Watch out for the term “Metaverse.”
It refers to the virtual world where all things exist in a virtual world.
And here is the great thing about the metaverse. The real world can only grow at an analog rate and is finite. The virtual world can grow at an exponential, viral rate and is infinite.
Infinite markets with infinite customers? That is something that companies and share prices really like to hear about.
We’re getting a peek into the Metaverse right now with the movement of many companies to a virtual world triggered by the pandemic. With employees working at home, a headquarters at a PO Box in Montana to meet regulatory minimums, selling digital services to a digital market, these companies effectively exist only in terms of electrons and bytes.
But suddenly, costs have plunged by 40%, productivity has improved by 40%, and profits have increased tenfold. These are companies you want to own.
No wonder the stock market is going up almost every day. It’s because companies like this are worth more, a lot more overnight!
It's how Silicon Valley leaped from having 80 unicorns to 800 in the span of two years. The future is happening fast.
If you are an old fart who doesn’t want to bother with all this computer mumbo jumbo, invest a few minutes playing Facebook’s (FB) Oculus Rift with your grandkids. Then sit down and watch the 2018 science fiction/fantasy movie Ready Player One. There is a sequel in the works. The second sequel will be you and me.
We have now just suffered the worst trading week since February, with the (SPY) off by a mere $8.5, or 1.9%. We may have a shot at another long-awaited 5% correction this week. If we do, I’ll put half my cash in the market. I’ll put the rest in at a 10% correction.
I highly doubt that stocks will fall by more than that given the massive weight of liquidity in the financial system, even though it’s September. My $475 (SPY) target for end of 2021 still stands and I’m sticking to it. You’re going to have to pry my cold dead fingers off of my forecast.
The only question is which sectors will lead. My bet is on domestic recovery stocks like banks, brokers, hotels, casinos, airlines, cruise lines, and railroads. Delta peaked two weeks ago and is now falling precipitously, especially in the south.
That sets up a second post-Covid recovery trade with the same sector leading the first time.
The way the pandemic ends is that the US gets to 90% immunity, where Covid becomes an annual flu shot. California is already there with 80% of the population vaccinated and 10% getting the disease. Alabama may get there with 60% vaccinations and 30% getting sick. But in a year, the whole country will be at 90%.
Then, we can get on with the rest of our lives.
The August Nonfarm Payroll Report Bombs, coming in at only 235,000 versus an expected 720,000, a huge miss. The headline Unemployment Rate fell 0.2% to 5.2%, a new post-pandemic low. Mysteriously, both stocks and bonds hated it. Manufacturing was up 37,000, while Leisure & Hospitality was zero and Retail at -28,000. Education LOST -25,000 during the back-to-school season. Average Hourly Earnings rose an astonishing 0.6% MOM, or 4.3% YOY. The U6 long-term unemployment rate fell to 8.8%. Goodbye taper. A shortage of workers was to blame, but the economic data has been worsening for a while now. Delta is taking a bigger bite than we thought.
JOLTS comes in at a blockbuster 10.9 million in July, a new record high. This is the number of job openings in the private sector. Anyone who wants a job can get a job. Blame the education gap. The problem is that there is demand for 10.9 million website designers, computer programmers, and internet marketers, and an endless supply of waiters and other restaurant workers.
The Fed says growth downshifted during the summer, thanks to delta and a worker shortage according to the Beige Book release. We already knew that, and a five-point selloff in bonds is telling us that Covid is declining and growth is back on.
Europe tapers, cutting back monthly Eurobond purchases 160-170 billion a month. Governor Christine Lagarde believes any inflation is temporary and the time for emergency stimulus is over. Can the Fed be far behind?
Seven million lose Unemployment Benefits. This should make available more workers whose shortage have been a drag on the economy. Accelerating growth can only be good for stocks.
El Salvador launches Bitcoin as a national currency, creating a national wallet, and offering every citizen $30 to open an account. Most of the accounts will be accessed via cell phones. The central bank bought 400 bitcoins worth $20 million as part of the rollout. The country’s president is helping to sort out technical glitches. Is Bitcoin the next global currency? Bitcoin dropped 10% on the news.
Tesla to make its own whips in a dramatic response to a structural global chip shortage that could last years. The news was good for a $30 pop in the stock this morning. Tesla is already one of the world’s largest chip users, and their needs are expected to jump 50-fold in the next ten years. The move justifies a much larger premium for the stock. It’s all about training the neural network.
Will a Bitcoin ETF approval spike the Market? There are a dozen applications with SEC for the first US-approved crypto ETF. When approved, billions of new cash will pile into Bitcoin off the back of the new improved legitimacy. Buy before the IPO, it’s a classic trading strategy.
My Ten-Year View
When we come out the other side of pandemic, 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 cheap, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The American coming out the other side of the pandemic will be far more efficient and profitable than the old. Dow 240,000 here we come!
My Mad Hedge Global Trading Dispatch is down 1.09% in September, thanks to a shortage of low-risk/high-return trading opportunities. My 2021 year-to-date performance soared to 77.48%. The Dow Average was up 13.10% so far in 2021.
That leaves me 60% in cash at 40% in short (TLT), and long (SPY) and (DIS). My last two positions expire in four trading days.
Although we have maxed out the profits with these two positions, I’ll keep them as there is nothing else to do. I’m keeping positions small as long as we are at extreme overbought conditions. The Volatility Index (VIX) now over $20 shows that an entry point may be near.
That brings my 12-year total return to 500.03%, some 2.00 times the S&P 500 (SPX) over the same period and a new all-time high. My 12-year average annualized return now stands at a new high of 42.85%, easily the highest in the industry.
My trailing one-year return popped back to positively eye-popping 115.05%. I truly have to pinch myself when I see numbers like this. I bet many of you are making the biggest money of your long lives.
We need to keep an eye on the number of US Coronavirus cases at 41 million and rising quickly and deaths topping 670,000, which you can find here.
The coming week will be slow on the data front.
On Monday, September 13, at 12:00 noon, US Inflation Expectations are released.
On Tuesday, September 14, at 8:30 AM, US Core Inflation is published, now the second biggest number of the month.
On Wednesday, September 15 at 9:15, Industrial Production for July is disclosed. At 9:30 AM, we get the New York Empire State Manufacturing Index for September.
On Thursday, September 16 at 8:30 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. We also get Retail Sales for August.
On Friday, September 17 at 8:30 AM, we learn the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for September. At 2:00 PM, the Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count is disclosed.
As for me, one of the great shortcomings of San Francisco is that we only have a theater district with two venues and it is in the Tenderloin, the worst neighborhood in the city, an area beset with homeless, drug addicts, and prostitution.
I was walking to a parking lot after a show one evening when I passed a doorway. Three men were violently attacking a blond woman. Never one to miss a good fight, I dove in, knocking two unconscious in 15 seconds (thank you Higaona Sensei!). Unfortunately, number three jumped to my side, pulled a knife, and stabbed me.
The attacker and the woman ran off, leaving me bleeding in a doorway. I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin General Hospital, bleeding all over the front seat of my car, where they sewed me up nicely and put me on some strong drugs.
The doctor said, “You shouldn’t be doing this at your age.”
I responded that “good Samaritans are always rewarded, even if the work is its own reward.”
Fortunately, I still had my Motorola Flip Phone with me, so I called Singapore from my hospital bed for a market update. I liked what I saw and bought 100 futures contracts on Japan’s Nikkei 225. This was back in 1999 when anything you touched went straight up.
Then, I passed out.
An hour later, I woke up, called Singapore again and bought another 100 futures contracts, not remembering the earlier buy. This went on all night long.
The next morning, I was awoken by a call from my staff who excitedly told me that the overnight position sheets had just come in and I had made 40% on the day.
Was there some mistake?
Then I got a somewhat tense call from my broker. I had a margin call. I had also exceeded the exchange limits for a single contract and owned the equivalent of $200 million worth of Nikkei. I told them to sell everything I had at market and go 100% cash.
That was exactly what they wanted to hear.
That left me up 60% on the year and it was only May.
I then called all of the investors in my hedge fund. I told them the good news, that I wouldn’t be doing anymore trades for the fund until I received my performance bonus the following January and was taking off on a long vacation. With a 2%/20% payout in those days, that meant I was owed 14% of the underlying assets of the fund at a very elevated valuation.
They said that’s great, have fun, by the way, how did you do it?
I answered, “Great drug selection.” No further questions were asked.
Then I launched on the mother of all spending sprees.
I flew to Germany and picked up a new Mercedes S600 V12 Sedan at the factory in Stuttgart for $160,000. I then immediately road-tested it on the Autobahn at 130 mph. I made it to Switzerland in only two hours. After all, my old car needed a new seat.
Next, I bought all new furniture for the entire house, each kid selecting their own unique style.
Then, I took the family to Las Vegas where we stayed in the “Rain Man Suite” at the Bellagio Hotel for $10,000 a night, where both the 1988 Rain Man and 2009 The Hangover were filmed.
I bought everyone in the family black wool Armani suits, plus a couple of Brioni’s for myself at $8,000 a pop. For good measure, I chartered a helicopter for a tour of the Grand Canyon the next day.
At the end of the year, I sold my hedge fund based on the incredible strength of my recent performance for an enormous premium. I then left the stock market to explore a new natural gas drilling technology I had heard about called “fracking.”
Four months later, the Dotcom Crash ensued in earnest.
I still have the scar on my right side, and it always itches just before it rains, which is now almost never. But it was worth it, every inch of it.
It’s all true, every word of it and I’ll swear to it on a stack of bibles.
