- What are the best assets to be in as we move into September and the coming Fall season?
- If Crude and Gold are holding their value, what does this indicate may happen to the overall markets next?
- What does it mean if Copper continues to decline?
- As yields go higher, is there potential for Bonds (TLT) to test new lows?
- Should investors who have the buy and hold strategy being deployed in their portfolios begin to consider a different strategy?
- What will turn a fear of missing out (FOMO) into outright fear in the market?
- Looking at the Gold chart, what levels should we be watching now for support and resistance?
Showing posts with label bonds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bonds. Show all posts
Monday, September 18, 2023
Understanding Market Dynamics To Identify Changing Trends
Chris sits down with Craig Hemke of Sprott Money to talk about where the markets may be going. Topics and questions we cover include the following:
Monday, November 28, 2022
After This Holiday Rally, You Better Know When To Walk Away
We get a lot of questions about if the stock market has bottomed or if it is headed lower and how they can take advantage of the next Major market move. Over the next 6 to 12 months, I expect the market to have violent price swings that will either make or break your financial future. So let me show a handful of charts and show what I expect to unfold.
Let’s dive in....Continue Reading Here.
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Gold Starting Stage 4 Decline: What Does This Mean For Investors?
The passive buy and hold investor is becoming panicked, and we can see this in the stock market through the mass selling of utility stocks, dividend stocks, and bonds.
When the masses become fearful, they liquidate nearly all assets in their portfolios which is why we see the Big Blue chip stocks selling off along with precious metals.
As investors liquidate around the world, they focus on where their money can still be preserved. With most currencies falling in value, there is a flood toward the U.S. dollar index as the safety play....Continue Reading Here.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Bonds And Stimulus Are Driving Big Sector Trends And Shifting Capital
We also note Miners and Metals have shown strong support recently as the US Dollar and Bonds continue to collapse. The way the markets are shifting right now is suggesting that we may be close to a technology peak, similar to the DOT COM peak, where capital rushes away from recently high flying technology firms into other sectors (such as Banks, Financials, Real Estate, and Energy).
The deep dive in Bonds and the US Dollar aligns with the research we conducted near the end of 2020, which suggested a market peak may set up in late February. We also suggested the markets may continue to trade in a sideways (rounded top) type of structure until late March or early April 2021. Our tools and research help us to make these predictions nearly 4 to 5+ months before the markets attempt to make these moves....You Can Read This Research Here.
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Wild Volatility Continues as U.S. Markets Attempt to Establish New Trend
As technical traders, we attempt to digest these economic data factors into technical and price analysis while determining where and what to trade. We attempt to identify the “Best Asset Now” (BAN) for trading based on our proprietary technical analysis and predictive modeling tools. We also attempt to stay away from excessive risks in the markets. The reason we adopt this strategy is to help protect assets and to attempt to assist our clients and followers in avoiding sometimes foolish trading decisions that can destroy your account and future.....Read More Here
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
I Truly Think This is the Best $149 You Will Ever Spend
A bear market and its recovery can make your rich in a very short period. I believe this is about to happen again, so why not follow my super simple SP500 ETF investing strategy? Trade with your investment account and become a stock market success with me!
I'm offering my investing signals for the next few years to those who want to know their investment capital is in the asset. Let face it, there is a time to be 100% long stocks, to own an inverse fund, and when to sit in cash. Your financial advisor would NEVER recommend a cash position, why because he is not allowed, he and his firm will not make money. Instead, they will keep you long stocks, with some bonds, and you will have to ride out the bear market rollercoaster again.
During the March Market crash, the BEST position was cash for short term trades. EVERY asset fell in value (stocks, bonds, gold, commodities) two months ago. Only one asset rallied, guess what it was? The USD dollar (CASH), moving to USD cash, gained a whopping 11% while most indexes and sectors fell 35-80+%. All you had to do was close all positions in your portfolio, and you would have looked like a hero, and that's what I did with my account and members of my swing trading newsletter.
Follow me to success. Trade my most simple single ETF strategy and know when to own stocks, when to own an inverse ETF, or be in cash. For only $149 you can have the keys to the kingdom during a time when we are going to experience more historical price swings. This is as good as it gets, in my opinion.
Even if we don't enter a new bear market this year, my investing signals will still nail the bull market and make you a ton of money. This is the most affordable insurance plan for your retirement account, so you don't lose it - Period!
Sincerely,
Chris Vermeulen
Founder of The Technical Traders
Monday, June 11, 2018
Here’s Why We See the G7, Central Banks and U.S. Fed Will Drive Stock Prices this Week
After last weeks closing bell for stocks and the early signs of the Capital Market Shift which we mentioned previously was taking place are now clearly evident. We wanted to alert all of our followers that this week could be very dramatic with a number of key events playing into global expectations.
Our research team at Technical Traders Ltd. have been combing through the charts trying to find hints of what may happen and what to expect in terms of price volatility next week. We know our ADL price modeling system is telling us that certain price weakness will continue in certain sectors and strength in others – but we are searching for the next opportunities for great trades.
One of the key elements of the G7 meeting is the continued communication regarding global participation in key infrastructure projects and national cooperation in regards to economic stability.
Over the past 8+ years, the bulk of the global recovery has been based on the US economic stability and recovery. US interest rates allowed for a global “carry trade” that supported a large component of the economic bias in foreign countries. Additionally, the deeply discounted U.S. bonds provided a “fire sale” opportunity for many countries to secure U.S. Treasuries at a time when global central banks were printing cash to support failing economies. Overall, the economic conditions from 2009 to 2015 were such that every opportunity was provided to the global markets to make it easier to attempt a proper recovery.
Some nations were able to capitalize on this environment while others squandered the opportunity to create future growth, capabilities and new opportunities for success. Given the current global market environment, we expect some harsh comments to come from the G7 meeting as well as some wishful thinking comments. Overall, we believe the outcome of the G7 meeting will become a defining moment for the remainder of the year in terms of global economic expectations and forward intent. It will certainly be interesting to see how these leaders decide to operate within the constructs of the ever changing global market liabilities to say the least.
Right now, a lot of concern has been directed towards the Emerging Markets and what appears to be a near term market collapse. Debt spreads and global indexes have been moving in a pattern that clearly illustrates the Central Banks problems in containing the diverse economic conditions throughout the globe. Infrastructure projects, social/political shifts and currency valuations are complicating matters by creating extended pressures in many global economies recently. All of this centers around the strength of the U.S. economy and the US dollar as related to expectations and valuations of other foreign economies and currencies.
Almost like a double edged sword, as the U.S. economy/dollar continues to strengthen, foreign capital will migrate into these US assets because of the inherent protection and gains provided by the strength and growth of these markets. While at the same time, the exodus of capital from these foreign markets create a vacuum of value/capability that results in a continued decline in asset valuations and more.
Almost like the 1994 Asian Currency Crisis, the more the US economy strengthens, the more pressures the global markets feel as valuations and assets become more risky to investors. As investors flee this risk, they search for safe returns and value that is found in the US economy/Dollar – driving US equities higher and strengthening the US Dollar. It is a cycle that will likely continue until some equilibrium point is reached in the future.
The US markets are on a terror rally because global capital is searching and seeking the greatest returns possible – and the only place on the planet, right now, that is offering this type of return is the US economy and the US equities market. Our recent research shows that the NASDAQ indexes may stall and rotate over the next few months as price valuations have accelerated quite far and because the blue chips are relatively undervalued at the moment. This means, capital will likely continue to pour into the S&P and DOW heavyweights as this capital shift continues to play out.
The G7 meeting, in Toronto, this week will likely present some interesting outcomes. Early talk is that the G6 nations (minus the US) may enact some deal that they believe would be suitable for these nations going forward. Our concern is not the deal or the threat of these nations trying to engage in some deal without the US – far from it. Our concern is that their wishes may be grandiose and ill timed given these currency and valuation issues.
Imagine, for a second, the G6 nations engage in some grand scheme to engage in something to spite the USA. Some plan that seems big and bold and over the top. Yet, 5 months from now, debt issues plague these nations, currency valuations have destroyed any advantage they may have perceived they had and the member nations are beginning to feel the pressures of their own entrapment. What then? The USA to the rescue....again?
Recently, Ben Bernanke, a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institute, warned that Donald Trump’s economy was like a Wile E. Coyote going over a cliff. Everything seems well and fine till the road ends and the cliff begins. I would like to remind all of our readers that The Brookings Institute does not have a stellar record of predicting much of anything over the past 10+ years. Take a look at this graph showing the economic expectations and predictions from The Brookings Institute over the past decade or so. Do these people seem capable of accurately predicting anything regarding the U.S. or global economy?
Now, ignoring all of the what if scenarios that are being presented by different people. The bottom line is that the next 6+ months are going to be very exciting for traders and investors. There are huge issues that are unfolding in the global economy right now. Currency levels are about to be shaken even further and the G6 nations, by the time they complete their high priced dinners and evening events, will walk out of the G7 meeting staring down a greater global debt/currency/economic beast of their own creation.
China is in the midst of a massive debt cycle that is about to play out over the next 18+ months (totaling about 1.8 Trillion Yuan).
The Hang Seng Index is setting up a possible topping pattern that could break down given state and corporate debt concerns.
The G6 better have some rabbits in their hats that they can magically transform into big bullish projects over the next 12 months or the economic functions that are at play in the world already are likely to steamroll over the top of any news that originates from the G7 meeting.
The U.S. markets are setup for a continued bullish rally with a bit of Summer capital shifts. Our recent research called the rotation out of the tech heavy NASDAQ and a renewed capital shift into the S&P and the DOW leaders. This rotation is likely to continue for many weeks or months as global investors realize the earnings capabilities and dividends values within the U.S. blue chips are of far greater long term value than the risks associated with technology and bio-tech firms. Because of this, we believe the S&P and DOW/Transports are setting up for a massive price rally to break recent all time market highs.
Here is a Daily chart of the YM futures contract showing the recent price breakout and rally. Our expectation is that 26,000 will be breached within 30 days or so and that a large capital shift will drive a continued advance through the end of 2018 – possibly further.
Here is a Daily $TRANS chart showing a similar bullish move. Although the Transportation Index has not broken to new highs yet, we believe this upside move is just beginning and we believe the continued improvements in the US economy will drive the Transportation index to near 11,450 or higher before the end of this year.
Our opinion continues to support the hypothesis that the US markets are the only game on the planet (at the moment) and that a great capital shift is underway in terms of investment in, purchases of and generally opportunistic investment opportunities for US equities and markets going forward. Until something changes where the US dollar strength, foreign economic weakness and foreign debt cycles are abated or resolved, we believe the great capital shift that we have been warning of will continue which will put continued pressures on certain foreign markets and expand debt burdens of at risk nations over time.
Smart traders will be able to identify these opportunities and capitalize on them. They will see this shift taking place and take advantage of the opportunities that arise for quick and easy profits. If you like our research and our understanding of the global markets, be sure to join our premium research and Trade Alert Wealth Building Newsletter. Our valued members stay with us because we have continually proven to be ahead of nearly every market move this year – in many cases many months ahead of the global markets. So, with all of this playing out over the next 6+ months, we suggest you consider joining The Technical Traders to learn how we can help to keep you out of trouble and ahead of the markets for greater success.
Our research team at Technical Traders Ltd. have been combing through the charts trying to find hints of what may happen and what to expect in terms of price volatility next week. We know our ADL price modeling system is telling us that certain price weakness will continue in certain sectors and strength in others – but we are searching for the next opportunities for great trades.
One of the key elements of the G7 meeting is the continued communication regarding global participation in key infrastructure projects and national cooperation in regards to economic stability.
Over the past 8+ years, the bulk of the global recovery has been based on the US economic stability and recovery. US interest rates allowed for a global “carry trade” that supported a large component of the economic bias in foreign countries. Additionally, the deeply discounted U.S. bonds provided a “fire sale” opportunity for many countries to secure U.S. Treasuries at a time when global central banks were printing cash to support failing economies. Overall, the economic conditions from 2009 to 2015 were such that every opportunity was provided to the global markets to make it easier to attempt a proper recovery.
Some nations were able to capitalize on this environment while others squandered the opportunity to create future growth, capabilities and new opportunities for success. Given the current global market environment, we expect some harsh comments to come from the G7 meeting as well as some wishful thinking comments. Overall, we believe the outcome of the G7 meeting will become a defining moment for the remainder of the year in terms of global economic expectations and forward intent. It will certainly be interesting to see how these leaders decide to operate within the constructs of the ever changing global market liabilities to say the least.
Right now, a lot of concern has been directed towards the Emerging Markets and what appears to be a near term market collapse. Debt spreads and global indexes have been moving in a pattern that clearly illustrates the Central Banks problems in containing the diverse economic conditions throughout the globe. Infrastructure projects, social/political shifts and currency valuations are complicating matters by creating extended pressures in many global economies recently. All of this centers around the strength of the U.S. economy and the US dollar as related to expectations and valuations of other foreign economies and currencies.
Almost like a double edged sword, as the U.S. economy/dollar continues to strengthen, foreign capital will migrate into these US assets because of the inherent protection and gains provided by the strength and growth of these markets. While at the same time, the exodus of capital from these foreign markets create a vacuum of value/capability that results in a continued decline in asset valuations and more.
Almost like the 1994 Asian Currency Crisis, the more the US economy strengthens, the more pressures the global markets feel as valuations and assets become more risky to investors. As investors flee this risk, they search for safe returns and value that is found in the US economy/Dollar – driving US equities higher and strengthening the US Dollar. It is a cycle that will likely continue until some equilibrium point is reached in the future.
The US markets are on a terror rally because global capital is searching and seeking the greatest returns possible – and the only place on the planet, right now, that is offering this type of return is the US economy and the US equities market. Our recent research shows that the NASDAQ indexes may stall and rotate over the next few months as price valuations have accelerated quite far and because the blue chips are relatively undervalued at the moment. This means, capital will likely continue to pour into the S&P and DOW heavyweights as this capital shift continues to play out.
The G7 meeting, in Toronto, this week will likely present some interesting outcomes. Early talk is that the G6 nations (minus the US) may enact some deal that they believe would be suitable for these nations going forward. Our concern is not the deal or the threat of these nations trying to engage in some deal without the US – far from it. Our concern is that their wishes may be grandiose and ill timed given these currency and valuation issues.
Imagine, for a second, the G6 nations engage in some grand scheme to engage in something to spite the USA. Some plan that seems big and bold and over the top. Yet, 5 months from now, debt issues plague these nations, currency valuations have destroyed any advantage they may have perceived they had and the member nations are beginning to feel the pressures of their own entrapment. What then? The USA to the rescue....again?
Recently, Ben Bernanke, a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institute, warned that Donald Trump’s economy was like a Wile E. Coyote going over a cliff. Everything seems well and fine till the road ends and the cliff begins. I would like to remind all of our readers that The Brookings Institute does not have a stellar record of predicting much of anything over the past 10+ years. Take a look at this graph showing the economic expectations and predictions from The Brookings Institute over the past decade or so. Do these people seem capable of accurately predicting anything regarding the U.S. or global economy?
Now, ignoring all of the what if scenarios that are being presented by different people. The bottom line is that the next 6+ months are going to be very exciting for traders and investors. There are huge issues that are unfolding in the global economy right now. Currency levels are about to be shaken even further and the G6 nations, by the time they complete their high priced dinners and evening events, will walk out of the G7 meeting staring down a greater global debt/currency/economic beast of their own creation.
SE Asia is in the process or rewriting and resolving issues of the past 10+ years (see Malaysia / Singapore).
China is in the midst of a massive debt cycle that is about to play out over the next 18+ months (totaling about 1.8 Trillion Yuan).
The Brasil Bovespa Index has rotated into new BEARISH territory.
The Mexican iShares (EWW) ETF is about to break multi-year lows.
The Hang Seng Index is setting up a possible topping pattern that could break down given state and corporate debt concerns.
The iShares Turkey (EURONEXT) index has already broken to new multi-year lows.
The G6 better have some rabbits in their hats that they can magically transform into big bullish projects over the next 12 months or the economic functions that are at play in the world already are likely to steamroll over the top of any news that originates from the G7 meeting.
The U.S. markets are setup for a continued bullish rally with a bit of Summer capital shifts. Our recent research called the rotation out of the tech heavy NASDAQ and a renewed capital shift into the S&P and the DOW leaders. This rotation is likely to continue for many weeks or months as global investors realize the earnings capabilities and dividends values within the U.S. blue chips are of far greater long term value than the risks associated with technology and bio-tech firms. Because of this, we believe the S&P and DOW/Transports are setting up for a massive price rally to break recent all time market highs.
Here is a Daily chart of the YM futures contract showing the recent price breakout and rally. Our expectation is that 26,000 will be breached within 30 days or so and that a large capital shift will drive a continued advance through the end of 2018 – possibly further.
Here is a Daily $TRANS chart showing a similar bullish move. Although the Transportation Index has not broken to new highs yet, we believe this upside move is just beginning and we believe the continued improvements in the US economy will drive the Transportation index to near 11,450 or higher before the end of this year.
Our opinion continues to support the hypothesis that the US markets are the only game on the planet (at the moment) and that a great capital shift is underway in terms of investment in, purchases of and generally opportunistic investment opportunities for US equities and markets going forward. Until something changes where the US dollar strength, foreign economic weakness and foreign debt cycles are abated or resolved, we believe the great capital shift that we have been warning of will continue which will put continued pressures on certain foreign markets and expand debt burdens of at risk nations over time.
Smart traders will be able to identify these opportunities and capitalize on them. They will see this shift taking place and take advantage of the opportunities that arise for quick and easy profits. If you like our research and our understanding of the global markets, be sure to join our premium research and Trade Alert Wealth Building Newsletter. Our valued members stay with us because we have continually proven to be ahead of nearly every market move this year – in many cases many months ahead of the global markets. So, with all of this playing out over the next 6+ months, we suggest you consider joining The Technical Traders to learn how we can help to keep you out of trouble and ahead of the markets for greater success.
Friday, December 29, 2017
2018 First Quarter Technical Analysis Price Forecast
As 2017 draws to a close, our analysis shows the first Quarter of 2018 should start off with a solid rally. Our researchers use our proprietary modeling and technical analysis systems to assist our members with detailed market analysis and timing triggers from expected intraday price action to a multi-month outlook.
These tools help us to keep our members informed of market trends, reversals, and big moves. Today, we are going to share some of our predictive modelings with you to show you why we believe the first three months of 2018 should continue higher.
One of our most impressive and predictive modeling systems is the Adaptive Dynamic Learning system. This system allows us to ask the market what will be the highest possible outcome of recent trading activity projected into the future. It accomplishes this by identifying Genetic Price/Pattern markers in the past and recording them into a Genome Map of price activity and probable outcomes.
This way, when we ask it to show us what it thinks will be the highest probable outcome for the future, it looks into this Genome Map, finds the closest relative Genetic Price/Pattern marker and then shows us what this Genome marker predicts as the more likely outcome.
This current Weekly chart of the SPY is showing us that the next few Weeks and Months of price activity should produce a minimum of a $5 – $7 rally. This means that we could see a continued 2~5% rally in US Equities early in 2018.
Additionally, the ES (S&P E-mini futures) is confirming this move in early 2018 with its own predictive analysis. The ADL modeling system is showing us that the ES is likely to move +100 pts from current levels before the end of the first Quarter 2018 equating to a +3.5% move (or higher). We can see from this analysis that a period of congestion or consolidation is expected near the end of January or early February 2018 – which would be a great entry opportunity.
The trends for both of these charts is strongly Bullish and the current ADL price predictions allow investors to understand the opportunities and expectations for the first three months of 2018. Imagine being able to know or understand that a predictive modeling system can assist you in making decisions regarding the next two to three months as well as assist you in planning and protecting your investments? How powerful would that technology be to you?
Our job at Technical Traders Ltd. is to assist our members in finding and executing profitable trades and to assist them in understanding market trends, reversals, and key movers. We offer a variety of analysis types within our service to support any level of a trader from novice to expert, and short term to long term investors.
Our specialized modeling systems allow us to provide one of a kind research and details that are not available anywhere else. Our team of researchers and traders are dedicated to helping us all find great success with our trading.
So, now that you know what to expect from the SPY and ES for the next few months, do you want to know what is going to happen in Gold, Silver, Bonds, FANGs, the US Dollar, Bitcoin, and more?
Join The Technical Traders Right Here to gain this insight and knowledge today.
Chris Vermeulen
These tools help us to keep our members informed of market trends, reversals, and big moves. Today, we are going to share some of our predictive modelings with you to show you why we believe the first three months of 2018 should continue higher.
One of our most impressive and predictive modeling systems is the Adaptive Dynamic Learning system. This system allows us to ask the market what will be the highest possible outcome of recent trading activity projected into the future. It accomplishes this by identifying Genetic Price/Pattern markers in the past and recording them into a Genome Map of price activity and probable outcomes.
This way, when we ask it to show us what it thinks will be the highest probable outcome for the future, it looks into this Genome Map, finds the closest relative Genetic Price/Pattern marker and then shows us what this Genome marker predicts as the more likely outcome.
This current Weekly chart of the SPY is showing us that the next few Weeks and Months of price activity should produce a minimum of a $5 – $7 rally. This means that we could see a continued 2~5% rally in US Equities early in 2018.
Additionally, the ES (S&P E-mini futures) is confirming this move in early 2018 with its own predictive analysis. The ADL modeling system is showing us that the ES is likely to move +100 pts from current levels before the end of the first Quarter 2018 equating to a +3.5% move (or higher). We can see from this analysis that a period of congestion or consolidation is expected near the end of January or early February 2018 – which would be a great entry opportunity.
The trends for both of these charts is strongly Bullish and the current ADL price predictions allow investors to understand the opportunities and expectations for the first three months of 2018. Imagine being able to know or understand that a predictive modeling system can assist you in making decisions regarding the next two to three months as well as assist you in planning and protecting your investments? How powerful would that technology be to you?
Our job at Technical Traders Ltd. is to assist our members in finding and executing profitable trades and to assist them in understanding market trends, reversals, and key movers. We offer a variety of analysis types within our service to support any level of a trader from novice to expert, and short term to long term investors.
Our specialized modeling systems allow us to provide one of a kind research and details that are not available anywhere else. Our team of researchers and traders are dedicated to helping us all find great success with our trading.
So, now that you know what to expect from the SPY and ES for the next few months, do you want to know what is going to happen in Gold, Silver, Bonds, FANGs, the US Dollar, Bitcoin, and more?
Join The Technical Traders Right Here to gain this insight and knowledge today.
Chris Vermeulen
Friday, May 12, 2017
The Bond King Says "Short U.S. Stock"
Short the SP500.....That’s not something most investors would consider right now. After all, US stocks have been rallying for eight straight years. At this point, it’s hard to even remember what a down market feels like.But that’s exactly what Jeff Gundlach thinks you should do. Gundlach, as you may know, is one of the world’s brightest investors. He manages more than $100 billion at his firm DoubleLine Capital.
On Monday, he told a room full of investors at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York to short (bet against) the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). This fund tracks the S&P 500. It’s the most heavily traded ETF on the planet.
It’s a bold call, to say the least.…
But Gundlach has a history of nailing calls like this. At last year’s Sohn Conference, he told investors to short the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) and buy the iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM). If you had taken Gundlach’s advice, you’d be up 40% on this trade today. Gundlach was also one of the few people to predict that Donald Trump would become president of the United States. In June, he told CNBC:
People aren't getting along, they're not happy because of technology taking jobs, and sort of this long, slow grind of a new economy. And so they're looking for change, and I think Trump is going to win on the basis of that.In other words, it pays to listen to Gundlach.…
But here’s the thing. Gundlach doesn’t think you should get out of stocks completely. Instead, he thinks you should “go long” emerging markets. These are countries that are on their way to becoming “developed” countries like the United States. Brazil, Russia, India, and China (also known as the “BRICs”) are the largest emerging markets.
On Monday, Gundlach told investors at the Sohn Conference to buy the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM), which tracks over 800 emerging market stocks. It’s one of the safest and most diversified ways to play emerging markets. Of course, you would have already known that if you’ve been reading the Dispatch.
After all, I’ve been pounding the table on emerging market stocks for months.…
In February, I outlined the bullish case for emerging markets. A month later, I told investors to “forget about US stocks” and consider emerging market stocks. I even recommended checking out EEM, just like Gundlach. Not only that, Gundlach likes emerging markets for the same reasons we do. I’ll share those with you in a moment. But let’s first look at why the “Bond King” thinks you should short the S&P 500.
U.S. stocks are incredibly expensive.…
Just look at this chart. It compares the total market value of the S&P 500 with the annual economic output of the United States, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). This key ratio is now at the highest level since the dot com bubble.
US stocks aren’t just expensive from a historical perspective, either.…
They’re also much more expensive than emerging market stocks. Gundlach explained to CNBC on Monday:
The valuation of emerging markets is half the valuation of the S&P 500 when you look at things like price to sales, price to book, [and] Dr. Shiller’s CAPE ratio.Dispatch readers know CAPE stands for cyclically adjusted price to earnings. It’s the cousin of the popular price to earnings (P/E) ratio. The only difference is that it uses 10 years’ worth of earnings instead of one. But just like the P/E ratio, a high CAPE ratio means stocks are expensive. You can see below that the CAPE ratio has surged to 29.5. That’s 76% higher than the S&P 500’s historical average. US stocks have only been this expensive two times in history: just before the Great Depression and during the dot com bubble. Meanwhile, the CAPE ratio for EEM is floating around 14, meaning it’s 52% cheaper than SPY.
To be fair, emerging market stocks have been cheaper than US stocks for years.…
And they’ve still underperformed them. But that’s starting to change. Just look at the chart below. It compares the performance of the S&P 500 with EEM. When this line is rising, it means US stocks are doing better than emerging market stocks.
You can see that’s been the case for years. But this key ratio just broke a long term upward trend line.
This tells us that emerging market stocks should outperform US stocks for years to come.
If you haven’t already, I recommend you pick up some emerging market stocks today.…
The easiest way to do this is with EEM or another major emerging market fund. These funds will give you broad exposure to emerging markets. Once you build a core position in emerging markets, you could consider investing in individual emerging markets. Right now, three of our favorite emerging markets are Poland, Colombia, and India.
As for U.S. stocks, I wouldn’t encourage everyday investors to short the S&P 500 like Gundlach recommends. Instead, I suggest you be very selective about what U.S. stocks you own. Avoid stocks trading at nosebleed valuations. Own companies with resilient business models and little debt.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Why the “Bond King” Is Having Flashbacks of the 2008 Financial Crisis
As you probably know, Great Britain stunned the world by voting to leave the European Union on June 23. The “Brexit,” as folks are calling it, triggered a selloff that wiped $3 trillion from global stocks in two days. The announcement also shook the currency market. The pound sterling plunged 8% the day after the news broke. It was one of the British currency’s worst days ever. The U.S. dollar, euro, and Japanese yen experienced huge moves too.
It’s now been two weeks since the historic event and panic is still in the air. Investors around the world have piled into government bonds, which are widely considered safe assets. Yesterday, the yield on the 10 year U.S. Treasury hit a fresh all time low. Yields on British, Irish, German, and Japanese 10 year bonds also hit record lows. A bond’s yield falls when its price rises. Investors have loaded up on gold too. The price of gold has shot up 8% since June 23.
This shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve been reading the Dispatch. Regular readers know gold is the ultimate safe haven asset. It’s preserved wealth through every sort of financial crisis because it’s unlike any other asset. It’s durable, easily divisible, and easy to carry. Its value doesn’t depend on “confidence” in any government. In other words, it’s real money. After its Brexit fueled rally, gold is up 29% on the year. It’s at its highest price since March 2014. Yet, this rally is showing no signs of slowing down.
The SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) just had one of its best days ever..…
On Tuesday, investors put $1.3 billion into the fund, which tracks the price of gold. According to Investor's Business Daily, it was the fund’s third best day ever. It was also the fund’s best day since stocks crashed on August 8, 2011. Investors have now plowed $15.26 billion into GLD this year. That’s the most of any of the 1,931 ETFs tracked by global analytics and research firm XTF.
In London, the panic has gotten so bad that several fund managers stopped their funds from trading..…
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday:
Henderson Global Investors, Columbia Threadneedle and Canada Life are the latest fund managers to stop investors pulling their money out against a backdrop of political and economic uncertainty following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The fresh moves by fund companies to suspend redemptions Wednesday came after Standard Life Investments, Aviva Investors and M&G Investments suspended trading on U.K. property funds earlier this week. This means that half of the 10 largest U.K. property fund managers have suspended trading temporarily.In other words, these managers have trapped their investors’ money to keep their funds from collapsing.
"Bond King" Bill Gross says something very similar happened just before the 2008 financial crisis..…
Gross is one of the world’s most well-known investors. He founded Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) in 1971. Under his watch, PIMCO grew into the world’s biggest bond fund. Today, he runs his own bond fund at Janus Capital. Like us, Gross is worried about what’s happening in London right now. Bloomberg Business reported yesterday:
“It’s reminiscent of Bear Stearns’ subprime funds before the Lehman debacle,” Bill Gross, a fund manager at Janus Capital Group, said on Bloomberg TV. “The system doesn’t allow liquidity to flow into the proper places. If these property funds are just one indication, perhaps there will be others to follow. I think it’s something to worry about.”The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 helped set the global financial crisis in motion. The S&P 500 went on to plunge 57% in two years. And the U.S. economy entered its worst downturn since the Great Depression.
Government officials are scrambling to contain the crisis..…
Last week, the Bank of England (BoE) pumped £3.1 billion into Britain’s banking system. It pledged to inject as much as £250 billion to stabilize its financial system. And on Tuesday this week, the BoE announced more “stimulus” measures. It eased special capital requirements for Britain’s banks. Specifically, the BoE lowered how much money banks need to hold as a “buffer.” The move increases the lending capacity of U.K. banks by as much as £150 billion. Economists at the BoE believe more borrowing and spending will stimulate the economy. As we’ve shown you many times, this won’t work. Casey Research founder Doug Casey explains:
It’s part of the Keynesian view, in which spending and consumption drive the economy. This isn’t just wrong, it’s the exact opposite of what’s true. It’s production and saving that drive an economy. You have to save to build capital, and capital is necessary for…everything. What these people are doing is destructive of civilization itself.Still, this won’t be the last stimulus measure that the BoE rolls out..…
Last Tuesday, we said the BoE would likely cut interest rates. Two days later, Mark Carney, who heads the BoE, said the central bank needs to cut rates soon. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Mr. Carney said it was his personal view that the central bank would need to cut its key interest rate, currently 0.5%, “over the summer,” adding that an initial assessment of the economic damage caused by the vote to leave the EU would be made at the Monetary Policy Committee’s July meeting, and a “full assessment,” alongside new forecasts for growth and inflation, would take place in August. That suggests he favors an August move, while leaving the door open to an earlier decision.According to The Telegraph, the BoE could cut rates much sooner than August. That’s because the financial markets have “priced in” a 78% chance that the BoE will cut rates next week. But there’s a problem. The BoE’s key rate is currently 0.50%. In other words, it doesn’t have much room to cut rates. To stimulate the economy, the BoE will likely have to launch quantitative easing (QE), which is just another term for “money printing.”
The BoE won’t fix Britain’s economy by cutting rates or printing money..…
According to MarketWatch, central banks have cut rates more than 650 times since Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. They have also “printed” more than $12 trillion over the same period. And yet, the global economy is barely growing. The U.S., Europe, Japan, and China—the world’s four biggest economies—are all growing at their slowest rates in decades. There’s no reason to think these easy money policies will work this time. It’s much more likely that central bankers will destroy the currencies they’re supposed to defend. Doug Casey explains:
In a desperate attempt to stave off a day of financial reckoning during the 2008 financial crisis, global central banks began printing trillions of new currency units. The printing continues to this day. And it’s not just the Federal Reserve that’s doing it: it’s just the leader of the pack. The U.S., Japan, Europe, China…all major central banks are participating in the biggest increase in global monetary units in history. These reckless policies have produced not just billions, but trillions in malinvestment that will inevitably be liquidated. This will lead us to an economic disaster that will in many ways dwarf the Great Depression of 1929–1946. Paper currencies will fall apart, as they have many times throughout history.If you do one thing to protect yourself from reckless governments, own gold. As we mentioned above, gold is real money—it’s the only currency that doesn’t depend on a government or central bank doing the right thing. For other ways to safeguard your wealth, watch this free presentation. We encourage you watch this video even if you don’t have a dime in the stock market. That’s because the coming crisis will hit you no matter where you keep your money. The good news is that you can protect your money if you make the right moves soon. You could even turn this threat into an opportunity to make a lot of money. Watch this short video to learn how.
REMINDER: Doug Casey will be in Las Vegas next week..…
Doug will be at FreedomFest 2016: Freedom Rising, an annual festival where free minds meet to talk, strategize, socialize, and celebrate liberty. Doug will be giving several speeches, and he’ll also receive an award for his new novel, Speculator. He’ll join a star-studded lineup of speakers that includes Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, Senator Rand Paul, and Agora founder Bill Bonner. FreedomFest takes place July 13–16 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. To learn more, visit www.freedomfest.com. Enter the code SALEM to get $100 off the ticket price.
Chart of the Day
Silver just set a new two year high. As you can see from today's chart, silver has soared 45% this year. On Monday, it topped $20 for the first time since August 2014. Longtime readers know that silver is gold’s more volatile cousin. Like gold, silver is real money. But unlike gold, it’s an industrial metal. It goes into everything from solar panels to batteries. Because of this, it's more volatile, and more sensitive to an economic slowdown than gold is.So, if you’re nervous about the economy or financial system, the first thing you should do is own gold. We encourage most folks to hold 10% to 15% of their wealth in gold. Once you own enough gold, consider adding silver to your portfolio. It could see even bigger gains than gold in the years to come.
The article Why the “Bond King” Is Having Flashbacks of the 2008 Financial Crisis was originally published at caseyresearch.com.
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Wednesday, July 6, 2016
This 5,000 Year Low Is Ruining Your Retirement
By Justin Spittler
The global banking system, and your financial future, are at serious risk right now. To understand why, just look at what's going on with the government's latest radical policy. Regular Dispatch readers know we're talking about rock bottom interest rates. According to MarketWatch, global interest rates are at the lowest level in 5,000 years. Credit is cheaper right now than at any point since the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt, around the 32nd century BC. Today, we'll explain what this means and how to protect yourself going forward..…Interest rates didn’t get this low “naturally.” They’re at record lows because central bankers put them there..…
In 2008, the Federal Reserve dropped its key rate to near zero to fight the financial crisis. It’s kept rates there for eight years to encourage borrowing and spending. Other major central banks did the same thing. According to MarketWatch, there have been more than 650 rate cuts since September 2008. Rates in Canada and England are also near zero. In Europe and Japan, rates are below zero.
As we’ve explained before, negative interest rates basically tax your bank account. Instead of earning interest on the money in your bank account, you pay the bank. Not long ago, negative rates were unheard of. Today, more than $12 trillion worth of government bonds pay negative rates, up from $6 trillion in February.
They’ve even seeped into the corporate debt market. According to Bloomberg Business, more than $300 billion worth of corporate bonds now “tax” bondholders. Central bankers told us low and negative rates would “stimulate” the economy. But, as you’re about to see, they’ve done far more harm than good.
Central bankers made it much harder to retire..…
That’s because rock bottom rates don’t just make it cheap to borrow money. They make it tough to earn a decent return. From 1962 to 2007, a U.S. 10 year Treasury paid an average annual interest rate of 7.0%. Today, a U.S. 10 year Treasury yields just 1.5%, an all time low. It’s the same story around the world. Last week, 10 year bonds in Ireland, England, Germany, France, and Japan all fell to record lows. In Japan, you actually have to pay the government 0.23% every year you own one of its 10 year bonds.
This is a serious problem for hundreds of millions of people. For decades, retirees could earn a safe, decent return owning these bonds. Some folks even lived off the interest they earned from these bonds. These days, you have to own riskier assets like stocks to have any shot at a decent return. Central bankers have effectively forced retirees to gamble with their life savings. Rock bottom rates are a serious threat to major financial institutions too.
According to U.S. banking giant Citigroup (C), low and negative rates are “poison” to the global financial system..…
They could make pension funds, insurance companies, and banks “no longer viable in the long term.” Business Insider reported last week:
As Citi notes: "Viability in its strong sense means profitability (a rate of return on equity at least equal to the cost of capital). In its weak sense, viability means solvency." Basically, Citi is warning that the negative rates may stop institutions being able to make money, which in turn would hit their ability to pay out on things like pensions and insurance policies.This is a major risk even if you don’t have a pension or life insurance policy. That’s because pension and insurance companies oversee trillions of dollars. They’re pillars of the global financial system…and negative rates are destroying them.
Rock bottom rates could also put some of the world’s biggest banks out of business..…
You see, banks earn most of their money making loans. When rates are high, they make more on each loan. When rates are at record lows, like they are today, banks often lose money. Business Insider explains how today’s record-low rates are starving banks of income:
Citi points out that: "Banks in large part live off the differentials between lending and borrowing rates or between investment returns and funding rates." Persistently low interest rates could hit these differentials, lowering profitability and seriously harming banks in the long run.Profits at America’s four biggest banks fell by an average of 13% during the first quarter…
This group includes Citigroup, Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). European banks are doing even worse. Swiss bank UBS’s (UBS) profits plunged 64% during the first quarter. Profits at Deutsche Bank (DB), Germany’s biggest lender, fell 58%. Spanish banking giant BBVA’s (BBVA) earnings fell 54%. The CEO of Deutsche Bank warned last month:
In the banking world, we are currently struggling with negative interest rates.Dispatch readers know some of Europe’s most important financial institutions are looking for ways to get around negative rates..…
We will struggle more as the effect of those negative interest rates plays out into our deposit books.
Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, said last month that it was thinking of pulling money out of Europe’s banking system to avoid paying negative rates. Other banks have started making riskier loans and buying riskier assets to offset rock-bottom rates. The Financial Times reported in March:
Gonzalo Gortázar, chief executive at Spain’s Caixabank, expressed concerns about a build up of risk in the banking system as a whole. “In a world of low or negative interest rates, that is a possible consequence; you could see banks taking more risk,” he said.Longtime readers know excessive risk-taking by banks contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. As a result, the S&P 500 plunged 57% from 2007 to 2009. And the U.S. entered its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Bank stocks are already trading like a financial crisis has begun..…
Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CS) has plummeted 63% over the past year. Deutsche Bank is down 60%. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is down 59%. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU), Japan’s biggest bank, is down 39%. These are huge drops in short periods. Remember, these are some of the most important financial institutions on the planet.
We encourage you to take action now..…
Our first recommendation is to avoid bank stocks. Low and negative rates are eating these companies alive right now. And it could be years before governments abandon these failed policies. According to Fed Chair Janet Yellen, low interest rates are the “new normal.” We also encourage you to own physical gold. As we like to remind readers, gold is real money. It’s preserved wealth for centuries because it has a rare set of characteristics: It’s durable, easy to transport, and easily divisible. A gold coin is valuable anywhere in the world.
This year, gold has jumped 26%. It’s trading at its highest price in two years. But Casey Research founder Doug Casey says this rally is just getting started. According to Doug, gold could soar 500% or more in the coming years. If you’re nervous that central bankers will take this interest rate experiment too far, own gold. It’s the best way to protect yourself from desperate governments.
We also encourage you to watch this short presentation. It explains how these failed monetary policies could spark something much worse than a banking crisis. As you’ll see, this is a threat to you even if you don’t a have a single penny in the stock market. Click here to watch this free video.
Chart of the Day
Deutsche Bank is trading like a financial crisis has begun. Today’s chart shows the performance of the German banking giant. You can see its stock is down more than 50% over the past year. Last Thursday, it hit it a new record low. Like other European lenders, low rates are killing Deutsche Bank. Last year, the company lost $7.5 billion. It was its first annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis. And yet, its plunging stock suggests more bad results are on the way.According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Deutsche Bank is the world’s riskiest financial institution. That’s a problem even if you don’t keep money with Deutsche Bank or own its shares. The Wall Street Journal reported last week:
The IMF also said the German banking system poses a higher degree of possible outward contagion compared with the risks it poses internally. “In particular, Germany, France, the U.K. and the U.S. have the highest degree of outward spillovers as measured by the average percentage of capital loss of other banking systems due to banking sector shock in the source country,” the IMF added.In other words, problems at Deutsche Bank could spread to other banks around the world. It’s another reason why you should avoid bank stocks and own gold right now.
The article This 5,000-Year Low Is Ruining Your Retirement was originally published at caseyresearch.com.
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Sunday, January 3, 2016
A Half Dozen 2016 Stock Market Poisons
By Tony Sagami
Most of the “adults” on Wall Street are on vacation this week, and trading volume shrivels up to a trickle. That low volume is exactly the environment that the momentum crowd uses to paint the tape green. I call it the financial version of Reindeer Games.
However, once the “adults” return, the stock market will need to pay attention to the actual economic fundamentals and deal with facts—like, 2015 being the first year since 2009 when S&P 500 profits declined for the year.
I expect that 2016 is going to be a very difficult year for the stock market. Why do I say that? For any number of reasons, such as:
A strong dollar can have a dramatic (negative) impact on the earnings of companies that do a significant amount of business outside of the US—for example, Johnson & Johnson, Ford, Yum Brands, Tiffany’s, Procter & Gamble, and hundreds more.
Third Avenue Management unexpectedly halted redemption of its high-yield (junk) Focused Credit Fund. Investors who want their money… tough luck. The investors who placed $789 million in this junk bond fund are now “beneficiaries of the liquidating trust” without any idea of how much they will get back and or even when that money will be returned. Third Avenue admitted that it may take “up to a year” for investors to get their money back. Ouch!
The problem is that the bids of the junkiest part of the junk bond market have collapsed. For example, the bonds of iHeartCommunications and Claire’s Stores have dropped 54% and 55%, respectively, since June!
What the junk bond market is experiencing is a liquidity crunch, the financial equivalent of everybody trying to stampede through a fire exit at the same time. In fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that blocking redemptions could lead to an increase in redemption requests at similar funds.
Every single one of the 17 Federal Reserve members expects the fed funds rate to increase by at least 50 bps before the end of 2016, and 10 of the 17 expect rates to rise at least 100 bps higher in the next 12 months. I doubt our already struggling economy could handle those increases.
I don’t give the Republican led Congress a free pass either, as I have no faith that it will put the best interests of the US ahead of its desire to fight Obama.
However, I think the biggest danger is an explosion of non-performing loans in China. Debt levels in China, both public and private, have exploded, and I continue to hear anecdotal evidence that default and non-performing loans are on the rise.
Tony Sagami
30 year market expert Tony Sagami leads the Yield Shark and Rational Bear advisories at Mauldin Economics. To learn more about Yield Shark and how it helps you maximize dividend income, click here.
To learn more about Rational Bear and how you can use it to benefit from falling stocks and sectors, click here.
However, once the “adults” return, the stock market will need to pay attention to the actual economic fundamentals and deal with facts—like, 2015 being the first year since 2009 when S&P 500 profits declined for the year.
I expect that 2016 is going to be a very difficult year for the stock market. Why do I say that? For any number of reasons, such as:
Poison #1: The Strong US Dollar
The greenback has been red hot. The US dollar index is up 9% in 2015 after gaining 13% in 2014.A strong dollar can have a dramatic (negative) impact on the earnings of companies that do a significant amount of business outside of the US—for example, Johnson & Johnson, Ford, Yum Brands, Tiffany’s, Procter & Gamble, and hundreds more.
Poison #2: Depressed Energy Prices
I don’t have to tell you that oil prices have fallen like a rock. That’s a blessing when you stop at a gas station, but the impact on the finances of petro dependent economies, including certain US states, has been devastating. Plunging energy prices are going to clobber everything from emerging markets to energy stocks, to states like North Dakota and Texas.Poison #3: Junk Bond Implosion
You may not have noticed because the decline has been orderly, but the junk bond market is on the verge of a total meltdown.Third Avenue Management unexpectedly halted redemption of its high-yield (junk) Focused Credit Fund. Investors who want their money… tough luck. The investors who placed $789 million in this junk bond fund are now “beneficiaries of the liquidating trust” without any idea of how much they will get back and or even when that money will be returned. Third Avenue admitted that it may take “up to a year” for investors to get their money back. Ouch!
The problem is that the bids of the junkiest part of the junk bond market have collapsed. For example, the bonds of iHeartCommunications and Claire’s Stores have dropped 54% and 55%, respectively, since June!
What the junk bond market is experiencing is a liquidity crunch, the financial equivalent of everybody trying to stampede through a fire exit at the same time. In fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that blocking redemptions could lead to an increase in redemption requests at similar funds.
Poison #4: Rising Interest Rates
As expected, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates at its last meeting. The reaction (so far) hasn’t been too negative; however, we may have several more interest rate hikes coming our way.Every single one of the 17 Federal Reserve members expects the fed funds rate to increase by at least 50 bps before the end of 2016, and 10 of the 17 expect rates to rise at least 100 bps higher in the next 12 months. I doubt our already struggling economy could handle those increases.
Poison #5: Government Interference
Sure, 2016 is an election year, which brings uncertainty and possibly turmoil. But the Obama administration could shove several changes down America’s throat via executive action—such as higher minimum wage, limits on drug pricing, gun control, trade sanctions including tariffs, immigration, climate change, and increased business regulation.I don’t give the Republican led Congress a free pass either, as I have no faith that it will put the best interests of the US ahead of its desire to fight Obama.
Poison #6: China Contagion
We do indeed live in a small, interconnected world, and it’s quite possible that something outside of the US could send our stock market tumbling. Middle East challenges notwithstanding, the one external shock I worry the most about is one coming from China. The sudden devaluation of the yuan and the significant easing of monetary policy by the People’s Bank of China are signs that trouble is brewing.However, I think the biggest danger is an explosion of non-performing loans in China. Debt levels in China, both public and private, have exploded, and I continue to hear anecdotal evidence that default and non-performing loans are on the rise.
Conclusion
To be truthful, I have no idea which of the above or maybe even something completely out of left field will poison the stock market in 2016, but I am convinced that trouble is coming. Call me a pessimist, a bear, or an idiot… but my personal portfolio and that of my Rational Bear subscribers are prepared to profit from falling stock prices.Tony Sagami
30 year market expert Tony Sagami leads the Yield Shark and Rational Bear advisories at Mauldin Economics. To learn more about Yield Shark and how it helps you maximize dividend income, click here.
To learn more about Rational Bear and how you can use it to benefit from falling stocks and sectors, click here.
The article Connecting the Dots: A Half Dozen 2016 Stock Market Poisons was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.
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Friday, December 11, 2015
How The Best of Intentions Destroyed Liquidity
By Jared Dillian
I just got done grading the final exams for my class (took me 12 hours). It’s 100 short answer questions and two essays. One of the essay questions is about the Volcker Rule. “Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman, as part of the rulemaking process for Dodd-Frank, included a provision prohibiting proprietary trading by banks, known as the Volcker Rule. Do you agree or not agree with the Volcker Rule? Explain.”
The funny thing about asking someone what they think of a law is, if you leave the question open ended and you don’t really describe what the law does, the response is generally favorable. Out of a class of 20 students, only two or three opposed the Volcker Rule. Most of them were in favor of it, as they were in favor of Glass-Steagall when I asked them to write a paper on that.
Seems pretty straightforward. If you have these banks that you call “systemically important,” such that they could go out of business and get rescued by taxpayers, then you don’t really want them taking risks with their own capital, right?
I mean, look how this worked out in the past.
Milton Friedman once said that laws should be judged by their results rather than their intentions. Liquidity has disappeared, and it is directly attributable to the Volcker Rule. If you hear someone try to make an argument that it’s not, that person is probably a journalist or a professor with no first hand knowledge of the situation.
I remember when the Volcker Rule first passed, years ago, someone senior in the equity derivatives market asked me, “Do you really think they will have regulators going through your trades, one by one, line by line, asking you if it was your intent to make money?”
“That seems very unlikely,” I told him.....But that is what we got.
In addition to confiscating cell phones and monitoring phone conversations, chats, and emails, the vast army of compliance officers at investment banks really will go through a trader’s blotter line by line and determine if each trade was a bona fide hedging transaction or if he was trading for his own account. In single stocks, this is pretty straightforward—either you were buying GE for a client or you were buying it for yourself. But in derivatives, it’s not. If you get hit on the GE Jan 30 calls, you’re not going to be able to turn around and sell them—you have to sell something else.
For example, if you’re long too much vega, you may want to sell some short-dated stuff against it, putting on a term structure trade. Is that a hedge, or prop trading? It’s impossible to make that distinction. But the compliance guys try. The interpretation varies. In equity derivatives, traders generally get the benefit of the doubt. In credit, they don’t. You can’t sell bond B to hedge bond A. You literally have to sit there and try to sell bond A. This is why the bond market is such a mess, which we have talked about in this space before.
Of course, none of this gets us any closer to preventing an investment bank from blowing up, because the guy trading 500 call options on GE was never going to blow up the bank in the first place. On the other hand, the Volcker Rule never would have prevented Jon Corzine from blowing up MF Global with European sovereign bonds. If a CEO really wants to do something like that, is some compliance dork really going to stop him? To say that this regulation is a catastrophic failure would be an understatement. Liquidity has disappeared, with no discernible benefit. I’m a middlebrow market commentator, and I’m not supposed to say things like “This is dumb,” but this is really dumb. It doesn’t take an Austrian economist to figure out the unintended consequences.
In the old days (10 years ago), banks were the big liquidity providers. Let’s look at this a different way: do we want banks to continue to be liquidity providers, yes/no? Banks were not always liquidity providers. In the ‘90s, in equity options, it was the physical trading floors where all the risk was handled. Stocks, too. But the bond market has always been an upstairs phenomenon.
If banks aren’t going to be liquidity providers, then we need non bank entities to provide liquidity, and we need to encourage it. Some large hedge funds and some second tier (i.e., not systemically important) broker dealers are starting to do this. But it’s not enough.
The goal was to take a bank and turn it from a risk taking institution to a toll taking institution, where everything is traded on an agency basis, with a commission applied. The FX markets, which were once all risk, are starting to look like this. In equities, traders don’t do much aside from maintain relationships and plunk orders into auto trader, where they are preyed upon by the algorithms.
This is unsustainable, because how can you hire all these smart people from fancy schools and pay them all this money just to push a button—while all their communications are monitored? Nobody is happy with the current state of affairs. 10 years ago, you could sell 250,000 shares on the wire. Or $25 million of bonds.
I have two radical solutions. Here they are:
Then decimalization happened. The preferential treatment lasted about another month, then they started charging us a penny a share. Market making went from being a profitable business to an unprofitable one.
Guess what—if market making is profitable, a lot of people will want to do it, and you will have a lot of liquidity. If market making sucks, nobody will want to do it, and you will have no liquidity.
Did the retail investor benefit? Maybe. Now he could go into his E-Trade account and execute something for a penny instead of 1/16. But if he was a shareholder in a mutual fund, the mutual fund portfolio manager now had to drop 250,000 shares into auto trader, getting preyed upon by the aforementioned algorithms, instead of getting it done for 1/8.
Then SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt led the charge for decimalization. More unintended consequences.
It’s not likely we’ll go back. Levitt was having conniptions about the length of time it was taking for the options market to decimalize, even though the computing power didn’t even exist.
Ask any portfolio manager today: Liquidity is the number one concern. That’s bullcrap. It’s like buying a house and having plumbing be your number one concern. It should just take care of itself.
Jared Dillian
If you enjoyed Jared's article, you can sign up for The 10th Man, a free weekly letter, at mauldineconomics.com.
The funny thing about asking someone what they think of a law is, if you leave the question open ended and you don’t really describe what the law does, the response is generally favorable. Out of a class of 20 students, only two or three opposed the Volcker Rule. Most of them were in favor of it, as they were in favor of Glass-Steagall when I asked them to write a paper on that.
Seems pretty straightforward. If you have these banks that you call “systemically important,” such that they could go out of business and get rescued by taxpayers, then you don’t really want them taking risks with their own capital, right?
I mean, look how this worked out in the past.
Milton Friedman once said that laws should be judged by their results rather than their intentions. Liquidity has disappeared, and it is directly attributable to the Volcker Rule. If you hear someone try to make an argument that it’s not, that person is probably a journalist or a professor with no first hand knowledge of the situation.
I remember when the Volcker Rule first passed, years ago, someone senior in the equity derivatives market asked me, “Do you really think they will have regulators going through your trades, one by one, line by line, asking you if it was your intent to make money?”
“That seems very unlikely,” I told him.....But that is what we got.
In addition to confiscating cell phones and monitoring phone conversations, chats, and emails, the vast army of compliance officers at investment banks really will go through a trader’s blotter line by line and determine if each trade was a bona fide hedging transaction or if he was trading for his own account. In single stocks, this is pretty straightforward—either you were buying GE for a client or you were buying it for yourself. But in derivatives, it’s not. If you get hit on the GE Jan 30 calls, you’re not going to be able to turn around and sell them—you have to sell something else.
For example, if you’re long too much vega, you may want to sell some short-dated stuff against it, putting on a term structure trade. Is that a hedge, or prop trading? It’s impossible to make that distinction. But the compliance guys try. The interpretation varies. In equity derivatives, traders generally get the benefit of the doubt. In credit, they don’t. You can’t sell bond B to hedge bond A. You literally have to sit there and try to sell bond A. This is why the bond market is such a mess, which we have talked about in this space before.
Of course, none of this gets us any closer to preventing an investment bank from blowing up, because the guy trading 500 call options on GE was never going to blow up the bank in the first place. On the other hand, the Volcker Rule never would have prevented Jon Corzine from blowing up MF Global with European sovereign bonds. If a CEO really wants to do something like that, is some compliance dork really going to stop him? To say that this regulation is a catastrophic failure would be an understatement. Liquidity has disappeared, with no discernible benefit. I’m a middlebrow market commentator, and I’m not supposed to say things like “This is dumb,” but this is really dumb. It doesn’t take an Austrian economist to figure out the unintended consequences.
In the old days (10 years ago), banks were the big liquidity providers. Let’s look at this a different way: do we want banks to continue to be liquidity providers, yes/no? Banks were not always liquidity providers. In the ‘90s, in equity options, it was the physical trading floors where all the risk was handled. Stocks, too. But the bond market has always been an upstairs phenomenon.
If banks aren’t going to be liquidity providers, then we need non bank entities to provide liquidity, and we need to encourage it. Some large hedge funds and some second tier (i.e., not systemically important) broker dealers are starting to do this. But it’s not enough.
The goal was to take a bank and turn it from a risk taking institution to a toll taking institution, where everything is traded on an agency basis, with a commission applied. The FX markets, which were once all risk, are starting to look like this. In equities, traders don’t do much aside from maintain relationships and plunk orders into auto trader, where they are preyed upon by the algorithms.
This is unsustainable, because how can you hire all these smart people from fancy schools and pay them all this money just to push a button—while all their communications are monitored? Nobody is happy with the current state of affairs. 10 years ago, you could sell 250,000 shares on the wire. Or $25 million of bonds.
I have two radical solutions. Here they are:
- Repeal the Volcker Rule
- End decimalization
Then decimalization happened. The preferential treatment lasted about another month, then they started charging us a penny a share. Market making went from being a profitable business to an unprofitable one.
Guess what—if market making is profitable, a lot of people will want to do it, and you will have a lot of liquidity. If market making sucks, nobody will want to do it, and you will have no liquidity.
Did the retail investor benefit? Maybe. Now he could go into his E-Trade account and execute something for a penny instead of 1/16. But if he was a shareholder in a mutual fund, the mutual fund portfolio manager now had to drop 250,000 shares into auto trader, getting preyed upon by the aforementioned algorithms, instead of getting it done for 1/8.
Then SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt led the charge for decimalization. More unintended consequences.
It’s not likely we’ll go back. Levitt was having conniptions about the length of time it was taking for the options market to decimalize, even though the computing power didn’t even exist.
Ask any portfolio manager today: Liquidity is the number one concern. That’s bullcrap. It’s like buying a house and having plumbing be your number one concern. It should just take care of itself.
Jared Dillian
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The article The 10th Man: How The Best of Intentions Destroyed Liquidity was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.
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Friday, October 2, 2015
A Worrying Set Of Signals
By John Mauldin
There is presently a bull market in complacency. There are very few alarm bells going off anywhere; and frankly, in reaction to my own personal complacency, I have my antenna up for whatever it is I might be missing that would indicate an approaching recession.
It was very easy to call the last two recessions well in advance because we had inverted yield curves. In the US at least, that phenomenon has a perfect track record of predicting recessions. The problem now is that, with the Federal Reserve holding the short end of the curve at the zero bound, there is no way we can get an inverted yield curve, come hell or high water. For the record, inverted yield curves do not cause recessions, they simply indicate that something is seriously out of whack with the economy. Typically, a recession shows up three to four quarters later.
I know from my correspondence and conversations that I am not the only one who is concerned with the general complacency in the markets. But then, we’ve had this “bull market in complacency” for two years and things have generally improved, albeit at a slower pace in the current quarter.
With that background in mind, the generally bullish team at GaveKal has published two short essays with a rather negative, if not ominous, tone. Given that we are entering the month of October, known for market turbulence, I thought I would make these essays this week’s Outside the Box. One is from Pierre Gave, and the other is from Charles Gave. It is not terribly surprising to me that Charles can get bearish, but Pierre is usually a rather optimistic person, as is the rest of the team.
I was in Toronto for two back-to-back speeches before rushing back home this morning. I hope you’re having a great week. So now, remove sharp objects from your vicinity and peruse this week’s Outside the Box.
Your enjoying the cooler weather analyst,
Each day, you get the three tech news stories with the biggest potential impact.
Regular readers will know that we keep a battery of indicators to gauge, among other things, economic activity, inflationary pressure, risk appetite and asset valuations. Most of the time this dashboard offers mixed messages, which is not hugely helpful to the investment process. Yet from time to time, the data pack points unambiguously in a single direction and experience tells us that such confluences are worth watching. We are today at such a point, and the worry is that each indicator is flashing red.
Growth: The three main indices of global growth have fallen into negative territory: (i) the Q-indicator (a diffusion index of leading indicators), (ii) our diffusion index of OECD leading indicators, and (iii) our index of economically-sensitive market prices. Also Charles’s US recession indicator is sitting right on a key threshold (see charts for all these indicators in the web version).
Inflation: Our main P-indicator is at a maximum negative with the diffusion index of US CPI components seemingly in the process of rolling over; this puts it in negative territory for the first time this year.
Risk appetite: The Gavekal velocity indicator is negative which is not surprising given weak market sentiment in recent weeks. What worries us more is the widening of interest rate spreads—at the long end of the curve, the spread between US corporate bonds rated Baa and treasuries is at its widest since 2009; at the short-end, the TED spread is back at levels seen at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2012, while the Libor-OIS spread is at a post-2008 high. Moreover, all momentum indicators for the main equity markets are at maximum negative, which has not been seen since the 2013 “taper tantrum”.
These weak readings are especially concerning, as in recent years, it has been the second half of the year when both the market and growth has picked up. We see three main explanations for these ill tidings:
1) Bottoming out: If our indicators are all near a maximum negative, surely the bottom must be in view? The contrarian in us wants to believe that a sentiment shift is around the corner. After all, most risk-assets are oversold and markets would be cheered by confirmation that the US economy remains on track, China is not hitting the wall and the renminbi devaluation was a one-off move. If this occurs, then a strong counter-trend rally should ramp up in time for Christmas.
2) Traditional indicators becoming irrelevant: Perhaps we should no longer pay much attention to fundamental indicators. After all, most are geared towards an industrial economy rather than the modern service sector, which has become the main growth driver. In the US, industrial production represents less than 10% of output, while in China, the investment slowdown is structural in nature. The funny thing is that employment numbers everywhere seem to be coming in better than expected. In this view of things, either major economies are experiencing a huge drop in labor productivity, or our indicators need a major refresh (see Long Live US Productivity!).
3) Central banks out of ammunition: The most worrying explanation for the simultaneous decline in our indicators is that air is gushing out of the monetary balloon. After more than six years of near zero interest rates, asset prices have seen huge rises, but investment in productive assets remains scarce.
Instead, leverage has run up across the globe. According to the Bank for International Settlements’ recently released quarterly review, developed economies have seen total debt (state and private) rise to 265% of GDP, compared to 229% in 2007. In emerging economies, that ratio is 167% of GDP, compared to 117% in 2007 (over the period China’s debt has risen from 153 to 235% of GDP). The problem with such big debt piles is that it is hard to raise interest rates without derailing growth.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in recent weeks the Federal Reserve has backed away from hiking rates, the European Central Bank has recommitted itself to easing and central banks in both Norway and Taiwan made surprise rate cuts. But if rates cannot be raised after six-years of rising asset prices and normalizing growth, when is a good time? And if central banks are prevented from reloading their ammunition, what will they deploy the next time the world economy hits the skids?
Hence we have two benign interpretations and one depressing one. Being optimists at heart, we want to believe that a combination of the first two options will play out. If so, then investors should be positioned for a counter-trend rally, at least in the short-term. Yet we are unsettled by the market’s muted response to the Fed’s dovish message. That would indicate that investors are leaning towards the third option. Hence, we prefer to stay protected and for now are not making a bold grab for falling knifes. At the very least, we seek more confirmation on the direction of travel.
Since the end of last year I have been worried about an “unexpected” slowdown, or even recession, in the world’s developed economies (see Towards An OECD Recession In 2015). In order to monitor the situation on a daily basis, I built a new indicator of US economic activity which contains 17 components ranging from lumber prices and high-yield bond spreads to the inventory-to-sales ratio. It was necessary to construct such an indicator because six years of extreme monetary policy in the US (and other developed markets) has stripped “traditional” cyclical economic data of any real meaning (see Gauging The Chances Of A US Recession).
Understanding this diffusion index is straightforward. When the reading is positive, investors have little to worry about and should treat “dips” as a buying opportunity. When the reading is negative a US recession is a possibility. Should the reading fall below – 5 then it is time to get worried – on each occasion since 1981 that the indicator recorded such a level a US recession followed in fairly short order. At this point, my advice would generally be to buy the defensive team with a focus on long dated US bonds as a hedge. This is certainly not a time to buy equities on dips.
Today my indicator reads – 5 which points to a contraction in the US, and more generally the OECD. Such an outcome contrasts sharply with official US GDP data, which remains fairly strong. Pierre explored this discrepancy in yesterday’s Daily (see A Worrying Set Of Signals), so my point today is to offer specific portfolio construction advice in the event of a developed market contraction. My assumption in this note is simply that the US economy continues to slow. Hence, the aim is to outline an “anti-fragile” portfolio which will resist whatever brickbats are hurled at it.
During periods when the US economy has slowed, especially if it was “unexpected” by official economists, then equities have usually taken a beating while bonds have done well. For this reason, the chart below shows the S&P 500 divided by the price of a 30 year zero coupon treasury.
A few results are immediately clear:
Notwithstanding the continued relative strength of headline US economic data, I would note that the OECD leading indicator for the US is negative on a YoY basis, while regional indicators continue to crater. The key investment conclusion from my recession indicator is that equity positions, which face risks from worsening economic fundamentals, should be hedged using bonds or upping the cash component.
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It was very easy to call the last two recessions well in advance because we had inverted yield curves. In the US at least, that phenomenon has a perfect track record of predicting recessions. The problem now is that, with the Federal Reserve holding the short end of the curve at the zero bound, there is no way we can get an inverted yield curve, come hell or high water. For the record, inverted yield curves do not cause recessions, they simply indicate that something is seriously out of whack with the economy. Typically, a recession shows up three to four quarters later.
I know from my correspondence and conversations that I am not the only one who is concerned with the general complacency in the markets. But then, we’ve had this “bull market in complacency” for two years and things have generally improved, albeit at a slower pace in the current quarter.
With that background in mind, the generally bullish team at GaveKal has published two short essays with a rather negative, if not ominous, tone. Given that we are entering the month of October, known for market turbulence, I thought I would make these essays this week’s Outside the Box. One is from Pierre Gave, and the other is from Charles Gave. It is not terribly surprising to me that Charles can get bearish, but Pierre is usually a rather optimistic person, as is the rest of the team.
I was in Toronto for two back-to-back speeches before rushing back home this morning. I hope you’re having a great week. So now, remove sharp objects from your vicinity and peruse this week’s Outside the Box.
Your enjoying the cooler weather analyst,
John Mauldin
Stay Ahead of the Latest Tech News and Investing Trends...
A Worrying Set Of Signals
By Pierre GaveRegular readers will know that we keep a battery of indicators to gauge, among other things, economic activity, inflationary pressure, risk appetite and asset valuations. Most of the time this dashboard offers mixed messages, which is not hugely helpful to the investment process. Yet from time to time, the data pack points unambiguously in a single direction and experience tells us that such confluences are worth watching. We are today at such a point, and the worry is that each indicator is flashing red.
Growth: The three main indices of global growth have fallen into negative territory: (i) the Q-indicator (a diffusion index of leading indicators), (ii) our diffusion index of OECD leading indicators, and (iii) our index of economically-sensitive market prices. Also Charles’s US recession indicator is sitting right on a key threshold (see charts for all these indicators in the web version).
Inflation: Our main P-indicator is at a maximum negative with the diffusion index of US CPI components seemingly in the process of rolling over; this puts it in negative territory for the first time this year.
Risk appetite: The Gavekal velocity indicator is negative which is not surprising given weak market sentiment in recent weeks. What worries us more is the widening of interest rate spreads—at the long end of the curve, the spread between US corporate bonds rated Baa and treasuries is at its widest since 2009; at the short-end, the TED spread is back at levels seen at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2012, while the Libor-OIS spread is at a post-2008 high. Moreover, all momentum indicators for the main equity markets are at maximum negative, which has not been seen since the 2013 “taper tantrum”.
These weak readings are especially concerning, as in recent years, it has been the second half of the year when both the market and growth has picked up. We see three main explanations for these ill tidings:
1) Bottoming out: If our indicators are all near a maximum negative, surely the bottom must be in view? The contrarian in us wants to believe that a sentiment shift is around the corner. After all, most risk-assets are oversold and markets would be cheered by confirmation that the US economy remains on track, China is not hitting the wall and the renminbi devaluation was a one-off move. If this occurs, then a strong counter-trend rally should ramp up in time for Christmas.
2) Traditional indicators becoming irrelevant: Perhaps we should no longer pay much attention to fundamental indicators. After all, most are geared towards an industrial economy rather than the modern service sector, which has become the main growth driver. In the US, industrial production represents less than 10% of output, while in China, the investment slowdown is structural in nature. The funny thing is that employment numbers everywhere seem to be coming in better than expected. In this view of things, either major economies are experiencing a huge drop in labor productivity, or our indicators need a major refresh (see Long Live US Productivity!).
3) Central banks out of ammunition: The most worrying explanation for the simultaneous decline in our indicators is that air is gushing out of the monetary balloon. After more than six years of near zero interest rates, asset prices have seen huge rises, but investment in productive assets remains scarce.
Instead, leverage has run up across the globe. According to the Bank for International Settlements’ recently released quarterly review, developed economies have seen total debt (state and private) rise to 265% of GDP, compared to 229% in 2007. In emerging economies, that ratio is 167% of GDP, compared to 117% in 2007 (over the period China’s debt has risen from 153 to 235% of GDP). The problem with such big debt piles is that it is hard to raise interest rates without derailing growth.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in recent weeks the Federal Reserve has backed away from hiking rates, the European Central Bank has recommitted itself to easing and central banks in both Norway and Taiwan made surprise rate cuts. But if rates cannot be raised after six-years of rising asset prices and normalizing growth, when is a good time? And if central banks are prevented from reloading their ammunition, what will they deploy the next time the world economy hits the skids?
Hence we have two benign interpretations and one depressing one. Being optimists at heart, we want to believe that a combination of the first two options will play out. If so, then investors should be positioned for a counter-trend rally, at least in the short-term. Yet we are unsettled by the market’s muted response to the Fed’s dovish message. That would indicate that investors are leaning towards the third option. Hence, we prefer to stay protected and for now are not making a bold grab for falling knifes. At the very least, we seek more confirmation on the direction of travel.
Positioning For A US Recession
By Charles GaveSince the end of last year I have been worried about an “unexpected” slowdown, or even recession, in the world’s developed economies (see Towards An OECD Recession In 2015). In order to monitor the situation on a daily basis, I built a new indicator of US economic activity which contains 17 components ranging from lumber prices and high-yield bond spreads to the inventory-to-sales ratio. It was necessary to construct such an indicator because six years of extreme monetary policy in the US (and other developed markets) has stripped “traditional” cyclical economic data of any real meaning (see Gauging The Chances Of A US Recession).
Understanding this diffusion index is straightforward. When the reading is positive, investors have little to worry about and should treat “dips” as a buying opportunity. When the reading is negative a US recession is a possibility. Should the reading fall below – 5 then it is time to get worried – on each occasion since 1981 that the indicator recorded such a level a US recession followed in fairly short order. At this point, my advice would generally be to buy the defensive team with a focus on long dated US bonds as a hedge. This is certainly not a time to buy equities on dips.
Today my indicator reads – 5 which points to a contraction in the US, and more generally the OECD. Such an outcome contrasts sharply with official US GDP data, which remains fairly strong. Pierre explored this discrepancy in yesterday’s Daily (see A Worrying Set Of Signals), so my point today is to offer specific portfolio construction advice in the event of a developed market contraction. My assumption in this note is simply that the US economy continues to slow. Hence, the aim is to outline an “anti-fragile” portfolio which will resist whatever brickbats are hurled at it.
During periods when the US economy has slowed, especially if it was “unexpected” by official economists, then equities have usually taken a beating while bonds have done well. For this reason, the chart below shows the S&P 500 divided by the price of a 30 year zero coupon treasury.
- Equities should be owned when the indicator is positive.
- Bonds should be held when the indicator is negative.
- The ratio of equities to bonds (blue line) has since 1981 bottomed at about 50 on at least six occasions. Hence, even in periods when fundamentals were not favorable to equities (2003 and 2012) the indicator identified stock market investment as a decent bet. Today the ratio between the S&P 500 and long dated US zeros stands at 75.
Notwithstanding the continued relative strength of headline US economic data, I would note that the OECD leading indicator for the US is negative on a YoY basis, while regional indicators continue to crater. The key investment conclusion from my recession indicator is that equity positions, which face risks from worsening economic fundamentals, should be hedged using bonds or upping the cash component.
Sign up today and get each new issue delivered free to your inbox. It's your opportunity to get the news John Mauldin thinks matters most to your finances.
The article Outside the Box: A Worrying Set Of Signals was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.
Get our latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!
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