Weekly game plan 29 March 2020
So we’re on lockdown. Nobody is really surprised about that if we’re honest. We are just grateful that our government has acted to quickly and desivesly to curb the rate of infections in South Africa.
Month: March 2020
Trade ideas: MA and OXY
Panic reigns supreme… but there are opportunities for the brave. We have two trade ideas that are not for the faint hearted. Note though that the strictest risk management is needed and stop losses are vital.
Weekly game plan 22 March 2020
First and foremost, we want to encourage everyone reading this to take social distancing seriously. As for trading; for now we are being very, very careful. Most of last week we hardly traded any swing-CFD positions and we expect that it will be the same in the coming week. We will not entirely sit out the week, but we will be very selective with our trades. Risk management is absolute.
Be greedy when others are fearful
Let’s get to the point: what’s happening is totally unprecedented… the market has gone up or down more than 4% for 7 consecutive days. That’s a new record. The previous record was 1929. There are a whole number of stats like this that are unprecedented. Below are stats of this week… craziest moves we’ve ever seen.
Weekly game plan 15 March 2020
We’re not sure where to start. We have ever seen anything like what has been happening over the last three weeks before. These truly are extraordinary times.The Fear & Greed Index hit 1 last week, the CBOE Volatility Index hit highs last seen in 1987 and 2008 with the highest print at 77.6. This was real, unfiltered panic. The question now is; is it over?
Trade idea: SPY
We know that it is a difficult time to buy stocks bearish news and frankly, chaos reigning in markets. However, the market is showing signs of heavy capitulation. We won’t go into all the stats that are showing signs of extremes, but there might be an against the trend trade opportunity here with a high risk:reward profile.
Weekly game plan 8 March 2020
The last few weeks have been some of the most extreme times in recent market history, at least from our perspective. We’ve seen a pretty extreme sell off, largely driven by fears around the coronavirus. What is of even more concern to us is that the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank cut interest rates by 50 bps in an emergency rate cut. Historically, when the FED responds this drastically it is usually a sure sign that something big is happening.
Trade idea: TLT
TLT is a defensive ETF as it effectively captures the far end of the Treasury curve in a liquid, exchange traded package. Exclusively holding bonds with 20+ years to maturity, TLT is – by design – very sensitive to long-term interest-rate movements. It seems to us that TLT has gone into what we describe as a parabolic blow off top. The most obvious reason for this would be because TLT, as a bond ETF, is viewed as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty. Corona-times are pretty uncertain times we would say. Hence the run to safety.
Weekly game plan 1 March 2020
We also saw that Chinese PMI numbers came in the lowest on record. In other words, lower manufacturing and production activity in China than even in the depths of the 2008/9 financial crisis. Lower than ever recorded. Considering that China now makes up almost 20% of the global economy and accounts for two-thirds of global growth, this record low PMI reading is truly concerning. The real question now is, when do factories come back online?
