Thank GDP It’s Friday – Finally Some Facts
by Phil - October 29th, 2010 8:29 am
Is bad news going to be good news?
Last quarter, after several adjustments, it has been decided that our GDP grew at a 1.7% rate. The general consensus is that this quarter we should be up around 2% but the whisper number is a big miss, down to 1.3%. Slower GDP growth will be GOOD for the stock market as it gives Ben and Tim the excuse they need to crank up the printing presses for some real Zimbabwe-style inflation.
It’s easy to pay off $15Tn in fixed rate 2-year to 30-year notes when your country is cranking out $1Tn bank notes, right? Can this really be the path our nation is following? The markets are certainly betting on it but we have been betting against it with longs on UUP at $22.50 (still there) and a short play on the QID weekly $13 calls at .46 yesterday along with other bearish trade ideas we’ve entered ahead of the GDP as well as the elections and next week’s Fed meeting.
Why can’t we just give up and go with the flow? Well, first of all, you can read my last few weeks of posts or you can read our last few Newsletters so I won’t rehash the great global macros here but I will make the point that (and this may shock you) we are not alone in the World and the things we do, or try to do in our economy, affect the economies of other nations. Perhaps when the US was 40% of Global GDP, we could have gotten away with it but now we are 20% and falling fast yet we still attempt to run our foreign and economic policies as if we are large and in charge.
This is not the way the rest of the World sees us anymore. To the rest of the World we are unrealistic children with dangerous spending habits who happen to owe them A LOT of money. We borrowed $15Tn and our "plan" is to pay them back with hyperinflated dollars that are already discounted 33% from where we began cranking up the borrowing in 2002 (to pay for wars and tax cuts).
Already, other nations are refusing to lend us more money so we have begun to engage in what Bill Gross, the world’s biggest bond…
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Monday – Will APPL Earnings Today Keep Bears at Bay?
by Phil - October 18th, 2010 8:21 am
Am I too bullish?
I know I’ve been making a bearish case last week and I know we put out our first bearish list since April this month but, in reviewing October’s Overbought Eight for Members this weekend we reviewed the week’s picks and I realized that, despite all my griping, we had ended up with 21 bullish trade ideas vs. just 10 bearish ones AND, not only that, but half the bearish bets were quickie trades where we played the drops, like Friday’s DIA and QQQQ puts from the morning Alert that didn’t even last an hour (but made 300% and 200% respectively, so worthwhile, nonetheless).
That’s not very bearish. I had said to Members in last Monday’s Morning Alert: "The critical test levels above 7.5% are Dow 10,950, S&P 1,160, Nasdaq 2,400, NYSE 7,450 and Russell 690- all green for day 2 and that does put us technically bullish if we hold it, even though it’s a BS, low-volume day." and we did hold those lines on Tuesday’s dips to we cashed our first set of shorts and ended up flipping more bullish for the ride up to the 10% lines (Dow 11,220, S&P 1,177, Nas 2,420, NYSE 7,500 and Russell 700), despite out misgivings. When the technicals are very strong, you have to switch off the fundamental side of your brain and go with the flow.
It has been ALL about the dollar and, as we mentioned in this week’s Stock World Weekly, Trichet gave us the word we expected on Tuesday that knocked the dollar down to new lows against the Euro, Pound and Yen, with the dollar index bottoming out at 76 which should, in theory be strong technical support.
So, we have strong technical AND fundamental reasons to expect a dollar bounce and we KNOW that a dollar bounce will knock down commodities and we KNOW that a pullback in commodities will knock down the indexes as the energy and metals sector lead us lower. If we KNOW all this, then we MUST be too bullish, right?
Of course we reached that conclusion on Thursday and this is just a recap as 6 of those 10 bearish trade ideas from last week were from Thursday and Friday with EDZ, QID, QQQQ, SQQQ, QID (again), and DIA all picked short as we tested those 10% lines. We like to…
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Testy Tuesday – Trichet Talks Tough at High Noon
by Phil - October 12th, 2010 7:40 am
Anti-Claud is coming to town!
You’d better not print, you’d better not ease you’d better not contract or your wages will freeze - Jean Claude Trichet is coming to town… The EU’s Central Banker has a lunch meeting at the NY Economic Club and there is no one who knows better when Bernanke’s sleeping and when the recovery is fake, so we’d better pay attention, for the country’s sake! THIS is the most powerful banker in the World, not the hollow Bankster puppet we have setting US policy, and Trichet has fought easy money tooth and nail -even as the US embraced it this year.
As you can see from the Chart on the right, Europe is a bigger (slightly) trading partner of China than the US and a MUCH bigger buyer of US goods than China by a factor of 3. The strong Euro lowers Europe’s trade imbalance as they have to send less Euros to both the US and our peg-partners in China for the same amount of goods they bought last year while the same goods they sold last year ship out in exchange for larger amounts of foreign notes.
With the Bank of Japan this week boosting its asset- purchase plan and the U.S. Federal Reserve mulling a similar shift, Trichet said last week that ECB policy makers are in the “same mood” as a month ago and for now remain committed to phasing out their unlimited lending program. That boosted the Euro back to $1.40 for the first time since February. The ECB and Fed compose “two different schools of thought,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief European economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “The ECB is looking at their own economy and seeing some signs of a revival. They’re very concerned about going down the line of the Fed.” Now Mr. Trichet will attempt to school us this afternoon – not coincidentally, on the same afternoon that the Fed Minutes will be released and QE2 mania is likely to peak out.
As noted yesterday by Zero Hedge, "While risk assets may hit all time highs courtesy of free liquidity, the economy, also known as the middle class, will be stuck exactly where it was before QE2… and QE1." The article does a great job of outlining my long-standing premise that money simply cannot be printed fast enough to overcome…
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Fed Speak Friday – Volcker, Lacker and Ben Batting 1, 2, 3
by Phil - September 24th, 2010 8:33 am
What a fun day for debate!
Former Fed Chair, Paul Volcker went way off-script in Chicago yesterday and "moved unsparingly from banks to regulators to business schools to the Fed to money-market funds during his luncheon speech. He praised the new financial overhaul law, but said the system remained at risk because it is subject to future “judgments” of individual regulators, who he said would be relentlessly lobbied by banks and politicians to soften the rules."
Banking — Investment banks became “trading machines instead of investment banks [leading to] encroachment on the territory of commercial banks, and commercial banks encroached on the territory of others in a way that couldn’t easily be managed by the old supervisory system.”
Financial system — “The financial system is broken. We can use that term in late 2008, and I think it’s fair to still use the term unfortunately. We know that parts of it are absolutely broken, like the mortgage market which only happens to be the most important part of our capital markets [and has] become a subsidiary of the U.S. government.”
Risk management — “Markets that are prone to excesses in one direction or another are not simply managed under the assumption that we can assume that everybody follows a normal distribution curve. Normal distribution curves — if I would submit to you — do not exist in financial markets. Its not that they are fat tails, they don’t exist. I keep hearing about fat tails, and Jesus, it’s only supposed to occur every 100 years, and it appears every 10 years.”
The recession — “It’s so difficult to get out of this recession because of the basic disequilibrium in the real economy.”
This afternoon, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker will speak in Kentucky (his hometown) on "Reflections on Economics, Policy and Financial Crisis!" and it always makes me nervous when Fed Presidents put exclamation marks on the word "crisis" so we’ll be paying attention to that one. After market hours, at 4:30, Uncle Ben comes to the plate with "Implications of the Financial Crisis for Economics," which sounds like a snoozer but that’s three Fed guys in a row saying "crisis" in the same day – I don’t like it!
I was bearish yesterday morning but we bottomed out earlier than I thought and I…
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Technically Troubling Tuesday
by Phil - August 24th, 2010 8:27 am
We finally blew our levels!
Sadly, it’s time to flip bearish until we can retake our watch levels at Dow 10,200, S&P 1,070, Nas 2,200, NYSE 6,800, and Russell 635. If we can’t retake at least 2 of them today, we may be seeing 2.5% drops back to Dow 9,945, S&P 1,043, Nas 2,145, NYSE 6,630 and Russell 619. Since the Russell already blew 619 we have to consider the possiblitlity of even a test of our 5% lines at Dow 9,690, S&P 1,016, Nas 2,090, NYSE 6,460, and Russell 603.
Fundamentals are great but once panic sets in the market is all about technicals and we just need to strap in and go along for the ride. We have been playing for a bounce off our 10,200, 1,070 lines but, now that we lost it – it’s time to flip bearish – I was wrong and that’s that, time to move on and make some downside money. Of course it will take more than a single day to give us a trend but the same way we don’t get very bearish until we loser 3 of 5 of our center levels, we don’t get bullish again until we break back over. Yesterday I sent out an Alert to Members as we broke down, saying: "We could very easily drop 250 from here on the Dow (2.5%)."
We added a fresh DXD hedge but we already had a proper hedge from Friday when the morning trade idea was:
A better way to hedge at the moment is the DXD Sept $27s for $1.70. They have a delta of .62 but can be transferred into a vertical if the Dow goes up by selling the $25 puts (now .20) for .50 and covering with the $29s (now $1) for at least .70, leaving you in a $2 spread for .50. That would be the ESCAPE, at the moment I like the plain DXD $27s at $1.70 until we get a real move back up.
That was an addition to the Morning Alert Trade, which was the DIA Sept $99 puts at $1.50. Neither the DXD or the DIA plays have been paying off so far but they did provide cover for our speculative bullish plays as we tried to play the line. Of course we take our major disaster hedges when the market is high (it’s cheaper then),…
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Goldilocks and the 300,000,000 Bears
by Phil - August 14th, 2010 3:43 am
Talk about feeling outnumbered!
As the guy in Airplane kind of said – "Looks like I pricked the wrong week to get bullish!" Of course, as I often tell people I am neither bullish nor bearish – I’m rangeish – and our range is the 5% band between around Dow 10,200 and S&P 1,070, which takes us as low as Dow 9,690 and S&P 1,016 and as high as Dow 10,710 and S&P 1,123 before I really "flip flop" my positions. Despite the fact that this is the range we predicted last October and is the range we’ve been in (other than a brief trip to 11,200, which we shorted the hell out of) all year – people still seem to find it necessary to call me either bullish or bearish as we navigate the channel.
I suppose I have been HOPEFUL for the month (now heading into day 14) that we will finally make a little progress and establish a higher floor at our usual mid-points while, at the same time, the MSM have decided that we are all going to die. That does make me kind of bullish by comparison doesn’t it? We are mainly in cash and we are well hedged to the downside so, unless we are REALLY heading much, much lower, there is little profit in speculating to the downside, other than our quick trades. As PT Barnum once said:
"A man who is all caution, will never dare to take hold and be successful; and a man who is all boldness, is merely reckless, and must eventually fail. A man may go on "’change" and make fifty, or one hundred thousand dollars in speculating in stocks, at a single operation. But if he has simple boldness without caution, it is mere chance, and what he gains to-day he will lose to-morrow. You must have both the caution and the boldness, to insure success."
Balance is the key to long-term success and we’ve had many conversations about that in Member Chat. Our goal is to be neither bullish or bearish but rather to sell premium to both the bulls and the bears when conditions permit us. As Ravalos said Friday in Member Chat:
"Ever since I became member (actually before I became member I was already following your newsletter for quite some time) I find it hard for me to BUY PREMIUM. Over time, I’ve realized that buying the
…
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Fearful Thursday – Manic Over, Depression Sets In
by Phil - August 12th, 2010 8:59 am
The markets are clearly insane.
I diagnosed manic depression in the markets years ago but it’s been getting worse and worse to the point where we now have mood swings from week to week and sometimes even day to day. Much of this is politically driven with the Conservatives currenly in overdrive – looking to "prove" that every single thing the Democratically-controlled Government does is nothing short of a disaster. Nothing works, nothing will work and nothing proposed will work other than more tax cuts and "throwing the bums out" (the Democratic bums, not the Republican bums).
There is a 24-hour television network that is slightly conservative and, if you look on the Fox web site, you will find out that 8% of the children in the US are born to "illegals," that cutting the World’s largest defense budget will make U.S. less safe (YOU DECIDE – they say), Democrats IGNORE ethics cloud by attending Charlie Rangle’s 80th birthday party, Democrats are using the Tea Party against the GOP (but don’t worry because "the tide is turning at the polls"), the drilling ban is crippling the Gulf, we’re "wasting" Billions of dollars by sending aid to other countries and, best of all, the page is sponsored by BipolarDepression.com!
Heck, after reading that page I’m ready for a few Xanex myself!
The front page of the WSJ is not much better with the headline: "ECB Warns on Economic Recovery" along with their very accurate Page 1 print headline: "Markets Swoon on Fears." Of course, if you actually read the ECB article, you’ll find what they actually said is "The sustainability of the recovery in global and euro-area trade will depend critically not only on a further strengthening of private demand, but also on the robustness and health of the global financial system" IN THE CONTEXT of an article analyzing the collapse of global trade in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But that doesn’t make a great headline does it? That doesn’t make you pick up the paper or stay tuned through the commercial so it’s ALTERED, spun to maximize the FEAR reaction in the readers – the one that is most likely to lead to a purchase decision.
The European Union’s Eurostat statistics office, meanwhile, said industrial output dropped 0.1% from May and was 8.2% stronger than last June. Economists…
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Worrying Wednesday – Can We Hold Support?
by Phil - August 11th, 2010 8:27 am
Wheeee - I told you this was going to be fun!
What a day we had yesterday with the down and the up and the down and the up and now, this morning – down again! We cashed our directionals on the morning dips yesterday but now our disaster hedges are putting us in a great mood this morning (I mentioned our QID play in yesterday’s post and that was a very easy fill on yesterday’s run-up). This morning’s action should push QID over goal ($17) and we’ll see what sticks as we test our first line of (hopefully) defense at Dow 10,450 and S&P 1,100.
If we lose the S&P then the Dow has a quick ride back to 10,200 so we’ll be looking at DXD again for a add-on hedge. We already have DXD plays and we were just adjusting them on Monday, as some Members were worried that the market was going too far the other way, which led me to comment in Member Chat:
When all you guys start capitulating on your short positions I usually figure that’s a great time to get aggressively short because the end is probably near. Keep in mind we are trading a range and right now we are at the top of that range so hedges like DXD are going to get stressed. If you do not need the protection, of course take it off the table but if you do need downside hedges, then a simple roll on the call side can give you a much bigger upside.
Range trading is great but you have to BELIEVE in your range. The bottom of our range, as I posted in yesterday’s Morning Alert to Members, is Dow 10,200, S&P 1,070, Nas 2,200, NYSE 6,800, and Russell 635 and until we fail 3 of those 5, we will continue to make bullish plays when we get near those levels, just as we make our bearish bets as we test our breakout levels. Even these levels are just 2.5% off our midpoints so we don’t get gung-ho bullish until we hit the full 5% bottom – which is now the rising 50 dmas (red lines) - but we’re kind of losing faith in getting back there so we’re a little more aggressive with our buys now than we were last month.
What I love about our 5% rule is that, eventually,…
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Tumultuous Tuesday – Waiting for the Fed
by Phil - August 10th, 2010 8:27 am
Wheeeee – this is going to be exciting!
Yesterday we knew that the move up was fake, Fake, FAKE and we acted accordingly in Member Chat. We had a nice QID cover play right in the Morning Alert that was an easy fill as the Nas went higher and higher all day. It was the Aug $16/17 bull call spread at .42, and the $16 puts sold for .29 for net .13 on the $1 spread with a nice 669% upside if the Nasdaq heads sharply down on us. Our stops on the play were a combination of Nas 2,300, Dow 10,700 and Russell 666 and we got the Nasdaq and the Dow over their marks but, once again, 666 proves to be an ominous barrier for the Russell.
We put on our Stock Market Parachutes and went bearish on our Mattress Plays as well. Not so much because we are long-term bearish but because the run-up ahead of the Fed decision seemed very overdone as pretty much EVERYONE is now predicting QE2 so what kind of market mover can it now be – even if the Fed does drop another Trillion or so on us this afternoon? Later in the day we added an SDS spread, similar to the logic of the QID but longer-term (January). As I said in my closing comment to Members: "We haven’t got 666 on the RUT yet so the risk/reward favors rolling up to the Dec $110 puts and staying naked through tomorrow. If we are over on 3 of our levels tomorrow, then we can cover."
When we are near the top of our ranges (see Charts from the Future: 5% Rule Update) we can assume there will be upside resistance so we have less risk shorting the indexes we think are over-extended compared to the potential reward of what happens if the news that had been pumping up the market on rumors turns out to be a big disappointment and causes us to retrace.
This is not contrarian investing nor is it trend following as we make our bets very much against the trend (ALWAYS sell into the initial excitement) – it’s simply our attempt to apply logic and statistics to a volatile situation. Also, keep in mind we are still long-term bullish and that’s where the bulk of our open trade ideas are aiming so we lean towards shorter-term bearish covers to keep us safe through…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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