Daily Brief For June 30, 2022

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What Happened

Overnight, equity index and commodity futures auctioned lower while bonds, the dollar, and implied volatility metrics were bid at the tail-end of the quarterly rebalancing period.

Participants have bet on a half-point rate cut in 2023 amid heightened recession odds, all the while the projected target rate sits in the range of 2.25-2.50% for the July 27, 2022 meeting.

Pursuant to this letter’s remarks in the days prior, trades biased long volatility are performing well, particularly those structured a standard deviation and beyond prior prices. We’ll unpack why that is, today.

Ahead is data on PCE inflation, disposable income, and consumer spending, as well as jobless claims (8:30 AM ET) and Chicago PMI (9:45 AM ET).

What To Expect

Fundamental: Discussed in recent letters were the prospects of whether a recession would be necessary for stemming inflation.

Read: The Fed needs to remove the heat from the demand without prompting an accident among mortgage financiers.

“That’s the message the market took,” Bloomberg’s John Authers explained. “[T]he most painful surprise over the second half of this year would be for inflation to stay sticky.”

“That would quash the belief in a swift easing campaign in 2023.”

Some, like the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Loretta Mester, suggest that gone are the days to err on the side of being too accommodative.

“It also calls into question the conventional view that monetary policy should always look through supply shocks,” Mester said. “In some circumstances, such shocks could threaten the stability of inflation expectations and would require policy action.”

Moreover, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure – the personal consumption expenditure deflator (PCE) – is set to update. The expectation is that core PCE drops, “thanks to base effects from last year,” bolstering the “narrative that inflation will soon be licked.”

Positioning: Discussed, earlier this week, was whether it made sense to lean toward owning volatility, rather than selling it outright.

A “higher starting point” in implied volatility (IVOL), and a still-present right-tail (from the positioning for a bear market rally), made it so we could position, for less cost, in short-dated structures with asymmetric payouts, on both sides of the market.

Read: Trading Volatility, Correlation, Term Structure and Skew by Colin Bennett et al. Originally sourced via Academia.edu.

For instance, S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) spreads +1 (near-the-money) x -2 (out-of-the-money), in excess of 200 points or so in width and up to 15 days to expiration, are performing well, today, pricing in excess of a 600% gain, only after pricing for little to no cost to enter in the days prior.

Disclaimer: Have delta in the direction you want the market to move, as well as positive gamma. In our case, we wanted negative delta (short bias) and positive gamma (profits amplified).

Recent market weaknesses will allow us to monetize and rotate those proceeds into speculative directional bets on the call-side, potentially. After all, the money is made in not losing it. Stay nimble. These are not trade recommendations. Be open-minded.

Technical: As of 6:30 AM ET, Thursday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), in the S&P 500, will likely open in the lower part of a negatively skewed overnight inventory, outside of prior-range and -value, suggesting a potential for immediate directional opportunity.

In the best case, the S&P 500 trades higher; activity above the $3,770.75 HVNode puts in play the $3,793.25 Ledge. Initiative trade beyond the Ledge could reach as high as the $3,821.50 LVNode and $3,840.75 ONH, or higher.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $3,770.75 HVNode puts in play the $3,735.75 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the HVNode could reach as low as the $3,722.50 LVNode and $3,696.00 LVNode, or lower.

Click here to load today’s key levels into the web-based TradingView charting platform. Note that all levels are derived using the 65-minute timeframe. New links are produced, daily.

Considerations: Responsiveness near key-technical areas (that are discernable visually on a chart), suggests technically-driven traders with short time horizons are very active. 

Such traders often lack the wherewithal to defend retests and, additionally, the type of trade may be indicative of the other time frame participants waiting for more information to initiate trades.

Definitions

Overnight Rally Highs (Lows): Typically, there is a low historical probability associated with overnight rally-highs (lows) ending the upside (downside) discovery process.

Volume Areas: A structurally sound market will build on areas of high volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for long periods of time, it will lack sound structure, identified as low volume areas (LVNodes). LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test. 

If participants were to auction and find acceptance into areas of prior low volume (LVNodes), then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to HVNodes for favorable entry or exit.

About

After years of self-education, strategy development, mentorship, and trial-and-error, Renato Leonard Capelj began trading full-time and founded Physik Invest to detail his methods, research, and performance in the markets.

Capelj also develops insights around impactful options market dynamics at SpotGamma and is a Benzinga reporter.

Some of his works include conversations with ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, investors Kevin O’Leary and John Chambers, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan, The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial, among many others.

Disclaimer

In no way should the materials herein be construed as advice. Derivatives carry a substantial risk of loss. All content is for informational purposes only.