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The Market Outlook for the Week Ahead, or The Golden Age of Big Banking has Just Begun!

The United States is about to change beyond all recognition.

Most investors have missed the true meaning of the JP Morgan takeover of First Republic Bank for sofa change, some $10.6 billion. It in fact heralds the golden age of big banking. The US is about to move from 4,000 banks to four, with all of the profits accruing at the top.

Look at the details of the (JPM)/(FRC) deal and you will become utterly convinced.

(JPM) bought a $90 billion loan portfolio for 87 cents on the dollar, despite the fact that the actual default rate was under 1%. The FDIC agreed to split losses for five years on residential losses and seven years on commercial ones. The deal is accretive to (JPM) book value and earnings. (JPM) gets an entire wealth management business, lock, stock, and barrel. Indeed, CEO Jamie Diamond was almost embarrassed by what a great deal he got.

It was the deal of the century, a true gift for the ages. If this is the model going forward, you want to load the boat with every big bank share out there.

And the amazing thing was that (JPM) made the highest bid among a half dozen contenders.

Along with Health Care, banking is the last unconsolidated US industry. We have five railroads, four airlines, three trucking companies, three telephone companies, two cell phone providers….and 4,000 banks?

Other countries get by with much less. England has five major banks, Australia four, and Germany two, one of which goes bankrupt every decade (I’m not naming names). America’s financial system is an anachronism of its federal system where each of the 50 states is treated like a mini country.

The net net of this will be a massive capital drain from the entire country to New York where the big banks are concentrated. Local economies in the Midwest and the South will collapse for lack of funding. The West Coast will be OK with behemoth technology companies spinning off gigantic cash flows.

The other big story here is the dramatic change in the administration’s antitrust policy. Until now, it has opposed every large merger as an undue concentration of economic power. Then suddenly, the second largest bank merger in history took place on a weekend, and there will be more to come.

All it takes is a Twitter run by depositors. Every weekend has become a waiting game for the foreseeable future.

Needless to say, this makes all the big banks a screaming buy. Hoover up every one of the coming dip, including (JPM), (BAC), (C), and (WFC).

Big is beautiful.

To prove I am not perfect, my position in First Republic Bank (FRC) still sits on my broker statement a week after it filed for bankruptcy, dead, moribund, and worthless as if it is some form of punishment. It’s a very small position but it stings nonetheless.

It’s like they want to punish me for leading them astray. They have been copying my trades for ages without paying for them and I hope they took a big one in (FRC).

So far in May, I have managed a modest +0.55% profit. My 2023 year-to-date performance is now at an eye-popping +62.30%. The S&P 500 (SPY) is up only a miniscule +8.40% so far in 2023. My trailing one-year return reached a 15-year high at +120.45% versus -3.67% for the S&P 500.

That brings my 15-year total return to +659.49%. My average annualized return has blasted up to +48.86%, another new high, some 2.79 times the S&P 500 over the same period.

Some 40 of my 43 trades this year have been profitable. My last 20 consecutive trade alerts have been profitable.

I initiated no new trades last week, content to run off existing profitable ones. With the Volatility Index at a two-year low at 15.78%, opportunities are few and far between. Those include both longs and shorts in Tesla (TSLA), a long in the bond market (TLT), and a short in the (QQQ).

That leaves me with only one remaining position, a short-dated long in the bond market. I now have a very rare 90% cash position due to the lack of high-return, low-risk trades.

The Fed Raises Rates 0.25%, likely the last such move in this cycle. Futures markets are now discounting a 25-basis point CUT by September, the beginning of a new decade-long falling rate cycle. The problem is that AI is creating more jobs than it is destroying, keeping the Fed fixated on the wrong data.

Nonfarm Payroll Jumps by 253,000, another hot number. The headline Unemployment Rate dropped to a half-century low of 3.4%. These figures suggest for rate hikes to come.

The JP Morgan Buys First Republic Bank from the FDIC, for $10.6 billion, thus wiping out the shareholders. It’s a huge win for (JPM), which picked up 87 branches and $90 billion in loans in the wealthiest part of the country, taking the share up $5. What you lost on (FRC) you made pack on (JPM) LEAPS. Live and learn. On to the next trade! The FDIC got out for nearly free, a big win for the government.

Government Default Date Moved Up to June 1, by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, smacking the bond market for three points. The House remains an albatross around the bond market’s debt.

Europe Ekes Out 0.1% Growth in Q1, versus a 1.1% rate for the US. This is despite the drag of the Ukraine War, energy shortages, high inflation, and Brexit. What’s the difference between the US and Europe? We allow immigrants who become customers, while the continent doesn’t.

You Only Need to Buy Seven Stocks This Year, as the rest are going nowhere. That include (AAPL), (GOOGL), (META), (AMZN), (TSLA), (NVDA), (CRM). Watch out when the next rotation broadens out to the rest of the market.

Is Volatility Bottoming Now? The Fed announcement of a 25 basis point hike on Wednesday could end the move up in stocks. After that, shares will only have an imminent debt default and US government downgrade to focus on. ($VIX) seven-week fade will end that revisit the old highs in the high $20’s. Great shorting opportunities are setting up.

Oil (USO) Crashes 5% on US debt default fears in the biggest drop since January. This is the worst asset class to own going into a recession. EV competition is also starting to take a bite. No gas needed here. $66 a barrel here we come.

More Tesla Price Cuts to Come, with swelling inventories forcing Musk’s hand. The only consolation is that Detroit will suffer more. Musk is cutting profits while the big three are accelerating losses. Tesla has excess inventory for the first time in its 20-year history.

Apple (AAPL) Earnings Beat, led by stronger than expected Q1 iPhone sales at $53.1 billion. EPS came in at $1.53 versus $1.42 expected, revenues at $94.84 billion versus $92.96. Mac and iPad sales are down YOY. Services rose 5.3%. Apple bought back a stunning $90 billion of its own shares and paid dividends. The shares popped $3. The long-term growth play here is low prices phone in India where second hand phone sales have been burgeoning. That's why Apple is now offering to buy your old phone. Next stop: New Delhi.

My Ten-Year View

When we come out the other side of the recession, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. The economy decarbonizing and technology hyper-accelerating, creating enormous investment opportunities. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The new America will be far more efficient and profitable than the old.

Dow 240,000 here we come!

On Monday, May 8 at 7:30 AM EST, the Consumer Inflation Expectations are out.

On Tuesday, May 9 at 6:00 AM, the NFIB Business Optimism Index is announced.

On Wednesday, May 10 at 11:00 AM, the US Inflation rate is printed.

On Thursday, May 11 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. We also get the Producer Price Index.

On Friday, May 12 at 8:30, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for April is released.

As for me, I have been going down memory lane looking at my old travel photos looking for new story ideas and I hit the jackpot.

Most people collect postcards from their foreign travels. I collect lifetime bans from whole countries.

During the 1970s, The Economist magazine of London sent me to investigate the remote country of Nauru, one half degree south of the equator in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, they had the world’s highest per capita income due to the fact that the island was entirely composed of valuable bird guano essential for agriculture. Before the Haber-Bosch Process to convert nitrogen into ammonia was discovered, guano was the world’s sole source of high grade fertilizer.

So I packed my camera, extra sunglasses, and a couple of pairs of shorts and headed for the most obscure part of the world. That involved catching Japan Airlines from Tokyo to Hawaii, Air Micronesia to Majuro in the Marshall Islands, and Air Nauru to the island nation in question.

There was a problem in Nauru. Calculating the market value of the bird crap leaving the island, I realized it in no way matched the national budget. It should have since the government owned the guano mines.

Whenever numbers don’t match up, I get interested.

I managed to wrangle an interview with the president of the country in the capital city of Demigomodu. It turns out that was no big deal as visitors were so rare in the least visited country in the world that he met with everyone!

When the president ducked out to take a call, I managed to steal a top-secret copy of the national budget. I took it back to my hotel and read it with great interest.

I discovered that the president’s wife had been commandeering Boeing 727s from Air Nauru to go on lavish shopping expeditions to Sydney, Australia where she was blowing $200,000 a day on jewelry, designer clothes, and purses, all at government expense. Just when I finished reading, there was a heavy knock on the door. The police had come to arrest me.

It didn’t take long for missing budget to be found. I was put on trial, sentenced to death for espionage, and locked up to await my fate. The trial took 20 minutes.

Then one morning I was awoken by the rattling of keys. My editor at The Economist, the late Peter Martin, had made a call and threatened the intervention of the British government. Visions of Her Majesty’s Navy loomed on the horizon.

I was put in handcuffs and placed on the next plane out of the country, a non-stop for Brisbane Australia. When I was seated next to an Australian passenger, he asked “Jees, what did you do mate, kill someone?” On arrival, I sent the story to the Australian papers.

I dined out on that story for years.

Alas, things have not gone well for Nauru in the intervening 50 years. The guano is all gone, mined to exhaustion. It is often cited as an environmental disaster. The population has rocketed from 4,000 to 10,000. Per capita incomes have plunged from $60,000 a year to $10,000. The country is now a ward of the Australian government to keep the Chinese from taking it over.

If you want to learn more about Nauru, which many believe to be a fictitious country, please click here.

As for me, I think I’ll pass. I don’t ever plan to visit Nauru again. Once lucky, twice forewarned.

Stay healthy,

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

April 28, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
April 28, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2023 KEY WEST, FLORIDA STRATEGY LUNCHEON)
(APRIL 26 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(FRC), (IWM), (QQQ), (AAPL), (TSLA), (AMZN), (TSLA), (RIVN), (CRM), (TLT), (HYG)

CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.

April 26 Biweekly Strategy Webinar Q&A

Diary, Newsletter

Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the April 26 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar, broadcast from Las Vegas, NV.

Q: Would you start adding to The Russell 2000 (IWM) around here?

A: No, the Russell 2000 is the most sensitive to market action and the most sensitive to an economic downturn, which it seems we have already entered. And you don’t add positions one week into the downturn, you do it like 3-6 months into the downturn. So, I would not touch (IWM) right around here.

Q: Are you buying more First Republic Bank (FRC) down here?

A: No, at this point the stock is a no-go. It is a ripe takeover target for someone, and the risk is, the takeover price is lower than your cost. I don’t understand why First Republic is down this far—like 97% — and when I don't understand things, I stay away. I had never seen a bank go under before that didn’t have bad loans, nor has anyone else. A lot of people were asking if they should double up, we went from $16 to $6 in a day, and the firm answer is that I just don’t know. The fundamentals of the company by no means justify that discount, it must be discounting something terrible that we haven’t heard yet. So I’m going to stay away and look for better trades to do.

Q: I missed the Tesla (TSLA) trade on Friday, should I be looking to buy the dips down here?

A: Yes, I would. I put out a May $110-$120 vertical bull call debit spread on Tesla, which is now only 3 weeks to expiration. Remember, at Tesla’s growth rate, the company is now 12% larger than it was when it hit the $104 bottom in January. I should point out that once our trade alert went out, it literally triggered billions of dollars worth of market action and crushed volatility. It took the implied volatility on Tesla options down 10% on that one day. So, with implied volatility this low, I’m not sure you can get Tesla done at any price that makes sense—but if you can, I’m all for it. As for the short, we’re almost in max profit on our Tesla short position. It’s cratered about $35 since we put it on, so I wouldn’t be chasing that one.

Q: Is there a reason why Freeport McMoRan (FCX) is not progressing upwards?

A: Recession fears—the long-term case for copper is spectacular— I’m looking for $100 in (FCX) a couple years down the road. With the short term, all they see is recession and US government debt default, and as long as those two things are overhanging the market, all of the economically sensitive plays are going to go down. You’re not going to get gains, you’re going to get losses. If you want to know how the debt default is working out, you can write a letter to Kevin McCarthy in Washington DC and ask him what he’s going to do. The stock market doesn’t like it for sure, so I’m inclined to go back to 100% cash and duck that whole cluster.

Q: Can China survive without foreign investment?

A: Yes, with a much lower standard of living, and technology that is greatly lagging behind the US. The Chinese use all the foreign investment going on to upgrade their own technology—it's very common for a Chinese worker to work for an American company for a year and then walk across the street and work for their main Chinese competitor. That is a major means of technology transfer. Without that, they fall way behind, and they know it. You can’t copy your way to leadership, as Japan found out to their great expense in the 1990s. You can add that to the long list of reasons why China will never invade Taiwan. Not only have they cut off their food and energy supply, but also their technology supply.

Q: Would it be safe to deposit my money with Apple (APPL) who’s offering a 4.15% interest rate?

A: Yes, Apple has about $150 billion in cash on the balance sheet to back up any deposit runs. I imagine Apple financially is probably far safer than any small regional bank in the US. But, there are better things to do than Apple, and that’s the good old 90-day US T-bill. That bill never defaults; it’s offering 5.2% — it may even be a little bit higher after May 3 when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates by 25 basis points.

Q: Aren’t earnings coming in better than expected?

A: Yes they are, however, the earnings season was frontloaded with the best-performing sector in the market—i.e. the banks—which you were 100% long of until last week, and the weaker performers are next. That seems to be what the stock market is telling us with the selloff, and of course, the weaker performers are technology stocks. So that's why I piled on the shorts (especially in the Invesco QQQ Trust), that’s why I cut back position sizes, it’s time to take the money and run.

Q: How much longer do you plan to do this?

A: Well Warren Buffet is 92 and he seems to be doing just fine. Joe Biden plans to be President of the United States until he is 86. Work for these men is their lives and they will never quit. The same is true for me. If they can do that, I can certainly run Mad Hedge Fund Trader until I am 92, or for 21 more years. Besides, what else would I do? I’m terrible at golf, I hate pickleball, Bingo is boring and is usually rigged, and all the other stuff that people my age do doesn’t appeal in the least.

Q: Are there ETFs that mirror the rates of 90-day T-bills, or is it better just to buy direct through my broker?

A: It’s always better to buy T-bills directly because your ETF does not work for free. They’re taking out fees somewhere, even if you can’t see them, even if they’re not in the marketing material—nobody works for free; except the US government, it would seem. So buy directly from the US government. If you own the T-bills and your institution goes bankrupt, you can always get your T-bills back in a couple of days. If you own their ETF that mirrors the T-bill, that can become a complete loss and you’ll get tied up in bankruptcy proceedings that last three years (and you may or may not get your money back.) So T-bills directly are the gold standard, I would buy those if you’re looking for a cash alternative.

Q: What about Rivian (RIVN)?

A: It’s red meat in this kind of market—don’t touch it. If the entire car industry is rolling over, including Tesla, don’t expect Rivian to outperform in that situation. As for Amazon (AMZN), like all tech stocks, I’m going to wait for the current selloff to work its way for its system, but then it’s probably a great long term buy and a two-year LEAPS.

Q: What’s your estimate for S&P earnings?

A: I’m at $220 a share which today gives us a multiple of 18.73, which is the middle of the recent range. We may drop a point or two from there, but that’s close enough for the cigar.

Q: Won’t wider credit spreads hurt iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG)?

A: Yes, for the short term, but you’re being compensated for that by the 8% yield; and you’re buying junk bonds not for where they are for the next month or two, but where they are for the end of the year, which would be at least 10$-15% higher than they are now, so your total “all in” return might be as much as 25%. Not bad.

Q: What’s your thought on the Salesforce (CRM) drop?

A: I’ll buy it in about 3 months, once the next tech washout is finished and they’re throwing these things out with the bathwater.

Q: Do you think iShares 20 Plus Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) will trade higher if the market collapses?

A: Yes it will; that is your classic flight to safety out of stocks into bonds. We haven’t seen it in quite a while because both of them have been moving up and down together.

To watch a replay of this webinar with all the charts, bells, whistles, and classic rock music, just log in to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, go to MY ACCOUNT, click on GLOBAL TRADING DISPATCH or TECHNOLOGY LETTER, then WEBINARS, and all the webinars from the last 12 years are there in all their glory.

Good Luck and Stay Healthy.

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

Playing the Penny Slots in Las Vegas is Definitely NOT my Retirement

March 24, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
March 24, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(MARCH 22 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(IBB), (INTC), (AMD), (XLU), (NVDA), (TSLA), (FRC), (QQQ), (SPY), (TLT), (UNG), (USO), (VLO), (DINO), (SUN), (FCX), (JPM), (RIVN), (DVN), (LNG), (KMI), (DAL)

CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.

March 22 Biweekly Strategy Webinar Q&A

Diary, Newsletter

Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the March 22 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar, broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA.

Q: I have big losses in biotech (IBB) but am a long-term believer—do you think it will recover?

A: Yes, I do. But we are still looking at the post-COVID hangover, where Biotechs rocketed for about a year. We’re simply coming off that overbought situation. In the meantime, the industry continues to generate groundbreaking discoveries at the fastest rate in history. When those translate into profit-making products, the stocks will perform, and many of them already have.

Q: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) appears to be overbought, what are your thoughts?

A: Yes absolutely, the whole chip sector is overbought, because guess what, they benefit from falling interest rates and an economic recovery. That group will absolutely lead going into the future, and it’s hard to get into—these things just go up in a straight line. Look at Nvidia (NVDA), it has more than doubled since the October low and you barely get pullbacks. It’s looking like Nvidia is going to take over the world; we’d love to get into it but it seems like it will only be a high-risk/high-reward stock. They are now having the tailwind with Chat GPT—which everyone has to own now or go out of business—and buy Nvidia chips to make it work.

Q: Would you recommend banks and brokerages here?

A; Yes, because of the banking crisis, they’ll be the best performers as we come out of it. The end of the interest rate rising cycle is now in sight, and we are about to enter the golden age of banking. Institutions are buying stocks for that now. And your next entry point will be Friday because the pattern has been to sell off everything on Fridays in expectation of a new bank going under on the weekend. If nothing happens, then you have a big rally on Monday morning. So that you can probably play.

Q: Are there recordings of this webinar?

A: Yes, to find all past recordings, just go to www.madhedgefundtrader.com and log in.

Q: When does Intel (INTC) become a buy, if ever?

A: It’s probably a “BUY” right here. You never want to buy a tech company run by a salesman, and that’s what happened with Intel. As soon as you had a salesman guaranteeing he’d turn the company around, the stock dropped by half. So down here, it’s looking more likely that they’ll fire the head of Intel, get an engineer back in charge, and the stock should double. But clearly, it’s the only value left in the semiconductor area.

Q: Would you double up on the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG)?

A: Yes, and I'd be doing 2-year (UNG) LEAPS. There’s no way you have an economic recovery over the next two years that will get us a double, triple, or quadruple in the price of natural gas, and (UNG) will catch that move less 35% for the contango (the 1-year differential between front month and one-year futures contracts).

Q: What’s your favorite tech stock to buy on the dip?

A: It has to be Tesla (TSLA). And I’m in the middle of writing a massive opus on the Tesla Investors Day, which included far more news and content than people realize. That's because you have journalists covering investors' day, not engineers. So I’ll get to the engineers’ and scientists view, which is much more interesting.

Q: Buy bitcoin after the financial contagion?

A: No, bitcoin is what you bought at the market top because there was nothing else to buy because everything else was so expensive. Now everything else is cheap when you can buy Apple (AAPL) at $160, Nvidia at $272 (NVDA), or Tesla (TSLA) at $200. Those are far better choices than a purely speculative asset class which you may never see again once you send in your money. That has been the experience of a lot of people.

Q: Should I sell short the Utility ETF (XLU) if investors head into growth stocks?

A: No, utilities are very heavy borrowers with big capital requirements, and also will benefit heavily from falling interest rates. Basically, everything goes up on an economic recovery. So, your short ideas were great a year ago, not so much now. Now we’re looking for long plays, and just a few hedges, like in bonds, to control risk.

Q: What's the net entry point for Freeport McMoRan (FCX)?

A: I would say here, and my target for this year for Freeport is at the very least hitting $50 again; someday we hit $100, once we get another ramp-up for EV production and the demand for copper sores accordingly.

Q: I hear China has a battery that will go 600 miles and is coming soon.

A: Tesla has a battery that will go 1,000 miles now, but it can only be recharged once. It turns out that the military is very interested in using these, converting Humvees to EVs; then you could parachute them charged batteries which you just pop in. That eliminates having to move these giant bladders of gasoline which easily explode. So yes, the 1,000-mile battery has actually been around for 10 years but can’t be mass-produced. That is the issue.

Q: How will Tesla deal with hydrogen?

A: It will ignore it. Hydrogen will never go mainstream—it can’t compete with an existing electric power grid. But there are fleet or utility applications that make sense; so other than a small, limited fleet confined to a local area, I don't see hydrogen ever catching up. And Saudi Arabia can easily convert their entire oil supply into hydrogen to create a “green” carbon-free fuel. Remember, the cost of electric power cars is dropping dramatically—at about 20% a year—so hydrogen has to keep up with that too which they’re not.

Q: Please explain a bank LEAPS.

A: You buy a call option, you sell short a call option higher up, and you do it with a maturity of one year longer, or more. That’s what makes it a LEAPS. If you want more details, just go to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, and search LEAPS and a full explanation of how to execute these will come up.

Q: What do you think of Rivian (RIVN)?

A: It’s a long-term play—they got knocked down by half on their latest $1.2 billion capital raise, which everybody knew was coming, but still seemed to surprise some traders. It’s a long-term hold, not a short term trade. That said, it’s tempting to do LEAPS on Rivian right here going out two years. The stock is down 95% from the highs.

Q: What level LEAPS do you do on JP Morgan (JPM)?

A: I sent that out to everybody last week—that would be to buy the $130 call option and sell short the $135 call option for January of 2024. That way the stock only has to go up 4% for you to make a 100% return on that investment. That’s why we love LEAPS.

Q: I had First Republic Bank (FRC) at $30, took a bath, and got rid of it. Should I have held on?

A: Yes. There's nothing wrong with First Republic's business, and that’s what's new in all of this current round of bank failures—the assets are fine. Usually when a bank goes under it’s because they extended too many dubious loans that defaulted. First Republic not only has a great loan book, but a great asset base in high-net-worth individuals. This is not a bank you would normally expect to go under. Which is why private banks are pouring money into it to save it. I’d be a buyer at the $10 level if we get down that far again. And I actually bought a little bit of First Republic myself on Monday, the meltdown day at $15, with the theory that it will get bailed out and the stock goes up ten times.

Q: Would you do vertical credit spreads on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Fund (SPY) or Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) with the $2 spread?

A: No, the big money is made on single stocks, which have double or triple the volatility of indexes, and you know which single stocks to buy right now—the ones that just had a big selloff. You want more volatility at market bottoms, not less; and I would recommend doing all the financial and call spreads and LEAPS right here. They will have higher volatility and deliver much better risk/reward ratios. That is basic trading 101: you short indexes on the way down, you buy single stocks on the way up. That's what every hedge fund worth its salt does.

Q: Do you have an opinion on Zero Days to Expiration causing greater volatility?

A: Absolutely, it is—especially on Fridays. And I'm not doing these because they are basically lottery tickets. But, if it's a coin toss on whether you make money or not, and you write off the bad ones and make a nice profit on the good ones, that could be a profitable trade. I actually have several followers experimenting with that type of strategy, so I'll let you know if they make any money on it.

Q: What do you think about oil in this environment?

A: It’s discounting a recession which is never going to happen; so oil and oil plays are probably a good trade here, especially with front-month calls. I would be going for Valero Energy (VLO) and the refiners like Sinclair (DINO) and Sunoco (SUN), rather than the big producers because they have already had big moves which they have held onto mostly. Expect oil to go up—I’d be buying the commodity here (USO) and I’d be buying the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG).

Q: What's the maximum downside in the next 30 days?

A: Well I showed you on that S&P 500 (SPY) chart at the beginning—$350 is the worst-case scenario with a deep recession, and that assumes the banking crisis doesn’t go away and gets worse. I think the banking crisis is done and getting better so we won’t test the downside, but the unanticipated can happen, so you have to be ready for anything. The non-recessionary low looks to be $375.

Q: What if you can’t do spreads in an IRA, like for iShares 20 Plus Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)?

A: Just buy the (TLT) outright, or buy it on 2:1 margin. (TLT) is probably a great buy around 100 or 101. ProShares has the 2X long Ultra Treasury ETF (UBT), but the fees are high, the spreads are wide, and the tracking error is large, as is standard for these kinds of instruments.

Q: When taking a position in LEAPS, how do you decide the position size per holding?

A: I send out all the LEAPS assuming one contract, then you can adjust your size according to your own experience level and risk tolerance. Keep in mind that if I’m wrong on everything, the value of all LEAPS goes to zero, so it may not be for you. On the other hand, if I am right on my one-year and two-year views, all these LEAPS will deliver a 100-120% return. You decide.

Q: Are you expecting a seasonal rally in oil?

A: Yes I am, and we’re coming off very low levels. Buy the United States Oil ETF (USO) and buy the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG).

Q: Is a recession still on the table with all the banking crises?

A: No, if anything, it brings the end of any possibility of a recession because it’s bringing interest rate cuts sooner than expected, which brings a recovery that’s sooner than expected. And that’s why you’re getting interest-rate-sensitive stocks holding here and starting to rally.

Q: My retirement account won’t let me buy (UNG)—Are there any other good companies I can buy?

A: Yes, Devon Energy (DVN) is big in the gas area. So are Cheniere Energy (LNG) and Kinder Morgan (KMI).

Q: If the market is oversupplied with oil, why is gasoline so expensive?

A: Endless middlemen add-ons. This is one of the greatest continuing rip-offs in human history—gasoline prices always take the elevator up and the escalator down, it’s always that way. And that's how oil companies make money—by squeezing consumers. I’ve been tracking it for 50 years and that’s my conclusion. The State of California has done a lot of research on this and learned that only half of their higher prices are from taxes to pay for roads and the other half comes from a myriad of markups. Also, a lot of businessmen just don’t want to be in the gasoline retailing business and will only enter when the returns are very high. Plus, oil companies are trying to milk companies for all their worth right now because the industry may disappear in 10 years. Go electric, that’s my solution. I haven’t bought gasoline for 13 years, except for my kids. I only buy cars for my kids at junkyards and fix them up. If they want to do better they can go out and earn it.

Q: Do we need to worry about China supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine?

A: Not really, because all we have to do to cut off Chinese supplies for Russia is to cut off trade with China, and their economy will completely collapse. China knows this, so they may do some token support for Russia like send them sweatshirts or something like that. If they start a large arms supply, which they could, then the political costs and the trade costs would be more than it’s worth. And at the end of the day, China has no principles, it really is only interested in itself and its own people and will do business with anybody.

Q: What do you think about the recovery in solar?

A: What’s been going on in solar is very interesting because for the last 20 years, solar has moved one to one with oil. So, you would expect that from collapsing oil prices and more price competition from oil, solar would collapse too. Instead, solar has had tremendous moves up and is close to highs for the year. The difference has to be the Biden alternative energy subsidies, which are floating the entire industry and accelerating the entire conversion of the United States to an all-electric economy. So they've had great runs. I wouldn’t get involved here, but it’s nice to contemplate what this means for the long-term future of the country.

Q: Should I buy the airline stocks here?

A: Yes, I’d go for Delta (DAL). Again, it’s one of the sectors that’s discounting a recession that’s not going to happen. They’re going to have the biggest airline boom ever this summer as the reopening trade continues on for another year, and a lot of pent-up travel demand hits the market.

Q: Do you like platinum?

A: I do—not because of EVs but because of hydrogen. You need platinum for hydrogen fuel cells to work. That’s a brand new demand, and there’s supposed to be a shortage of half a million ounces of platinum this year.

To watch a replay of this webinar with all the charts, bells, whistles, and classic rock music, just log in to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, go to MY ACCOUNT, click on GLOBAL TRADING DISPATCH or TECHNOLOGY LETTER, then WEBINARS, and all the webinars from the last 12 years are there in all their glory.

Good Luck and Stay Healthy,

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

February 6, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
February 6, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or WELCOME TO THE WHIPSAW)
(SPY), (TLT), (TSLA), (QQQ), (DOCU), (META), (AMZN)

CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.

Note: We are moving webinar platforms to Zoom for the February 8, 12:00 EST Mad Hedge Biweekly Strategy

Webinar. To join, please click here.

The Market Outlook for the Week Ahead, or Welcome to the Whipsaw

Diary, Newsletter

Well, that was some week!

The next time there is a Fed interest rate announcement, earnings from all the big tech companies, and a Nonfarm Payroll Report all within five days, I am going to call in sick, volunteer at the Oakland Food Bank, or explore some remote Pacific island!

For good measure, a top-secret Chinese spy balloon passed overhead before it was shot down, which I was able to read all about in USA Today.

Still, when you live life in the front trenches and on the cutting edge and use the kind of leverage that I do, you are going to take hits. It’s all a cost of doing business. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

The last month in the markets have seen one of the greatest whipsaws of all time. Many leading stocks are up 40%-100%, while the Volatility Index ($VIX) plunged to a two-year low. Stocks have gone from zero bid to zero offered. The bulls are back in charge, for now.

Go figure.

This year has proved full of flocks of black swans so far, with February setting me back -5.70%. My 2023 year-to-date performance is still at the top at +16.65%. The S&P 500 (SPY) is up +9.92% so far in 2023. My trailing one-year return maintains a sky-high +84.10%.

That brings my 15-year total return to +613.84%, some 2.59 times the S&P 500 (SPX) over the same period. My average annualized return has retreated to +46.62%, still the highest in the industry.

Last week, I got stopped out of my short position in the (QQQ), in what will hopefully be my biggest loss of the year, but not the last. Once or twice a year, you get a major gap opening that takes you through one, and sometimes two full strike prices, taking you to the cleaners, and this was one of those times. It takes three more winning trades to make up for these.

I also took small profits on my remaining long in Apple (AAPL). That leaves me 80% in cash, with a double short in Tesla (TSLA). Markets are wildly overextended here with my own Mad Hedge Market Timing Index well into “SELL” territory at 76. Tread at your own peril. Cash is king right here.

Growth stocks are on fire and small caps have been prospering, all classic bull market indicators. This has triggered panic short covering by hedge funds which have seen their worst start to a New Year in decades. The old pros are getting carried out on stretchers.

Maybe this is a good time to hire some kid to do your trading, like one who has never seen markets go down before, one who started his career only on January 1? Or maybe one who retired on December 31 2021, and took a year off?

So, what are markets trying to tell us? That in an hour, the view of the economy has flipped from a mild recession to a soft landing? That interest rates don’t matter anymore? That big chunks of the economy can operate without outside money? That big tech will always make money, it will just rotate from large profits to small ones and back to outrageous ones again?

Those who instead bet on a severe recession are currently filling out their applications as Uber drivers. Warning: it’s harder than it used to be, no more fake IDs or salvage title cars. Next, they’ll want your DNA sample.

If it is any consolation, Fed governor Jay Powell hasn’t a clue about what’s happening either, and that’s with 100 PhD's in economics on his staff. He was just as flummoxed as we over a January Nonfarm Payroll Report that came in 2.5 X expectations on top of 4.5% in interest rate hikes.

Clearly, a new economy has emerged from the wreckage of the pandemic, and no one, not anyone, has quite figured out what it is yet.

Some ten years’ worth of economic evolution has been pulled forward. Everything is digitizing at an astonishing rate. What do I do after slaving away in front of a computer all day? Go back to my computer to have fun. Lots of “zeros” and “ones” there.

It looks like we get a new stock market too.

All of this frenetic market action does fit one theory that I spelled out for you in great detail last week. It is that technology stocks are about to spin off such immense profits that it is about to replace the Fed as a new immense supply of free money.

META up 20% in a day? That’s what it says to me. Notice that Mark Zuckerberg mentioned “AI” 16 times in his earnings call.

Is it possible that I nailed this one….again?

On another related topic, the last three months have just given us a wonderful illustration of how well the Mad Hedge Market Timing Index works (see chart below). We got a strong BUY at an Index reading of 30 on December 22, when the (SPY) began a robust 12% move up. We are now at the top end of an upward trend with my Index at 76. You’d be Mad to add a long position here, at least for the short term.

Someone asked me the other day if the algorithm has gotten smarter in the seven years I have been using it. The answer is absolutely “yes,” and you can see it in my performance. During this time, my average annualized return has jumped from 31% to 46%. That’s because the algorithm gets smarter with the hundreds of new data points that are added every day. Believe it or not, this is how much of the economy is run now.

But there is another factor. I get smarter every year. Believe it or not, when you go from year 54 to 55, you actually learn quite a lot about the markets. Of course, markets are evolving all the time and the rate of change is accelerating. When I saw the market moving towards algorithms, I wrote an algorithm. The challenge is to solve each new problem the market throws at you every year, which I love doing.

Nonfarm Payroll Report at 513,000 Blows Away Estimates, more than double expectations. The Headline Unemployment Rate fell to a new 53-year low at 3.4%. Leisure & Hospitality gained an incredible 128,000, Professional & Business Services 82,000, and Government 74,000. You can kiss that interest rate cut goodbye. Bonds believe it, down 3 points, but stocks are still in Lalaland, reversing a 300-point reversal in the (QQQ)s.

Fed Raises Rates 25 basis points, but Powell talks hawkish, smashing stocks for an hour. He needs more evidence that inflation is finally headed down. He might as well have said he’ll burn the place down. One or two more rate rises to go before the pivot.

Weekly Jobless Claims Hit New 9 Month Low, at 183,000, down 3,000, and is close to a multi-generational low. A recession is rapidly moving off the table as today’s move in tech stocks indicates.

JOLTS Surges Past 11 Million Job Openings in December to a five-month high. The Fed’s assault on labor clearly isn’t working. The million who died from Covid certainly aren’t coming back to work, nor are the 500,000 long Covid cases. That’s 1% of the US workforce.

Ukraine War is Accelerating Move to Green Energy, or so thinks British Petroleum, cutting its ten-year energy demand forecast. Russian energy has proven unreliable at best, and the key pipelines have been blown up anyway. Massive subsidies have been unleashed in Europe and the US for solar, wind, EVs, hydro, and even nuclear. The war gave coal a respite from oblivion, but only a temporary one.

S&P Case Shiller Drops to an 8.6% Annual Gain, the National Home Price Index falling for five consecutive months. No green shoots here. The deeply lagging indicator may not turn positive until yearend. Miami, Tampa, and Atlanta showed the biggest gains, with San Francisco the biggest loser.

Office Occupancy Recovers to 50%, according to a private research firm. New York, San Jose, and San Francisco are still lagging. With the work-from-home trend and high interest rates, commercial properties have entered a perfect storm. Austin, TX was the highest at 68%.

Europe Delivers Surprising Q4 Growth, despite WWIII playing out on its doorstep. GDP increased by 0.1% when a decline was expected. European stocks should outperform American ones in 2023.

IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast for 2023 to 2.9% and sees a modest recovery in 2024. The figures are an improvement from the last report, thanks to falling inflation and energy prices. China ending lockdowns is another plus.

General Motors to Invest $650 Million in Lithium Americas, pouring money into a Nevada mine at Thacker Pass, the largest such US investment so far. (GM) says it will raise EV production to 400,000 this year versus 120,000 for all of 2022. Good luck because local environmental opposition to the new mine has been enormous. Goodbye China.

My Ten-Year View

When we come out the other side of the recession, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. The economy decarbonizing and technology hyper accelerating, creating enormous investment opportunities. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The new America will be far more efficient and profitable than the old. Dow 240,000 here we come!

On Monday, February 6, no data of note is announced.

On Tuesday, February 7 January 31 at 5:30 AM EST, the Balance of Trade is out.

On Wednesday, February 8 at 7:30 AM, the Crude Oil Stocks are published.

On Thursday, February 9 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced.

On Friday, February 10 at 8:30 AM, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment is printed. At 2:00 the Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count is out.

As for me, the telephone call went out amongst the family with lightning speed, and this was back in 1962 when long-distance calls cost a fortune. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was going to visit my grandfather’s cactus garden in Indio the next day, said to be the largest in the country, and family members were invited.

I spent much of my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s helping grandpa look for rare cactus in California’s lower Colorado Desert, where General Patton trained before invading Africa. That involved a lot of digging out a GM pickup truck from deep sand in the remorseless heat. SUVs hadn’t been invented yet, and a Willys Jeep (click here) was the only four-wheel drive then available in the US.

I have met nine of the last 13 presidents, but Eisenhower was my favorite. He certainly made an impression on me as a ten-year-old boy, who I remember as a kindly old man.

I walked with Eisenhower and my grandfather plant by plant, me giving him the Latin name for its genus and species, and citing unique characteristics and uses by the Indians. The former president showed great interest and in two hours we covered the entire garden. I still make my kids learn the Latin names of plants.

Eisenhower lived on a remote farm at the famous Gettysburg, PA battlefield given to him by a grateful nation. But the winters there were harsh so he often visited the Palm Springs mansion of TV Guide publisher Walter Annenberg, a major campaign donor.

Eisenhower was one of the kind of brilliant men that America always comes up with when it needs them the most. He learned the ropes serving as Douglas MacArthur’s Chief of Staff during the 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt picked him out of 100 possible generals to head the allied invasion of Europe, even though he had no combat experience.

After the war, both the Democratic and Republican parties recruited him as a candidate for the 1952 election. The latter prevailed, and “Ike” served two terms, defeating the governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson twice. During his time, he ended the Korean War, started the battle over civil rights at Little Rock, began the Interstate Highway System, and admitted Hawaii as the 50^th state.

As my dad was very senior in the Republican Party in Southern California during the 1950s, I got to meet many of the bigwigs of the day. New York prosecutor Thomas Dewy ran for president twice, against Roosevelt and Truman, and was a cold fish and aloof. Barry Goldwater was friends with everyone and a decorated bomber pilot during the war.

Richard Nixon would do anything to get ahead, and it was said that even his friends despised him. He let the Vietnam War drag out five years too long when it was clear we were leaving. Some 21 guys I went to high school with died in Vietnam during this time. I missed Kennedy and Johnson. Wrong party and they died too soon. Ford was a decent man and I even went to church with him once, but the Nixon pardon ended his political future.

Peanut farmer Carter was characterized as an idealistic wimp. But the last time I checked, the Navy didn’t hire wimps as nuclear submarine commanders. He did offer to appoint me Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, but I turned him down because I thought the $15,000 salary was too low. There were not a lot of Japanese-speaking experts on the Japanese steel industry around in those days. Biggest mistake I ever made.

Ronald Reagan’s economic policies drove me nuts and led to today’s giant deficits, which was a big deal if you worked for The Economist. But he always had a clever dirty joke at hand which he delivered to great effect….always off camera. The tough guy Reagan you saw on TV was all acting. His big accomplishment was to not drop the ball when it was handed to him to end the Cold War.

I saw quite a lot of George Bush, Sr. who I met with my Medal of Honor Uncle Mitch Paige at WWII anniversaries, who was a gentleman and fellow pilot. Clinton was definitely a “good old boy” from Arkansas, a glad-hander, and an incredible campaigner, but was also a Rhodes Scholar. His networking skills were incredible. George Bush, Jr. I missed as he never came to California. And 22 years later we are still fighting in the Middle East.

Obama was a very smart man and his wife Michelle even smarter. Stocks went up 400% on his watch and Mad Hedge Fund Trader prospered mightily. But I thought a black president of the United States was 50 years early. How wrong was I. Trump I already knew too much about from when I was a New York banker.

As for Biden, I have no opinion. I never met the man. He lives on the other side of the country. When I covered the Senate for The Economist, he was a junior member.

Still, it’s pretty amazing that I met 9 out of the last 13 presidents. That’s 20% of all the presidents since George Washington. I bet only a handful of people have done that and the rest all live in Washington DC. And I’m a nobody, just an ordinary guy. It just makes you think about the possibilities.

Really.

It’s Been a Long Road

January 17, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
January 17, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or GOING AGAINST THE CONSENSUS),
(TLT), (MUB), (JNK), (HYG), (GLD), (SLV), (GOLD), (WPM), (FCX), (BHP), (EEM), (MS), (GS), (JPM), (BAC), (C), (BRK/B), (SPY), (QQQ), (IWM), (VIX)

The Market Outlook for the Week Ahead, or Going Against the Consensus

Diary, Newsletter

Going against the market consensus has been working pretty well lately.

When the world prayed for a Santa Claus rally, I piled on the shorts. When traders expected a New Year January crash, I filled my boots with longs.

That’s how you earn an eye-popping 19.83% profit in a mere nine trading says, or 2.20% a day.

The other day, someone asked me how it is possible to get mind-blowing results like these. It’s very simple. Get insanely aggressive when everyone else is terrified, which I did on January 3. I also knew that with the Volatility Index (VIX) falling to $18, pickings would quickly get extremely thin. It was make money now, or never.

To quote my favorite market strategist, Yankees manager Yogi Berra, “No one goes to that restaurant anymore because it’s too crowded.”

My performance in January has so far tacked on a welcome +19.83%. Therefore, my 2023 year-to-date performance is also +19.83%, a spectacular new high. The S&P 500 (SPY) is up +3.78% so far in 2023.

It is the greatest outperformance on an index since Mad Hedge Fund Trader started 15 years ago. My trailing one-year return maintains a sky-high +103.30%.

That brings my 15-year total return to +617.03%, some 2.73 times the S&P 500 (SPX) over the same period and a new all-time high. My average annualized return has ratcheted up to +47.17%, easily the highest in the industry.

I took profits in my February bonds last week (TLT), taking advantage of a $5 pop in the market. All my remaining positions are profitable, including longs in (GOLD), (WPM), (TSLA), (BRK/B), and (TLT), with 30% in cash for a 10% net long position.

Since my New Year forecasts have worked out so well, I will repeat the high points just in case you were out playing golf or bailing out from a flood when they were published.

Buy Falling Interest Rate Plays, as I expect the yield on the ten-year US Treasury yield to fall from 3.50% to 2.50% by yearend. That means Hoovering up any kind of bond, like (TLT), (MUB), (JNK), and (HYG). Falling interest rates also shine a great spotlight on precious metals like (GLD), (SLV), (GOLD), and (WPM).

The US Dollar Will Continue to Fall. Commodities love this scenario, including (FCX), (BHP), and emerging markets (EEM).

Inflation Will Decline All Year and should go below 4% by the end of 2023. In fact, we have had real deflation for the past six months. Financials do well here, like (MS), (GS), (JPM), (BAC), (C), and (BRK/B).

Which creates another headache for you, if not an opportunity. We may have a situation where the main indexes, (SPY), (QQQ), and (IWM) go nowhere, while individual stocks and sectors skyrocket. That creates a chance to outperform benchmarks…and everyone else.

There has been a lot of discussion among traders lately about the collapse of the Volatility Index ($VIX) to $18, a two-year low and what it means.

They are distressed because a ($VIX) this low greatly shrinks the availability of low risk/high return trading opportunities. A ($VIX) this low is basically shouting at you to “STAY AWAY!”

Does it mean that an explosion of volatility is following? Or are markets going to be exceptionally boring for the next six months?

Beats me. I’ll wait for the market to tell me, as I always do.

Current Positions

Risk On

(TSLA) 1/$75-$80 call spread 10.00%
(GOLD) 1/$15.50-$16.50 call spread. 10.00%
(WPM) 1/$$36-$39 call spread. 10.00%
(BRKB) 1/$290-$300 call spread 10.00%

Risk Off

(TLT) 1/$96-$99 call spread - 10.00%
(TLT) 1/$95-$98 call spread -20.00%

Total Net Position 10.00%

Total Aggregate Position 70.00%

Consumer Price Index Falls 0.1% in December, continuing a trend that started in June. Stocks popped and bonds rallied. YOY inflation has fallen to 6.5%. “RISK ON” continues. Now we have to wait another month to get a new inflation number. The economy has now seen de facto deflation for six months. Gas prices led the decline, now 9.4%. We might get away with only a 0.25% interest rate hike at the February 1 Fed meeting.

Bond Default Risk Rises, as well as a government shutdown, as radicals gain control of the House. This is the group that lost the most seats in the November election. Bonds are the only asset class not performing today, and paper with summer maturities is trading at deep discounts. It certainly casts a shadow over my 50% long bond position. However, I don’t expect it to last more than a month and my longest bond maturity is in February.

The US Consumer is in Good Shape, according to JP Morgan’s Jamie Diamond. Spending is now 10% greater than pre covid, and balance sheets are healthy. No sign of an impending deep recession here.

Boeing Deliveries Soar from 340 to 480 in 2022, and 479 new orders. A sudden aircraft shortage couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people. The 737 MAX has shaken off all its design problems after two crashes four years ago. Cost-cutting here can be fatal. Europe’s Airbus is still tops, with 663 deliveries last year. Don’t chase the stock up here, up 79% from the October lows, but buy (BA) on dips.

Small Business Optimism Hits Six-Month Low to from 91.9 to 89.8, adding to the onslaught of negative sentiment indicators, so says the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Copper Prices Set to Soar Further with the post-Covid reopening of China, according to research firm Alliance Bernstein. After a three-year shutdown, there is massive pent-up demand. Copper prices are at seven-month highs. Keep buying (FCX) on dips.

Australian Metals Exports Soar, as the new supercycle in commodities gains steam. Shipments topped $9 billion in November, 20% higher than the most optimistic forecasts. Keep buying copper (FCX), aluminium (AA), iron ore (BHP), gold (GLD) and silver (SLV) on dips.

My Ten-Year View

On Monday, January 16, markets are closed for Martin Luther King Day.

On Tuesday, January 17 at 8:30 AM EST, the New York Empire State Manufacturing Index is out

On Wednesday, January 18 at 11:00 AM, the Producer Price Index is announced, giving us another inflation read.

On Thursday, January 19 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. US Housing Starts and Building Permits are printed.

On Friday, January 20 at 7:00 AM, the Existing Home Sales are disclosed. At 2:00, the Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count is out.

As for me, the University of Southern California has a student jobs board that is positively legendary. It is where the actor John Wayne picked up a gig working as a stagehand for John Ford which eventually made him a movie star.

As a beneficiary of a federal work/study program in 1970, I was entitled to pick any job I wanted for the princely sum of $1.00 an hour, then the minimum wage. I noticed that the Biology Department was looking for a lab assistant to identify and sort Arctic plankton.

I thought, “What the heck is Arctic plankton?” I decided to apply to find out.

I was hired by a Japanese woman professor whose name I long ago forgot. She had figured out that Russians were far ahead of the US in Arctic plankton research, thus creating a “plankton gap.” “Gaps” were a big deal during the Cold War, so that made her a layup to obtain a generous grant from the Defense Department to close the “plankton gap.”

It turns out that I was the only one who applied for the job, as postwar anti-Japanese sentiment then was still high on the West Coast. I was given my own lab bench and a microscope and told to get to work.

It turns out that there is a vast ecosystem of plankton under 20 feet of ice in the Arctic consisting of thousands of animal and plant varieties. The whole system is powered by sunlight that filters through the ice. The thinner the ice, such as at the edge of the Arctic ice sheet, the more plankton. In no time, I became adept at identifying copepods, euphasia, and calanus hyperboreaus, which all feed on diatoms.

We discovered that there was enough plankton in the Arctic to feed the entire human race if a food shortage ever arose, then a major concern. There was plenty of plant material and protein there. Just add a little flavoring and you had an endless food supply.

The high point of the job came when my professor traveled to the North Pole, the first woman ever to do so. She was a guest of the US Navy, which was overseeing the collection hole in the ice. We were thinking the hole might be a foot wide. When she got there, she discovered it was in fact 50 feet wide. I thought this might be to keep it from freezing over but thought nothing of it.

My freshman year passed. The following year, the USC jobs board delivered up a far more interesting job, picking up dead bodies for the Los Angeles Counter Coroner, Thomas Noguchi, the “Coroner to the Stars.” This was not long after Charles Manson was locked up, and his bodies were everywhere. The pay was better too, and I got to know the LA freeway system like the back of my hand.

It wasn’t until years later when I had obtained a high-security clearance from the Defense Department that I learned of the true military interest in plankton by both the US and the Soviet Union.

It turns out that the hole was not really for collecting plankton. Plankton was just the cover. It was there so a US submarine could surface, fire nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union, then submarine again under the protection of the ice.

So, not only have you been reading the work of a stock market wizard these many years, you have also been in touch with one of the world’s leading experts on Artic plankton.

Live and learn.

CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.

1981 On Peleliu Island in the South Pacific

January 13, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
January 13, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(JANUARY 11 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A)
(ROM), (FCX), (QQQ), (VIX), (TSLA), (TLT), (MSFT), (RIVN), (VIX), (BRK/B), (RTX), (LMT), (FXI), (UNG), (GLD), (GDX), (SLV), (WPM)