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b'In Episode 29, we welcome market veteran, Tom McClellan. Meb starts with some background on Tom \\u2013 he\\u2019s been doing financial writing for 20 years, likely making him one of the longest-running financial writers in the business.\\nThe guys then provide an overview of Tom\\u2019s proprietary market tool, the McClellan Oscillator. The roots of the Oscillator date back decades ago, when Tom\\u2019s father, Sherman, was trying to develop a system by which he could better time corn purchases for their farming business. (It turns out, you can get a better price in March.)\\nIn short, Sherman eventually crossed paths with some technical analysts who were exploring breadth statistics in the market (advance/decline line). Sherman applied moving averages to the advance/decline line, and a few tweaks later, we got the McClellan Oscillator.\\nMeb then asks about the best way investors can use the Oscillator, and what the signals are telling us now. Tom gives us a quick tutorial, then suggests that the Oscillator is saying \\u201coversold\\u201d (keep in mind this episode was recorded on 11/9). It has been correcting since July, but now that election is over, maybe we\\u2019ll see that change.\\nWith the election in mind, Meb brings up the sentiment he\\u2019s heard from many investors: \\u201cI want to wait until the election is over and things are more certain.\\u201d Meb finds this amusing, as when are the markets ever certain?\\nThis segues into Tom\\u2019s election indicator. It had predicted Trump. Tom gives us more details about the mindset behind his indicator. In essence, we see market movements reflected in the poll numbers. In other words, the market is a leading indicator for where the polls will go.\\nAs evidence, he references the election when Bush/Gore was too close to call, discussing this through the prism of what the markets were doing at the time. And in this most recent election, the indicator had called for Trump to win though the polls didn\\u2019t. Tom says that\\u2019s because the poll numbers before the election hadn\\u2019t reflected the big decline in the stock market in the week leading up to the election \\u2013 but that decline did show up as a change in the actual vote.\\nThis sets the guys off on a conversation about \\u201csentiment\\u201d which is an indicator Tom loves. Then Meb steers the conversation toward interest rates and the Federal Reserve. It turns out, the guys believe you can tell where the Fed should set the Fed Funds Rate by looking at what the yield is on the 2-year note. It\\u2019s when that doesn\\u2019t happen that we see market issues. Tom gives us an example from Bernanke\\u2019s tenure.\\nMeb then points toward another chart from Tom: the S&P verse Federal Tax receipts divided by GDP \\u2013 in essence, how much the government is collecting in taxes. What\\u2019s the relationship here? Well, if you\\u2019re against the government taxing too much, you\\u2019ll likely agree with the findings.\\nThere\\u2019s more fascinating conversation about Tom\\u2019s various charts. For instance, the common conception is that a slowdown in the economy leads to an increase in crime. Tom says not true. Do you know what is correlated to an increase in crime? Inflation. What inflation does in Year 1 is what crime will do in Year 2.\\nMeb then asks about the biggest mistakes that investors make when creating their own charts. Tom tells us that people want to simplify too much. \\u201cJust give me the one chart that will work.\\u201d Unfortunately, there is no holy grail. If you\\u2019re looking for easy answers, the stock market is not the place to find it. Look for more obscure indicators. If everyone is using the same indicator, there\\u2019s no value there.\\nThere\\u2019s lots more, including a conversation about \\u201cvalue.\\u201d Turns out, Tom doesn\\u2019t really use value at all. In fact, he says there are only two variables that matter. What are they? Find out in Episode 29.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'