Categories
Commentary

The Mar-a-Lago Accords

“Good investing doesn’t come from buying good things, but from buying things well.” – Howard Marks

There is a lot of noise—it’s exhausting. Today, we will sift through the noise and focus on how we can protect and potentially grow our portfolios this year. This is a follow-up to our Market Tremors letter. But first, let’s clarify the context for our approach. This is a long newsletter, so you may have to view it in another window.


Inflation is back in focus, gold is soaring, and investors are optimistic about stocks. Correlations remain low, dispersion is high, and the market’s volatility pricing/positioning obscures potential risks lurking beneath the surface. The macro landscape is shifting rapidly, yet when we zoom out, we’re confronted with something we’ve discussed before: inflation is here to stay!

For a long time, the expectation was that inflation would take a particular shape—a transitory spike and a manageable trend. Instead, structurally, we’re dealing with a world that is moving away from the low-inflation paradigms of the past. The pillars supporting cheap capital and abundant liquidity—globalization and dovish monetary policy—are shifting.

These shifts are neither sudden nor unexpected. In 2023, we wrote much about the narrative of the ideological struggle between the West and East, particularly with the Russia-Ukraine conflict sparking. Historically, whenever Eastern economies prosper, the West adjusts the rules. Now, it’s more about who controls what. Control over assets, inflation, and interest rates define economic power. Folks like Zoltan Pozsar have warned that the fundamental drivers of the low-inflation era—globalization and financialization—are unraveling, leaving policymakers with little choice.

The well-respected Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan, a mentor to many, has pointed out in excruciating, albeit digestible detail that the trends favoring high-beta portfolios over the past four decades are reversing. Monetary authorities, particularly the Federal Reserve, have been constrained in their ability to address the widening wealth divide. Their response to inflation in the early 2020s—from creating demand to absorb surplus supplies of low-priced items to structurally restricting demand in response to shortages—was intended to guide the economy along a path of managed declines in activity while maneuvering interest rates to prevent another inflationary flare. Rising populism is a byproduct manifesting as shifts in public demand and political sentiment.

Thus, today’s Mar-a-Lago Accords and the broader economic overhaul signify a significant trade, monetary policy, and financial stability restructuring. Tariffs, a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, and global security restructuring are the key issues at this forefront. The implications of this shift are profound, and markets have yet to adjust. A portfolio for this new environment could creatively layer exposure to stocks, bonds, commodities, and volatility. Understanding the pieces herein will be critical for structuring trades and managing risk. Let’s dive in.


Macro Context: A New Economic Framework

#1 – Tariffs

One significant component of this broader economic overhaul is tariffs. Economist Stephen Miran, nominated by the U.S. President to be Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has outlined how tariffs, historically used to influence trade flows, are being retooled as protectionist instruments and an alternative revenue source.

According to Miran’s A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System and fantastic explanations by Bianco Research founder Jim Bianco, a core issue is a persistently strong dollar distorting global trade balances. If paired with currency adjustments, tariffs could redistribute the costs away from U.S. consumers, “present[ing] minimal inflationary or otherwise adverse side effects, consistent with the [U.S.-China trade war] experience in 2018-2019.” However, this approach risks retaliation or distancing from key trading partners, further fracturing global supply chains.

To mitigate these risks, policymakers consider implementing tariffs in phases, gradually increasing rates to address inflationary pressures and market volatility. Even during the 2018-2019 trade war, tariff rate increases were implemented over time. Additionally, tariffs will be driven by national security concerns, targeting industries essential to defense and technological innovation. From this perspective, policymakers view access to the U.S. market as a privilege.

#2 – Sovereign Wealth Fund

A significant consideration is a U.S. sovereign wealth fund leaning on undervalued national assets to restore fiscal stability. Unlike traditional sovereign wealth funds built on surpluses, this fund would operate by revaluing and monetizing domestic reserves.

Key assets under consideration include undervalued gold reserves and billions in government-possessed bitcoin, which could be integrated into this fund. Bianco says these could total nearly $1 trillion.

This strategy introduces volatility concerns. Those concerned say government exposure and potential speculation on financial assets could lead to instability. Should we invest now for later?

#3 – Global Security Agreements

Beyond trade and monetary policy, a core element of the broader economic overhaul is linking military alliances to economic policy. The longstanding framework in which the U.S. provided security to allies without direct compensation is being rethought. The warnings are explicit; note the President’s Davos remarks and the Vice President’s Munich Security Conference speech.

Under a new paradigm, Bianco summarizes that NATO members may be required to contribute more to defense (say ~5% of GDP), foreign-held U.S. Treasury bonds may be converted into 100-year zero-coupon bonds, reducing short-term debt burdens, and tariff structures may be adjusted based on a country’s alignment with U.S. security interests.

“What Miran said in his paper is: you owe us so much for the last 80 years that what we want to do is a debt swap,” Bianco explains how the U.S. can be paid for being the world’s protector. “Those NATO countries have trillions of dollars of debt. [You’ll] swap it for 100-year or perpetual zero coupon non-marketable Treasury securit[ies]. So, you’re going to swap $10 billion worth of Treasuries for a $10 billion coupon century bond [that] won’t mature for 100 years, [and] won’t get any interest.”

In short, this is a fundamental shift that requires allies to bear a more significant share of security and costs. It’s the Mar-a-Lago Accords, a new financial order and policy framework akin to past agreements that reshaped the global economy, such as the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, which established the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency, and the Plaza Accord of 1985, which coordinated currency adjustments to correct trade imbalances.

The proposed Mar-a-Lago Accords aim to reprice U.S. debt through asset monetization, weaken the dollar to improve U.S. export competitiveness and enforce tariff structures to rebalance global trade.


Positioning Context: Market Positioning Obscures

Tariff-driven price pressures, a weaker dollar, and a floor under interest rates raise bond yields, corporate borrowing costs, and strain leveraged players. This backdrop favors debasement plays and perceived safe havens like bitcoin and gold, which have been climbing for reasons discussed in the past and present.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via @convertbond.

Equities face a less promising outlook. Oaktree Capital highlights that decade-long returns have historically been lackluster when investors bought the S&P 500 at today’s multiples. As Howard Marks puts it, earning +/-2% annually isn’t disastrous—but the real risk lies in a sharp valuation reset, compressed into just a few years, much like the brutal selloffs of the 1970s and 2000s.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via Bob Elliott.

While the current market environment may feel frothy, with stretched valuations and narrow leadership, we’re not in an imbalanced 1970s scenario. Also, the possibility of a dollar devaluation serves as a tailwind for S&P 500 earnings, potentially boosting stock prices, Fallacy Alarm explains. Markets are not irrational; instead, they could face modest returns of around 5-6% annually for stocks and bonds over the next decade. Such sanguine sentiment is evident in the options/volatility market, reflecting the distribution of future possible outcomes; the trading and hedging of options make them a robust gauge of future outcomes—offering a view of where markets stand and where they might be headed.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bank of America via Bloomberg.

We observe several key happenings:

#1 – Hedging Volatility Spikes, Not Market Crashes

Investors are hedging against potential volatility spikes like those seen on August 5, 2024, when the VIX exploded higher. While the S&P 500 grinds upward and the VIX drifts lower and appears cheap (<16), the VVIX—“VIX of the VIX”—remains elevated. This unusual divergence manifests from demand for VIX calls, suggesting the market worries sharp repricings of risk are more likely than broad equity selloffs. The dynamic boils down to supply and demand; SPX options remain underappreciated—why protect when the market seems stable—meanwhile, VIX options are in demand, bolstering VVIX.

SpotGamma highlights this massive VIX call buying, noting dealer short convexity positioning suggests that, should volatility “wake up,” there could be significant downside pressure on equities and upside pressure on volatility, reinforcing the view that the VVIX’s elevated levels could signal a potential volatility spike, rather than a broad market crash.

Graphic: Retrieved from Cboe Global Markets.

“The aforementioned vega supply is indeed large, but it is innocuous unless provoked,” SpotGamma’s founder Brent Kochuba explains. Still, “with correlation stretched and IVs at lows, there is the potential for an SPX index short vol cover/single stock spasm to push into this upside vega convexity – something that we think a sharp NVDA [earnings] miss could spark.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura via SpotGamma.

#2 – Options Selling and the ‘Buy My Course’ Gurus

Investors are leaning toward short-dated options selling (sometimes packaged within an ETF structure, without regard for price and thoroughly assessing broader market positioning) and structured products.

Graphic: Retrieved from JPMorgan via @jaredhstocks.

As QVR Advisors’ Benn Eifert explains, dynamic creates opportunity: deep out-of-the-money, long-dated volatility in single stocks looks attractive for tail-risk hedging. But there’s a catch—the persistence of this activity reinforces spot-vol covariance (i.e., the relationship between the underlying movements or spot and its volatility or vol). If the market shifts and volatility rises as the underlying asset moves up/down (the usual pattern flips), long volatility positions could become highly profitable, as it is then they would benefit from this reversal in spot-vol dynamics (e.g., 2020).

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via Kris Sidial. Volatility is fair in indexes; “much better opportunities in singles right now.”

As SpotGamma elaborated, if strength through earnings persists, “it will supply a final equity vol and correlation drop (a ‘final vol squeeze’), ushering in a blow-off equity top. At the same time, these metrics are low enough to justify owning 3-6 month downside protection, as bad things usually happen from these vol levels.”

Graphic: Correlation via TradingView. Stocks are expected to move more independently. Peep the pre-2018 Volmageddon levels.

As an aside, implied correlation measures the degree to which the prices of the assets in the basket are expected to move together (positively correlated) or in opposite directions (negatively correlated). Low correlation, in this case, indicates that the stocks are expected to move independently or in opposite directions; hence, dispersion trades betting on this have performed well.

Graphic: Retrieved from Cboe Global Markets.

#4 – The Changing Narrative of Bitcoin and Its Maximalists

Similar patterns emerge in bitcoin. As countries face currency debasement and economic stresses, bitcoin stands out as a hedge to some. Like equities, bitcoin options are underappreciated.

For example, implied volatility has traded under 50% for one-month options, representing an attractive entry point for those looking to position themselves for a surge. This low volatility environment in Bitcoin mirrors the opportunities in equities. Here, bitcoin benefits from any volatility reversal, presenting a compelling case for those looking to participate in a big market move.

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma. Higher skew and IV rank suggest calls are expensive and moves are stretched.

Context Applied: Trade Structuring

Trade structuring this year is all about creativity. We’ve added the following to our portfolios.

#1 – Rates

One efficient structure for safeguarding cash is the box spread, which offers several key benefits: a convenience yield, capital efficiency (especially for users of portfolio margin), easy execution via most retail brokers, and favorable tax treatment—60% long-term and 40% short-term if executed using cash-settled index options (e.g., SPX). This strategy combines a bull call spread and a bear put spread, matching lower and higher strikes and the same expiration date.

We frequently trade such structures. For instance, here’s one we purchased at the beginning of this year: BOT +1 IRON CONDOR SPX 100 (Quarterlys) 31 DEC 25 4000/7100/7100/4000 CALL/PUT @2964.25 CBOE

In this case, we invest $296,425 now to receive $310,000 in a year. This represents an implied interest rate of 5.32% or ((3100-2964.25)/2964.25)*(365/314)=0.053234. Note that there is a convenience yield, and that’s due to counterparty risk, as box spreads depend on the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) to guarantee the transaction.

Tools like boxtrades.com help with tracking yields and finding attractive box structures.

Graphic: Retrieved via Alpha Architect.

Box trades unlock the power of yield stacking, enhancing returns by layering multiple exposures without increasing capital outlay. They preserve full buying power with portfolio margin for margin-intensive trades like synthetic longs.

For non-portfolio margin traders, yield stacking is less applicable. Instead, you can allocate ~95% of cash to box spreads, locking in your principal at maturity while risking only ~5% (the interest you stand to make), with limited downside.

Graphic: Retrieved from Cboe Global Markets.

#2 – Upside

Low correlation and subdued implied volatility signal stability, but any disruption could spark sharp moves.

As we explained better in Reality Is Path-Dependent, Cem Karsan notes that a slow grind higher cheapens options, fueled by continued volatility selling. Eventually, realized upside volatility will surpass implied, prompting smart money to buy options at these discounts. If the VIX holds steady or rises, it suggests fixed-strike volatility is creeping up, potentially forcing options counterparties to cut exposure or hedge, boosting markets higher; increased call demand could push counterparties to hedge by buying the underlying asset, reinforcing stability and giving a floor to options prices and the market by that token.

The play here? Replace stock exposure with options. You can buy calls outright and hedge them by selling stock—gains on the calls should outpace hedge losses. Karsan has talked about this a lot. One of our moves is to structure broken-wing butterflies or similar: buy an option near the money, sell a larger number of options further out, and cap risk with an even farther out option. In this environment, you can often put on these trades for little cost and exit at multiples higher if the market drifts sideways or up. Please see our website for case studies and example trades.

Don’t overlook crypto, either. Implied volatility remains underappreciated in bitcoin, making synthetic exposures compelling. Swapping spot for synthetic alternatives is a play on these opportunities. Though we haven’t touched them, check out Cboe’s cash-settled options on spot bitcoin: the Cboe Bitcoin US ETF Index (CBTX) and Cboe Mini Bitcoin US ETF Index (MBTX).

#3 – Hedging

Though less attractive now, VIX calls and call spreads remain a powerful tool for hedging tail risks. In our Reality Is Path-Dependent letter, we explore this topic further.

There are more compelling structures within the S&P 500 complex, particularly back spreads. For example, a put back spread involves selling a higher strike put option and buying a larger number of lower strike put options, positioning you to profit from substantial volatility shifts—similar to what we saw on August 5, 2024.

Although this structure takes advantage of the market’s unappealing volatility skew, drift presents challenges; if volatility fails to perform well during a downturn, you risk losing more money than you initially invested in the spread. Caution!

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via Goldman Sachs.

Bonus: From the White House to Wall Street

We had the opportunity to catch up with Steven Orr, founder of Quasar Markets. We discussed his career and the future of fintech and trading technology. Before Quasar Markets, Orr worked as an executive at Money.net and Benzinga. He also serves on the board of the American Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Association. His diverse background includes positions with the White House, the U.S. State Department, the PGA Tour, the NBA, and various professional sports leagues. Orr frequently shares his insights on TV and appears at events like the World Economic Forum. Check it out, and thank you, Steven!


Disclaimer

By viewing our content, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined in this disclaimer. Consume our content only if you agree to the terms and conditions below.

Physik Invest is not registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission or any other securities regulatory authority. Our content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or other investment. The information provided is not tailored to your financial situation or investment objectives.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any information. Please do not rely solely on our content to make investment decisions or undertake any investment strategy. Trading is risky, and investors can lose all or more than their initial investment. Hypothetical performance results have limitations and may not reflect actual trading results. Other factors related to the markets and specific trading programs can adversely affect actual trading results. We recommend seeking independent financial advice from a licensed professional before making investment decisions.

We don’t make any claims, representations, or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any information we provide. We are not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on any information we provide. We are not liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or damages from the information provided. We do not have a professional relationship with you and are not your financial advisor. We do not provide personalized investment advice.

Our content is provided without warranties, is the property of our company, and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not be able to reproduce, distribute, or use any content provided through our services without our prior written consent. Please email renato@physikinvest for consent.

We reserve the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time. Following any such modification, your continued consumption of our content means you accept the modified terms. This disclaimer is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which our company is located.

Categories
Commentary

Market Tremors

This edition shouts out Public.com, a multi-asset investing platform built for those who take investing seriously. Public recently launched Alpha, an AI investment exploration tool, in the app store. We’re excited to host co-founder and co-CEO Jannick Malling on the next podcast to discuss the market and how AI levels the playing field. Stay tuned!

When market expectations drift too far from underlying fundamentals, they eventually become unsustainable. This sometimes leads to corrections that can trigger cascading effects across the broader market.

It is prevailing investment practices that partly fuel such a dynamic. While concepts like diversification and efficient markets appear sound, they often fail to account for the pressures investors face in practice. For instance, sophisticated retail investors have no mandate and typically have the space to make deliberate, calculated decisions. On the other hand, institutional-type investors, driven by the need to deliver consistent short-term profits, may feel compelled to chase returns. This pressure can lead to riskier behaviors, such as betting on low volatility by selling options. While this may produce steady returns in calm markets, it exposes investors to sudden shocks, volatility repricings, and forced unwinds when markets turn unexpectedly. Investors are often unprepared for such volatility, seldom owning options outright due to the rarity of shocks. This creates a market landscape skewed toward a “winner-takes-all” outcome, where only a few are positioned to benefit from such rare moments.

The following sections explore this realm of increasingly frequent, dramatic, and unpredictable outcomes. Let’s dive in.


In our excruciatingly detailed ‘Reality is Path-Dependent’ newsletter, we explored how markets are shaped by reflexivity (feedback loops) and path dependency (how past events influence the present), setting the stage for August 2024’s turbulence and recovery.

To recap, we noticed that while individual stocks experienced big price swings, the broader indexes, like the S&P 500—representing those stocks—showed restraint. Remarkably, the S&P 500 went over 350 sessions without a single 2% or more significant move lower, reflecting this calm. This happened because of a mix of factors, including many investors focusing on broader market calm, often expressed by selling options and, in some cases, using their profits to double down on directional bets in high-flying stocks. This helped create a gap between the calmer movements in the indexes and wilder swings in individual stock components, leading to falling correlations; beneath the surface, big tech, AI, and Mag-7 stocks gained ground, while smaller stocks in the index struggled, as shown by fewer stocks driving the market higher (weaker breadth).

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

By arbitrage constraints, declining correlation is the reconciliation. When investors sell options on an index, the firms on the other side of the trade—like dealers or market makers—dynamically hedge their risk. They may do this by buying the index as its price drops and selling it when it rises, which can help keep the index within a narrower range and reduce actual realized volatility. However, this doesn’t apply as much to individual stocks, where we observed more options buying. For these stocks, hedging works differently: dealers may buy when prices rise and sell when prices fall, reinforcing trends and extending price moves. This creates a situation where the index stays relatively calm, but its components can swing more wildly.

Anyway, we noticed that as the connection between the index and its stocks was weakening, traders who bet on these differences (called dispersion) profited. As more participated in this and other volatility-suppressing trades, it became more successful. This shows how feedback loops (reflexivity) and past events (path dependency) influence future market behavior. Overall, this trade helped sustain the market rally and added stability as lesser-weighted stocks stepped up to offset the slowdown in leaders in July.

However, we speculated about the risks of a broader “sell-everything” market. Waning enthusiasm for big tech stocks and broader market selling on the news could manifest demand for protection (such as buying longer-dated put options). During the quieter, less liquid summer months, this could trigger increased volatility and lead to a sharp sell-off (as dealers or market makers hedge in the same direction the market’s moving, amplifying moves). Although low and stable volatility gave an optimistic market outlook, we considered advanced structures to hedge against potential pullbacks at low cost, including ultra-wide, broken-wing NDX put butterflies, ratio spreads, and low-cost VIX calls and call spreads (which, by way of the VIX being an indirect measure of volatility or volatility squared, offer amplified protection in a crash). In the event of market weakness, these structures would be closed/monetized, with the proceeds/profits used to lower the cost of upside participating trades through year-end. Again, further details can be found in the ‘Reality is Path-Dependent’ newsletter.

Graphic: Retrieved from UBS. Hedge funds were cutting risk in July 2024.

Our warnings about the risks of extreme momentum crowding and positioning leading to violent unwinds were borne out in August 2024. Markets reeled as recession probabilities were repriced, quarterly earnings disappointed, and central bank policies diverged. The Federal Reserve’s dovish stance starkly contrasted with an unanticipated rate hike by the Bank of Japan. This fueled considerable volatility across assets, particularly higher-beta equities and cryptocurrencies, which are more heavily influenced by traditional risk and monetary policy factors. The episode highlighted the vulnerabilities of a market reliant on leveraged trading and concentrated investments; the situation was about more than just a fundamental shock.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bianco Research.

The unraveling was marked by spikes in stock market volatility measures like the VIX, a liquidity vacuum, and forced deleveraging by trend-following and volatility-sensitive strategies. Despite this clearing some froth, key equity and volatility positioning and valuation vulnerabilities remained, leaving markets fragile and uncertain whether growth will stabilize or deteriorate.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via PPGMacro. Yen versus Nasdaq.

Some accounts compared the selling to the 1987 stock market crash. Volatility broke its calm streak, with spot-vol beta—the relationship between market movements and expected/implied volatility changes—rising and correlations increasing.

Graphic: Retrieved from Morgan Stanley via @NoelConvex.

Early warning signs of precariousness emerged as prices for far out-of-the-money SPX and VIX options—key indicators and drivers of potential crashes when heavily traded—soared hundreds of percent the week before crash day, Monday, August 5. These tail-risk hedges, often viewed as insurance against steep market drops, carried well, becoming significantly more expensive as demand surged. Just as insurers raise premiums on homes in disaster-prone areas to account for higher risk, the soaring cost of these options reflected the market’s growing fear of extreme outcomes. This repricing fed into broader quantitative measures, triggering a wave of deleveraging and prompting investors to offload hundreds of billions in stock bets, amplifying the sell-off.

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura via @MenthorQpro.

At one point, the VIX breached 65, its highest level since 2020. A lack of liquidity during pre-market hours and the shift from short-term to longer-term hedges contributed to this sharp rise. The VIX is calculated based on a selection of S&P 500 options about 30 days out, chosen by an algorithm that looks at the middle point between the prices people are willing to buy and sell those options. When there’s not a lot of trading activity and markets get volatile, the difference between the buying (bid) and selling (ask) prices widens, lending to the VIX being higher than it should be.

Graphic: Retrieved from JPMorgan via @jaredhstocks.

Comparatively, VIX futures—perhaps a better measure of hedging demands outside regular market hours—lagged. JPMorgan claims the fast narrowing in the VIX spot and futures indicates the VIX spot overstated fear and hedging demand.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

Moreover, a technical issue at the Cboe options exchange delayed trading, and by the time the problem was resolved, the VIX had already dropped sharply. This coincided with traders doubling down on short-volatility positions and buying stocks, confident in the S&P 500’s historical tendency to rebound in the months following similar volatility spikes.

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura via The Market Ear.

Rocky Fishman, founder of Asym 500, explains that the dislocations above were compounded by dispersion traders who likely experienced mark-to-market losses on their short index positions while single-stock markets remained closed. This forced some to cover their short index volatility positions, resulting in a pre-market surge in index volatility. Once trading resumed, many began selling single-stock options, triggering a broader decline in volatility levels—particularly in single-stock options.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via Asym 500.

So, the rapid decrease in the VIX was driven more by positioning dynamics and the calculation mechanics of the VIX itself rather than a complete unwinding of risky trades. Additionally, the S&P 500’s movement into lower-volatility segments of the SPX options curve, which the VIX relies on, further intensified this decline. Kris Sidial of The Ambrus Group adds, “It’s quite evident that many have doubled down on [short volatility]. But you don’t need to trust our data. Barring any additional volatility shocks in the next few weeks, I expect some of these firms to deliver stellar numbers by the end of Q3 due to their inclination to take on more risk.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via @iv_technicals.

The market’s recovery in the fall was mainly driven by the Mag-7 giants, whose robust performance overshadowed the struggles of smaller stocks. The August decline created an opportunity to acquire beaten-down stocks at discounts, with investors indeed seeing the panic as a buy signal; outside of significant crises unable to topple the economy (like the bank failures in 2023), back-tests suggest that when the VIX exceeds 35, the S&P 500 has historically risen upwards of 15% over the next six months.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

The recovery was not without risks, with the divide between market leaders and laggards highlighting continued fragility. In any case, supportive flows into mega-caps and dealer hedging activities helped stabilize broader indexes through November.

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura via SpotGamma.

The growing gap between the stable performance of the S&P 500 and the larger fluctuations in its components created profits for those dispersion traders we discussed. However, as valuations for mega-cap stocks climb, the market becomes more vulnerable to shifts in sentiment or capital flows. Events like the yen carry trade—where borrowing in Japan funded investments in U.S. Treasuries and equities—unwind exposed concentration risks and positioning imbalances, which could amplify future shocks.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via @Alpha_Ex_LLC.

As for potential triggers and shocks going forward, rising inequality and populism are creating deep divisions within and among major powers, while protectionist policies strain potential global cooperation. According to Cem Karsan of Kai Volatility, these dynamics drive economic battles and indirect conflicts, with Eastern nations working to reduce Western influence. This shift coincides with a new era of high inflation, widening wealth gaps, and changing power dynamics. Millennials, now a dominant force in the workforce and politics, are challenging decades of policies that primarily benefited corporations and the wealthy, reversing globalization and redistributing wealth—though this comes at the cost of heightened inflation.

These structural changes disrupt traditional investment strategies like the 60/40 portfolio. A major geopolitical event, such as China moving on Taiwan, could severely impact supply chains, critical industries, and the global economy, with significant repercussions for stocks like Nvidia and broader indices like the S&P 500. If market bets against panic (like short volatility) unravel, it could trigger more swings like August’s. The same reflexivity that has stabilized markets since then could amplify volatility during future shocks, turning successive disruptions into severe crises if market positioning is misaligned.

Graphic: Retrieved from Joshua Lim.

Despite this challenging backdrop, short-term market behavior operates independently, dictated by supply and demand dynamics. Seasonal flows, particularly during year-end, created a bullish bias; reduced holiday trading volumes, combined with reinvestment effects and significant options expirations, contributed to structural upward pressure on markets. These flows and a historical tendency for election years to drive positive performance suggested a right-skewed distribution for near-term outcomes.

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma.

The prospect and fulfillment of a “red sweep,” characterized by follow-on deregulation, a business-friendly environment, and more animal spirits, boosted markets. However, caution was spotted in certain areas, like bonds, where expectations for inflation rose.

Graphic: Retrieved from Oraclum Capital.

Ultimately, the market overextended, highlighting the risk of a peak as it caught down to weak breath on the Federal Reserve’s surprising hawkish shift in December. This change led to volatility in equities, interest rates, and currencies, reminiscent of the spike in August when the VIX jumped and surpassed the S&P 500’s decline. Such persistent divergences validate a clear shift into a new market regime characterized by volatility that consistently outpaces market sell-offs.

Image
Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura.

In a report, Cboe said that equity spot/vol beta surged to -3.3, meaning for every 1% drop in the S&P 500, the VIX gained 3.3 points—exceeding even August’s extreme levels. SPX options priced greater downside risk, with skew steepening. Notwithstanding, correlations settled near historic lows, signaling investor focus on sector rotation and stock dispersion.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via Alpha Exchange.

Early warning signals appeared when volatility and equities increased simultaneously, highlighting a “spot up, vol up” pattern that frequently foreshadows market peaks. For instance, at one moment, upside calls on major stocks like Nvidia and the S&P 500 were well-priced and poised to perform strongly in a rally. This occurs because, during rallies, implied volatility of call options generally decreases as investors tend to sell calls tied to their stock holdings rather than liquidating them entirely. When investors chase synthetic upside exposure through call options, indices like the VIX could stabilize or increase as the market rises. Since counterparties typically adjust their exposure by buying the underlying asset, it propels the rally and magnifies market fluctuations.

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura.

Beyond the chase, the post-election rally got an extra boost from unwinding protective puts. Significant events like elections typically boost demand for puts as hedges against adverse outcomes, with counterparties hedging these positions by selling underlying stocks or futures, among other things. As markets rise, time passes, or uncertainty fades, these puts lose value, leading counterparties to unwind hedges by buying stocks and futures. This is a structural support that pushes markets higher.

Graphic: Retrieved from Nomura.

Corporate buybacks and stabilizing volatility levels encouraged funds to increase their exposure. Nomura estimated that assuming stable markets, up to $145 billion in additional volatility-sensitive buying could occur over three months. Although 30-day implied volatility traded a bit above realized volatility, this signaled uncertainty rather than distress. Seasonal factors mentioned in the previous section—like low holiday liquidity and limited selling pressure—added to the upward trend.

Graphic: Retrieved from Goldman Sachs.

Then came the FOMC meeting, followed by December’s massive options expiration (OPEX), disrupting the supportive dynamics that had fueled the rally. While a rate cut was expected, uncertainty around forward guidance introduced volatility just as the market faced a substantial unwinding of stabilizing exposure. Those who hedged customer-owned call options by buying stock during rallies and hedged customer-owned puts by selling stock during declines were forced to re-hedge as markets turned lower following the FOMC meeting. This involved selling stocks and futures, adding downside pressure.

Macro factors triggered the initial downside, with positioning amplifying equity volatility.

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma.

Ultimately, volatility levels signaled oversold conditions ahead of a massive put-clearing OPEX, setting the stage for a year-end lift. The volatility spikes in August and December remained contained, as they were largely event-driven and mitigated by existing hedges and a market structure anchored by year-end flows. The subsequent unwinding of significant options positions in December eased the pressure, while reinvestment and re-leveraging effects into January supported against weak breadth; as the earlier-mentioned Cem Karsan explains best, the substantial gains over the year increased collateral for leveraged investors, enabling them to reinvest profits or take on more leverage, which has given markets a lease on life through today.


2025 might see increased volatility, not driven by typical inflation or recession fears but by the positioning dynamics herein that can magnify market swings during downturns. The so-called “red sweep” introduces optimism and the likelihood of greater risk-taking, which could result in one-sided positioning and heightened volatility. Factors like populism, protectionism, and rising interest rates are additional pressures on stocks and bonds. Gold and Bitcoin are identified as potential stores of value, but Bitcoin remains prone to speculation, liquidity challenges, and regulatory obstacles.

The following newsletters will identify structures to lean into fundamental catalysts and underlying volatility contexts. Notably, the structures discussed earlier (such as ultra-wide, broken-wing NDX put butterflies, ratio spreads, and low-cost VIX calls and call spreads) may continue to perform as effective hedges.

See you soon for a detailed part two.

Graphic: Retrieved from Invesco via Bloomberg.

Disclaimer

By viewing our content, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined in this disclaimer. Consume our content only if you agree to the terms and conditions below.

Physik Invest is not registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission or any other securities regulatory authority. Our content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or other investment. The information provided is not tailored to your financial situation or investment objectives.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any information. Please do not rely solely on our content to make investment decisions or undertake any investment strategy. Trading is risky, and investors can lose all or more than their initial investment. Hypothetical performance results have limitations and may not reflect actual trading results. Other factors related to the markets and specific trading programs can adversely affect actual trading results. We recommend seeking independent financial advice from a licensed professional before making investment decisions.

We don’t make any claims, representations, or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any information we provide. We are not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on any information we provide. We are not liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or damages from the information provided. We do not have a professional relationship with you and are not your financial advisor. We do not provide personalized investment advice.

Our content is provided without warranties, is the property of our company, and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not be able to reproduce, distribute, or use any content provided through our services without our prior written consent. Please email renato@physikinvest for consent.

We reserve the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time. Following any such modification, your continued consumption of our content means you accept the modified terms. This disclaimer is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which our company is located.

Categories
Commentary

Tales of a Bridgewater Associate: The Fine Art of Building Portfolios

Last month, we had the privilege of attending the Milken Institute’s Asia Summit in Singapore, often seen as the West’s gateway to Asia. Prominent figures, including Bridgewater Associates Founder and CIO mentor Ray Dalio, shared insights on navigating a rapidly transforming, multipolar world. Dalio focused on the major forces shaping global conditions—such as debt cycles, political instability, great power conflicts, climate change, and technology—and highlighted where investment opportunities lie. While the U.S. market may be priced to perfection, Dalio pointed to regions like China and other parts of Asia as offering greater potential.

Fresh from Singapore, we sat down with Andy Constan, Founder, CEO, and CIO of Damped Spring Advisors, whom you may recognize from his appearances on CNBC or Twitter/X. Constan’s background is rooted in extracting value through “relative value” trades, but since the Global Financial Crisis and his time at Bridgewater Associates working alongside Ray Dalio, he’s shifted his focus to macroeconomic factors. In this discussion, we explore his experience building Bridgewater’s volatility pillar, the vulnerability of traditional alpha strategies during macro crises, the bull market for metals, stock market expectations, and more.

As you may have noticed, there’s a progression in our podcast episodes. In the first, Mat Cashman, a former market maker, broke down what options are and how they’re traded. In the second, Vuk Vukovic, founder of an upstart hedge fund, discussed idea generation and using options as tools to express those ideas. Now, in our third episode, Constan dives into how options fit into a balanced portfolio. The key takeaway? While options can enhance portfolios, most investors don’t need leveraged exposure to markets. A balanced portfolio in 2025 can remain straightforward, and here’s an expert telling you just that.

The video can be accessed at this link and below. An edited transcript follows.

I recently attended the Milken Institute event in Singapore, where Ray Dalio was a keynote speaker. Since you worked alongside Ray at Bridgewater, I thought it would be interesting to hear your perspective. Some key themes he discussed included multipolarity, deglobalization, internal disorder, elections, and the fact that a few companies drive much of the S&P 500 Index’s performance. Could you start by sharing a bit about your time at Bridgewater? What was your role, and how may those themes and what you learned there shape your portfolio today?

Before joining Bridgewater Associates as a senior research team member, I ran a hedge fund, focusing heavily on equity relative value, volatility, capital structure arbitrage, risk arbitrage, long-short strategies, and statistical arbitrage. Through my hedge fund experience, I looked at volatility across different asset classes—rates, equity, currency, and commodities. By the time I joined Bridgewater, I had accumulated 23 years of experience, including 18 years at Salomon Brothers, where I was involved in market-making and prop trading, and five years running my hedge fund.

When I joined in 2010, the idea was to see if I could contribute to Bridgewater’s investment process in areas they hadn’t previously explored. I created the volatility pillar within their idea generation team, working closely with Ray DalioGreg JensenBob Prince, who were the three CIOs at the time, and several talented young individuals, including Karen Karniol-Tambour, now the Co-CIO, and Bob Elliott, now a well-known figure on Twitter/X who was always excellent at asking probing questions.

This role exposed me to macro factors I hadn’t previously focused on. I noticed that traditional alpha strategies often blew up during macroeconomic crises, convincing me that many of them—like long-short equity, leveraged derivatives, and convertible bond arbitrage—were vulnerable to the same risks. The Global Financial Crisis clearly illustrated how macro factors, along with central bank actions like quantitative easing and tightening or lowering and raising interest rates, influence monetary conditions and the availability of leverage; when financial conditions tighten, seemingly uncorrelated alpha strategies unravel.

Bridgewater’s focus is on directionally trading the most liquid assets globally. Before my time there, they primarily traded futures and cash securities, with little exposure to options or derivatives. So, my role was to explore whether the volatility market could offer insights to enhance their directional trading or even serve as a new asset class responding to their existing macro indicators.

Graphic: Retrieved from Renato Leonard Capelj, founder at Physik Invest.

Does Bridgewater still have this volatility pillar?

While my connections at Bridgewater remain strong, we don’t discuss business. Like most hedge funds, their work happens behind closed doors. In any case, I don’t believe they’re involved in those markets, as they’re typically too small for their size; instead, it is more likely they use some of the strategies I helped develop—focused on volatility, credit markets, and other convex assets—to refine their directional views on traditional, highly liquid macro assets.

Were there any trades—or even just ones you were eager to pursue—that Bridgewater decided not to go after?

Three days after I joined, the Flash Crash occurred. The market was already on edge, particularly with European turmoil. Earlier that spring, the Greek debt market had been rocked by significantly higher deficit expectations, sparking the European debt crisis just ahead of the Flash Crash. When the crash happened, it cemented for many investors that a more volatile post-GFC regime would persist for years.

Graphic: Retrieved from Andy Constan.

Why does this matter? 

A persistent demand for long-term equity volatility has run over many funds and investors throughout my career. This demand primarily comes from insurance companies, which can’t sell traditional investment management products but want to, as their clients are the same retail investors who may purchase money management services for their 401(k)s or pensions. Essentially, the clients have savings they want to invest, and the insurance companies have life insurance policies—like Term Life—that historically acted as fixed-income securities. You get a guaranteed death benefit, and your policy accrues value based on interest rates.

With interest rates incredibly low then, insurance companies in the mid-1990s began creating securities that offered guaranteed death benefits with upside exposure to equities. They bought equity portfolios, added interest rate swaps, and purchased puts on the S&P 500, creating a bond with a call option on equities. This enabled clients to receive a guaranteed death benefit with potential equity performance upside. Accordingly, the aggressive demand for these products pushed up long-term volatility, as these were 10- to 20-year death benefit products, and long-term call options became highly sought. This affected the dividend market—dealers who sold these calls became exposed to dividends.

Initially, Swiss banks like UBS O’Connor and First Boston and some French banks supplied the calls. However, by the mid-to-late ’90s, the demand overwhelmed them as markets grew more volatile, mainly due to the increasing tech concentration in the index. Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) stepped in, selling global index volatility for five years. This did not end well, and after LTCM was unwound, long-term volatility remained well-bid as insurance companies continued buying these structures and selling them to clients. Warren Buffett eventually stepped in during the GFC, selling $9 billion notional in five- to ten-year S&P puts. He saw it as a good bet, figuring that buying stocks at $700 in ten years after collecting premiums was favorable. Uniquely, he wasn’t required to post any collateral—a situation unlikely ever to repeat. However, Buffett eventually unwound this position as the market rallied following the GFC lows around the Flash Crash.

With Buffett out of the game, no willing sellers of long-term volatility existed. The banks and LTCM had been burned, and even though Buffett avoided getting burned, his exposure to Vega (i.e., the impact of volatility on an option’s price) still cost him. 

At one point, we saw 10-year implied volatility reach 38%. I spent weeks crafting a case for Bridgewater, supported by data, evaluating the size and forward demand of the insurance market and potential players who could self-insure. We analyzed whether selling 38 implied volatility was a good trade and gathered historical data from every stock market, from 1780s UK to post-Soviet Russia, to assess risk. As it turns out, selling a 38 implied volatility would have been profitable in most cases. The only exceptions were Germany, Italy, and Japan, where WWII drove realized volatility above 38. Never before in the US, UK, or elsewhere had there been sustained realized 38 volatility. 

Confident in my findings, I presented this trade idea to Bridgewater, but we ultimately didn’t execute it. The following year, realized volatility dropped below 20, and implied volatility fell by 12-13 points. Had Bridgewater made the trade, it could have likely netted $1 billion in the first year and over $20 billion over the decade.

Did that, in terms of how they made decisions and portfolios guide how you think about making decisions today?

Yes. Bob Prince pulled me aside during the process and said, “We like what you’ve done, but we need you to think differently.”

At Bridgewater, the way they want you to think makes perfect sense. If you’re serious about having a long-term investment process, you need something you can use consistently, day in and day out. You’re not just looking to trade—you want an alpha stream that endures. That’s the real asset. Once a trade is done, if it can’t be repeated, all the effort is wasted. Bridgewater’s focus—and anyone involved in systematic trading should—was discovering long-term alpha streams.

The biggest constraint, both at Bridgewater and everywhere, is time. You have to be selective about where you invest it. For CIOs, learning to trade options proficiently would have been a massive time drain and likely hurt their performance in building a sustainable, long-term alpha-generating engine, which already demanded their full attention.

So that’s the key—what is your time worth? I believe they made the right decision. Investment researchers should focus on creating lasting alpha, not short-term trades.

What did your early work at Solomon Brothers—being on the Brady Commission following the 1987 stock market crash—teach you about the interplay between participants and how this affects liquidity and market outcomes?

At 23, I was fortunate to be assigned to the Brady Commission. What set me apart was a relatively ordinary skill for my generation: I was particularly good at working with spreadsheets. This put me at the table with five senior investment professionals from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan, and the head of research at Tudor, who had made a fortune during the crash. I analyzed actual trades with the names of brokers and end clients—tracking who bought and sold during the crash across multiple markets, including S&P 500 futures, S&P 500 baskets, and rates.

This experience shaped my understanding of markets. Ever since, I’ve been focused on answering who owns what and why. Today, we call this flow and positioning, but knowing who held what and the pressures they faced was invaluable back then. Were they in a drawdown? Were they doing well? Did they see inflows or outflows? Were they levered or not? Understanding these dynamics—and who the players and their end investors were—has been the foundation of my life’s work.

Is that understanding of flow and positioning what guided your career following Solomon Brothers, even when you had the chance to work with firms like Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM)?

When many of my friends at Solomon’s prop desk went off to start LTCM, I had the worst year of my career in 1995. My convertible bond strategy and most hedge funds collapsed due to the Fed tightening. I asked those guys for a job multiple times. Thank God I didn’t get it, but they were the most brilliant people I knew back then. At the time, Solomon had just gotten past the treasury bond auction scandal, which John Meriwether, at least in part, oversaw, and that led to his departure to start LTCM. By then, Solomon was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 for the first ten years of my career—bar none. So, when LTCM launched, Solomon wasn’t a great place to be. I thought it through carefully—and even acted on it—but they didn’t want me.

Following LTCM, is that when things started clicking for you from a macro perspective regarding the relationship between macro crises and relative value trades failing? Moving into the future, what are some of the big macro themes you think may affect market outcomes significantly over the next few years?

Honestly, back in 1995, I had no idea what macroeconomics meant or how it worked, and I didn’t fully appreciate its significance. By 1998, it started becoming more apparent with the LTCM unwind. It wasn’t just LTCM; many firms, including Citibank, where I worked, were involved in government bond arbitrage. LTCM was simply the poster child, so attention gravitated there. By 2004, when I started my hedge fund, people were beginning to consider the possibility of hedge funds deleveraging as a cause of widespread contagion. Still, it wasn’t until 2007 and 2008 that I truly grasped the scale of that risk.

In any case, I prefer to operate on a one-year horizon. What’s clear now is that the Fed, more so than other central banks, has concluded that inflation is no longer a concern—it’s not going to re-accelerate. Because of that, they can lower interest rates relatively quickly, even if the job market doesn’t weaken enough to force their hand. You could call it a normalization. Since mid-December of last year, when the Fed started emphasizing the importance of real short-term interest rates, we’ve been on this path toward normalization. The idea is that real short-term rates dictate both inflation and economic strength, and the Fed is fully committed to returning to a normal interest rate—quickly.

The critical question is, are they right? That’s what markets are wrestling with now. Are they correct in saying that financial conditions are tight and that lowering short-term rates will ease those conditions, which flow through to stimulate the economy? Typically, the Fed doesn’t try to steer the economy directly; instead, it responds to and offsets economic pressures. When inflation rises, they hike—and do it aggressively, though often a bit late until they’re confident. They keep hiking until they’re optimistic inflation is rolling over. Conversely, when they cut rates, they should, in my view, be leaning against a trend and responding to a slowing economy that’s disinflationary and underperforming on growth and jobs.

We’re in a strange situation now. The Fed doesn’t need to combat inflation, and they certainly don’t believe they need to. Instead, they think that by acting too cautiously, they risk over-correcting. So they’re normalizing rates. But what does “normal” even mean now? Is the current path of normalization too aggressive? At the heart of it, this revolves around the pace and destination of rate cuts. That’s what we need to watch moving forward.

There’s also an election coming in early November, which could impact the economy. Politically, I believe it doesn’t matter much which party is in power—they both tend to increase the pie by accumulating more debt and engaging in deficit spending. The difference lies in who and how they distribute that pie. It matters for specific sectors and individual stocks. One might think that oil would do very well under Harris and very poorly under Trump, but one might think that oil companies are going to do very well under Trump and very poorly under Harris. It’s complicated but consequential.

Post-election, I’ll be watching to see if there’s any sign of austerity from either party, though I expect none. We’ll likely continue running budget deficits, though they won’t grow as fast. COVID drove a rapid spike in spending, but we’ve since returned to a more constant deficit. The change in expenditures, rather than the percentage of GDP, influences the economy. If spending remains steady, it acts as a drag. If it grows, it stimulates the economy. How that unfolds depends on the balance of power between the House, Senate, and the Oval Office.

Looking ahead, the Fed will cut rates to around 3%, leading to a soft landing—no significant increase in unemployment and inflation hitting their target. I find that scenario unlikely. It’s like a skipper on a battleship trying to dock perfectly by pulling an antiquated lever. The Fed doesn’t have that much control by tweaking the short-term interest rate; financial conditions matter most to me: the availability and cost of financing for consumers and companies, accumulated wealth, and the health of the dominant financial institutions. Right now, all indicators suggest consumption and investment conditions are favorable. At the corporate and individual levels, income is strong, and corporate profits are expected to remain robust. There’s no need to dissave or leverage up, but they can if they want to consume.

Given these conditions, I’ve remained bullish on the economy since April 2020 and still don’t foresee a recession. This leads me to question why the Fed is normalizing rates and why they believe this won’t stimulate consumption and investment. I think the 3% rate target is too low. If I’m right, inflation will stay sticky or rise slightly relative to their target—not dramatically, as there’s no supply shock, but the demand and monetary sides are still stimulative. Why would major corporations start cutting jobs when they’re reporting record earnings and the economy sees record GDP? I don’t expect a significant weakening in the job market, especially as the government continues deficit spending. In my view, the direction the central bank is taking—normalizing rates—is misaligned with the economy’s current strength.

Is this preemptive action by the Fed a mistake?

I don’t know. We’ll have to see what Jerome Powell does. He cut rates by 50 basis points, and now (September 25), the markets are pricing in about a 17% chance that the two 25 basis point cuts projected for the next two meetings will happen. There’s an 83% chance we’ll see two 50 basis point cuts or one 50 and one 25. The trough interest rate they’re targeting is now around 2.87%, the lowest we’ve seen, except for a brief moment on August 5 when people called for emergency cuts of 75 basis points. So, that’s a significant drop. Christopher Waller and other Fed officials have indicated that rates will likely come down over the next 6 to 12 months, and there’s plenty of room for further cuts. The Fed’s ‘dots’ representing the minimum projected path for interest rates validate this. Meanwhile, inflation expectations have risen daily since the Fed meeting, with gold at all-time highs, bitcoin rallying, stocks not so much, and long-term bonds selling off. Only very short-term bonds are rallying.

Gold is inversely correlated with rates, correct? So, you have other factors, like buying from central banks, that may help buoy it in recent years, correct?

Yes. Many central banks have been increasing their gold holdings — the obvious ones are China and Saudi Arabia. Switzerland is another, and some of the buying may involve private citizens in some cases. There’s been a broader trend among countries that don’t want to hold U.S. assets, particularly adversaries, turning to alternatives like gold. But this flow is unpredictable. Prices slow it down; people don’t buy gold at any price. It’s fairly inelastic — they’ll buy at most prices but not at every price. 

In my framework, I’ve always been bullish on gold since leaving Bridgewater, where I was indoctrinated to understand the value of non-fiat currencies. I haven’t yet bought into Bitcoin because its price is still too correlated with the Nasdaq for me to consider it a true monetary equivalent, though it may become one someday.

Moreover, there are a few ways inflation arises. Demand-side inflation happens when people decide to spend more, which can vary with societal changes and human behavior. Supply-side inflation can come from labor shortages and rising costs in services and manufacturing. However, the latter can’t be hedged with gold because its value doesn’t depend on these forces. The key to gold is its relationship to currency. The more currency that gets printed, the less valuable it becomes relative to gold. Gold is a hedge against monetary inflation. That said, I’m cautious about gold prices in the short term because we’ve diverged from the following three core factors I look at.

First, I see gold as a real currency with a zero coupon. Real rates have fallen but recently stabilized. Despite this, the drop in real rates has driven up gold prices considerably, making gold seem overvalued relative to real rates.

Second, I consider the credibility of central banks. Are they becoming more or less credible? You could debate that all day. You hold gold if you believe there’s less confidence in central banks. I think they’ve done a decent job tackling inflation, at least in perception, which should be bearish for gold since the Fed’s “mission accomplished” suggests stronger credibility. 

Lastly, I look at monetary inflation. The U.S. has pretty much wrapped up its money-printing experiment. Sure, we still run a deficit, but that’s different from the aggressive balance sheet expansion we saw before. The balance sheet is still too large, but the impulse has subsided. Meanwhile, China has signaled a willingness to ease credit conditions, lower rates, and encourage banks to buy equities, though they haven’t engaged in fiscal stimulus yet. If they do, China could be where the U.S. was in 2021, which would be bullish for gold. I suspect part of the reason for increased Chinese gold buying is the expectation of significant monetary stimulus. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens, but it would be very bullish for gold if it does.

All things considered, I think gold is overpriced, so I’m trimming my gold positions in my beta portfolio. I’ve even placed a small speculative short position in my alpha portfolio. It’s still a bull market for gold, but bull markets do correct, and I’ll probably be buying the dip when it happens.

Graphic: Retrieved from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) via The Market Ear.

In the context of inflation staying sticky, could you foresee a period when, even if markets rise in nominal terms, in real terms, they don’t go anywhere or go down?

The ideal scenario for a broad portfolio to meaningfully outperform cash is if the central bank eases more than expected and inflation doesn’t respond. If that happens, every asset will outperform cash. Is it possible? Of course—it’s happened. Assets have done very well relative to cash this year despite a brief drop in August. But the question remains: can this continue indefinitely? There’s a natural limit to asset growth. Still, for now, the central bank seems more dovish each day despite no supporting data. It raises the question of whether they have an agenda. I don’t believe they know more than anyone else, but their actions suggest a strong confidence that inflation won’t rise. If they’re right, assets should hold up. Will they perform exceptionally next year? Probably not. But with cash yielding less than 4% on a one-year bill, that’s becoming less attractive too.

Leading to the volatility during August, we saw some rotation beneath the surface of the index, with movement into small caps and some softening in names like Nvidia. One could say that foreshadowed further weakness. Still, did you ever anticipate the unsettling volatility we saw and the subsequent quick recovery?

I wrote a fairly extensive piece on the dispersion trade and was bearish on the idea, expecting it to unwind. I was mindful of the yen’s strengthening and role in deleveraging, especially after seeing the wild moves in July following the CPI report. There was some instability, which I anticipated. But, in hindsight, the only real opportunity was to go all-in long at the bottom in August. I covered some positions and bought a bit more, but I didn’t cover enough, and I’m surprised by how strong the reversal was. Looking back, it’s clear the markets were already convinced the Fed would ease aggressively, and that’s where we stand now.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

I saw a lot of commentary about how some of that risky positioning could have been doubling down following the August drop. Do you get concerned that this foreshadows something bigger happening in the future?

Everyone currently in the market is where they want to be. Their risk managers are comfortable, they’re comfortable, and they’re not over-leveraged. There’s no one delaying a margin call right now. These speculative unwinds happen fast unless they’re systemic and start feeding on each other. But we didn’t see that. More importantly, there was no sign of any banking institution struggling. The bigger story is consistent (i.e., passive) investment driven by strong incomes, robust job markets, steady 401(k) contributions, insurance plans, and government spending. In addition, reinvesting income from existing investments continues to fuel this trend. From what I see, it’s fairly leveraged, but only a significant drawdown would cause that to reverse.

And when you say meaningful drawdown, what does that look like?

10% corrections would probably mean a dip is less likely to be bought. You know, a 5% correction is just getting bought.

Could you ever foresee, though we have things in place to prevent such a thing from occurring again, a 1987-type crash unwinding some of this risky positioning in a big way? How would that look?

The odds of a stock market crash are low. A slower correction is more likely than a crash.

We had this rapid move down, and we’ve come back up. With markets now near all-time highs, how do you think about portfolio structuring? You talked a bit about positioning in gold, equities, etc. How do you think about structuring a portfolio, and do you look at things like volatility or skew levels as an input or guide?

When constructing a portfolio, the first step is to clarify your goals. For most people, the aim should be building a balanced portfolio that’s diversified across growth and inflation risks. It’s important not to focus on timing markets or picking specific asset classes. Instead, set it and forget it, with a long-term horizon of 10-20 years. Of course, some money will be needed sooner, so you must manage that more conservatively. Depending on your age and job prospects, you might adjust your risk tolerance—the better your prospects, the more risk you can afford.

My advice? Don’t spend time betting on markets. Focus on building a “set it and forget it” beta portfolio of long assets and keep adding to it. Spend your energy earning money outside the market instead. Speculating on markets is tough. It’s a zero-sum game—your gain is someone else’s loss, and that person is likely smart and motivated. It’s “Fight Night,” not passive investing. Thinking you’ll get lucky? These are sharks out there who will devour you. Competing against them far exceeds the costs of gambling in a casino. It’s like playing poker, not blackjack or craps. If you enter the game, you better be confident in your strategy because the competition is fierce.

If I’m not sleeping, I’m working to maintain whatever edge I might have, and I’m still unsure if I even have one. So, how do I build portfolios? Cautiously, with low confidence, sticking to what I know. I balance risk management, never going all in and grinding through it, just like Joey Knish, John Turturro’s character in Rounders. That’s the guy I want to be.

In terms of Damped Spring’s story, what do you want to do there? You’ve been running that for a few years, starting with a very small followership, and then you scaled that up. You’ve gotten to this point? What’s next?

I have a life I enjoy. I maintain relationships with a few hundred institutional clients, and over 15 of the largest firms value my insights. I provide them with my research, and I’ve also built deep connections with professionals—many of whom prefer to remain anonymous—who want to be members of Damped Spring. These members ask me questions like yours, and I give them data-driven answers. My goal is to meet them wherever they are on their learning curve and help them progress in a very hands-on way. Every day, I work with clients, answering their questions thoughtfully or being upfront if I don’t have the answer. I find that incredibly rewarding.

The financial side is a small part; it’s not about the money for me. Institutions pay because they value the service, and I charge individuals mainly to ensure they’re serious and to avoid wasting time with internet trolls. But people care—they want to be part of this community and learn from each other, which is wonderful. I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can add value and people want to hear what I say.

I’ve also started “2 Gray Beards” with Nick Givanovic. It’s a different approach—we offer low-touch, 20-minute videos once a week explaining what’s happening worldwide and what it means for long-only portfolios. People interested in 2 Gray Beards often don’t have much time to consider their investments. Many rely on their financial advisor or money manager, who might charge 80 basis points a year—say $40,000 for someone with decent wealth—and often, they don’t fully understand what the advisor says.

We aim to reach these end clients directly and say, “Here’s what’s happening. Watch these videos for 20 minutes a week for a few months, maybe half a year, and I guarantee you’ll be able to have a more meaningful conversation with your financial advisor. If we’re successful, you might understand your portfolio better than your advisor.” Nick and I see this as valuable and love doing it.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the last four years? It could be good or bad.

Underestimating how far momentum could take the market, whether up or down. I was bullish from April 2020 to February 2022, and I thought a 5 or 10% correction in 2022 would be the extent of it—but I stayed long for too long. Likewise, as markets bounced, I held onto my short positions for too long. What’s interesting to me is the role of momentum. It seems to be a more dominant factor than my models have suggested, and while I’m addressing it, it’s still somewhat unclear whether this is driven by momentum strategies or just passive money flows. I’m still learning, but that’s what I’m focused on most right now.

Well, that ties it up. I appreciate your time. It is an honor. Is there something else you’d like to add?

Recognize that beta is the way to go—it’s not difficult, and anyone can guide you through it. However, be cautious not to get too caught up in short-term trading.


Disclaimer

By viewing our content, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined in this disclaimer. Consume our content only if you agree to the terms and conditions below.

Physik Invest is not registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission or any other securities regulatory authority. Our content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or other investment. The information provided is not tailored to your financial situation or investment objectives.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any information. Please do not rely solely on our content to make investment decisions or undertake any investment strategy. Trading is risky, and investors can lose all or more than their initial investment. Hypothetical performance results have limitations and may not reflect actual trading results. Other factors related to the markets and specific trading programs can adversely affect actual trading results. We recommend seeking independent financial advice from a licensed professional before making investment decisions.

We don’t make any claims, representations, or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any information we provide. We are not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on any information we provide. We are not liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or damages from the information provided. We do not have a professional relationship with you and are not your financial advisor. We do not provide personalized investment advice.

Our content is provided without warranties, is the property of our company, and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not be able to reproduce, distribute, or use any content provided through our services without our prior written consent. Please email renato@physikinvest for consent. 

We reserve the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time. Following any such modification, your continued consumption of our content means you accept the modified terms. This disclaimer is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which our company is located.

Categories
Commentary

The End Game

Good Morning! I hope you have a great start to the week. I would be so honored if you could comment and/or share this post. Cheers!

Bursts of volatility punctuate calm and resilience, resulting in demand for safety and protection in everything from stocks and commodities to bonds and currencies. The general agreement is that macroeconomic policy and geopolitics are to blame, and investors are repositioning to stem risk and potential bleeding in their portfolios. This sometimes disturbs historical trends and relationships. 

Thank you for tuning in. We will unpack much of it herein. Let’s get into it.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

Hedging Against Monetary Inflation, Weaponized Dollars, And Debt Monetization

Gold serves as a prime example. Instead of being guided by conventional catalysts, including real interest rates (i.e., nominal interest rate minus inflation), growth prospects, and currencies like the dollar, recent movements are more likely driven by factors like central bank accumulation on macroeconomic and geopolitical shifts.

For instance, China may increase its gold reserves to hedge potential disruptions and sanctions, as Russia saw after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, or establish a collateral reserve for an autonomous financial system. Likewise, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Singapore have also increased their gold reserves.

As liquidity in the gold market is thinner, this buying activity amplifies volatility and disrupts established trends. Therefore, fast moves up!

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg via SuperMacro.

Why could gold continue this upward trajectory?

The typical trajectory is guided by monetary inflation, characterized by increasing liquidity within the financial system. According to CrossBorder Capital, gold moves 1.5 times the liquidity growth, a solid sensitivity to so-called monetary expansion. Bitcoin, often considered a digital gold, moves sooner and exhibits higher sensitivity.

Recent expressions of interest in Treasury securities by central banking authorities, such as Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, further fuel ascents. New demand would lead to higher bond prices and lower yields.

Therefore, gold continues surging due to geopolitical shifts, liquidity in the financial system, and the potential for debt monetization. The latter occurs when excessive debts prompt central bank authorities to intervene, using printed money to purchase bonds to manage interest rate levels more effectively.

“Investors are looking beyond the ‘here and now,’ realizing that there is no way markets or the economy can sustain 5% nominal and 2% real rates,” Bank of America elaborates. Investors are “hedging two things: i) the risk that the Fed cuts as CPI accelerates, and ii) and more ominously, the ‘endgame of Fed Interest Cost Control (‘ICC’), Yield Curve Control (YCC) and QE to backstop US government spending.’”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bank of America.

There is bi-modality. Typically, high rates are bad for gold. But, with debts and rates as they are, the probability of debt monetization increases. For now, we have a cycle wherein stocks and commodities may rise with a firming economy, and bonds may offer limited salvation, nodding to higher-for-longer rates.

Hedging Loss Of Momentum And Left Tails Following Big Move-Up And De-levering

Interest rate increases are likely only on the horizon if something unexpected occurs. Given that stocks are priced well, the question arises: how can we protect ourselves while many anticipate, based on market pricing, either minimal changes to the status quo or a substantial event triggering a broad downturn?

For one, commodities don’t do much good in a broad downturn.

Consider the years 2001 (during the tech bubble), 2008 (amidst the global financial crisis), 2015 (the flash crash), 2018 (during Volmageddon), and 2020 (amidst the pandemic). According to Kris Sidial of The Ambrus Group, gold was an ineffective hedge against equities during these periods.

So, how do we hedge the middle reality between “minimal” and “substantial.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

While direct bets on equity volatility bursts have been prominent, digestion trades may be a better alternative. Let’s unpack why.

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

The first idea involves hedging downside thrusts in equities via call options in the Cboe Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX), Goldman Sachs, and UBS note. This isn’t necessarily optimal. Volatility is high over the short term and may revert quickly, indirectly boosting stocks. The alternative strategy entails selling options and utilizing the funds to purchase similar options with later expiration dates. Such digestion trades enable traders to capitalize on increases in volatility in the near term, reducing their costs on longer-term trades.

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma’s April 15, 2024 Founder Note.

To explain, in a recent letter to subscribers, SpotGamma shared that numerous expiring VIX call options were in the money. In other words, this exposure, which makes money if the VIX and S&P 500 implied volatility (or the options market’s anticipation of future movement in the underlying), was soon to disappear. Accordingly, the hedges to this exposure would do the same, and the rebalancing after that would be enough to buoy markets.

We’ll try to break it down further in the simplest way possible. 

The S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) and VIX are inversely correlated. When the S&P 500 falls, the VIX tends to rise. Naive of us to say, we know, but bear with us.

One can buy an SPX put or a VIX call to hedge a portfolio’s volatility. Let’s say one buys an SPX put, and the other side of this trade sells an SPX put. The other side may hedge this short put by selling stock and futures correlated to the S&P 500. Let us say the S&P 500 falls and volatility rises (pictured below). That counterparty may have to sell more stock and futures, pressuring markets. If this now valuable put expires, the counterparty will buy back the stock and futures it sold. This can support markets or do less to exacerbate movement and underlying volatility.

Graphic: Retrieved from SqueezeMetrics.

SpotGamma’s data suggests the markets are not facing an impending crash; instead, per their April 17, 2024 note, “if stocks rally and IV drops, it may add more stock for dealers to buy.” I plug SpotGamma because I worked there. Check them out! 😀

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma.

So, calendar and unbalanced butterfly or ratio spread trades (pictured naively below), a play on the recent richness (pictured much further above) of options, may help capture the low case of downside and stem potential portfolio volatility.

Graphic: Retrieved from Physik Invest.

Flipping these trades (i.e., using call options in the SPX instead of put options) allows one to play the market rising. For instance, let us say the upside of gold and silver will continue, but only after stopping and digesting recent movements. You can sell a call expiring soon and buy one later at the same strike price. Your loss is, technically, limited to the amount paid for the trade.

Graphic: Retrieved from Schwab’s thinkorswim platform.

In general, ratio spreads, and butterfly trades are designed to capitalize on movement toward specific price levels, while outright calls and puts are better suited for hedging sharp movements.

The former two strategies serve as practical tools for safeguarding the value of your positions during periods of heightened volatility. In such environments, the options you own are positioned closer to the market, usually retaining their value well, while the options you sell are priced higher than usual and located farther from the market, with more value to decay into expiry. 

Consequently, while the options you own tend to keep their value, the options you sell struggle to retain theirs. As a result, the spread can appreciate even without significant movement, particularly if implied volatility declines significantly at the furthest strikes. Earlier this year, such was true in Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ: SMCI) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).

SMCI was trending up, and traders were feverishly betting/hedging this reality. In a 20-page case study we may release, we detail how Physik Invest navigated this environment successfully. In short, we bought options closer to where the market was trading and sold more of them in places where we thought the market wouldn’t end up going. With implied volatility jacked, for lack of better phrasing, it was often difficult for those far-away and short-dated options to keep their value. Hence, we managed to put trades on for low or no cost and flip them for significant credits!!!

Graphic: Retrieved from SpotGamma. SMCI volatility skew.

In any case, there’s been a weakening under the surface of the indexes (see below).

Graphic: Retrieved from TradingView via Physik Invest. Black = Breadth Measure.

Later, when breadth improves, we can use the portfolio volatility-reducing trades discussed to cut costs or buy more stocks, anticipating upside continuation. According to Carson Group’s Ryan Detrick, the S&P 500 experienced its first close below the 50-day moving average in 110 trading days, marking the longest streak since 2011. Following similar streaks, stocks were higher three months later, 88% of the time, and six months later, 81% of the time. “A warning? Maybe, but maybe not.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Ryan Detrick of Carson Group.

If you enjoyed this week’s letter, comment below and share. Thanks and take care!

Categories
Commentary

Daily Brief For June 16, 2022

The daily brief is a free glimpse into the prevailing fundamental and technical drivers of U.S. equity market products. Join the 300+ that read this report daily, below!

What Happened

Overnight, equity index futures took back the post-Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) bump. Bonds and most commodity products (less gold) followed suit. 

The Federal Reserve (Fed) admitted to run-away prices and committed to slaying inflation via tougher action. Accordingly, the central bank upped interest rates by 75 basis points. This was the largest increase since 1994 and, as the Fed commented, another 75 basis point hike may be in store at the next meeting in July.

In other news, the Celsius Network (CRYPTO: CEL), a crypto favorite that amassed in excess of $20 billion in assets, froze withdrawals to stop what some say was a potential bank run. Private equity is facing a so-called “crisis of value” given over inflated prices in that market. 

We shall unpack the latter, below, a bit.

Also, U.S. retail sales posted their first drop in five months, the Bank of England raised its rates along with the Swiss central bank which surprised with its first hike since 2007.

This is all the while Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (NYSE: GS) buyback desk was flooded with volumes about 3 times last year’s daily average. This could be construed as companies viewing the latest selloff as an “opportunity to repurchase shares rather than retrenching.”

Ahead is data on jobless claims, building permits, housing starts, as well as the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index (8:30 AM ET).

Graphic updated 6:30 AM ET. Sentiment Risk-Off if expected /ES open is below the prior day’s range. /ES levels are derived from the profile graphic at the bottom of the following section. Levels may have changed since initially quoted; click here for the latest levels. SqueezeMetrics Dark Pool Index (DIX) and Gamma (GEX) calculations are based on where the prior day’s reading falls with respect to the MAX and MIN of all occurrences available. A higher DIX is bullish. At the same time, the lower the GEX, the more (expected) volatility. Learn the implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness. SHIFT data used for S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) options activity. Note that options flow is sorted by the call premium spent; if more positive, then more was spent on call options. Breadth reflects a reading of the prior day’s NYSE Advance/Decline indicator. VIX reflects a current reading of the CBOE Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX) from 0-100.

What To Expect

Fundamental: Fed funds rate upped 75 basis points. 

Now, it appears the rate will surpass 3% after the FOMC affirmed its commitment “to returning inflation to its 2% objective.” Participants reacted, pricing in the potential for a rate peak in the range of 4.00-4.75% early-to-mid 2023, after which the easing cycle is to likely take place.

Graphic: Via CME Group Inc’s (NASDAQ: CME) FedWatch Tool.

The overnight rate is expected to peak near 4.23% by mid-2023. This is a given via a quick check of the Eurodollar (FUTURE: /GE) futures curve, a reflection of participants’ outlook on interest rates. The peak of the Fed-rate-hike cycle – terminal rate – is around March 2023 (previously it was June).

For context, the price of /GE reflects the interest offered on U.S. dollar-denominated deposits at banks outside of the U.S. With that, they’re “expressed numerically using 100 minus the implied 3-month U.S. dollar LIBOR interest rate,” per Investopedia. This means that at current March 2023 prices (95.775), this reflects an implied interest rate settlement rate of 4.225%.

Read: The shift from the Eurodollar to SOFR is accelerating as “SOFR adoption cracked 50%.”

Moreover, the FOMC’s forecasts for inflation have moved all the while predictions for 2023 and 2024 have not. 

Graphic: Via FOMC. Taken from Bloomberg.

GDP growth estimates, too, have shifted but with the expectation there still will be growth.

Graphic: Via FOMC. Taken from Bloomberg.

As stated in this morning’s introduction (above), these policy adjustments are inflicting damage on some inflated areas of the market like crypto and private equity.

Recall that prevailing monetary policies made it easier to borrow and make longer-duration bets on ideas with a lot of promise in the future. Central banks, too, underwrote losses of this regime and encouraged continued growth. This had consequences on the real economy and asset prices which rose and kept deflationary pressures at bay.

As well put forth in our May 18, 2022 commentary, the recent market rout is a recession and the direct reflection of the unwind of carry. Capital was “misallocated” and the Fed’s move to control price stability is “completely unreasonable” as they’re not in a position to do it “without bringing down the markets,” per Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan.

Read: Kris Abdelmessih’s Moontower #148 on prevailing macroeconomic perspectives.

As Lyn Alden of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy put forth, “unfortunately for the Fed, the U.S. economic growth rate is already decelerating” and, to cut inflation, it must reduce demand for goods. Indeed, this is recessionary and is already reflected by slowing retail sales.

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. “As price pressures become more entrenched in the economy, spending will likely ebb either due to higher prices, higher interest rates, or both.”

As Bloomberg explains, spending has shifted and is supported by consumers spending down their savings and leveraging credit cards. 

Read: Klarna’s debt costs rise as buy-now-pay-later sector suffers.

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. This “could be concerning if Americans fail to keep up on payments. That could ultimately mean a slowdown in the pace of inflation-adjusted consumption.”

“If this credit bubble ever pops, it’s going to be the most catastrophic market failure that anyone has ever read about — but let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Mark Spitznagel, Miami-based Universa’s CIO, said in early June. “We’ve gotten ourselves into a tough spot.” 

Perspectives: “The move in markets prices in more than enough recession risk, and we believe a near-term recession will ultimately be avoided thanks to consumer strength, Covid reopening/recovery, and policy stimulus in China,” JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (NYSE: JPM) Marko Kolanovic and his team said

Positioning: Measures of implied volatility had come in, yesterday, and that was significant in that participants have a lot of exposure to put options.

Graphic: Via SpotGamma’s Hedging Impact of Real-Time Options (HIRO) indicator.

Further, (naively) we see it as liquidity providers being short those puts. As volatility continues to come in, the exposure of those options to direction (delta) compresses. 

As a result, liquidity providers cut some of their negative (static) delta hedges to that positive delta put position.

Graphic: Via SpotGamma. “SPX prices X-axis. Option delta Y-axis. When the factors of implied volatility and time change, hedging ratios change. For instance, if SPX is at $4,700.00 and IV jumps 15% (all else equal), the dealer may sell an additional 0.2 deltas to hedge their exposure to the addition of a positive 0.2 delta. The graphic is for illustrational purposes, only.”

This means that the potential options expiration (OPEX) related bullishness, so to speak, was pulled forward and, now, markets, being markedly lower than they were immediately after the FOMC event, are at risk of trading into (and below) the sizeable interest down below.

Read: Daily Brief for June 15, 2022.

Graphic: Taken by Physik Invest from Interactive Brokers Group Inc (NASDAQ: IBKR). Updated 6/15/2022.

As stated, yesterday, these options, down below, have little time to expiry and, thus, their gamma (options sensitivity to direction) grows rather large, at near-the-money strikes.

Graphic: Text taken from Exotic Options and Hybrids: A Guide to Structuring, Pricing and Trading. 

As the time to expiry narrows, above the strike in question delta decays, and counterparts buy back their static delta hedges. 

As the time to expiry narrows, below the strike in question delta expands and counterparts sell more static delta to hedge.

Graphic: Text taken from Exotic Options and Hybrids: A Guide to Structuring, Pricing and Trading.

This means that if below these high-interest strikes, associated hedging, less any new reach for protection would pressure markets lower. If above, hedging, less new sales of protection, would bolster markets higher.

Ultimately, if lower, all else equal, the June 17 OPEX will coincide with the removal of the in-the-money options exposures in question. This opens a window during which markets may have less pressure to rally against.

Bonus: As SpotGamma explains, “​​[g]iven the supply and demand of volatility, as well as divergences in the volatility that the market realizes and implies from options activity, there’s a case to be made for maintaining positive exposure to direction via long volatility.”

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

Graphic: Taken by Physik Invest from Interactive Brokers Group Inc (NASDAQ: IBKR). The divergence in volatility implied (IVOL) by participants’ options activity, versus that which the market realizes (RVOL) resurfaced on June 15, 2022, in the Nasdaq 100 (INDEX: NDX).

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 $3,688.75 HVNode puts in play the $3,727.75 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the $3,727.75 HVNode could reach as high as the $3,773.25 HVNode and $3,808.50 HVNode, or higher.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $3,688.75 HVNode puts in play the $3,664.25 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the $3,664.25 HVNode could reach as low as the $3,610.75 HVNode and $3,587.25 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.
Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

What People Are Saying

Definitions

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.

Categories
Commentary

Market Commentary For The Week Ahead: ‘All In At The Top’

Key Takeaways:

  • Analysts extended 2021 S&P 500 targets.
  • Fear and greed are tugging at each other. 
  • Jefferies ups 2021 GDP forecast to 5.25%.
  • Net equity buying the largest in months.
  • Inflation is rising where you don’t want it.
  • Positioning suggests elevation of volatility.
  • The big picture breakouts remain intact.

What Happened: Coming into the extended holiday weekend, on tapering volumes, U.S. index futures balanced within prior range. 

This activity occurred in the context of a larger balance-area forming just beyond the $3,600.00 multi-month break-out point. Given the lack of range expansion, in addition to the aforementioned responsive, back-and-forth trade, participants are signaling a lack of conviction.

Though there is a lot of noise in the markets — an uneven recovery, stimulus, elections, trade, and the like — one key point remains: the multi-month upside breakout targeting S&P 500 prices as high as $4,000.00 remains intact. Add to this the recovery of Monday’s liquidation fueled by weak-handed, short-term buyers, and the fact that the all-time $3,724.25 rally-high was established in an overnight session, it is highly likely that the upside discovery process has yet to end.

Note: Historically, there is a low probability that overnight all-time highs end the upside discovery process. 

Pictured: Profile overlays on a 30-minute candlestick chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures

What To Expect: Friday’s session found responsive selling surface near the $3,691.00 profile level. Given that participants had difficulty in sustaining higher prices, alongside shortened holiday trade, the following frameworks apply for next week’s trade.

In the best case, the S&P 500 remains above its $3,667.75 HVNode, and continues to balance. As stated earlier, given the tapering volume and holiday, the odds of directional resolve are quite low. 

Two go, no-go levels exist; trade that finds increased involvement above $3,691.00 and below $3,667.75 would suggest a change in conviction. Anything in-between favors responsive trade.

Conclusion: Bank of America Corp’s (NYSE: BAC) Michael Hartnett summarized it best: “[T]he year of the virus, the lockdown, a crash, a recession, an epic policy panic, the greatest stock market rally of all-time, a V-shape economic recovery, and ending with a vaccine for COVID-19.”

Though risks remain, markets are pricing in the odds of a continued rebound. Unless some exogenous event were to transpire, technically speaking, all broad-market indices are in an uptrend. A move below $3,600.00 in the S&P 500 would denote a change in tone, increasing the likelihood of a failed breakout that would target prices as low as $3,200.00.

Pictured: Retest of the upside breakpoint on a daily candlestick chart of the cash S&P 500 Index

Levels Of Interest: The $3,691.00 boundary and $3,667.75 HVNode.

Bonus: Here is a look at some of the opportunities unfolding.

Photo by Raka Miftah from Pexels.

Categories
Commentary

‘Rising Tide Lifts All Boats’: Market Commentary For The Week Ahead

Key Takeaways:

What Happened: U.S. index futures auctioned to new all-time highs before weakening into Friday’s derivative expiry.

What Does It Mean: After participants established a rally-high in the December 9 overnight session, the S&P 500 liquidated down to the balance-area boundary near $3,625.00.

After the December 14 gap open on COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine and stimulus progress, for the remainder of the week, indices negated prior selling, establishing a new all-time high. Friday’s trade managed to repair some structural deficiencies left in the aforementioned advance.

Pictured: Profile overlays on a 65-minute candlestick chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures

What To Expect: Friday’s session found responsive buyers surface at the low-volume node (LVNode) near $3,680.00. Low-volume areas denote directional conviction and ought to resist future auction rotations. Auctioning through the LVNode would foreshadow further rotation and trade as low as the balance-area low.

Given that the higher-time frame breakout remains intact and selling appears non-committal, participants will come into Monday’s session knowing the following:

  1. Both sentiment and positioning are historically stretched, while the recovery remains uneven
  2. Inflation remains cool due to the profound influence of disruptive innovation.
  3. U.S. Congress reaches deal on COVID-19 aid package, plans votes for Monday. 
  4. The decline in realized correlation due to factor and sector rotation, as well as the return of systematic option selling strategies will push the long-gamma narrative in which volatility is suppressed and the market pins or slowly rises in a range-bound fashion.
  5. The S&P 500’s higher-time frame breakout remains intact (see chart below); JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) confirms equities will rally short-term with the S&P 500 auctioning as high as $4,000.
  6. Despite high CAPE ratios, stock-market valuations aren’t that absurd.

Therefore, the following frameworks for next week’s trade apply.

In the best case, buyers maintain conviction and hold the index above the $3,680.00 LVNode. Auctioning below said reference denotes a change in conviction. Participants would then look for a response near the $3,667.75 HVNode. Failure to remain above the HVNode would portend rotation, further balancing. 

In the worst case, participants initiate below the $3,625.00 balance-area low, jeopardizing the higher-time frame breakout.

Conclusion: As BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK) said, “a rising tide lifts all boats”; though financial markets have largely priced in positive news surrounding vaccines and stimulus, the rally remains intact, bolstered by a drive for yield — technical factors as a result of systemic and hedge fund strategies, among other things.

Pictured: Retest of the upside breakpoint on a daily candlestick chart of the cash S&P 500 Index

Levels Of Interest: $3,740.75 and $3773.75 price extensions, $3,724.25 all-time rally high, the micro-composite HVNode at $3,707.75, $3,691.00, and $3,667.75, as well as the $3,680 LVNode and poor structure near the $3,625.00 balance-area low.

Bonus: Here is a look at some of the opportunities unfolding.

Photo by Fede Roveda from Pexels.