The view that the economy’s recent strength was boosted by a warm winter looks a bit more convincing after reviewing this morning’s March report on industrial production. After strong gains in December and January, March delivered the second straight month of no change in the Fed’s industrial production index.
Daily Archives: April 17, 2012
Housing Starts Retreat As New Housing Permits Rise Sharply
New construction on residential housing slowed sharply last month, the Census Bureau reports, while newly issued permits in March rose to the highest level since September 2008. In other words, there’s mixed news on the housing front, although the ongoing climb in new permits suggests that construction activity will soon be turning higher.
Research Review | 4.17.2012 | Asset Allocation
Tactical Asset Allocation Using Relative Strength
John Lewis (Dorsey Wright Money Management) | March 2012
Relative strength strategies have a long history of delivering market-beating returns. A great deal of research in this area has been devoted to models using common stocks. While some studies show that RS works well using asset class data, the body of research is not as large. Our research shows that relative strength is a very valuable factor for selecting asset classes. When looking at the relative performance of various asset classes over an intermediate-term time horizon it is certainly possible to achieve returns better than standard, broad-based benchmarks. Achieving these returns often requires patience because relative strength strategies can get out of synch with the market. However, the adaptive nature of relative strength allows the process to adapt to the changing leadership over time.