From Barron's Read This Spike That column:
Twelve days ago, as the broader U.S. stock market was in the midst of its first sharp decline in years, popular newsletter editor Dennis Gartman appeared on a CNBC show and advised viewers to prepare for a bear market.“You stay in cash and you stay in short-term bonds and you don’t move out,” Gartman advised viewers before adding “this is the start of a bear market, and it could last for several more months I’m afraid.”But stocks quickly turned around and began to move toward the heights last seen in September. A chastened Gartman admitted late last week on another CNBC show that his bear-market call was all wrong. However, he’s still not willing to go long, instead maintaining a “neutral” position on the market as a whole, according to a CNBC.com report on Gartman’s rapid change of heart.Asked by CNBC what he missed about the current character of the market, he replied “I’m not sure what I missed. I really don’t know….This is the type of volatility that is absolutely beyond my ken. I’ve only been at this for 40-some years, so I’m relatively new to it. But quite honestly, I’ve never seen anything like the last two weeks.”While the volatility may have been beyond Gartman’s ken, it didn’t humble him enough to beg off the game of predicting where the stock market is heading. At least he hasn’t met the fate that Dante reserved for soothsayers in his classic 14th century work, The Divine Comedy: Those who attempt to divine the future should have their heads twisted around and be forced to walk backwards for eternity.But it would be wrong to just pick on Gartman. He is just one of a long list of market pundits who attempt to do what many respected investment minds argue is impossible—predict with some degree of confidence where stocks as a whole are heading and then often recommend a sharp shift in one’s asset allocation to play a bull or bear scenario....MORE
I've no idea where he was going with "I’ve only been at this for
40-some years, so I’m relatively new to it."
If he meant to be funny he missed, badly.
Some other Gartman posts:
We have very little patience with guys like Gartman.January 2013
Here's the "since inception" chart for the Horizons Gartman ETF:
You'll note the ETF underperformed the S&P 500 from day 1 and only got worse from there.
In June 2009 we had:
Last week MarketBeat had a post "Gartman: ‘Warren Buffett Is an Idiot’" that relayed Mr. Gartman's radio comment. I had a comment [of course you did -ed] as did 57 other MarketBeat readers. The post is still at the top of their most read list. 10:47 am June 19, 2009
A few days later he backtracked:
Gartman: Warren Buffett Isn't An "Idiot" .. But He Allowed "Inexcusable" Losses (BRK.A)
and a few weeks later:
Dennis Gartman is an Idiot (BRK.B; DXY)
On June 18, 2009 Dennis Gartman said "Warren Buffett is an idiot"* and announced to the world that he was short Berkshire Hathaway. Neither of these were very smart moves. As the chart below shows, Berkshire is up 40-odd percent since Gartman's call.DJIA 13,132.73
In fact BRK.b has outperformed the S&P 2:1 in the intervening months....
S&P 1,409.28
Gartman Rolling Out Four Gold ETF's Including A Fund-of-Funds to Buy the Other Three
October 2010
"The curious incident of the 300m bushels of corn" (BRK.B) CORN
Long time readers know that I've had some quibbles with Mr. Gartman (Dennis Gartman is an Idiot (BRK.B; DXY) regarding his understanding of Berkshire Hathaway and it's chairman.December 2011
(See links and chart after the jump)
Then there was his EUR/USD commentary. June 1 with the Euro at 1.22 he said it was "almost certainly" going under $1.20. Duh
We'd been making the same call since Nov. 2009 at $1.50.
The buck strengthened to $1.1877 and reversed, I think it was June 4.
On June 18 of this year he called the Euro doomed. That may be but it had bottomed two weeks earlier and was on its way to kicking Yankee butt.
Hmmm...
On the other hand he is a student of the grains. Here's FT Alphaville...
Update on the Fisher/Gartman Volatility ETN's (ONN; OFF)
November 2011
Oh Now What? "Huge asteroid headed for close encounter with Earth"
So there I was, shooting off my mouth over at MarketBeat:There's more but I'm sure gentle reader has things to do.
Stock Market Has Topped: Gartman
...“The investment objective of the Horizons AlphaPro Gartman ETF (the “ETF”) is to provide investors with the opportunity for capital appreciation through exposure to the investment strategies of The Gartman Letter, L.C. (“Gartman”), founded by Dennis Gartman….”And now this, via the Chicago Tribune:
The fund launched at the beginning of the big bull run in March, 2009, at $10.00 It’s at $8.56, down 14.4% since the launch. The S&P 500 is up 71.5%. This baby is one anti-correlated asset. The Gartman fund has recently begun to turn up which probably means there is an asteroid headed our way.”...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - A huge asteroid will pass closer to Earth than the moon Tuesday, giving scientists a rare chance for study without having to go through the time and expense of launching a probe, officials said....
As donzoab points out, free cash flow is key. It allows you to play in the big leagues.
That and being able to cut opportunistic deals with a single phone call to Charlie or Sokol.
When Gartman takes Goldman as deep as Warren did, 10% money and warrents! (in the money $1.1 Bil.) I’ll pay attention to his comments on BRK.