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Tag Archive for: (EWY)

april@madhedgefundtrader.com

May 6, 2025

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
May 6, 2025
Fiat Lux

 

Featured Trade:

(THEY’RE NOT MAKING AMERICANS ANYMORE)
(SPY), (EWJ), (EWL), (EWU), (EWG), (EWY), (FXI), (EIRL), (GREK), (EWP), (IDX), (EPOL), (TUR), (EWZ), (PIN), (EIS)

https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png 0 0 april@madhedgefundtrader.com https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png april@madhedgefundtrader.com2025-05-06 09:04:352025-05-06 12:54:42May 6, 2025
april@madhedgefundtrader.com

They’re Not Making Americans Anymore

Diary, Homepage Posts, Newsletter

If demographics are destiny, then America’s future looks bleak. You see, they’re just not making Americans anymore.

At least that is the sobering conclusion of the latest Economist magazine survey of the global demographic picture.

I have long been a fan of demographic investing, which creates opportunities for traders to execute on what I call “intergenerational arbitrage”.  When the number of middle-aged big spenders is falling, risk markets plunge.

Front run this data by two decades, and you have a great predictor of stock market tops and bottoms that outperforms most investment industry strategists.

You can distill this even further by calculating the percentage of the population that is in the 45-49 age bracket.

The reasons for this are quite simple. The last five years of child rearing are the most expensive. Think of all that pricey sports equipment, tutoring, braces, SAT coaching, first cars, first car wrecks, and the higher insurance rates that go with it.

Older kids need more running room, which demands larger houses with more amenities. No wonder it seems that dad is writing a check or whipping out a credit card every five seconds. I know, because I have five kids of my own. As long as dad is in spending mode, stock and real estate prices rise handsomely, as do most other asset classes. Dad, you’re basically one generous ATM.

As soon as kids flee the nest, this spending grinds to a juddering halt. Adults entering their fifties cut back spending dramatically and become prolific savers. Empty nesters also start downsizing their housing requirements, unwilling to pay for those empty bedrooms, which in effect, become expensive storage facilities.

This is highly deflationary and causes a substantial slowdown in GDP growth.  That is why the stock and real estate markets began their slide in 2007, while it was off to the races for the Treasury bond market.

The data for the US is not looking so hot right now. Americans aged 45-49 peaked in 2009 at 23% of the population. According to US census data, this group then began a 13-year decline to only 19% by 2022.

You can take this strategy and apply it globally with terrific results. Not only do these spending patterns apply globally, but they also backtest with a high degree of accuracy. Simply determine when the 45-49 age bracket is peaking for every country, and you can develop a highly reliable timetable for when and where to invest.

Instead of poring through gigabytes of government census data to cherry-pick investment opportunities, my friends at HSBC Global Research, strategists Daniel Grosvenor and Gary Evans, have already done the work for you. They have developed a table ranking investable countries based on when the 34-54 age group peaks—a far larger set of parameters that captures generational changes.

The numbers explain a lot of what is going on in the world today. I have reproduced it below. From it, I have drawn the following conclusions:

* The US (SPY) peaked in 2001 when our first “lost decade” began.

*Japan (EWJ) peaked in 1990, heralding 32 years of falling asset prices, giving you a nice back test.

*Much of developed Europe, including Switzerland (EWL), the UK (EWU), and Germany (EWG), followed in the late 2,000’s, and the current sovereign debt debacle started shortly thereafter.

*South Korea (EWY), an important G-20 “emerged” market with the world’s lowest birth rate, peaked in 2010.

*China (FXI) topped in 2011, explaining why we have seen three years of dreadful stock market performance despite torrid economic growth. It has been our consumers driving their GDP, not theirs.

*The “PIIGS” countries of Portugal, Ireland (EIRL), Greece (GREK), and Spain (EWP) don’t peak until the end of this decade. That means you could see some ballistic stock market performances if the debt debacle is dealt with in the near future.

*The outlook for other emerging markets, like Indonesia (IDX), Poland (EPOL), Turkey (TUR), Brazil (EWZ), and India (PIN) is quite good, with spending by the middle-aged not peaking for 15-33 years.

*Which country will have the biggest demographic push for the next 38 years? Israel (EIS), which will not see consumer spending max out until 2050. Better start stocking up on things Israelis buy.

Like all models, this one is not perfect, as its predictions can get derailed by a number of extraneous factors. Rapidly lengthening life spans could redefine “middle age”. Personally, I’m hoping 72 is the new 42.

Emigration could starve some countries of young workers (like Japan), while adding them to others (like Australia). Foreign capital flows in a globalized world can accelerate or slow down demographic trends. The new “RISK ON/RISK OFF” cycle can also have a clouding effect.

So why am I so bullish now? Because demographics is just one tool in the cabinet. Dozens of other economic, social, and political factors drive the financial markets.

What is the most important demographic conclusion right now? That the US demographic headwind veered to a tailwind in 2022, setting the stage for the return of the “Roaring Twenties.” With the (SPY) up 27% since October, it appears the markets heartily agree.

While the growth rate of the American population is dramatically shrinking, the rate of migration is accelerating, with huge economic consequences. The 80-year-old trend of population moving from North to South to save on energy bills is picking up speed, and the Midwest is getting hollowed out at an astounding rate as its people flee to the coasts, all three of them.

As a result, California, Texas, Florida, Washington, and Oregon are gaining population, while Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming are losing it (see map below). During my lifetime, the population of California has rocketed from 10 million to 40 million. People come in poor and leave as billionaires, as Elon Musk did.

In the meantime, I’m going to be checking out the shares of the matzo manufacturer down the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Matzos.jpg 327 321 april@madhedgefundtrader.com https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png april@madhedgefundtrader.com2025-05-06 09:02:112025-05-06 12:54:32They’re Not Making Americans Anymore
april@madhedgefundtrader.com

April 24, 2024

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
April 24, 2024
Fiat Lux

 

Featured Trade:

(THEY’RE NOT MAKING AMERICANS ANYMORE)
(SPY), (EWJ), (EWL), (EWU), (EWG), (EWY), (FXI), (EIRL), (GREK), (EWP), (IDX), (EPOL), (TUR), (EWZ), (PIN), (EIS)

https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png 0 0 april@madhedgefundtrader.com https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png april@madhedgefundtrader.com2024-04-24 09:04:432024-04-24 10:13:13April 24, 2024
Mad Hedge Fund Trader

How US Job Losses Will End

Newsletter

I was researching comparative Asian wage data the other day and was astounded with what I found. Textile workers earn $2.99 an hour in India (PIN), $1.84 in China (FXI), and $0.49 in Vietnam (VNM). This is an 18 fold increase in labor costs from ten cents an hour since Chinese industrialization launched in 1978.

This compares to the $8 an hour our much abused illegals get at sweat shops in Los Angeles, and $10 in some of the nicer places. What?s more, the Indian wage is up 17% in a year, meaning that inflation is casting a lengthening shadow over the sub continent?s economic miracle. A series of strikes and a wave of suicides have brought wage settlements with increases as high as 20% in China.

This is how the employment drain in the US is going to end. When foreign labor costs reach half of those at home, manufacturers quit exporting jobs because the cost advantages gained are not worth the headaches and risk involved in managing a foreign language work force, the shipping expense, political risk, import duties, and supply disruptions, just to get lower quality goods. Chinese wage growth at this rate takes them up to half our minimum wage in only five years.

This has already happened in South Korea (EWY), where wage costs are 60% of American ones. As a result, Korea?s GDP growth is half that seen in China. These numbers are also a powerful argument for investing in Vietnam, where wages are only 27% of those found in the Middle Kingdom, and where Chinese companies are increasingly doing their own offshoring. This is why I have pushed the Vietnam ETF (VNM) on many occasions. I know every time I do this I get torrents of emails bitterly complaining how difficult it is to do business there, and how the hardwood trees are still full of shrapnel left over from the war, and why I shouldn?t buy a 50 acre industrial park there.? But, the numbers don?t lie.

FXI 8-22-13

EWY 8-22-13

PIN 8-22-13

VNM 8-22-13

Vietnam Flag

https://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Vietnam-Flag.jpg 287 446 Mad Hedge Fund Trader https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png Mad Hedge Fund Trader2013-08-23 01:05:552013-08-23 01:05:55How US Job Losses Will End
DougD

How U.S. Job Losses Will End

Newsletter

I was researching comparative Asian wage data the other day and was astounded with what I found. Textile workers earn $2.99 an hour in India (PIN), $1.84 in China (FXI), and $0.49 in Vietnam (VNM). This is an 18-fold increase in labor costs from $0.10 an-hour since Chinese industrialization launched in 1978.

This compares to the $8 an hour our much abused illegals get at sweat shops in Los Angeles, and $10 in some of the nicer places. What?s more, the Indian wage is up 17% in a year, meaning that inflation is casting a lengthening shadow over the sub-continent?s economic miracle. A series of strikes and a wave of suicides have brought wage settlements with increases as high as 20% in China.

This is how the employment drain in the US is going to end. When foreign labor costs reach half of those at home, manufacturers quit exporting jobs because the cost advantages gained are not worth the headaches and risk involved in managing a foreign language work force, the shipping expense, political risk, import duties, and supply disruptions, just to get lower quality goods. Chinese wage growth at this rate takes them up to half our minimum wage in only five years.

This has already happened in South Korea (EWY), where wage costs are 60% of American ones. As a result, Korea?s GDP growth is half that seen in China. These numbers are also a powerful argument for investing in Vietnam, where wages are only 27% of those found in the Middle Kingdom, and where Chinese companies are increasingly doing their own offshoring.

This is why I have pushed the Vietnam ETF (VNM) on many occasions. I know every time I do this I get torrents of emails from that country bitterly complaining how difficult it is to do business there, and how the hardwood trees are still full of shrapnel left over from the war, and why I shouldn?t buy a 50 acre industrial park there.? But, the numbers don?t lie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png 0 0 DougD https://madhedgefundtrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-mad-hedge-logo-transparent-192x192_f9578834168ba24df3eb53916a12c882.png DougD2012-08-26 23:03:032012-08-26 23:03:03How U.S. Job Losses Will End

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