Analysing
Markets
This is how to use our government bond, foreign currency and stock
market timing system once you have subscribed for our asset allocation software - Go to
the RouteMap for whichever class of asset interests you. Once
logged-in you, select the radio button to find a set of summary Tables to check the latest rating for
every Country or
Region based on a variety of investing strategies. To obtain a fact sheet on any
particular country, select Profiles. The flow chart below shows how these
investing strategies combine to generate our Best
Guess on what action to take. Then choose your chart from our library by use of four
investment parameters so you can analyse in detail whatever interests you. There is
also a Slide Show to help you
review a collection of similar charts quickly and do your own portfolio management
efficiently using our software.
The Subscription
Section
The set of radio buttons let you choose global investing strategies
that suit you.
Tables are often a good way to start reviewing your investments, because these list
all the countries and regions, giving our current Best Guess, using each of our investing
strategies, or summarise important historical information, like year-to-date performance
and key events.
- Once you have identifed a country, region or investment style that interests you, if you
want to check out its key investment characteristics, this can be done in Profiles. This section provides a fact sheet on
each country or region, covering politics, economics and markets.
- Having identified a suitable country, region or style, and familiarised yourself with
it, switch to Charts to analyse its merits, using up to nine different investment
strategies. A full set of explanations and descriptions can be found in Chart Library.
Creating Charts
The Chart Menu provides a set of four standardised investment parameters.
Country: The market timing options include 38 countries and 12 regional groups
aggregating them using our specially developed family of P/T market indexes.
- Chart Type: For each asset class there are different investment tools, each analysing a
key ratio, for which there is sufficiently widespread data to make international
comparisons.
- Timescale: Having looked at the long-term charts to identify patterns, you can focus in
on the shorter term chart to look closely at the current situation.
- Investment Perspective: There are three aspects to market timing, designed to meet
differing needs.
- Local Currency option to see how it appears to domestic investors.
- A common currency basis in US Dollars for international investors.
- Relative to the World to pick the best performers.
In addition the Styles RouteMap includes a fifth drop down menu called Styles for
analysing investment fashions. These include Growth, Value, SmallCaps, Technology, Gold
and Resources.
To find out more, take a trip to Demoland for
Styles, an investment theme park to give you the feel for the real thing. Similar
trips are available for Bonds, Forex and Stock
Markets and to choose among these asset
classes.
Standardisation makes comparisons easy. Simply eyeball the data by
keeping three parameters the same, while you change the fourth. For example, having chosen
Chart Type, Investment Perspective and Timescale, the axes will have the same meaning as
you switch from one country to another. Then, having identified the country you find most
interesting, you could keep the Country parameter the same, while choosing a different
Chart Type for successive selections in order to analyse different arguments for or
against investing there. Charts for each market show the complete history of market timing
signals using either liquidity or momentum-based international investment strategy as well
as valuation ratios.
Slide Show
This enables you to automate the process by flipping through a
selection of similar charts at whatever speed suits you. Hold three investment parameters
constant and vary the fourth. Selections will appear in the order in which they are shown
in the drop-down lists. For Countries and Regions, that is to say alphabetically within
each region, followed by the relevant regional index, before moving on to the next region
and ending with various global aggregates at the end.
Ranking Tables
There are also summary tables to help you with market timing decisions
for government bond, foreign currency or stock market timing round the world. These list
the countries available in each asset class according to various investment criteria that
reflect the types of chart available for that asset class. At the top level, there is a
summary table showing Best Guesses for each country or region, based on combining up to
eight trend and valuation stategies. Then there are tables for each one of our investing
strategies. There are also tables that alert you to key events - a diary of influential
occasions in the year to date and an calendar of upcoming elections. Where appropriate,
there are separate tables according to the different investment perspectives.
Investing Strategies
At the apex of the decision tree is the choice of asset class. Our Asset RouteMap is designed specifically to do
this by giving Buy and Sell recommendations for each of six asset classes, not only in
absolute terms but also relative to each other. In the cause of objectivity all six
classes are equally weighted in our regional and global benchmarks for all asset classes.
This weighting system has the effect that monetary and real assets are equally weighted
and that foreign assets receive a one third weighting in all regions.
The flow chart below shows how our momentum and value investing strategies
combine to generate overall ratings, here for example in our stock market timing system
for every Country or Region. The thumbnail images are links to descriptions and samples of
the Chart Type for Bonds, Forex, Stock Markets or Investing Styles in which both the historical
record and Best Guess of the outlook for each strategy can be analysed in detail.