Here's a few charts I'm looking at this week pulled from the #DirtyDozen.
1. Nasdaq New Highs - Lows dropped to levels earlier this month that typically coincide with a double-digit selloff.
However, the Qs only managed to drop approx. 7% peak to trough.
2. Similarly, R3K % stocks > 50-day MAs are rebounding from oversold levels that typically mark intermediate bottoms. Again, despite the index being near highs.
I read this as short-term bullish as there's now a propensity we see a snapback in breadth which supports the trend⬆️
3. We break down each market by its technical regime using the SQN (BullV, BullQ, Neutral, BearQ, BearV).
The most profitable markets for our style of position trading are blended Bull regimes (bullQ + neutral).
Here's an overview from our dashboard.
4. We have a tool that shows the forward avg returns for each asset per its current regime. Currently, the markets w/ the highest projected 20-day returns are $CL_Z $XHB $SMH and $QQQ.
5. $MU is back nearing new highs following months of increasingly bearish sentiment.
The chart is building into an accelerating parabola. The next MM target is $124 a share. I wrote up the bull case for semis & $MU in Sep 20', which you can find here macro-ops.com/underwriting-t…
6. If $EURUSD closes negative in Dec it'll be the 5th consecutive monthly bear bar. Past instances have shown a strong bullish bias over the following 12-months.
7. My view is that the $DXY is setting up for a fade soon. One pair I'm looking at here is $GBPUSD. It just broke up and out from a 3-wave down wedge
• Speculators have crowded into shorts
• Yield spread oscillator turning up in favor of GBP
• Momentum turning up from flat
8. Corn and related softs are starting to perk up again.
We're seeing similar strength in Ag related equity names. Two that we have positions in are (1) Intrepid Potash $IPI, which also benefits from higher oil prices thru its large water rights and $BIOX
To sum up: the path of least resistance remains up
We're in the 3rd leg of a major Buy Climax. Climaxes tend to surprise w/ their durability
We have not yet triggered preconditions for a larger top
2/ Gold has completed a classic bull market correction from extreme overextension. I wrote about this on Sep 23rd where I talked about the historical tendencies of these types of pullbacks, and why gold would continue to sell off.
A screenshot of that report is below.
3/ We've now seen a:
- Peak to trough drawdown of 20% vs avg of 21%
- We're in the 187th trading day of the correction vs
avg of 255 before new highs
- A dip below the $1,700 level
We bought back in on March 31st after completion of the double-bottom
Some thoughts on what's driving this action and whether it'll develop into a larger selloff or if this is just a period of chop and vol before another leg up. First, obviously, trend fragility was high so this type of action is to be expected when positioning is this ext 1/
2/ The market is repricing the growth/inflation outlook. Consensus GDP estimates were around 4.2% at the start of the year. Growth is likely to come in well above 6%, so the market is frontrunning the Fed and pricing in rate hikes earlier than what the Fed has communicated.
3/ This is sending yields across the curve higher. When looking at yields we're concerned with not just the level but also the speed at which they raise. And 10yr yields have risen at a pace that typically leads to bouts of volatility
1/A LOT of critically important charts in this week's #DirtyDozen.
I cover growing trend fragility, a monthly sell signal, discuss why this *isn't* a major top buy why we should expect a 1-2 month correction to begin w/in the next few weeks, plus more.
-FMS cash level at 3.9% triggering a 'sell signal'
-Global Risk-Love in 97th %-tile going back to 1987
-Asia/EM Risk-Love signaling "euphoria" for 1st time since 2015
3/ “Two-month flows into DM and EM equity funds the highest since [Oct 2000]. November alone saw the highest monthly inflow into global equity funds on record. Also over a three-month horizon, we’ve now seen the highest inflows into equity funds on record” via BofA $EEM
"This paradox is absolutely central to the working of all financial markets... The more bullish things are, the more bearish they are." ~ Percival's "The Way of the Dollar"
Markets are paradoxical & circular. Understanding its many circular relationships is crucial.... /1
2/ ...to groking its true nature. The price-sentiment relationship is one of these. Prices rise=sentiment follows=positioning adapts=criticality is reached = prices reverse = sentiment follows, ad infinum...
Every trend sows the seed for its end. Trend + reversion = sine waves
3/ Another critically important circular relationship is that between stocks & bonds.
No financial asset exists w/in a vacuum. The game of markets & the act of valuation is one of relative comparisons. Stocks and bonds compete for flows...
The Palindrome (Soros) broke FX factors down into simple logic statements (the below example is taken from "The Alchemy of Finance"). He did this in an effort to gain a better understanding of the drivers of a trend and the sustainability of that trend... /1
2/ These drivers shifts over time, from regime to regime. This is one of the reasons why the FX is notably hard to forecast. Players often key off the thing that worked during the last cycle while missing what’s driving the current one.
3/ The most recent USD bull market that kicked off in 11’ was driven by an equation that looked something like this.
DXY = US V > RoW V (rest-of-world) = ↑(i+e+m) → s↓ → e↑
US growth was stronger on a relative basis (accounting for the US premium) than RoW (US V > RoW V).
"I don’t believe in edge. I think it’s a fairy tale. The world is too competitive. Going back to AI, investing is where chess was in 1996... "~@GavinSBaker
This is a killer interview with Gavin on how to think about edge in investing. Some thoughts👇 /1
2/ At MO, we often write about how anything that can be quantified will be arbitraged by machines. A world of alt data, satellites giving coverage of consumer traffic, drones beaming infrared signal at oil-storage to gauge inventory, etc = The mrkt becoming hyper-efficient.
3/ This is why discretionary investors need to extend their analysis timeframe. Gavin says that "all alpha comes from insights. An insight is a kind of a differentiated long-term viewpoint about a stock. It's a differentiated view about the long-term state of the world."