Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (25790)	3/28/2000 10:43:00 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 68446

11:59 ET ****** Abby Speaks : At 06:30 ET this morning, the S&P futures were up approximately 10 points. By 09:15 ET, they were down 4 1/2 points. Why the change in sentiment? Well, the popular excuse today is that Goldman Sachs' market strategist and noted bull, Abby Joseph Cohen, cut her stock allocation by 5%, bringing her portfolio weighting to 65% stocks, 27% fixed income, 3% commodities and 5% cash (came from stock reduction). That reduced equity allocation, she said, is a shift back to normal weighting following the recent run-up in prices. She also noted that the model portfolio is no longer overweight in technology and consumer staples due to relative performance and that the largest overweight is now financials. It goes without saying that Ms. Cohen carries a great deal of influence, so much so that one doesn't really need to use her full name when describing her investment opinions. Call her a Wall Street diva if you will as the investment community knows who you are referring to when you say the market moved because Abby said this, or Abby said that. It was just last week that Abby said she was raising her year-end price targets on the Dow and S&P to 12,600 and 1575 respectively-- a seemingly bullish call at the time, and yet, the Dow lost 41 points that day while the S&P only gained 7 points-- most of which, if not all, came from the contribution of its technology components as the Nasdaq soared 153 points that same day. The point is you needn't rush out to change the makeup of your portfolio because Abby Joseph Cohen has made a change and the market reacts to it in knee-jerk fashion. Her opinions are certainly worth considering, but she is not the only strategist on Wall Street who has been accurately bullish. Gruntal & Co.'s Joe Battipaglia, for instance, is a well-known bull who has called the market right. You know what his portfolio weighting is and what his year-end price targets are? For a growth portfolio, he recommends being 100% invested in equities; and for a balanced portfolio, the asset allocation is 60% stocks and 40% bonds. His year-end price targets for the Dow and S&P are 12,500 and 1625 respectively. Unlike Abby, he remains overweight in technology and consumer staples. The only areas he is underweighting currently are basic industries, capital goods, and energy. Simply put, there are many opinions out there-- some right and some wrong. Find an analyst or strategist you like and stick with them, but don't be misled when the press tells you one strategist is moving the market. That angle often plays well on a slow news day, but the only person that can single-handedly move this market and cause investors to adjust investment strategies isn't even a market strategist. He's a bureaucrat and his name is Alan Greenspan.-- PJO