As of late we have heard a lot about how sentiment was too bearish and that this justified the market rally.  While we no doubt got a rally, we have to question the idea that sentiment is overdone to the downside.  In the world of sentiment indicators there are more then a few ways to look at things.  You can look at polls like Investors Intelligence or the AAII numbers, you can look at anecdotal indicators like covers at the magazine rack or listening to your shoeshine boy, and finally you can look at market derived indicators.

Looking at poll data alone would have you thinking that either the world is coming to an end or that we are due for a large counter sentiment trade.  The first chart here is of the Investors Intelligence Bulls to Bears ratio popularized by Marty Zweig.  As you can see in the chart it is hitting lows not seen since 2008.

Investors Intelligence Bulls Bears Ratio

If you want an equally extreme way to look at it below is a chart of the Investors Intelligence percent bears.  As you can see we are spiking to new highs not seen since the dark days of 2008.

Investors Intelligence Percent Bears

Looking at just these two charts makes the trend followers short and happy, and the contrarian leveraged long.  Of course we have a lot more tools at our disposal then just the Investors Intelligence poll data.  We like to check the poll based data against the market based data to see if it is inline with what investors are actually doing.  Usually it is, but sometimes it gets out of line.  As you can probably guess now is one of those times.  In the chart below we have taken the VIX and overlaid the percent bears.  As you can see both indicators usually move roughly to the same beat but lately the poll data has been getting more and more negative while the market derived data, data that actually shows where people are putting their money, has been getting more positive.

VIX and Investors Intelligence % Bears

Because of this disconnect we think that sentiment is not overdone to the bear side and that there is still some room to the downside.  In fact one of our short term sentiment indicators is showing exactly that as the 5-day equity only put call ratio hit .55 yesterday.  This level is significant as it has done an excellent job of showing when things are in fact too optimistic and has a good record calling tops in the equity market.  So while we aren’t calling for some Dow 1,000 crash, our analysis which includes sentiment data, does show room for more downside.

5-Day Equity Only Put Call Ratio

Happy Trading,

Dave@TheMacroTrader.com

Disclaimer-In our model portfolio we are long some SPY puts.

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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.

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Title: The Carry Trade And Volatility
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