Moving Average ETF Trading Strategy Update for Week Ending 8-14-09

Another big step this past week for the actively managed ETF investor. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) indicated a buy as the 50 day moving average moved above the 200 day moving average for the first time since early January 2008. The S&P 500 index (which the SPY mimicks) is one of the main indicators of market health. This is another indication that the current bear market may be coming to an end.

The cross over chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance is below. Click on the chart for a larger view.



The SPY was to make up 20% of the $10,000 portfolio. Friday, August 14, 2009 the close price for the SPY was 100.79 so 20 shares were added to the portfolio. The moving average investor is now long in 8 of the 10 ETFs from the balanced ETF portfolio:

• iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond (AGG)
• iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Credit Bond (CSJ)
• Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF (VWO)
• Vanguard Pacific ETF (VPL)
• Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
• iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM)
• Vanguard European Stock ETF (VGK)
• S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

Additional Info:
The balanced ETF portfolio being used for this experiment consists of 10 ETFs. You can view the portflio here. In this list you will notice the % of the portfolio we are targeting for each ETF.