When John identifies a strategic exit point, he will send you an alert with specific trade information as to what security to sell, when to sell it, and at what price. Most often, it will be to TAKE PROFITS, but, on rare occasions, it will be to exercise a STOP LOSS at a predetermined price to adhere to strict risk management discipline. Read more
While the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader focuses on investment over a one week to a six-month time frame, Mad Day Trader, provided by Bill Davis, will exploit money-making opportunities over a brief ten minute to three-day window. It is ideally suited for day traders, but can also be used by long-term investors to improve market timing for entry and exit points. Read more
Global Market Comments
December 20, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(DECEMBER 18 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(BA), (CRSP), (BABA), (GLD), (PANW), (VIX), (VXX)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader December 18 Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA with my guest and co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader. Keep those questions coming!
Q: What is the status of Boeing (BA) and when should I buy it?
A: Their 737 production was shut down because they literally ran out of space to park completed planes. They have something like 400 of them now sitting around on tarmacs all around northern Washington state. This is the worst-case scenario so it is a very tempting place to buy; I would do something like a February 2020 $250-$270 vertical bull call spread, make 10% in a month, and be conservative. If it weren't year-end, and I didn't already have my year in the bag, I would probably buy Boeing right here.
Q: Do you recommend CRISPR (CRSP) therapeutics as a buy?
A: Yes, but on a dip. I always hate buying stocks after they doubled. At some point in 2020, we will see correction in biotech stocks, and then you want to load the boat again. Here, I’m buying nothing.
Q: Is Palo Alto Networks (PANW) a buy at these levels?
A: Yes, it’s already had its correction—it's one of the few stocks that are buyable at these levels. But I would do something like a call spread, which is limited risk. As far as a pairs trade with Palo Alto vs Nvidia...I would not touch that with a ten-foot pole, because you can’t know the internal nature of two companies like that well enough to buy one and sell short the other against it. You could really get destroyed on that pairs trade, so don’t make that mistake.
Q: Do you think the US dollar (UUP) will head higher or lower next year?
A: It will go a lot lower, as the chickens from all the government borrowing come home to roost. More borrowing brings a lower dollar, which brings lower everything in the US; all US dollar-denominated assets will get hurt, and this may be what eventually kills off the bull market in stocks. Start buying the Euro (FXE) on dips.
Q: What do you think about Boris Johnson winning the UK election?
A: It is a disaster and will lead to the end of Great Britain. Scotland will go independent, Northern Ireland will join the Republic of Ireland, and even Wales may break off and form its own country. So, England will be reduced to a tiny rump of a country with a much lower standard of living. It may take 10 years to happen, but that’s where it’s going.
Q: Does the recent positive housing data mean we aren’t having a recession in 2020?
A: Yes, in fact the market has been backing out of a 2020 recession for the last three months; and the leading sector in the recovery has been housing, caused partly by extremely low-interest rates but also partly by millions of new millennials pouring into the housing market for the first time. Finally, my basement is empty. That explains why the entry-level and middle level of the market are strong, and the high end is still decreasing in price.
Q: Back in August, the global economy looked to be stalling, yet it was a great time to buy stocks.
A: That is exactly when to buy stocks—when the economy is terrible. If you get used to buying on the bad news and selling on the good news you will do very well as a trader. Most people do the opposite—people were dumping stocks in August. And that of course was when we went with one of our rare 100% longs. By the way, this happens every August, which is why I take my vacations in July.
Q: Do you see a global slowdown during the melt-up?
A: Well, the economy is still slowing down. It never stopped slowing down—we’re probably looking at a 1.5% GDP this quarter. However, in liquidity-driven markets, you don’t look at fundamentals; you look at the amount of cash that is available to buy equities, that’s why you buy equities. That said, if we ever do get a real economic recovery, you might actually have stocks going down because a price-earnings multiple of 20X is not an ideal place to buy stocks.
Q: What do you prefer for a Volatility Index (VIX) trade?
A: An option on the iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (VXX) is one. Go long dates, like a year, and deep out-of-the-money, like the $18 strike price, to minimize the hot from Time decay. If your (VIX) goes back up to $25 the (VXX) will soar to $27 and you will make a fortune.
However, if you have the facility to trade futures, then options on the futures in the VIX is how most professionals will trade that.
Q: Should we be worried about the Repo crisis as we approach the end of the quarter?
A: Absolutely, you should be worried—the Fed might have to come through with another round of quantitative easing in order to prevent a surprise overnight pop in interest rates to 5%. That’s what happened last quarter; it could certainly happen again. The basic problem is that the structure of the US debt markets aren't built to handle the volume of borrowing that’s coming through from the US government, so with debt at an all-time high, we’re kind of in new territory here in terms of whether or not markets can actually handle that amount of borrowing. Total government borrowing next year will probably be $1.75 trillion dollars.
Q: What do you make of gold (GLD) at these levels?
A: Cheap but getting cheaper. You want to buy it the day the stock market peaks out in Q1 2020.
Q: Are Chinese equities a buy after the phase one trade deal?
A: Yes, and Alibaba (BABA) is probably your first pick in the Chinese area. During the whole trade war, the Chinese took significant action to stimulate their economy in order to offset the drag on trade. That stimulus is still out there, so we could see a reacceleration in the economy now that the trade war is no longer worsening.
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
December 20, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE BIG TECH TRENDS OF 2020)
(AAPL), (GOOGL), (FB), (AMZN), (NFLX)
The year is almost in the rear-view mirror – I’ll make a few meaningful predictions for technology in 2020.
Although iPhones won’t go obsolete in 2020, next year is shaping up as another force multiplier in the world of technology.
Or is it?
A trope that I would like to tap on is the severe shortage of innovation going on in most corners of Silicon Valley.
Many of the incumbents are busy milking the current status quo for what it’s worth instead of targeting the next big development.
Your home screen will still look the same and you will still use the 25 most popular apps
This almost definitely means the interface that we access as a point of contact will most likely be unchanged from 2019.
It will be almost impossible for outside apps to break into the top 25 app rankings and this is why the notorious “first-mover advantage” has legs.
The likes of Google search, Gmail, Instagram, Uber, Amazon, Netflix and the original list of tech disruptors will become even more entrenched, barring the single inclusion of Chinese short-form video app TikTok.
The FANGs are just too good at acquiring, cloning or bludgeoning upstart competitors.
It’s the worst time to be a consumer software company that hasn’t made it yet.
Advertising will find itself migrating to smart speakers
Amazon and Google have blazed a trail in the smart speaker market but ultimately, what’s the point of these devices in homes?
Exaggerated discounting means hardware profits have been sacrificed, and the lack of paid services means that they aren’t pocketing a juicy 30% cut of revenue either.
These companies might come to the conclusion that the only way to move the needle on smart speaker revenue is to infuse a major dose of audio ads to the user.
So if you are sick to your stomach of digital ads like I am, you might consider dumping your smart speaker before you are forced to sit through boring ads.
Amazon’s Alexa will lose momentum
In a way to triple down on Alexa, Amazon has installed it into everything, and this is alienating a broad swath of customers.
Not everyone is on the Amazon Alexa bandwagon, and some would like Amazon’s best in class products and services without involving a voice assistant.
Privacy suspicion has gone through the roof and smart speakers like Alexa could get caught up in the personal data malaise dampening demand to buy one.
Your voice is yours and 2020 could be the first stage of a full onslaught of cyber-attacks on audio data.
Don’t let hackers steal your oral secrets!
Cyber Warfare and AI
Hackers have long been experimenting with automatic tools for breaking into and exploiting corporate and government networks, and AI is about to supercharge this trend.
If you don’t know about deep fakes, then that is another thorny issue that could turn into an existential threat to the internet.
Not only could 2020 be the year of the cloud, but it could turn into the year of cloud security.
That is how bad things could get.
A survey conducted by Cyber Security Hub showed 85% of executives view the weaponization of AI as the largest cybersecurity threat.
On the other side of the coin, these same companies will need to use AI to defend themselves as fears of data breaches grow.
AI tools can be used to detect fraud such as business email compromise, in which companies are sent multiple invoices for the same work or workers duped into releasing financial information.
As AI defenses protect themselves, the sophistication of AI attacks grows.
It really is an arms race at this point with governments and private business having skin in the game.
Facebook gets out of the hardware game because consumers don’t trust them
Remember Facebook Portal – it’s a copy of the Amazon Echo Show.
The only motive to build this was to bring it to market and expect Facebook users to adopt it which backfired.
Facebook will find it difficult convincing users to use more than Facebook and Instagram software apps.
Don’t wait on Facebook to roll out some other ridiculous contraption aimed at stealing more of your data because there probably won’t be another one.
This again goes back to the lack of innovation permeating around Silicon Valley, Facebook’s only new ideas is to copy other products or try to financially destroy them.
China continues to out-innovate Silicon Valley.
The rise of short-form video app TikTok is cementing a perception of China as the home of modern tech innovation, partly because Silicon Valley has become stale and stagnated.
China has also bolted ahead in 5G technology, fintech payment technology, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and is giving America a run for their money in AI.
China’s semiconductor industry is rapidly catching up to the US after billions of government subsidies pouring into the sector.
Silicon Valley needs to decide whether they want to live in a tech world dominated by Chinese rules or not.
Augmented Reality: Is this finally the real deal?
Augmented reality (AR) is still mainly used for games but could develop some meaningful applications in 2020.
Virtual Reality (VR) and AR will play a big role in sectors such as education, navigation systems, advertising and communication, but the hype hasn’t caught up with reality.
One use case is training programs that companies use to prepare new workers.
However, AR applications aren't universally easy or cheap to deploy and lack sophistication.
AR adoption will see a slight uptick, but I doubt it will captivate the public in 2020 and it will most likely be another year on the backburner.
Apple’s New Projects
Apple has two audacious experimental projects: a pair of augmented-reality glasses and a self-driving car.
The car, for now, has no existence outside of a few offices in California and some hires from companies like Tesla.
And, at the earliest, the glasses won’t hit shelves until 2021,
The car is likely to fizzle out and Apple will be forced to double down on digital content and services to keep shareholders happy which is typical Tim Cook.
The 5G Puzzle
Semiconductor stocks have been on fire as investors front-run the revenue windfall of 5G and the applications that will result in profits.
Select American cities will onboard 5G throughout 2020, but we won’t see widespread adoption until later in the year.
5G promises speeds that are five times faster than peak-performance 4G capabilities, allowing users to download movies in five seconds.
With pitiful penetration rates at the start, the technology will need to grow into what it could become.
The force multiplier that is 5G and the high speeds it will grace us with probably won’t materialize in full effect until 2021.
Each of the nine tech developments in 2020 I listed above negatively affects US tech margins and that will follow through to management’s commentary in next year’s earnings and guidance.
Tech shares are closer to the peak and the bull market in tech is closer to the end.
Innovation has ground to a halt or is at best incremental; companies need to stop cloning each other to death to grab the extra penny in front of the steamroller.
Profit margins will be crushed because of heightened regulation, transparency issues, monitoring costs, and the unfortunate weaponizing of tech has been a brutal social cost to society.
Tech is saturated and waiting for a fresh catalyst to take it to the next level, but that being said, tech earnings will still be in better shape than most other industries and have revenue growth that many companies would cherish.
“History rarely yields to one person, but think and never forget what happens when it does.” – Said CEO of Apple Tim Cook
While the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader focuses on investment over a one week to a six-month time frame, Mad Day Trader, provided by Bill Davis, will exploit money-making opportunities over a brief ten minute to three-day window. It is ideally suited for day traders, but can also be used by long-term investors to improve market timing for entry and exit points. Read more
Global Market Comments
December 19, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WHY THE REAL ESTATE BOOM HAS A DECADE TO RUN),
(DHI), (LEN), (PHM), (ITB)
(PLAY IT SAFE WITH ANTHEM), (ANTM), (CI)
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
December 19, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(PLAY GUARDANT HEALTH FOR THE LONG TERM), (GH)