The cyclical bull market that started on October 13, 2022, has now turned 45 months, well past the median age of 30 months.
The 118% return places this cyclical bull in the top 4 of strongest bulls since 1960. It remains quite narrow in terms of breadth, making for an interesting comparison to the 169% bull market from October 1998 to March 2000.
Put/Call Ratio jumped last week.
This week, the $ value of all Call Volume - the $ value of Put Volume fell to the lowest since Liberation Day.
A lot of bears out there, with the S&P just below its all-time high.
If the current cyclical bull market ends up “blowing off” with an AI-driven melt-up, then it’s worth pondering what this would mean for the secular bull market. By my count (with which most technicians disagree), the current secular regime began in 2009 and is now 16 years old. That’s pretty close to the past two secular bull markets (1982-2000 and 1949-1968), with the caveat that this is hardly an exact science with a tiny sample size.
The chart below shows the secular waves and market cycles expressed as sine curves. We can see that we are in the 5th cyclical bull market within this secular wave. That’s exactly the pattern for the 1982-2000 wave and pretty close to the 1949-1968 wave. It’s something to keep in mind as we enter year 4 of this 5th market cycle since 2009.
The good news is that earnings are doing the heavy lifting as we enter year 4 of this bull market. Following Friday’s decline, the P/E ratio is only up 1% year-over-year, while earnings are up 11%. This is in line with my expectation at the beginning of the year that after two years of substantial P/E expansion, earnings would become the dominant driver of returns in 2025.
A rough sketch: what if the current trend isn't sustainable? What if we are in an overhype compared to the underlying, more fundamental trend, like in '21?
Nobody knows when or if that'll happen.
#Bitcoin@tradingview
#Bitcoin BULL MARKET is not done yet.
▪️Bull market starts when #BTC reclaims its 50 SMA.
▪️Bear market starts when #BTC loses it.
A weekly candle close with confirmation is key here.
Dotcom era vs AI era
Price path performance has been pristinely followed. A troubling period ahead would also be consistent with Midterm Election years.
Average Midterm Election year drawdown is -17% since 1950.