Eyeworld

18 Ophthalmology Business • December 2016 by Roger Balser Long-term indicators can provide buy or sell signals are three long-term indicators that I've come across that provide great signals. The first is the "bullish percent for all mutual funds" (Figure 1). It seems crazy to get a long-term indicator from mutual funds, but this indicator gives us a long-view picture of money in motion. The bullish percent is the percent of charts in the universe based on buy signals. The chart displayed here is the bullish percent for all equity mutual funds. The number on the left is the percentage of equity mu- tual funds on point-and-figure buy signals. What's great about point-and- figure charts is they can give us the direction of the markets as well. There are several charts that I regular- ly monitor just to gauge the tem- perature of the market. I've divided these charts into long-term, interme- diate-term, and short-term indicators. I'd like to take a look at the long- term indicators because they provide a clear backdrop of what is going on in the markets. What's interesting is that when you look back at the various sig- nals that are given on these charts, you can associate them with some pretty big turns in the markets. Here S ince the late 1990s, we've been using a "point-and-figure" charting method at Balser Wealth Man- agement, with good success. These charts are great for looking at mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and even inter- est rates. Using these charts, one can clearly see when stocks are moving in a positive direction or a negative direction. We call these trends, and they're simple to read and understand if you're an inexperienced investor because all you have to do is look at the pictures to determine what's going on with any particular issue. Figure 1: Bullish percent for all mutual funds on a 2% scale Figure 2: Percent of mutual funds that are in a positive trend on a 2% scale

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