After we got past sharing each others' Thanksgiving dinner menus, wine pairings, and recipe swaps, the All Star Charts gang got back to business this morning hunting for trade ideas.
We arrived at today's idea in a roundabout way:
"Discretionary stocks have been the 'least shitty' performers as of late."
"We're seeing relative strength in 'da homies. [Homebuilders]"
"In that sector, Lennar $LEN is showing the best relative strength relative to the others."
...and that is a taste of how the Thanksgiving sausage is made.
So let's dig into some visuals to highlight what we're seeing.
Following the collapse of Alameda and FTX, crypto's correlations to legacy markets have completely come off.
As an asset class, this is the most independent crypto has traded for over a year. For most asset allocators and traders, this is generally favorable because it increases the number of uncorrelated assets to profit from.
A big problem for crypto traders is they've been merely riding on a short volatility vehicle that's been tightly correlated to long-duration growth stocks.
All crypto has offered in this period is Beta rather than a unique directional market.
So it's certainly been nice to see some dislocation from equity markets -- even if crypto's been lagging hard following the FTX fiasco.
But my bet is this correlation between stocks and crypto will more than likely return in the coming weeks and prove a durable feature of the landscape.
You might not like it, but we must always deal with reality whenever money's on the table.
The yield curve is getting a lot of attention right now, and deservedly so. An inversion in the spread between the 10-year and 3-month Treasury yields has an unblemished record in anticipating recessions. But beyond that suite of indicators, there is actually evidence that macro conditions have stopped deteriorating.
Why It Matters: Despite a recent lull in day-to-day price swings, 2022 has been one of the most volatile and weakest years for stocks in the past half century. Whether those trends persist into year-end or strong post-midterm election seasonal tendencies have investors feeling less bruised and battered by year-end likely depends on macro conditions. This is not a question of whether conditions are good or bad, but whether they are getting better or worse. Since last month our Macro Health Status report has actually improved. More favorable corporate bond yield momentum and stability in the earnings momentum trend have helped offset the yield...
Back in June, we published a report assessing the asymmetric opportunity to dollar-cost average into Bitcoin.
We concluded that mass liquidations driving Bitcoin back to levels last seen in 2017 represented a favorable opportunity for crypto investors to begin scaling into long-term spot positions.
In the almost exactly five months since then, Bitcoin has continued to creep lower, nearing 15,000. This price action validates the DCA strategy, and it looks even more favorable for long-term crypto investors.
Let's revisit the underpinnings of the strategy in light of recent history.