Good Morning folks…
I say good morning because my computer clock says 01:20 AM, and once again I can’t say how cool it is to get the emails that I get from you guys. We have a few talented “market watchers” in the audience, I had some of you tell me the SP 500 hit a new high. Guys, I don’t want to sound corny but that is awesome. Well at least I think so anyway. Lets take a look at this weeks market action.
As everyone knows, on April 6, 2013, almost one week ago, I advised everyone that I was making a move to G-Fund, due to market behavior and the North Korea situation. I am now moving back to S-Fund. Here are my reasons.
1. Maybe just me but I get the sense that the world is growing weary of North Korea’s statements and threats and the world is resuming their regular programming.
2. The SP 500 itself is making new highs. At the end of the day, don’t argue with the markets.
3. The S-Fund is still the top performer, however on 04-11-13, the I-Fund really performed well. Lets see if this is a one-day thing or maybe the start of something with I-Fund. C-Fund is closely trailing S-Fund.
Please see below charts with notes on the charts themselves
Last week, we had some definite “yellow caution lights” which were 1) the market itself displaying some distribution days, 2) saber-rattling in North Korea, and 3) a couple of economic reports which didn’t help people’s moods. While everyone loves gains, nobody likes a loss, and I am very loss-aversive regarding my TSP balance. If I can keep the damage down to a minimum, then the scoreboard will take care of itself. But if I recklessly pursue gains, I stand the chance to get hurt. We had some nice gains Jan/Feb/March, so I prefer not to just throw those away. Maybe I am rambling and I need to sleep but I think you see my perspective.
With that manifesto said, I will be moving 100% to S-Fund. The markets have apparently resumed their uptrend, with the SP 500 penetrating the 1576 level, making new highs. This is a milestone event.
In other news, some may have seen reports that PC sales are at all time lows. As most know, the Macbook / Mac computers are not classified as PC’s. With the popularity of Apple products, and Android tablets and devices, the PC just is not the hot thing anymore. I predict demise for Microsoft (whose Windows 8 OS has received poor reviews) and related problems for antivirus vendors, who primarily service the PC market. Apple products reportedly does not need antivirus but I am sure that will change. This bad news hit the NASDAQ index, and dragged it down somewhat.
As a MacBook Pro Retina owner for travel, and Windows 7 Pro owner at home, I have to vote for Apple. Dealing with Windows updates, firewalls, blue screens of death, etc etc just isn’t fun, not when the Apple just works. When I have to become a semi-PC hacker and change system registry settings just to get Skype to work or so a Security Pack update will install itself, then what happened to the concept of ease of use for the customer. Its not a shocker why Apple is taking the lead.
Thanks for reading
– Bill Pritchard
