The 'Risk Out' Scenario

Interesting proposition by Peter Atwater that the ultimate indicator that a secular bottom has arrived may not be one where individuals have moved out of more risky financial assets and into less risky assets. Instead, perhaps it will be a 'risk out' situation, where market participants flee securitized financial assets altogether.

There is, of course, a decent argument to be made that the probability is non-zero of a systemic meltdown that chases participants away. With systemic leverage thru the roof and issues of re-hypothecation raised by last year's blow-up of MF Global, it isn't that difficult to envision a scenario where the financial system ceases to function. Cascading bank failures, sovereign debt defaults, and other contagious events could bring the system to its knees.

Indeed, a good case for owning physical gold or other 'hard assets' is that they are tangible and outside the 'paper' financial system.

I'm going to keep Peter's proposal in mind. Perhaps the time to 'buy the list' is not when people are selling the list, but when both buyers and sellers have gone home en masse.

position in SPX

Suppot and Resistance Tutorial

Defining support and resistance is perhaps the most useful of all technical analysis skills. Here is a nice little tutorial on various approaches for finding support and resistance.

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Leverage

By my math, Federal Reserve balance sheet currently sports leverage of 54:1. That's higher than Fannie, Freddie, Bear, Lehman prior to the 2008 credit implosion.

Indicator of how risk has been socialized, meaning that risk has been transferred from private to public balance sheets.

position in SPX

Portugal Debt Hammered Again

Portugal credit spreads are widening significantly this am. Ten yr CDS now pricing in over 70% chance of default.

For better or worse, I kicked much of my long exposure (mostly precious metals) last Friday and entered today's session about 10% net short via equity index ETFs.

position in silver, SPX

Debt Ceiling Quietly Increases $1.2T

And just like that, the debt ceiling goes up by $1.2 trillion. The new upper bound is now $16.4 trillion. Rick Santelli is correct. Not much noise from the media this time around.

Low Fed Rates till 2014 Sparks Gold

In today's FOMC announcement, the Fed signaled that they will be keeping rates ultra low thru most of 2014. That even raised my eyebrow...

This news put some giddy-up into gold, which vaulted about $50 this afternoon on the FOMC news.

I used this leap to sell my GLD position. It's up about 10% from its lows, price is now filling the gap, and stochastics are getting twisty in the overbought zone.

Am also concerned about the re-hypothecation issues surrounding these metal ETFs on the back of the MF Global situation last fall.

Selling this position puts me just about 0% net long (long metal and ag commodities against short equity index). Feels about right given the current field position of various asset classes.

position in commodities, SPX

Silver Gaining Strength

The technical picture for silver continues to improve.

With today's +5% jump, white lightning knifed thru its 50 day moving average and left little doubt that it has officially left behind its multi-month downtrend line.

One would think that further upside progress from here will be more difficult--given the damage done on the way down late last year. Using SLV as a proxy, 34ish should serve as significant resistance.

That said, silver is quietly up about 20% from its late December lows.

position in SLV

Bullish Sentiment Approaching Extremes

Wanted to record that Jason's sentiment indicators are getting pretty stretched toward bullish extremes--both near term and long term.

When sentiment gets lopsided, then a trend reversal often approaches.

Couple that with Demark indicators signifying trend exhaustion on multiple timeframes, and it seems time to get cautious.

Personally, I added a bit to my index short positions today.

position in SPX

Treasury Yields Not Following Stocks

Usually, when market participants are ready to take on risk, they sell bonds and buy stocks. When bonds get sold, their yields go higher. Thus, higher stock prices and bond yields are often positively correlated.

Not this time--at least so far.

As stocks have lifted over the past few weeks, bond yields have not done the same. Ten yr Treasury yields are approaching mid December lows at ~1.8%.

This suggests that there is still lots of deleveraging behind the scenes--investors are swapping risky assets (perhaps assets grounded in Europe) for the safety in US Treasuries.

Stock bulls will argue that this is a positive. "Imagine what will happen to stocks when this pocket of 'de-risking' is past. Demand for stocks will swamp supply!"

Stock bears will argue that this is a negative. "Imagine what will happen to equities when this pocket of stock buying is past. Supply of stocks will swamp demand!"

And so it goes...

position in SPX

Bullish Pattern Resolution

The bullish reverse head and shoulders pattern forming recently in the equity indexes has indeed resolved to the upside.

The action hasn't been voracious out of the set up, but the tape has a persistent 'buy the dip' tone. Now that SPX 1280 has been cleared, this move technically 'works' to 1360.

I remain slightly net long (long commodity ETFs against short equity index). Should commodities continue to lift with stocks, I'll look to piece out of long exposure and add to my index short.

position in commodities, SPX

Why Wealthy People Own Gold

Straightforward explanation of why wealthy people own gold. The key point here is that the primary reason to own gold (in its physical form) is not to speculate in near term price moves.

Instead, wealthy people own gold to preserve their wealth against problems like inflation, bank collapses, and aggression.

Viewed thru this lens, owning gold is less of a 'buy-and-hold' investment strategy and more of a buy-and-will-to-the-next-generation family wealth preservation strategy.

Scarcity and Economic Tradeoffs

Most of us have heard the truism that life is full of tradeoffs. This is indeed a truism because nearly every resource necessary to pursue happiness is in short supply. People must choose between alternatives under these axiomatic conditions of scarcity, lest the resources run dry. The heuristic is an economizing one--consume scarce resources in an order that maximizes satisfaction.

Pervasive scarcity thus drives people to be predominantly 'economic' in their behavior, trading off one thing in order to obtain something else deemed to possess more utility.

A class in economics is not necessary to learn this. Pursuing our dreams demands that we learn about making tradeoffs (i.e., economizing) in our daily decision-making.

Caution Using Economic Indicators

John Hussman offers one of the more thoughtful analyses of leading economic indicators (LEIs) that you're likely to come across. Based on his data, he's pessimistic that recent anecdotal evidence (i.e., downticks in unemployment, upticks in purchasing managers index) are sounding 'all clears' with respect to recession chances.

In fact, Dr J's assessment suggests the opposite: recession appears likely within the next 6 months.

One point I found particularly interesting is that some factors used in LEI analyses tend to 'look good' right up to commencement of a recession. For instance, Dr J notes (see below graph) that payroll growth tends to be positive in 80% of the months where recessions begin! Moreover, payroll growth in the 'recession month' tends to be higher, on average, than the three preceding months.

Obviously, unadjusted payroll growth is not a good standalone predictor of recesssions. Indeed, from the above graph, payroll growth appears to be a lagging indicator of recessions.

Bottom line: be careful what you absorb from the popular press concerning economic indicators and recession potential.

More on AAII Sentiment

More on the AAII sentiment data, this time showing some historical perspective. Note the general behavior in the SPX as this series hits extremes.

As noted yesterday, just one piece of the puzzle, but a piece worth noting...

position in SPX

Individual Investor Sentiment Levels

Sentiment measures seek to reflect to extent to which market participants are optimistic (bullish) or pessimistic (bearish). When sentiment indicators reach extremes, they often suggest turning points. For example, if sentiment indicators suggest most market participants are bullish, then perhaps most of the buying has already occured, and supply/lower prices may be around the corner.

There are many measures of sentiment. The prudent market participant usually watches a bunch of these indicators for general trends rather than focusing on a single measure.

That said, the recent weekly AAII sentiment index numbers, which measures bullishness/bearishness of a group of individual investors, suggests extreme levels of bullishness versus historical levels.

As noted, only one piece of the puzzle. But one suggesting that optimism, at least among a particular category of investor, is getting stretched.

position in SPX

Strong Out of the Gate

The first trading day of the year saw some upside resolution to the reverse head and shoulders pattern forming over the holidays--although a late day pullback drained a bit of glory from the gains.

Would think technicians are eyeing the late October highs of 1285ish as a more definitive indicator that a new leg higher is underway.

By early afternoon, pundits predictably started trotting out the old saws about how the first few trading days of the year often 'forecast' the tape's annual performance. One tidbit I've picked up over the years: Don't succumb to early year urban legends designed to whip the masses into a bullish frenzy.

position in SPX