Introducing the Stock Market Dashboard

To monitor the health of the stock market, I have developed a composite gauge called the “Stock Market Dashboard,” which is composed of eight publicly available (free) indicators. The composite gauge will provide a “go” or “no-go” assessment as to whether to be a buyer or a seller of ETFs at a particular point in time. The key to profitable investing is to control and minimize market risk by putting the odds in your favor. Knowing and investing with the market’s trend is critical to becoming a consistent winner in the stock market. The other option is not very pleasant and can be costly, as you and millions of other investors have discovered.

The overall direction of the stock market is the main determinant of how well your personal portfolios will perform. A number of stock market researchers have estimated that approximately 70% of an individual stock’s return is a result of the stock market’s overall trend, about 20% of the return is determined by the stock’s industry or sector, and only 10% of the return is based on the individual stock’s performance. The first question to answer is this: How do we determine the market’s current trend?