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July 15 Biweekly Strategy Webinar Q&A

Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the July 15 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Lake Tahoe, NV with my guest and co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader. Keep those questions coming!

Q: Do you expect foreign equities to begin to outperform US equities sometime soon?

A: I expect them to outperform imminently simply because Europe did their shutdown properly, a total shutdown, and got rid of the virus, so their economy and schools are opening. We did a partial shutdown, some states did not shut down at all, and as a result, the epidemic is on fire here, and our shutdown will have to last an extra six months to a year. So that means you’ll probably want to be rotating out of US stocks and into emerging stocks, and the (EEM) is the ETF to go with there.

Q: Would you buy gold LEAPS at this point?

A: Normally, I say only buy LEAPS on capitulation selloffs like we had in March. We actually put out 25 LEAP recommendations on the long side in tech and biotech in March and they all proved spectacular winners. However, at this point, gold is just short of an all-time high; if you break the high you could get a $500 or $1,000 move very quickly to the upside. If you want to do LEAPS, I would go out one year, I would go fairly close to the money, something like a $200-$210 LEAP in the (GLD) ETF. Your much bigger bang, by the way, would be to do LEAPS on the individual stocks; go 10% or 20% out of the money, you might make 100%-200% on those and the stocks to do there would be Newmont Mining (NEM) and Barrick Gold (GOLD).

Q: Would the US or any other country consider backing their currency with gold?

A: Absolutely not. We went off the gold standard in 1972 for a reason. That’s because they're not making it anymore; there isn't enough gold to support growth in a global economy. On the other hand, a supply of paper is unlimited, and that's why we've had such terrific economic growth since we’ve gone off the gold standard.

Q: I’m seeing some really great deals in energy. Should I get involved?

A: Absolutely not. Don’t confuse “gone down a lot” with “cheap.” We think the oil business is long term going out of business. It can't compete with alternatives and electric cars; the economics for investing in a non-scalable energy form just are not there. It’s like asking an analog adding machine to compete with a computer.

Q: Is it too late to sell the US dollar or the Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund ETF (UUP)?

A: No, we’re only in the very early stages of the collapse of the US dollar, so you want to be buying all of the nondollar ETFs like the Australian dollar (FXA), the euro (FXE), and the Japanese yen (FXY). Massive over issuance of currency will destroy its value, that’s one of the seminal lessons of currency markets. The US is not immune to that.

Q: Biotech is getting overheated here—should I buy the rumor, sell the news?

A: We’re also just in the opening stages of the biotech golden age. Even if they cure corona tomorrow, there are another 100 diseases they will cure over the next 10 years using all of the new advanced technology that has just been developed, like gene editing, monoclonal antibodies, and quantum computers. It’s another reason to subscribe to the Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter for $1,500 a year (click here).

Q: I see Bill Gross is bullish on value stocks—would you go with that view?

A: No, leave the value stocks for Bill Gross. He's semi-retired and hasn’t been as good on the stock market lately as he used to be, as much as he is a dear friend. This is a chasing-a-winner type market. I would wait for value stocks. You could die a long horrible death by the time value stocks turn around so I would avoid them. Go for earnings growth, that’s the only thing that counts in the future.

Q: What would you recommend as a portfolio starter?

A: I would recommend 100% cash. I know you don’t want to hear that you should keep cash if you just bought an expensive trade alert service, but the fact is the risk now is the highest it’s been in years. I only add new trade at market sweet spots, and you don’t get those every day of the year. I will send you an alert if I see a low-risk high-return trade. Wait for the summer correction—that will set up another bet-the-ranch opportunity. Don’t worry about trade alerts, we’ll be doing about 400 of them this year, but they do tend to come in bunches at market bottoms and market tops.

Q: Do American companies have much of a chance against Chinese tech?

A: The US has an overwhelming lead, which will probably increase at an exponential rate. I think the threat of Chinese tech is vastly overstated by the administration. They needed an enemy to protect us from to stick around. The reality is that the US is so far ahead it’s unbelievable; that’s the reason they steal our technology. And they only have leads in very specific areas, such as surveillance of large populations. I wouldn’t worry too much about tech—if the Chinese really had a lead on tech, would Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB) all be going to new highs every day, while Baidu (BIDU) lagged?

Q: Should we close out the Regeneron call spread?

A: At this point, we’re so far in the money I would just wait two more days and it will expire at its maximum $10 value, and you can avoid all the fees. You’ll end up making $1,600 or 16.28% 15 trading days.

Q: Presidential candidate Joe Biden has just had a huge surge in the polls in battleground states. Will he be damaging to the market?

A: No, ever since he started his rise in the polls, the stock market has been rising almost every day, and that’s even after announcing in advance that he’s going to raise corporate taxes from 21% to 28%. He’s also going to eliminate the carried interest, which should have been eliminated a long time ago. I imagine there will be some super punitive Roosevelt style 90% tax on net taxable income over a billion dollars—a real billionaire’s punishment tax, as they’ve basically made all the money for the last 30 years. The stock market is voting with confidence for the future Biden government, who am I to disagree? The market is always right.

Q: Will gold hit a new high?

A: Yes, I think we will have a new high in a couple of weeks. That's why I said it’s a rare case when you actually buy LEAPS in a rising market, especially if you go one or two years out. Guess where gold will be in two years? My bet is $3,000, so a $200/$210 LEAP in the (GLD) could bring in a 1,000% return, The overwhelming fundamentals are in favor of gold. I'll keep hammering away at that in the newsletter.

Q: I only trade stocks; how can I take advantage of your recommendations?

A: First of all, buy the stocks. Second, you can buy stocks on margin, which gives you double exposure. Third, there are many 2X ETFs on the stocks or sectors we recommend, like the (TBT), which you can also trade in a stock account. For example, for biotech, you can get your exposure there through the (IBB), and through tech, you can buy the 2X (ROM); but I wouldn’t buy it today because it is too high. In fact, only about 25% of our followers do options, the rest trade stocks or use it to manage their own long-term portfolios.

Q: Will we hit 0% yielding US Treasuries (TLT)?

A: Probably not, that move is behind us. We got down to a 31 basis points yield at the lows. Now, massive oversupply from the US government will be the primary factor dictating Treasury prices, and that means going down a lot.

Good Luck and Stay Healthy

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

June 19, 2020

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
June 19, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(JUNE 17 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(SPY), (AAPL), (FXE), (FXA), (BA), (UAL), (AAPL), (MSFT), (BIIB), (PFE), (OXY), (SPCE), (WMT), (CSCO), (TGT)

June 17 Biweekly Strategy Webinar Q&A

Diary, Newsletter, Research

Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the June 17 Mad Hedge Fund Trader 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 best way to buy long term LEAPS for unlimited profits?

A: There is no such thing as unlimited profits on LEAPS; they are specifically limited to about 500% or 1,000%. Most people will take that. The answer is to wait for crash day. That’s when you dive into LEAPS, or during very prolonged sell-offs like we had in February or March. That’s where you get the bang per buck. On a capitulation day, you can pick up these things for pennies.

Q: How do you explain that all the cities and states that had major COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths are controlled by Democrats?

A: That’s like asking why you don’t get foot and mouth disease in New York City. The majority of US cities are Democratic, while the rural areas tend towards Republicans and the suburbs that flip back and forth. So, you will always get these big hotspots in cities where the population density is highest and there is a lot of crowding because that’s where the people are. Covid-19 is a disease that relies on within six-foot transmission. You are not going to get these big outbreaks in rural places because there are few people. Horse, cow, and pig diseases are another story. That is one reason the disease has become so politicized by the president.

Q: What is the time horizon for your picks?

A: It’s really a price function rather than a time horizon. Sometimes, a trade works in a day, other times it’s a month. I try to send out a large number of trade alerts because we have new subscribers coming in every day and the first thing they want is a trade alert. Occasionally, I’ll make 10% in a day and I take that immediately.

Q: I’m a new investor; trading in a pandemic is one thing, but what about other risks like volcanic eruptions, major solar flares, or global war? How do I prepare for one of three of these things in the next 25 years?

A: I’m actually worried about all three of those happening this year. If you lived through 1968, everything bad tends to happen in one year, and bad things tend to happen in threes. This is a year where we’re kind of making it up as we go along because there is no precedent. The playbook has been thrown out. Those who always relied on trading stocks and securities predictable ranges got wiped out.

Q: Beijing has quarantined its population again and canceled flights; is this going to cause the Chinese government to ramp up the blame game with the US?

A: Absolutely, the US is the number one Corona incubator in the world by far. We have 120,000 deaths—China had 4,000 deaths with four times the population. Many countries are blaming us for keeping this pandemic alive and spreading it further. But I don’t think foreign relations are a high priority right now with our current government. That said, it is easier for a dictatorship to control an epidemic than a democracy. In China, they were welding people’s doors shut who had the disease.

Q: Do you think taking away the $600 or $1200 stipend for the unemployed is going to crush the chances for many trying to get back to work?

A: It will. A lot of the stimulus measures only delay collapse by a couple of months. The PPP money was only for 2 months; I know a lot of companies are counting on that to stay in business. Some state unemployment benefits run out soon. Either you’re going to have to start forking up $3 trillion every other month, or you’re going to get another sharp downturn in the economy. Cities are bracing themselves for the worst eviction onslaught ever. Mass starvation among the poor is a possibility.

Q: Where do you place stops on vertical spreads?

A: Since vertical spreads don’t lend themselves to technical analysis, you have to draw a line in the sand—for me, it’s 2%. If I lose 2% of my total capital, or 20% on the total position, then I get the heck out of there and go look for another trade. That’s easy for me to do because I know that 90% of the time my next trade is a winner.

Q: Why did you sell your S&P 500 (SPY) July $330/$320 put spread at absolutely the worst moment?

A: The market broke my lower strike price, which is always a benchmark for getting out of a losing trade. When you go out-of-the-money on these spreads, the leverage works against you dramatically. This market isn’t lending itself to any kind of conventional historic analysis. The market went higher than it ever should have based on any kind of indicator you’re using. When the market delivers once in 100 year moves like we had off the March 23 bottom, you are going to be wrong. However, we immediately made the money back by putting on a (SPY) July $335/$340 put spread with a shorter maturity, and a (SPY) July $260-$$270 call spread. If you’re in this business, you’re going to take losses and be made to look like a perfect idiot, like I did twice last week.

Q: Who is getting involved down 10%?

A: I would say you’re getting both institutions and individuals involved down 10%. You keep hearing about $5 trillion in cash on the sidelines, and that’s how it’s coming to work. Plus, we have 13 million new day traders gambling away their stimulus checks.

Q: Why have you not put on a currency trade this year?

A: With the incredible volatility of the stock market, there were always better fish to fry. Currencies haven’t moved that much, and you want stocks that are dropping by 80% in two months and gapping up 200% the next two months. So, in terms of trading opportunities, currencies are number three on that list. Would you rather buy Apple (AAPL) for a 75% move, or the Euro (FXE) for a 6% move? My favorite has been the Aussie (FXA) and it has only gone up 20%.

Q: Do you issue trade alerts on LEAPS?

A: I don’t; most trade alerts are short term trades in the next month or two because we have to generate a large number of them. However, in February, March, and April, we started sending out lists of LEAPS. We sent out about 25 LEAPS recommendations. We did ten for Global Trading Dispatch (BA), (UAL), (DAL), ten for the Mad Hedge Technology Letter (AAPL), (MSFT), and five for the Mad Hedge Biotech & Health Care Letter (BIIB), (PFE). Even if you got just one or two of these, you got a massive impact on your performance because they did go up 500% to 1,000% in 2 months, which is normally the kind of return you see in two years. So, getting people to buy all those LEAPS was probably the greatest call in the 13-year history of this letter. I know subscribers who made many millions of dollars.

Q: I am new to trading; other than placing a trade, what do you recommend I get a handle on in the learning process?

A: We do have two services for sale. We have “Options for the Beginner,” and that I would highly recommend, and I’ll make sure that’s posted in the store. You can’t read or study enough. If you really want to go back to basics, read the 1948 edition of Graham and Dodd, where Warren Buffet got his education actually working for Benjamin Graham in the ’40s.

Q: Will Occidental Petroleum (OXY) go bankrupt?

A: No, they have the strongest balance sheet of any of the oil majors, so I would bet they would hang around for some time. They also have no offshore oil, which is the highest cost source of oil. But it’s going to be a volatile time for a while.

Q: Usually the selling is telling me to go away. With this market, the amount of money on the sidelines, is it going to be a stock picker’s market?

A: Yes, like I said the playbook is out the window. Normally, you get a month’s worth of trading in a month, now you get a month's worth in a day or two. So, we’re on fast forward, Corona is the principal driver of the market and no one knows what it’s going to do. The teens were a great index play. The coming Roaring Twenties will be a stock picker’s market because half of the companies will go out of business, while many will rise tenfold. You want to be in the latter, not the former. And index gets you the wheat AND the chaff.

Q: Will there be another opportunity to buy LEAPS?

A: Yes, especially if we get a second corona wave and it slaps the market down to new lows again. There’s a 50/50 chance of that happening. The rate of Corona cases is now increasing exponentially. We had 4,000 new cases in California yesterday.

Q: How do you see Main Street two years from now? Will the battered middle class ever recover?

They will if they move online. I think main street will be empty in two years. Only the largest companies are surviving because they have the cash reserve to do so. And they seem to be able to get government bailout money far better than the local nail salon or dry cleaner. Again, this was a trend that had been in place for decades but was greatly accelerated by the pandemic. I was in Napa, CA yesterday and half of the storefront shops had gone out of business.

Q: What are your thoughts on the spacecraft company Virgin Galactic (SPCE)?

A: Great for day traders, great for newbies, but not real investment material here. I don’t think the company will ever make money. It was just part of the temporary space had. Better to read about it in the papers and have a laugh than risk your own hard-earned money. Elon Musk’s Space X though is a completely different story.

Q: Which is the better buy now: Walmart (WMT), Costco (CSCO), or Target (TGT)?

A: I’d probably go for Target because they have been the fastest to move to the new online order and curb pickup universe. But Costco is also a great play.

Q: When should I buy Tesla?

A: On the next meltdown or down 30% from here, if and whenever we get that. It’s going to $2,500, then $5,000.

Q: With QE infinity, it doesn’t sound like we’ll get to LEAPS country. Do you agree?

A: No, I wouldn’t agree because at some point, the government might run out of money, the bond market won’t let them borrow anymore, and the money that gets approved doesn’t actually get spent because the works are so gummed up. Plus, Corona is in the driver's seat now. What if we’re wrong and we don’t get 250,000 cases by August, but 500,000 cases? 20 million? There are 100 things that could go wrong and get us back down to lows and only one that can go right and that is a Covid-19 vaccine. We’ve essentially been on nonstop QEs for the last 10 years already and the market has managed many 20% selloffs during that time. If we pursue a Japanese monetary policy, we will get a Japanese result, near-zero growth for 30 years.

Good Luck and Stay Healthy.

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

Mount Everest in 1976

March 19, 2020

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
March 19, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(INVESTING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CORONA VIRUS),
(SPY), (INDU), (FXE), (FXY), (UNG),
(EEM), (USO), (TLT), (TSLA)

Investing on the Other Side of the Coronavirus

Diary, Newsletter

The Coronavirus has just set up the investment opportunity of the century.

In a matter of three weeks, stocks have gone from wildly overbought to ridiculously cheap. Price earnings multiples have plunged from 20X to 13X, well below the 15.5X long term historical average. The Dow Average is now 5% lower than when Donald Trump assumed the presidency more than three years ago. The world of investing after Coronavirus is looking pretty good.

I believe that as a result of this meltdown, the global economy is setting up for a new Golden Age reminiscent of the one the United States enjoyed during the 1950s, and which I still remember fondly. In other words, when it comes to investing after Coronavirus, we are on the cusp of a new “Roaring Twenties.”

This is not some pie in the sky prediction.

It simply assumes a continuation of existing trends in demographics, technology, politics, and economics. The implications for your investment portfolio will be huge.

For a start, medical science is about to compress 5-10 years of advancement into a matter of months. The traditional FDA approval process has been dumped in the trash. Any company can bring any medicine, vaccine, or anti-viral they want to the market, government be damned. You and I will benefit enormously, but a few people may die along the way.

What I call “intergenerational arbitrage” will be the principal impetus. The main reason that we are now enduring two “lost decades” of economic growth is that 80 million baby boomers are retiring to be followed by only 65 million “Gen Xer’s”.

When the majority of the population is in retirement mode, it means that there are fewer buyers of real estate, home appliances, and “RISK ON” assets like equities, and more buyers of assisted living facilities, healthcare, and “RISK OFF” assets like bonds.

The net result of this is slower economic growth, higher budget deficits, a weak currency, and registered investment advisors who have distilled their practices down to only municipal bond sales.

Fast forward two years when the reverse happens and the baby boomers are out of the economy, worried about whether their diapers get changed on time or if their favorite flavor of Ensure is in stock at the nursing home.

That is when you have 65 million Gen Xer’s being chased by 85 million of the “millennial” generation trying to buy their assets.

By then, we will not have built new homes in appreciable numbers for 20 years and a severe scarcity of housing hits. Residential real estate prices will soar. Labor shortages will force wage hikes.

The middle-class standard of living will reverse a then 40-year decline. Annual GDP growth will return from the current subdued 2% rate to near the torrid 4% seen during the 1990s.

The stock market rockets in this scenario. And this pandemic has just given us a very low base from which to start, making investing after Coronavirus a promising prospect.

Once the virus is beaten, we could see the same fourfold return we saw from 2009 to 2020. That would take us from The Thursday low of 18,917 to 76,000 in only a few years.

If I’m wrong, it will hit 100,000 instead.

Emerging stock markets (EEM) with much higher growth rates do far better.

This is not just a demographic story. The next ten years should bring a fundamental restructuring of our energy infrastructure as well.

The 100-year supply of natural gas (UNG) we have recently discovered through the new “fracking” technology will finally make it to end users, replacing coal (KOL) and oil (USO), so this sort of energy investing after Coronavirus in particular is looking undoubtedly promising.

Fracking applied to oilfields is also unlocking vast new supplies.

Since 1995, the US Geological Survey estimate of recoverable reserves has ballooned from 150 million barrels to 8 billion. OPEC’s share of global reserves is collapsing.

This is all happening while the use of electric cars is exploding, from zero to 4% of the market over the past decade.

Mileage for the average US car has jumped from 23 to 24.9 miles per gallon in the last couple of years, and the administration is targeting 50 mpg by 2025. Total gasoline consumption is now at a five-year low and collapsing.

Alternative energy technologies will also contribute in an important way in states like California, which will see 100% of total electric power generation come from alternatives by 2030.

I now have an all-electric garage, with a Tesla Model 3 for local errands and a Tesla Model X (TSLA) for longer trips, allowing me to disappear from the gasoline market completely. Millions will follow. Both cars are powered by my rooftop solar system.

The net result of all of this is lower energy prices for everyone.

It will also flip the US from a net importer to an exporter of energy, with hugely positive implications for America’s balance of payments.

Eliminating our largest import and adding an important export is very dollar bullish for the long term.

That sets up a multiyear short for the world’s big energy-consuming currencies, especially the Japanese yen (FXY) and the Euro (FXE). A strong greenback further reinforces the bull case for stocks.

Accelerating technology will bring another continuing positive for investing after Coronavirus.

Of course, it’s great to have new toys to play with on the weekends, send out Facebook photos to the family, and edit your own home videos. But at the enterprise level, this is enabling speedy improvements in productivity that are filtering down to every business in the US, lower costs everywhere.

This is why corporate earnings have been outperforming the economy as a whole by a large margin.

Profit margins are at an all-time high.

Living near booming Silicon Valley, I can tell you that there are thousands of new technologies and business models that you have never heard of under development.

When the winners emerge, they will have a big cross-leveraged effect on the economy.

New healthcare breakthroughs, which are also being spearheaded in the San Francisco Bay area, will make serious disease a thing of the past.

This is because the Golden State thumbed its nose at the federal government 18 years ago when the stem cell research ban was implemented.

It raised $3 billion through a bond issue to fund its own research, even though it couldn’t afford it.

I tell my kids they will never be afflicted by my maladies. When they get cancer in 20 years, they will just go down to Wal-Mart and buy a bottle of cancer pills for $5, and it will be gone by Friday.

What is this worth to the global economy? Oh, about $2 trillion a year, or 4% of GDP. Who is overwhelmingly in the driver’s seat on these innovations? The USA.

There is a political element to the new Golden Age as well. Gridlock in Washington can’t last forever. Eventually, one side or another will prevail with a clear majority.

This will allow the government to push through needed long-term structural reforms, the solution of which everyone agrees on now but nobody wants to be blamed for.

That means raising the retirement age from 66 to 70 where it belongs and means-testing recipients. Billionaires don’t need the maximum $45,480 Social Security benefit. Nor do I.

The ending of our foreign wars and the elimination of extravagant unneeded weapons systems cut defense spending from $755 billion a year to $400 billion, or back to the 2000, pre-9/11 level. Guess what happens when we cut defense spending? So does everyone else.

I can tell you from personal experience that staying friendly with someone is far cheaper than blowing them up.

A Pax Americana would ensue.

That means China will have to defend its own oil supply, instead of relying on us to do it for them for free. That’s why they have recently bought a second used aircraft carrier. The Middle East is now their headache, not ours.

The national debt then comes under control, and we don’t end up like Greece.

The long-awaited Treasury bond (TLT) crash never happens.

The reality is that the global economy will soon spin off profits faster than it can find places to invest them, so the money ends up in bonds instead.

Sure, this is all very long-term, over the horizon stuff. You can expect the financial markets to start discounting a few years hence, even though the main drivers won’t kick in for another decade.

But some individual industries and companies will start to discount this rosy scenario now.

Perhaps this is what the nonstop rally in stocks since 2009 has been trying to tell us.

Needless to say, investing after Coronavirus runs it's course will be a welcome change for both individual investors and the economy as a whole.

Dow Average 100-Year Chart

Another American Golden Age is Coming

February 19, 2020

Diary, Newsletter

Global Market Comments
February 19, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(HOW TO HEDGE YOUR CURRENCY RISK),
(FXA), (FXE), (FXC), (FXB), (UUP)

September 20, 2019

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
September 20, 2019
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(SEPTEMBER 18 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(TLT), (FDX), (FB), (HYG), (JNK), (EEM), (BABA), (JD), (TBT), (FXE), (UUP), (AMZN), (FB), (DIS), (MSFT), (USO), (INDU),
(THE GREAT TRADING GURU SPEAKS)

September 18 Biweekly Strategy Webinar Q&A

Diary, Newsletter, Research

Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader September 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 would happen to the United States Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) if the Fed does not lower rates?

A: My bet is that it would immediately have a selloff—probably several points—but after that, recession worries will take bond prices up again and yields down. I don’t think we have seen the final lows in interest rates by a long shot. That’s why I bought the (TLT) last week.

Q: Is it good to buy FedEx (FDX) considering the 13% fall today?

A: I use the 3-day rule on these situations. That's how long it takes for the dust to settle from an earnings shock like this and find the real price. The problem with FedEx is that it’s a great early recession predictor. When the number of delivered packages decreases, it’s always an indicator that the economy as a whole is slowing down, which we know has been happening. It’s one of the most cyclical stocks out there, therefore one of the most dangerous. I wouldn’t bother with FedEx right now. Go take a long nap instead.

Q: Would you be a buyer of Facebook (FB) here, given they seem to have weathered all the recent attacks from Washington?

A: Not here in particular, but I would buy it 20% down when it gets to the bottom edge of its upward channel—it still looks like it’s going crazy. They’re literally renting or buying buildings to hire an additional 50,000 people in San Francisco anticipating huge growth of their business, so that’s a better indicator of the future of Facebook than anything.

Q: Will junk bonds be more in demand now that rates are cratering?

A: Junk bonds (HYG), (JNK) are driven more by the stock market than the bond market, as you can see in the huge rally we just had. Junk bonds are great because their default ratios are usually far below that which the interest rate implies, but you really have to trade them like stocks. Think of them as preferred stocks with really high dividends. When the stock market tops, so will junk bonds. Remember in 2008, junk yields got all the way up to 15% compared to today’s 5.6%.

Q: What will happen to emerging markets (EEM) as rates lower?

A: If lower interest rates bring a weaker US dollar, that would be very positive for emerging markets over the long term and they would be a great buy. However, emerging markets will take the hardest hit if we actually do go into a recession. So, I would pass for now.

Q: What are your thoughts on Alibaba (BABA) and JD.com (JD)?

A: They are great for the long term. However, expect a lot of volatility in the short term. As long as the trade war is going on, these are going to be hard to trade until we get a settlement. (JD) is already up 50% this year but is still down 40% from pre trade war levels. These things will all be up 20-30% when that happens. If you can take the heat until then, they would probably be okay for a long-term portfolio globally diversified.

Q: What do you have to say about the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TBT)—the short bond ETF?

A: If you have a position, I’d be selling now. We just had a massive 20%, 4-point rally from $22 to $27 and now would be a good time to take a profit, or at least get out closer to your cost. The zero interest rates story is not over yet.

Q: Would you short the US dollar?

A: I would most likely short it against the euro (FXE), which now has a massive economic stimulus and quantitative easing program coming into play which should be positive for it and negative for the US dollar (UUP). That’s most likely why the euro has stabilized over the last couple of weeks. That said, the dollar has been unexpected high all year despite falling interest rates so I have been avoiding the entire foreign exchange space. I try to stay away from things I don’t understand.

Q: If all our big tech September vertical bull call spreads are in the money, what should we do?

A: You do nothing. They all expire at the Friday close in two trading days. Your broker should automatically use your long call position to cover your short call position and credit your account with the total profit on the following Monday, as well as release the margin for holding that position. After that, we’ll probably wait for another good entry point on all the same names, (AMZN), (FB), (DIS), (MSFT).

Q: If the US fires a cruise missile at Iran, how would the market react?

A: It would selloff pretty big—markets hate wars. And the US wouldn’t send one missile at Iran; it would be more like 100, probably aimed at what little nuclear facilities they have. I doubt that is going to happen. The world has figured out that Trump is a wimp. He talks big but there is never any action or follow through. Inviting the Taliban to Camp David while they were still blowing up our people? Really?

Q: Will the housing market turn on the turbochargers after this dip in rates?

A: It wouldn't turn on the turbochargers, but it might stabilize the market because money is available now at unprecedentedly low interest rates. However, we still have the loss of the SALT deductions—the state and local taxes and real estate taxes that came in with the Trump tax bill. Since then, real estate has been either unchanged or has fallen on both the East and West coast where the highest priced houses are. It’s the most expensive houses that take the loss of the SALT deduction the hardest. Don’t expect any movement in these markets until the SALT deduction comes back, probably in 16 months.

Q: What catalyst do you think would cause a 10% correction in the next 2-3 months?

A: Trump basically saying “screw you” to the Chinese—a tweet saying he’s going to bring another round of tariff increases. That’s worth a minimum of 2,000 points in the Dow Average (INDU), or about 7% percent. Either that or no move in Fed interest rates—that would also create a big selloff. My guess is that and adverse development in the trade war will be what does it. That’s why my positions are so small now.

Q: We have a big short position in the United States Oil Fund (USO) now. Are you going to run this into expiration until October $18?

A: Even though oil has already collapsed by 10% since we put this position on last Friday, premiums in oil options are still close to record levels. So, it pays us to hang on for the time decay. The world is still massively oversupplied in oil and the Saudis were able to bring half of the lost production back on in a day. Oil will keep falling unless there is another attack and it is unlikely we will see one again on this scale. And, we only have 20 more days to go to capture the full 14.8% profit.

Good luck and good trading.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader

You Can’t Do Enough Research

September 16, 2019

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
September 16, 2019
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or CHOPPY WEATHER AHEAD),
(SPY), (TLT), (FB), (GOOGL), (M), (C),
(XOM), (NFLX), (DIS), (FXE), (FXI)

The Market Outlook for the Week Ahead, or Choppy Weather Ahead

Diary, Newsletter

When commercial pilots fly across the US, they often give each other a heads up about dangerous conditions so other can avoid them. “Chop” is a common one, clear air turbulence that appears on no instruments. Usually, a simple altitude change of a few thousand feet is enough to deal with the problem.

“Chop” is what we traders have had to deal with in the stock market a lot for the past 18 months ever since the trade war with China started. Look at the S&P 500 (SPY) and you see that we have been covering the same ground over and over again, much like trench warfare in WWI. Since April 2018, we have crossed the $270-$290 space no less than six times.

We are just now kissing the upper edge of that band. What happens next depends on your beliefs. If you think the trade war will end in the next month and we don’t go into recession, then the markets will break out to new all-time highs, blasting all the way up to $320. If you don’t, you want to be fading this move, unloading risk, and entertaining short plays.

I’ll let you decide.

As for me, I have been suspicious of this rally since it started the third week of August. It has been led by banks, energy, retailers, and all the other garbage with terrible fundamentals that have been falling for years. In other words, it is pure short covering. There is no net money coming into the market. In the meantime, technology has not fallen, it has ground to a halt awaiting the next flood of capital.

It was Apple (AAPL) day in Silicon Valley, with the world’s largest company rolling out a host of new services and upgrades. The new Apple TV Plus streaming service was the focus, coming out with a $5 a month price, easily undercutting Disney Plus (DIS) at $10 and Netflix (NFLX) at $15.

It is an in-between generation year, so we didn’t get anything big. But with 200 million iPhones needing replacement in coming years (AAPL) is still a good long-term hold. All eyes will be on the share buy backs.

The next antitrust assault on big tech arrived, with Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOGL) now in the sights of 49 US states. This will go nowhere as technology has been leading to lower prices, not higher ones. What is the monopoly value of a service that is given away for free? The choice is very simple: let the US continue to dominate tech, or let China take it over.

Job growth is slowing, and the belief that it has peaked for this cycle is growing. Job openings fell 31,000 in August to 7.2 million according to the Department of Labor. The big loss was in wholesale trade, the big gain in information technology. The economy is moving from old to new.

The John Bolton firing, the national security advisor, crushed oil as the chance of a major Middle Eastern war decline, knocking $1.50 off of Texas Tea. That negotiation with the Taliban didn’t go so well, with them blowing up our people while talking with Mike Pompeo. The risk is that Trump’s next national security advisor could be worse. That’s been the trend. The last national security advisor took money from the Russians.

Europe pulled out all the stops (FXE), renewing a stimulus program with massive quantitative easing. Euro interest rates also to be cut. Eventually, a lot of that money will end up back in the US, the only place in the world with decent investment returns. That's why our stocks are now a few pennies short of a new all-time high.

We saw more of Trump talking up the market ahead of trade talks, with the administration considering half a deal on trade tariffs, while throwing technology under the bus with an intellectual property walkaway. Good for the Midwest, terrible for the west coast.

The bond market meltdown continued, with one of the sharpest collapses in history, down 11 points in a week, The ten-year US Treasury bond yield (TLT) has spiked from 1.44% to 1.90% in a week. Hope you got the rate lock on your refi last Friday. Long bonds had become the most overcrowded trade in a decade. Give it a month to digest, then take another run at the highs in prices, lows in yields.

China (FXI) bought ten shiploads of soybeans (SOYB), hoping for a positive outcome in the October trade talks. Or did they make the purchase to start the trade talks in the first place? Who knows? Price spikes 5%, at last! It's why stocks are pushing to new all-time highs.

The budget deficit toped $1 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal 2019, the highest since the financial crisis. Running deficits this big during peace time with 2% economic growth will leave us with no way to get out of the next recession. It’s setting up the most predictable financial crisis in history, the next one. It’s just a matter of time before the chickens come home to roost. By the time Trump leaves office, the national debt will have increased by $4 trillion, or 20%.

The Mad Hedge Trader Alert Service is treading water in this wildly unpredictable month.

My Global Trading Dispatch stands near an all-time high of 334.99% and my year-to-date remains level at +34.85%. My ten-year average annualized profit bobbed up to +34.35%.

I’ll be running my 40% long in technology stocks into the September 20 options expiration because there is nothing else to do. After watching the bond market crater by 11 points, I could no longer restrain myself and stuck my toe in the water with a small long with yields at 1.90%. I may have to sweat a move to a 2.00% yield, but no more. I break even at 2.10%.

The coming week will be one of the biggest of the year, thanks to the Fed.

On Monday, September 16 at 8:30 AM, the New York Empire State Manufacturing Index is out.

On Tuesday, September 17 at 9:15 AM, the US Industrial Production is published.

On Wednesday, September 18, at 8:30 AM, August Building Permits are released. At 2:30 PM, the Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision. If they don’t cut look out below?

On Thursday, September 19 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are printed. At 10:00 AM, Existing Home Sales are printed.

On Friday, September 20 at 8:30 AM, the Baker Hughes Rig Count is released at 2:00 PM.

As for me, my entire weekend is committed to the Boy Scouts, doing assorted public services projects with the kids, timing a mile run for the Physical Fitness merit badge, and cleaning up San Francisco Bay. Hopefully, I will get some time to review my charts. I usually look at 200 a weekend.

Good luck and good trading.

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