Last 20 Trading Days as of

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Explanation of Terms

TVO stands for Total Volume Oscillator. You can use this indicator to gauge overall market sentiment. It does this by tracking volume from institutional buying and selling. When the bars are above zero, conditions are generally overbought in the long-term. When the bars fall below zero, we’re oversold. The further in each direction, the more extreme the reading. Select adjectives (PANICKY, ANXIOUS, HUNGRY, etc.) are used to convey various levels of fear and greed. The sweet spot where market conditions are most ideal is right around the center (between 0 and 3), which is usually the area that triggers our Portfolio to go into “LONG” mode.

VOLUME tells us how much overall market volume changed from the previous session.

HG stands for Heat Gauge. This indicator tells us about the volume for the day. A very hot reading (TORRID, SCORCHING, etc.) means that selling and down volume dominated the session, while cooler terms (CHILLY, FRIGID, etc.) indicate that more up volume and buying occurred.

IO stands for Issues Oscillator. It tracks overall market sentiment in a way that’s similar to TVO, except it runs on data from issues rather than volume, and it’s more short-term, reflecting retail investor sentiment rather than big institutions. Various levels of BULLISH or BEARISH are described by roman numerals I, II and III (Sorry no fancy adjectives on this one). Values above zero indicate the market is in a bullish cycle, while values below indicate the cycle is bearish.

Portfolio is our general investment strategy. The signals here are much more conservative than our options trades, which is better suited for a long-term portfolio approach. Generally, long-term stock positions and IRAs do well on the Portfolio plan.

Next Day Move is a prediction of how the S&P500 (or SPY) will move in the next session. It’s based on historical data of HG values over a 15 year period. SIDEWAYS generally means a +/- .10% to .20% percent move. SIDEWAYS UP or SIDEWAYS DOWN increases the probability in that direction. When it’s UP, a greater than .10% to .20% move is likely. The stats for DOWN show a similar percentage but negative, however, the data is not as conclusive as UP (going short is not the exact opposite of going long). In the case of DOWN or SIDEWAYS DOWN, light hedging rather than an all out short would probably be the way to go.