Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Notes on Wednesday...

First the important stuff: Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the U.S - I wish I was in the US this week........

Friend of mine sent me these clips with our old friend Jim Rogers - he talks common sense, probably does not make him a lot of friends, but his thought process is crystal clear. Enjoy it: http://tinyurl.com/65r8wd

I must say I am more tired than at anytime this year - hopefully it is the travelling but the market goes on my nerves.

The policians keeps doing the same mistakes, the media keeps drumming the same drum, and it is all going in a big circle ..and leading us nowhere.

I am on the record saying I personally felt Obama at least would mean change - however it seems I was wrong, again, all his appointments smell of establisment and his policy indications feels like protectionisme and Dirigisme... in other words ..I will have to keep my negative outlook something I have come to fear as being "realistic" carries too much pain as everyone rather get the free option than face reality.

Talking inability to face reality looks like Bernanke is "dead in the water" post 2010 - maybe Princeton will take him back after all ? http://tinyurl.com/6427og

Maybe what's really bugging me is the fact I have spent far too little time on the market and thinking about them..... something I will change from next week.... but doing some small research this evening some things seems obvious to me:

S&P - consolidation and hope the main drivers - we had "patriotic call higher" into Thanksgiving (Am I the only noticing markets tends to go up on National days?) ..... 900/920 begs for perfect 4th wave correction before the 5th final wave down.... in other words.. neutral into 900/920.. watch if momemtum can carry us above if not... then full short......

Forward earnings still major league unclear as Ticker Sense indicates below (Thank you Jesper):
http://tinyurl.com/5cpol4

US dollar (EURUSD)- we may have seen the high in place for this 4th correction - inflation being called lower in Europe and Stark from the ECB even talked some common sense this morning......but Europe is on the verge of serious slow-down which will take all Euro-rates to ZERO...and fast....

Market is also dealing with Investment Bank year-end - or rather state owned Investment banks - sometimes in the past this had an effects - but for now US dollar got some fundamental potentials from waning Current Account Deficit and deleveraging of balance sheets - both of which makes short EURUSD the only real worthwhile deal to carry into month end.

Fixed Income- If I ever was in doubt I should listen my asset allocation model guys now is the wake-up call - despite US Yield being hysterically low - I still do not want to lend the US Government ..below 4 pct in 10 years - there simply is not any alternatives into year-end - more of the same - low after low in yields as "quantative easing" happens.....

Finally, we are, or rather my excellent team doing some research on our Outragous Prediction (into todays lingo: Our Black Swans)... without giving away the positions I note the calls themes are:

1. Hardly any US calls ... 1 of 10 - with Chinese calls having 3-4 of 10 - this to me indicates the clear paradigm shift - when looking into 2009 ... my analysts not really that concerned/bothered with the US - the policy lead will come from what happens and get done in Asia/China.

2. Dirigisme - Anywhere we look there is more State/public sector intervention in the markets - from Sarkozy to Obama- they all embrace the "hidden hand" of Keysianisme ---this time undercover as the 3rd way....and named: For the sake of greater goods (It will die as much as Tony Blair failed to find the 3rd way..) - Fiscal expansion will follow.

3. Social/political unrest - if commodities continues to fall there could be both political tension in some regions but also social unrest.... The impact too harsh to imagine, but in a Black Swane exercise this "mental mapping" could safe the investors a lot of money...

4. More of the same-- -as much as they want to find some sunshine - it quickly becomes as grey as a summer day in London...

On this positive note - I wish you safe trading and nice week-end

Steen

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work Steen. Your blog is becoming regular reading.
Tom Hougaard

Steen Jakobsen said...

Thank you Tom - may see you in London soon ;-)

Steen