Click here to read the interview.

Ludwig: Apart from this trend, are there some far-reaching objectives and movements within the world of indexing that you are watching closely?

Prestbo: Yes, we are. We just announced the Dow Jones Pring Index. Martin Pring is a technician who has a solid following, and who has written several books that describe his approach to the market. It’s based on the U.S. business cycle.

It’s a strategy whereby the mix of assets in the portfolio is adjusted according to the phase of the business cycle. It takes in market information, but it also takes in economic information, things like corporate profits. It adjusts the mix, because some things do better in the beginning of the cycle, some things do better later in the cycle, and so on.

Ludwig: This will be in the smart-beta categories, but not so much a “malaise-mitigator,” as you put it?

Prestbo: There’s already a following of investors who have used this, or invested with Pring’s firm, but we are bringing this to the indexing world. So investors can benefit from whatever virtues this strategy has along with the relatively lower cost of indexing. I see lots of gurus out there, like Pring, and we can index those. We can take those strategies and build rules that make the index follow the strategy. I think that may be the next big wave of indexing.

Click Here to Read the Entire Interview

 Martin Pring Looks at Gasoline Prices

• Posted by JC Parets on March 23rd, 2012

He’s the author of one of my favorite books: Technical Analysis Explained

He’s also one of the first technicians that I consistently followed early in my career. He coined the phrase, “Good Luck and Good Charting”. And now Martin Pring is putting up videos on You Tube. This is great!

This week he takes a look at how previous peaks in Google searches for ‘gasoline’ have come at or near peaks in the actual prices of gasoline. Check it out:

With the industrial average hitting new post-recession highs this week, number crunchers and data digesters are focusing anew on which segments of the market will fare best if the recovery takes on speed—or reverses course. To help even the playing field, we’ve introduced the Dow Jones Pring U.S. Business Cycle Index. This index, developed in collaboration Pring Research, is designed to tactically allocate among stocks, bonds, commodities and cash, accounting for the current phase of the economic business cycle.

In viewing historical data, it’s long been observed that different asset classes and market segments perform differently depending on where the economy lies on the continuum between the peaks and troughs that define periods of expansion and recession. (You can view a list of U.S. business cycles, as defined by the National Bureau of Research, here.) For example, in this Webcast, we observed that during the early recovery stages of previous recessions, small-cap value stocks had generally outperformed other size and style segments of the U.S. market.

Pring’s quantitative model, which underlies our new index, takes these types of cyclical effects into account by attempting to identify the current stage of the business cycle, and then automatically allocating to those asset classes and market segments that have historically outperformed during the current stage.

The chart below indicates how the six stages of Pring’s model map to a single business cycle, and summarizes the asset allocation that the model employs at each stage.

You can learn more about the new index, which launched yesterday, here.

NEW YORK, Mar 14, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Pring U.S. Business Cycle Index, a gauge designed in collaboration with Pring Research to reflect its proprietary investment strategy that tactically allocates among stock, bond, commodity and cash segments based on the phase of the economic business cycle.

The index will closely track the investment strategy developed by Pring Research’s Principal and President, Martin J. Pring, an award-winning author who has devised a rules-based methodology with the goal of achieving higher risk-adjusted returns relative to multi-asset or “blended” benchmarks.

“In building this new index with Pring Research’s proprietary investment strategy at its core, we have created a unique tool for measuring an investment strategy that dynamically changes the mix of several asset classes depending on the current stage of the U.S. economic business cycle,” said Dow Jones Indexes’ President, Michael A. Petronella.

Backtested historical data calculated daily back to June 30, 2006 indicate the Dow Jones Pring U.S. Business Cycle Index has outperformed equities, commodities, and multi-asset benchmarks on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. Dynamic in nature, the index automatically rebalances on a monthly basis in response to signals generated by the model.

Mr. Pring founded Sarasota, Fla.-based Pring Research in 1981 and began providing research for financial institutions and individual investors around the world. Since 1984, he has published the Intermarket Review, a monthly market report offering long-term synopses of the world’s major financial markets. Mr. Pring is also chairman of Pring Turner Capital Group — a Walnut Creek, Calif.-based money management firm dedicated to allocating assets according to Mr. Pring’s proprietary U.S. business-cycle research.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Pring has been quoted in many major financial publications and has written more than 20 books, including Technical Analysis Explained, which has been translated into 10 languages and is required reading for the Chartered Market Technician’s exam.

Today’s index launch follows the September 2011 announcement by Dow Jones Indexes and Pring Research in which the firms announced an agreement to develop and co-brand a U.S. business cycle gauge designed to closely track Pring Research’s proprietary investment strategy.

Read more at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-jones-indexes-to-launch-dow-jones-pring-us-business-cycle-index-2012-03-14

Is the Cyclical Bull Market for Stocks Over?

What’s Ahead for the Economy?

Are U.S. Treasury Bonds Really a Safe-Haven Asset?

What are the Long-Term Themes for Profitable Opportunities?

Tom Kopas began his career in the investment industry in 1981 and has more than 30 years of experience. Tom is a career-long investment educator. He has taught investment and retirement planning courses covering a wide range of topics on portfolio management. He is frequently invited to share his knowledge and experience with investment and retirement groups about investing around the business cycle, and making dynamic adjustments to your portfolio as the economic and financial landscape changes.

Pring Turner Capital Group is a registered investment advisor providing investment management services on a fee-only basis since 1977. The three managing partners, Martin Pring, Joe Turner, and Tom Kopas combine for over 110 years of professional investment experience. The firm is internationally known for its business cycle research. The Pring Turner team is co-authoring a book to be published by McGraw Hill in 2012 entitled, “Investing in the Second Lost Decade.”

Visit the North Bay Investor’s Forum website for more information

Joe Turner and Tom Kopas return this year to deliver an update to Pring Turner Capital Groups’ secular outlook for stocks, bonds, and commodities. The last two year’s popular presentation “Are You Prepared for Another Lost Decade” detailed the reasons investors should indeed stand prepared for challenging markets. Packed with fresh new material based on their unique, internationally recognized business cycle research this program leaves plenty of time for answers to topical questions, including:

• Update to the Secular Bear Market Outlook
• Where are we in the Current Business Cycle and What Has Changed
• Martin Pring’s 2012 Seasonal Forecast
• What’s Ahead for the Economy and the Financial Market

Golden Gate University Room # 2201
Saturday January 21st, 10am to 12pm

Register now at tsaasf.org

“…recent downside price action in gold has prompted veteran market watcher Martin Pring to declare that the “precious metals are in a primary bear market” even if gold did appear somewhat oversold near $1,530. Bullish gold pundits are now hoping that since the Year of the Dragon comes early in 2012 physical demand from China might be as fiery as that creature’s breath. One might as well hope for China to come to the rescue, since the anticipated bump in seasonal gold demand from India last quarter turned out to be more of a… Slump.”

“The technical damage, of course, is tremendous. Chartist Martin Pring says in his weekly: ‘Gold has now completed this upward sloping head-and-shoulders top and re-confirmed the break by tracing out a new low. … [Momentum measures] are getting oversold, and we may see a bounce. However, I think precious metals are in a primary bear market, and that is probably where we should keep our focus.’

Pring may be right about gold’s being oversold. On Thursday, MarketVane’s Bullish Consensus for gold fell to 56%, the lowest since Dec. 5, 2008. The lowest reading in that tumultuous year was 49% a couple of weeks earlier, so this really is extreme.”

Several technicians are optimistic too. Martin Pring writes in his latest InfoMovie Report: The Gold ETF, SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), recently completed a small base and broke above a downtrend line. One could argue that the September/October base was the right shoulder of a potential upward sloping head and shoulder. If so, the late-October rally above the right shoulder would be very positive.”