The not-so-hidden dangers in your portfolio

High-risk signals getting louder by the day. Here's what I see and what I'm doing.

I’m not a big “chart of the day” type of guy, but if I did have such a thing at ETFYourself.com, this would be today’s entry. I’ll explain it in a moment. Because I think it informs the current environment, and what happens next.

First, a quick update on how the ROAR 10 ETF model portfolio is doing amid this slow bleed of a market drop. Here’s a snapshot directly from PiTrade.com which is what you see if you sign up for that app and click on this portfolio for copy trading, or just to take a look. And, you can see all of my ROAR research at ROAR.PiTrade.com

That portfolio is benchmarked to iShares “Moderate Risk” portfolio ETF (AOM). Of note, the conservative index (AOK) is off 1.6% so far this year, while the S&P 500 (SPY) is down 6%. Risk management comes in many forms. My goal has always been to first defend a down market cycle, then try to “exploit it” for gains. It takes a lot more than buy-and-hold or buying every dip “just because.” But after a few decades of operating that way, I have no plans to change my core philosophy.

For more on my long-time approach to managing risk while pursuing long-term returns, check out this article I published here late last year.

Now, that that busy chart I started this post with, and why I think it is a critical picture for investors right now. And probably for a while.