If you want to delve into the case against the long-term future of US Treasury bonds in all their darkness, consider these arguments.
The US has not had a history of excessive debt since the Revolutionary War, except during WWII, when it briefly exceeded 100% of GDP.
That abruptly changed in 2001, when George W. Bush took office. In short order, the new president implemented massive tax cuts, provided expanded Medicare benefits for seniors, and launched two wars, causing budget deficits to explode at the fastest rate in history.
To accomplish this, strict ?pay as you go? rules enforced by the previous Clinton administration were scrapped. The net net was to double the national debt to $10.5 trillion in a mere eight years.
Another $6.5 trillion in Keynesian reflationary deficit spending by President Obama since then has taken matters from bad to worse. The Congressional Budget Office is now forecasting that, with the current spending trajectory and the 2010 tax compromise, total debt will reach $23 trillion by 2020, or some 130% of today?s GDP, 1.6 times the WWII peak.
By then, the Treasury will have to pay a staggering $5 trillion a year just to roll over maturing debt. What?s more, these figures greatly understate the severity of the problem.
They do not include another $9 trillion in debts guaranteed by the federal government, such as bonds issued by home mortgage providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. State and local governments owe another $3 trillion. Double interest rates, a certainty if wages finally start to rise and our debt service burden doubles as well.
It is unlikely that the warring parties in Congress will kiss and make up anytime soon, especially if we continue with a gridlocked congress after the November midterm elections. It is therefore likely that the capital markets will emerge as the sole source of any fiscal discipline, with the return of the ?bond vigilantes? to US shores after their prolonged sojourn in Europe. If you don?t believe me, just look at how bond owners have fared this week. Ouch!
Since foreign investors hold 50% of our debt, policy responses will not be dictated by the US, but by the Mandarins in Beijing and Tokyo. They could enforce a cut back in defense spending from the current annual $700 billion by simply refusing to buy anymore of our bonds.
The outcome will permanently lower standards of living for middle class Americans and reduce our influence on the global stage.
But don?t get mad about our national debt debacle, get even. Make a killing profiting from the coming collapse of the US Treasury market through buying the leveraged short Treasury bond ETF, the (TBT). Just pick your entry point carefully so you don?t get shaken out in a correction.
Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2014-09-19 01:03:462014-09-19 01:03:46The Structural Bear Case for Treasury Bonds
Like a deer frozen in a car?s onrushing headlights, markets have been comatose awaiting Federal Reserve governor Janet Yellen?s decision on monetary policy and interest rates.
Interest rates are unchanged. Quantitative easing gets cut by $15 billion next month, and then goes to zero. Most importantly the key ?considerable period? language stayed in the FOMC statements, meaning that interest rates are staying lower for longer.
Personally, I don?t think she?s raising interest rates until 2016. The number of dissenters increased from one to two, but then both of them (Fisher and Plosser) are lame ducks. And, oh yes, the composition of the 2015 Fed will be the most dovish in history.
The latest data points made this a no brainer, what with the August nonfarm payroll coming in at a weak 142,000, and this morning?s CPI plunging to a deflationary -0.20% for the first time since the crash.
Of course, you already knew all of this if you have been reading the Mad Hedge Fund Trader. You knew it three months ago, six months ago, and even a year ago, before Janet Yellen was appointed as America?s chief central banker. Such is the benefit of lunching with her for five years while she was president of the San Francisco Fed.
The markets reacted predictably, with the Euro (FXE), (EUO), and the yen (FXY), (YCS) hitting new multiyear lows, Treasury bonds (TLT), (TBT) breaking down, and precious metals (GLD), (SLV) taking it on the kisser.
What Janet did not do was give us an entry point for an equity Trade Alert (SPY), with the indexes close to unchanged on the day. The high frequency trader?s front ran the entire move yesterday.
Virtually all asset classes are now sitting at the end of extreme moves, up for the dollar (UUP) and stocks, and down for the euro, yen, gold, silver, the ags, bonds and oil. It?s not a good place to dabble.
Putting on a trade here is a coin toss. And when you?re up 30.36% on the year, you don?t do coin tosses. At this time of the year, protecting gains is more important than chasing marginal gains, which people probably won?t believe anyway.
If you want to understand my uncharacteristic cautiousness, take a look at the chart below sent by a hedge fund buddy of mine. It shows that investor credit at all time highs are pushing to nosebleed altitudes. Not good, not good. Oops! Did somebody just say ?Flash Crash??
This is not to say that I?m bearish, I?m just looking for a better entry point, especially as the Q????????? 3 quarter end looms. I?ve gotten spoiled this year. Maybe the Scottish election results, the Alibaba IPO, or the midterm congressional elections will give us one. Buying here at a new all time high doesn?t qualify.
It?s time to maintain your discipline.
Sorry, no more pearls of wisdom today. I?ve come down with the flu.
Apparently, this year?s flu shot doesn?t cover the virulent Portland, Oregon variety. Was it the designer coffee that did it, the vintage clothes, or those giant doughnuts dripping with sugar?
Back to the aspirin, the antibiotics, the vitamin ?C?, and a chant taught to me by a Cherokee medicine man.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/John-Thomas5-e1410989501597.jpg400266Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2014-09-18 01:04:402014-09-18 01:04:40She Speaks!
You usually don?t expect US housing data to cause the collapse of a foreign currency. But that is exactly what happened this morning.
The announcement by the Census Bureau that new home stats for July came in at a breathtaking 1.09 million, up 15.7%, blew away even the optimistic forecasts. Earlier figures for June were revised up substantially.
New building permits for July came in at a robust 1.1 million. Perma bears on the housing market were sent scampering to lick their wounds.
The real shocker was that the Euro promptly dropped 50 basis points, piercing a major support level on the long term charts. The short Euro ETF (EUO), which I have been recommending since the spring for my non-option clients skyrocketed. That clears the way for a run in the (FXE) down to $127.
The (FXE) wasn?t the only asset that saw a kneejerk reaction. The Treasury bond market (TLT) dove by 1 ? points. It is now 2 ? points off the short squeeze high last Friday, when false rumors of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine caused traders to panic. This sent the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TBT) soaring, which I am also long.
You can come up with a nice academic theory as to why there is a connection between American housing data and the beleaguered continental currency. Stronger housing means a better economy and higher dollar interest rates, sooner.
As interest rates differentials are the primary driver of foreign exchange markets, this is great news for the greenback and terrible news for the Euro.
The truth is a little more complicated than that. The outlook for the European economy is now so poor, thanks to the sanctions against Russia, that traders and investors have been desperate to add to their short positions. After the prolonged, one-way move down we saw this summer, the Euro managed barely a one-cent short covering rally in the past week.
There is another factor that no one else is talking about. Scotland is about to hold a referendum on whether it should break away from the United Kingdom. Scottish nationalists are hoping for the best.
If successful, it could spur other independence movements across Europe. Catalonia is having a similar vote to break away from Spain in November, with some separatists avid followers of this letter (yes, that?s you, Joan!). The Basque region is not far behind. If this trend ripples across the continent, it would be hugely Euro negative.
The European Central Bank is almost certain to lower Euro interest rates and expand quantitative easing at a September or October meeting. This will weaken the Euro further, paving the way for a move to $127, and eventually $120.
That?s why I am doubling my shorts in the (FXE) today, even though we are at the low for the year. Non-options players should buy more of the ProShares Ultra Short Euro ETF (EUO).
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Mario-Draghi.jpg269401Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2014-08-20 08:50:102014-08-20 08:50:10The Euro Breaks Down
This has really been one of those incredible, jaw dropping, knock your socks off kind of years. It seems like every asset class is doing exactly the opposite of what it should do.
A slowing economy delivered a huge move up in bonds, which is fine. The extent of the damage the harsh winter wrought on the economy was confirmed this morning, with a full one-point drop in Q1 GDP. But does this mean that stocks should go to all time highs as well?
Look at the volatility index, (VIX) (VXX), which is also sitting at multiyear lows. You would expect it to rise as we go into a traditional ?RISK OFF? season. It does truly seem that this time it?s different.
That is, until they are not different anymore. I believe that after five months of markets that are unpredictable, extraordinary, and difficult to trade, they are about to become predictable, ordinary, and easier to trade.
What does that mean for you and me? Buy stocks and sell bonds. We are about to shift from a reach for yield world to one where investors are reaching for capital gains. There isn?t much yield to reach for anyway.
We?ve just had a four point run in the latest leg up in the incredible bull market in bonds. So I am strapping on here the iShares Barclay 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) July, 2014 $118-$121 in-the-money bear put spread (see yesterday?s Trade Alert).
We could be in for some month end profit taking. The upper $118 strike works out to a ten year Treasury bond yield of 2.27%. The breakeven point in yield terms goes all the way down to 2.24%.
As long as yields stay above that by the July 18 expiration, we will keep the entire profit on this trade, a gain of some 1.76% for your total portfolio. Better yet, get a three point dip anywhere along the way, and we will immediately reap 75% of the potential profit, as we did with our last (TLT) bear put spread.
Sounds like a no brainer to me.
I think this week flushed out a lot of the hotter short-term money from the market in the humongous short squeeze that I warned you was coming. Positioning is now flatter. It is now time to digest.
Mad Day Trader Jim Parker also thinks we could be in for a major trend reversal with next week?s Friday nonfarm payroll report. Bonds rallied on the last six consecutive reports. This time they may disappoint, as bond prices are at such nosebleed levels. We could be setting up for a big ?buy the rumor, sell the news? move here in bonds.
In the meantime, the (TLT) could rise as much as a point higher to $116. That still gives me plenty of breathing room with this new position, which has a breakeven point at $118.45. That sounds like a pretty good bet, now that we are headed into the slower summer months.
For us to lose money on this trade, the world would have to end first, at which point we won?t care about our trading books.
For those who don?t have options coursing through their veins, please buy the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TBT), a 2X short Treasury bond fund.
As for stocks, it is looking like we are just completing a five month long ?time? correction. The ?price? correction never extended beyond 6%. We are about to enter nine months of increasingly positive economic data, as most of the growth lost in Q1 gets rolled forward to Q2, Q3, and Q4. That should take the S&P 500 (SPX) up to 2,100 by year-end.
In the meantime, the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Trade Alert service is now up 15.3% on the year, and is inches from a new all time high. Watch this space.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Shocked.jpg353320Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2014-05-30 01:03:202014-05-30 01:03:20Why I?m Selling Short Treasury Bonds
I love this market action. For me, it means that we are setting up ideal entry points for a broad range of asset classes that will deliver another +67% year.
It will set up for you too, if you continue to read this letter.
What the market is in fact doing is giving us three corrections for the price of one. Remember the traditional September swoon that never happened, the worst trading month of the year? How about the forgotten ritual October crash? And the November dip that always precedes the December yearend rally?
Well guess what? After forgetting how to go down for the longest period of time, we are getting all three downturns compressed into a single big one. That will give us a start finish decline of 7.2% in the (SPX) down to 1730, in line with every correction of the past two years (see chart below), and worst case the proverbial 10% textbook correction.
If my assumptions are correct, then in a worst-case scenario we are already 75% through this pullback on a price basis, and 65% on a time basis. Needless to say, selling short stocks here is out of the question. That train left the station at New Years.
After sitting on my hands, shuffling the papers around my desk several times, and going for my umpteenth coffee refill, I finally pulled the trigger on my iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund June, 2014 $106 puts trade. It finally entered no brainer territory.
It hit me what had been driving markets this year, but it took a ten-pound sledgehammer to do it.
Bonds have had it absolutely right this year. They took off right out of the gate on January 2 and never looked back.
Stocks on the other hand have been much more confused and disoriented, like an airplane pilot doing aerobatics on Instrument Flight Rules. They initially rose a little bit, right along with bonds, which almost never happens. You knew that wasn?t going to last.
Then they flat lined for two weeks. It took almost a month before traders realized that the punch bowl was gone and it was time to head into ?RISK OFF? mode. The tardy call can be traced to the fact that you calculate your average stock traders? IQ by taking a bond trader?s and then dividing by two.
What all this means is that the bond market has been correctly calling market direction two weeks before the stock market has. This is bound to continue.
There is another factor to consider here. Bond traders have now seen a whopping great eight point rally in a month, taking the yield on the ten year Treasury bond down a massive 45 basis points, from 3.05% to 2.61%. That is just too much profit to sit on.
That is a world ending performance for bonds. Except that Armageddon, it is not. So the pros that got this one right are increasingly going to be sellers on rallies from here on.
Don?t forget that the Federal Reserve will probably continue to knock $10 billion off of its quantitative easing program every six weeks if the economic data continues to come in, as I expect. That could drop its monthly bond purchases from $85 billion a month in December to only $35 billion by June. This is not good for the (TLT). It?s nice to see all of those lunches at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco with the new chairman, Janet Yellen, finally paying off.
If I am wrong on this one, it will be only by a couple of basis points, with the ten year possibly making it to the high 2.50%?s. The global synchronized economic recovery is still on schedule. The economic data and corporate earnings are just too good to see yields drop to 2.50% or lower.
Bull markets don?t die of old age, they die from recessions, and there is absolutely none on the horizon. The weakness in emerging markets is happening because some of their growth is moving back to the US. That is bad for them and great for us. I never liked their food anyway.
Markets also don?t peak at the middle of historic valuation range of 9-22. We are now at 14.5 if the $120/share earnings forecast for 2014 is good.
Profit margins are at all time highs, and rising (see chart below). The heart-rending volatility we have seen so far in 2014 is therefore technical in nature, and not fundamentally driven. It is just a matter of a few days or weeks until the fundamentals reassert themselves, as they always do.
Strip out the drag of government spending, and the private sector is growing at a positively meteoric 5.1% annual rate.
That could happen as early as Friday, when a blockbuster nonfarm payroll is expected to hit. The shocking 84,000 December number reported in January was a weather driven anomaly. Expect this week?s January figure to come in strong, as well as providing big upward revisions to the December report.
Which brings me to the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund June, 2014 $106 put. Only a global synchronized recession would prevent the (TLT) from trading below $103.58, my breakeven point on an expiration basis, over the next five months. Those who can?t buy options can substitute the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Treasury ETF (TBT) instead.
If the (TLT) makes it back to unchanged on the year at $101 by the June 20 expiration, this position will be up $5,418, or $5.41% for our notional $100,000 portfolio. If it makes it down to $101 sooner, we will make even more money, as there will still put some remaining time value in the put option.
That is up 108% from my initial cost. For that I am willing to take a few basis points of heat for a few days or weeks. It is an ideal buy and hold position, like, for example, you were just about to take a long trip to New Zealand and Australia.
Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2014-02-04 01:05:212014-02-04 01:05:21Three Corrections for the Price of One
You all know well my antipathy to the bond market, which I believe hit a 60-year peak on August 18, 2012 at 10:32 AM EST. I managed to catch the exact top of the one-month post taper bond market rally, and sent the Trade Alerts to sell bonds showering upon you. I quickly closed all of those out for nice profits.
We have since seen a $2.24 dead cat bounce in the (TLT) that took the yield on the ten year Treasury bond back down to 2.68%, off of the recent 2.77% top. That is enough for me to sell into.
Take a look at the chart below, and you will see that we are probably setting up an interim head and shoulders top that presages much larger moves lower to come.
The rocket fuel for this break will be the yearend selling where money managers attempt to minimize their bond exposure that appears in their annual reports so as not to appear too stupid to their customers. Then we have the ?Great Reallocation? trade out of bonds into stocks, which should get some real legs in 2014.
This all promises to take the (TLT) down from today?s $104.51 to $98 or lower over the next six months. If I am wrong on this, then we should hit major resistance for the (TLT) on the upside at $106.80, where you would expect the right shoulder formation to begin that will carry us safely into the December 20 expiration. This could be the trade that keeps on giving.
If you can?t do the options, you can buy the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Year Treasury leveraged short ETF (TBT) on the dip. My very long-term target for this baby is $200, up from today?s $76.70.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Girl-Sad.jpg329527Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-18 01:03:272013-11-18 01:03:27Selling Bonds Again
The Trade Alert service of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has posted a new all time high in performance, taking in 46.05% so far in 2013. The three-year return is an eye popping 101.7%, taking the averaged annualized return to 35%. That compares to a far more modest increase for the Dow Average during the same period of 19%.
This has been the profit since the groundbreaking trade mentoring service was launched 35 months ago. These numbers place me at the absolute apex of all hedge fund managers, where the year to date gains have been a far more pedestrian 3%.
These numbers come off the back of a blistering week in the market where I added 5% in value to my model-trading portfolio. I called the top in the bond market on Monday, shorted the Treasury bond ETF (TLT), and bought the short Treasury ETF (TBT). Prices then collapsed, taking the ten-year Treasury bond yield from 2.47% to 2.63%.
I then pegged the top of the Euro (FXE) against the dollar, betting that the European Central Bank would have to cut interest rates to head off another recession. Since then, the beleaguered continental currency has plunged from $1.3700 to $1.3350 to the buck.
I then bet that the stock market would enter another tedious sideways correction going into the Thanksgiving holidays. I bought an in the money put spread on the S&P 500, and then bracketed the index through buying an in the money call spread.
Carving out the 2013 trades alone, 57 out of 71 have made money, a success rate of 80%. It is a track record that most big hedge funds would kill for.
This performance was only made possible by correctly calling the near term direction of stocks, bonds, foreign currencies, energy, precious metals and the agricultural products. It all sounds easy, until you try it.
My esteemed colleague, Mad Day Trader Jim Parker, has also been coining it. He caught a spike up in the volatility index (VIX) by both lapels. He also was a major player on the short side in bonds.
The coming winter promises to deliver a harvest of new trading opportunities. The big driver will be a global synchronized recovery that promises to drive markets into the stratosphere in 2014. The Trade Alerts should be coming hot and heavy.
Global Trading Dispatch, my highly innovative and successful trade-mentoring program, earned a net return for readers of 40.17% in 2011 and 14.87% in 2012. The service includes my Trade Alert Service and my daily newsletter, the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader. You also get a real-time trading portfolio, an enormous trading idea database, and live biweekly strategy webinars, order?Global Trading Dispatch PRO?adds Jim Parker?s?Mad Day Trader?service.
To subscribe, please go to my website at www.madhedgefundtrader.com, find the ?Global Trading Dispatch? or "Mad Hedge Fund Trader PRO" box on the right, and click on the blue ?SUBSCRIBE NOW? button.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TA-Performance-YTD.jpg699490Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-08 10:10:562013-11-08 10:10:56Mad Hedge Fund Trader Blasts to new All Time High
This is a bet that the ten-year Treasury bonds, now trading at a 2.50% yield, don?t fall below 2.40% over the next 14 trading days. It has to make this move on top of an unbelievable decline in yields from 3.0% to 2.50% since September. And it has to do it quickly.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday to consider whether they should raise rates, lower them, or leave them unchanged. Some traders are looking for hints of a taper that may arrive earlier than expected. I think there is zero chance of this. The futures markets for overnight money are trading at prices suggesting that this won?t occur until April or May of 2015! (No typo here). We could be setting up for a classic ?buy the rumor, sell the news? move here.
We are also blessed with a short calendar for the November 15 expiration, as November 1 falls on a Friday. This also takes us into the usual volatility sapping Thanksgiving holidays.
My standing view on bonds is that we will trade in a 2.40%-3.0% range for some time. Given that the ?Great Reallocation? trade may begin in earnest in 2014. We should take a run at the higher end of that range as we go into yearend.
Loss of 1.5% in fiscal drag from Washington next year could take US GDP growth up from a sluggish 2.0% to a more sporty 3.5%. This is not an environment where you want to own any kind of fixed income security.
You might also consider buying November call spreads on the double short Treasury bond ETF, the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Treasury Fund (TBT), or just buying the (TBT) outright. Another run at the highs for the year from here is worth ten points.
While examining your own fixed income exposure, you might want to use the current strength in bonds to lighten up in other areas. Municipal bond prices (MUB) are now so high that the capital risk no longer justifies the tax savings. Get rid of them! The only successful muni bond strategy here is to die, and let your heirs sort out the wreckage. That way, your widow gets the step up in the cost basis.
Ditto for junk bonds (JNK), (HYG), which after the latest humongous rally, also see low yields no longer justifying the principal risk. The only bonds I like here are master limited partnerships (LINE), where double digit yields adequately pay you for your risk. I also like sovereign bonds (ELD), which will be supported by emerging market currencies appreciating against the US dollar.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-End-is-Near-sign.jpg301420Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-10-29 01:04:552013-10-29 01:04:55The Run in Bonds is Over
The Fed?s decision not to taper, and therefore keep interest rates lower for longer, gave a great flashing green light to the bond market. It has been off to the races ever since, with the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) blasting through resistance this morning to new two month high. As this is off a double bottom on the charts that has been unfolding since July, the move looks pretty solid.
With the imminent appointment of my friend, Janet Yellen, as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, I think we may not see a real taper until well into 2014. I heard yesterday that the White House staff has been ordered to start talking her up, now that their favorite, Larry Summers, has been sent to an assisted living facility.
So bonds have more to run, easily taking the yield on ten year Treasuries from this morning?s 2.70% down to 2.50%. There, we may stall out and define the lower end of the new range for bond yields for quite some time.
I have been begging, pleading with, and cajoling readers for the past month to take profits in their short bond positions and sell their holding in the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TBT). If they did, they are nicely positioned to buy it back the next time it hits $70, down from the recent $82 peak. That is roughly where we hit the 2.50% ten-year yield.
That could be the bond trader?s lot for the next six months, buying paper every time we hit a 3% yield, and going short at the 2.50% yield. They deserve nothing less. If they had real balls, they?d be stock traders.
Keep in mind that this is a counter trend trade, which are always dangerous. I am convinced that we are now 13 months into the Great Bear Market for bonds that could last another 20 years. Future capital flows will be defined by moving out of bonds into stocks probably until the end of the 2020?s, the so called ?Great Rotation.? So I am being careful here, keeping maturities short at a little more than three weeks, the size small, and the strikes distant.
This is not my best-timed trade of the year, and I am a little late to the party. I am resorting to finishing off the left over drinks abandoned by the early arrivals. As has lately so often been the case, prices turn on a dime, and then don?t let anyone in, as there are no pullbacks. This is a sign of a market dominated by professional momentum traders, not stay at home day traders.
So the potential profit on this trade is only a modest $630, or 0.63% for the model $100,000 trading portfolio. The risk is small, and therefore, so is the payoff. If this doesn?t appeal, or if the commissions end up eating too much of your potential profit, just walk away. Or, you could wait for better prices with a pullback in the (TLT) to get the better return. Or, just watch it play out in the paper portfolio as a training exercise.
The attraction of this position is that it gives us a participation in the unfolding, politically driven smack down in Washington over the debt ceiling crisis. It also establishes a ?RISK OFF? position, which I can use to counterbalance my existing ?RISK ON? positions.
It?s always nice to have a hedge on in case the wheels fall off the market.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Quad.jpg393401Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-09-25 01:03:242013-09-25 01:03:24Why I?m Buying the Treasury Bond Market
Let?s face it, the carnage in the bond markets in May outdid the sack of Rome.
Not only did the Treasury bonds (TLT) get hit. The entire high yield space was slaughtered, including corporates (LQD), junk bonds (JNK), REITS (VNQ), master limited partnerships (KMP), municipal bonds (MUB), and high dividend equities. Anything that looked and smelled like a bond got dumped.
As American bonds get their clocks cleaned, so did virtually the entire fixed income space worldwide. Yields on ten-year Japanese government bonds nearly tripled from 0.37% to 0.95%. German bond yields skyrocketed, from 1.20% to 1.55%. Suddenly, a global capital shortage broke out all over like a bad rash.
So has the Great Reallocation out of bonds into stocks begun? Has the Great Bond Crash of 2013 only started? Or is there something more complex going on here?
Don?t worry, the bond market is not about to crash. All we are seeing is a move to a new trading range for the ten year, from 1.50%-2-10% to 1.90%-2.50%. This has been my forecast for the Treasury bond markets all year. High yielding instruments, like those in junk bonds and REITS, will see more dramatic price declines. There are several reasons why this is the case.
For a start, the economy is just too weak to support any further back up in rates. Much of corporate American has grown so used to free money that even a modest rise in rates would be cataclysmic. It was also drop the residential real estate recovery dead in its tracks. Watch the US government?s budget deficit soar, once again, if interest rates continue their assent.
A 2% GDP growth will never be a springboard for 4%, 5%, or 6% yields. In fact, the risk is that we slow down from here, forcing the Fed to come to the rescue with more accommodative swaths of quantitative easing.
Look at the inflation, that great destroyer of bonds. The last reported unadjusted YOY CPI by the Bureau of Labor Statistics came in at a gob smackingly low 1.1% in April (click here for the website).? Real deflation is anything but a major threat, and will not provide the rocket fuel for further bond selling. When you here of friends getting surprise 20% pay hikes, then you can expect a return in inflation. That has been happening in China for several years now. But so far, I have not heard the good news at home.
Check out who has been buying bonds for the last five years? More than half of the Treasury auctions have gone to foreign governments. First it was China, and more recently to European central banks. These people don?t sell. They just redirect new cash flows. You can count on them keeping the bonds they already have until maturity, even if it is 30 years out. They will never be the source of large scale selling.
Examine who has the highest fixed income weightings in the US. It is the fabled ?1%.? When I serviced some of the wealthiest old money families on behalf of Morgan Stanley during the 1980?s, I was struck by one thing. These were the most conservative people in the world. Protection of principal was their primary consideration. Interest income was almost an afterthought.
This is because the majority of wealthy investors inherited their money, and lived in constant fear they would lose what they have. This is because, as trust fund kids, they had no idea how to earn their own money and create new wealth. Once capital disappeared, it was gone for good. Get a job? Heaven forbid! This investor class also has no desire to get hit with the long-term capital gains such sales would generate. So don?t expect selling from them either.
So, at worst case, you might see another 20-25 basis point rise in Treasury yields to the top end of the new range. At that point, they will be a buy for a rally that might correspond to a stock market selloff and flight to safety bid for bonds which I expect this summer. This takes the ten-year back to a 1.90% yield.
This will be particularly crucial for those who have been trading leveraged short fixed income instruments like the (TBT). They saw a dramatic 12-point, 20% rally in May from bottom to top. Any further gains from here will be of the high risk, low return variety. Maybe, it?s time to sit down and smell the roses? Or take a long summer vacation, as I plan to.
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