The Janus Factor: Trend Follower's Guide to Market Dialectics

The Janus Factor: Trend Follower's Guide to Market Dialectics

Released November 2012
Publisher(s): Bloomberg Press
ISBN: 9781118087077

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Book description

Tap into feedback loops to unravel market trends and discover profitable trading opportunities

The Janus Factor presents an innovative theory that describes how feedback loops determine market behavior. The book clearly shows how the theory can be applied to make trading more profitable. The metaphor of the two-faced god Janus is used to reflect alternating market environments, one dominated by trend followers and the other by contrarian bargain hunters.

In this book, author Gary Anderson puts forth a systematic view of how positive and negative feedback drive capital flows in the stock market and how those flows tend to favor either sector leaders or sector laggards at different times.

  • Discusses how to find better performing stocks

  • Outlines when and how to use momentum strategies for big profits

  • Addresses when and how to use contrarian strategies

  • Gary Anderson is the winner of the 2003 Charles H. Dow Award, presented by the Market Technicians Association

Intellectually challenging and highly practical, The Janus Factor offers insight into market behavior and new methods for capturing stock market trends.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. The Janus Factor
  7. Introduction
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Chapter 1: Foundations
    1. Serendipity
    2. The Data Set
    3. Reasons and Causes
    4. Befuddled
    5. Which Way Is Up?
    6. Notes
  10. Chapter 2: The Assignment
    1. Measuring Risk: Offense and Defense
    2. Picturing Offense and Defense
    3. The Benchmark Equivalence Line (BEL)
    4. The Trend of Relative Performance
    5. Notes
  11. Chapter 3: Feedback and Capital Flow
    1. Feedback
    2. Feedback and Capital Flow
    3. Calculating Relative Strength
    4. The Relative Strength Spread
    5. Trend Followers and Contrarians
    6. Notes
  12. Chapter 4: The Janus Factor
    1. Structure and Entropy
    2. Confidence
    3. Is the Market Predictable?
    4. Balancing Acts and Paradigm Shifts
    5. Notes
  13. Chapter 5: Seasons of Success
    1. The Venturi Effect
    2. The Relative Strength Spread and the Performance Spread
    3. Group Studies
    4. Notes
  14. Chapter 6: Why Jesse Went Broke
    1. The Cotton King
    2. 1911–1914
    3. The Final Years
    4. Notes
  15. Chapter 7: Sheep Dogs and Other Contrarians
    1. The Sheep Dog Effect
    2. A Contrarian Hedge?
    3. The Contrarian Rebound
    4. The Contrarian Collapse
    5. Notes
  16. Chapter 8: Situational Awareness
    1. Bielema’s Choice
    2. The Bet
    3. Let Us Calculate!
    4. Notes
  17. Chapter 9: The Direction of Momentum
    1. Relative Momentum
    2. Relative Momentum versus Relative Strength
    3. Notes
  18. Chapter 10: Long Strategies
    1. The Critical Moving Average
    2. The DOM Strategy
    3. Contrarian Threats
    4. A Defensive Long Strategy
    5. It’s a Bull Market, You Know
    6. Notes
  19. Chapter 11: The Complete Strategy
    1. Combined Long and Short Strategies
    2. The Model Portfolio
    3. Execution
    4. Notes
  20. Appendix
  21. About the Author
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Janus Factor: Trend Follower's Guide to Market Dialectics
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2012
  • Publisher(s): Bloomberg Press
  • ISBN: 9781118087077