Below we highlight the consensus strategist recommended bond allocation since 1997. At the moment, Wall Street strategists are collectively recommending a 30.5% weighting in bonds. Prior to the run-up in Treasuries during the financial crisis, the recommended bond weighting fluctuated from 15%-20%. As bond prices rallied, strategists followed them higher by increasing their recommended weighting. As shown in the chart, the recommended bond weighting peaked well after the long bond peaked in December 2008, and the weighting has been drifting lower throughout the current bull market in stocks.

Over the last few weeks, the recommended bond weighting has remained right around 30%. The long bond itself is currently trading in a range that it typically traded in during the '03-'07 stock market rally, but at 30%, the recommended weighting is about 10 percentage points higher than it was during that time. Have analysts become more conservative in general, or will the recommended weighting continue to fall as long as the market goes up?

Jef I. Richards holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin, a J.D. from Indiana University, a B.S. in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an A.A.S. from the same school in the same discipline. A learned man by most standards but someone who might have stayed off the radar had he not he said two words that have resonated through all forms of media since they were uttered. Those two words? “Sex sells.”

In all fairness to the good professor, and to my own journalistic integrity Dr. Richards actually said “In advertising, sex sells. But only if you’re selling sex.”

This morning, the ETF Passport portfolios were adjusted dropping the inverse emerging markets ETF (EUM) and going long Turkey (TUR), Brazil small cap (BRF) and South Korea (EWY). I also added the Chinese Yuan (CYB) in anticipation of some movement on this issue but even if I have to wait it is a beautiful asymmetrical position with minimum downside risk.

I also added the iShares S&P 100 ETF (IOO) which is a basket of the largest 100 companies in the world. It might surprise you that 12 of these companies are headquartered in emerging market countries. Although my Chartwell Global 30 has outperformed this index by a substantial margin since 2005, IOO remains one of my favorite ETFs and can be paired with the International Dividend Achievers ETF (PID) to nice effect.