1/TrackRecord's Market Observation of the Day 💭: Does Fundamentals or Positioning Drive Prices?
There’s hardly been any significant headlines in the last few days, but markets have been moving quite actively.
2/This is the best time to try to figure out what the speculators and investors are positioned in the market.
Every sell-off in the Nasdaq has been brief, and the recovery, swift. This implies a market that is not fully invested and that dip-buyers are still strongly in control
3/The USD has strengthened from the lows despite a strong equity market (which usually leads to a weaker USD due to a strong risk sentiment), and US yields retracing from recent highs.
4/This implies that the heavily subscribed short USD position is undergoing some position reduction after failing at key levels (example: EUR failing to break 1.2000 convincingly).
5/When fundamentals and positioning are pointing in the same direction, the move will continue relentlessly - as is the case with the tech stocks.
6/When fundamentals favour the direction but positions are heavily skewed to the same direction, some consolidation is likely till positions are more balanced. In that, at least the weaker hands are out, or until we get some fresh news/information to drive the market either way.
4 NOTABLE LEGAL OPINIONS OF U.S. SUPREME COURT PICK: AMY CONEY BARRETT
This is important because Amy Coney Barrett will sit on the Supreme Court for decades, long after Trump is gone and shaping constitutional policies that will define America and what it stands for.
Amy Coney Barrett’s induction will tilt the Supreme Court towards a Conservative majority, hence her decisions will carry more weight than usual as it will more often than not be a “swing vote”.
As a result, the potential for political and social divide just ratcheted higher as Democrat voters will try to neutralize the skew in the Supreme Court, making a politically charged election a certainty. This might translate to extreme volatility in markets.
1/TrackRecord's Market Musings😎: Fed Puts Ball Firmly In Congress’ Court
22nd Sep, POWELL: “Many of our programs rely on emergency lending powers that require the support of the Treasury Department and are available only in unusual circumstances.”
2/23rd Sep, POWELL: “Have done basically all of the things that we can think of”
3/24th Sep, POWELL: “While households are spending now, perhaps using what's left of money from the $2.3 trillion package passed by Congress in Mar, the risk is they will go through that money, ultimately, and hv to cut back on spending and maybe lose their home or their lease...
TrackRecord's Market Musings😎: 5 Risk Factors We See Affecting Markets Leading Up To Nov 3rd Elections.
Thread Below ⬇️
1⃣: China Blacklists: China is threatening to blacklist US companies in retaliation for Huawei, Tiktok and Wechat bans. For now, China seems to be waiting till the next President is confirmed...
... Chinese consumer and manufacturing base is still key for some Big Tech U.S. companies. And Big Tech makes up a sizable portion of U.S. market capitalization.
1/TrackRecord's Observation of the Day 💭: Winter Is Coming
We are on the precipice of a perfect confluence of forces that will result in unprecedented volatility in the coming months.
2/As winter is literally coming, there is a good chance Covid-19 will come back with a vengeance, can governments afford the economic brunt of another lockdown?
3/One of the reasons for yesterday’s selloff was this fear and main street is well aware of the economic impact (Jobs gets decimated).
1/The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than two months before the presidential election tosses one more lit match into the tinderbox of national politics in 2020:
2/It will surely inflame a deeply polarised country already riven by a deadly pandemic, a steep economic downturn, and civil unrest in its major cities.
In Washington, the vacancy fight could ratchet up tensions to a level unseen even in the tumultuous Trump era.
3/He could also become the first president since Richard Nixon to install three justices on the high court in a single four-year term.
A successful GOP effort to replace Ginsburg with a conservative before or immediately after a Democratic victory will almost certainly lead to..
1/TrackRecord's Market Observation of the Day 💭: Quad Witching Friday
Quadruple witching occurs on the third Friday of the month of every quarter (highest volatility occurs in the last hour of trading between 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST) , in March, June, September, and December.
2/It refers to the simultaneous expiration of single-stock options, single-stock futures, and stock-index options and stock-index futures which are settled at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
3/Options volumes tend to be particularly elevated during quad-witching periods, which may also account for some of the choppiness anecdotally associated with September as the worst-performing month (for stock markets).