Global Market Comments
March 1, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WHY TECHNICAL ANALYSIS IS A DISASTER)
(SPY), (QQQ), (IWM), (VIX),
(TESTIMONIAL), (NVDA)
Posts
Global Market Comments
January 29, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?)
(SPY), (TLT), ($VIX), (MSFT), (META), (GOOGL),
(AMZN), (NVDA), (V), (PANW), (CCJ)
There can be too much of a good thing.
Inflation is dramatically falling, with Core PCE down to an amazing 2.6% YOY rate in December. At the same time, GDP growth came in at an incredible 3.3% in Q4 and 2.5% for all of 2023. The long-term average is 3.0%. It’s about as close to a Goldilocks scenario as we’ll ever get.
The problem arises when the economy gets TOO healthy right when the Fed is considering its first interest rate CUTS in four years. That could lead our nation’s central bank to postpone cuts or not to announce them at all.
That would suddenly put the three-month-old bull market on ice, perhaps indefinitely, which has given us one of the worst whipsaw markets I have ever seen. Sector leadership has changed three times so far in 2024. First, there was the AI 5, (MSFT), (META), (GOOGL), (AMZN), and (NVDA). Next came stocks that benefit the most from falling interest rates, financials, precious metals, base metals, industrials, bonds, and foreign currencies.
To say this would be a tough market to trade would be an understatement, evidenced by my multiple stop losses this month. The remedy for this is to shrink your portfolio, sit back, and wait for the market to tell you what to do. I have to say that with the Volatility Index ($VIX) camped out at the $12 handle, options are not offering a lot for you to chew on either.
If you are looking for any further proof that technology is accelerating far faster than we can understand, I shall recall for your edification my last weekend.
After my youngest went off to college, I had to get her headboard refinished because she spent two years in bed looking at her computer while enrolled in high school during COVID-19. She had completely worn the finish off but got all A’s.
So I went to Yelp to look for a furniture restoration business. I clicked on one restorer who had good reviews and lots of pictures, described the job, and included pictures. Within 60 seconds, I received not one bid for the job but four, as Yelp had put the job out for bid across its entire network. One offered to do the job the next day for $100.
Learning how easy it is to refinish furniture, I put a second job out for bid, a small beat-up desk which I picked up at an estate sale for $20. I learned that this was a 100-year-old Craftsman desk highly sought after by collectors worth $2,500. Absolutely, yes, it was worth the $750 cost of a total stripped-down restoration.
I’m thinking “poor furniture restorers”, but what they are losing in the price, they make up in volume. Their craft is in fact a dying one and they can charge whatever they want.
And now you know why I go to estate sales.
What kind of homework is my daughter getting these days? As a Computer Science major at the University of California, she was handed a box of calculators smashed with a hammer. Over a weekend, she was required to invent a tool that identified the good chips from the bad, write code to reprogram the chips, and then glue the good calculators back together.
By Sunday afternoon she had a box full of working but somewhat ugly calculators, thanks to my donation of Gorilla Glue. And this for a sophomore! Needless to say, I didn’t see much of my daughter last weekend, except when she came downstairs to do her laundry.
Next week, they have to fix cell phones.
Gulp! I doubt I could even get into the UC today, even though I graduated Magna Cum Laude 50 years ago. Such is life with college students.
Watch out! The future is happening fast!
So far in January, we are down -4.33%. My 2024 year-to-date performance is also at -4.33%. The S&P 500 (SPY) is up +1.14% so far in 2024. My trailing one-year return reached +54.54% versus +21.14% for the S&P 500.
That brings my 15-year total return to +672.30%. My average annualized return has retreated to +51.06%.
Some 63 of my 70 trades last year were profitable in 2023.
I am maintaining longs in (MSFT), (AMZN), (V), (PANW), and (CCJ).
US GDP Rocketed by 2.5% in 2023, cementing its position as the strongest major economy in the world. Q4 came in at a hot 3.3%. We’re going from soft landing to no landing at all. Unfortunately, the report also put our bond trade to sleep.
Inflation Falls, with the Core PCE index easing to 2.9% last month, the lowest since 2021. That’s in the face of consumer spending posting the biggest back-to-back increase in nearly a year. This is very positive for bond bulls. Buy (TLT) LEAPS on dips.
The Roaring Twenties are Back, says investment guru and old friend Ed Yardeni. He draws parallels with the runaway stock prices that followed the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed millions. Of course, you had a 10:1 margin during the twenties which made speculation much easier. Are same-day options any worse?
New Homes Sales Recover, on a falling interest rate push, up 8.0% to 664,000. Sales, however, can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales increased 4.4% on a year-on-year basis in December.
Netflix Soars on Big Subscriber Beat, up 8.6% on an add of 13 million new subscribers. It moved solidly into more sports content with the World Wrestling Entertainment deal. Buy (NFLX) on dips, which clearly won the streaming wars. I can’t get enough of The Rock, who is a genuinely nice guy.
Microsoft Tops $3 Trillion Valuation, cementing its hold on the AI lead. (MSFT) has been a top Mad hedge holding for years which we are currently long. Buy (MSFT) on dips which may have another $100 in it this year.
Freeport McMoRan Kills it, with an earnings upside blowout, taking the stock up 5%. CEO Richard Adkerson, a long-time Mad Hedge subscriber, says any problems are short-term. Political problems in Chile and Peru are an issue, which generates 40% of the world’s copper. Electrification of the US economy will continue to be a driving theme.
Mortgage Rates Plunge to 8-Month Low. The average fixed-rate 30-year mortgage fell to 6.60% as of Thursday from 6.66% the week prior, Freddie Mac said in its weekly report on home loan borrowing costs. The next Golden Age of Housing is here.
China Markets Dive, on news that the central bank was forced into the currency markets to support the yuan. Stock markets didn’t like it a bit, down 2.7% on the day. Overseas funds have sold roughly $1.6 billion in Chinese equities so far this year, with investor confidence bruised by signs of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. Offshore yuan tomorrow-next forwards jumped to a more than two-month high of 4.25 points late on Monday, reflecting signs of tighter liquidity conditions. Avoid China (FXI) like some stale egg foo young.
“Oppenheimer” Sweeps the Oscars, with a record 13 nominations. It’s a movie where I knew half the characters in real life from my work at the Nuclear Test site in Nevada. It was another opportunity to discuss advanced nuclear physics over dinner with my kids. Click here for the full list. The winners will be announced on March 10.
My Ten-Year View
When we come out the other side of the recession, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age or the next Roaring Twenties. The economy decarbonizing and technology hyper accelerating, creating enormous investment opportunities. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The new America will be far more efficient and profitable than the old.
Dow 240,000 here we come!
On Monday, January 29, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index was announced.
On Tuesday, January 30 at 8:30 AM EST, the S&P Case Shiller National Home Price Index is released. We also get the JOLTS Job Openings Report.
On Wednesday, January 31 at 2:00 PM, the ADP Private Jobs Opening Report is published. The Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision.
On Thursday, February 1 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced.
On Friday, February 2 at 2:30 PM, the December Nonfarm Payroll Report and Unemployment Rate is published. At 2:00 PM the Baker Hughes Rig Count is printed.
As for me, I received calls from six readers last week saying I remind them of Ernest Hemingway. This, no doubt, was the result of Ken Burns’ excellent documentary about the Nobel prize-winning writer on PBS last week.
It is no accident.
My grandfather drove for the Italian Red Cross on the Alpine front during WWI, where Hemingway got his start, so we had a connection right there.
Since I read Hemingway’s books in my mid-teens I decided I wanted to be him and became a war correspondent. In those days, you traveled by ship a lot, leaving ample time to finish off his complete work.
I visited his homes in Key West, Florida, and Ketchum, Idaho. His Cuban residence is high on my list, now that Castro is gone. His home in Cuba is on the menu.
I used to stay in the Hemingway Suite at the Ritz Hotel on Place Vendome in Paris where he lived during WWII. I had drinks at the Hemingway Bar downstairs where war correspondent Ernest shot a German colonel in the face at point-blank range. I still have the ashtrays.
Harry’s Bar in Venice, a Hemingway favorite, was a regular stopping-off point for me. I have those ashtrays too.
I even dated his granddaughter from his first wife, Hadley, the movie star Mariel Hemingway, before she got married, and when she was still being pursued by Robert de Niro and Woody Allen. Some genes skip generations and she was a dead ringer for her grandfather. She was the only Playboy centerfold I ever went out with. We still keep in touch.
So, I’ll spend the weekend watching Farewell to Arms….again, after I finish my writing.
Oh, and if you visit the Ritz Hotel today, you’ll find the ashtrays are now glued to the tables.
As for last summer, stayed in the Hemingway suite at the Hotel Post in Cortina d’Ampezzo Italy where he stayed in the 1950s to finish a book. Maybe some inspiration will rub off on me.
Good Luck and Good Trading,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
December 12, 2023
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(CONTANGO IN THE VIX EXPLAINED ONE MORE TIME),
(UVXY), (VIX), (SPY)
(QUANTITATIVE EASING EXPLAINED TO A 12-YEAR-OLD),
(TESTIMONIAL)
Global Market Comments
December 1, 2023
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(NOVEMBER 29 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
($VIX), UNG), (PANW), (SNOW), (HACK), (MSFT), (AAPL), (FCX), (TSLA), (F), (GM), (LLY), (CVX), (XOM), (RIVN), (TLT)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the November 29 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar, broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA.
Q: How much longer can the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) remain at such low levels?
A: They call this contract “The Widow Maker” for a reason. As long as the weather is warmer than usual, which has been a problem, (UNG) will remain cheap. We actually got up to $8 in the UNG a month ago and have since come back to $5.50. There are no signs of an energy shortage anywhere right now with the collapse of oil prices from $96 down to $70, so this could be the worst thing in the world if global warming continues. But I'm keeping my position. It’s basically worthless now anyway, but that has been a real shocker this year in the energy community—how cheap natural gas has gotten. And that is after supplying all on Germany’s Natgas needs with no notice.
Q: I still have Palo Alto Networks (PANW) open, what should I do?
A: You’re pretty much at a maximum profit now, so you might as well run it into the expiration because, at a Volatility Index ($VIX) of $12, there just aren’t many other attractive trades to put on right now. You’ll see that when we go through the charts. Everything has just had a massive move in our favor. It’s actually the sharpest move up in market history, so you don't want to go chasing things, and you certainly don't want to go short because that is against the long, medium, and short-term trends.
Q: Which of your positions would you suggest we can still buy right now?
A: None, except for two-year US treasury Bills to lock in high-interest rates at 4.8%. Everything is just wildly expensive on a short-term basis.
Q: When do you expect Freeport McMoRan (FCX) and the other commodities to rise?
A: Towards the middle of the year, the market will shift entirely out of technology and into domestic industrials and commodities, and we should expect exponential moves in those areas also as the economy recovers and interest rates fall. We are going to start putting LEAPS out on those pretty soon because those are the bargain of the century prices right now.
Q: I’m new to the program, and I noticed all of the trades are done as options spreads. What are the benefits of doing it in this way versus owning the underlying?
A: You get a leverage of 10X versus owning the underlying with limited risk. You also make money when markets do nothing because you are also short volatility when you do an options spread. In fact, every trade alert we send out gives you three choices usually: buy the stock, buy the options spread, or buy the ETF. So that way, you can cater your trading to your level of experience and risk tolerance. And if you want to know more, just go to our website, log in, and search for call spreads—there will be a vast library talking about the benefits of doing call spreads and how to execute them.
Q: What’s your favorite sector for next year?
A: Always a popular question for this time of the year, and that’s an easy answer.
Number one: cybersecurity. That means Palo Alto Networks (PANW), which we’re long, Snowflake (SNOW), which we’re also long, and Nvidia (NVDA), which we were long in October before it went completely nuts—it turns out that cyber security has a huge appetite for the high-end processors that Nvidia makes. There’s also an ETF on that—HACK, if you want lower volatility; so there’s three or four names for you right there. If I had to pick a single stock, the safest stock, I’d pick Microsoft (MSFT) right here; they have a 70% market share in PC operating systems worldwide, they are ramping up their efforts in AI with the ownership of ChatGPT, and it's really literally the safest stock in the market—likely to go up 30% next year. So if you can handle 30% plus a 0.80% dividend, Microsoft is your pick, but you might want to think about selling it mid-year when Freeport McMoRan (FCX) becomes my number one pick of the year.
Q: Is it too late to buy Microsoft (MSFT)?
A: Yes, wait for either a pullback of 10% or a flat line move sideways for a month, which is also called a time correction.
Q: I have several large companies I deal with that have all been hacked in the last couple of months. Several have been locked out of their systems or shut down for a month.
A: Yes, that’s absolutely going on everywhere. Also, governments have become favorite targets for hacking because they have the least amount of money to spend on cybersecurity. They are also the least sophisticated. So again, cybersecurity is a great business to be in; and by the way, I think we’re having gigantic moves in the cyber sector today. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is up $11.61—who can beat that? That’s nice, watching your longs going up in double digits every day.
Q: Is Apple (APPL) going into the banking business now that they and Goldman are going through a divorce?
A: Yes, Apple has been slowly sneaking into the banking business for years. Look no further than Apple Pay. They have several advantages they can bring to bear here, like all of you personal information they could possibly imagine.
Q: I don’t like General Motors (GM) even though they’ve announced buybacks and dividend increases—too concerned about EV slack, market, and labor costs.
A: I couldn’t agree with you more; I think (GM) goes under in 10 years. They’ll never catch up on EVs, and basically, the company will either sell Teslas under license or be sold for scrap metal like they were back in 2008. And it really is the height of hubris to announce a 17% share buyback, which is enormous—10 billion dollars—right after they pleaded poverty with the unions to get them to agree to only a 25% wage increase. So it just absolutely fails the smell test on every front.
Q: Do you see healthcare making a big move as larger companies are really beaten down?
A: You’ll have rallies in healthcare, but basically, they’re a defensive sector and the last thing in the world that you want in a runaway bull market is a defensive sector. You will get single stock moves like Eli Lilly (LLY) from people who are specifically playing hot areas like weight loss drugs and other companies developing cancer cures with AI. That’ll be another big story next year.
Q: Any chance for Ford (F) at this point?
A: Not in the long term; again, you go back to that market share chart I showed you—Ford is only at a 7% market share in EVs and 14 years behind Tesla (TSLA), which has a 52% share. I don’t think anybody has a chance. What may happen is Tesla will take over Ford at some point, just to get at the factories; but again it will be a “pennies on the dollar” offer.
Q: What about Toyota (TM); how long can their hybrid push last?
A: A long time, because for a lot of people, hybrids are the right solution—especially people who have to go long distances and don't have time to recharge or don't have access to recharging. The hybrids that they have now are really great. They run the first 50, 60, or 70 miles solely on battery power. And I know people who have hybrids with short commutes who still have the original tank of gas the car came with when they bought it new a year ago. All-electric isn't perfect for everyone; hybrids will catch what's left of that market. Also, hybrids have thousands more parts than electric cars do. So the profit margin will never be what it is on an EV.
Q: Will Chevron (CVX) and ExxonMobil (XOM) go up?
A: Oil does absolutely, you can expect 20-30% gains on any recovery in oil, and that’s why we own them. But it’s a 2024 story.
Q: What do you think about Rivian (RIVN) here?
A: It's a long-term play; we have the LEAPS in them. The stock is just about recovered to our costs and they're increasing production. If anyone else is going to make it in the EV sector, it will be Rivian, who is run by some genius from MIT. So yeah, I would be buying dips in Rivian but I wouldn't chase.
Q: How will the iShares 20 Plus Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) perform in the next few months?
A: Kind of late for the LEAPS. That was really an October play, but any $ 5-point pullback and I will be in there with LEAPS because I think (TLT) hits $120 next year.
Q: Please explain the demise of Crypto.
A: Crypto did great when we had a cash surplus and an asset shortage like in 2019-2021. We now have the opposite—a cash shortage and an asset oversupply. Crypto doesn't do well in that situation. On top of that, the guys who runs every major crypto platform are looking at prison time now because of massive widespread theft. Although you do see crypto has gone up nearly a hundred percent this year, that doesn't back out all the Crypto losses from theft. It would be interesting to find out what the true performance of Crypto would be if you included the 50% that was stolen by the Crypto custodians in one way or the other. So Crypto is great when stocks were too expensive, but now they're all cheap and they pay dividends. So, much better fish to fry these days as opposed to the last market top.
Q: Do you think the election will have any effect on the stock market next year?
A: Absolutely not. Even a government shutdown won't have an effect because the fundamentals are now so powerful. We're basically discounting falling interest rates for the next 5 years. Your retirement funds will absolutely love that.
To watch a replay of this webinar with all the charts, bells, whistles, and classic rock music, just log on to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, go to MY ACCOUNT, select your subscription (GLOBAL TRADING DISPATCH, TECHNOLOGY LETTER, or Jacquie's Post), then click on WEBINARS, and all the webinars from the last 12 years are there in all their glory.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
October 12, 2023
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 SARASOTA, FLORIDA GENERAL JAMES MATTIS STRATEGY LUNCHEON)
(WHY TECHNICAL ANALYSIS DIS A DISASTER)
(SPY), (QQQ), (IWM), (VIX),
(TESTIMONIAL)
Global Market Comments
September 6, 2023
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(HOW TO MAKE A KILLING IN TESLA)
(TESLA), (SPY), (VIX)
There is no doubt in my mind that a major leg up in Tesla shares is coming, possibly soon. That’s because of the increasing number of “Bigfoot” type sightings of the Cybertruck, the most revolutionary new vehicle launch in a decade.
Social media is increasingly being populated by links to secret videos, drone pictures, charging station sightings, and insider leaks.
The car will me made of flat stainless-steel panels to cut costs on those expensive curves. The windows are armor-plated. It has a towing capacity of 14,000 pounds, can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, and boasts a 500-mile range. It moves the auto industry to a 48-volt platform to save on copper costs. You can have all of this starting at $60,000.
To get on the waiting list, please click here. But you may have to wait for two years to get one. You’ll be somewhere in the 2 million waiting list.
Not only did I pay for this year’s summer vacation with this year’s Tesla profits, and it was not exactly a cheap one, but I paid for next year’s as well. I’m taking a Queen Mary owner’s suite, Orient Express, Hotel Cipriani in Venice kind of vacation.
I’m about to make a lot more.
I get most of my ideas for trade alerts from my own trading. They’re just infinitely more aggressive than the ones I send to the Mad Hedge Trade Alert service. I am much more careful with client money than my own, as I hate losing other people’s money more than anything.
I would never recommend what I did below for mere mortals. If I did, I’d probably end up in jail.
One great high risk leveraged strategy is to sell short Tesla puts outright. All my puts that I sold short this month for $12-$16 are expiring worthless.
It’s not for the faint of heart and it takes a half-century of risk tolerance building to do this kind of trading. Never short more puts than you can afford to buy the stock.
There were a few things required to do such a trade.
Since no one ever gets the absolute bottom, the initial outcome of a large leveraged position is a big loss. Most of you would stop out of the position when this happens. I kept doubling up.
For I had the power of my own convictions.
By selling short puts, I was more than happy to buy Tesla stock lower down if the stock went against me. Using margin, I could buy a lot of stock.
Now that’s a trade!
When I added this position, I thought it highly unlikely that I would get to buy Tesla stock at low prices for the following reasons:
1) The stock market was oversold.
2) Tesla was even more oversold, having fallen 30%.
3) A classic “cup and handle” formation was setting up on the charts. Upside breakout day was July 24.
4) The Volatility Index (VIX) failed to confirm the selloff.
5) After sitting in the sidelines investors had accumulated massive amounts of cash.
6) We are about to move into strongly positive seasonals.
7) Tesla is getting ready to buy back its own stock.
8) Tesla bears, and there are always a lot of them out there, had just freshly topped up their short positions, leaving the stock ripe for a short squeeze.
9) Tesla is one of the most volatile stocks in the market, with option implied volatility regularly hitting 100%. By comparison, the S&P 500 (SPX) sits at a positively boring 20%.
10) Fears of a deep recession were wildly overblown.
The real cherry on top of the cake was the $370 billion Biden Climate bill, which no one expected, came totally out of the blue, and had a ballistic effect on Tesla shares. Tesla is the overwhelming beneficiary of this legislation.
They might as well have called it the “Tesla shareholder enrichment plan.”
It’s easy to commit to paying $245 for a stock that you think someday will be worth $10,000. Tesla is currently the fastest-growing car company in the world with a near global monopoly in EVs. Its market share is 66%. The best Henry Ford could do with Ford Motors (F) in the 1910s was a US market share of 75%.
So, I will probably be doing a lot more of these. I don’t need the money; I just love winning.
You’ll be the first to know.
Tesla Just Bought Me Another Tesla
Global Market Comments
July 21, 2023
Fiat Lux
Featured Trades:
(WHAT THE NEXT RECESSION WILL LOOK LIKE),
(FB), (AAPL), (NFLX), (GOOGL), (KSS), (VIX), (MS), (GS),
(TESTIMONIAL)
CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.