We have a fantastic double bottom developing here on the charts for the Australian dollar (FXA). I think that RISK ON will be the order of the day for the next six months, and the currency of the Land Down Under should prosper mightily.
This is a play on the modest recovery of the Chinese economy continuing, as Australia is far and away their largest supplier to them of bulk commodities. It is also a bet that the global synchronized recovery remains on track in 2014, as I expect.
You can see from the chart below that the Australian stock market (EWA) is also reaching this conclusion, putting in a similar short term bottom to the (FXA). For a third assenting vote, look at the chart of copper producer Freeport McMoRan (FCX).
We did well with our last long play in the Aussie. Since then, we have seen a 4.5% pullback, almost exactly a 50% retracement of the entire move since August, from $88.5 to $97.5. This was prompted by more negative comments from the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, who is making every effort to talk his currency down and strengthen his own economy.
These (FXA) options are fairly illiquid, and trade at double the normal spread found in the foreign exchange options market, so execution here is crucial. Put in a strict limit order for the spread that works for you. If you don?t get done, just walk away and wait fore the next Trade Alert, of which there will be many.
The Aussie Has Been Hopping
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Kangaroo.jpg298403Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-15 01:04:382013-11-15 01:04:38Hopping on the Aussie
After ignoring the financial sector for most of the year, I am more than happy to jump into it here. The sector has been a serious laggard for the past three months, trailing the front-runners I picked in technology, industrials, health care, and consumer cyclicals. After chasing these favorites, traders are now looking for new fresh meat to devour.
No one would touch financials with a bargepole while interest rates were falling. This is because banks are most profitable when short-term interest rates, where they borrow, are low, while longer-term rates that they lend at, are rising. Falling interest rates make financials a no go area. They have done so with a vengeance after the September Federal Reserve decision not to taper its quantitative easing program.
Two weeks ago interest rates bottomed and began a rapid upswing, which I believe could last many months. We could even see ten-year Treasury bonds rebound from the recent 2.47% low back up to 3.0% by year-end, and 4.0% by the end of 2014.
That?s why I called the top of the bond market two weeks ago and showered you with a machine gun succession of Trade Alerts to go short Treasuries, all of which became immediately profitable. Those who followed my advice soon found money raining down upon them.
By buying bank shares here you are playing the second derivative of the short bond trade. Banks are about to go from being less profitable to more profitable during a falling bond price, rising interest rate environment. I have published three books on this topic, so believe me, I know. Every trader on the street understands this, hence the sudden renaissance of the financials.
I picked Citibank (C) because I know the former CEO, Vikram Pandit, well having worked with him for a decade at Morgan Stanley (MS). That relationship gave me unequaled access to the inner workings of this financial institution.
Citibank is not the target of multiple government civil and criminal prosecutions, as JP Morgan (JPM) has become, thanks to the London whale incident. They also do not suffer from the legacy problems bedeviling Bank of America (BAC), which they stepped into with their multiple acquisitions during the financial crisis.
Citibank also sponsors that really cool bike sharing program in Manhattan, called, what else, Citibike.
There is another method to my ?Madness? here. Take a look at the six-month chart for (C) shares. It shows absolute rock solid support at the $47.40 floor. That makes the Citicorp December $45-$47 bull call spread a complete no-brainer.
If you don?t like Citibank you can caste a wider net and buy the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF). You can click here to find the precise index makeup and the fund details. Berkshire Hathaway is the largest holding, with an 8.18% weighting, while Citibank is the fifth largest holding with a 6% weighting.
But Will It Take Me to a Great Trading Year?
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Citibike.jpg312467Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-14 01:04:302013-11-14 01:04:30Loading Up On the Financials
Featured Trade: (DOUBLING UP ON MY YEN SHORTS), (FXY), (YCS), (DXJ), (UUP), (SAN FRANCISCO?S SUFFERING RENTERS TAKE ANOTHER HIT), (WHERE THE ECONOMIST ?BIG MAC? INDEX FINDS CURRENCY VALUE), (MCD), (FXE), (YCS), (FXF), (CYB) (TESTIMONIAL)
CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY)
ProShares UltraShort Yen (YCS)
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity (DXJ)
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (UUP)
McDonald's Corp. (MCD)
CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE)
CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust (FXF)
WisdomTree Chinese Yuan (CYB)
https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png00Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-13 01:07:522013-11-13 01:07:52November 13, 2013
My bet that the Japanese yen (FXY) would weaken against the dollar has paid off handsomely. I am now so confident that we are finally breaking out of a six month trading range to the downside that I am more than happy to double my short position in the yen.
I am therefore taking on the Currency Shares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) December, 2013 $101-$104 in-the-money bear put spread, moving $1 down in the strikes, but keeping an ever shortening December 20 expiration. The other nice thing about this position is that we will benefit greatly from time decay going into the volatility sapping Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
The official reason for the weakness is that the shockingly strong October nonfarm payroll released on Friday will prompt the Federal Reserve to taper its quantitative easing program sooner than later, possibly as early as the December meeting. That would raise interest rates for the greenback while yen interest rates will remain nailed to zero for years to come. This is important, as interest rate differentials are the primary driver in the foreign exchange markets.
The real reason is that traders expect the Bank of Japan to become more aggressive in its campaign to weak the yen and further stimulate economic growth. Japanese companies are now reporting blockbuster earnings, thanks to a falling yen, and the central bank would like to see more of the same.
With the Japanese government actively seeking to cut the knees out from under their own currency, while the Fed will soon take moves to strengthen theirs, a short yen/long dollar trade here a no brainer.
The Tokyo stock market is certainly a believer. Last night, the Nikkei average soared by 2.2%, the biggest move in three months. That?s why I have also been recommending the Wisdom Tree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ) for longer-term investors, a long stock/short yen ETF.
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Woman-Hari-Kari.jpg280396Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-13 01:06:542013-11-13 01:06:54Doubling Up On My Yen Shorts
You just can?t keep America down. That is the overwhelming message from Friday?s blockbuster October nonfarm payroll showing that 204,000 jobs were added, double the industry forecasts. The headline unemployment rate ratcheted back up from 7.2% to 7.3%, the first gain in many months.
August and September were revised up by an eye popping 60,000 jobs. October private sector job growth came in at a stunning 212,000. Apparently, the prospect of an imminent default by the US government prompted many corporate managers to rush out and hire! Go figure.
Without the Washington shutdown we probably would have seen a 300,000 print. It appears that 223,000 federal workers were temporarily laid off, but later received back pay, so they weren?t counted as jobless.
Leisure and hospitality was up an unbelievable 53,000. Retail added 44,000. Professional and technical services tacked on 21,000. Health care increased by 12,000 jobs, anticipating an onslaught of 30 million new customers with government guaranteed payments, thanks to Obamacare.
It confirms what I have been arguing since the summer, that the US economy is far stronger than anyone suspects, and that we are accelerating with an upward trajectory. This is the recurring theme that I get from speaking to dozens of CEO?s every month, whose views on the health of their own business usually beat the government data releases by 3-6 months. Believe me, I don?t talk to these guys because they wear snappy suits.
Of course, the initial market reaction was negative, since the good news is seen as advancing the Federal Reserve?s tapering of its quantitative easing program. This certainly was the read by the stock market on Thursday, when a surprise interest cut in the Euro and a blistering 2.8% Q3 GDP report triggered a 150 sell off in the Dow. Gold took it on the nose again, dropping $25. But we made it all back, and more, the next day, disproving this analysis, for everything, except gold.
Bonds really took it in the keister, the (TLT) dropping two and a half full points, bumping ten year Treasury yield up from 2.60% to 2.77%, one of the most extreme pops of the year in the fixed income markets. I came within a hair?s breadth of doubling my bond shorts the previous day, but decided to wait for the payroll report. This time, discretion was not the better part of valor.
If anyone had any doubts about the extreme, but underestimated strength of the economy, better take a look at the chart below of growth of the broader monetary aggregates. We are running at a nearly white hot 40% YOY growth rate.
This reflects a huge increase that is occurring in the velocity of money, a number that almost no one tracks, in addition to the Federal Reserve?s never ending monetary expansion. This is because more people everywhere are doing more business with each other. Despite what you hear in the media, confidence is rocketing. This eventually has to feed into higher reported GDP growth rates and will justify ever-higher share prices.
How many individual investors believe this? Almost no one. This year, $114 billion has trickled back into equity mutual funds. That is only a dent in the $600 billion this group tore out of equity mutual funds over the last five years. That fact alone should be worth another 25% of upside in the indexes.
For more depth on the rapidly evolving fundamentals in the economy, click here for my recent piece on ?The Rising Risk of a Market Melt Up?.
In Better Shape Than He Looks
00Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-12 01:04:322013-11-12 01:04:32You Just Can?t Keep America Down
There are only 4 days left until the equity option expiration on November 15. My short dated November expiration play turned out to be wildly successful, with all nine of these trades quickly turning profitable. Including the six positions we now have on board, the last 14 consecutive Trade Alerts have been profitable, raising the success rate of our service to a stunning 85%.
The Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s model trade portfolio has three remaining positions that are deep in-the-money that expire that day. So, it is important that we tread carefully to get the full benefit.
I received a few emails from readers whose option holdings have already been exercised against them, and have asked me for advice on how best to proceed. So, here we go.
The options traded on US exchanges and referred to in my Trade Alerts are American style, meaning that they can be exercised at any time by the owner. This is in contrast to European style options, which can only be exercised on the expiration day.
The call option spreads that I have been recommending for the past year are composed of a deep out-of-the-money long strike price plus a short portion at a near money strike price.
When stocks have high dividends, there is a chance that the near money option you are short gets exercised against you by the owner. This requires you to deliver the stock equivalent of the option you are short, plus any quarterly dividends that are due. Don?t worry, because your long position perfectly hedges you against this possibility.
You usually get notice of this assignment in an email after the close. You then need to email or call your broker back immediately informing him that you want to exercise your remaining long option position to meet your assigned short position.
This is a gift, as it means that you can realize the entire maximum theoretical profit of the position without having to take the risk of running it all the way into expiration. You can either keep the cash, or pile on another short dated option spread position and make even more money.
This should completely close out your position and leave you with a nice profit. This is not an automatic process and requires action on your part!
Assignments are made on a random basis by an exchange computer, and can happen any day. Exercise means the owner of the option that you are short completely loses all of the premium on his call.
Dividends have to be pretty high to make such a move economic, usually at least over 3% on an annual rate. But these days, markets are so efficient that traders, or their machines, will exercise options for a single penny profit.
Surprise assignments create a risk for option spread owners in a couple of ways. If you don?t check your email every day after the close, you might not be aware that you have been assigned. Alternatively, such emails sometimes get lost, or hung up in local servers or spam filters, which occasionally happens to readers of my own letter.
Then, you are left with the long side deep out-of-the-money call alone, which will have a substantially higher margin requirement. This is equivalent to going outright long the stock in large size.
This is a totally unhedged position now, and suddenly, you are playing a totally different game. If the stock then rises, you could be in for a windfall profit. But if it falls, you could take a big hit. Better to completely avoid this situation at all cost and not take the chance. You are probably not set up to do this type of trading.
If you don?t have the cash in your account to cover this, you could get a margin call. If you ignore this call as well, your broker will close out your position at market without your permission.
It could produce some disconcerting communications from your broker. They generally hate issuing margin calls, and could well close your account if it is too small to bother with, as they create regulatory issues.
In order to get belt and braces coverage on this issue, it is best to call your broker and find out exactly what are their assignment policies and procedures. Believe it or not, some are still in the Stone Age, and have yet to automate the assignment process or give notice by email. An ounce of prevention could be worth a pound of cure here. You can?t believe how irresponsible some of these people can be.
Consider all this a cost of doing business, or a frictional execution cost. In-the-money options are still a great strategy. But you should be aware of all the ins and outs to get the most benefit.
John Thomas
00Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-12 01:03:322013-11-12 01:03:32A Special Note on November Exercised Options
Featured Trade: (MAD HEDGE FUND TRADER 2013 PERFORMANCE TOPS 51%), (TLT), (TBT), (AAPL), (XLI), (IWM), (SPY) (TESTIMONIAL), (A TRIBUTE TO A TRUE VETERAN)
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)
ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT)
Apple Inc. (AAPL)
Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI)
iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM)
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png00Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-11 01:06:272013-11-11 01:06:27November 11, 2013
The Trade Alert service of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has posted a new all time high in performance, taking in 46.05% so far in 2013. The three-year return is an eye popping 101.7%, taking the averaged annualized return to 35%. That compares to a far more modest increase for the Dow Average during the same period of 19%.
This has been the profit since the groundbreaking trade mentoring service was launched 35 months ago. These numbers place me at the absolute apex of all hedge fund managers, where the year to date gains have been a far more pedestrian 3%.
These numbers come off the back of a blistering week in the market where I added 5% in value to my model-trading portfolio. I called the top in the bond market on Monday, shorted the Treasury bond ETF (TLT), and bought the short Treasury ETF (TBT). Prices then collapsed, taking the ten-year Treasury bond yield from 2.47% to 2.63%.
I then pegged the top of the Euro (FXE) against the dollar, betting that the European Central Bank would have to cut interest rates to head off another recession. Since then, the beleaguered continental currency has plunged from $1.3700 to $1.3350 to the buck.
I then bet that the stock market would enter another tedious sideways correction going into the Thanksgiving holidays. I bought an in the money put spread on the S&P 500, and then bracketed the index through buying an in the money call spread.
Carving out the 2013 trades alone, 57 out of 71 have made money, a success rate of 80%. It is a track record that most big hedge funds would kill for.
This performance was only made possible by correctly calling the near term direction of stocks, bonds, foreign currencies, energy, precious metals and the agricultural products. It all sounds easy, until you try it.
My esteemed colleague, Mad Day Trader Jim Parker, has also been coining it. He caught a spike up in the volatility index (VIX) by both lapels. He also was a major player on the short side in bonds.
The coming winter promises to deliver a harvest of new trading opportunities. The big driver will be a global synchronized recovery that promises to drive markets into the stratosphere in 2014. The Trade Alerts should be coming hot and heavy.
Global Trading Dispatch, my highly innovative and successful trade-mentoring program, earned a net return for readers of 40.17% in 2011 and 14.87% in 2012. The service includes my Trade Alert Service and my daily newsletter, the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader. You also get a real-time trading portfolio, an enormous trading idea database, and live biweekly strategy webinars, order?Global Trading Dispatch PRO?adds Jim Parker?s?Mad Day Trader?service.
To subscribe, please go to my website at www.madhedgefundtrader.com, find the ?Global Trading Dispatch? or "Mad Hedge Fund Trader PRO" box on the right, and click on the blue ?SUBSCRIBE NOW? button.
Mad Day Trader Jim Parker
https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TA-Performance-YTD.jpg699490Mad Hedge Fund Traderhttps://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.pngMad Hedge Fund Trader2013-11-08 10:10:562013-11-08 10:10:56Mad Hedge Fund Trader Blasts to new All Time High
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