M2 which is a broad measure of money supply, has grown 81% in the last 7yrs to nearly $20Trn. An increase in the supply of money typically lowers interest rates, which generates more investment and puts more money in the hands of consumers. Hence stimulating spending.
Bonds struggled during the last major stagflationary period, in the late 1960s. Rise in oil prices,unemployment, loose monetary policy pushed the core CPI Index to a high of 13.5%. The Fed had to raise interest rates by nearly 20%.
US Fed’s balance sheet has doubled from $4.2trn to $8.2trn since 2020 to finance the Govt deficits. Monetary stimulus was a common theme for all central banks around the world. Such a financial debasement is very bullish for Gold.
By roughly doubling the size of its securities holdings since the start of the pandemic, the Fed helped stabilize financial markets, by purchasing assets. Since June 2020, the Fed has been buying $80 bn of Treasury securities and $40 bn of agency MBS each month.
In 2020 gold was up 20% YTD, but this year it has gone down by nearly 6%. The current bull market has a long way to go given the fact that interest rates are going to remain low for a long time ahead.
Interesting data point to note here is that the rest of the world has been stocking up on gold ever since the GFC crisis. The RBI was the largest buyer in Q3FY21. Gold reserves grew by 41t to 745t. This marks a slight increase in the pace of buying by the RBI since 2009.
8/13
There’s this narrative in the market saying, “money that had to go into gold went into Bitcoin”. Not True.
Coming to Gold Miners. We had done a Podcast with @shyamsek and @HarshilNichani on the same. They highlighted that gold miners are in the best shape of their lives. With no major capex coming in, as long as gold prices move up, they will continue to throw out free cash!
10/13
Again, gold miners also have a long waaaaay to go…!
People compare gold to equities. Over 20 years if you notice Gold has managed to generate an average around 9-12% return. Last we checked, over the same time frame equities also tend to generate the same return. *Risk-adjusted Return*. Gold is no risk baba.
It’s not gold vs equity. The correct comparison is Gold vs Currency. USD has not strengthened much in the last 40yrs. Gold has grown at a CAGR of 1.75% whereas USD has grown at 0.2%. And Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. *sigh*
“How can I safeguard myself from a sharp correction?” For most investors, this top-of-mind question is bothering them. Yet, nobody wants to sell. Everyone definitely wants to participate in any potential upside. (2/n)
#Investors #RiskManagement
This is where a sound investment strategy can certainly help. Risk mitigation can be done in every portfolio. Portfolio strategy can also significantly reduce risks by choosing safer options like multi-asset strategies. (3/n)
India has been increasingly exploring equity as an asset class. It is heartening to see inflows from domestic investors and DIIs beat the dominant FIIs.
(1/n)
#Equity #AssetClass #Investor #FII
For a retail investor, Mutual Funds (MFs) are the suited and preferred way to get a hang of equity assets. Passive funds have become popular over the recent years.
(2/n)
#RetailInvestor #MutualFund #Equity
Active Fund Managers are backed by a research team that allows them to make well-informed decisions based on market opportunities.
Passive funds, however, follow a #benchmarkindex and require no fund manager or research team, thus reducing their cost.
Changing asset allocation is a sure shot way of ensuring risk mitigation in an investor's portfolio. But if you are already owning a portfolio of equity that you built assiduously, you are posed with a peculiar problem. (2/n)
#AssetAllocation #Investor
Should you sell your equity portfolio down as part of your risk mitigation? (3/n)
The markets seem to have hit a new all-time high and turned. Clearly, the index highs need more legs to stand on and still need tremendous firepower to rise. (2/n)
#markets #personalfinance
With at least three major index constituents, private banks, information technology and pharma struggling to hold onto their recent valuations, it becomes a steeper climb for the index from here. (3/n)
The markets have intense spells when politics prevails over everything else in directing sentiment. Closer to every general election, this trend returns to haunt the markets. (2/n)
But, the ability of politics to drive sentiment is influenced by how much the outcome of the election will drive change. If change is likely to be significant and for the better, the markets can run up ahead of elections. (3/n)
The markets go up too quickly when people are least prepared for it. That setting is perfect for us to get that fear of missing out. We call it the FOMO feeling. (2/n)