Fed Conversations

07/24/13 08:01AM EDT

This note was originally published at 8am on July 10, 2013 for Hedgeye subscribers.

“The one who engages in conversation should not debar others from participating in it.”

-Cicero

That’s one of the many quotes from Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve (page 70) that gets the juices flowing. Whether you’re tapping into the minds of the early Greeks (Epicurus = 341-270 BCE) or the arena of debate in the Roman Republic (Cicero = 106-43 BCE), it’s all there.

If you work within an investment culture that demands both constant questioning and collaboration, it’s all there too. Is there any other way to find the truth? Those who put their political pride over the market’s truths have never made good Portfolio Managers, fyi.

Sadly, politicians have provided the Fed, ECB, and BOJ closed forums where un-elected bureaucrats call the shots. While that may have been normal in Stalin’s Russia, it’s not in the area code of what America’s Founding Fathers envisioned. Who really cares about today’s Fed “minutes”? Until the Fed opens itself up to the Dalios and Druckenmillers of the world, they’re not even having a conversation.

Back to the Global Macro Grind

China’s economic data was horrendous overnight. So let’s not talk about the implications of Asian #GrowthSlowing, copper demand collapsing, mining capex bubbles, etc. Let’s start begging for a Bernanke-style bailout for the Chinese economy!

Yeah baby, that’ll do it – look at how well things turned out for every other Asian government that levered itself up since the Ming dynasty. I am hearing the Chinese are really into the whole Krugmanomics idea of turning China’s balance sheet into Japan’s too. Shhh.

To be crystal clear on this, we do not think China will “stimulate” you. Here are Darius Dale’s Top 3 reasons why:

1.   Property Bubble – they are trying to pop it before they get popped like we did (imagine that, learning from US history); property price growth continues to accelerate (+7.4% YoY in JUN; 13 consecutive months of sequential gains)

2.   Rebalancing, Not Levered Growth - Politburo's economic rebalancing agenda (quality of growth now more important than quantity of growth), which they've supported with recent rhetoric and (in)action during the recent credit crunch

3.   Psychology – despite the intermediate-term TREND slowing Chinese growth is still trending in-line to above long-term targets; if growth doesn’t fall off a cliff, new leaders will be reluctant to appear weak in the context of their long-term plan

Unlike team Obama, Geithner, and Bernanke (or Abe, Aso, and Kuroda in Japan), Xi and Li will be in charge for another 10 years. Why on earth would they implement short-term Western-style “stimulation”, when their ultimate goal is for history to respect them long-time?

I know, I know – whatever you do, do not engage in rational discussions about this when you can always defer to trading on the latest Chinese, Eurocrat, of Fed horse whispering rumor. That’s where the vig is at, bros.

The vig?

Yeah, you know – “also known as the juice, the cut or the take…” (Wikipedia definition). Or the amount a Washington “consultant” gets paid for his super secret inside info on what the Fed Minutes are actually going to say today (or what Bernanke is going to whisper next).

Just like Jefferson envisioned, for sure.

In other #StrongDollar, Strong America news, US stocks closed up for the 4th day in a row yesterday, taking the Russell 2000 to yet another all-time closing high of 1,018. For those of you who are still into keeping score for the 2013 bears, that’s +20% YTD.

All-time is also a very long-time, so why not sell some up here? You know, lather yourself up with some booked gains. As our Financials guru (and birthday boy), Josh Steiner, always reminds me, ‘no one ever went broke booking a profit.’

From our process’ perspective, making some sales up here in US Equities is your short-term, high probability, bet because:

  1. PRICE – SP500 is immediate-term TRADE overbought in the 1650-1658 range
  2. VOLATILITY – front-month VIX is immediate-term TRADE oversold around 14.02
  3. VOLUME – has been nowhere to be found on this no-volume meltup (down -13-27% versus our TREND avg)

What goes up on no-volume can come down on no-volume. So, as consensus is forced to chase price again, and again, and again in 2013, just take a deep breath and focus on proactively managing the risk of a very trade-able range (SPY range = 1592-1658, for now).

Despite the “rumors” of being “stimulated” by some Chinese dudes, both the Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng closed well below their bearish TREND lines of 2,190 and 21,991, respectively overnight.

Oh, and Oil is testing a breakout above our long-term TAIL risk line of $108.36/barrel this morning too. So, Bernanke, before you think about devaluing the Dollar again with a closed network “communication tool”, think about the rest of us who are engaged in open discussions about you while we’re taking your Policy To Inflate in the pump.  

Our immediate-term Risk Ranges are now (we have 12 Macro Ranges in our new Daily Trading Range product too, fyi):

UST 10yr 2.56-2.73%

SPX 1621-1658

Hang Seng 20,124-20,991

VIX 14.02-16.21

USD 83.89-85.09

Oil 105.06-109.39

Best of luck out there today,

KM

Keith R. McCullough
Chief Executive Officer

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