Tag: GME – GameStop Corporation

Categories
Commentary

Daily Brief For March 28, 2023

Physik Invest’s Daily Brief is read free by thousands of subscribers. Join this community to learn about the fundamental and technical drivers of markets.

Subscribe
Graphic updated 7:00 AM ET. Sentiment Neutral if expected /MES open is inside of the prior day’s range. /MES levels are derived from the profile graphic at the bottom of this letter. Click here for the latest levels. SqueezeMetrics Dark Pool Index (DIX) and Gamma (GEX) with the latter calculated 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. The lower the GEX, the more (expected) volatility. Click to learn the implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness. Breadth reflects a reading of the prior day’s NYSE Advance/Decline indicator. The CBOE VIX Volatility Index (INDEX: VVIX) reflects the attractiveness of owning volatility. UMBS prices via MND. Click here for the economic calendar.

Administrative

Time for something inspiring! Separate from his work at Physik Invest, founder Renato Leonard Capelj is a journalist interviewing global leaders in business, government, and finance. In his desire to learn and apply the methods of those others who are far more experienced, Capelj has a long list of interviews you may find helpful in strengthening your understanding of markets. Check out some recent ones!

March 10, 2023: Portfolio Manager Prefers Option, Bond Overlays To Hedge Big Uncertainty Facing Markets

Capelj spoke with Simplify Asset Management’s Michael Green about cutting investors’ portfolio volatility while amplifying profit potential.

In response to uncertainty, Green says investors can park cash in short-term near-risk-free bonds yielding 5% or more, as well as allocate some capital to volatility “to introduce a degree of convexity,” risking only the premium paid. Alternatively, investors can take a more optimistic long view and position in innovations like artificial intelligence or next-generation energy production.

January 8, 2023: Two Major Risks Investors Should Watch Out For In 2023

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial about his market perspectives.

Naive measures like the VVIX, which is the volatility of the VIX or the volatility of the S&P 500’s volatility, are printing at levels last seen in 2017, Sidial explains, noting this would suggest “we can get cheap exposure to convexity while a lot of people are worried.”

“Even if inflation continues, the rate at which it rises won’t be the same. Due to this, CTA exposures likely will not perform as well as they did in 2022, and that’s why you may see more opportunities in the volatility space.”

June 28, 2022: Former Bridgewater Associate Andy Constan Talks Recession Odds, Capturing A Macro Edge

Capelj spoke with Damped Spring Advisors’ Andy Constan about what investors should focus on and how he creates trades that lose him less money.

Constan’s trades are constructed around two- to four-month time horizons and are structured long and short using defined-risk options trades like debit or credit spreads, depending on whether volatility is cheap or expensive.

“I want deltas and leverage. My macro indicators give me an edge on price and in the worst case, the loss is limited to 10%, if everything has to go against me all at once. I can be 100% invested and only risk 10%.”

May 16, 2022: 42 Macro’s Darius Dale On His Wall Street Story, The Markets: ‘This Is Not The Financial Crisis’

Capelj spoke with 42 Macro’s Darius Dale about his Wall Street story and perspectives on life and markets.

“We’re tracking at an above-potential level of output in terms of the growth rate of output. We’re also slowing and the pace of that deceleration is likely to pick up steam in the coming quarters.”

By 2023, that process is likely to “catalyze pressure on asset markets through the lens of corporate earnings and valuations you assign to a lower level of growth.”

July 22, 2021: ShadowTrader’s Peter Reznicek On His Early Days, Tips For Success And Evolution

Capelj spoke with ShadowTrader’s Peter Reznicek about his start, perspectives, success tips, and visions for the future.

Reznicek recalled two turning points in his trading career.

The first was learning from expert floor traders involved with the thinkorswim team.

“That was really the genesis of where I started to learn the broken-wing butterfly, ratio spread and things like that,” he shared.

Floor traders, according to Reznicek, had low capital requirements. As a result, they could put on strategies like the 1×2 ratio — a debit spread with an extra short option — for a low cost.

(See parts 1, 2, and 3 of ShadowTrader’s how-to series on ratio spreads.)

“On the floor, it is either go big or go home,” he chuckled, remarking that ratio spreads were the way of the casino. “You either get rich or they take your house. So, why would you put on any other spread?”

The next big turning point was Jim Dalton, who’s been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and senior executive vice president of the CBOE during its formative years.

“I’m still in touch with him on a regular basis and I consider him a friend,” Reznicek said in a discussion on Dalton’s works like Mind Over Markets and Markets in Profile, as well as his use of WindoTrader Market Profile software. “I went to Chicago twice to see him teach live … and I came home from those seminars with five, six, 10 pages of notes. The nuances of profile continue to mold me.”

July 26, 2021: Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan Unpacks Implications Of Fed Taper, Shift To Fiscal Policy And More

Capelj spoke with Kai Volatility Advisors’ Cem Karsan about the implications of record valuations and the growth of derivatives markets on policy, the economy, and financial markets.

“It’s not a coincidence that the mid-February to mid-March 2020 downturn literally started the day after February expiration and ended the day of March quarterly expiration. These derivatives are incredibly embedded in how the tail reacts and there’s not enough liquidity, given the leverage, if the Fed were to taper.”

July 13, 2021: Ambrus Group CIO On Taking Advantage Of Volatility Dislocations

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial to understand how to capitalize on volatility dislocations.

Unlike standard tail-risk funds which systematically buy equity puts, Ambrus’ approach is bespoke, cutting down on negative dynamics like decay with respect to time.

Given dislocations across single stock skew, term structure, and volatility risk premium, Ambrus will position itself in options with less time to maturity, buying protection up to six weeks out.

“The market will underestimate the distribution,” Sidial said in a conversation on Ambrus’ internal models that spot positional imbalances to determine who is off-sides and in what single asset. “We’re buying things that have happened before and we’re looking for it to carry a heavier beta when the sell-off happens.”

So, by analyzing flow, as well as using internal models to assess the probabilities of deleveraging in a risk-off event, Ambrus is able to venture into individual stocks where there may be excess fragility; “I know if stock XYZ goes down five percent, it’s going to go down 10% because this fund needs to deleverage.”

To aid the cost to carry, Ambrus utilizes defined-risk, short-volatility, absolute return strategies.

“I’m basically giving you a free put on the market – with a ton of convexity – with something that offers a payout that’s just more than a regular put,” Sidial summarized. “If the market doesn’t do anything, and we do an amazing job, we’re flat and you made money on all your long-only equity exposure.”

“You had a free hedge the entire time.”

February 1, 2021: Volatility Arbitrage Trader Talks GameStop, Market Microstructure, Regulation

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial about the meme stock debacle of 2021.

“You have distressed debt hedge funds that focus on shorting these types of companies. Melvin Capital is the one that is singled out due to the media, but they aren’t the only ones.”

Market participants added to the crash-up dynamics. Retail investors aggressively bought stock and short-term call options, while institutional investors further took advantage of the momentum and dislocations.

“You have this dynamic in the derivatives market where there is a gamma squeeze when people are buying way far out-of-the-money calls, and dealers reflexively have to hedge off their risk,” Sidial said.

“It causes a cascading reaction, moving the stock price up because dealers are short calls and they have to buy stock when the delta moves a specific way.”

The participation in the stock on the institutional side has not received much attention, he said. 

“We’ve noticed that some of the flow is more institutional,” he said in reference to activity on the level two and three order books, which are electronic lists of buy and sell orders for a particular security.

“You have certain prop guys and other hedge funds that understand what’s going on, and they’re trying to take advantage of it, as well.”

This institutional activity disrupted traditional correlations and caused shares of distressed debt assets like GameStop, BlackBerry Ltd, and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc to trade in-line with each other.

“This was not some WallStreetBet user, … if you look at how some of these things were moving premarket, you would see GME drop like 2%, BB’s best bid would drop and AMC’s best bid would drop. That’s an algo.”

The takeaway: although the WallStreetBets crowd is getting most of the blame, institutions are also at fault for the volatility.

Technical

As of 7:00 AM ET, Tuesday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET) in the S&P 500 will likely open in the lower part of a balanced overnight inventory, inside the prior day’s range, suggesting a limited potential for immediate directional opportunity.

The S&P 500 pivot for today is $4,003.25. 

Key levels to the upside include $4,026.75, $4,038.75, and $4,049.75.

Key levels to the downside include $3,980.75, $3,955.00, and $3,937.00.

Disclaimer: Click here to load the updated key levels via the web-based TradingView platform. New links are produced daily. Quoted levels likely hold, barring an exogenous development.

Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Definitions

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

Volume Areas: Markets will build on areas of high-volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for some time, this will be identified by a low-volume area (LVNodes). The LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test.

If participants auction and find acceptance in an area of a prior LVNode, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to the nearest HVNodes for more favorable entry or exit.

POCs: Areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent in a prior day session. Participants will respond to future value tests as they offer favorable entry and exit.

Definitions

Volume Areas: Markets will build on areas of high-volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for some time, this will be identified by a low-volume area (LVNodes). The LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test.

If participants auction and find acceptance in an area of a prior LVNode, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to the nearest HVNodes for more favorable entry or exit.

About

The author, Renato Leonard Capelj, spends the bulk of his time at Physik Invest, an entity through which he invests and publishes free daily analyses to thousands of subscribers. The analyses offer him and his subscribers a way to stay on the right side of the market. 

Separately, Capelj is an accredited journalist with past works including interviews with investor Kevin O’Leary, ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Lithuania’s Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė, former Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, and persons at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Connect

Direct queries to renato@physikinvest.com. Find Physik Invest on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Find Capelj on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Only follow the verified profiles.

Calendar

You may view this letter’s content calendar at this link.

Disclaimer

Do not construe this newsletter as advice. All content is for informational purposes. Capelj and Physik Invest manage their own capital and will not solicit others for it.

Categories
Methodology

Successful Traders’ Tips To Beat The Markets

Separate from his work at Physik Invest, founder Renato Leonard Capelj is an accredited journalist interviewing prestigious global leaders in business, government, and finance.

In his desire to learn and apply the methods of those others who are far more experienced, Capelj has a long list of interviews you may find helpful in strengthening your understanding of markets.

March 10, 2023: Portfolio Manager Prefers Option, Bond Overlays To Hedge Big Uncertainty Facing Markets

Capelj spoke with Simplify Asset Management’s Michael Green about cutting investors’ portfolio volatility while amplifying profit potential.

In response to uncertainty, Green says investors can park cash in short-term near-risk-free bonds yielding 5% or more, as well as allocate some capital to volatility “to introduce a degree of convexity,” risking only the premium paid. Alternatively, investors can take a more optimistic long view and position in innovations like artificial intelligence or next-generation energy production.

Michael Green of Simplify Asset Management

January 8, 2023: Two Major Risks Investors Should Watch Out For In 2023

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial about his market perspectives.

Naive measures like the VVIX, which is the volatility of the VIX or the volatility of the S&P 500’s volatility, are printing at levels last seen in 2017, Sidial explains, noting this would suggest “we can get cheap exposure to convexity while a lot of people are worried.”

“Even if inflation continues, the rate at which it rises won’t be the same. Due to this, CTA exposures likely will not perform as well as they did in 2022, and that’s why you may see more opportunities in the volatility space.”

Kris Sidial of The Ambrus Group

June 28, 2022: Former Bridgewater Associate Andy Constan Talks Recession Odds, Capturing A Macro Edge

Capelj spoke with Damped Spring Advisors’ Andy Constan about what investors should focus on and how he creates trades that lose him less money.

Constan’s trades are constructed around two- to four-month time horizons and are structured long and short using defined-risk options trades like debit or credit spreads, depending on whether volatility is cheap or expensive.

“I want deltas and leverage. My macro indicators give me an edge on price and in the worst case, the loss is limited to 10%, if everything has to go against me all at once. I can be 100% invested and only risk 10%.”

Andy Constan of Damped Spring Advisors

May 16, 2022: 42 Macro’s Darius Dale On His Wall Street Story, The Markets: ‘This Is Not The Financial Crisis’

Capelj spoke with 42 Macro’s Darius Dale about his Wall Street story and perspectives on life and markets.

“We’re tracking at an above-potential level of output in terms of the growth rate of output. We’re also slowing and the pace of that deceleration is likely to pick up steam in the coming quarters.”

By 2023, that process is likely to “catalyze pressure on asset markets through the lens of corporate earnings and valuations you assign to a lower level of growth.”

Darius Dale of 42 Macro

July 22, 2021: ShadowTrader’s Peter Reznicek On His Early Days, Tips For Success And Evolution

Capelj spoke with ShadowTrader’s Peter Reznicek about his start, perspectives, success tips, and visions for the future.

Reznicek recalled two turning points in his trading career.

The first was learning from expert floor traders involved with the thinkorswim team.

“That was really the genesis of where I started to learn the broken-wing butterfly, ratio spread and things like that,” he shared.

Floor traders, according to Reznicek, had low capital requirements. As a result, they could put on strategies like the 1×2 ratio — a debit spread with an extra short option — for a low cost.

(See parts 1, 2, and 3 of ShadowTrader’s how-to series on ratio spreads.)

“On the floor, it is either go big or go home,” he chuckled, remarking that ratio spreads were the way of the casino. “You either get rich or they take your house. So, why would you put on any other spread?”

The next big turning point was Jim Dalton, who’s been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and senior executive vice president of the CBOE during its formative years.

“I’m still in touch with him on a regular basis and I consider him a friend,” Reznicek said in a discussion on Dalton’s works like Mind Over Markets and Markets in Profile, as well as his use of WindoTrader Market Profile software. “I went to Chicago twice to see him teach live … and I came home from those seminars with five, six, 10 pages of notes. The nuances of profile continue to mold me.”

Peter Reznicek of ShadowTrader

July 26, 2021: Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan Unpacks Implications Of Fed Taper, Shift To Fiscal Policy And More

Capelj spoke with Kai Volatility Advisors’ Cem Karsan about the implications of record valuations and the growth of derivatives markets on policy, the economy, and financial markets.

“It’s not a coincidence that the mid-February to mid-March 2020 downturn literally started the day after February expiration and ended the day of March quarterly expiration. These derivatives are incredibly embedded in how the tail reacts and there’s not enough liquidity, given the leverage, if the Fed were to taper.”

Cem Karsan of Kai Volatility Advisors

July 13, 2021: Ambrus Group CIO On Taking Advantage Of Volatility Dislocations

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial to understand how to capitalize on volatility dislocations.

Unlike standard tail-risk funds which systematically buy equity puts, Ambrus’ approach is bespoke, cutting down on negative dynamics like decay with respect to time.

Given dislocations across single stock skew, term structure, and volatility risk premium, Ambrus will position itself in options with less time to maturity, buying protection up to six weeks out.

“The market will underestimate the distribution,” Sidial said in a conversation on Ambrus’ internal models that spot positional imbalances to determine who is off-sides and in what single asset. “We’re buying things that have happened before and we’re looking for it to carry a heavier beta when the sell-off happens.”

So, by analyzing flow, as well as using internal models to assess the probabilities of deleveraging in a risk-off event, Ambrus is able to venture into individual stocks where there may be excess fragility; “I know if stock XYZ goes down five percent, it’s going to go down 10% because this fund needs to deleverage.”

To aid the cost to carry, Ambrus utilizes defined-risk, short-volatility, absolute return strategies.

“I’m basically giving you a free put on the market – with a ton of convexity – with something that offers a payout that’s just more than a regular put,” Sidial summarized. “If the market doesn’t do anything, and we do an amazing job, we’re flat and you made money on all your long-only equity exposure.”

“You had a free hedge the entire time.”

Kris Sidial of The Ambrus Group

February 1, 2021: Volatility Arbitrage Trader Talks GameStop, Market Microstructure, Regulation

Capelj spoke with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial about the meme stock debacle of 2021.

“You have distressed debt hedge funds that focus on shorting these types of companies. Melvin Capital is the one that is singled out due to the media, but they aren’t the only ones.”

Market participants added to the crash-up dynamics. Retail investors aggressively bought stock and short-term call options, while institutional investors further took advantage of the momentum and dislocations.

“You have this dynamic in the derivatives market where there is a gamma squeeze when people are buying way far out-of-the-money calls, and dealers reflexively have to hedge off their risk,” Sidial said.

“It causes a cascading reaction, moving the stock price up because dealers are short calls and they have to buy stock when the delta moves a specific way.”

The participation in the stock on the institutional side has not received much attention, he said. 

“We’ve noticed that some of the flow is more institutional,” he said in reference to activity on the level two and three order books, which are electronic lists of buy and sell orders for a particular security.

“You have certain prop guys and other hedge funds that understand what’s going on, and they’re trying to take advantage of it, as well.”

This institutional activity disrupted traditional correlations and caused shares of distressed debt assets like GameStop, BlackBerry Ltd, and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc to trade in-line with each other.

“This was not some WallStreetBet user, … if you look at how some of these things were moving premarket, you would see GME drop like 2%, BB’s best bid would drop and AMC’s best bid would drop. That’s an algo.”

The takeaway: although the WallStreetBets crowd is getting most of the blame, institutions are also at fault for the volatility.

Kris Sidial of The Ambrus Group
Categories
Commentary

Daily Brief For February 16, 2023

Physik Invest’s Daily Brief is read by thousands of subscribers. You, too, can join this community to learn about the fundamental and technical drivers of markets.

Subscribe
Graphic updated 6:15 AM ET. Sentiment Neutral if expected /ES open is inside of the prior day’s range. /ES levels are derived from the profile graphic at the bottom of this letter. Click here for the latest levels. SqueezeMetrics Dark Pool Index (DIX) and Gamma (GEX) with the latter calculated 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. Click to learn the implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness. Breadth reflects a reading of the prior day’s NYSE Advance/Decline indicator. The CBOE VIX Volatility Index (INDEX: VVIX) reflects the attractiveness of owning volatility. UMBS price via MND. Click here for the calendar.

Positioning

In the news is quite a bit of noise surrounding ultra-short-dated options with little time to expiry. To quote Nomura Holdings Inc’s (NYSE: NMR) Charlie McElligott, the trading of these options is adding noise; “US equities are such an untradable mess right now.” 

However, your letter writer, who mainly trades complex spreads on the cash-settled indexes, thinks there has never been a better time to trade. Ultra-short-dated options enable you to express your opinion in more efficient ways. Additionally, the trade of these options, in the aggregate, can influence market movements, and this is added opportunity if you understand it.

Graphic: Retrieved from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) via Bloomberg.

Darrin Johnson, a volatility trader, recently discussed sharp ways to use these options.

Heading into some big events this week, John noted S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) implied volatility (IVOL) was trading at ~25% on a five-day straddle. Traders could buy this structure while, in the interim, selling other structures like it “against CPI, Retail Sales, and PPI” where IVOL was higher. This would enable you to lower the cost of having positive exposure to movement or positive gamma via the five-day straddle, though this is operating on the premise “that Friday’s volatility will hold mostly steady, while the other 3 deflate.”

Moreover, the ultra-short-dated options are palatable if we will, and other traders, potentially much bigger in size, are observant of this too. The growing interest in these products (e.g., in the second half of last year, ultra-short-dated options made up more than 40% of the S&P 500’s trading volume) is growing in impact on underlying products like the SPX.

In fact, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (NYSE: JPM) Peng Cheng found these options have an impact that “can vary from a drag of as much as 0.6% to a boost of up to 1.1%.” 

To explain, though as of late options counterparties may be playing a smaller role as “customers have taken equal and opposite sides” of positions, per SqueezeMetrics, we can naively look at there being a pool of liquidity to absorb the demand for these ultra-short-dated options which are very sensitive to time, price, and volatility. These increased sensitivities are hedged in a way that impacts this available pool of liquidity. If the trade or impact is large enough, it is transmitted onto underlying market prices. 

For instance, consider so-called meme mania and stocks like GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) that rocketed as traders’ interest in short-dated options demands rose. To hedge increased demand in call options, for instance, counterparties must buy the underlying stock. This demand boosts the stock.

Likewise, if traders’ consensus is that markets won’t move much until some large macroeconomic events, then their bets against market movement (i.e., sell ultra-short-dated options) will result in counterparties having more exposure to bets on market movement (i.e., positive gamma) which they will hedge in a way that reduces market movement (i.e., buy weakness or sell strength in the underlying stock). So, if traders bet against the movement, resulting in more counterparty positive gamma, then market movement is reduced due to the reaction to this positioning.

On the other hand, if traders’ consensus is that markets may move a lot, particularly to the downside, their bets on market movement (e.g., buy ultra-short-dated put) will result in counterparties having more exposure to bets against market movement (i.e., negative gamma). This demand for protection will bid options prices, particularly at the front-end of the IVOL term structure as counterparties price this demand in, and the counterparty will sell underlying to hedge. If fears are assuaged and traders no longer demand these bets on market movements, the counterparty can unwind their hedge which, in the put buying example provided, may provide a market boost, such as that which we saw immediately following the release of consumer price updates (CPI) this week; to quote Bloomberg, “[w]hen the worst didn’t happen, these hedges were unwound, helping propel a recovery in futures. It’s partly why the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, dropped 7% in a seemingly outsize reaction in a market when the S&P 500 ended the session basically flat.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

Additionally, the re-hedging-inspired recovery was short-lived as well; the impact of ultra-short-dated options, as this letter has stated before, is short-dated. It, too, does much less to influence measures like the Cboe Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX), a floating measure of ~30 day-to-expiry SPX options trading at a fixed-strike IVOL, though it does have an impact. Thus, the dis-interest to hedge stocks traders do not own (or hedge further stocks that may be hedged) out in time, does less to boost the VIX.

Anyways, in January, your letter writer interviewed The Ambrus Group’s co-CIO Kris Sidial about major risks to markets in 2023, as well as reasons why volatility could outperform in 2023 and beyond. Some of the information in that Benzinga interview made it into this newsletter in the days following its release. 

Basically, the SPX and VIX complexes are growing and, on the other side, are a small concentrated group of market makers taking on far more exposure to risk. 

Graphic: Retrieved from Ambrus’ publicly available research.

During moments of stress, as we’ve seen in the past with GME for example, options counterparties may be unable to keep up with the demands of investors, so you get a reflexive dynamic that helps push the stock higher. “That same dynamic can happen on the way down”; counterparties will mark up options prices during intense selling. As the options prices rise, options deltas (i.e., their exposure to direction) rise and this prompts so-called bearish vanna counterparty hedging flows in the underlying.

“Imagine a scenario where [some disaster happens] and everybody starts buying 0 DTE puts. That’s going to reflexively drive the S&P lower,” Sidial said. “Take, for example, the JPMorgan collar position that clearly has an effect on the market, and people are starting to understand that effect. That’s just one fund. Imagine the whole derivative ecosystem” leaning one way.

Graphic: Retrieved from Ambrus’ publicly available research.

Well, that’s what JPM’s Marko Kolanovic just said is a major risk and could exacerbate market volatility. “While history doesn’t repeat, it often rhymes,” he explained, noting that the trade of ultra-short-dated options portends a Volmageddon 2.0. If you recall, in 2018, Volmageddon 1.0 turned successful long-running short-volatility trades on their head when traders who were betting against big movements in the market saw their profits erode in days.

Further, to conclude this section since your letter writer is running short on time, as Sidial said, “if you’re trading volatility, let there be an underlying catalyst for doing so.” From a “risk-to-reward perspective, … it’s a better bet to be on the long volatility side,” given “that there are so many things that … keep popping up” from a macro perspective. Check out our letters from the past weeks where we talked about protecting profits (e.g., sell call vertical to finance and buy a put vertical with a lot of time to expiry).

For Ambrus’ publicly available research, click here. Also, follow Sidial on Twitter, here. Consider reading your letter writer’s past two conversations with Sidial, as well. Here is an article on 2021 and the meme stock debacle. Here is another article talking more about Ambrus’ processes.

Technical

As of 6:15 AM ET, Thursday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), in the S&P 500, is likely to open in the lower part of a balanced overnight inventory, inside of the prior day’s range, suggesting a limited potential for immediate directional opportunity.

The S&P 500 pivot for today is $4,153.25. 

Key levels to the upside include $4,168.75, $4,189.00, and $4,206.25.

Key levels to the downside include $4,136.25, $4,122.75, and $4,104.25.

Disclaimer: Click here to load the updated key levels via the web-based TradingView platform. New links are produced daily. Quoted levels likely hold barring an exogenous development.

Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Definitions

Volume Areas: Markets will build on areas of high-volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for a period of time, this will be identified by a low-volume area (LVNodes). The LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test.

If participants auction and find acceptance in an area of a prior LVNode, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to the nearest HVNodes for more favorable entry or exit.

POCs: Areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent in a prior day session. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit.

About

The author, Renato Leonard Capelj, works in finance and journalism.

Capelj spends the bulk of his time at Physik Invest, an entity through which he invests and publishes free daily analyses to thousands of subscribers. The analyses offer him and his subscribers a way to stay on the right side of the market. Separately, Capelj is an options analyst at SpotGamma and an accredited journalist.

Capelj’s past works include conversations with investor Kevin O’Leary, ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Lithuania’s Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė, former Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, and persons at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Connect

Direct queries to renato@physikinvest.com or find Physik Invest on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Calendar

You may view this letter’s content calendar at this link.

Disclaimer

Do not construe this newsletter as advice. All content is for informational purposes.

Categories
Commentary

Daily Brief For January 9, 2023

Physik Invest’s Daily Brief is read by thousands of subscribers. You, too, can join this community to learn about the fundamental and technical drivers of markets.

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Graphic updated 7:50 AM ET. Sentiment Risk-On if expected /ES open is above the prior day’s range. /ES levels are derived from the profile graphic at the bottom of this letter. Levels may have changed since initially quoted; click here for the latest levels. SqueezeMetrics Dark Pool Index (DIX) and Gamma (GEX) with the latter calculated 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. Click to learn the implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness. Breadth reflects a reading of the prior day’s NYSE Advance/Decline indicator. The CBOE VIX Volatility Index (INDEX: VVIX) measure reflects the attractiveness of owning volatility. Green means that owning volatility is attractive.

Administrative

In last week’s letters, we discussed, mainly, fundamental and positioning contexts. Today’s letter will add to the discussion on the positioning.

Positioning

Last week, for an article published on Benzinga.com over the weekend, your letter writer spoke with The Ambrus Group’s co-chief investment officer Kris Sidial. Shared were the things to look out for in 2023 and tips for newer traders. The article can be viewed here, at this link.

In short, there are four big takeaways. 

First, though options prices could stay under pressure, naive measures like the VVIX, which is the volatility of the VIX, or the volatility of the S&P 500’s volatility, are printing at levels last seen in 2017. This means “we can get cheap exposure to convexity while a lot of people are worried.”

Graphic: Retrieved from TradingView. Cboe Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX) is on the top. The volatility of the VIX itself (INDEX: VVIX) is at the bottom.

Second, on the other side of the growing S&P 500 and VIX complexes is a small concentrated group of market makers taking on far more exposure to risk. 

Graphic: Retrieved from Ambrus’ publicly available research.

During moments of stress, these market makers may be “unable to keep up with the demands of frenetic investors,” Sidial said, pointing to GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) where “there was this reflexive dynamic” that helped push the stock higher in 2021.

“That same dynamic can happen on the way down”; market makers will mark up options prices during intense selling. As the options prices rise, options deltas (i.e., their exposure to direction) rise and this prompts so-called bearish vanna hedging flows.

Graphic: Retrieved from Ambrus’ publicly available research.

“Imagine a scenario where [some disaster happens] and everybody starts buying 0 DTE puts. That’s going to reflexively drive the S&P lower,” Sidial said. “Take, for example, the JPMorgan collar position that clearly has an effect on the market, and people are starting to understand that effect. That’s just one fund. Imagine the whole derivative ecosystem” leaning one way.

Graphic: Retrieved from Ambrus’ publicly available research.

The third is in reference to liquidity. As private market investors’ “deals are getting marked down, [t]o source liquidity, they may have to sell some of their holdings in the public equity markets.” Benn Eifert, the CIO at QVR Advisors, recently put forth that “late-stage technology is a great example where public comps are down 80-90% but privates marked down 20% or not at all. It is possible to imagine large institutions engaging in forced selling of liquid public equities to meet capital calls in private fund investments.”

And, lastly, investors often go “back and forth” and do not stick to a strict process. In trying to pick what will work at one specific time, investors can “miss what is going to work in the future.” Consequently, Sidial says investors should have an outlook and process to express that outlook. “It’s not as easy as saying: ‘Buy volatility because it’s cheap or sell it because it is expensive.’” 

As a validation, in the Benzinga article, your letter writer wrote about 2017 when volatility was at some of its lowest levels. Back then, the correct trade was to sell volatility, in some cases, due to volatility’s bimodality; if you sold volatility back then, you made money due to its clustering.

Graphic: Retrieved from TradingView. Cboe Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX) is on the top. Cboe Realized Volatility (INDEX: RVOL) is at the bottom.

So, “if you’re trading volatility, let there be an underlying catalyst for doing so.” That said, from a “risk-to-reward perspective, … it’s a better bet to be on the long volatility side,” given “that there are so many things that … keep popping up” from a macro perspective.

For Ambrus’ publicly available research, click here. Also, follow Sidial on Twitter, here. Consider reading your letter writer’s past two conversations with Sidial, as well. Here is an article on 2021 and the meme stock debacle. Here is another article talking more about Ambrus’ processes.

Technical

As of 7:50 AM ET, Monday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), in the S&P 500, is likely to open in the upper part of a positively skewed overnight inventory, outside of prior-range and -value, suggesting a potential for immediate directional opportunity.

Our S&P 500 pivot for today is $3,926.50. 

Key levels to the upside include $3,943.25, $3,960.25, and $3,979.75.

Key levels to the downside include $3,908.25, $3,891.00, and $3,874.25.

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

As a disclaimer, note the S&P 500 could trade beyond the levels quoted in the letter. Therefore, you should load the key levels on your browser.

Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Definitions

Volume Areas: Markets will build on areas of high-volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for long periods of time, it will be identified by low-volume areas (LVNodes). LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test.

If participants auction and find acceptance in an area of a prior LVNode, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to HVNodes for favorable entry or exit.

Vanna: The rate at which the Delta of an option changes with respect to implied volatility.

POCs: Denote areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent in a prior day session. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit.

MCPOCs: Denote areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent over numerous sessions. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit.

About

In short, an economics graduate working in finance and journalism.

Capelj spends most of his time as the founder of Physik Invest through which he invests and publishes daily analyses to subscribers, some of whom represent well-known institutions.

Separately, Capelj is an equity options analyst at SpotGamma and an accredited journalist interviewing global leaders in business, government, and finance.

Past works include conversations with investor Kevin O’Leary, ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Lithuania’s Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė, former Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, and persons at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Contact

Direct queries to renato@physikinvest.com or Renato Capelj#8625 on Discord.

Calendar

You may view this letter’s content calendar at this link.

Disclaimer

Do not construe this newsletter as advice. All content is for informational purposes.

Categories
Commentary

Daily Brief For January 6, 2023

Physik Invest’s Daily Brief is read by thousands of subscribers. You, too, can join this community to learn about the fundamental and technical drivers of markets.

Subscribe
Graphic updated 8:30 AM ET. Sentiment Neutral if expected /ES open is inside of the prior day’s range. /ES levels are derived from the profile graphic at the bottom of this letter. Levels may have changed since initially quoted; click here for the latest levels. SqueezeMetrics Dark Pool Index (DIX) and Gamma (GEX) with the latter calculated 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. Click to learn the implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness. 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.

Administrative

Hey team, hope you had a great week! Please consider reading our letters for January 3 and 4. In those letters, we discussed the potential drivers of long-lasting inflation that may not be good for traditional portfolio constructions like 60/40. 

In today’s letter, we talk about some positioning contexts, leaning into this letter writer’s interview with The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial for a Benzinga article to be published either this weekend or next week.

This letter will serve as a primer. Next week, we will go into further depth. Have a great weekend!

Positioning

In a conversation with your letter writer prior to 2022, and on YouTube, Sidial and some other Ambrus members said markets were increasingly fragile and traditional portfolio constructions such as 60/40 (i.e., 60% of holdings held in stocks and 40% of the holdings held in bonds) would not perform as well as history would imply. 

Instead, options (colloquially referred to as volatility) may “potentially outperform the market” and limit losses.

Pursuant to Ambrus’ warnings, 60/40 logged one of its worst stretches as inflation and interest rates rose. On the other hand, Ambrus, which is a volatility arbitrage fund, managed to end the year unscathed.

“That does not mean all volatility funds ended the same way,” Sidial said in a nod to his team’s unique approach to leveraging options’ multi-dimensionality in reducing the cost of protection they own for investors.

Here’s more on Ambrus’ approach from a previous conversation your letter writer had with Sidial for a Benzinga article.

Graphic: Text retrieved from Benzinga.com.

This approach is limiting, though, Sidial notes. Increasing assets under management can eat into the firm’s own alpha.

Anyways, Sidial went on to discuss the performance of volatility in 2022 and its potential to outperform in 2023 and beyond. 

“It caught everybody by surprise that long volatility underperformed,” he said in reference to a high spot-vol beta (i.e., volatility’s sensitivity to underlying prices) in 2021 suggesting volatility was likely to come to life in 2022, and “there would be more follow-through.”

However, there was no follow-through, and Sidial believes this was the result of allocations to commodity trading advisors or CTAs, and the “consensus trade,” or the sales of volatility on expectations markets would grind and chop lower for the entirety of 2022. 

As this letter has put forth in the past, traders proactively hedged heading into 2022. The unwind or supply of some of these hedges, coupled with investors’ expectation markets would continue to grind far lower, prompted more volatility sales (a pressure on options prices), masked by the persistently high, albeit tame Cboe Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX) and metrics like the put-to-call ratio appearing inflated, potentially the result of stock loan desks replacing short stock with in-the-money puts given high-interest rates.

Though the price of volatility could move toward the extremes (i.e., clustering/mean-reverting), trends may be near exhaustion.

Naive measures like the VVIX, which is the volatility of the VIX (i.e., the volatility of the S&P 500 volatility), are printing at levels last seen in 2017. This suggests “we can get cheap exposure to convexity while a lot of people are worried.”

Therefore, “even if inflation continues, the rate at which inflation rises won’t be the same. Due to this, CTA exposures likely will not perform as well as they did in 2022, and that’s why you may see more opportunities in the volatility space.”

Moving on, though not catalysts or reasons for Ambrus to initiate trades per se, risks Sidial said could result in volatility performing well include the concentration of market makers and private markets’ sourcing of liquidity (or raising cash) through sales of public equity markets.

“During moments of market stress, the market makers are unable to keep up with the demands of frenetic investors. If you think of GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME), which we talked about before, there was this reflexive dynamic that happened when investors rushed into the stock one way.”

“That same dynamic can happen on the way down”; market makers mark up volatility during stress which can pressure markets. As the price of volatility rises, option deltas rise and this prompts bearish vanna hedging flows, as they are called. 

Your letter writer will pause the commentary at this point while he further unpacks his discussion with Sidial, but at least you got a sneak peek ahead of next week’s article release. Take care!

Technical

As of 8:30 AM ET, Friday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), in the S&P 500, is likely to open in the middle part of a balanced overnight inventory, inside of prior-range and -value, suggesting a limited potential for immediate directional opportunity.

Our S&P 500 pivot for today is $3,834.25. 

Key levels to the upside include $3,845.25, $3,857.00, and $3,867.75. 

Key levels to the downside include $3,813.25, $3,793.25, and $3,776.75.

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

Note that early morning news may result in quoted levels not performing well. Please make sure to use the link to view the real-time chart for more levels that may be in play.

Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Definitions

Volume Areas: Markets will build on areas of high-volume (HVNodes). Should the market trend for long periods of time, it will be identified by low-volume areas (LVNodes). LVNodes denote directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test.

If participants auction and find acceptance in an area of a prior LVNode, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to HVNodes for favorable entry or exit.

MCPOCs: Denote areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent over numerous sessions. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit.

About

In short, an economics graduate working in finance and journalism.

Capelj spends most of his time as the founder of Physik Invest through which he invests and publishes daily analyses to subscribers, some of whom represent well-known institutions.

Separately, Capelj is an equity options analyst at SpotGamma and an accredited journalist interviewing global leaders in business, government, and finance.

Past works include conversations with investor Kevin O’Leary, ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Lithuania’s Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė, former Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, and persons at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Contact

Direct queries to renato@physikinvest.com or Renato Capelj#8625 on Discord.

Calendar

You may view this letter’s content calendar at this link.

Disclaimer

Do not construe this newsletter as advice. All content is for informational purposes.

Categories
Commentary

Weekly Brief For August 29, 2021

Editor’s Note: If this commentary was valuable to you, consider forwarding it to your peers. Alternatively, share on social media and tag either @renatolcapelj or @physikinvest.

Wishing you good health and success!

Market Commentary

Equity index, bond, and commodity futures traded higher Friday. The VIX, US10Y, and dollar were sideways to lower.

  • What happened and things to expect.
  • Ahead is important employment data.
  • Trade Idea: Complex spread in GME.
  • Expecting less volatility to the upside.

What Happened: U.S. stock index futures auctioned sideways to higher last week alongside impactful events like the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. 

Ahead this coming week is important data on employment, consumer confidence, vehicle sales, manufacturing, and more. See here for updated calendar data.

Graphic updated 7:30 AM ET Sunday. Sentiment Neutral if expected /ES open is inside of the prior day’s range. 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. SHIFT data used for S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) options activity approximation. 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: During the prior week’s trade, on mostly strong intraday breadth and market liquidity metrics, the best case outcome occurred, evidenced by new all-time highs in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. This is significant because it suggests continued bullishness after a v-pattern recovery.

V-Pattern: A pattern that forms after a market establishes a high, retests some support, and then breaks above said high. In most cases, this pattern portends continuation.
Graphic: Ally Financial Inc-owned (NYSE: ALLY) Ally Invest chart shows S&P 500 defending advance.

Further, the aforementioned trade is happening in the context of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. This event’s implications on price are supportive. 

To elaborate, given a slow down in the pace of the post-pandemic recovery, the Federal Reserve (i.e., Fed) decided not to manipulate policy to offset temporary factors. The reason being, policy effects are often delayed; doing something now could curb the recovery. 

Graphic: Guggenheim Investments unpacks the impact of weaker data on monetary policy.

At the same time, with measures like the Marshallian K – the difference between year-over-year growth in M2 money supply and GDP – turning negative, there are concerns around liquidity and its impact on the equity market.

Graphic: According to Bloomberg, “While stocks kept rising during frequent negative Marshallian K readings in the 1990s, the pattern since the 2008 global financial crisis — a period when the central bank was in what Ramsey calls a “perpetual crisis mode” — begs for caution.”

According to Moody’s, however, “it will take a while before liquidity concerns are justified even with the Fed likely to begin tapering its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases either late this year or early next.”

Why? Well, for starters, if liquidity was an issue, financial institutions wouldn’t be parking that much money at the Fed. Low volatility in the bond and stock market also implies ample liquidity, Moody’s adds.

So, by not rapidly reducing its asset purchases, the Fed isn’t worried about the economy overheating due to non-temporary inflation; instead, Chairman Jerome Powell maintains that “[o]verall global deflationary trends remain in force.”

Eventually, though, after progress is made on full employment, the Fed will taper, likely keeping inflation expectations in line.

To note, last week’s straight-up trade came alongside the so-called sale of any volatility spike which can – through the process of hedging – support the market. Here’s just one example that received a lot of attention.

“In theory, if a stock was dropping and the retail masses all started to sell puts, they could push market makers to start buying large blocks of shares,” SpotGamma, an important voice in the space, says. “This could stabilize a dropping stock.”

Graphic: SqueezeMetrics details the implications of customer activity in the options market, on the underlying’s order book. For instance, in selling a put, customers add liquidity and stabilize the market. How? The counterparty long the put will buy (sell) the underlying to neutralize directional risk as price falls (rises).

Moreover, given a divergent volume delta and decline in metrics like DIX and GEX, the odds of significant upside volatility are lower. Still, participants may make use of the following objective frameworks for next week’s trade. Check for updated levels in Monday morning’s commentary.

In the best case, the S&P 500 trades sideways or higher; activity above the $4,495.00 high volume area (HVNode) pivot puts in play the minimal excess all-time high and $4,511.50 Fibonacci extension. Initiative trade beyond the $4,511.50 level could reach as high as the $4,520.25 and $4,556.25 extensions.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $4,495.00 HVNode puts in play the $4,481.75 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the $4,481.75 HVNode could reach as low as the $4,454.25 low volume area (LVNode) and $4,427.00 untested point of control (VPOC).

To note, the $4,454.25 LVNode corresponds with an anchored volume-weighted average price (VWAP), a metric highly regarded by chief investment officers, among other participants, for quality of trade. Additionally, liquidity algorithms are benchmarked and programmed to buy and sell around VWAPs.

Volume Delta: Buying and selling power as calculated by the difference in volume traded at the bid and offer.

DIX: For every buyer is a seller (usually a market maker). Using DIX — which is derived from short sales (i.e., liquidity provision on the market-making side) — we can measure buying pressure.

Gamma: Gamma is the sensitivity of an option to changes in the underlying price. Dealers that take the other side of options trades hedge their exposure to risk by buying and selling the underlying. When dealers are short-gamma, they hedge by buying into strength and selling into weakness. When dealers are long-gamma, they hedge by selling into strength and buying into weakness. The former exacerbates volatility. The latter calms volatility.

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

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

Excess: A proper end to price discovery; the market travels too far while advertising prices. Responsive, other-timeframe (OTF) participants aggressively enter the market, leaving tails or gaps which denote unfair prices.

POCs: POCs are valuable as they denote areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit.
Graphic: 65-minute profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures updated 7:30 AM ET Sunday.

Weekly Trade Idea

Please Note: In no way is the below a trade recommendation. It is a peek into the thought process here at Physik Invest.

Options offer an efficient way to gain directional exposure. 

If an option buyer was short (long) stock, he or she could buy a call (put) to hedge upside (downside) exposure. Additionally, one can spread, or buy (+) and sell (-) options together, strategically.

Commonly discussed spreads include credit, debit, ratio, back, and calendar.

Credit: Sell -1 option closer to the money. Buy +1 option farther out of the money.

Debit: Buy +1 option closer to the money. Sell -1 option farther out of the money.

Ratio: Buy +1 option closer to the money. Sell -2 options farther out of the money. 

Back: Sell -1 option closer to the money. Buy +2 options farther out of the money.

Calendar: Sell -1 option. Buy +1 option farther out in time, at the same strike.

Typically, if bullish (bearish), sell at-the-money put (call) credit spread and/or buy a call (put) debit/ratio spread structured around target price. Alternatively, if the expected directional move is great (small), opt for a back spread (calendar spread). Also, if credit spread, capture 50-75% of the premium collected. If debit spread, capture 2-300% of the premium paid.

Be cognizant of risk exposure to direction (delta), time (theta), and volatility (vega). 

Negative (positive) delta = synthetic short (long). 

Negative (positive) theta = time decay hurts (helps).

Negative (positive) vega = volatility hurts (helps).

Trade Idea: SELL -1 1/2 BACKRATIO GME 100 17 SEP 21 530/680 CALL @1.20 LMT

Though I began filling this trade at limits for credit as high as 2.00, the spread collapsed markedly, Friday. Still, there’s an opportunity for unique structures such as the 530C+1, 680C-2 that pay you to be long the stock.

All else equal (i.e., discounting factors such as an increase in volatility), should the spread trade fully in-the-money – meaning the stock travels to the $680 short strike – the 530 strike will be 150 points in-the-money while the at-the-money strikes, combined (based on current at-the-money pricing), will trade around $53.00.

That suggests the spread should price for a credit north of $97.00 to close. Nice!

Thesis: I’m bullish on GameStop and I think the stock may climb over the next week few weeks. 

I will structure a spread above the current stock price, expiring in 18 days. I will buy the 530 call option once (+1) and sell the 680 call option twice (-2) for a $1.20 credit or better. Should the stock not move to my target, I keep the $120.00 credit. Should it move to $680, I could make $15,000.00 at expiry. Should the stock move past $830 break even or so, I may incur unlimited losses. My goal with this spread is to capture the initial credit and close for additional credit if the stock moves higher. 

If necessary, I will hedge the position by either (A) buying stock, (B) widening strikes, (C) buying a far out-of-the-money call option to cap upside in case of an unpredictable move higher, or (D) roll strikes up in price and out in time.

Below is a log chart of GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) and the ratio spread profit zone.

News And Analysis

Treasury bears redeemed as Citi, Michael Burry see higher yields.

Visa jumps into the NFT craze, buying a CryptoPunk for $150,000.

The top 7 reasons why COVID-19 could lead to inflationary regime.

Storm Ida roars toward Louisiana with winds of 150 miles per hour.

Chinese health officials reject U.S. allegations on COVID-19 probe.

What People Are Saying

Let’s Hang Out

Los Angeles, CA September 10-12

Salt Lake City, UT September 28-30

About

After years of self-education, strategy development, 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. 

Additionally, Capelj is a finance and technology reporter. Some of his biggest works include interviews with leaders such as John Chambers, founder and CEO, JC2 Ventures, Kevin O’Leary, businessman and Shark Tank host, Catherine Wood, CEO and CIO, ARK Invest, among others.

Disclaimer

At this time, Physik Invest does not manage outside capital and is not licensed. 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.

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Categories
Commentary

Weekly Brief For May 31, 2021

Market Commentary

Key Takeaways: Index futures in balance.

  • Best to assume the taper tantrum happened.
  • Ahead: Fed speak and data on employment.
  • Indices traded sideways-to-higher last week.

What Happened: Coming into the large May monthly options expiration (OPEX) and extended holiday weekend, U.S. stock index futures pinned, trading sideways-to-higher.

Options: If an option buyer was short (long) stock, he or she would buy a call (put) to hedge upside (downside) exposure. Option buyers can also use options as an efficient way to gain directional exposure.

Options Expiration (OPEX): Option expiries mark an end to pinning (i.e, the theory that market makers and institutions short options move stocks to the point where the greatest dollar value of contracts will expire worthless) and the reduction dealer gamma exposure. 

Gamma is the sensitivity of an option to changes in the underlying price. Dealers that take the other side of options trades hedge their exposure to risk by buying and selling the underlying. When dealers are short-gamma, they hedge by buying into strength and selling into weakness. When dealers are long-gamma, they hedge by selling into strength and buying into weakness. The former exacerbates volatility. The latter calms volatility.

Furthermore, looking back, the movement in price was both volatile and mechanical.

After a short covering-like rally toward $4,200.00, the S&P 500 was responsively bought and sold at key visual references, suggesting a dominance by short-term participants.

Responsive Buying (Selling): Buying (selling) in response to prices below (above) areas of recent price acceptance.

The technically-driven trade denotes a lack of interest by institutional participants, at record highs; supply chain uncertainties and rising inflation, fiscal and monetary tightening, COVID-19 concerns, political risks, and the like, are some of the emerging concerns larger participants are looking to price in.

Of all the above risks, inflation remains the hottest topic.

Generally speaking, inflation and rates move inversely to each other. Low rates stimulate demand for loans (i.e., borrowing money is more attractive). With the rapid recovery, though, market participants fear that rates will rise to protect the economy from overheating.

Higher rates have the potential to reduce the present value of future earnings, making stocks, especially those that are high growth, less attractive. 

To note, however, rates remain range-bound; rates on the 10 Year T-Note sit below their March high and are likely to continue higher, which the market may absorb. 

How may the market absorb a rise in rates? During the so-called Taper Tantrum, in the early 2010s, rates settled in a wide range, and equities rallied big. Adding, some strategists, like Kit Juckes of Societe Generale SA (OTC: SCGLY) suggest it may be best to assume a tantrum has already happened.

“U.S. 10-year yields rose from a low of 1.4% in 2012 to 3% during their tantrum. In this cycle, the rise has been from 0.5% to a high just below 1.8%. That’s comparable in relative terms. The eventual peak in U.S. yields in 2018 was 3.25%. Can’t we accept that the taper tantrum has already happened? The important difference is that in the tantrum cycle, core CPI never got above 2 ½%. A bet on further bond weakness is a bet on inflation proving to be stickier than the Fed can cope with.”

Adding, research by JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), as well as Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), suggests equities may be getting cheap with reflationary themes being the go-to play. This sentiment would help explain the increased interest in S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 call options.

Graphic: Equity valuations at their cheapest, relative to the macro in March 2009 and in the depth of the 1982 recession, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), via The Market Ear.
Graphic: SHIFT search suggests participants were becoming more interested in call strikes at and above current prices in the cash-settled S&P 500 Index (INDEX: SPX) and Nasdaq 100 Index (INDEX: NDX), last week.
Graphic: Physik Invest maps out the purchase of call and put options in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY), for the week prior. Activity in the options market was primarily concentrated in short-dated tenors, in strikes at and above $425.

Outlier risks remain, though; aside from the seasonally weak period, S&P 500 skew – a measure of perceived tail risk and the chances of a black swan event – rose dramatically over the past few weeks. At the same time, sentiment cooled considerably, while individual stock volatility increased the potential for a repeat of the GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) de-risking event.

Graphic: Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) unpacks outlier risks based on the implied volatility of S&P 500 out-of-the-money options, via The Market Ear.

What To Expect: In the coming sessions, participants will want to focus their attention on where the S&P 500 trades in relation to the $4,197.25 high volume area (HVNode).

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

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

That said, participants can trade from the following frameworks.

In the best case, the index trades sideways or higher; activity above $4,197.25 has the potential to reach the $4,227.00 point of control (POC). Initiative trade beyond the POC could reach as high as first the $4,238.00 overnight all-time high (ONH) and then, the $4,294.75 Fibonacci-derived price extension, a typical recovery target. 

POCs: POCs (like HVNodes described above) are valuable as they denote areas where two-sided trade was most prevalent. Participants will respond to future tests of value as they offer favorable entry and exit. 

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

In the worst case, the index trades lower; activity below the $4,177.25 HVNode puts in play the $4,153.25 HVNode, first. Thereafter, if lower, the $4,122.25 HVNode and $4,071.00 POC come into play. 

On a cross through the $4,050.75 low volume area (LVNode), long-biased traders should beware of a rapid liquidation, as low as first the $4,015.00 and $4,001.00 POCs. In such a liquidation, odds favor a test of ~$3,970.00 50.00% retracement, as well as the $3,918.00 61.80% retracement and HVNode.

Graphic: 4-hour profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.
Graphic: Weekly candlestick charts of the S&P 500 (top left), Nasdaq 100 (top right), Russell 2000 (bottom left), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (bottom right). Nasdaq is primed for upside and has the potential to pull the S&P with it. 

News And Analysis

Trade | One of the world’s top ports expects delays on an outbreak. (BBG)

Markets | PBOC raises reserve ratio for foreign exchange holdings. (BBG)

Economy | Recovery solidifies in U.S., Europe, while EM faces risks. (Moody’s)

Markets | China bars banks from selling commodity-linked products. (REU)

Economy | Fed security purchases draw fire in hot U.S. housing market. (S&P)

Energy | Global oil demand is seen eclipsing India, Iran’s uncertainty. (S&P)

Economy | U.S. won’t experience stagflation over next few years. (Moody’s)

Economy | Non-government loans seeing a jump in forbearances. (MND)

Economy | U.S. speculative-grade corporate default rate to fall to 4%. (S&P)

Markets | Inflation, higher oil, stronger yuan point in same direction. (BBG)

Economy | U.S. retailers face headwinds from slowing sales, inflation. (S&P)

Markets | Everyone with bonds to liquidate had ample time to do so. (BBG)

What People Are Saying

Innovation And Emerging Trends

Markets | How recent growth in leveraged finance affects investors. (BZ)

Politics | Tech growth overshadowed by regulatory risks, challenges. (S&P)

Markets | Chamath: SPACs need more oversight and regulation. (BBG)

Politics | China moves to a three-child policy to boost its birthrate. (BBG)

Markets | Shakeout stirs debate over ether’s long-term potential. (BBG)

FinTech | Which banks are positioned for low rates, digital adoption. (S&P)

About

Renato founded Physik Invest after going through years of self-education, strategy development, and trial-and-error. His work reporting in the finance and technology space, interviewing leaders such as John Chambers, founder, and CEO, JC2 Ventures, Kevin O’Leary, businessman and Shark Tank host, Catherine Wood, CEO and CIO, ARK Invest, among others, afforded him the perspective and know-how very few come by.

Having worked in engineering and majored in economics, Renato is very detailed and analytical. His approach to the markets isn’t built on hope or guessing. Instead, he leverages the unique dynamics of time and volatility to efficiently act on opportunity.

Disclaimer

At this time, Physik Invest does not manage outside capital and is not licensed. 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.

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Categories
Commentary

Market Commentary For The Week Ahead: ‘To The Moon’

Key Takeaways:

  • Positive earnings revisions nearing records. 
  • Equity mutual funds attract strong inflows.
  • Multi-asset funds raising equity allocations.

What Happened: U.S. stock indexes resolved a week-long trading range, Friday.

What Does It Mean: As the new administration looked to advance the status of coronavirus relief, U.S. stock index futures established record highs.

This comes as stock indexes, particularly the S&P 500, traded sideways after a rapid de-risking event associated with the GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) crisis, and subsequent v-pattern recovery.

More On The V-Pattern: A pattern that forms after a market establishes a high, retests some support, and then breaks above said high. In most cases, this pattern portends continuation.

As stated on Friday, the tight trading range is most likely attributable to the large February monthly options expiration (OPEX), after which, the interest at the $3,900.00 S&P 500 option strike will roll-off. 

Graphic 1: Physik Invest maps out the purchase of call and put options in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY), for the week ending February 12, 2021. Activity in the option market was primarily concentrated in short-dated tenors near $390, a strike that corresponds with $3,900.00 in the cash-settled S&P 500 Index (INDEX: SPX).

Why’s this? Most funds are committed to holding long positions. In the interest of lower volatility returns, these funds will collar off their positions, selling calls to finance the purchase of downside put protection.

As a result of this activity, option dealers are long upside and short downside protection.

This exposure must be hedged; dealers will sell into strength as their call (put) positions gain (lose) value and buy into weakness as their call (put) positions lose (gain) value.

Now, unlike theory suggests, dealers will hedge call losses (gains) quicker (slower). This leads to “long-gamma,” a dynamic that crushes volatility and promotes momentum, observed by lengthy sprints, followed by rapid de-risking events as the market transitions into “short-gamma.”

  • Long-Gamma Visualized
  • Long-Gamma Evidence

If the interest near $3,900.00 S&P 500 is not rolled up in price and out in time, then option hedging requirements will change.

However, it is important to note that, in recent days, some exposure has been rolled up in price and out in time. This suggests an inclination by participants to maintain long exposure through OPEX, a day that would mark an end to pinning (which we’ve seen over the past weeks).

One such example can be seen below.

Graphic 4: Purchase of call positions higher in price and farther out in time in the cash-settled S&P 500 Index

What To Do: In coming sessions, participants will want to pay attention to the $3,919.75 spike base and $3,928.25 balance-area high.

More On Spikes: Spike’s mark the beginning of a break from value. Spikes higher (lower) are validated by trade at or above (below) the spike base (i.e., the origin of the spike).

Balance-areas make it easy to spot change in the market (i.e., the transition from two-time frame trade, or balance, to one-time frame trade, or trend).

Given the spike out of balance, the following frameworks ought to be applied. 

In the best case, the S&P 500 opens and remains above the $3,919.75 spike base, confirming last week’s higher prices. In the worst case, the S&P 500 auctions below the $3,919.75 spike base.

Trade below the spike base would be the most negative outcome and may trigger a new wave of downside discovery, repairing some of the poor structures left in the wake of the aforementioned advance.

Graphic 5: Profile overlays on a 30-minute candlestick chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Conclusions: The go/no-go level for next week’s shortened holiday trade is $3,919.75. Trade below this level suggests markets are not yet ready to rally.

Levels Of Interest: $3,919.75 spike base.

Cover photo by Pixabay, from Pexels.

Categories
Commentary

Market Commentary For 2/12/2021

Notice: To view this week’s big picture outlook, click here.

What Happened: As the new administration pushes approval of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, alongside the approval of another $14 billion for pandemic-hit airlines and signs of improve in the labor market, U.S. stock index futures traded sideways, in prior-balance and -range.

What Does It Mean: Market’s were range-bound after a rapid de-risking event associated with the GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) crisis, and subsequent v-pattern recovery.

Pictured: 4-hour profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures

The tight trading range is most attributable to the large February monthly options expiration (OPEX), after which, the interest at the $3,900.00 S&P 500 option strike will roll-off. Why’s this? Most funds are committed to holding long positions. In the interest of lower volatility returns, these funds will collar off their positions, selling calls to finance the purchase of downside put protection.

As a result of this activity, option dealers are long upside and short downside protection.

The exposure must be hedged: dealers sell into strength as their call (put) positions gain (lose) value and buy into weakness as their call (put) positions lose (gain) value.

Now, unlike theory suggests, dealers will hedge call losses (gains) quicker (slower). This leads to “long-gamma,” a dynamic that crushes volatility and promotes momentum, observed by lengthy sprints, followed by rapid de-risking events as the market transitions into “short-gamma.”

  • Long-Gamma Visualized
  • Long-Gamma Evidence

If the interest near $3,900.00 S&P 500 is not rolled up in price and out in time, then option hedging requirements will change.

The absence of strong fundamentally-driven buying (as we’ve seen with such things as DIX), can have serious implications on price action.

More On DIX: For every buyer is a seller (usually a market maker). Using DIX — which is derived from short sales (i.e., liquidity provision on the market making side) — we can measure buying pressure.
Pictured: DIX by Squeeze Metrics

However, it is important to note that, in recent days, some exposure has been rolled up in price and out in time.

One such example can be seen below.

Pictured: Purchase of call positions higher in price and farther out in time in the cash-settled S&P 500 Index

What To Expect: Friday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET) will likely open inside of prior-balance and -range, suggesting limited potential for immediate directional opportunity.

Given dynamics discussed in the prior section, the odds of substantial change are low, so long as broad market indices, like the S&P 500, remain in balance (i.e., range-bound).

Also, trading in a prominent area of high-volume ($3,900.00) will likely make for a volatile session as such areas denote the market’s most recent perception of value and offer favorable entry and exit, hence the two-sided trade.

More On Volume Areas: A structurally sound market will build on past areas of high-volume. Should the market trend for long periods of time, it will lack sound structure (identified as a low-volume area which denotes directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test). 

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

Going forward, participants will look to the overnight rally-high at $3,928.25, and low-volume structure beneath the $3,880.00 HVNode, which offered responsive buyers favorable entry during Wednesday’s intraday liquidation break.

More On Overnight Rally Highs: Typically, there is a low historical probability associated with overnight rally-highs ending the upside discovery process.

More On Liquidation Breaks: The profile shape in the S&P 500 suggests participants were “too” long and had poor location.

That said, the following frameworks apply.

In the best case, the S&P 500 remains rotational, at or above the $3,900.00 HVNode. In the worst case, any break that finds increased involvement (i.e., supportive flows and delta) below the $3,880.00 HVNode, would favor continuation as low as the $3,830.75 HVNode.

As stated yesterday, major change will be identified with trade above the $3,928.25 overnight rally-high, and below the $3,878.50 regular-trade low.

Levels Of Interest: $3,928.25 overnight rally-high, $3,900.00 HVNode, $3,878.50 regular-trade low.

Categories
Commentary

Market Commentary For The Week Ahead: ‘The Flow Won’

Key Takeaways:

What Happened: Amid a volatile, news-heavy week, after a slew of earnings reports by heavily weighted index constituents, and an FOMC meeting that made no change to existing monetary policy, financial markets experienced a rapid de-risking, similar to what transpired prior to the sell-off in February 2020.

What Does It Mean: After extending the S&P 500’s rally, as well as establishing acceptance near the $3,850.00 price extension, an upside target, and excess (i.e., a proper end to price discovery), participants auctioned back into range, repairing poor structures left in the wake of initiative buying.

The action found acceptance below the $3,824.00 – $3,763.75 balance-area, invalidating the prior week’s break-out to new highs.

Since then, market participants were witness to violent two-sided trade, a result of the market transitioning into a short-gamma environment (Graphic 1).

In such case dealers hedge derivatives exposure by buying into strength and selling into weakness. This, will exacerbate volatility.

Graphic 1: SpotGamma data suggests S&P 500 has entered short-gamma environment

In a conversation for a Benzinga article to be released this coming week, I spoke with Kris Sidial, co-chief investment officer at The Ambrus Group, a volatility arbitrage fund, regarding GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) share price volatility, market microstructure, and regulation.

According to Sidial, the dynamics that transpired in GameStop can be traced back to factors like Federal Reserve stabilization efforts, and low rates, which incentivize risk taking (see Graphic 2).

“The growth of structured products, passive investing, the regulatory standpoint that’s been implemented with Dodd-Frank and dealers needing to hedge off their risk more frequently, than not,” are all part of a regime change that’s affected the stability of markets, Sidial notes. 

“These dislocations happen quite frequently in small windows, and it offers the potential for large outlier events,” like the equity bust and boom during 2020. “Strength and fragility are two completely different components. The market could be strong, but fragile.”

The aforementioned regime change is one in which dealer exposure to direction and volatility promotes crash up and down dynamics. Last February, the market was heavily one-sided with participants, like target date funds (e.g., mutual funds), selling far out-of-the-money puts on the S&P 500 for passive yield, and investors buying-to-open put options in an increasing amount for downside exposure, thus exacerbating volatility. 

Graphic 2: Newfound Research unpacks market drivers, implications of liquidity.
Graphic 3: SqueezeMetrics highlights implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness.

Last week, per Graphic 4, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the largest ETF that tracks the S&P 500, saw a rise in purchases of downside protection with time, which will likely lead to an increase in implied volatility and sensitivity of options to changes in underlying price.

These risks will be hedged off by dealers selling into weakness (see Graphic 3), thereby exacerbating downside volatility.

Graphic 4: Physik Invest maps out the purchase of call and put options in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, for the week ending January 30, 2021.

The activity was most concentrated in put options with a strike price of $361, corresponding with $3,610 in the cash-settled S&P 500 Index (INDEX: SPX). This, alongside the market’s entry into short gamma, and an inversion of the VIX futures term structure (see Graphic 5), in which longer-dated VIX expiries are less expensive, is a warning of elevated near-term risks for equity market stability.

Graphic 5: VIX Futures Term Structure per vixcentral.com.

What’s more? Aside from breaking technical trend (Graphic 6) is DIX, a proxy for buying derived from short sales (i.e., liquidity provision on the market making side) declining, and the presence of divergent speculative flows and delta (e.g., non-committed buying as measured by volume delta).

Graphic 6: Cash-settled S&P 500 Index experiences technical breakdown.
Graphic 7: DIX by SqueezeMetrics suggests large divergence between price and buying on January 27.
Graphic 8: Divergent Delta in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY), the largest ETF that tracks the S&P 500.

What To Expect: In light of the technical breakdown U.S. stock indexes are best positioned for downside discovery.

As a result, participants ought to zoom out, and look for valuable areas to transact.

Graphic 9: 4-hour profile chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

In Graphic 9, the highlighted zones denote high-volume areas (HVNodes), which can be thought of as building blocks.

A structurally sound market will build on past areas of high-volume. Should the market trend for long periods of time, it will lack sound structure (identified as a low-volume area which denotes directional conviction and ought to offer support on any test). 

If participants were to auction and find acceptance into areas of prior low-volume, as they have in the week prior, then future discovery ought to be volatile and quick as participants look to areas of value for favorable entry or exit.

Additionally, it’s important to remember what the market’s long-term trajectory is: up.

Late last year, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) strategist Marko Kolanovic suggested equities would rally short-term with the S&P 500 auctioning as high as $4,000 on the basis of low rates, improved fundamentals, buybacks, as well as systematic and hedge fund strategies. Since then, Kolanovic has downgraded growth and suggested the limited potential for further upside despite odds of a sustained economic recovery.

Note, Kolanovic has not called for an implosion in equity markets. Instead, the market is due for some downside discovery given a moderation in the recovery.

Given the above dynamics, the following frameworks apply for next week’s trade.

In the best case, the S&P 500 takes back Friday’s liquidation and auctions above the $3,727.75 HVNode. Expectations thereafter include continued balance.

In the worst case, any break that finds increased involvement (i.e., supportive flows and delta) below the $3,689.50 HVNode, would favor continuation as low as the $3,611.50 and $3,556.00 HVNodes. Note that the second to last HVNode corresponds with the $361 SPY put concentration, which may serve as a near-term target, or bottom, for this sell-off, given last week’s activity at that strike.

Graphic 10: Profile overlays on a 15-minute candlestick chart of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 Futures.

Conclusions: Participants ought to look for favorable areas to transact, such as those highlighted areas in the S&P 500, featured in Graphic 9.

Big picture, the sell-off ought to be bought, just not yet. Per Graphic 11, euphoria is still too high.

Graphic 11: Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) sentiment indicators.

Levels Of Interest: $3,727.75, $3,689.50, $3,611.50 and $3,556.00 HVNodes.

Cover photo by Pixabay from Pexels.