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

Gundlach: Another Wave Down

“The reason the markets aren’t going lower is people are holding and hoping. The market bottoms out when people are selling and sold out — not when they are holding and hoping. I don’t think you’ve seen real selling in risk assets broadly. Markets need buying to go up and they need volume to go […]

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Credit Suisse: Top in S&P 500

“… We have been looking for the market to retest the spike low from August at 1,867, and then medium-term support at 1,820, the October 2014 low. With several key sectors now also falling to major support levels – notably industrials ‒ and looking vulnerable, we think the risk a major top may be established […]

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Hussman: Expecting a 40-45% Loss

“It’s important to recognize that the S&P 500 is down only about 6% from its record high, while the most historically reliable valuation measures are double their historical norms; a level that we still associate with expected 10-year S&P 500 nominal total returns of approximately zero. We fully expect a 40-55% market loss over the […]

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Moraif: Trend Getting Worse

“Well we got off easy with the Dow closing down ‘only’ 600 points. “So does this change my sell recommendation? No, it does not. If we have a global recession coming, I just don’t see the US economy being strong enough to pull everybody else out of it, rather I see them pulling us down […]

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Moraif: Reached Sell Trigger

“Well, I actually didn’t think it was possible to reach our sell trigger today but we did. Therefore, it is now time to sell. … “Our strategy is not perfect and those of you that have been following me for a long time know that our strategy predicts bear markets but it also predicts bear […]

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