September has been rather nasty (so far) not just in equities, but across the various asset classes purporting to provide diversification from such down turns. After today’s sell off, the S&P 500 is down around -9% for the month. Gold is off about -3%, Commodities down about -5%, and bonds and TIPS are likewise slightly […]
Category: Market Commentary
21
Sep
2020
17
Sep
2020
A Professor, Prop Trader, & Risk Manager Walk Into a Bar, with Victor Canto
The “bar” we walk into in this episode is one that specializes in blending the unique flavors of beta and alpha, and our mixologists are Victor Canto, Chief Economist of Cadhina & Co, and Donn Stobierski & Jim Kleinops, the Founders and Managing Members at Black Bear Capital Advisors joining us to talk about convexity […]
15
Sep
2020
Election Volatility is Here and Most Intense Than Ever
October is a historically volatile month (see Oct 08, Oct 87), and the VIX tends to peak in the month, “jumping to [a level of] more than 21… on average over the past 30 years” (CNBC), where we even get the so called October effect or Mark Twain effect. And this October is a particularly […]
10
Sep
2020
Market Up/Vol Up, Market Down/Vol Down…WTF Episode
So – what’s happening in the wide world of volatility? The market moved to new all time highs and the VIX actually went UP. The market then mini-crashed lower and VIX barely budged? WTF indeed? Is it Robinhood traders? It is market makers? Is it sustainable? To break it down we’re doing another of our […]
01
Sep
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: August 2020
July to August was probably the least movement across that board that we’ve seen so far in 2020. U.S. stocks continue to top the board month over month, as well as U.S. real estate and commodities continuing to trail in the red. Are commodities going to be able to move out of double digit red […]
02
Sep
2020
Retail Traders Rejoice
Has there ever been a better time to be an individual trader, or retail trader as they are sometimes condescendingly called in the professional trading industry. What with Dave Portnoy (DDTG) saying (correctly for now) that stocks only go higher, or Robinhood forcing nearly all brokerages to offer commission free trades for stocks and fractional […]
28
Aug
2020
Futures are Hard – Hurricane Edition
Who doesn’t love a good hurricane. The slow moving train wrecks rotating on our screens draw people like moths to a flame, or as our own Jeff Malec put it: I read his posts like Newman taking down a bag of raisinettes during hurricane season — Jeff Malec (@AttainCap2) August 26, 2020 Thank goodness for […]
13
Aug
2020
Debt, Dollars, and Deficits with CME’s Blu Putnam
It’s a job all in itself to be able to look at data – especially data that affects all of us on a daily basis – and be able to interpret that to make sense to yourself. Take that and have to turn it into something that makes sense to everyone else – well that’s […]
05
Aug
2020
Just a Spoonful of (Beta) Sugar
Our own Jeff Malec relayed a story on a recent podcast (if you haven’t checked our The Derivative yet…get on over there) about telling his 10 year old son that “we’ve been in drawdown your whole life”. He was referring to managed futures, of course, and this rather un-even, lumpy, lots of flat/red bars chart […]
23
Jul
2020
Seeking (VIX) Certainty with Certeza’s Brett Nelson
In a #ThrowbackThursday of sorts, we’re bringing you an episode recorded pre-pandemic where we hit the road and traveled to Utah to interview the brain behind Certeza Asset Management, Founder and CIO – Brett Nelson. Brett is another guest deserving of the moniker VIXpert – having been trading the VIX since it first entered the […]
