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Ripe for a Sustainable Bullish Turn?
It was a hot and beautiful day in Montreal. I met up with my former supervisor at the Caisse, Mario Therrien, who last year was appointed Senior Vice-President, Fund Management, with the Private Equity group.
It
had been almost seven years since I last saw him, and I was glad to
hook up with him again to talk markets, alpha, hedge funds and private
equity. Mario is a smart guy who reads a lot on markets and politics. He
understands alpha and he's very well connected with key players around
the world. Talking markets with him is always fun.
Mario also
offered me one of the most exciting jobs I've ever had. I was
responsible for a portfolio of directional hedge funds (L/S Equity,
global macros and CTAs) and learned a lot conducting investment,
operational and risk management due diligence. But what I truly loved
was sitting down one on one with top hedge fund managers and picking the
minds on everything from which sectors they're investing in, to where
they think bond yields are heading, to which trends they're following.
The
toughest part of that job was the grueling travel schedule, not having
full control of the portfolio, having to trust your managers when things
were shaky, and knowing when to pull the plug when performance was
simply not up to par. But it was an incredible experience and if I had
to do all over again, I wouldn't think twice about it. Of course, with
my MS progressing, crazy travel schedules are not easy. That part of it I
don't miss.
Anyways, Mario gave me a lot of food for thought. We
talked about how crazy things got in the last few years, the "new
normal" and how the landscape has changed for hedge funds, private
equity funds and pension funds.
On pension funds, I told him the Fed has no choice but to bail them out
and he told me that the "trend towards immunization among G7 pension
funds" has contributed to lowering bond yields to historic lows.
"Pension funds are lowering their beta, cutting exposures to equities,
shifting assets into bonds, liquid hedge funds, and some private equity."
[Note: I agree with Mario,
illiquid, hard to understand hedge fund strategies, including black box,
super funky quant strategies, are out. Investors are increasingly
demanding that managers explain the rationale behind positions, and
they're not going to pay 2 & 20 for leveraged beta.]
Why are pensions immunizing their portfolios? According to Mario, "Most
mature pension plans are suffering severe pension shortfalls. They
simply can't afford to be ravaged by another bear market which will
force them to increase contribution rates. A lot of pension funds are
now focusing more on protecting downside risk."
Post 2008, the mindset has
changed and big players are focusing more on risk management, especially
managing liquidity risk. Michael Sabia, the Caisse's President &
CEO, talked a lot about risk management on numerous occasions and the
Caisse devoted an entire section on it in its 2009 Annual Report.
Unfortunately, Mr. Sabia and his senior managers still have to deal with petty Quebec politics. The Caisse recently had to categorically deny misleading allegations by one of Quebec's powerful public sector unions who questioned the Caisse's mid-year stellar results.
But
one thing that worries me is that all this focus on risk management,
immunization, is leading pension funds to not take enough risk, and many
of them will be caught off guard. Remember, when everyone is hunkering
down, worried about the next Black Swan, then you have the potential for
a sharp rally.
I am wondering if this is happening right now.
Too many pension funds and other institutional investors underweight
equities might suffer another bout of severe performance anxiety
and are then going to scramble chasing stocks higher. I spent the last
couple of weeks going over what the top hedge funds were buying and
selling in Q2, and something tells me they're well positioned for any
sharp, bullish reversal.
On this last point, read Chris Ciovacco's latest market comment, Markets Appear Ripe for a Sustainable Bullish Turn. I quote the following (but read his entire comment carefully):
Early
September is very important for the financial markets; especially for
the bulls. Numerous elements are in place for a rally to take hold now.
The markets have been weak and the bears have been in control. If the
bulls cannot make a stand soon, it will be a bad sign for risk assets.
The good news for the bulls is several factors, across numerous markets
and asset classes, are pointing to a possible rally in risk assets:
- Bearish sentiment is high at the moment. Sentiment, especially as it approaches extremes, can serve as a contrary indicator.
- The
Fed has signaled they are willing to print more money if needed.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, the markets are anticipating more quantitative easing
from the Fed. The Fed's next meeting is only three weeks away.
Markets look forward. A rally in risk assets for a few weeks is not out
of the question.
- Currency and
interest rate markets are acknowledging the possibility of the Fed
cranking up the printing presses. In recent weeks, the U.S. dollar and
the 10-Year Treasury have been firmly in the bears' camp, but they are
sitting near logical points of reversal. Recent rallies in the
10-Year Treasury have been showing signs of fatigue, which also points
to a possible reversal in interest rates.
- Better
than expected manufacturing data from China and better than expected
growth in Australia have been reflected in the copper market.
Emerging market stocks closed yesterday at a logical point of reversal;
this morning's news from China and Australia could spark a rally.
- Despite
weeks of disappointing news on economic progress in the United States,
the S&P 500 and Dow have yet to revisit their June lows, which is
hard to believe given the recent lack of interest from buyers. When
markets do something you do not expect, it is time to pay attention.
- Monday's
sell-off appeared to be a win for the bears, but unlike recent down
days for stocks, total market volume contracted relative to the volume
during Friday's Fed-induced and broad-based rally. The S&P 500 and
Dow have both held at logical reversal points.Since
a picture is worth a thousand words, we can show most of these
concepts on the charts below. When you examine the charts, ask
yourself, "Based on the actions in the past from market participants,
is it logical for this market to reverse near current levels?" If the
answer is yes, then the next thing to look for is some confirmation
from the markets, which can come in the form of market breadth
(advancing issues vs. declining issues), volume, and whether or not a
broad cross section of markets are moving in the same direction
(stocks, commodities, interest rates, currencies, etc). This analysis
was completed after Tuesday's close (8/31); so none of Wednesday's (9/1)
gains are reflected.
Finally, let me thank Mario again for lunch and his book recommendation, Steve Drobny's The Invisible Hands: Hedge Funds Off the Record. My recommendations to him and my readers are Yves Smith's ECONNED and Graham Turner's No Way to Run an Economy.
Both books are excellent and well worth reading and they remind us that
financial and economic risks don't just happen by accident - more often
than not, they're the product of defunct economic theories.
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that's funny as shit, people need to get a phucking sense of humor who junked you
Yay! It's Barney Fwank! He has a lisp from sucking on too many...
Johnny Bravo is DEFINITELY Leos second ZH account! No question about it!
Blah blah fucking blah.
You know. There's more than one person that is bullish right now on the planet.
Just like there's more than one person that thinks that gold is overvalued.
Is the groupthink atmosphere here so strong that people actually believe that any time there is more than one poster that disagrees with you - that it must be one poster with multiple accounts?
And with that said... why is everybody always bearish?
Don't know people know that the market fluctuates?
It's funny. You get junked here for being anything but "Mad Max! Put the gold under the porch for when Israel attacks Iran, the currency becomes toilet paper, and meteors hit our nation during the Chinese invasion."
All these conspiracy theories in the bearishness here are so low probability that it makes the people that come up with them look like fools.
Oh wait... err ummm...
Goled to 5400000 bitchez!
See? I just remembered that I'm trying to fit in.
Dude, I didn't get past your Icon and Username, but +1000 LMAO.
Leo = Steve Liesman of ZH
HA excellent post! 'The Steve Liesman of ZH' lmbo!!
Is this a resume or a Match.com profile?
I hate to say it, but Leo's right. This current uptrend is just getting started. STO has a long way to go, and the Slow STO on the monthly chart is still close to oversold territory, despite today's incredibly rally.
STO fo sho!
Oh yeah, and CapEx figures in the toilet shows the positive levels of faith within S&P 500 companies of a sustainable recovery.
CapEx spending has been expanding, I recently read.
Theres no uptrend Leo, er um I mean Johnny Moron.
'Currency uptrend' damn you people are stupid sheep.
Ummm rally on earnings being revised into the toilet? Orders are falling, employment is still really bad (don't know how 472K new is something to rally on), and seasonal sales is really bad in the medium sector but better in a barbell structure. Technicals getting hit just gives a very short burst, but fundamentals are what sustain a trend. Technicals were taken out fast and quick in 2008 with plenty of "oversold" signals while it still plunged. You can put your faith in Stochastic Calculus all you want JB, but know that they are used to pull in suckers both directions (short and long).
BTW your Stochastics are fast approaching overbought status (As K% is above 50), look at that first derviative is getting quite steep so we are accelerating to the overbought status. Therefore by your argument, we are going to approach more selling soon.
Just a quick aside... one of my ancestors/relatives (Norbert Wiener, who was related to my great grandfather) was the father of stochastic calculus.
I didn't even know what that meant until a couple of years ago.
I'm not sure which stochastics you're looking at. Try the monthly chart. Also, 50% is not overbought, 80 is, and even then you need negative divergences to drop back below 80. That's the sell signal, not merely hitting above the 80 line.
Also, as long as you measure divergence between relative minimums and maximums, it is much harder to make the wrong call.
As far as your "rally on earnings being revised in the toilet."
Yes, it is happening. That is even more proof that the market is driven by technicals, in my opinion.
cnbc would be much more honest if everyone was named LIESman.
+1 LOL
+1000! Never met Leo, but I bet he has brown eyes being so FOS!
Leo and his only friend down flagged your post? I thought it was great! All he left out was the daily 'boner chart' of some stock that went up .30 cents!