There is some interesting news out of China that they may in fact re-export some of their copper stockpiles.  Here is the link to the Bloomberg story “China May Re-Export Copper on Stockpiles.”   While not a rally killer by itself this is pretty damning evidence that a major part of the rally in commodities came from Chinese stimulus buying.  This was more bargain buying than an actual demand driven rally.  This could lead to a good sized move down as demand has not picked up inline with supply and now China is not only done buying but may even start to sell.

As you an see in the chart below copper has been in a steady uptrend since the end of 2008 and the move preceded the rally in other risk assets that started in March 2009.  The trend has been very consistent and is up about 130% in that time. On the chart below you can also see that as China has presumably stopped their buying we have seen a momentum divergence as the copper rally has slowed down.  (click on chart twice to enlarge)

Copper

We would be wary of any move higher in copper and are currently looking at some possible shorts in the copper related ETF/ETN products JJC-Copper ETN and DBB-Base Metals ETF on a break of the trend line.  If China which appeared to be the only buyer earlier this year, and is such a huge part of the emerging growth story, has too much then who is left to buy?

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-We are not currently long or short any industrial metals but that could change at any time.

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Did China Buy Too Much Copper
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/11/10/china-copper-commodities/

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Since the start of our newsletter we have been using a relative strength table that looked at Fidelity Select Sector Funds to show what industry groups are leading and which groups are lagging.  The relative strength calculation is similar to the style used by Bill Oneil and IBD but is slightly shorter term in nature. We used the Fido Funds due the their price history and breadth of different groups.  Now that there are not only enough different industry group ETF’s, but also the needed price history we have revamped the model to use ETF’s instead.

We publish one list for United States industry groups and one that is focused on global ETF’s with several country and a few sector specific ETF’s.  These tables are valuable in a few ways.  One is that we have developed a trading model based upon them that uses the rankings along with buy, sell, and money management rules.  Over time this model has beaten the market with far less risk.  The other way that these tables are useful is that they show you what is strong and what is weak.

While this concept is not rocket science we are consistently surprised how little attention it is given by other traders.  By using relative strength we can see what is really working and where investors are going.  Many times the supposed “hot sector” is not really that hot.  By looking at the tables we can see what is really working and what is not.  For instance looking at the Global RS Ranking table below you can see the leaders and the laggards.  While it is no surprise that Brazil is at the top when was the last time you saw someone on CNBC telling you to buy Indonesia or Turkey?  Yeah we missed that segment as well. (click on table twice to enlarge)

Global RS Rankings

Right now this table is confirming to us that for the most part developed nations are weak and should be sold and that emerging markets are strong and should be bought.  No, this is not the first or the only tool that told us this same thing but it is one way in which we can systematically be long the best areas of the world and short the worst areas of the world.  It also gives us a road map of where investors are putting their money and where they are withdrawing it.

Another point worth noting is that while we are starting to run this as a “standalone system,” the system represents only a part of our portfolio.  In our trading and our newsletter model portfolio we use several different methods in order to build a less correlated portfolio trading across asset classes.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-We are long EWZ-Brazil, EWT-Taiwan, and EWM-Malaysia

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Macro Trading Using Relative Stength
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/11/10/macro-trading-relative-strength/

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A lot is made of relative returns and how one strategy or fund does against the SP500.  While not the best benchmark for something like Global Macro it is nonetheless the benchmark that everyone is most familiar with and that is used the most on CNBC and in magazines.  So how does global macro stack up to the SP500?

The chart below shows how $1000 invested in the SP500 and the Barclays Global Macro Index would have done for YTD for 2009.  As you can see the SP500 while getting off to a rocky start is now leading the macro index by 9.68% so far.  While the performance of the SP500 has been impressive the other side of the story is that to get the 18.04% return in the SP500 you first had to go through a -19.56% drawdown in January and February to get it.  Contrast that to the Global Macro Index where you had a -2.06% drawdown and a 6.63% return YTD.  Yeah you are outperforming with the SP500 but the volatility has been huge. (click on chart to enlarge)

Barclays Global Macro Index vs SP500 2009 YTD

Of course nine months is not usually the best representation of a strategy.  Going from 1997 to the end of September 2009, how has the SP500 done in absolute and relative terms?  Since 1997 the SP500 has given a total return of 42.70% and a CAGR of 3.07%.  The Global Macro Index on the other hand has delivered a total return of 237.91% in the same time and a CAGR of 10.92%.  Looking at the chart below you can see that while the SP500 has periods of serious out performance, over time it has lagged in a big way. (click on chart to enlarge)

Barclays Global Macro Index vs SP500 1997-September 2009

Not only has the SP500 lagged in total return but when looking at the risk taken to achieve the anemic 42.7% you really have to step back and rethink a long only equity approach.  In fact if you have been in a SP500 index fund since 1997 we excuse you to go bang your head against the wall for a few minutes.  Once you are back look at the chart below of the drawdowns that you had to endure to get that awesome 42.7% total return.  Yes, you see two drawdowns over -45% each.  In 2002 we were down -46.28% and in early 2009 we were down -52.56%.  All this for a return that was not much better then sitting in T-Bills. (click on chart to enlarge)

SP500 Drawdown 1997-September 2009

Looking at the same chart for the Global Macro Index below we can see that the drawdowns are far lower and shorter in duration.  In fact the worst drawdown that we have seen so far is -6.42% in October 2008 and right now we are at new equity highs while the SP500 is still -31.78% below its highs.(click on chart to enlarge)

Barclays Global Macro Index Drawdown 1997-September 2009

Does this mean that everyone should go out and invest all their money in global macro and buy our weekly global macro newsletter?  No, on the first and yes on the latter.   All kidding aside what this does show is the fallacy of long only equity investing.  While being 100% invested in equities is great when they are moving higher you get absolutely crushed when things come crashing down.  In global macro you are not beholden to the possibility of equity risk premia but instead are able to look for the best risk to reward opportunities out there in any asset class.  This includes stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, and more.  This flexibility to go where the best opportunities are enables the global macro investor to outperform not in any given year but in a full market cycle.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-We are a global macro research company and are therefore a bit biased in our investment views.

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: macro trading vs SP500 1997-September 2009
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/10/07/macro-trading-vs-sp500-1997-september-2009

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In our last post we discussed how we at The Macro Trader think that risk is vastly under-priced.  We looked at several different volatility indexes as well as Bill Luby and VixandMore.com’s JunkDEX.  The JunkDEX shows how well stocks like AIG, FNM, C, CIT, and BAC are doing.  As you can see in our previous post “Volatility Indexes, Risk Appetite, Mispriced Risk, And Where We Think We Are Headed” the JunkDEX  has had a monster rally.  Usually this would signal at least a short term top as speculative fever burns out.   Obviously the rally was not done and we are up since then.

To more quantitatively show the huge run up in risky assets we went looking for some factor based indexes that would show the performance of “good” and “bad” companies.  In our search we came across some custom stock baskets from Goldman Sachs that use Edward Altman’s famous Z-score to separate stocks into strong and weak balance sheet indexes.

The Altman Z-score uses 5 financial ratios.  Altman took the 5 ratios and using statistical techniques was able to build the Z-score which predicts a companies probability of failure.  The higher the score the safer the business is and the lower the score the more danger there is of insolvency.

As was to be expected the performance between the weak and the strong balance sheet stocks has been drastic over the last 6-months.  As you can see in the chart below the low Z-score basket has vastly outperformed the high Z-score basket.  In fact the weak balance sheet basket has done almost twice as good as the strong balance sheet basket of stocks. (click on chart to enlarge)

Goldman Sachs SP500 Strong and Weak Balance Sheet Baskets 6-Months

While the result is not too surprising it is an example of bad investor behavior.  Academics as well as practitioners have found time and time again that safe low volatility stocks outperform risky volatile stocks over a full market cycle.  In fact if you look at the chart below you can see how the roles between the strong and the weak balance sheet baskets are totally reversed.  The strong balance sheet stocks are positive for the last five years while the weak balance sheet stocks are still very negative.  Another thing to notice is that the junk stocks went down a lot faster and more consistently then the quality stocks when the market tanked over the last two years. (click on chart to enlarge)

Goldman Sachs SP500 Strong and Weak Balance Sheet Baskets 5-Years

So what are we to take from all of this?  We think that the market is far too speculative given the current economic backdrop.  Earnings while “better then expected” are at record lows, unemployment is at highs not seen since the depression, we are experiencing deflation for the first time in several decades, the consumer is retrenching and not consuming, and really the only true “green shoot” was that it is not yet the end of the world.

Yes, we can go higher from here but the odds do not favor being heavily long right now.  Our basic forecast at The Macro Trader is that in the not too distant future we will have a correction if not worse and we will be able to buy stocks at a better price then where they are currently sitting.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-In The Macro Trader newsletter we are short some QQQQ-NASDAQ 100 ETF

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Is Risk Dead? Or Is This A Bear Market Junk Rally?
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/09/11/is-risk-dead-global-macro-trader/

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If over the past six months or so it has seemed as if you were partying like it was 1999 it might be time to reevaluate your stance.  One thing that we have been taking a closer look at lately is the pricing of risk.  Obviously when investors think that risks are low they will demonstrate risk seeking behavior.  We have seen this as the SP500 has climbed 56.6% from the March lows to the highs on 8/28/09.  With a rise like that you would think that 2008 never happened, of course if you believe that then you also believe  in a land of make believe with money trees, the fountain of youth, and SI models for all of us.

Of course some investors counter saying that while things could be better we are seeing the beginning of a recovery.  They then say that while the market will likely climb slower, that it will still climb higher.

While the above scenario is possible, anything is possible.  The more important question is to decide if the rewards outweigh the risk involved in being long equities right now.  Or even if at this point the better risk reward trade is to the downside.

Lets look at a few “risk gauges” or “fear indexes” as the press likes to call volatility indexes.  The first is of course the VIX.  After spiking to all time highs in October and November of 2008 we are already well on our way towards what was considered a “normal” level back in early 2008 before Bear Stearns.  The potential risks were obviously very mispriced at the beginning of 2008, are they mispriced again?  While likely not as off as they were at the beginning of 2008 we still think that there are a lot more real and potential risks then the market is currently pricing in. (Click on chart to enlarge)

SP500 VIX

What about foreign markets?  How do investors perceive the potential risks abroad?  Well if the VDAX is any gauge then investors see a rosy future in Europe as well.  Again maybe there are no big risks and maybe the EU is rock solid.  Then again maybe not.  With the complete lack of liquidity that businesses have had over the past several months in the EU it is really surprising that the VDAX is back to pre-crisis levels. (Click on chart to enlarge)

German DAX VIX

What about other asset classes?  What are investors saying about potential risks?  Using the MOVE Index which measures the range in which Treasury yields are expected to move over the next 12-months we can see that even here investors are becoming increasingly complacent.  What happened to the runaway inflation that we keep hearing is right around the corner?  Right now the market is saying that we will be in a 130 basis point range for the next 12-months. In The Macro Trader weekly newsletter we are long the TLT 20+ Year Treasury ETF and are expecting a bigger move then is currently implied via the MOVE index. (Click on chart to enlarge)

MOVE Index

Even in the currency markets we are seeing extreme complacency.  Apparently investors the world over are back to selling dollars in exchange for anything.  While the USD has its issues other currencies do to.  Right now the currency markets are not participating in the Keynes beauty pageant where you are trying to pick the girl that you think the judges will think is the beautiful.  No, with the current state of the global economy we are in the least ugly pig contest where we are only trying to find the least ugly.  That being said investors do not appear to see a lot of volatility any time soon. (Click on chart to enlarge)

JPM G-7 VIX

Even the emerging market currency volatility index is showing complacency. What happened to the banking issues in Eastern Europe? Apparently they vanished, or at least that is what it seems as though the market is telling us.  (Click on chart to enlarge)

JPM Emerging Market FX VIX

Even commodities markets are pricing in realtively low risk. While the price history of the Crude Oil and Gold volatility indexes does not go back as far as we would like, you can get a feel for what is happening as both indexes are dropping at a very steady rate.  Do investors really think that volatility will stay that low?  What happened to the oil spike if demand comes back?  And what happens if gold breaks $1000 on fears of hyper inflation?  (Click on charts to enlarge)

Crude Oil VIX

Gold VIX

Another excellent tool to evaluate the blind risk taking happening right now in the stock market is the JunkDEX invented by Bill Luby over at VIX and More.  By taking an equal weighting of junk stocks AIG, FNM, C, CIT, and BAC you can see how crazy or composed investors are acting. While we have seen, and actually use, an index of high momentum stocks we had never thought of making an index that tracks junk stocks to gauge investors risk appetite.

As you can see in the chart of the JunkDEX below the junk led the market off the bottom and then lagged until the last month when the index shot up +157.36% in a little over a month.  While it has pulled back over the last two days we are still in awe that investors are dumb enough to buy this junk at these prices. (Click on chart to enlarge)

VIX and More JunkDEX* vs SP500

After looking at all of this we need to ask ourselves if the rewards outweigh the risk to stay long?  Or if we should be flat or short.  In case you have not guessed we currently think that the risk reward is pointing to the downside.

Looking at the QQQQ we have a setup with a solid risk to reward situation. As you can see in the chart below the QQQQ has rallied back to its 50% retracement level, its 200-week moving average, and its downtrend line extending from October 2007.  While it could of course rally higher we like the risk reward enough to have put on a modest short position in our weekly Macro Trader newsletter. (Click on chart to enlarge)

QQQQ-NASDAQ 100 ETF

While not quite as nice of a setup as the NASDAQ 100, the SP500 also looks like a solid risk reward trade to the short side.  As you can see in the chart below of the SPY-SP500 ETF it has rallied up to the upper Bollinger Band and has already started to come back in.  We are looking for a move back to at least the $95-96 area. (Click on chart to enlarge)

SPY SP500 ETF

Obviously anything can happen.  The market could go up every day for the next year, or it could go down every day, but our job as traders is to look for the best risk to reward scenarios that we can find and place trades on probable scenarios and right now we think the most likely scenario is for the market to at least have a pullback if not a correction back towards its 200-day moving average.  Of course if this happens we will see the volatility indexes tick upwards to more realistic levels given our current economic environment.

*Our JunkDEX differs a bit from the one you can see at VIX and More.  After looking into it we found that  we built the index by simulating a $1000 investment in the index and in the SPY and Bill built it by normalizing the index starting value so we have slightly different values.  But don’t worry as the chart looks essentially the same and shows the same investor insanity.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-In The Macro Trader newsletter as well as our accounts we are currently short some QQQQ-NASDAQ 100 ETF and long some TLT 20+ Year Treasury ETF.

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Volatility Indexes, Risk Appetite, Mispriced Risk, And Where We Think We Are Headed
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/09/02/mispriced-risk-macro-trader

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After being the largest hedge fund strategy in 1990 representing 71% of the overall hedge fund assets global macro has shrunk and now only represents about 15% of total assets.  While most people assume that this dropoff in assets was due to poor performance the numbers actually show a totally different story.  In fact according to the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes, global macro has been the number one investment strategy with a total return of 502% from 1994 through June 2009.  Compare that with a total return of 335% from long short equity or 321% from event driven funds.

Of course most investors also have a misguided perception that every trade is like the trade that “broke the Bank of England.”  That trade in 1992 made Soros and his Quantum Fund over $1 Billion in a few days and garnered a lot of publicity.  The funny thing is that in a study done later by the IMF it was shown that if anything hedge funds shorting the Pound actually dampened the effects.  And in interviews since it is obvious that while the position size was huge the realistic downside was not.  Yes, Soros had a $10 Billion position on that week but thats not the right way to look at it.  Instead he and his portfolio manager Stanley Druckenmiller figured that if they were wrong they would lose a few hundred million at worst and that if they were right they would earn a billion or more.  Anyone who has traded for any period of time will tell you that a trade that has a risk to reward ratio of 5:1 is a fantastic trade.  As you can see, not only did Soros and Druckenmiller not break a bank, but they also did not take a huge outsized risk.

So while most investors think that global macro is made up of a bunch of drunk cowboys that are always swinging for the fences the real stories, and the numbers behind them do not bear this out.  In fact if you look at what global macro has actually done you will see that macro traders are some of the best risk managers in the world.  In the chart below we have the Barclays Group Global Macro Index and the SP500.  Starting with $1000 from 1997 to the end of July 2009 the Global Macro Index delivered 219.77% with a worst case drawdown of 6.24%.  Contrast that with the SP500 which from 1997 tot he end of July 2009 only delivered 33.30% with a worst case drawdown of -52.56%. (click on chart to enlarge)

Barclays Group Global Macro Index Vs. SP500 Jan 1997-July 2009

The above chart shows how well that global macro has done in absolute terms since 1997 but what about the risk that they took to achive these results?  Well as you an see in the chart the dips in the macro index look a lot shallower and shorter then the dips in the SP500.  Looking at the actual drawdowns shows that this is in fact the case.

In the chart below we have the drawdowns of the SP500 and then the drawdowns of the Barclays Group Global Macro Index.  As you can see the SP500 has had two massive drawdowns in the last 12 years.  The SP500 dropped over -46% in 2002 and then dropped over -52% in 2008.  In fact as of the end of July 2009 the SP500 is still down over -36%.  Contrast this with the Barclays Global macro Index which has had a worst case drawdown of -6.42% and is currently only -3.22% away from new equity highs. (click on chart to enlarge)

Barclays Group Global Macro Index and SP500 drawdowns Jan 1997-July 2009

As you can see the perception of the global macro trader as a gunslinging cowboy is anything but the truth.  Instead they are some of the most consistent and risk adverse traders in the world.  In fact some of the hedge funds with the longest, and best, track records are global macro funds.  Three of the best and longest running global macro funds are Soros and his Quantum fund which have delivered north of 30% annually since 1967, Bruce Kovner and Caxton Associates have delivered over 25% annually since 1983, and Paul Tudor Jones and his BVI Global Fund has returned 23% annually since 1986.  Obviously these are some of the best of the best but can you name three other fund managers with returns like this, that also follow the same basic strategy?

So what enables global macro to do so well when everyone else is rapidly losing money?  Global macro does well because of the fact that it is entirely opportunistic.  Macro does not pigeonhole an investor into US equities or emerging market bonds, or European event arbitrage.  Instead macro enables investors to go wherever and whenever.  By trading all four major asset classes not only can macro traders generate uncorrelated returns but can also see dislocations that other investors miss, or in some cases are forced to miss.  For example if a long/short equity manager thinks that we are on the verge of hyperinflation and wants to be long gold he has two different options.  He can go long companies that should do well in the face of inflation and then go short stocks that should do poorly.  The macro trader on the other hand has far more flexibility and can go long commodities, go long and short currencies, go short regular bonds, long TIPS, and can still go long and short stocks.  The opportunity set is much larger for the global macro trader then it is for the long/short equity manager.

Going forward we see no reason to believe that global macro will not continue to outperform.  When we are in a bubble and everyone is making money, macro will perform inline or slightly underperform, and when things go crazy and everyone else is losing money global macro will be generating positive returns.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Global Macro Trading
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/08/05/global-macro-trading/

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If you have been following port data you no doubt saw the large spike in March of both inbound and outbound volume, and then a bit of continuation in April and May.  A lot of people, both mainstream media as well as bloggers, came out saying that this was a huge green shoot and a sign that things were improving for the global economy.  The Macro Trader came out with this post (click here) where we explained that there is a lot of seasonal influence in shipping and without looking at it you are missing a huge part of the picture.

Looking at the data below is the chart for the month of March from 1995-2009 (click to enlarge).  As you can see March is a historically strong month, in fact it is historically the strongest month of the year.  So while we had a strong rebound in month to month data that was to be expected in March.  What many commentators forgot to mention was the year over year numbers which were anything but impressive, being down -17.21% that same month, not exactly the definition of a green shoot.

March Data

So where are we now?  Well after March we had slight increases in both April and May.  Historically April is the second best month of the year, so again not very unexpected.  In June we had a decline of -6.02%, and a year over year decline of -19.31% in total loaded volume. Looking at the chart below (click to enlarge) you can see that seasonality is easily seen in the data and that we are a ways off from a new move higher.

Combined Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles Data

We looked in the dictionary of overused terms and negative numbers were not under the term “Green Shoots”, however when we looked under weeds the exact definition was “negative numbers.”  OK, maybe that was a sad attempt at being funny but still the numbers are not pointing to a current increase in global shipping. To help smooth out the data and show the long term trend of shipping data here is a chart of total loaded along with a 12-month moving average (click to enlarge).  As you can see we are still in a downtrend and it will take more then a few months of increased activity to show real improvement.

Total Loaded with 12-Month SMA

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

http://TheMacroTrader.com

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Port Data, Green Shoot or Weed?
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/07/19/port-data-green-shoot-or-a-weed/

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In our last post we discussed our views on deflation and how it will  be around  longer then most investors think.  Most people are stuck on the idea that hyper inflation is just around the corner and that you must be buying gold, most other commodities, and Asian stocks and at the same time short the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, US Treasuries, and US stocks.  Eventually this may be the right stance, but for now we think, along with the market, that it is the wrong view for the short and medium term.

The main issue stems from the idea that because the government has printed a gazillion dollars that we MUST have hyper inflation tomorrow.  The reality is that until that money is actually in circulation it will not cause inflation.  If you look at the financial situation of most banks it is obvious that not only are they not lending, but they are still so weak that they can’t lend.  Until they have rebuilt their balance sheets they will remain weak and unable to do any large scale lending on anything but bad terms.

Add to this the fact that consumers are saving more and more and you have massive debt deflation.  Consumers that are employed are paying down debt while the unemployed are unable to go into much more debt as credit card companies have curtailed their lending and the housing ATM is shut down.

As the global financial markets continue to deflate we have a few trends that are benefiting from this.  One that we have already covered is that of going long US Treasury bonds.  Another trend that we have shared with our subscribers is that of going long the Japanese Yen.  Long viewed as the funding currency for the carry trade , over the past 18 months the Yen has changed course and is now a safe haven currency.  Every time that investors have fled risky assets such as stocks and corporate debt then have flocked to the Yen.  As investors increasingly realize that the current threat is continued deflation and not inflation we think that they will gravitate out of stocks and into Treasury bonds and the Yen.

In the chart below (click to enlarge) you can see that since 1998 the Yen had been consolidating until breaking out back in March of 2008 as the financial crisis accelerated with the demise of Bear Stearns.  This breakout later pulled back before breaking out again and making a large move lower.

Japanese Yen 15-Year Weekly

As you can see in this chart (click to enlarge) the last two pullbacks have found support at the 50% retracement levels.  While we don’t think that Fibonacci levels have some mystical power, we do use them to find opportunities to buy pullbacks in a trend.

Japanese Yen 3-Year Weekly With Retracements

Finally as you can see in this daily chart of the last year (click to enlarge) you can see that we finally have broken out of an almost year long consolidation.  While not a perfect triangle it obviously contracted more and more until finally breaking out over the last few days.

Japanese Yen 1-Year Daily Chart

Looking at the 15-year long term chart of the Yen we are expecting a move up to 114 and would not be surprised to see it make new highs at 120 in the coming months (If you are looking at the USD/JPY cross the levels would be 88 and 80).  Although anyone who is a macro trader is no doubt aware of this move we have found that most equity investors skip over currencies and fixed income themes, thinking that they have nothing to do with them.  The reality is that the currency and fixed income markets can give great signals for when risk is high or low and should be followed by all investors.

Happy Trading,

The Macro Trader

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Debt Deflation and the Japanese Yen
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/07/09/debt-deflation-and-the-japanese-yen/

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Long term Treasury yields have been in a 30 year downtrend. As you can see in the chart below we are testing this downtrend line right now.

30-Year Treasury Yield

Why are yields rising?  There are a variety of reasons, each at least partially true.  One of the primary reasons that investors have been dumping bonds as of late is due to the fact that the government has been printing money as fast as ever, and spending it even faster.  This can, and likley will, lead to some strong inflation down the road.  That being said we think that the inflation trade is a bit overdone for now as it appears as though we will be in a deflationary state for at least the rest of the year.

Another major reason that bonds have been selling off is due to the fact that the United States has far more unfunded libailitis then it can hope to pay off without some major dollar devaluation.  While we have years to go before an eventual and inevitable credit downgrade, we think that it is a near certaintly that it will happen.

The last major reason for investors to be selling off Treasury bonds is due to the fact that they yields were simply too low.  Who wants to lend money for 30 years at 2.6%?  In anything less then an all out depression a yield of 2.6% is terrible.  Consequently bond investors started to leave Treasuries,  and have continued to leave as they go into investment grade corporate bonds, junk bonds, and municipal bonds.  This selloff in bonds has of course caused yields to climb higher and higher, finally hitting one year highs.

Due to the violent selling in long term Treasuries we see some potential on the long side.  Yes, long term we are bearish and feel that they have only begun a multi year fall from grace.  But for now they are extremely oversold and we see a solid risk to reward opportunity.

The chart below shows the 30-Year yield, the distance from the 200-day moving average, and both the 1 and 2 standard deviations from the historic mean.  Essentially this chart shows how oversold or overbought yields are in relation to its historic relationships with its 200-day moving average.  As you can see in this chart we have gone from a drastically oversold condition into a drastically overbought condition.  Remember that this chart shows the yield of the 30-Year bonds so it is charted inversely to the actual bonds.

TYX 30-Year Reversion to the Mean

As seen in the long term chart of the 30-Year yield we are right at a 30 year resistance line.  While we will eventually break above that line, for now we are looking for a strong rebound.  Looking at the chart below of the TLT 20+ Year Treasury ETF we have drawn two different lines.  The first line is a short term downtrend line that is right at $96.  The second line is just short of $100 and is a major area of resistance.  Essentially we are looking for a pullback into one if not both of these areas.  In our model portfolio we are already long and are looking to sell if we can hit either of our targets.

TLT 20+ Year Treasury ETF

Happy Trading,

The Macro Trader

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-We currently have a position in TLT

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: Our Macro View On Treasury Bonds
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/06/16/our-macro-view-on-treasury-bonds/

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In our ETF based newsletter, the carry trade is one of the strategies that we employ.  For those unfamiliar with the carry trade, you are essentially trading the interest rate differentials of different countries.  You short a low-yielding currency and go  long a higher-yielding currency.

You can make money in two ways.  You earn the “carry” if the currencies remain very stable, and neither move.  You can also make money in this trade by being correct in the direction.  For instance if you are short the Japanese Yen and long the Australian dollar, then you can also make money if the Australian dollar goes up, and the Yen goes down.

As an example of how to earn the carry, lets look at the Japanese Yen versus the Australian Dollar.  The Yen has been the carry trade vehicle of choice for much of the past decade because Japan has consistently had extremely low interest rates.  Australia, on the other hand, has had relatively high rates over the last decade.

To construct the differential for this trade, take one rate and subtract the other rate. In the chart below, we plot the difference between the AUD and the Yen since the beginning of 2007.  As you can see, at one point the carry was as high as 7.34, but it has since declined to 2.69.  If you had been long the AUD and short the Yen, you would have earned this interest rate differential the whole time.

AUD-JPY Interest Rate Differential

Of course as we already mentioned, in order to make money on the carry trade, your long must outperform or stay flat relative to your short position in order to make money since a big directional move against you will wipe away any gains that you would be making solely off the carry.

There have been several academic studies as well as real world trading results that show that volatility is the biggest risk that the carry trade faces.  Over the years, most studies were stuck using the SP500 VIX as a proxy for global financial market volatility.  While it correlates quite well, there are now some far better options to help track and manage risk in the currency markets.  We at The Macro Trader use the JP Morgan G-7 VIX index for our carry trading model as it correlates extremely well to the volatility in the DBV-Currency Harvest Trust ETF.

What we first found in the academic literature, later confirmed by our own testing and used successfully in our trading, was that when volatility in the currency markets is flat or declining, the carry trade works very well.  On the other hand, when currency volatility is high, the carry trade typically is a money loser because the directional aspect of the trade overwhelms the carry, giving you a loss.

We look at the JP Morgan G-7 VIX using two different charts.  The first one is a reversion to the mean chart where plot the VIX data, the historic mean, then one and two standard deviations above and below the mean.  When volatility is high and then falls below one standard deviation, we start looking to enter the carry trade and when it get above the one standard deviation line we would sell if not already stopped out.  On the downside, we look to sell when volatility declines too much since it represents excessive complacency and usually is a sign of higher volatility ahead.

JP Morgan G-7 VIX

The other way that we like to look at the currency VIX is to invert it on a chart alongside the DBV. As you can see in the below chart, not only was equity volatility declining, but DBV managed to base for a few months before climbing higher and then consolidating at its 200-day moving average.  Finally today it was able to break out to the upside.

DBV and JPM G-7 VIX

Finally we have the DBV itself.  As you can see in the chart below, not only was equity volatility declining, but DBV managed to base for a few months before climbing higher and then consolidating at its 200-day moving average.  Finally today it broke out to the upside.

DBV-Carry Trade ETF

Hopefully you see how volatility is bad for a lazy trade like the carry trade where you trying to get paid for sitting.  If volatility climbs above 1 standard deviation above its mean we will look to tighten our stops as the odds of a downside move increase significantly.

DBV-G-10 Currency Harvest Fund is an ETF that goes long the three highest yielding currencies of the G-10 and shorts the three lowest yielding currencies on a 2x levered basis.  While investors can go into the spot and futures FX markets and put on the same trade the DBV is a very simple way to gain exposure to positive carry in the currency markets.

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

http://TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-We currently hold positions in the DBV-G10 Currency Harvest Fund and FXA-Australian Dollar ETF.

If you’re getting value out of our posts, you can do us a favor by linking to us and mentioning The Macro Trader to friends and co-workers. Here’s the link information for this article:
Title: The Carry Trade And Volatility
URL: http://www.themacrotrader.com/2009/06/01/the-carry-trade-and-volatility/

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