The guest commentary below was written by Jesse Felder. Incidentally, Jesse recently joined us on our "In The Arena" podcast. Click here to listen.
One of the things I’ve started paying close attention to recently is the trend in risk appetites. Are investors embracing or shunning risk in the markets? Answering this question can help to understand the strength of the underlying trend.
The chart below plots the S&P 500 Index (in blue) alongside a custom index I created to track sector preferences (in red). You will notice that an uptrend is stronger when investors are embracing riskier sectors, pushing the red line higher, and vice versa.
Click to enlarge
It’s interesting to note that as the stock market recently traded to a new, record high, investors haven’t embraced risk to the extent that it pushes this risk appetite index to a new high – not even close. A similar divergence was present at the 2007 top and at last summer’s new high in price.
Equity bulls should hope investors soon embrace risk taking again and to a significant degree. Otherwise, the rally over the past several months may prove unsustainable.
EDITOR'S NOTE
This is a Hedgeye Guest Contributor piece written by Jesse Felder and reposted from The Felder Report blog. Felder has been managing money for over 20 years. He began his professional career at Bear, Stearns & Co. and later co-founded a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Today he lives in Bend, Oregon and publishes The Felder Report. This piece does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Hedgeye.
