Category Archives: Global ETF

Global Asset Allocation: Risk and reward isn’t a knob we turn to get what we want. 

March 2, 2020 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

I don’t believe I know anyone who invests all of their money in the stock market, all the time.

In order to invest all of your money in the stock market all the time, you’d have to be willing and able to accept a downside loss (drawdown) of -50% or worse. I say that because it’s the historical drawdown.

S&P 500 Stock Index Historical Drawdowns

In the S&P 500 Stock Index Historical Drawdowns chart below, we see -20% several times, -30% a few times, and -45% or more three times. It happens, it can happen, and it will happen again. It’s why I prefer to instead actively manage my risk for drawdown control.

Losses are exponential the deeper they get and too hard to overcome.

To truly understand the risk, I think we have to know if a market has fallen -50% in the past, it could certainly do it again in the future, or even worse. So, the risk isn’t some multiple times a volatility measure like Value at Risk, but instead, the possible loss is at least the worst historical drawdown. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future returns, so it could be worse next time, for all we know.

Since most people probably don’t have the risk tolerance, risk capacity, or financial ability to take that much risk, most investors invest in some fixed allocation of cash, bonds, and stocks. If they use an advisor, they most likely are further diversified into International markets to make it a diversified portfolio of Global Asset Allocation (GAA). To track Global Asset Allocation, I use the S&P Target Risk Indexes for Global Asset Allocation.

The short story is, S&P allocates between equities and fixed income.

TARGET RISK ALLOCATION

How has a Global Asset Allocation performed so far in 2020 through February?

To answer, I look at these S&P Target Risk Index. But, keep in mind, these indexes do not include fees such as advisory fees or trading costs. Clearly, more risk is not always compensated with more return. All of them are down, but the more aggressive allocation to stocks hasn’t resulted in more return, but less, so far.

Global Asset Allocation GAA performance 2020

In fact, the % off high shows the drawdown for each of the Target Risk Indexes. You can probably see why “growth” and “aggressive” isn’t always as it sounds.

Global Asset Allocation GAA Target Risk Drawdown

Risk and reward isn’t a knob we get to turn to get what we want.

I prefer to rotate, rather than allocation, and actively increase and decrease my exposure to the possibility of risk and reward. It’s the only way I know that has the potential for my objective of asymmetric risk-reward.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical. Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Shell Capital is focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. I observe the charts and graphs to visually see what is going on with price trends and volatility, it is not intended to be used in making any determination as to when to buy or sell any security, or which security to buy or sell. Instead, these are observations of the data as a visual representation of what is going on with the trend and its volatility for situational awareness. I do not necessarily make any buy or sell decisions based on it. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data are deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in ASYMMETRY® Observations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a position of  Shell Capital Management, LLC. The use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

Global Macro: is the coronavirus outbreak crushing the China ETF and causing the volatility expansion?

January 30, 2020 By in Absolute Return, Active Risk Management, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

The past five days have been a little choppy in price action.

SPX january 2020

If you’ve been following my observations, it should be a surprise as a volatility expansion was expected.

The VIX CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index has gained 34% the past five days, so it’s a volatility expansion indeed. At the 17 level, the VIX now implies a 17% volatility in prices over the next 30 days. So, the options market traders expect more vol.

VIX asymmetric risk reward return

I’m no day trader, but I monitor global macro trends daily both systematically through my programs as well as manually and visually. For me, the global macro trend includes other countries and over 100 markets including volatility.

Speaking of other countries…

Below is the US equity index drawdown so far relative to the Emerging Markets Index and EAFE which is developed international countries. Emerging Markets EM is the laggard.

SPY EFA EEM

Looking deeper, here are the country holdings for EEM. China, Taiwan, South Korea, and India are the main exposures in the EM index.

emering markets countires eem holdings

Here are the price trends of China, Taiwan, South Korea, and India that are the principal exposures in the EM index.

global macro trends coronavirus

The drawdowns of these emerging markets countries have been notably greater than the US so far. China and Brazil have fallen the most. As we have been positioned in short tern U.S. Treasuries recently, We have no exposure to these markets.

global macro trend following

I’m sure many investors believe it’s caused by the Coronavirus spreading across China and now the world. At this point, it may be driving some selling for some, but it’s really the market, doing what it does. To be clear, I’m saying the market would respond similarly regardless of the news headlines, because of the math. For some, that may sound provocative and I hope it is at least thought-provoking because I mean it.

To be sure… my assumption is testable.

The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan city, Central China, in December 2019. It is believed to have originated from wild animals, passing to humans due to the wildlife trade and wet markets. However, Google Trends doesn’t show any activity until January 17th and then it jumped on January 24th.

when did coronavirus outbreak first make headlines

Next, I chart the price trend of the MSCI China stock index ETF along with the CBOE China ETF Volatility Index. Cboe Options Exchange (Cboe) now applies its proprietary Cboe Volatility Index® (VIX®) methodology to create indexes that reflect expected volatility for options on select exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Cboe calculates and disseminates the Cboe China ETF Volatility Index (ticker VXFXI), which reflects the implied volatility of the FXI ETF.

Here we see the price trend up to January 17th was up over the past year and the implied volatility was near its low.

china stock trend coronavirus impact on market volatility

And to be sure, here is the chart going back a decade and I marked the lowest point of the China ETF VIX index to show implied volatility had reached an extreme low this month prior to the coronavirus outbreak.

china stock etf vix coronavirus

So, here is the price trend of the China ETF and its volatility index over the past 30 days. The low implied volatility was January 17th, so I was expecting a volatility expansion regardless of any news headlines that would suggest the blame for it. Indeed that’s what we’ve seen.

china etf stocks market vix volatility coronavirus

I believe the markets do what they do and some news gets the headline and the blame. Trends trend and then reverse because mathematically, they reach extreme lows and highs in their momentum making them more likely to reverse direction.

We have no way of knowing exactly why there has been enough selling pressure from investors and traders drive down China stocks, but I expected a volaltity expansion anyway, so if I had exposure to the China ETF  I would have responded accordingly. I didn’t and still don’t, so this is simply for informational purposes, as always.

I believe my systems and methods are robust because I focus on the actual direction of the price trend and its volatility, and the price trend is the final arbiter.  I’ve been doing what I do, over and over, for over two decades now. I’ve just gotten better at it with experience.

I don’t care so much about what news may be driving the trend, I focus on the market overreaction and underreaction and that’s observed in the price and volatility.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical. Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data are deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in ASYMMETRY® Observations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a position of  Shell Capital Management, LLC. The use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

 

 

 

 

Why invest globally?

December 30, 2019 By in Asymmetric Investment Returns, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

Why invest in international markets? someone asked.

Go back to 2007 and it was more obvious. I remember just the opposite questioned posed then; why not invest it all in Emerging Markets? Of course, that was after this:

emerging markets eem $eem trend following asymmetric

Emerging markets were the dominant trend from 2003 to 2007. As the chart shows, it wasn’t even close: 358% for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index vs. 76% for the S&P 500 U.S. stock index.

emerging markets outperform

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index represents securities that are headquartered in emerging markets countries. An emerging market is considered a country that has not yet become developed because of economic characteristics. These countries tend to present a unique investment opportunity because of the nature of their growth potentials.

However, emerging countries aren’t without risk. MSCI Emerging Markets Index has had three notable drawdowns greater than 50% in 1998, 2001, and 2008.

emerging markets eem drawdowns

Back in 2007, when someone asked me “why not invest it all in Emerging Markets” I guessed it was likely the end. Even though the person was born in a foreign country and did business globally, the enthusiasm was a sign. Doing business around the world doesn’t make someone a global investment expert. As this investor did indeed invest their money in Emerging Markets as he confirmed when I saw him a few years later, the timing was terrible. In fact, based on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index chart since 2007 it sill is.

emerging markets since 2007

As we see the full history below, although international stock markets like Emerging Markets can have periods of drawdowns and otherwise non-trending times, there are still potentially profitable price trends that may be captured with a robust tactical method. I’ve avoided EM for a while now for obvious reasons.

msci emerging markets index history

Then, there are developed international markets. The MSCI EAFE Index tracks large-cap and mid-cap companies in developed countries around the world. The index primarily covers the Europe, Australasia, and the Far East regions. This index is used as an important international benchmark. The index has had large drawdowns in 2003 and 2009, which were largely due to recessionary periods. As you can see in the chart, the performance was similar to Emerging Markets. However, the gains on the upside weren’t as much.

msci eafe international markets

You can probably see why investors aren’t talking about these international stocks the last several years. We won’t hear about it until after they trend up a lot and make headlines and magazine covers. I’m a global tactical manager, but I’ve avoided EM and DM for many years now for obvious reasons, unlike global asset allocation which invests in it all the time.

I’m unconstrained and tactical, so I shift between markets based on trends and countertrends, rather than allocating to them for constant exposure to the risk-reward.

The chart above doesn’t exhibit asymmetric risk-reward by itself, but my special weapons and tactics aim to extract it from what is there.

More recently, I’ve mostly focused in high dividend yield global stocks. But, there will come a time when this market are the place to be and when they do, I have 30 other countries outside the United States in my universe.

Have a question or comment? shoot me an email below:

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data are deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in ASYMMETRY® Observations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a position of  Shell Capital Management, LLC. The use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

Global Asset Allocation had a strong year in 2019, but…

December 24, 2019 By in Asymmetric Observation, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical Asset Allocation, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio Leave a comment

People don’t usually invest all their money in equities, even though the stock market is mostly what we talk about. Large institutional investors like pensions and endowments don’t invest all their capital in the stock market, either. Instead, they invest in allocation to stocks and bonds globally diversified across world markets.

One of my favorite examples of the stock and bond part of this global asset allocation is the S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Target Risk index series.

S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Target Risk series comprises multi-asset class indices that correspond to a particular risk level. Each index is fully investable, with varying levels of exposure to equities and fixed income and are intended to represent stock and bond allocations across a risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive.

global asset allocation ETF ETFs ishares S&P target risk

For example, after a positive year for stocks and bonds, most investors will pay more attention to the one that gained the most. After stocks outperform bonds, the best gains are naturally going to be the global allocation that held the most stock exposure.

The S&P Target Risk Aggressive® Index is one of four multi-asset class indices that compose the S&P Target Risk Series. The S&P Target Risk Aggressive Index emphasizes exposure to equities, maximizing opportunities for long-term capital accumulation. It may include small allocations to fixed income to enhance portfolio efficiency. In a positive year like 2019, it was the clear winner on the upside. The aggressive allocation gained 19% so far in 2019. On the other end of the spectrum, even the conservative allocation gained 10%.

But, risk isn’t a knob.

Asset allocators don’t get to dial it up or down, and it always work out the way they want.

The reward isn’t a knob, either.

Just because a portfolio is dialed up with risk to “aggressive” doesn’t mean you get the reward from it.

That’s especially true in the short term. Had you believed risk and reward is a knob you turn to get what you want in January a year ago, you could have experienced the aggressive allocation resulted in the more aggressive loss.

The conservative model lost the least, but that isn’t a sure thing, either. In global asset allocation, conservative means more allocation to bonds for fixed income. If bonds fall and stocks rise, the conservative model could lose money and the more stock weighted aggressive could gain.

Diversification is often presented by advisors as a risk management strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. But, diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss. The outcome of asset allocation is driven by the exposure to stocks vs. bonds and their gain and loss.

That’s not what I do.

A global asset allocation of exposures that otherwise remain static is very different from dynamic exposures that change based on asymmetric risk-reward driving tactical decisions.

My outcome is decided by my tactical increase and decreases in exposure to risk-reward as I focus on asymmetric risk-reward. I believe there is a time for offense and a  time for  defense.

But, for everyone else, there’s global asset allocation. It’s what most people do. They allocate capital, I rotate capital. I rotate, rather than allocate.

If I were going to invest in static, long-only, fully invested all the time global asset allocation, it would look like these S&P Target Risk indexes. When it comes to a simple allocation of capital, who’s going to do it better than S&P? Many advisors are charging their clients 0.50% to 1% for a simple asset allocation like this. I personally believe the risk of a disaster is so high it makes the unmanaged risk imprudent, so we don’t offer fixed, long-only, fully invested all the time global asset allocation at Shell Capital. If we did, we’d probably manage billions because investors want “market returns” until they are big losses. We could also spend our time selling instead of analyzing. But we would constantly be apologizing for market behavior instead of embracing up and downtrends. In my opinion, it’s a difficult business model, but it’s still the easiest for financial advisors. They allocate to the funds, rebalance routinely, maybe do some tax-loss harvesting, and write a commentary about what the market did that lead to their results. Admittedly, it’s a lot easier than tactical portfolio management. When the market doesn’t do what they wanted, it’s the market’s fault. In 2008, they said let’s  “hunker down.”

From my perspective, the investment advisory firms with the largest assets under management tend to be asset allocation firms. They advise clients to invest in global asset allocation models similar to these. Since they aren’t doing constant research and making tactical trading decisions, their time is freed up for the golf course, where they meet more and more clients.

Why do I think it’s a challenging advisory business model?

Global asset allocation doesn’t give me what I want, nor does it give our clients what they want. We want active risk management. We want a point in which we’ll reduce our exposure to loss and maybe even reverse it so as prices fall we profit from it. Sure, like global asset allocation, tactical portfolio management does not assure a profit or guarantee protection against a loss, either. But, like any other action in life vs. inaction, it’s an attempt, which to me, is better than no attempt at all.

What I know is this: global markets can and do all fall together in times of crisis when investors who held their losses too long keep tapping out as prices fall.

global asset allocation diversification failed 2008

Even the most respected global allocation funds participated in the waterfall decline enough to tap out most investors I know if they had invested in them – we didn’t.

I know some advisors and media have been criticizing the “hedge fund” side of the investment industry for years now because total returns haven’t been as high as the past. I don’t think passive indexing advisors have all that much to speak about themselves. Even the most aggressive index allocation that assumes no fees is a 26% gain in the past three years. That’s not an average gain, it’s a gain in capital.

More importantly, those numbers haven’t changed over the past 5 years. So, the past 5 years haven’t been so outstanding for anyone, especially factoring in the volatility.

In fact, it’s caused by volaltity. Volatility eats away at compounding capital positively.

Speaking of volatility, it’s the downside volatility we don’t like. Here are the historical drawdowns of these indexes since they launched in 2011.

If you look close, to get the return of global asset allocation, you’d have to hold through declines of -10% to -20% routinely. In a big bear market will be worse, which hasn’t happened since these indexes weRE made available.

That’s why I believe even a passive global asset allocation is a risky business and not an investment model I’m willing to offer. If people we know want global asset allocation, we show them a way to get it without us. We only offer what we believe is of value.

I can’t imagine what it would be like in 2011 when these global allocations were falling and all we can say is “Hopefully it stops falling?”

But, what if it doesn’t?

What if it keeps falling?

I believe everyone has a tap-out point. We can either determine it in advance or find out the hard way. The tap-out point will be tested over and over with global asset allocation.

But, 2019 wasn’t one of those years, so everyone has something to celebrate this year.

When the wind is blowing, we can let out the sail and enjoy the ride.

When the wind stops blowing, we have to row, not sail, or risk sinking.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data are deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in ASYMMETRY® Observations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a position of  Shell Capital Management, LLC. The use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

Active management and tactical allocation isn’t the only method with “strategy risk” as global asset allocation can get off track, too

November 13, 2019 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

Most investors, individual and institutional, apply some kind of asset allocation method to a portfolio mix of cash, bonds, and stocks. The most diversified also invest internationally,  so their portfolio is global. The most common method is strategic asset allocation, which allocates capital to funds that represent different parts of the stock and bond markets based on some prediction of future exected returns or historical returns along with variance. There isn’t much skill to it unless you can predict the future better than others.

That’s Global Asset Allocation and it’s especially what large institutional investors like pensions and endowments do.

Since around 2002, most financial advisors have adopted it as well. I say 2002 because that was when I remember even the large Wall Street brokers like J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch starting to teach their financial advisors to use Modern Portfolio Theory to create Global Asset Allocation portfolios. Although in many cases, these investment brokers and banks don’t necessarily allow their brokerage salespeople to create their own models, instead, they sell models the firm creates. After all, financial advisors at a brokerage firm or investment bank aren’t analysts or portfolio managers, their job is to sell the firms’ products and services. So, most individual investors who have a financial advisor at a large brokerage firm probably find themselves in some kind of Global Asset Allocation.

In The stock market has made little progress in the past two years which is a hostile condition for trend following I pointed out the U.S. equity market has made little progress in the past two years. I also showed a simple example of how and why it’s a hostile condition for trend following methods.

The past two years haven’t been any better for allocation to global stocks and bonds, no matter how you sliced it.

To illustrate this observation, we use the S&P Target Risk Index Series. Below is the chart of all four “target risk” allocations between global stocks, bonds, and cash.

An index isn’t a physical basket of securities, but a mathematical construct that describes the market. So, we can’t invest directly in an index. But we can invest in securities like ETFs that track indexes and which provide exposure to the markets they reflect. In the case of S&P Target Risk, BlackRock iShares has ETFs that aim to track each of the four indexes.

The S&P Target Risk series of indices comprises multi asset class indices that correspond to a particular risk level. They measure risk level based on exposure to cash and bonds (for lower expected risk) to stocks for higher risk and expected return. So, the four indices each measure the performance of specific allocations to equities and fixed income. Each index has varying levels of exposure to equities and fixed income and are intended to represent stock and bond allocations across a risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive.

Something unique about these indices is each index is composed of exchange traded funds (ETFs), rather than an index allocation to other mathematical indices.

Again, the indices represent stock-bond allocations across a risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive. The assigned risk level of the index (conservative, moderate, growth, and aggressive) depends on the allocation to fixed income.

S&P Target Risk Conservative Index. The index seeks to emphasize exposure to fixed income, in order to produce a current income stream and avoid excessive volatility of returns. Equities are included to protect long-term purchasing power.

S&P Target Risk Moderate Index. The index seeks to provide significant exposure to fixed income, while also providing increased opportunity for capital growth through equities.

S&P Target Risk Growth Index. The index seeks to provide increased exposure to equities, while also using some fixed income exposure to dampen risk.

S&P Target Risk Aggressive Index. The index seeks to emphasize exposure to equities, maximizing opportunities for long-term capital accumulation.

We can refer to Index Construction for details on each index’s allocation to equity and fixed income.

Index Construction Target Risk S&P global asset allocation index

The short version is there is a 10% to 20% difference between the allocation between bonds and stocks.

So, how has Global Asset Allocation performed in this very volatile two years that’s had a hard time gaining enough momentum to stay at new highs?

S&P Target Risk Conservative Index. The index seeks to emphasize exposure to fixed income, in order to produce a current income stream and avoid excessive volatility of returns. Equities are included to protect long-term purchasing power.

Below is its return stream. Since it’s a relative return long-only fully exposed to the allocation all the time, I’m including the S&P 500 stock index just for reference. We can see the difference in the risk-reward profile for a conservative allocation. It’s bearly earned a gain the past two years at 2.29%.

For conservative investors, the downside avoidance was their main objective. We can see it in the % off high drawdown chart. At least for little return, it also experienced less downside, but at still had a drawdown of nearly -8%, so not exactly an asymmetric risk-reward over this short period.

 

Working our way toward more risk and expected return from a higher allocation of stocks, below is its return stream of the S&P Target Risk Moderate Index. The index seeks to provide significant exposure to fixed income, while also providing increased opportunity for capital growth through equities. Since it’s a relative return long-only fully exposed to the allocation all the time, I’m including the S&P 500 stock index just for reference. We can see the difference in the risk-reward profile.

The S&P Target Risk Moderate Index had more exposure to stocks than conservative, but it didn’t earn it a better return over the volatile period. However, with a drawdown of -10% compared to -20% for 100% stocks via the S&P 500, it’s “moderate” risk resulted in half the downside.

Continuing to work our way toward more risk and expected return from a higher allocation of stocks, below is its return stream of the S&P Target Risk Growth Index.

The S&P Target Risk Growth index seeks to provide increased exposure to equities, while also using some fixed income exposure to dampen risk. Here are the price trends.

 

The S&P Target Risk Growth allocation has earned 1.22% for a -13% drawdown.

S&P Target Risk Aggressive Index seeks to emphasize exposure to equities, maximizing opportunities for long-term capital accumulation.

 

The Aggressive allocation participated in the downside but not the upside.

Active management or tactical allocation isn’t the only method with “strategy risk” as sometimes asset allocation can get off track. 

I don’t offer this kind of asset allocation that allocates capital to fixed buckets of stocks and bonds and then rebalances them periodically. As a tactical portfolio manager, instead of allocating to markets, I rotate between them based on asymmetric risk-reward. We don’t want to have too much exposure to falling markets and we prefer to focus on up trending markets. So, I prefer to limit my downside by predefining my risk and the upside takes care of itself as we let profits run. For me and our clients, our portfolio a replacement to this kind of asset allocation. Frankly, if I didn’t think I could achieve a better asymmetric risk-reward profile over full market cycles including drawdown control that we are better willing and able to tolerate, I wouldn’t bother doing what I do. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. But, from what I’ve seen so far, many investors in global asset allocation tapped out in the last bear market as both stocks and bonds experienced waterfall declines. Do you know what didn’t? cash and shorts.

To me, that’s tactical.

The bottom line is, all investments and investment strategies involve risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Which one is right anyone is a function of their personal preferences toward someone actively making decisions or passively holding exposure to market risk, their risk tolerance for drawdowns, and their desire to pursue asymmetric risk-reward. None of it is a sure thing.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data are deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. The use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

I don’t always comment on economic indicators, but when I do, it’s a trend like ISM Manufacturing Index

October 3, 2019 By in Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Hedging, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

The ISM Manufacturing Index monitors changes in production levels from month to month and is considered an important economic indicator by many global macro investment managers. Some of them consider a level above 50 as an indicator of a growing manufacturing sector.

However, the current level is now down to 47.30, down from 49.50 last month and down from 63.90 one year ago. This is a change of -4.44% from last month and -25.98% from one year ago.

Global Macro traders and investors who rely on economic indicators monitor the ISM Manufacturing Index to observe US economic trends and conditions. When the index is rising, they expect a bullish stock market in reaction to higher corporate earnings. Looking at the past year, the level is in a downtrend. As such, this downtrend may be bearish for the economy and stock market.

In fact, there seems to be a trend here as I broaded out the time horizon to see the bigger picture. ISM Manufacturing Index is also in a downtrend over the past three years.

We can say the same about the past five years. This economic indicator is trending down and in a downtrend.

Next is the 10-year trend. Over the past 10 years, the recent trend is notable.

Looking back over the full period I have data, which is before 1950, the historical trend suggests it could get worse, but it’s also at the lower range it has reached before it does.

So, this economic indicator suggests as investors, we had better be prepared and aware of the situation as tactical risk management is likely to be more obviously necessary for the near future. This is potentially negative for stocks from this point.

What about bonds?

The opposite is the case for bonds. Bonds may fall as the ISM Manufacturing Index rises and in an uptrend because of the sensitivity of bonds to inflation. However, when the ISM Manufacturing Index is declining like it is now and in a downtrend, it can be positive for bonds.

The funny thing is my directional price trend systems already have us meaningful exposure to long term U.S. Treasury bonds.

You see, I don’t have to know about economic indicators or follow them, my systems and methods identify when the trends are actually starting as well as when they reverse. When they do this well, we naturally get in sync with the price trends and what these economic indicators observe.

It looks like there are real signs of a slowing U.S. economy. As such, investors need to be prepared and not be complacent with non-risk managed holdings in their portfolio. I manage our risk at Shell Capital Management by predefining my exits on all of our holdings, hedging, and tactically investing in the direction of trends and sometimes likely countertrends. It’s what our clients pay us for. As this economic expansion is very aged as is the bull market in stocks, the only certainty is the change we’ll see in the future. What has been trending up so long will eventually trend down.

I’m as prepared as I’ve ever been and probably better now than I was in the past when I operated through such conditions.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor focused on asymmetric risk-reward and absolute return strategies and provides investment advice and portfolio management only to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Any opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions change.  Do not make any investment decisions based on such information as it is subject to change. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. Use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Argentina stock market loss is a reminder of single country ETF risk

August 13, 2019 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetry ETF, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical Asset Allocation, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, tactical risk management Leave a comment

If we looked at the MSCI Argentina ETF on July 4th, its gains year to date were astonishing.

Below is a chart of both iShares MSCI Argentina & Global Exposure ETF (AGT) and Global X MSCI Argentina ETF (ARGT) price trend from January 1st to July 4th.

The Global X MSCI Argentina ETF (ARGT) invests in among the largest and most liquid securities with exposure to Argentina. Both of the ETFs intend to track the MSCI All Argentina 25/50 Index.

On the iShares MSCI Argentina and Global Exposure ETF website, iShares highlights the theme:

Why AGT? Currently, the second-largest economy in South America, Argentina has recently implemented policies to make its market friendlier to foreign investors (World Bank. Based on 2015 GDP)

However, International investing involves risks, including risks related to foreign currency, limited liquidity, less government regulation and the possibility of substantial volatility due to adverse political, economic or other developments. These risks often are heightened for investments in emerging/developing markets or in concentrations of single countries.

Yesterday, the ETF priced in U.S. dollars dropped -24%. Just like that, in a single day, most of its year-to-date gain evaporated.

 at Bloomberg reports “Argentina’s 48% Stock Rout Second-Biggest in Past 70 Years” and;

  • Only Sri Lanka has suffered a worse single-day drop since 1950
  •  South America nation endured similar one-day sell-off in 2002

Single countries can be subject to the possibility of substantial volatility and loss of value due to adverse political events.

Argentina’s peso also fell -15% after a surprising primary election outcome. CNN says It seems investors how populists could replace the country’s current, business-friendly government.

Bloomberg goes on to say:

“That marked the second-biggest one-day rout on any of the 94 stock exchanges tracked by Bloomberg going back to 1950. Sri Lanka’s bourse tumbled more than 60% in June 1989 as the nation was engulfed in a civil war.”

The top 5 shows 1-day percent declines from -36% to -62%:

Global X MSCI Argentina ETF AGT ARGT

 

You can probably see why I say we must actively manage the possibility of loss through tactical risk management methods. Tactical risk management methods may include predefined exits, hedging, and position size control. Of the 40 or so single country ETFs I include in my global universe of ETFs, it necessarily requires the realization that any single country can result in a loss like Argentina.

 

I built my risk management systems with the possibility of these enormous losses in mind, so we can probably be more prepared than those with no plan to direct and control the exposure to the possibility of loss.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor and provides investment advice and portfolio management exclusively to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell any security. Securities reflected are not intended to represent any client holdings or any recommendations made by the firm. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information and data is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. Use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

A few observations on Global Macro and Trend Following

July 23, 2019 By in Absolute Return, Active Risk Management, Actively Manage Risk, Asymmetric Investment Returns, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Payoff, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetry ETF, Asymmetry Ratio, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Positive Asymmetry, Risk Asymmetry, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical Asset Allocation, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, tactical risk management, Trend Following Leave a comment

A few observations on #GlobalMacro and #TrendFollowing

As I see it, trend following can be global macro and global macro can be trend following. I call my primary strategy “global tactical,” which is an unconstrained, go-anywhere combination of them both and multiple strategies.

There is no way to predict the future direction of the stock market with macroeconomics. There are far too many variables and the variability of those variables change and evolve. The way to deal with it is to simply evolve with the changing trends and direct and control risk.

For me, it’s about Man + Machine. I apply my proprietary tactical trading systems and methods to a global opportunity set of markets to find potentially profitable price trends. Though my computerized trading systems are systematic, I use their signals at my discretion.

I believe my edge in developing my systems and methods began by first developing skill at charting price trends and trading them successfully. If I had started out just testing systems, I’d only have data mined without the understanding I have of trends and how markets interact.

Without the experience of charting market trends starting in the 90’s I probably would have overfitted backtested systems as it seems others have. A healthy dose of charting skill and experience helped me to avoid systems that relied on trends that seemed unlikely to repeat.

For example, if one had developed a backtested system in 2000 without experience charting those prior trends in real-time, they’d have focused on NASDAQ stocks like Technology. The walk forward would have been a disaster. We can say the same for those who backtested post-2008.

All portfolio management investment decision-making is very challenging as we never know for sure what’s going to happen next. The best we can do is apply robust systems and methods based on a positive mathematical expectation and a dose of skilled intuition that comes with experience.

As such, ALL systems and methods are going to have conditions that are hostile to the strategy and periods you aren’t thrilled with the outcome. For me, self-discipline comes with knowledge, skill, and experience. I am fully committed, steadfast, and persistent in what I do.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor and provides investment advice and portfolio management exclusively to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and are not specific advice, research, or buy or sell recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information provided is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. Use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

Welcome to March! A review of global asset allocation and global markets

March 1, 2019 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric Investment Returns, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetry Ratio, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Positive Asymmetry, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

In the first two months of 2019 global asset allocation has gained 4% to 8.6%. I use the iShares Core Global Allocation ETFs as a proxy instead of indexes since the ETFs are real world performance including costs. The four different allocations below represent different exposure to global stocks vs. bonds.

global asset allocation ETF ETFs asymmetric risk reward .jpg

I’m not advising anyone to buy or sell these ETFs, but instead using them as an example for what a broadly diversified global asset allocation portfolio looks like. Most financial advisors build some type of global asset allocation for their clients and try to match it with their risk tolerance. The more aggressive clients get more stocks and the most conservative clients get more bonds. Of course, this is just asset allocation, so the allocations are mostly fixed and do not change based on market risk/reward. This is very different than what I do, which is focus on asymmetric risk/reward by increasing and decreasing exposure to risk/reward based on my calculations of risk levels and the potential for reward. So, my system is global, but it’s tactical rotation rather than fixed allocation.

The iShares Core Allocation Funds track the S&P Target Risk Indexes. So, BlackRock is the portfolio manager managing the ETF and they are tracking S&P Target Risk Indexes. Here is their description:

S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Target Risk series comprises multi-asset class indices that correspond to a particular risk level. Each index is fully investable, with varying levels of exposure to equities and fixed income and are intended to represent stock and bond allocations across a risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive.

In other words, they each provide varying allocations to bonds and stocks. The Conservative model is more bonds, the Aggressive model is more stocks.

S&P Target Risk Conservative Index. The index seeks to emphasize exposure to fixed income, in order to produce a current income stream and avoid excessive volatility of returns. Equities are included to protect long-term purchasing power.

S&P Target Risk Moderate Index. The index seeks to provide significant exposure to fixed income, while also providing increased opportunity for capital growth through equities.

S&P Target Risk Growth Index. The index seeks to provide increased exposure to equities, while also using some fixed income exposure to dampen risk.

S&P Target Risk Aggressive Index. The index seeks to emphasize exposure to equities, maximizing opportunities for long-term capital accumulation. It may include small allocations in fixed income to enhance portfolio efficiency.

Below is an example of the S&P Target Risk Index allocations and the underlying ETFs they invest in. Notice their differences is 10% to 20% allocation between stocks and bonds.

Global Allocation Index Construction

These ETFs offer low-cost exposure to global asset allocation with varying levels of “risk,” which really means varying levels of allocations to bonds. I say they are “low-cost” because these ETFs only charge 0.25% including the ETFs they are invested in. Most financial advisors probably charge 1% for similar global asset allocation, not including trade commissions and the ETF or fund fees they invest in. Even the lowest fee advisors charge at least 0.25% plus the trade commissions and the fund fees they invest in. With these ETFs, investors who want long-only exposure all the time to global stock and bond market risk/return, they can get it in one low-cost ETF. However, they do come with the risks of being fully invested, all the time. These ETFs do not provide any absolute risk management.

As an unconstrained, go-anywhere, absolute return manager who does apply active risk management, I’m unconstrained from a fixed benchmark, so I don’t intend to track or “beat” a benchmark. I operate with the limitations of a fixed benchmark. My objective is to create as much total return I can within a given amount of downside risk so investors don’t tap out trying to achieve it. It doesn’t matter how much the return is if inveestors tap out during drawdowns before it’s achieved. However, I consider global asset allocation that “base rate.” If I didn’t think I could create better asymmetric risk/reward than these ETFs I wouldn’t bother doing what I do. I would just be passive and take the beatings in bear markets. If we can’t tolerate the beatings, we would invest in the more conservative ETF. I intend to create ASYMMETRY® and win by not losing, and that necessarily requires robust risk management systems and tactics.

Now that we know what they are, below are their total returns including dividends looking back over time. (To see the full history in the prospectus click: iShares)

In the chart below, we see the global asset allocation ETFs are attempting to get back to their September 2018 high. While the S&P 500 stock index is still down about -4% from its September 2018 high, the bonds in these ETFs helped reduce their drawdowns, so they have also recovered their losses better.

global tactical asset allocation asymmetric risk reward

To be sure, below are the drawdowns. The iShares Core Conservative ETF is only 30% stocks and 70% bonds, so it had a smaller drawdown and has recovered from it already. I added the S&P 500 in this chart with is 100% stocks to show how during this correction, the exposure to bonds helped offset losses in stocks. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Sometimes diversification and even the broadest global asset allocation fails like it did in 2008.

GLOBAL TACTICAL ASSET ALLOCATION ASYMMETRIC RISK REWARD DRAWDOWN

We can look inside the ETF to see their exposures. Below we see the iShares Core Moderate ETF which is 60% stocks and 40% bonds largest holding is the iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (IUSB) at 50% of the fund.

iShares Core Moderate Allocation ETF

Below is the 1-year total return chart including dividends for its largest holding. It has gained a total return of 2.9% the past year. All of the gains were this year.

iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (IUSB)

Next, I added the other two largest holdings iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and iShares Core MSCI International Developed Markets ETF (IDEV). The weakness was worse in international stocks. 

GLOBAL ASSEST ALLOCATION ADVISORS TACTICAL

No total return chart is complete without also looking at its drawdowns. The combination of the total return chart and the drawdown is what I call the ASYMMETRY® Ratio. The ASYMMETRY® Ratio is the total return divided by the risk it took to achieve it. I prefer more total return, less downside drawdown.

global tactical asset allocation drawdown risk management

The point is, global stocks and bonds have recovered much of the losses. As we would expect so has global asset allocation. The only issue now is the short term risk has become elevated by my measures, so we’ll see how the next few weeks unfold.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

Mike Shell and Shell Capital Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor and provides investment advice and portfolio management exclusively to clients with a signed and executed investment management agreement. The observations shared on this website are for general information only and are not specific advice, research, or buy or sell recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All information provided is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. Use of this website is subject to its terms and conditions.

Divergence in Global Asset Allocation

October 9, 2018 By in Active Risk Management, Asymmetric Observation, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

We’ve observed divergence across global markets since September, so those invested in a static global asset allocation probably notice it the most. I focus my U.S. equity portfolio exposures more granularly into individual stocks and sectors rather than these broad asset classes, but I still monitor them all. I’ll share some recent observations.

Since the first of September, I observed small cap stocks started to trend down. In the chart below, up until September, we see small cap stocks (orange) had trended up with the best momentum since the drop in February and April. Large and mid-cap stocks trends converged with each other until recently when mid-cap stocks turned down more than the large stocks index. At this point, the small company stock index year to date trend has declined to converge with the popular S&P 500 stock index of mainly large companies.

stock market divergence between large and small cap stocks

To get a better visual of the recent divergence, I draw a chart of the % off high to see each of their drawdowns. Here we see the S&P 500 has barely declined off its high. The weakness is in mid-cap stocks and even more in small-cap stocks. Investors who have the typical asset allocation portfolio hold some static mix of small, mid, and large. They probably notice unusual strength until September, then those gains faded away.

divergence small and large cap trend following momentum

But, the divergence isn’t just in U.S. stocks. In fact, U.S. stocks have been the strongest trends in the world recently. Bonds, for example, have been in a downtrend. Here are three bond index ETFs year to date. The broad U.S. Aggregate Bond index has declined nearly -5%, corporate bonds -7%, and the long-term U. S. Treasury -10% this year alone.

bond trend momentum losses in 2018

Yes, that is U. S. Treasuries, U.S. government bonds, down over -10% year to date. However, the downtrend in bonds didn’t just start this year. This trend has been going for a while, so here we see the % off high the past three years for a better view of the downside. The long-term U.S. Treasury index is down about -21% from its top three years ago. So, to the extent that static global asset allocation portfolios have a fixed allocation to bonds, you can probably see how they weigh down a portfolio. In fact, to the point of offsetting gains in stocks if their weight is enough.

bond fund ETF drawdowns risk

In May 2015 I warned of this when I shared Allocation to Stocks and Bonds is Unlikely to Give us What We Want and What You Need to Know About Long-Term Bond Trends. I suggested that bonds may not provide a crutch in the next bear market. In fact, in September 2015 I shared that Bonds Aren’t Providing a Crutch for Stock Market Losses.

You can probably see why I prefer to rotate and shift between markets based on trends and tactical decisions rather than a fixed asset allocation to them.

Market trends move in cycles over time. No market price trends up all the time. Even within long-term uptrends, markets cycle up and down along the way with smaller trends within the larger trend. For example, the small-cap divergence at this point is a smaller divergence. Before small stocks declined, they had stronger momentum.

When it comes to bonds or other investments that pay interest or dividend yield, there can be some positive about the price trend falling. As the price trends down, the yield it pays trends up. I discussed this in more detail last spring in When I apply different trend systems to ETFs. But I’ll share an example here.

Since the long-term Treasury is down the most, I’ll use it as an example. First, let’s consider as risk-conscious investors, we should naturally prefer to position our capital in the safest investments possible if we can achieve our return objective with it. In other words, if we can get the capital gains and yield we want from government bonds, we would prefer that over even more risky stocks. All markets and all investments have risks and investors who have held long-term Treasuries (or other bonds) the past few years have certainly experience that even fixed income has risks.

However, for those of who didn’t buy and hold bonds the past few years, their yields are beginning to look more interesting as the price has declined. We can illustrate that very clearly with the chart below showing the declining price trend of the long-term Treasury, but the yield is rising the lower the price falls. Clearly, if we were going to have some exposure to these bonds, we would prefer them now over prior periods because the yield it pays is higher.

TLT long term treasury

So, there is divergence within U.S. stocks and also some divergence within bonds and interest rates. Most investors who have an asset allocation have a global asset allocation, not just U.S. stocks, and bonds. The more “sophisticated” institutional style portfolio like the endowments and pension funds allocate capital to International markets, real estate, and commodities, etc.

In Emerging Markets Reached a Bear Market Level I shared an observation that the emerging markets index has declined -20%. Below is the total return of the emerging markets and developed international stocks markets.

emerging markets international stocks 2018 drawdown trend momentum EEM EFA

As always, to get the full view of the downside risk we have to observe the drawdown in terms of % off high. Here we see that international developed and emerging markets are still in downtrends. With both of them down between -11% and -21%, you can see how their declines could offset any gains from U.S. stocks in static global asset allocation.

emerging market drawdown risk management

Since our topic is divergence across global markets and we are taking a global macro view for typical global asset allocation, we’ll include real estate (REITs) and private equity. This real estate index ETF seeks to provide precise exposure to companies from real estate management and development and REITs, excluding mortgage REITs. Since private equity, like what some of the pensions and endowments invest in, is actually private companies instead of publically traded company stocks, we’ll use the Global Listed Private Equity index ETF. The Index it tracks includes securities of 40 to 75 private equity companies, including business development companies (BDCs), master limited partnerships (MLPs) and other vehicles whose principal business is to invest in, lend capital to or provide services to privately held companies (collectively, listed private equity companies). Once again, any exposures to these markets aren’t helping global asset allocation in 2018.

real state and private equity trends momentum global tactical asset allocation

I didn’t want to end on a downtrend, so I saved the commodity indexes for last. For a proxy for commodities, we observe trend price trend of index ETFs like the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust. It seeks to track the results of a fully collateralized investment in futures contracts on an index composed of a diversified group of commodities futures. Unlike other markets, the price of “stuff” has trended up lately. Only time will tell if the trend continues, but the rising price of commodities can be considered inflation.

commodity ETF trend following momentum asymmetric risk

You may be wondering, what is the big global macro driver of most of these trends?

As I shared in the observation in The Trend in Interest Rates and the Impact on the Economy and Stock Market and Rising Interest Rate Impact on Real Estate and Home Construction:

Interest rates are rising for the first time in over a decade.

rising interest rates trend .jpg

Some divergence isn’t necessarily a bad thing for those of us who are willing and able to tactically shift between global markets and actively manage risk.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The presence of this website on the Internet shall in no direct or indirect way raise an implication that Shell Capital Management, LLC is offering to sell or soliciting to sell advisory services to residents of any state in which the firm is not registered as an investment advisor. 

What trends are driving emerging markets into a bear market?

September 8, 2018 By in Active Risk Management, Adapting to Change, Alternative Investment, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetry ETF, Behavioral Finance, Critical Thinking, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio Leave a comment

In Emerging Markets Reached a Bear Market Level we noted the emerging markets index has declined -20%, which is considered to be in bear market territory. The emerging markets index includes 24 countries classified as emerging countries.

To see the country exposure, we examine the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF holdings. China is about 31%, South Korea is about 15%, Taiwan is over 12%, so the top three countries make up 58% of the country exposure. Add India at 10% and the top four countries is a dominant 68% of the exposure. Clearly, we’d expect the drift of these top holdings to dominate the trend.

what countries are emering markets ETF ETFs

Below we see the 2018 price trends of the emerging markets ETF and the top four countries that make up 68% of the emerging markets index ETF exposure. We see that South Korea and China are the primary downtrends that are trending close to the emerging markets index ETF. Taiwan and India have stronger relative momentum.

emerging markets $EEM china $FXI india south korea 2018 trend

To get a better understanding of what is driving the downtrend, we draw the % off high charts to see the drawdowns. From this observation, we can see what is really driving the trend. Of the top four countries in the index, the negative momentum of China and South Korea are driving the trend down. China is down -24% over the past year as South Korea is down -17%.

emerging market ETF trends

Taiwan and India have stronger relative momentum since they have trended up more recently since July. Prior to July, they were trending closer to China and South Korea.

You can probably see why I include the individual countries in my global universe rather than just the broad emerging markets index ETF that includes 24 countries. I want to find potentially profitable price trends, so I increase my opportunity to find them when I give myself more options.

There are 24 countries represented in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and we’ve looked at the top 4 because they are given 68% of the exposure. That leaves only 32% in the other 20 countries. So, in regard to understanding what is driving the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, viewing the trend of the top holdings is enough to get an idea of the countries driving returns. But, in wanting to go find potentially profitable price trends, I research all the countries trends.

What about the rest of the emerging markets countries? 

Looking at the other 20 countries classified as emerging markets, I’ll divide them into groups. First, we’ll look at the other countries that are down -10% or more year-to-date. Then, I’ll draw a chart of those that are down this year,  but not as much. We’ll end with the few that are positive in 2018.

Emerging markets countries down the most year-to-date include Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil, Philippines, Chile, Poland, and Peru. Priced in U.S. dollars, these countries are down between -14% and -52%. Turkey is down the most.

emerging markets countries down 2018 $EEM

Looking at their % off high shows us the drawdown over the past year, which is a different perspective. If you had held one of these ETFs, this is the amount it would be down from its highest price over the past year.

Emerging markets countries down the most 2018

Clearly, these emerging countries are in downtrends and a bear market if we define a bear market as a -20% decline. Keep in mind, these ETFs are foreign stocks priced in U.S. dollars, so to U.S. investors, this is what the trends of these countries look like.

Next, we observe emerging markets countries that are down less than -10% in 2018. Russia, Columbia, Thailand, and Malasia are down between -3% and 8% so far. Their trends are generally down: lower highs and lower lows.

emering markets year to date 2018

We can see the downtrends in a different perspective when we view their drawdowns as a % off high over the past year.

emering market countries percent off high asymmetric risk reward

I saved the best for last. The strongest trending top momentum emerging markets countries so far in 2018 are Mexico, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia was previously classified as a smaller frontier market, but, this summer MSCI announced it will include the MSCI Saudi Arabia Index in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

top momentum emerging markets countires 2018

Hearing names like Mexico, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar may highlight home country bias for some investors. Home country bias is the tendency for investors to favor companies from their own countries over those from other countries or regions.

I don’t have a home country bias. I am open to finding potentially profitable price trends in any country around the world. We encourage investors to be open to global trends and not limit their choices, but if our clients don’t want exposure to any specific country, we are able to exclude it in our ASYMMETRY® Managed Portfolios.

While the United States is the single largest economy in the world, according to JP Morgan it accounts for only a small fraction of global GDP and just over 35% of the world’s capital markets. Yet, studies show that U.S. investors have nearly 75% of their investments in U.S.-based assets. As we’ve shown here, there has been a good reason to avoid emerging countries for now, but as we explain in Emerging Markets Reached a Bear Market Level there are times when these countries present strong relative momentum over U.S. stocks.

This is why I tactically shift between global markets based on their directional price trends rather than a fixed buy and hold global asset allocation.

 

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emerging Markets Reached a Bear Market Level, or is it a Continuation of a Secular Bear Market?

September 7, 2018 By in Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Strategist, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, Trend Following 1 Comment
Emerging Markets Reached a Bear Market Level, or is it a Continuation of a Secular Bear Market?

An emerging market is a country that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not satisfy standards to be termed a developed market.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index covers more than 800 securities across large and mid-cap size segments and across style and sector segments in 24 emerging markets. The 24 countries in the index represent 10% of world market capitalization.  The Index is available for a number of regions, market segments/sizes and covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each of the 24 countries.

MSCI uses their MSCI Market Classification Framework to classify countries based on economic development, size and liquidity, and market accessibility criteria.

According to MSCI, it includes countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico in the Americas. emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are countries like Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Turkey. Asia emerging markets are China, India, Korea, and Taiwan.

MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF ETFs

Now that we have clarified who the emerging markets countries are, let’s take a look at their price trends.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is in a bear market territory, down -20% from its high in January. The investment industry defines a “bear market” as a -20% off its recent high, so we’ll go with it.

emerging markets $EEM #EEM $IEMG

This isn’t the first time Emerging Markets have declined -20% or more since 2009. The downtrend 2015 – 2016 was over -30%.

EEM Emerging Markets $EEM

Looking back to 2007, we see the Emerging Markets Index has never recovered to reach its high in September 2007. It’s still down about -24% from the high 11 years ago.

$EEM Emerging Markets ETF ETFs

So, if we define a “bear market” as -20% off its high, the Emerging Markets Index was in a bear market until January this year and has since reversed back into a bear market again. A bear market that lasts 11 years as this one did is called a “secular bear market“.

emerging markets long term trend secular bear market eem $eem

So, we could say: emerging markets have reentered their secular bear market. Or, maybe it’s just a continuation of a secular bear market if we don’t consider the temporary January 2018 breakout above its 2007 high to have ended the ongoing secular bear market.

The bottom line is, emerging markets countries as an index are trending down. They’ve been in a generally non-trending range for the last decade, though there have been many swings up and down along the way.

It is what it is, but you may now wonder; Why? I pointed out in Trend of the International Stock Market one reason International stocks are trending down for U. S. investors is the Dollar has trended up. Currency risk is a significant risk facing investors in International and emerging markets. But that isn’t the only driver of stocks in these emerging markets countries.

My focus is on the direction of the actual price trends. Any guess anyone has about what is driving the trend is just a narrative. Some guesses are better than others as there are specific return drivers that drive trends, but my decisions are made based on what the trend is now and if it’s more probable the direction will continue or reverse.

Why do I care about the trend of emerging markets?

As the portfolio manager of a global tactical investment program, I make tactical trading and investment decisions across world markets including not only U.S. stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies, but also international stocks and bonds. My global universe includes developed countries as well as frontier markets and emerging markets.

As emerging markets are down -20% off their high, smaller frontier markets are close behind and larger developed countries are also in a downtrend.

International stock ETF ETFs

Less experienced ETF investors and advisors sometimes ask why I include international markets in my universe, because they’ve only seen these non-trending, weak trending, and down-trending periods the last twelve years.

I include these international markets to make my universe global because there have been periods when these markets provide significantly better trends and momentum over the U.S. stock market. For example, the 2003-2007 bull market.

international emerging markets countries trend following momentum

You can probably see how exposure to these markets added significant alpha to my global tactical portfolio prior to 2008. However, you may also notice their trends weren’t without volatility and declines along the way, so it wasn’t as simple as a buy and hold allocation to them. My Global Tactical Rotation® systems rotate between these markets trying to capture their positive trends rather than a fixed allocation to them.

As seen in the chart above, the relative strength of emerging, frontier, and developed countries were significant over domestic stock indexes in the 2003 to 2007 bull market. It was a trend driven by commodities and countries that produce natural resources.

They will have their opportunity again but for now, this trend isn’t our friend.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

Global Market Trends, U.S. Dollar, Emerging Markets, Commodities, and Their Changing Correlations

August 29, 2018 By in Asymmetric Observation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Systematic Global Macro Leave a comment

One of the more interesting global macro market trends right now is the direction of the U.S. Dollar and its impact on other markets.

The chart below is the U.S. Dollar trend year-to-date vs. the Emerging Market Index ETF. Emerging Markets are newly industrialized countries whose economies have not yet reached developed status. As the U.S. Dollar index has gained around 5% in 2018, Emerging Markets have trended down over -7%.

EMERGING MARKETS EEM $EEM #EEM DOLLAR TREND FOLLOWING ASYMMETRIC

At the bottom of the chart, I included the correlation coefficient of the trends between the U.S. Dollar and Emerging Markets. A high correlation value is +1, non-correlated is 0, and a completely negative correlation is -1. The value of -0.90 is a negative correlation relationship between them. As the Dollar is trending up, Emerging Markets is trending down. We don’t need a correlation coefficient equation to determine that since it’s clear by looking at their price trends, the value shows just how negative the relationship has been.

Since Emerging Markets are growing countries, you can probably see how changing trends in currency rates can have an impact on them. For example, countries like China, South Korea, and Thailand are Emerging Markets. If those countries are selling their products to Americans who buy them in U.S. Dollars, a rising Dollar relative to their currency makes their things more expensive for Americans.

Correlation is the relationship or connection between two or more things. In investment management, we use it to measure the degree to which two or more securities move in relation to each other. Correlation is probably one of the most misused equations because professional investors seem to rely on it too much.

Correlation isn’t necessarily causation.

Correlations are ever evolving  – they change over time.

One of the most dangerous investment management mistakes is to assume markets that are supposed to trend independently will always be negatively correlated. A grand example is the failure of diversification among markets that are supposed to trend independent to each other to provide downside risk management in a bear market.

In the chart below, we show the % off high U.S. stocks, Emerging Markets, Developed Countries, and Commodities since June 1999. It shows the drawdowns of these markets from their % off price highs. The October 2007 to March 2009 “Financial Crisis” wasn’t the only time expected non-correlations failed. In the “Tech Wreck” from 2000 to 2003 we also observed international stocks, real estate, and commodities all declined together.

global asset allocation diversification failed 2008

Back to the U.S. Dollar…

An observation is to see something. The action or process of observing something carefully in order to gain information.

Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a specific context.

What is driving the Dollar up?

Ultimately, supply and demand drives the price trend of everything.

  • If there is enough buying enthusiasm – price goes up.
  • If selling pressure overwhelms buying demand – prices fall.

Beyond this simple economic principle, I believe we have certain key drivers of global market returns. It’s things like the direction of interest rates and inflation. For example, with the Fed raising our interest rates in America, our Dollars have a higher yield for foreign investors. If foreign investors were only earning .50% on their Dollars a year ago and now it’s 1.5%, that may motivate them to buy more Dollars.

Because supply and demand ultimately drives the price trend, I focus on the direction and change of direction of price trends themselves. Correlations are only a secondary observation for me. In fact, though the year-to-date correlation between Emerging Markets and the Dollar is negative, I show below these correlations do indeed change over time. However, though it’s oscillating in degree, we observe there is generally a negative correlation between the Dollar and Emerging Markets – it stays below .50.

changing correlation emerging markets dollar

Below we see that an index ETF of Developed Countries like Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are also demonstrating a negative correlation with the Dollar, but not as much as Emerging Markets. The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA) is down about -3% year-to-date with a correlation of -63.

dollar correlation with international stocks ETF ETFs EFA EEM

Another asset class that typically shows a negative trend vs. the Dollar is commodities. The commodities index correlation was negative up until May and has since become more connected.

commodities correlation with dollar

Just like price trends, correlations change and evolve over time. Investors shouldn’t expect them to remain intact when they historically show us they don’t.

It’s interesting to observe how markets interact with each other, but their relationships change because there are different return drivers impacting them.

This is why I don’t constrain myself to beliefs that require fixed causations or correlations. I prefer to be more flexible and unconstrained so I can adapt to changing conditions.

Everything is impermanent – nothing lasts forever.

Mike Shell is the Founder, and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Managed Portfolios and ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Does Your Firm Use Active ETFs?

July 9, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Payoff, Asymmetric Risk, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global ETF, Sector ETF, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, VIX ETF ETN ETP Leave a comment

Christi Shell was recently asked by ETF.com “Does your firm use active ETFs”.

Christi Shell Capital Management

Her answer from the interview:

Our portfolio manager, Mike Shell, doesn’t currently include active ETFs in our universe of tradeable ETFs, but that doesn’t mean he’d never include them. He tactically shifts between ETFs, based on investor behavioral measures and supply/demand. So our portfolio management style itself is the active management; we are, essentially, actively managing beta.

We use ETFs to gain specific exposure to a return stream such as a sector, country, commodity or currency. With an index ETF, we pretty much know what we’re going to get inside the ETF. (Of course, indexes are reconstituted by a committee of people, so we don’t know in advance what they’ll do. However, an index follows some general rules systematically.)

Therefore, if we discover an ETF we believe has a strategy and return stream that we want access to, then we would add it, whether it’s active or not.

Christi Shell is Managing Director and Certified Wealth Strategist® at Shell Capital Management LLC. Christi has 27 years in financial services ranging from bank management to wealth management giving her a unique skill set and experience to help clients get what they want.

Source: http://www.etf.com/publications/etfr/does-your-firm-use-active-etfs

Global Stock and Bond Market Trends 2Q 2018

July 3, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetric Sector Exposure, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Hiring a Portfolio Manager, Sector ETF, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, VIX ETF ETN ETP Leave a comment

Yesterday we shared the 2nd Quarter 2018 Global Investment Markets Review, which used a broad range of indexes on performance tables to present the year-to-date progress of world markets. The issue with a table that simply shows a return number on it is it doesn’t properly present the path it took to get there. In the real world, investors and portfolio managers have to live with the path of the trend and we can see that only in the price trend itself. So, today we’ll look at the price trends of stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, sectors, and other alternatives like volatility. I don’t just look for potentially profitable price trends in stocks and bonds, I scan the world.

How is the market doing this year? Which market?

First, a quick glance at global markets including commodities, stock indexes, volatility, ranked by year-to-date momentum. We wee the CBOE Volatility Index $VIX has gained the most. One clear theme about 2018 is that volatility has increased and this includes implied or expected volatility. Overall, we see some asymmetry since the markets in the green are more positive than the markets in the red. The popular S&P 500 stock index most investors point to is in the middle with only a 2% gain for the year. Commodities like Cocoa, Lumber, Orange Juice, and Crude Oil are leaders while sugar, live cattle, and soybeans are the laggards. Most investors probably don’t have exposure to these markets, unless they get it through a commodities ETF.

 

Most investors probably limit themselves to the broad asset classes, since that’s what most financial advisors do. So, we’ll start there. Below are the trends of broad market ETFs like the S&P 500, Aggregate Bond, Long-Term Treasury. For the year, Emerging Markets has the weakest trend – down nearly -6%. Developed Markets countries are the second weakest. The rising U.S. Dollar is helping to put pressure on International stocks. The leader this year is Commodities, as we also saw above. The Commodity index has gained 8% YTD.

What about alternative investments? We’ll use liquid alternative investments as an example since these are publicly available ETFs. I’ve included markets like Real Estate, Private Equity, Mortgage REITs, and the Energy MLP. Not a lot of progress from buying and holding these alternative investments. This is why I prefer to shift between markets trying to keep capital only in those markets trending up and out of those trending down.

liquid alternative investments

The Volatility VXX ETF/ETN that is similar to the VIX index has gained so much early in the year I left it off the following chart because it distorted the trends of the other markets. It’s one of the most complex securities to trade, but we can see it spike up to 90% when global markets fell in February.

VIX VXX

Looking at the price trend alone isn’t enough. It would be incomplete without also considering their drawdowns. That is, how much the market declined off its prior high over the period. Analyzing the drawdown is essential because investors have to live with the inevitable periods their holdings decline in value. It’s when we observe these decline we realize the need for actively managing risk. For me, actively managing risk means I have a predetermined exit point at all times in my positions. I know when I’ll exit a loser before it becomes a significant loss. Many say they do it, I’ve actually done it for two decades.

The alternative investments are in drawdowns YTD and Energy MLP, and Mortgage REIT is down over -10% from their prior highs. The Energy MLP is actually down -51% from its 2014 high, which I don’t show here.

alternative investment drawdowns risk management

Next, we go back to the global asset class ETFs to see their drawdowns year-to-date. We don’t just experience the gains, we also have to be willing to live with their declines along the way. It isn’t enough to provide an excellent investment management program, we also have to offer one that fits with investors objectives for risk and return. The most notable declines have been in Emerging Market and developed international countries. However, all of these assets are down off their prior highs.

GLOBAL ASSET CLASS RISK MANAGEMENT TREND FOLLOWING 2018

Clearly, markets don’t always go up. The trends so far in the first six months of 2018 haven’t offered many opportunities for global asset allocation to make upward progress.

This is why I rotate, rather than allocate, to shift between markets rather than allocate to them. We also trade in more markets than we covered here, like leading individual stocks. The magnitude of these drawdowns also shows why I believe it is essential to direct and control risk and drawdown.

 

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

 

 

 

2nd Quarter 2018 Global Investment Markets Review

July 2, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Sector ETF, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management Leave a comment

It is no surprise to see global equity markets stall after such a positive trend last year. As we will see, the weakness is global and across both bonds and stocks.

Before we review the year-to-date gains and losses for indexes, I want to share some of the most interesting asset allocation indexes I’ve seen.

Keep in mind: we don’t offer this kind of asset allocation that allocates capital to fixed buckets of stocks and bonds and then rebalances them periodically. As a tactical portfolio manager, I don’t allocate to markets, I rotate between them to focus my exposure on markets in a positive trend and avoid (or short) those in a negative trend. I don’t need to have exposure to falling markets. We consider our portfolio a replacement (or at least a compliment) to traditional “asset allocation” offered by most investment advisors.

I want to present some global asset allocation indexes because, in the real world, most investors don’t allocate all of their investment capital to just stocks or just bonds; it’s some combination of them. If they keep their money in cash in the bank, they aren’t investors at all.

To observe what global asset allocation returns look like, we can look at the Morningstar Target Risk Indexes:

The Morningstar Target Risk Index series consists of five asset allocation indexes that span the risk spectrum from conservative to aggressive. The family of asset allocation indexes can serve as benchmarks to help with target-risk mutual fund selection and evaluation by offering an objective yardstick for performance comparison.

All of the indexes are based on a well-established asset allocation methodology from Ibbotson Associates, a Morningstar company and a leader in the field of asset allocation theory.

The family consists of five indexes covering the following equity risk preferences:

  • Aggressive Target Risk
  • Moderately Aggressive Target Risk
  • Moderate Target Risk
  • Moderately Conservative Target Risk
  • Conservative Target Risk

The securities selected for the asset allocation indexes are driven by the rules-based indexing methodologies that power Morningstar’s comprehensive index family. Morningstar indexes are specifically designed to be seamless, investable building blocks that deliver pure asset-class exposure. Morningstar indexes cover a global set of stocks, bonds, and commodities.

These global asset allocation models are operated by two of the best-known firms in the investment industry and the leaders in asset allocation and indexing. I believe in rotating between markets to gain exposure to the trends we want rather than a fixed allocation to them, but if I all I was going to do is asset allocation, I would use these.

Now that we know what it is, we can see the year-to-date return under the YTD column and other period returns. All five of the risk models are down YTD. So, it’s safe to say the first six months of 2018 has been challenging for even the most advanced asset allocation.

Below are the most popular U.S. stock indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average which gained the most last year is down this year. The Tech heavy NASDAQ and small-cap stocks of the Russell 2000 have gained the most.

The well-known bond indexes are mostly down YTD – even municipal bonds. Rising interest rates and the expectation rates will continue to rise is putting pressure on bond prices.

Morningstar has even more indexes that break bonds down into different fixed-income categories. Longer-term bonds, as expected, are responding most negatively to rising rates. The most conservative investors have the more exposure to these bonds and they are down as much as -5% the past six months. That’s a reason I don’t believe in allocating capital to markets on a fixed basis. I prefer to avoid the red.

Next, we observe the Morningstar style and size categories and sectors. As I wrote in Growth has Stronger Momentum than Value and Sector Trends are Driving Equity Returns, sectors like Technology are driving the Growth style.

International stocks seem to be reacting to the rising U.S. Dollar. As the Dollar rises, it reduced the gain of foreign stocks priced in foreign currency. Although, some of these countries are in negative trends, too. Latin America, for example, was one of the strongest trends last year and has since trended down.

At Shell Capital, we often say that our Global Tactical Rotation® portfolios are a replacement for global asset allocation and the so-called “target date” funds. Target date funds are often used in 401(k) plans as an investment option. They haven’t made much progress so far in 2018.

It is no surprise to see most global markets down or flat in 2018 after such a positive 2017.

But, only time will tell how it all unfolds the rest of the year.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The week in review

June 30, 2018 By in Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, Behavioral Finance, Behavioral Financial Advice, Behavioral Gap, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global ETF, Investor Behavior Modification, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, VIX ETF ETN ETP Leave a comment
The week in review

In case you missed it, below are all of the observations we shared this week. When there are more directional trend changes and volatility, I find more asymmetries to write about. That’s because I look at markets through the lens of “what has changed”?

When I observe more divergence between markets and trends, I see more asymmetries to share.

When global markets are just trending up together and quiet, investor sentiment is usually getting complacent, I typically point it out, since that often precedes a changing trend.

All of it is asymmetric observations; directional trends and changes I see with a tilt.

The opposite is symmetry, which is a balance. Symmetry doesn’t interest me enough to mention it.

When buying interest and selling pressure are the same, the price doesn’t move.

When risk equals the return, there is no gain.

When profit equals loss, there is no progress.

In all I do, I’m looking for Asymmetry®.

I want my return to exceed the risk I take to achieve it.

I want my profits to far surpass my losses.

I want my wins to be much greater than my losses.

I want more profit, less loss.

You probably get my drift.

 

Here are the observations we shared this week: 

Growth has Stronger Momentum than Value

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/25/growth-has-stronger-momentum-than-value/

 

Sector Trends are Driving Equity Returns

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/25/sector-trends-are-driving-equity-returns/

 

Trend Analysis of the Stock Market

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/25/trend-analysis-of-the-stock-market/

 

Trend of the International Stock Market

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/26/trend-of-the-international-stock-market/

 

Interest Rate Trend and Rate Sensitive Sector Stocks

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/27/interest-rate-trend-and-rate-sensitive-sector-stocks/

 

Expected Volatility Stays Elevated in 2018

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/27/expected-volatility-stays-elevated-in-2018/

 

Sector ETF Changes: Indexes aren’t so passive

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/27/sector-etf-changes-indexes-arent-so-passive/

 

Commodities are trending with better momentum than stocks

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/28/commodities-are-trending-with-better-momentum-than-stocks/

 

Investor sentiment gets more bearish

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/28/investor-sentiment-gets-more-bearish/

 

Is it a stock pickers market?

https://asymmetryobservations.com/2018/06/29/is-it-a-stock-pickers-market/

 

Is it a stock pickers market?

June 29, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Absolute vs. Relative Return, Active Risk Management, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Hedging, Asymmetric Investment Returns, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Payoff, Asymmetric Risk, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetric Sector Exposure, Asymmetric Thinking, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Market Breadth, Sector ETF, Sector Rotation, Sector Trends, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, Trend Following, VIX ETF ETN ETP 1 Comment
Is it a stock pickers market?

Sometimes the stock market is trending so strongly that the rising tide lifts all boats. No matter what stocks or stock fund you invest in, it goes up. That was the case much of 2017.

Then, there are periods when we see more divergence.

When we observe more divergence, it means stocks, sectors, size, or style has become uncorrelated and are trending apart from each other.

I pointed out in Sector Trends are Driving Equity Returns; there is a notable divergence in sector performance, and that is driving divergence in size and style. Growth stocks have been outperformance value, and it’s driven by strong momentum in Technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors.

When specific sectors are showing stronger relative momentum, we can either focus more on those sectors rather than broad stock index exposure. Or, we can look inside the industry to find the leading individual stocks.

For example, Consumer Discretionary includes industries like automobiles and components, consumer durables, apparel, hotels, restaurants, leisure, media, and retailing are primarily represented in this group. The Index includes Amazon, Home Depot, Walt Disney, and Comcast. Consumer Discretionary is the momentum leader having trended up 9.7% so far this year as the S&P 500 has only gained just under 1%.

momentum sectors

If we take a look inside the sector, we see the leaders are diverging farther away from the sector ETF and far beyond the stock market index.

momentum stocks consumer discretionary sector NFLX AMZN AAPL

In fact, all the sectors 80 stock holdings are positive in 2018.

The Consumer Discretionary sector is about 13% of the S&P 500. As you can see, if these top four or five sectors in the S&P 500 aren’t trending up it is a drag on the broad stock index.

ETF Sector Allocation exposure S&P 500

So, Is it a stock pickers market? 

When we see more divergence, it seems to be a better market for “stock pickers” to separate the winners from the losers.

Another way to measure participation in the market is through quantitative breadth indicators. Breadth indicators are a measure of trend direction “participation” of the stocks. For example, the percent of the S&P 500 stocks above or below a moving average is an indication of the momentum of participation.

Below is the percent of stocks above their 50 day moving average tells us how many stocks are trending above their moving average (an uptrend). Right now, the participation is symmetrical; 52% of the stocks in the S&P 500 are in a positive trend as defined by the 50 day moving average. We can also see where that level stands relative to the stock market lows in February and April and the all-time high in January when over 85% of stocks were in an uptrend. By this measure, only half are trending up on a shorter term basis.

SPX SPY PERCENT OF STOCKS ABOVE 50 DAY MOVING AVERAGE 1 YEAR

The 200-day moving average looks back nearly a year to define the direction of a trend, so it takes a greater move in momentum to get the price above or below it. At this point, the participation is symmetrical; 55% of stocks are above their 200-day moving average and by this time frame, it hasn’t recovered as well from the lows. The percent of stocks above their 200-day moving average is materially below the 85% of stocks that were participating in the uptrend last year. That is, 30% fewer stocks are in longer trend uptrends.

SPY SPX PERCENT OF STOCKS ABOVE 200 DAY MOVING AVERGAGE 1 YEAR

In the above charts, I only showed a one-year look back of the trend. Next, we’ll take a step back to view the current level relative to the past three years.

The percent of stocks above their 50 day moving average is still at the upper range of the past three years. The significant stock market declines in August-September 2015 and December-January hammered the stocks down to a very washed out point. During those market declines, the participation was very asymmetric: 90% of the stocks were in downtrends and only about 10% remained in shorter-term uptrends.

SPX SPY PERCENT OF STOCKS ABOVE 50 DAY MOVING AVERAGE 3 YEARS

The percent of stocks above their 200 day moving average also shows a much more asymmetrical situation during the declines in 2015 and 2016 when the stock index dropped around -15% or more. Only 20% of stocks remained in a positive trend.

SPX PERCENT OF STOCKS ABOVE 200 DAY MOVING AVERAGE 3 YEARS

Is it a stock pickers market?

Only about half of the stocks in the index are in uptrends, so the other half isn’t. So, if we avoid the half that are in downtrends and only maintains exposure to stocks in uptrends and the trends continue, we can create alpha.

But, keep in mind, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should have any exposure at all in the S&P 500 stock index because happens to have the highest sector exposure in the leading sectors.

But, for those who want to engage in “stock picking”, the timing has a higher probability now to diverge from the stock index than last year because so fewer stocks are in uptrends and more are in downtrends.

For individual stocks traders willing to look inside the box, this is a good thing.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Commodities are trending with better momentum than stocks

June 28, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Absolute vs. Relatative Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Investment Returns, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetric Payoff, Asymmetric Risk, Asymmetric Risk Reward, Asymmetric Sector Exposure, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global Asset Allocation, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Global Macro, Global Tactical Rotation, Sector ETF, Systematic Global Macro, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management 1 Comment
Commodities are trending with better momentum than stocks

Commodities are trending with better momentum than stocks over the past year.

A commodity is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold, such as copper or coffee. A commodity is a basic good used in commerce that are usually used as inputs in the production of other goods or services.

Soft commodities are goods that are grown, such as wheat, or rice.

Hard commodities are mined. Examples include gold, helium, and oil.

Energy commodities include electricity, gas, coal, and oil. Electricity has the particular characteristic that it is usually uneconomical to store, and must, therefore, be consumed as soon as it is processed.

The Commodity Trend

At first glance, we see in the chart commodities ETF Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking ETF has trended meaningfully above the popular S&P 500 index of U. S. stocks. The relative outperformance is clear over this one-year time frame. Commodities, as measured by this ETF, are in an absolute positive trend and registering relative momentum.

Commodity ETF trend following commodites natural resources $GNR $GSG $DBC

Examining a price trend is incomplete without also considering its downside. On the downside, I look at the % off high drawdowns over the period. We see that commodities were more volatile than stocks before 2018 with four dips around -4%. Since the stock market -10% decline that started in February, commodities declined, too, but not as much as U. S. stocks.

asymmetry ratio commodity drawdown

Looking back at the trend chart, I added a simple trend line to show that communities are trending directionally better than the popular U. S. stock index. So, my quantitative Global Tactical Rotation®  system that ranks an unconstrained global universe of markets including bonds, stocks, commodities, currencies, and other alternatives like real estate signaled this trend has been generating asymmetric risk/return.

commodity ETF trend commodities

What is the that Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking ETF? (the bold emphasis is mine)

The Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund seeks to track changes, whether positive or negative, in the level of the DBIQ Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Index Excess Return™ (DBIQ Opt Yield Diversified Comm Index ER) plus the interest income from the Fund’s holdings of primarily US Treasury securities and money market income less the Fund’s expenses. The Fund is designed for investors who want a cost-effective and convenient way to invest in commodity futures. The Index is a rules-based index composed of futures contracts on 14 of the most heavily traded and important physical commodities in the world. The Fund and the Index are rebalanced and reconstituted annually in November.

This Fund is not suitable for all investors due to the speculative nature of an investment based upon the Fund’s trading which takes place in very volatile markets. Because an investment in futures contracts is volatile, such frequency in the movement in market prices of the underlying futures contracts could cause large losses. Please see “Risk and Other Information” and the Prospectus for additional risk disclosures. Source: Invesco

The challenge for some investors, however, is that Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking ETF generates a K-1 tax form for tax reporting. That isn’t a terrible issue, but it means instead of receiving the typical 1099 investors receive a K-1. Some investors aren’t familiar with a K-1, and they can obtain them later than a 1099.

Then, there may be other investors who simply prefer not to own futures for the reason in the second paragraph of the above discription: “Because an investment in futures contracts is volatile, such frequency in the movement in market prices of the underlying futures contracts could cause large losses.” In reality, all investments have risk and stocks can have just as much risk of “large losses” as commodity futures, but it’s a matter of investor preference and perception.

Since we have a wide range of investor types who invest in my ASYMMETRY® Investment Program I could gain my exposure to commodities in other ways. For example, the SPDR® S&P® Global Natural Resources ETF often has a similar return stream as ETFs like DBC that track a commodity futures index, except is actually invests in individual stocks instead.

Key features of the SPDR® S&P® Global Natural Resources ETF

  • The SPDR® S&P® Global Natural Resources ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P® Global Natural Resources Index (the “Index”)

  • Seeks to provide exposure to a number of the largest market cap securities in three natural resources sectors – agriculture, energy, and metals and mining

  • Maximum weight of each sub-index is capped at one-third of the total weight of the Index

Below we see the price trend of this ETF of global natural resources stocks has been highly correlated to an ETF of commodities futures.

global natural resources ETF replacement for commodity ETF no K1

In fact, as we step the time frame out to the common inspection date of each ETF in 2011, the SPDR® S&P® Global Natural Resources ETF has actually outperformed Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking ETF overall in terms of relative momentum.

commodity ETF global natural resources trend following no K1

The bottom line is, commodities “stuff” is trending up over the past two years and when the price of “stuff” is rising, that is called “inflation”.  Commodities and global natural resources have been in a downtrend for so long it shouldn’t be a surprise to see this trend reverse up. Only time will tell if it will continue, but if we want exposure to it, we can predefine our risk by deciding at what price I would exit if it doesn’t, and let the trend unfold.Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.Buying and Selling ETFsETFs are flexible and easy to trade. Investors buy and sell them like stocks, typically through a brokerage account. Investors can also employ traditional stock trading techniques; including stop orders, limit orders, margin purchases, and short sales using ETFs. They are listed on major US Stock Exchanges.

ETFs are subject to risk similar to those of stocks including those regarding short-selling and margin account maintenance. Ordinary brokerage commissions apply. In general, ETFs can be expected to move up or down in value with the value of the applicable index. Although ETF shares may be bought and sold on the exchange through any brokerage account, ETF shares are not individually redeemable from the Fund. Investors may acquire ETFs and tender them for redemption through the Fund in Creation Unit Aggregations only. Please see the prospectus for more details. After-tax returns are calculated based on NAV using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on the investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. Performance of an index is not illustrative of any particular investment. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. As with all stocks, you may be required to deposit more money or securities into your margin account if the equity, including the amount attributable to your ETF shares, declines. Unless otherwise noted all information contained herein is that of the SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources ETF. S&P – In net total return indices, the dividends are reinvested after the deduction of withholding tax. Tax rates are applied at the country level or at the index level.

 

 

Sector ETF Changes: Indexes aren’t so passive

June 27, 2018 By in Adapting to Change, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global ETF, Sector ETF, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management 1 Comment
Sector ETF Changes: Indexes aren’t so passive

Index funds and ETFs are often called “passive”, but in reality, they aren’t. Indexes change as their committees add and remove stocks or bonds from them. Though we generally know the exposure we can expect from an index ETF and we can see its holdings, we never know for sure in advance what stocks they’ll add or remove.

Not that we need to, we don’t.

But if we did know, we could front run them. Stocks that get added to an index trend up as all the index funds tracking that index have to buy the stock.

The opposite is true for stocks removed from the index.

General Electric (GE) was the last original Dow stock and was recently removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So, the 30 stocks in that index are completely different today than the stocks it held when it started.

Alternative investment strategies are sometimes criticized for being too “black box”, implying the systems and methods are proprietary and are not disclosed to investors. The truth is, we can say the same for the most popular stock indexes. Indexes are also a black box since we don’t know what they’ll do next.

There are reasons they keep some things a secret, just as some of us keep the finest details of our systems and strategies private. Some things are intellectual capital and if you want to invest with someone who has it, well, you’ll just have to settle for not knowing every precise detail. If you don’t like it, don’t invest.

The U. S. Sector indexes have some changes coming.

In November 2017, S&P Dow Jones and MSCI announced that the Global Industry Classification Standard, or GICS, telecommunication services sector would be broadened and renamed “communication services.” The communication services sector will add select media, entertainment, and consumer Internet stocks from the consumer discretionary and information technology sectors to its current telecommunication services constituents.

In mid-January 2018, SPDJI/MSCI released a list of the largest companies affected by the GICS update. SPDJI/MSCI plans to release a full list of affected securities on July 2, 2018, and provide a finalized list of affected securities on Sept. 3, 2018, before the GICS update takes effect after the market closes on Friday, Sept. 28, 2018. This classification change will impact index funds that focus on the telecommunications, information technology, and consumer discretionary sectors.

Here is a diagram of the changes.

STOCK MARKET STOCKS SECTOR ETF ETFS SPDR SPY

Sector SPDRs has already launched their ETF for the communications sector.

Communication Services Sector $XLC is designed to reflect modern communication activities and information delivery mechanisms. Industries include Telecommunications, Media, Wireless, Entertainment and Internet Media. Components include Alphabet, Disney, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Netflix.

The media talks about the so-called “FANG” stocks, which is Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Well, this ETF is almost the FANG ETF.

fang stocks in xlc communication sector

So, we’ve adjusted our sector systems accordingly to adapt to these new changes.

 

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Performance is historical and does not guarantee future results; current performance may be lower or higher. Investment returns/principal value will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Most recent month-end performance is available in the Performance topic. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Sector SPDRs are subject to risk similar to those of stocks including those regarding short selling and margin account maintenance. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. Sector ETF products are also subject to sector risk and non-diversified risk, which will result in greater price fluctuations than the overall market.

Expected Volatility Stays Elevated in 2018

June 27, 2018 By in Absolute Return, Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETF Hedging, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global ETF, Managed Volatility, Sector ETF, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, VIX CBOE Volatility Index, VIX ETF ETN ETP, Volatility Trading, VXX Hedging Strategy, VXX Trading Strategy 1 Comment
Expected Volatility Stays Elevated in 2018

In late 2017, implied volatility, as measured by the VIX CBOE Volatility Index, was at abnormally low levels. I pointed out many times that vol is mean reverting, so when expected volatility is extremely low we can expect it to eventually reverse. The VIX spiked up over 200% in February and has remained more elevated than before.

VIX $VIX #VIX VOLATILITY INDEX CBOE RISK MANAGEMENT ASYMMETRIC ASYMMETRY

In the chart, I used a 50-day moving average for observation of how the VIX has remained more elevated than pre-February.

Volatility is asymmetric; when the stock market falls, implied volatility tends to spike up.

The VIX long-term average is 20, so the current level of 15-16 still isn’t high by historical measures, but the expected volatility is elevated above where it was.

Below is the VIX so far in 2018 in percentage terms. It shows the 200% gain that has since settled down, but it’s remaining higher than before.

VIX VOLATILITY 2018 RISK MANAGEMENT ASYMMETRY GLOBAL ASYMMETRIC ETF ETFS

The VIX has spiked up 45% the past 5 days.

VIX VOLATILITY ASYMMETRIC SPIKE GAIN THIS WEEK 2018 ASYMMETRY RISK

As I shared in The enthusiasm to sell overwhelmed the desire to buy March 19, 2018, I expect to see more swings (volatility) than last year, and that would be “normal” too. I said:

I define this as a non-trending market. When I factor in how the range of price movement has spread out more than double what it was, I call it a non-trending volatile condition.

Until we see either a new all-time high indicating a continuing longer-term uptrend or a new low below the February and April low indicating a new downtrend, the above holds true.

It’s a good time for a VIX primer from the CBOE:

What does it mean?

Some consider the VIX the “fear gauge”. When there is a demand for options, their premiums rise. Investor demand for options typically increases when they are concerned about the future, so they use options to hedge or replace their stocks with limited risk options strategies. Rising volatility also drives the VIX, since the VIX Index is a calculation designed to produce a measure of constant, 30-day expected volatility of the U.S. stock market, derived from real-time, mid-quote prices of S&P 500® Index

What is volatility?

Volatility measures the frequency and magnitude of price movements, both up and down, that a financial instrument experiences over a certain period of time. The more dramatic the price swings in that instrument, the higher the level of volatility. Volatility can be measured using actual historical price changes (realized volatility) or it can be a measure of expected future volatility that is implied by option prices. The VIX Index is a measure of expected future volatility.

What is the VIX Index?

Cboe Global Markets revolutionized investing with the creation of the Cboe Volatility Index® (VIX® Index), the first benchmark index to measure the market’s expectation of future volatility. The VIX Index is based on options of the S&P 500® Index, considered the leading indicator of the broad U.S. stock market. The VIX Index is recognized as the world’s premier gauge of U.S. equity market volatility.

How is the VIX Index calculated?

The VIX Index estimates expected volatility by aggregating the weighted prices of S&P 500 Index (SPXSM) puts and calls over a wide range of strike prices. Specifically, the prices used to calculate VIX Index values are midpoints of real-time SPX option bid/ask price quotations.

How is the VIX Index used?

The VIX Index is used as a barometer for market uncertainty, providing market participants and observers with a measure of constant, 30-day expected volatility of the broad U.S. stock market. The VIX Index is not directly tradable, but the VIX methodology provides a script for replicating volatility exposure with a portfolio of SPX options, a key innovation that led to the creation of tradable VIX futures and options.

To learn more about the CBOE, Volatility Index VIX visit their VIX website.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

 

Interest Rate Trend and Rate Sensitive Sector Stocks

June 27, 2018 By in Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetric Observation, Asymmetry ETF, Counter trend, ETF Strategist, ETFs, Global Directional Trends, Global ETF, Sector ETF, Sector Trends, Tactical ETF, Tactical ETF Managed Portfolio, Tactical ETF Portfolio Management, Trend Following 1 Comment
Interest Rate Trend and Rate Sensitive Sector Stocks

The interest rate on the 10 Year Treasury has gained over 20% so far in 2018, but I noticed it’s more recently settled down a little.

interest rate TNX $TNX

One of my ASYMMETRY® systems generated a short-term momentum signal today for the Utility and Real Estate Sectors. This signal indicated the short term trend is up, but it may have reached the point they may pull back before they continue the trend.

We see in the chart below, Utility and Real Estate Sectors are down so far in 2018, but they are gradually covering.

Utilities and Real Estate XLU XLRE $XLRE $XLU TREND MOMENTUM

I find it useful to understand return drivers and how markets interact with each other. The direction of interest rates, the Dollar, inflation, etc. all drive returns for markets.

In the chart below, I drew the black arrow to show where interest rates started declining this month and Utility and Real Estate Sectors trended up.

rising interest rate impact on real estate REIT housing utilities

Utility and Real Estate Sectors are sensitive to interest rates. These sectors use leverage, so as interest rates rise, it increases their cost of capital. Another impact is higher interest rates on bonds compete with them as investments. Utility and Real Estate Sectors are high dividends paying sectors, so as bond yields trend higher investors may start to choose bonds over these equities.

Below is a 1-year chart. You can see how interest rates increasing over 30% over the past year has had some impact on the price trend of the Utility and Real Estate sectors.

interest rate reit utilities sector

But, at the moment, these sectors have trended up, as interest rates have settled down.

 

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

 

 

Trend of the International Stock Market

June 26, 2018 By in Asymmetric ETF, Asymmetry ETF, ETF, ETFs, Global ETF, Tactical ETF 2 Comments
Trend of the International Stock Market

Conventional wisdom says to create a diversified portfolio of markets. However, it doesn’t do much good if those investments tend to move in the same direction in response to changing market conditions. Combining U.S. and international investments can result in a better-diversified portfolio whose holdings don’t march in lockstep – so when some go up, others go down, and vice versa. The result: a potential reduction in the volatility of your total portfolio in the long-run. Since International stocks may not always trend the same as U. S. stocks, I prefer to rotate between these markets rather than allocate to them all the time.

International stock markets can be broadly divided into developed countries and emerging markets. The MSCI EAFE Index includes developed countries. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index includes smaller countries.

So far in 2018, International stocks are down. Developed markets are down -4.6% and Emerging Markets are down -8%.

One reason International stocks and trending down for U. S. investors is the Dollar has trended up. Currency risk is a significant risk facing investors in International and emerging markets.

This is an example of why it’s useful to understand the driver of returns and how markets interact with each other.

Below is the same change, but I’ve added the U.S. Dollar Index.  The Dollar started trending up in April, which is no surprise with the interest rates rising, which means the yield on our Dollar is rising. Around the same time the Dollar trended up, we see these International stock indexes declined. These ETFs are traded in U.S. Dollars, but they are International stocks in other countries, so they are impacted by a change in currency.

If we wanted exposure to these markets, but want to hedge off the currency risk, we could instead get our exposure with the currency hedged ETF. The currency-hedged ETFs Seek to reduce the impact of foreign currencies, relative to the U.S. dollar, on your emerging markets allocation

The iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Emerging Markets ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large- and mid-capitalization equities from emerging market countries while mitigating exposure to fluctuations between the value of the component currencies and the U.S. dollar.

I’ve compared the non-currency hedged Emerging Markets ETF below to the Currency Hedged Emerging Markets ETF. I highlighted the uptrend in the Dollar with a black dotted line. You can see up until the time the Dollar started rising, where I marked with a black arrow, the two ETFs were trending close. Since then, their price trends began to diverge. As the Dollar gained and the Emerging Markets stock ETF declined, the currency-hedged ETF of the same index fell about half as much.

To be sure, I’ve zoomed in the show only the past 3 months of the price trends.

So far in 2018, the U.S. Dollar is rising, and International stocks are falling, but it doesn’t seem to be just the rising Dollar driving them down.

 

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

You can follow ASYMMETRY® Observations by click on on “Get Updates by Email” on the top right or follow us on Twitter.

The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.