Included in this issue of 401k Made Easy:
Market Wrap
401k Made Easy Strategy YTD Return
Benchmarks YTD Return
Investor Sentiment
Market Wrap for the Week Ending Mar 26, 2021
The broad markets gained back some of their recent losses this past week. If the markets can have a few decent days early next week, we’ll break the pattern we saw in January and February of ending on a down streak.
Overall, the S&P 500 was up 1.25% for the week.
401k Made Easy Strategy - YTD Return
My 401k Made Easy model is up 5.54% YTD. It gave up its lead on the market this week and is not quite even for the year so far.
Benchmark Stock Market Indices - YTD Return
The S&P 500 (Vanguard fund VFINX) is up 5.83% YTD
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (State Street SPDR ETF DIA) is up 8.59% YTD
Investor Sentiment
I find investor sentiment to be an interesting contrarian indicator. There are several similar indicators put out by different organizations.
Looking at the US Investor Sentiment, % Bullish indicator, its latest reading is 50.95% which is up a little from 48.94% a week earlier and up from 34.35% a year ago. Its long term average is 37.99%.
This type of indicator is contrarian because supposedly, when investor optimism is very high, there are less investors likely to buy more stocks and push the markets higher.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Mike
Editor, 401k Made Easy