We got off a call with an investor the other day who mentioned that the past two+ years have been a great microcosm of different full cycle market environments – with: 2018 = SPY -4.56% = a down stock market in 2018, including the volatility explosion in Feb of 2018 and odd sell off with […]
Category: Education
29
Jun
2020
28
May
2020
Black Swans, Gray Rhinos, and Tigers..Oh My with Michele Wucker
The financial world seems to have a fascination with zoomorphism – the attribution of animal names, emotions, or intentions to non- animal occurrences like market shocks. Black Swans are the famous one, but there’s also been White Moose and Gray Rhino added to the lexicon. And in this episode of The Derivative, we’re focusing on […]
06
May
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: April 2020
With slight dips from the mid-month asset class scoreboard, April ended out in the green for every asset class across the board except for commodities. With word from abroad of economies reopening & the U.S. rolling out a slow open across the country, assets classes have bounced back considerably from the month before. Managed futures […]
21
Apr
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: Mid-April 2020
Earlier this month we reported on asset class performance: March 2020: Red Wedding Version; and as far as YTD is concerned, it’s the Red Wedding Part 2. But for mid-month asset class performance on it’s own, we’re seeing some positive growth fueled by stimulus checks and increasing confidence from American investors — and to be […]
01
Apr
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: (red wedding version) March 2020
March was ugly, like real ugly. Here was a live (somewhat dramatized via GOT look in around the lows on March 23rd): It was a red wedding to be sure, with not just red across the board, but deep, dramatic shades of red. Like, the DOW with its worst first quarter ever shades […]
09
Mar
2020
Is $15 Crude Oil in the Cards?
On Wednesday. March 4th -April Crude Oil futures closed at 46.78, which left it down -22% on the year… not a good look. Monday, March 9th at 12:30 in the morning, Crude Oil was down -41.6% from that ugly close just 2 business days earlier, putting in a low at $27.34 !! Wow. That is […]
27
Feb
2020
Protecting Against a Market Mutiny with Tail Risk, Convexity, & Long Vol
Has anyone been having fun the past few days? The “market”, as if there’s only one, has been in free-fall as the world tries to figure out what this Corona Virus will look like in terms of a possible global pandemic, down -8% in a week. That’s not a terribly huge move in the grand […]
25
Feb
2020
5th Biggest VIX spike past 20 years?
Did that feel like the 5th scariest day in the markets the past 20 years to anyone? Sure didn’t here in our shop, with groups like Breakout Funds, Deepfield, and others scoring gains on the Covid-19 fueled sell off. But the VIX saw it’s 5th largest spike on a daily basis in the past 20 […]
06
Mar
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: February 2020
Well…that was a rude awakening. Volatility came back with a vengeance in Feb, logging the 5th worst VIX spike in the past 20 years. And it wasn’t just stocks… world stocks, real estate, and commodities all got smacked into the red. Coronavirus fears spiking, Presidential election twitter posts…..all the things we mentioned in our 2020 outlook […]
06
Feb
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: January 2020
“And down goes commodities….early in the first round….” That’s no way to start a 12 round bout, but commodities go as crude oil goes , and energies were shooting down in January on the heels of economic and travel worries behind the Coronavirus scare. On the flip side, U.S. Stocks & U.S. Real Estate picked […]
