"Let your performance do the thinking. "
-H. Jackson Brown
So there you have it - no matter where you are this morning, there your performance for March and Q1 of 2009 is. I have been getting some very exciting feedback from some of our clients already, and I'd like to congratulate all of you for differentiating yourselves. In the face of adversity, that's what winners do.
In The New Reality of Transparency and Accountability, marked-to-market performance will rule. While I doubt that the Nigerian government will be able to find a way to mark their stock market's YTD performance to "model", you can bet your Madoff that plenty of America's once vaunted private equity and "side pocket" fund superstars will do their best to have the US government sponsor that kind of accounting for them.
At down -37%, Nigeria was the worst performing stock market in the world in Q1. If my research team was able to properly "mark" the toxic liabilities (no, they aren't "assets") of some of the levered long investments we saw private equity make in 2007-2008, the performance of those funds anchored to those prices might be down more than Africa's biggest loser. Don't bother asking our fellow Yalie, Steve Schwarzman, about those Blackstone "marks" - the SEC already did - Stevie isn't into the transparency thing... yet...
I went through the math in yesterday's Early Look, so we all know how impressively China (and what China NEEDS) performed in Q1. But how about the things that the Chinese no longer need? Does China really need the wizardry of US Financial Services execs? Well, the scorecard for Q1 says US Financials (XLF) were down -30%. How about Technology? Sure, with the S&P Tech Sector (XLK) +1.4%, maybe they'll take a little more of that!
It's always fascinating to listen to populist politicians and underperforming corporate executives toe the line of excuse making, particularly when you overlay the rhetoric born out of their own incompetency with quantified performance results. While the SP500 being down -11.7% for 2009 to-date is by no means good, the major US index that isn't geared to what China doesn't need (US Financial Services), the Nasdaq, is only down -3.1% for the YTD. The Nasdaq was up +10.9% for the month of March! Great Depression??
Of course, unless you are going away without it bailing you out, government intervention scares the hell out of people - as it should. How else can we explain why the US weekly reading on consumer confidence this morning (ABC/Washington Post poll) remains mired at down -49? Well, America has voted... and Tim Geithner is not their American Idol?
Since our firm is dedicated to no banking, brokerage, or asset management, I don't manage other people's money anymore. Otherwise, I don't see how you can look The Client in the eye and tell them that your research isn't compromised, conflicted, or constrained. If you want the other side of that argument, I can get you the phone numbers of plenty of sell side shops who, for whatever reason, still believe you'll buy into the narrative fallacy associated with their horse and buggy whip Investment Banking Inc. structures.
The New Reality is that whether her name is China or Tiger Woods, The Client whose cash you are managing is the boss again - and we all must work together to prove that Americans are going to start doing the right thing with The Client's money when no one is looking.
While I'm not a big shot billionaire, I used to play "hedgie" with some of them - and I still like to keep score. For the month of March, my performance can be measured in two ways: 1. The Research Edge Asset Allocation Portfolio (only ETFs) and/or 2. Client performance allocated to every move I make in our virtual stock picking portfolio @ www.researchedgellc.com <http://www.researchedgellc.com> .
Following a +0.12% absolute positive return in February, the RE Asset Allocation Portfolio was +3.4% in March. Having a big position in Cash works both ways (you can beat the market in down tapes by a lot, and not get all of the juice in up moves). One client had our virtual stock picking portfolio up almost +10% for March on a gross basis. The difference between the two of these strategies is obviously the alpha my team generates on the stock picking side. Altogether, I'm very proud to be wearing the jersey that bears their name.
Where to next for the US stock market? I think we need to go lower before we go higher. Yesterday, those who had a great month on the long side tried their darndest to get that SP500 above my 803 line of resistance, but failed on the close. My immediate term downside support for the SP500 now moves to 764, which is -4% from the March 31st close.
After selling down exposure to US Equities to 6% into yesterday's last gasp of trading strength, I have hunkered the Asset Allocation Portfolio back down to a 70% position in Cash. With the US Dollar breaking out above what I see as the Shark Line at $84.95 on the USD Index, I have a very hard time seeing US Equities re-flate. If President Obama wants to fix this USA underperformance mess, he needs to get out of the way, and let Bernanke "Break the Buck."
Our 2009 call on that front hasn't changed. Only marked-to-market prices have - and no matter where you go in this market of winners and losers, there those prices are. Keep letting your "performance do the thinking."
Best of luck to you and your respective teams in Q2 of 2009,
KM
LONG ETFS
RSX - Market Vectors Russia-The Russian macro fundamentals line up with our quantitative view on a TREND duration. Oil has benefited from the breakdown of the USD, which has buoyed the commodity levered economy. We're seeing the Ruble stabilize and are bullish Russia's decision to mark prices to market, which has allowed it to purge its ills earlier in the financial crisis cycle via a quicker decline in asset prices. Russia recognizes the important of THE client, China, and its oil agreement in February with China in return for a loan of $25 Billion will help recapitalize two of the country's important energy producers and suppliers.
USO - Oil Fund- We bought oil on Wednesday (3/25) for a TRADE and are positive on the commodity from a TREND perspective. With the uptick of volatility in the contango, we're buying the curve with USO rather than the front month contract.
EWC - iShares Canada-We bought Canada on Friday (3/20) into the selloff. We want to own what THE client (China) needs, namely commodities, as China builds out its infrastructure. Canada will benefit from commodity reflation, especially as the USD breaks down. We're net positive Harper's leadership, which diverges from Canada's large government recent history, and believe next year's Olympics in resource rich Vancouver should provide a positive catalyst for investors to get long the country.
DJP - iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity -With the USD breaking down we want to be long commodity re-flation. DJP broadens our asset class allocation beyond oil and gold.
XLK - SPDR Technology-Technology looks positive on a TRADE and TREND basis. Fundamentally, the sector has shown signs of stabilization over the last several weeks. Semiconductor stocks, which are early cycle, have provided numerous positive data points on the back of destocking in the channel and overall end demand appears to be stabilizing. Software earnings from ADBE and ORCL were less than toxic this week and point to a "less bad" environment. As the world stabilizes, M&A should pick up given cash rich balance sheets in this sector and an IBM/JAVA transaction may well prove the catalyst to get things going.
EWA - iShares Australia-EWA has a nice dividend yield of 7.54% on the trailing 12-months. With interest rates at 3.25% (further room to stimulate) and a $26.5BN stimulus package in place, plus a commodity based economy with proximity to China's H1 reacceleration, there are a lot of ways to win being long Australia.
GLD - SPDR Gold- We bought gold on a down day. We believe gold will re-assert its bullish TREND.
DVY - Dow Jones Select Dividend -We like DVY's high dividend yield of 5.85%.
SHORT ETFS
UUP - U.S. Dollar Index - We believe that the US Dollar is the leading indicator for the US stock market. In the immediate term, what is bad for the US Dollar should be good for the stock market. The Euro is down versus the USD at $1.3201. The USD is down versus the Yen at 98.9400 and down versus the Pound at $1.4380 as of 6am today.
EWL - iShares Switzerland - We shorted Switzerland for a TRADE on an up move Wednesday (3/25) and believe the country offers a good opportunity to get in on the short side of Western Europe, and in particular European financials. Switzerland has nearly run out of room to cut its interest rate and due to the country's reliance on the financial sector is in a favorable trading range. Increasingly Swiss banks are being forced by governments to reveal their customers, thereby reducing the incentive of Switzerland as a tax-free haven.
EWJ - iShares Japan - Into the strength associated with the recent market squeeze, we re-shorted the Japanese equity market rally via EWJ. This is a tactical short; we expect the market there to pull back when reality sinks in over the coming weeks. Japan has experienced major GDP contraction-it dropped 3.2% in Q4 '08 on a quarterly basis, and we see no catalyst for growth to return this year. We believe the BOJ's recent program to provide $10 Billion in loans to repair banks' capital ratios and a plan to combat rising yields by buying treasuries are at best a "band aid".
DIA -Diamonds Trust-We shorted the DJIA on Friday (3/13) and Tuesday (3/24).
EWW - iShares Mexico- We're short Mexico due in part to the country's dependence on export revenues from one monopolistic oil company, PEMEX. Mexican oil exports contribute significantly to the country's total export revenue and PEMEX pays a sizable percentage of taxes and royalties to the federal government's budget. This relationship is unstable due to the volatility of oil prices, the inability of PEMEX to pay down its debt, and the fact that PEMEX's crude oil production has been in decline since 2004 and is down 10% YTD. Additionally, the potential geo-political risks associated with the burgeoning power of regional drug lords signals that the country's economy is under serious duress.
IFN -The India Fund- We have had a consistently negative bias on Indian equities since we launched the firm early last year. We believe the growth story of "Chindia" is dead. We contest that the Indian population, grappling with rampant poverty, a class divide, and poor health and education services, will not be able to sustain internal consumption levels sufficient to meet targeted growth level. Other negative trends we've followed include: the reversal of foreign investment, the decrease in equity issuance, and a massive national deficit. Trade data for February paints a grim picture with exports declining by 15.87% Y/Y and imports sliding by 18.22%.
XLP - SPDR Consumer Staples- This group is low beta and won't perform like Tech and Basic Materials do on market up days. There is a lot of currency and demand risk embedded in the P&L's of some of the large consumer staple multi-nationals; particularly in Latin America, Europe, and Japan.
SHY - iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bonds- On 2/26 we witnessed 2-Year Treasuries climb 10 bps to 1.09%. Anywhere north of +0.97% moves the bonds that trade on those yields into a negative intermediate "Trend." If you pull up a three year chart of 2-Year Treasuries you'll see the massive macro Trend of interest rates starting to move in the opposite direction. We call this chart the "Queen Mary" and its new-found positive slope means that America's cost of capital will start to go up, implying that access to capital will tighten. Yield is inversely correlated to bond price, so the rising yield is bearish for Treasuries.