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Tag: commodities

Risk/Reward Still Skewed Toward Risk: Mike Singleton, Invictus Research (Szn 5, Ep 9)

This podcast episode was recorded on Thursday, April 6, with an actionable highlights clip previewing the following day’s non-farm payrolls released to premium subscribers that same day. The full podcast episode was then released to premium subscribers a day later. To get early access to podcast recordings and take advantage of a host of other exclusive benefits, sign up to become a premium member at our Substack or Supercast.

Mike Singleton of Invictus Research rejoins the podcast to discuss his pessimistic outlook for the economy, why he’s concerned about credit risk, and why the Federal Reserve should end up cutting rates before too long.

Content Highlights

  • The outlook for risk assets is still not constructive (2:40);
  • Fed rate hikes are very close to a peak, if not there already (4:43);
  • Economic conditions point to stubborn inflation (7:09);
  • Inflation may not need to return to the Fed’s 2% target for there to be rate cuts (11:00);
  • The outlook for commodities prices is not particularly constructive either (15:59);
  • What to make of the banks? (21:14);
  • One leading economic indicator that Invictus likes, which is overlooked (or ignored) by the market at large (22:30);
  • The backdrop is still positive for short-term bonds (24:28);
  • Leading indicators for the yield curve include bank lending standards, which right now suggest a steepening… (26:13).

More About the Guest

Not investment advice.

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Investors Are Ignorant, Fade Their Conviction: Jason Shapiro (Szn 4, Ep. 30)

Jason Shapiro joins the podcast to discuss his trading strategy, based on the simple premise that most investors are wrong most of the time. This approach requires trades to be crowded, which is decidedly (and surprisingly) not the case right now — with two possible exceptions.

Content Highlights

  • Most traders lose money. Shapiro seeks to capture these losses by going against the crowd (3:11);
  • He does this by monitoring the Commitment of Traders report for extreme positioning, which he then fades (4:03);
  • The thinking behind this? The crowd is wrong. “It’s really that simple.” The discounting method is not price but positioning (6:11);
  • Shapiro monitors 37 different futures markets. Two examples of where this approach worked in the past (7:03);
  • Right now “I’m seeing some pretty scary stuff, because you don’t have anybody crowded” in major asset classes (8:24);
  • One possible exception: lumber (11:08);
  • Background on the guest (16:35);
  • Patience is a virtue, especially for contrarians (27:28);
  • “I have contrarian views on everything…that’s how I develop my opinion.” People are wrong because they want others to guide them (31:00);
  • The set-up in cryptos is “massively dangerous” based on positioning in Bitcoin futures. This sets Bitcoin and cryptos up for a major drop… (36:36).

(On this last point, Shapiro shared the following chart)

Chart of crowded crypto positioning

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China Concerns Cloud Retail Earnings Week

The following is an amended form of the Aug. 15 Daily Contrarian. This briefing and accompanying podcast are released to premium subscribers each market day morning by 0700. To subscribe, visit our Substack.

Some bad economic news out of China has weighed on risk sentiment overnight. The country’s central bank responded with a surprise rate cut. The impact is mostly limited to commodities so far, with WTI crude oil down 4% and copper off 2% in early Monday trading.

Starting tomorrow (Tuesday), the big box retailers will report earnings, with the likes of Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) up first. Wednesday we’ll get Lowe’s (LOW), Target (TGT), and TJX (TJX).

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