Tag: Susquehanna Financial Group LLP

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Commentary

Daily Brief For March 27, 2023

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Graphic updated 9:10 AM ET. Sentiment Risk-On if expected /MES open is above 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

Sorry for the delay. Please read through the positioning section. Have a great Monday!

As always, if there are holes or unclear language. We will fix this in the next letters.

Fundamental

On 3/22, we mentioned news of Russia wanting to adopt the yuan for settlements.

And, with that, publications covering these East alliances use some tough language. One Bloomberg article notes China and Russia “roll[ing] back US power and alliances … [to] create a multipolar world … [and] diminish the reach of democratic values, so autocratic forms of government are secure and even supreme.”

Let’s rewind a bit to understand why all the toughness and fear.

Recall Chinese President Xi Jinping speaking with Saudi and GCC leaders. Here is our 1/4 summary takeaway:

Graphic: Retrieved from Physik Invest’s Daily Brief for January 4, 2023.

Essentially, those remarks confirm the East is hedging sanctions risk. Reliance on the West is falling, and this inevitably will present “non-linear shocks” (i.e., “inflation mess caused by geopolitics, resource nationalism, and BRICS”) monetary policymakers are not equipped to handle. So, are the markets at risk?

This most recent meeting between China and Russia increases the risks of unwinding the “debt-fueled economy in the US,” FT’s Rana Foroohar confirms, as we wrote in the Daily Brief for 1/4. Further, this is a threat to “hidden leverage and opaqueness.” That means the markets are at risk. Let’s explain more.

Read: Saudi National Bank Chair Resigns After Credit Suisse Remarks Helped Trigger A Slump In The Stock And Bonds That Prompted The Swiss Government To Step In And Arrange Its Takeover – Bloomberg

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

With the encumbrance of commodities, among other initiatives, these nations’ weight in currency baskets may rise and keep “inflation from slowing.” If that happens, future rate expectations are off. Additionally, “the US dollar and Treasury securities will likely be dealing with issues they never had to deal with before: less demand, not more; more competition, not less,” we quoted Zoltan Pozsar (ex-Credit Suisse) saying on 1/5.

The markets most responsive to this are public, as we saw with 2022’s de-rate. In 2023 and beyond, added liquidation-type risks lie in the private markets. This will have knock-on effects.

Graphic: Retrieved from VoxEU.

The likes of The Ambrus Group’s Kris Sidial mentioned to your newsletter writer in a Benzinga interview that private market investors’ raising of cash to meet capital calls could prompt sales of their more liquid public market holdings. This is a major risk Sidial noted he was watching, in addition to some risks in the derivatives markets.

At the same time, Eric Basmajian believes the “banking crisis will cause a tightening of money and credit.” This will further solidify the “broader business cycle and corporate profit recession.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg. Per John Authers, “the combination of deeply troubled banks and strong performance for the rest of the stock market cannot persist much longer.”

Positioning

Sidial’s well positioned to take advantage of the realization of these risks. In January, he explained that measures like the Cboe VIX Volatility Index (INDEX: VVIX) were low. This suggested, “we can get cheap exposure to convexity while a lot of people are worried.” In an update to Bloomberg, Sidial said The Ambrus Group’s tail-risk strategy (which Sidial has explained to us before) has performed well as the VIX index has risen, a sign of traders hedging concerns about “some contagion hitting and their portfolios being destroyed on that.”

Graphic: Retrieved from Bloomberg.

“We have seen an increase in tail hedging,” added Chris Murphy of Susquehanna International Group. “We have continued to see call buying in the VIX since the bank turmoil began.” The caveat, though, is that realized volatility or RVOL, not just implied volatility or IVOL (i.e., that which is implied by traders’ supply and demand of options), must shift and stay higher for those options to maintain their values, which may be difficult according to Kai Volatility’s Cem Karsan.

Though Karsan thinks markets will likely see RVOL come back in a big way, he thinks policymakers’ intervention will be stimulative short-term as it reverses a lot of the quantitative tightening or QT (i.e., flow of capital out of capital markets). Stimulation will be compounded by the continued unwinding of hedging strategies in previously depressed products like the Nasdaq 100 (INDEX: NDX). What do we mean by this?

Recall that traders’ closure and/or monetization of put protection results in options counterparties buying back their short stock and/or futures hedges. Therefore, before any downside is realized, the market may trade into a far “more combustible” position.

Consequently, look for low- and zero-cost call structures (e.g., ratio spreads) to play the upside while opportunistically using higher prices and elevated volatility skew to put on bear put spreads (i.e., buy put and sell another put at a lower strike price) for cheaper prices.

Consider following and supporting us on social media:

Technical

As of 9:10 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 the prior day’s range, suggesting a potential for immediate directional opportunity.

The S&P 500 pivot for today is $4,026.75. 

Key levels to the upside include $4,038.75, $4,049.75, and $4,062.25.

Key levels to the downside include $4,004.25, $3,994.25, and $3,980.75.

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 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
Commentary

Daily Brief For March 15, 2022

Editor’s Note: The Daily Brief is a free glimpse into the prevailing fundamental and technical drivers of U.S. equity market products. Join the 200+ that read this report daily, below!

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What Happened

Overnight, equity index futures explored lower prices alongside most commodities. Bonds and implied volatility metrics were bid, also.

The narrative is that this is follow-on selling as participants look to price in the implications of COVID-19 lockdowns in China, as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Arguably, there is some pre-Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) positioning going on, too.

Ahead is data on the Producer Price Index and Empire State Manufacturing (8:30 AM ET).

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 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: Keeping it short, today. Please check out Monday’s commentary, if you haven’t!

Weak start to 2022 as participants look to price slower growth and inflation, tighter monetary policy, geopolitical tensions, a resurgence in COVID-19, potential Russian defaults, and beyond.

Graphic: Via S&P Global Inc (NYSE: SPGI). 

Bolstering inflation pressures are supply-demand challenges. For instance, geopolitical tensions are stifling vehicle production here in the U.S.

Graphic: Via S&P Global Inc (NYSE: SPGI). 

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, gas in the U.S. climbed about $0.80/gallon, also, prompting talk of gas tax holidays.

Graphic: Via Reuters.

Pursuant to these remarks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) economists suggest the probability of recession in the next year is between 20-35% while Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) strategists see equity valuations overshooting to the downside with out of control inflation.

Graphic: Via Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

In opposition, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (NYSE: JPM) Marko Kolanovic suggests there is too much negativity priced in and that investors should add equity risk. 

“We believe that the past month’s correction has induced too much negativity in markets, e.g., reflected by our market-implied recession probabilities, on the fear that growth will be severely affected by the war. We stay with a pro-risk stance as we do not believe that we will see a recession or that we have entered a sustained bear market.”

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. “A Moody’s Analytics computer model suggests that the U.S. as a whole would be able to avoid a recession, even if military hostilities are prolonged.”

Positioning: Per Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s derivatives team, “puts are more overvalued than any time over the past five years.”

Graphic: Via SpotGamma. “Netting call & put delta, you can see we’re near extremes in terms of put:call positions. Often large put positions are removed by expirations, which seems to coincide with market lows. Many of these are quarterly expirations which coincide w/FOMC meetings – such as next week.”

Further, it is expected that the compression of volatility (via passage of FOMC), as well as the removal of customer puts and (accordingly) counterparty negative gamma exposure (OPEX) may serve to alleviate some of this pressure.

Graphic: Via Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS). Taken from The Market Ear. “18-Mar has more expiring near-the-money SPX open interest than any expiration since 2019.”

In taking the other side of this demand for protection, counterparties carry exposure to positive delta and negative gamma (losses amplified to the downside). In hedging their own exposure, counterparties will sell underlying(s), and this is where the aforementioned pressure arises.

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 market maker long the put will buy (sell) the underlying to neutralize directional risk as price falls (rises).

Given present supply and demand conditions (customer hedging in months prior), the incremental pressure counterparties add with each leg lower is less, if you will. 

Here’s a good explanation:

“When implied volatility is high, that same 1% move lower is much more ‘expected’ so there generally won’t be the same upward pressure on volatility and in fact it might decline,” said Christopher Jacobson, a strategist at Susquehanna Financial Group LLP.

“Along the same lines, investors at that point have had more opportunity and time to hedge, so those same market moves may not lead to as much hedging activity.”

Pictured: SqueezeMetrics highlights implications of volatility, direction, and moneyness.

Adding to that last remark, as Amy Wu Silverman of Royal Bank of Canada’s (NYSE: RY) capital markets group puts it well: “You’re also seeing people selling that volatility and doing some overwriting. That can probably dampen volatility.”

Graphic: SpotGamma’s Hedging Impact of Real-Time Options (HIRO) indicator for QQQ shows strong put selling 3/14/2022. Divergences often precede reversals in the underlying.

There is the potential, according to SpotGamma, for some “path dependency,” however, as “the expiration and/or covering of a large swath of these put hedges may place the market back into an ‘underhedged’ position.” In such a case, new demand would add fuel to weakness.

Technical: As of 6:15 AM ET, Tuesday’s regular session (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET), in the S&P 500, will likely open in the middle part of a negatively skewed overnight inventory, inside of prior-range and -value, suggesting a limited potential for immediate directional opportunity.

Gap Scenarios: Gaps ought to fill quickly. Should they not, that’s a signal of strength; do not fade. Leaving value behind on a gap-fill or failing to fill a gap (i.e., remaining outside of the prior session’s range) is a go-with indicator.

Auctioning and spending at least 1-hour of trade back in the prior range suggests a lack of conviction; in such a case, do not follow the direction of the most recent initiative activity.

In the best case, the S&P 500 trades higher; activity above the $4,129.50 overnight low (ONL) puts in play the $4,177.25 high volume area (HVNode). Initiative trade beyond the $4,177.25 HVNode could reach as high as the $4,227.75 HVNode and $4,249.25 LVNode, or higher.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $4,129.50 ONL puts in play the $4,101.25 ONL. Initiative trade beyond the ONL could reach as low as the $4,069.25 HVNode and $4,055.75 LVNode, or lower.

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

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

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.

Definitions

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

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

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

About

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

Capelj is also a Benzinga finance and technology reporter interviewing the likes of Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, JC2 Ventures’ John Chambers, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, as well as a SpotGamma contributor developing insights around impactful options market dynamics.

Disclaimer

Physik Invest does not carry the right to provide advice.

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

Daily Brief For March 11, 2022

Editor’s Note: The Daily Brief is a free glimpse into the prevailing fundamental and technical drivers of U.S. equity market products. Join the 200+ that read this report daily, below!

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What Happened

On reports that there was progress in talks between Russia and Ukraine, stock index futures advanced putting the S&P 500 back inside a large consolidation area.

Thus far, trade has been volatile and responsive to key visual levels suggesting that the larger other time frame (non-technical) participants are waiting for more information to initiate trades.

Ahead is data on the University of Michigan Sentiment (10:00 AM ET) and inflation expectations (10:00 AM ET).

Graphic updated 6:45 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 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: Yesterday’s letter covered a lot of ground. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Volatility is heightened and the narratives we may attribute that to are concerned with the intent to tighten monetary policy, slower economic growth, and geopolitics.

Graphic: Via Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS). Taken from The Market Ear. “We are downgrading our US GDP forecast to reflect higher oil prices and other drags on growth related to the war in Ukraine.”

In comparison, though, U.S. equity product volatility is less than that in Europe and this points to the “risk premium for investing in Europe’s markets that are teeming with cyclical stocks acutely vulnerable to growth and inflation risks,” among other things.

Adding to the turbulence was the European Central Bank’s pivot toward hawkishness; the institution will accelerate the wind-down of its monetary stimulus. Pursuant to this decision, Euro-area equity funds had their largest weekly outflows on record.

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. 

U.S. policymakers are expected to ramp their tightening efforts, next week, also, as inflation expectations are surging.

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. “[T]he central bank is widely expected to announce a 25-basis point increase Wednesday, along with fresh projections for the economy and path of interest rates.”

Per CME Group Inc’s (NASDAQ: CME) FedWatch Tool, participants are pricing a near 100% chance of a hike in the target rate.

Graphic: Via CME Group Inc (NASDAQ: CME). Participants price in an increased probability of a shift in the target rate. Click here to access the FedWatch Tool.

In the face of all the bearish narratives, however, many products – at the single-stock level – have been de-rating now for nearly a year. 

Ahead of bullish seasonality and rebalancing flow (from fixed income into equities), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) strategists suggest that “we could be through [the] worst of it.” 

“When either All Strats or Equity L/S net leverage fell by at least 1.5z or more, the SPX generally rallied over the next 1wk and 4wks,” a bulletin published by The Market Ear read. 

Positioning: Based on a comparison of present options positioning and buying metrics, the returns distribution is skewed positive, albeit less so than before. 

Graphic: Via Physik Invest. Data via SqueezeMetrics.

Adding, over the past weeks, we talked about the SPX and VIX down dynamic. This in part has to do with the supply and demand of protection, at the index level. Hyperlinked are our past conversations.

Graphic: Via Bloomberg. S&P 500 (INDEX: SPX) down, CBOE Volatility Index (INDEX: VIX) down.

“We’re back to another point of people being well hedged and well-positioned,” Amy Wu Silverman of Royal Bank of Canada’s (NYSE: RY) capital markets group, said. 

“You’re also seeing people selling that volatility and doing some overwriting. That can probably dampen volatility.”

Graphic: SpotGamma’s Hedging Impact of Real-Time Options (HIRO) indicator for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY). Into the S&P 500’s March 8, 2022 decline, participants sold volatility on both sides of the options chain.

“When implied volatility is high, that same 1% move lower is much more ‘expected’ so there generally won’t be the same upward pressure on volatility and in fact it might decline,” said Christopher Jacobson, a strategist at Susquehanna Financial Group LLP.

“Along the same lines, investors at that point have had more opportunity and time to hedge, so those same market moves may not lead to as much hedging activity.”

Graphic: Via SpotGamma. “Netting call & put delta, you can see we’re near extremes in terms of put:call positions. Often large put positions are removed by expirations, which seems to coincide with market lows. Many of these are quarterly expirations which coincide w/FOMC meetings – such as next week.”

Taking this together, in accordance with metrics referred to earlier, “we could be closer to the end than the beginning of the discretionary de-risking,” as JPMorgan analysts best explain.

Further, the compression of volatility (via passage of FOMC) or removal of counterparty negative exposure (via OPEX) may serve to alleviate some of this pressure. 

Until then, participants can expect the options landscape to add to market volatility.

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

Balance-Break + Gap Scenarios: A change in the market (i.e., the transition from two-time frame trade, or balance, to one-time frame trade, or trend) is occurring.

Monitor for acceptance (i.e., more than 1-hour of trade) outside of the balance area. 

Leaving value behind on a gap-fill or failing to fill a gap (i.e., remaining outside of the prior session’s range) is a go-with indicator. 

Rejection (i.e., return inside of balance) portends a move to the opposite end of the balance.

In the best case, the S&P 500 trades higher; activity above the $4,314.75 high volume area (HVNode) puts in play the $4,346.75 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the $4,346.75 HVNode could reach as high as the $4,375.00 untested point of control (VPOC) and $4,395.25 HVNode, or higher.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $4,314.75 HVNode puts in play the $4,285.75 HVNode. Initiative trade beyond the $4,285.75 HVNode could reach as low as the $4,249.25 low volume area (LVNode) and $4,227.75 HVNode, or lower.

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

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

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

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

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

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

POCs: POCs are valuable as they 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.

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 is also a Benzinga finance and technology reporter interviewing the likes of Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, JC2 Ventures’ John Chambers, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood, as well as a SpotGamma contributor developing insights around impactful options market dynamics.

Disclaimer

Physik Invest does not carry the right to provide advice.

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.