Stock Market Forecasts

This page provides a running tally of stock market forecast accuracy. If other, larger studies are any indication, it will eventually settle on a 50% accuracy rate, same as a coin toss.

It’s important to understand that stock market forecasters cannot add value to your investing performance. Acting on their hunches will reduce your profit. It’s best to call them something that reminds you to ignore them: Z-vals.

The term z-val (“zee val”) is a shorthand introduced in The 3% Signal for “zero-validity forecasters” and “zero-validity environment.” The latter phrase was coined by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, where he wrote that “stock pickers and political scientists who make long-term forecasts operate in a zero-validity environment. Their failures reflect the basic unpredictability of the events that they try to forecast.”

This page is the Z-val Zone of Stock Market Forecasts.

The table below lists forecasts as they’re added. Accuracy is displayed once a z-val has at least one forecast tracked. Recent forecasts are shown below the table. For a complete history, see the Z-val Zone Judgment Schedule.

The purpose of this page is not to harm anybody’s reputation, but to show investors that guessing games don’t work. Click on some of the names below. Read their convincing forecasts. Notice:

1. The list of worries is a repeating one.
2. Bearish forecasts are usually wrong.
3. The way to win is to stick with an effective plan.

I recommend my Signal system of rational reaction as the best effective plan for Point 3 above. It takes into account the repeating factors of the stock market and its historical tendencies, and reacts rationally to what unfolds, no forecasting required.

Once you understand that forecasting is unhelpful, join me in looking only at past prices instead of guessing future ones. It will boost your performance and lower your stress.

To beat the market using a proven forecast-free system, please sign up for The Kelly Letter.

31

Total Forecasters

50

Total Forecasts

50

Judged Forecasts

10

Right

40

Wrong

20

Group Accuracy

All Forecasts

RIGHTTBDWRONG

Lim: Nasdaq 5,000 Not Different This Time

“Tech is 47% of the index … [A]t an average P/E of 21.5, the Nasdaq is still considerably more expensive than the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500, European stocks, emerging market stocks, and the list goes on and on. … “[T]he Nasdaq Biotech index now trades at P/E of around 50. Meanwhile, many […]

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Hiltzik: Be Afraid of Nasdaq 5,000

“The Nasdaq closed Monday at 5,008.10. It’s the index’s first taste of the plus-5,000 stratosphere since those heady days of March 2000, when it topped out (on March 10) at 5,048.62. … “[Is this] the new Nasdaq, nothing like the old? The latter case is what you’ll hear from, well, Nasdaq itself. … The index […]

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Mirhaydari: Stock Market Alarm Is Sounding

“Sentiment has rarely been higher … Nothing, it seems, can shake the faith investors have in this market. And that has me worried. … “US economic data is rolling over … with a variety of data points — from factory orders to retail sales and consumer confidence — recently missing to the downside. On Tuesday, […]

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Kass: Market’s Reward to Risk Unattractive

“I would gauge the market’s reward to risk as unattractive. To this observer, the market has priced in a smooth and self-sustaining global recovery and has not priced in any number of adverse outcomes (which seem to have a rising probability of occurrence). “While it is impossible to see the future with precision, in broad […]

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Crudele: Stocks to Fall in 2014

“With yesterday’s 150-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average and the nearly 12-point decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500, the indices are now down 5.3 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, for the month of January. … “The barometer is simple — the stock market usually goes up for the year if the S&P […]

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