. Monster Beverage ( MNST ) undercut its August low when the stock bottomed Feb. 11. The current consolidation is 30% deep, which is about twice as deep as the market’s recent pullback. For growth stocks, a sell-off fiercer than the major indexes isn’t unusual. Monster has a Composite Rating of 92 but needs to retake its 200-day and 50-day lines. Coca-Cola Bottling ( COKE ) has retaken its 200-day line but remains just under its 50-day line. If a new base develops now, the pattern would be late stage. As a stock climbs, it pause to consolidate or form a new base. Breakouts from the first two stages are more likely to work than those from later stage patterns. The stock’s Composite Rating is a best possible 99.

How Big Is Managed Futures’ AUM, Exactly?

By The Alts Team We tweeted the other day that Managed Futures mutual funds had seen 20 straight months of inflows, and that got us to thinking it was high time to do our annual look at how many assets there are under management in the managed futures industry. Now, for those who don’t know – we have a bit of a problem with the usual numbers reported as assets under management in the space by BarclayHedge, who include the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater in the managed futures asset total. In our opinion, this does a disservice to investors, vendors, and business people in the industry trying to gauge the size of the space and where they fit into it. Add to that the fact that Winton is a $30 Billion+ manager who tends to dominate the asset raising in the space, and it’s not too big of a stretch to say the majority of assets as reported by BarclayHedge are from just two firms (Bridgewater and Winton). That’s led us to pick apart the numbers a bit and report what the “real” assets and asset growth look like without those two stalwarts (one of which is not managed futures based at all). Without further ado, here’s what the rest of the space looks like: What about the Growth in assets: Here’s where things get interesting, because while stripping out Bridgewater and Winton in years past showed a shrinking industry (the “field”) without those two big dogs, 2015 showed quite the opposite. The so-called “field” added around $18 Billion in 2015 (22% growth), although we can see from the graphic that assets are still down from their 2008 levels with the growth just negative since then. Assets of “the field” grew by 22% in 2015. Assets of “the field” is still down $4 Billion since ’08. “The field” raised $22 Billion in the final 3 quarters of ’15. AQR is, for now, a member of our ‘field’, but at $10.9 Billion and $2.6 billion raised in 2015, may need to be split out in the near future. What’s the takeaway? The larger takeaway is that investors who seemingly forgot about the 2008 financial crisis and how well managed futures do in such periods are starting to remember where they put the diversification keys… and are starting to put real money to work with real managers , not just the Wintons and AQRs of the world – who need more assets like a hole in the head. Here’s to more growth ahead, not just from investors allocating funds, but from the managers multiplying those funds via their trading strategies as well.