There’s nothing like a quickie five-day tour of the Southeast to give one an instant snapshot of the US economy. The economy is definitely overheating and could blow up sometime in 2019 or 2020.

Traffic everywhere is horrendous as drivers struggle to cope with a road system built to handle half the current US population. Service has gotten terrible as workers vacate the lower paid sectors of the economy. Everyone you talk to tells you business is great, from the CEOs down to the Uber drivers.

I managed to miss Hurricane Michael by two days. Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport was busy with exhausted transiting Red Cross workers. The Interstate from Savanna to Atlanta, Georgia was lined with thousands of downed trees. In Houston mountains of debris were evident everywhere, the rotting, soggy remnants of last year’s Hurricane Harvey.

I managed to score all day parking in downtown Atlanta for only $8. I kept the receipt to show my disbelieving friends at home.

Bull markets climb a wall of worry and this one has been no exception. However, the higher we get the greater the demands on the faithful.

Last week saw my Mad Hedge Market Timing Index plunge to an all-time low reading of 4. I back-tested the data and was stunned to discover that October saw the steepest selloff since the 1987 crash, which saw the average crater 21% in one day.

And while evidence of a coming bear market is everywhere, the reality is that stocks can keep rising for another year. Market bottoms are easy to quantify based on traditional valuation measure, but tops are notoriously difficult to call. Look for one more high volume melt up like we saw in January and that should be it.

Real interest rates are still zero (3.2% bond yields – 3.2% inflation), so there is no way this is any more than a short-term correction in a bull market.

The world is still awash in liquidity

The Fed says they’re still raising rates four times in a year no matter what the president says. Look for a 3.25% overnight rate in a year, and 4% for three months funds. If inflation rises to 4% at the same time, real rates will still be at zero.

There certainly has not been a shortage of things to worry about on the geopolitical front. After Saudi Arabia was caught red-handed with video and audio proof of torturing and killing a Washington Post reporter, it threatened to cut off our oil supply and dump their substantial holding of technology stocks.

Tesla made another move towards the mass market by accelerating its release of the $35,000 Tesla 3. Production is now well over 6,000 units a month.

If you had any doubts that housing was now in recession, look no further than the September Existing Home Sales which were down a disastrous 3.5%. In the meantime, the auto industry continues to plumb new depths. In some industries, the recession has already started.

We have been killing it on the trading front. My 2018 year-to-date performance has bounced back to a robust 29.07%, and my trailing one-year return stands at 35.37%. October is up +0.68%, despite a gut-punching, nearly instant NASDAQ swoon of 10.50%.  Most people will take that in these horrific conditions.

My single stock positions have been money makers, but my short volatility position (VXX), which I put on early, refuses to go down, eating up much of my profits.

My nine-year return appreciated to 305.54%. The average annualized return stands at 34.58%. Global Trading Dispatch is now only 44 basis points from an all-time high.

The Mad Hedge Technology Letter has done even better, blasting through to a new all-time high at an annualized 26.67%. It almost completely missed the tech meltdown and then went aggressively long our favorite names right at the market bottom.

I’d like to think my 50 years of trading experience is finally paying off, or maybe I’m just lucky. Who knows?

This coming week will be pretty sedentary on the data front, with the Friday Q3 GDP print the big kahuna. Individual company earnings reports will be the main market driver.

Monday, October 22 at 8:30 AM, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index is out. 3M (MMM), and Logitech (LOGI) report.

On Tuesday, October 23 at 10:00 AM, the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index is published. Juniper Networks (JNPR), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and United Technologies report.

On Wednesday, October 24 at 10:00 AM, September New Home Sales will give another read on entry-level housing. At 10:30 AM the Energy Information Administration announces oil inventory figures with its Petroleum Status Report. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Ford Motor (F), and Microsoft (MSFT) report.

Thursday, October 25 at 8:30, we get Weekly Jobless Claims. Alphabet (GOOGL) and Intel (INTC) report.

On Friday, October 26, at 8:30 AM, a new read on Q3 GDP is announced.

The Baker-Hughes Rig Count follows at 1:00 PM.

As for me, I am headed up to Lake Tahoe this week to host the Mad Hedge Lake Tahoe Conference. The weather will be perfect, the evening temperatures in the mid-twenties, and there is already a dusting of snow on the high peaks. The Mount Rose Ski Resort is honoring the event by opening this weekend.

Good luck and good trading.

John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader