Global Market Comments
June 8, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or HISTORY IS REPEATING),
(SPY), (INDU), (TLT), (TBT) (TSLA), (DAL), (BA)
Posts
When I was 13 years old in 1965, the week-long Watts Riots broke out in impoverished South Los Angles, killing 34. It was sparked by a police arrest for reckless driving.
While the ruins were still smoking, my dad drove me downtown to view the wreckage. Prudently, he kept his loaded Marine 1911 Browning .45 caliber automatic under a newspaper on the front seat. It looked like a war zone, with some 256 buildings burned to the ground and another 200 looted.
I have been running towards the sound of guns ever since.
Some 55 years later, we are seeing history repeat itself. However, instead of seeing the riots occur in major cities one at a time, as they did in the 1960s, we saw demonstrations and riots in 356 US cities all at the same time!
The impact on the economy, and eventually the stock market, will be immense.
As a long term follower of the structure of the US economy, what is going on now is utterly fascinating. A million connections within the economy have been severed forever and a million new ones created, which few understand.
The end result will be a far more efficient and profitable form of American capitalism. Companies are rebuilding time-tested business models in weeks. Those who can discern these new connections early will make fortunes. Those who don’t will dry up and blow away like so much dust into the ashcan of history.
Of course, the defining announcement of the week came on Friday morning with the Headline Unemployment Rate, which delivered a blockbuster FALL, from 14.7% to 13.3%, sending stock up 1,000 points. It’s proof that the stimulus is largely going into the stock market.
Economist forecasts were off by a whopping 10 million jobs, delivering the biggest miss in history. Leisure and Hospitality accounted for 1.2 million job gains, half the total.
Something doesn’t smell right here. How do you miss 10 million jobs? The streets and traffic levels tell me the real jobless rate is more like 20%. I can’t even get into my bank to deposit a check.
I believe the streets.
Look for big downward revisions, which may pose another threat to the market, and possibly a secondary crash, but not for another month.
A client told me last week that he wishes there were major market crashes more often where he could load the boat with deep out-of-the-money LEAPS which then double or triple in weeks.
He may get his wish. The faster we rise now, the greater the risk of a secondary crash which could wipe out half the recent gains.
I managed to catch the bottom of the biggest stock market rally of all time with dozens of LEAPS like with (TSLA), (DAL), (UAL), (BRKB), and (BA). I took profits all the way up and went into last week modestly “Risk On.” But the 1,000-point rally on Friday caught me totally by surprise, as it did everyone else.
I’m sorry, but I guess I’m lousy at trading those once in hundred-year events.
My saving grace has been the most aggressive, in-your-face short positions in the bond market (TLT), (TBT) in the 13-year history of this letter at the same time. It’s still a great trade. Selling short US Treasury bonds now with a 0.90% yield is the same as buying the Dow Average at 20,000….again.
Pending Home Sales collapsed 21.8% in April and off 33.8% YOY on a signed contract basis. These are the worst numbers since the data series started. The West was hardest hit, down 50%. No wonder I’ve seen so many real estate agents at the beach. We already know that a sharp rebound is underway as Millennials move to the burbs and flee Corona-infested cities. Home prices will be up this year.
Mortgage Demand is soaring as ultra-low rates spur demand. Housing will lead the recovery of the bricks and mortar economy. It will take another year before jumbo loan rates start to decline as banks avoid risk like the plague. Buy (LEN) and (KHB) on dips.
Stocks are the most overbought in 20 years since the top of the Dotcom bubble. Risk is extreme for new longs. Almost all S&P 500 stocks are trading above 50 day moving average. The technical indicators are screaming “SELL”.
Consumer Confidence is recovering as even the slightest bit of reopening looks like a lot coming off of zero. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to 86.6 this month from 85.7 in April, well up from an expected 82. Call it “green shoots”.
Used Car Prices have crashed with Hertz going bankrupt and defaults on new car loans reaching record levels. Surviving rental companies have cancelled all new car orders. Vacation travel has vaporized. Wells Fargo has ceased lending to car dealers. Time to upgrade that second car?
The greatest 50-day rally in the S&P 500 is now over, up 40% since March 23. Buyers are getting nervous and exhausted and are overdue for a pullback. But the historical six-month gain after a move like this is another 10.2% up, followed by a one-year gain of 17.3%. Over $14 Trillion in Fed and fiscal stimulus can go a long way.
US Factory Orders collapsed further, down 13% in May after a 14% crash in April. Don’t expect these numbers to decline any time soon. The stock market will never notice.
When we come out on the other side of this, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates still at zero, oil at a cheap $34 a barrel, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 400% or more in the coming decade.
My Global Trading Dispatch performance was up modestly on the week, my downside hedges costing me money in a steadily rising but wildly overbought market. We stand at an eleven-year performance all-time high of 366.68%.
My huge short bond positions, which I have been adding to all the way down, are still delivering big profits. That’s because time decay is really starting to kick in with nine trading days left until the June expiration.
That takes my 2020 YTD return up to a lofty +10.77%. This compares to a loss for the Dow Average of -4.9%, up from -37%. My trailing one-year return exploded to a near-record 52.27%. My eleven-year average annualized profit ballooned to +34.92%.
The only numbers that count for the market are the number of US Coronavirus cases and deaths, which you can find here.
On Monday, June 8 at 8:00 AM EST, Consumer Inflation Expectations for May are announced.
On Tuesday, June 9 at 10:30 AM EST, we learn the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for May.
On Wednesday, June 10 at 8:15 AM EST, the US Core Inflation Rate for May is printed. At 10:30 AM EST, the EIA Cushing Crude Oil Stocks are published.
On Thursday, June 11 at 8:30 AM EST, Weekly Jobless Claims are announced.
On Friday, June 5, at 10:00 AM EST, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment figures are out. The Baker Hughes Rig Count follows at 2:00 PM EST.
As for me, I traveled to the local shopping mall to see how real this 2.5 million gain in jobs really exists. More than 50% of the shops were closed, several had already gone bankrupt and traffic was easily below 10% of pre-pandemic levels. Restaurants had maybe 5% of peak traffic sitting at outside tables. Mall police were there to enforce facemask rules.
Nope, not seeing any recovery here. Caveat Emptor.
Stay healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Hill 27 on Guadalcanal
Global Market Comments
June 1, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(JOIN THE JUNE 4 TRADERS & INVESTORS SUMMIT),
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or THE COUNTRY THAT IS FALLING APART),
(SPX), (INDU), (TLT), (TBT), (GLD),
(AAPL), (FB), (JPM), (BAC)
Out of quarantine, into curfew.
Yes, we here at Incline Village, Nevada have received a “stay at home” order because we are in Washoe County, the same county as Reno, where police tear-gassed rioters assaulting a police station yesterday.
I now have the challenge of commuting between two cities that are curfewed, Oakland, CA and Incline Village, NV.
I wonder if this is turning into another 1968, but with a pandemic? That is when casualties peaked from the Vietnam War and there were national race riots and political assassinations.
I hope not.
I’m really getting into this pandemic thing. That’s because people tell me that I am better looking with a mask on. But then I’ve grown a long grey beard since I was locked up three months ago, so maybe less is better.
The great American talent for creativity, which I always knew was lurking under the surface, and exploded into the open.
High-end restaurants are now placing dressed up dummies at every other table to enforce social distancing rules. At one table, a man is on his knee proposing marriage to his girlfriend. At another, an older couple is arguing. Click here for a laugh.
An enterprising dad has captured 2 million YouTube views describing how to perform tasks only dads can do, like jump-starting a car and fixing toilets. If you need his help ask “Dad, How Do I” by clicking here.
Only in America.
In the meantime, the stock market had one of the best weeks of the year in the face of the worst economic data in history. The (SPY) broke the 200-day moving average to the upside as the newly unemployed topped a staggering 41 million. Buyers rotated into recovery stocks as Covid-19 deaths exceeded 100,000.
All of the super smart traders I know who went into cash or strapped on short positions at the end of January are doing the same now. When markets detach from reality, I detach myself from risk. Almost all of my positions are now very low risk, have extremely small deltas, and expire in 14 trading days. The risk/reward for stocks now is terrible. The Mad Hedge Trade Alert Service delivered a stunning 27% profit off the March bottom.
By the way, in 1968 when the country was last falling apart, the Dow Average rose by 4.3% as part of one long 20-year sideways move. Brokers were forced to drive taxi cabs. I went to Tokyo for better fish to fry, and then Cambodia, Laos, and Burma. I came back 20 years later with an ample collection of lead stuck in various parts of my body.
Pending Home Sales fell down 21.8%, in April, and off 33.8% YOY on a signed contract basis. These are the worst numbers since the data series started. The West was hardest hit, down 50%. No wonder I’ve seen so many real estate agents at the beach. We already know that a sharp rebound is underway as Millennials move to the burbs and flee Corona-infested cities. Home prices will be up this year.
Easy In, Easy Out. The Fed pumped $3 trillion into the economy, and exactly $3 trillion has gone into stocks since the March bottom. There is a 90% correlation between stock prices and the direction of the Fed balance sheet. Stimulus checks went straight into day trading accounts as soaring online stock and option volumes show. In the meantime, Q2 GDP estimates have fallen to the -40%-50% range. What happens when the Fed stops buying? The M2 Money Supply (remember that?) is growing at an 80% annual rate. Buy gold (GLD).
Weekly Jobless Claims came in at 2.4 million, meaning that 41 million, or one out of four Americans out of work. That’s worse than seen during the Great Depression. Recent surveys show employers will hire back only 80% of those laid off, meaning that the Unemployment rate could stay above 10% for years. The future is being pulled forward fast and that means far fewer brick and mortar jobs. Only the large and the digital will survive.
The Market Has Flipped, from chasing big tech to chasing reopening stocks. It’s the only place where value is left. Out with (AAPL) and (FB) and in with (JPM) and (BAC). If it lasts, we’re going to new highs.
The China Trade War heats up, with 33 new companies banned from doing business with the US. You can cut global growth forecasts even more as international trade accelerates its decline. Where was Trump when tens of thousands demonstrated for democracy last fall? Wasn’t China’s President Xi Jinping his friend who did a great job controlling Covid-19?
Stocks are the most overbought in 20 years, since the top of the Dotcom bubble. Risk is extreme for new longs. Almost all S&P 500 stocks are trading above 50-day moving average.
Monster market short could force a short squeeze, with trend following commodity trading advisors boasting the biggest bearish bets in five years. The 200-day moving average at (SPX) $2,999.72 could be a real make or break, only 45 points away. The falling Volatility Index (VIX) is priming the pump for a downside collapse.
New Home Sales were up a stunning 0.6% in April versus an expected -21.9% loss, totaling 623,000 units on a signed contract basis only. The premium is now on new, clean, virus-free homes where you don’t die from a model home. Median home prices plunged from $339,000 to $309,000, down 8% YOY. It’s clear that a lot of speculative buying took place at the market bottom.
US Mortgage Applications up for 6th week, surging 54% since April. My forecast that your home will be your best performing asset of 2020 is coming true. I’m hearing stories of bidding wars again. It’s tough to beat a huge Millennial tailwind and record low-interest rates.
When we come out on the other side of this, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates at zero, oil at $0 a barrel, and many stocks down by three quarters, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 400% or more in the coming decade.
My Global Trading Dispatch performance was unchanged on the week, my downside hedges costing me money in a steadily rising, but wildly overbought market. We stand at an eleven year all-time high of 366.23%. It has been one of the most heroic performance comebacks of all time. We have gained an eye-popping 27.03% since the market bottom despite being hedged all the way up.
My aggressive short bond positions are still delivering some nice profits even though we only have 14 days to expiration, despite the fact the bond market went almost nowhere. That’s because time decay is really starting to kick in.
That takes my 2020 YTD return up to +10.32%. That compares to a loss for the Dow Average of -10.93%. My trailing one-year return exploded to 51.09%, nearly an all-time high. My eleven-year average annualized profit exploded to +34.87%.
The only numbers that count for the market are the number of US Coronavirus cases and deaths, which you can find here.
On Monday, June 1 at 10:00 AM EST, The US Manufacturing PMI for May is published.
On Tuesday, June 2 at 10:30 AM EST, weekly EIA Crude Oil Stocks are released.
On Wednesday, June 3, at 8:15 AM EST, The ADP Private Employment Report is announced.
On Thursday, June 4 at 8:30 AM EST, Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. I’ll be busy all day with the Mad Hedge Traders & Investors Summit.
On Friday, June 5, at 8:30 AM EST, the May Nonfarm Payroll Report is out. It may be the worst on record.
The Baker Hughes Rig Count follows at 2:00 PM EST.
As for me, my original plan this summer was to take a one-week cruise in Tahiti, lead an expedition to excavate more dog tags from Marines missing in action on Guadalcanal, perform a one-week roadshow for clients in New Zealand and Australia, Fly to South Africa for a one-week safari with my kids, and then cool my heels climbing the Matterhorn and thinking great thoughts at my summer home in Zermatt, Switzerland.
This will be the first time in eight years I have not climbed the great mountain. Don’t worry, I have already emailed the Zermatt Mountain Rescue Service and told them I won’t be able to help out this year because the town is closed.
Covid-19 had other ideas.
Instead, I will be commuting back and forth between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe by Tesla Model X, writing four newsletters a day, issuing uncountable trade alerts, and then taking a daily ten-mile hike to the Tahoe Rim Trail with a 40-pound backpack. Safer and much cheaper.
There’s no rest for the wicked. There’s always next year.
Stay healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Back Into Storage for Next Year
Global Market Comments
May 11, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or THE NEXT GOLDEN AGE HAS ALREADY STARTED)
(TLT), (TBT), (SPY), (INDU), (VIX),
(DAL), (BRK/A), (LUV), (AA), (UAL)
I always get my best ideas when hiking up a steep mountain carrying a heavy backpack.
Yesterday, I was just passing through the 9,000-foot level on the Tahoe Rim Trail when suddenly, the fog lifted and the skies cleared. I was hit with an epiphany.
It was my “AHA” moment.
The next American Golden Age, the next Roaring Twenties, started on March 23.
However, you have to dive deep into investor psychology to reach that astonishing conclusion.
The conundrum of the day is why stocks are trading at a plus 30X multiple two months into a Great Depression. The economic data has been so horrific that the mainstream news has been reporting them.
Some 30 million unemployed on the way to 51 million? Those are Fed numbers, not mine (click here for the link ). Over 52% of small businesses going bankrupt in the next six months? A GDP that is shrinking at an amazing -40% annualized rate?
Yet, we have a Dow Average that has risen a breathtaking 38% in six weeks. The market has essentially dropped 38% and risen 38% over three months, with the Volatility Index (VIX) making a brief visit to the $80 handle.
To understand these massive contradictions, you have to understand what investors think they are buying. They are not hoovering up stocks that are cheap, offer value, or at the bottom of an economic cycle.
Instead, they are investing in a hope, a vision, an expectation that the coming decade will bring a major economic boom. Yes, they are buying my coming American Golden Age.
Only 10% of the value of a stock is reflected in current year earnings, according to Dr. Jeremy Siegal at the Wharton School of Economics (click here to go to the site). The other 90% is in the following nine years. Investors have written off this year’s earnings and are paying up for the following nine.
Long term followers of this newsletter are well aware of my approaching forecast of the next Roaring Twenties (click here for the link).
Except that this time we have a catapult, the pump-priming effects of the pandemic. The government has stepped in with $14 trillion worth of fiscal and monetary stimulus. Creative destruction is taking place at an exponential rate. Companies have to become hyper-efficient overnight or die.
It’s not rocket science. More than 85 million millennials are aging into their peak spending years, buying homes, cars, and all the luxuries of life. Every time this has happened for the past century, US economic growth leaped to 4%.
It happened in the 1920s, the 1960s, the 1990s, and is about to take place in the 2020s. And with each pop in growth, the stock market rises about 400%. Look at your long-term charts and you’ll see I’m dead right.
That takes us from the March 23 Dow Average low at 18,000 up to 72,000 by 2030, except that it’s a low number. Throw in the hyper-acceleration of innovation by the technology and biotech sectors, a Dow 120,000 is within reach.
You may recall that number from my marketing pitches, except that this time it’s happening. In a decade you are going to look like an absolute genius by following the recommendation of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader.
It also means that we may not see market corrections of any more than 10% this year. That would take us down to a Dow Average of 22,500, and an (SPX) of 2,600 in the coming months. That’s where you should jump in and buy with both hands. The only way I would be wrong is if the US epidemic explodes to unimaginable levels, which is not impossible.
Last week, U-6 unemployment rates exploding to a stratospheric 22.8%. The rate was far higher among high school graduates, but only 8% for college grads. Some 20.2 million lost jobs, ten times the previous record, and more than seen during the Great Depression. The BLS (click here) said the true figure was probably 5% higher due to counting anomalies and a huge backlog of data. And this is just the beginning. The good news is that next month, only 10 million jobs will be lost.
NASDAQ (QQQ) turned positive for 2020, and the followers who piled into tech LEAPS at the March bottom are eternally grateful. Tech and biotech are the only places to be. Everywhere else is a waste of time and money. The entire country is turning into a tech economy or going out of business. Buy tech on dips.
Warren Buffet sold all his airline shares, taking a major loss, including Delta (DAL), Southwest (LUV), American (AA) and United (UAL). The Fed’s $50 billion airline bailout blocked him from making a real killing. His Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) (click here) owned close to 10% of all of them. The complete collapse of tourism and business travel are the issues. He sees no recovery in the foreseeable future. They don’t call him the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing.
US Auto Sales are down a mind-blowing -48% in April, the worst on record. Only 8.6 million cars were sold in the US against last year’s annual rate of 17 million. Toyota and Honda saw the biggest falls as their ships can’t unload due to lack of storage space.
The US Treasury will borrow $3 Trillion this Quarter to fund the massive bailout programs. Announced programs amount to 20 times the $789 billion 2009 rescue package, which Republicans opposed. I’m increasing my bond shorts. Sell short (TLT) again, even if we don’t get a decent rally. Oh, and Trump is threatening a default too. He doesn’t see the connection.
Bonds crashed on massive issuance, with the Treasury announcing a record 20-year bond floatation. Yields hit a one-month high. With the (TLT) down $18 from its recent high, I am taking profits on my bond shorts. I’ll be selling the next rally….again. This could be my core trade for the next decade.
Consumer Debt soared to $14.3 trillion in Q1, a new all-time high. A lot of people are living on their credit cards right now.
Trump threatens to cancel China trade deal, blaming them for Covid-19, sending stocks into a 400-point dive. The last time he did this, shares plunged 20%. It’s all part of an effort to divert attention from the administration’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. America’s Corona deaths are now 20 times China’s, and they are still an emerging nation. Just what we needed, a renewed trade war on top of a pandemic-caused Great Depression, as if the market needed more uncertainty. Sell rallies in the (SPY)
When we come out on the other side of this, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates at zero, oil at $0 a barrel, and many stocks down by three quarters, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 400% or more in the coming decade.
My Global Trading Dispatch performance had one of the best weeks in years again, up a gob-smacking +6.46%. We are now only 0.65% short of a new all-time high.
My aggressive short bond positions came in big time on the back of theannounced $3 trillion in new debt issuance in Q2. Short bonds are far and away the better quality trade of buying stocks at these elevated levels.
May is up +6.46%, taking my 2020 YTD return up to 2.59%. That compares to a loss for the Dow Average of -13.43% from the February top. My trailing one-year return exploded to 43.77%. My ten-year average annualized profit returned to +34.14%.
This week, Q1 earnings reports continue, and so far, they are coming in much worse than the most dire forecasts. We also get the monthly payroll data, which should be heart-stopping to say the list.
The only numbers that count for the market are the number of US Coronavirus cases and deaths, which you can find here.
On Monday, May 11 at 10:00 AM, the April US Inflation Expectations are out. Caesar’s Entertainment (CZR) and Marriot International (MAR) report earnings.
On Tuesday, May 12 at 5:00 PM, the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April is released. Toyota Motors (TM) reports earnings.
On Wednesday, May 13 at 9:30 AM, the ever fascinating weekly Cushing Crude Oil Stocks is announced. Cisco Systems (CSCO) reports earnings.
On Thursday, May 14 at 8:30 AM, we get another blockbuster Weekly Jobless Claims. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reports earnings.
On Friday, May 15 at 7:30, AM the Empire State Manufacturing Index is published. The Baker Hughes Rig Count follows at 2:00 PM.
As for me, I’ll continue my solo circumlocution of the 160 mile Tahoe Rim Trail every afternoon in ten-mile segments. Why solo? Do you know anyone else who wants to hike 160 miles at 10,000 feet in two weeks?
Stay healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
We Had a 3 Month Warning of the Pandemic and Did Nothing
Global Market Comments
May 8, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MAY 6 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(UNG), (UAL), (DAL), (INDU), (SPY), (SDS),
(P), (BA), (TWTR), (GLD), (TLT), (TBT)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader May 6 Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA with my guest and co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader. Keep those questions coming!
Q: What broker do you use? The last four bond trades I couldn’t get done.
A: That is purely a function of selling into a falling market. The bond market started to collapse 2 weeks ago. We got into the very beginning of that. We put out seven trade alerts to sell bonds, we’re out of five of them now. And whenever you hit the market with a sell, everyone just automatically drops their bids among the market makers. It’s hard to get an accurate, executable price when a market is falling that fast. The important point is that you were given the right asset class with a ticker symbol and the right direction and that is golden. People who have been with my service for a long time learn how to work around these trade alerts.
Q: Is there any specific catalyst apart from the second wave that will trigger the expected selloff?
A: First of all, if corona deaths go from 2 to 3, 4, 5 thousand a day, that could take us back down to the lows. Also, the market is currently expecting a V-shaped recovery in the economy which is not going to happen. The best we can get is a U-shape and the worst is an L-shape, which is no recovery at all. What if everything opens up and no customers show? This is almost certain to happen in the beginning.
Q: How long will the depression last?
A: Initially, I thought we could get out of this in 3-6 months. As more data comes in and the damage to the economy becomes known, I would say more like 6-9, or even 9-12 months.
Q: In natural gas, the (UNG) chart looks like a bullish breakout. Does it seem like a good trade?
A: No, the energy disaster is far from over. We still have a massive supply/demand gap. And with (UNG), you want to be especially careful because there is an enormous contango—up to 50 or 100% a year—between the spot price and the one-year contract price, which (UNG) owns. Once I saw the spot price of natural gas rise by 40% and the (UNG) fell by 40%. So, you could have a chart on the (UNG) which looks bullish, but the actual spot prices in front month could be bearish. That's almost certainly what’s going to happen. In fact, a lot of people are predicting negative prices again on the June oil contract futures expiration, which comes in a couple of weeks.
Q: What about LEAPS on United (UAL) and Delta (DAL)?
A: I am withdrawing all of my recommendations for LEAPS on the airlines. When Warren Buffet sells a sector for an enormous loss, I'm not inclined to argue with him. It’s really hard to visualize the airlines coming out of this without a complete government takeover and wipeout of all existing equity investors. Airlines have only enough cash to survive, at best, 6-8 months of zero sales, and when they do start up, they will have more virus-related costs, so I would just rather invest in tech stocks. If you’re in, I would get out even if it means taking a loss. They don’t call him the Oracle of Omaha for nothing.
Q: Any reason not to do bullish LEAPS on a selloff?
A: None at all, that is the best thing you can do. And I’m not doing LEAPS right now, I’m putting out lists of LEAPS to buy on a selloff, but I wouldn't be buying any right now. You’d be much better off waiting. Firstly, you get a longer expiration, and secondly, you get a much better price if you could buy a LEAP on a 2,000 or 3,000 point selloff in the Dow Average (INDU).
Q: Would you add the 2X ProShares Ultra Short S&P 500 (SDS) position here if you did not get on the original alert?
A: I would, I would just do a single 10% weighting. But don’t expect too much out of it, maybe you'll get a couple of points. And it’s also a good hedge for any longs you have.
Q: What happens if the second wave in the epidemic is smaller?
A: Second waves are always bigger because they’re starting off with a much larger base. There isn't a scientist out there expecting a smaller second wave than the first one. So, I wouldn't be making any investment bets on that.
Q: Pfizer (P) and others seem close to having a vaccine, moving on to human trials. Does that play into your view?
A: No, because no one has a vaccine that works yet. They may be getting tons of P.R. from the administration about potential vaccines, but the actual fact is that these are much more difficult to develop than most people understand. They have been trying to find an AIDS vaccine for 40 years and a cancer vaccine for 100 years. And it takes a year of testing just to see if they work at all. A bad vaccine could kill off a sizeable chunk of the US population. We’ve been taking flu shots for 30 years and they haven’t eliminated the flu because it keeps evolving, and it looks like coronavirus may be one of those. You may get better antivirals for treatment once you get the disease, but a vaccine is a good time off, if ever.
Q: Is this a good time to buy Boeing (BA)?
A: No, it’s too risky. The administration keeps pushing off the approval date for the 737 MAX because the planes are made in a blue state, Washington. The main customers of (BA), the airlines, are all going broke. I would imagine that their 1,000-plane order book has shrunk considerably. Go buy more tech instead, or a hotel or a home builder if you really want to roll the dice.
Q: How can the market actually drop to the lows, taking massive support from the Fed and further injections into account?
A: I don’t think we will get to new lows, I think we may test the lows. And my argument has been that we give half of the recent gains, which would take us down to 21,000 in the Dow and 2400 in the (SPX). But I've been waiting for a month for that to happen and it's not happening, which is why I've also developed my sideways scenario. That said, a lot of single stocks will go to new all-time lows, such as in retailers (RTF) and airlines (JETS).
Q: Would you stay in a Twitter (TWTR) LEAP?
A: If you have a profit, I would take it.
Q: What about Walt Disney (DIS)?
A: There are so many things wrong with Disney right now. Even though it's a great company for the long term, I'm waiting for more of a selloff, at least another $10. It’s actually rallying today on the earnings report. Around the low $90s I would really love to get into LEAPS on this. I think more bad news has to hit the stock for it to get lower.
Q: Are you continuing to play the (TLT)?
A: Absolutely yes, however, we’re at a level now where I want to take a break, let the market digest its recent fall, see if we can get any kind of a rally to sell into. I’ll sell into the next five-point rally.
Q: Any reason not to do calls outright versus spreads on LEAPS?
A: With LEAPS, because you are long and short, you could take a much larger position and therefore get a much bigger profit on a rise in the stock. Outright calls right now are some of the most expensive they’ve ever been. So, you really need to get something like a $10 or $15 rise in the stock just to break even on the premium that you’re paying. Calls are only good if you expect a very immediate short term move up in the stop in a matter of days. LEAPS you can run for two years.
Q: Is gold (GLD) still a buy?
A: Yes, the fundamental argument for gold is stronger than ever. However, it has been tracking one for one with the stock market lately. That's why I'm staying out of gold—I’d rather wait for a selloff in stocks to take gold down; then I’ll be in there as a buyer.
Q: Should I take profits on what I bought in April and reestablish on a correction?
A: Absolutely. If you have monster profits on a lot of these tech LEAPS you bought in the March/early April lows, then yes, I would take them. I think you will get another shot to buy these cheaper, and by coming out now and coming in later, you get to extend your maturity, which is always good in the LEAPS world.
Q: Would you buy casinos, or is it the same risk as the airlines?
A: I would buy casinos and hotels—they have a greater probability of survival than the airlines and a lot less debt, although they’re going to be losing money for years. I don’t know exactly how the casinos plan on getting out of this.
Q: Should we exit ProShares ultra short 20+ year Treasury Bond Fund (TBT) now?
A: No, that’s more of a longer-term trade. I would hang on to that—you could get from $16 to $20 or $25 in the foreseeable future if our down move in bond continues.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
April 27, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or THE GREAT LOOK THROUGH)
(INDU), (SPX), (MSFT), (AAPL), (FB), (VXX)
It was a week when traders and investors alike were confused, befuddled, and gob-smacked.
If you believed that the worst Great Depression in a hundred years was worth more than a 12% pullback in the market you were punished, quite severely so if you were short tech stocks.
April has turned out to be the best month for the stock market since 2011. Warning: it won’t last.
The largest buyers of the market for the past decade, corporations, are now a thing of the past. Worse yet, companies are about to become massive sellers of their own stock to cover burning cash flows. United Airlines has already tapped the market with a $1 billion share offering and there are many more to follow.
This means that the airline industry used its entire profit of the last ten years to buy their own shares, which are now virtually worthless. They are currently selling shares at a decade low. Buy high, sell low, it sounds like a perfect money destruction machine.
There are more than a dozen industries guilty of this practice. A decade’s worth of management value added is a negative number, just like the price of oil.
The only consolation is that it is worse in Europe, as is everything, except for the coffee.
The obvious explanation is that we are witnessing the greatest “Look Through” in history. A Barron’s Big Money poll points the finger this weekend. While only 38% of professional money managers are currently bullish, some 83% are bullish for 2021, and it is just not worth dumping your portfolio to avoid a few months’ worth of carnage.
I believe that we will see substantial new all-time highs in 2021. The pandemic is forcing enormous efficiencies, cost cuts productivity increases on every company just to survive. Look at me. My travel budget has plunged from $100,000 a year to $20,000, ad there will be no travel for the rest of this year. Most big companies have adopted the same policy.
Return to a normal economy and record profits will ensue. Get the uncertainty of the presidential election out of the way and you have another boost, although it is looking less uncertain by the day.
It all perfectly sets up my new “Golden Age” and “Roaring Twenties” scenario for the 2020s, as I have been predicting for years
If the bears have any hope, it is that the big tech stocks, the principal market divers since the bottom, usually peak when they report earnings, which is this week.
None of the long-term trends in the stock market have changed, they have only been accelerated. Growth stocks are beating value by miles, tech is outpacing non-tech, and US shares are vastly overshadowing international, and large companies are outperforming small ones.
The dividend futures market is telling us that a recovery to pre-pandemic conditions will take far longer than anyone expects. It is discounting 10 years to return to 2019 dividend payouts, compared to only three years after the 2008-2009 Great Recession.
The are many structural changes to the economy that are becoming apparent. Many of the people sent home to work are never coming back because they like it, avoiding horrendous commutes in the most crowded cities. That is great for all things digital, where demand is exploding. It is terrible for many REITS, where demand for commercial real estate is in free fall and prices have imploded.
Oil hit negative $37 a barrel in a futures market meltdown with the May contract expiration. This could be the first of several futures expiration meltdowns until the economy recovers. The supply/demand gap is now a staggering 35 million barrels a day. A large swath of the oil industry will go under at these prices. It’s all part of a global three-way oil war which the US lost. Buy (USO) when crude is at negative numbers for a trade.
Don’t expect a rapid recovery. Wuhan China is now free and clear and open for business, but restaurant visits are still down 50%. Same in South Korea, which had the best Corona response where theater attendance is still down 70%. Predictions of a “V” shaped recovery may be optimistic if we get hit with a second wave. Government pressure for a quick reopening guarantees that will happen. The problem is that the stock market doesn’t know this yet.
Leading economic indicators dove 6.7%. No kidding. Expect much worse to come as the economy implodes. The worst data in a century are coming, paling the great depression.
2.9 million homes are now in forbearance and the number is certainly going to rise from here. Laid off renters are defaulted on payments, depriving owners of meeting debt obligations. It’s just a matter of time before this creates a financial crisis. Avoid the banks for now, no matter how cheap they get.
US restaurants to lose $240 billion by yearend. It’s a problem even a government can’t fix. At least one out of four eateries will go under over the next two months. Boy, I’m glad I didn’t open a trophy restaurant as a hobby like so many of my wealthy friends did.
Another $484 billion bailout bill is passed, and the market could care less, plunging 631 points. It includes $310 billion for the troubled Paycheck Protection Plan, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for Corona testing. Notice how markets are getting less interested in announced rescue plans and more interested in result, so far of which there have been none? The free fall in the economy continues.
Existing Home Sales plunged by 8.5% in March. Realtors expect this figure to drop 40% in the coming months. Open houses are banned, sellers are pulling listings, and buyers low-balling offers. However, price declines in the few deals going through are minimal. When will the zero interest rates come through? Mortgage interest rates are higher now than before the pandemic because 6% of all home loans are now in default.
Weekly Jobless Claims hit a staggering 4.4 million. Total unemployed over the last five weeks has topped 26.4 million, more than seen at the peak of the Great Depression. All job gains since the 2008-09 Great Recession have been lost. Of course, the population back then was only 123 million compared to today’s 335 million. But then employment is still in freefall and we may reach the Fed’s final target of 52 million. Most of the SBA Paycheck Protection Program funding went to large national chains and virtually none to actual small businesses.
US Car Sales dove 50%, and they’re expected to drop 60% in May. Showrooms have gained “essential” exemptions to open, but the newly jobless don’t make great buyers. Why are the shares of traditional carmakers like Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) in free fall, while those of Tesla (TSLA) are soaring?
Gilead Science’s Remdesivir bombed, in a phase 1 trial conducted by the WHO, triggering an immediate 400-point market selloff. It was a small study in China that was leaked. The company says it still might work.
Existing Home Sales collapsed by 15.4%, in March. With open houses closed across the country, it’s no surprise. But with the market closed, no one is selling either. Defaulted mortgages rose by a half million this week. Buy big homebuilders on the next big dip, like (KBH) and (LEN). They will lead the recovery.
When we come out on the other side of this, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates at zero, oil at $0 a barrel, and many stocks down by three quarters, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 400% or more in the coming decade.
My Global Trading Dispatch performance had a tough week, with me getting squeezed out of a short position in Facebook (FB) and also losing my weekly longs in Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL).
Everyone is expecting the market to roll over, but it’s not just happening. Risk control is the order of the day and that means stopping out of losers fast.
We are now down -2.12% in April, taking my 2020 YTD return down to -10.54%. That compares to a loss for the Dow Average of -12% from the February top. My trailing one-year return returned to 30.54%. My ten-year average annualized profit returned to +33.48%.
This week, Q1 earnings reports continue, and so far, they are coming in much worse than the most dire forecasts. This is the week that big tech reports. The only numbers that count for the market are the number of US Coronavirus cases and deaths, which you can find here at https://coronavirus.jhu.edu
On Monday, April 27 at 9:30 AM, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index is released.
On Tuesday, April 28 at 8:00 AM, the S&P Case Shiller National Home Price Index is published. Alphabet (GOOGL) reports.
On Wednesday, April 29, at 8:30 AM, an updated read on Q1 GDP is printed and the Cushing Crude Oil Stocks are announced. That one should be a thriller with zero interest rates. Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) report.
On Thursday, April 30 at 8:30 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims will announce another horrific number. Amazon (AMZN), McDonald’s (MCD), and Visa (V) report.
On Friday, May 1, the Baker Hughes Rig Count follows at 2:00 PM. Expect these figures to crash as well. Chevron (CVX) and Exxon (XOM) report.
As for me, tonight I’ll be attending the first-ever Boy Scout virtual camp out. Every member of the girls’ patrol will be setting up tents in their backyards and connecting up in a giant Zoom meeting. I bet they stay up all night.
Stay healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
