Sometime in the last ten days, I posted a comment from one of the money managers employed by my firm. These money managers are referred to as TAMPs. This stands for Third-party Asset Management Programs. The comment I posted included the name of that TAMP, and while I have a contractual relationship with that program, they called me and asked me to take down that post. Their compliance department was sensitive to their name appearing somewhere out there on the internet without their prior approval. I’ve alluded to the overwhelming rules and regulations already in place and while it’s annoying, I understand why they called me.

The “between the lines” suggestion was that in the future, I make no reference to them, and simply post their information without attribution. While this could expose me to charges of plagiarism, I’ll have to take that chance. The TAMP in question has built a very successful model for managing client money and when I get periodic emails from them about what they are doing with my client’s money, its usually right on. Here is what I received this morning:

“Adverse movements in both price and breadth over the past window, and to some extent since the end of April, caused our model to move into its most bearish reading. As such, all profiles now reside in their most defensive positioning. Our indicators have continued to deteriorate throughout the month, and many have moved significantly past their respective signal lines. As such, we will need sufficient evidence of a sustainable upward trend before the model calls for a reallocation into the equity markets. Until then, we will remain defensively positioned.”

What this means for those of you who prefer to manage your own money is that this TAMP thinks there is more downside risk right now than upside potential. Sooner or later, there will another email from them which I will post. It may tell us that they are interpreting the signals they monitor as positive and are moving back to where they were, or that they are still not sure. Stay tuned…