{"id":706,"date":"2016-03-24T13:43:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T13:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/?p=706"},"modified":"2016-03-24T15:31:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T15:31:47","slug":"how-to-make-better-investment-decisions-in-current-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/how-to-make-better-investment-decisions-in-current-trends\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Better Investment Decisions in Current Trends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Making better decisions\u00a0usually entails some sort of the following:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Current decisions are not\u00a0cutting it\u00a0&amp;\u00a0you are aware<\/li>\n<li>Perform analysis on\u00a0WHY\u00a0&amp;\u00a0WHERE in the process things are going wrong<\/li>\n<li>Get new information\u00a0for your\u00a0decision making formula: Alternatives<\/li>\n<li>Make a different decision<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>What are the Current Trends?<\/h4>\n<p>The 30-year Treasury Bond (pictured below) currently reflects the crosswinds of recent headlines. Improvement in the jobs data and consumer spending, while not consistently positive, point to traction in the economy. Some detractors to the positive traction have been the volatility in oil, slowed growth in China, and the threat to global commerce\u00a0which could restrain the US from achieving a more robust economy. \u00a0When you have mostly consistent positive improvements but heavy weighted detractors you get a crosswind environment. You can see these factors charted against the 30-year Treasury Bond below.<a href=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Weekly-Blog.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-707\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-707\" src=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Weekly-Blog.png\" alt=\"Weekly Blog\" width=\"1407\" height=\"636\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Bond prices tend to trend lower during periods of economic expansion and prices tend to rise during periods of heightened uncertainty. The new environment we are seeing in the markets is a condensed, extreme version of this cycle. Down Up, Down Up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The chart above displays a large sideways pattern after the steady climb during 2014.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-709 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/pnik-arrow.png\" alt=\"pnik arrow\" width=\"40\" height=\"37\" \/>The pink box indicates when investors perceived an improvement in the domestic economic condition starting Quarter 1 in 2015.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/blue-arrow.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-712\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-712 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/blue-arrow.png\" alt=\"blue arrow\" width=\"39\" height=\"28\" \/><\/a>Since summer of 2015, however, fears of a global economic slowdown were an influence to higher prices and lower yields (blue box)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/green-arrow.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-711\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-711 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/green-arrow.png\" alt=\"green arrow\" width=\"40\" height=\"30\" \/><\/a>Over the last month, bond prices have eased lower as oil prices have experienced a mild rebound (see green box).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: 'Georgia','serif';\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">There are many other factors\u00a0that have played roles of influencing prices. However, the forces mentioned\u00a0above seem to have\u00a0a stronger impact over others, not to mention the additional impacts added daily- much like the recent Federal Reserve Meeting last week.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Blending all these influences together creates the crosswinds that make up the path of the market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Flexibility &amp; Price Movement<\/h4>\n<p>Eventually, the short, intermediate, and longer-term trends will get on the same page but we do not know when that will be, nor do we need to be skilled at such forecasts.<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/An-Unemotional-Technicality1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">(See Why here)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some investors perform extensive research into macro-economic models, only to be subjected to the crosswinds that can push around bond price. A weakness of macro-economic models is the negative impacts\u00a0to a portfolio while investors wait for their models to possibly yield desired results. \u00a0Instead of relying on correct predictions through an economic model, flexible methods rooted in the information derived from price action and sentiment evaluated over different time frames can create better risk\/reward opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The price movement of securities, and in this case bonds, are inclusive of economic impacts whether it is the Federal Reserve, Chinese economics, the oil market, or combination of these events.<\/p>\n<p>For example, further declines in treasury bond prices generally have positive influences on growth assets such as high yield, preferred stocks and domestic equities. Additional signs of economic instability, domestic and foreign, could lead to a rise in treasury bond prices as well as other higher rated bond classes. \u00a0Methods employed by our management not only assess where to invest but also incorporate the time frame factors of long, intermediate, and short terms.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Successful investing does not require predicting an outcome, but having a sound plan of action in place improves the odds of success<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>The Take-Away:<\/h4>\n<p>How do you make better investment decisions in current trends?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know the current\u00a0market environment for which you are investing<\/li>\n<li>Use flexible\/agile models that evaluate different time frames<\/li>\n<li>Use tools that are\u00a0efficient and inclusive of other data like price movement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Making better decisions\u00a0usually entails some sort of the following: Current decisions are not\u00a0cutting it\u00a0&amp;\u00a0you are aware Perform analysis on\u00a0WHY\u00a0&amp;\u00a0WHERE in the process things are going wrong Get new information\u00a0for your\u00a0decision making formula: Alternatives Make a different decision What are the Current Trends? The 30-year Treasury Bond (pictured below) currently reflects the crosswinds of recent headlines. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investspectrum.com\/uma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}