Tag Archives: QE

Fixed Income, Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

The Fed Really Wants to Lower Interest Rates-Here’s Why..

October 14, 2015 MarketsMuse Curator Leave a comment

While 99% of market pundits have been busy for the past months laying odds and making bets as to precisely when and how much the Fed will raise interest rates, a small universe of Fed Watchers have picked up on a surprising nuance that few seasoned market experts have even calculated into their outlooks. Its not about Janet Yellen’s body language, its more about the water in San Francisco and what the real Fed thought-leaders are signalling. Tony Bennett might have to update his iconic song..we’ll let the marketplace decide that one!

MarketsMuse Global Macro curators offer a hint into what those having Sight Beyond Sight are now modeling into their own calculations. As proffered via a special CNBC appearance by Neil Azous, the founder of global macro think tank Rareview Macro, LLC, the “lower for longer” theme could prove to be an even lower interest rate regime and lead to prospects for yet another QE, all driven by the clouds on the horizon that some believe are spelling out “global recession..” Listen carefully to the following thesis….and in tribute to Tony Bennett, scroll down and sit back to the second video clip on this post

Fixed Income, Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

A Dearth of Investment Grade Debt: Why Rates Stay Lower for Longer

March 19, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

While a certain sect of economists are lamenting the exponential increase in debt issued by an assortment of sovereign entities [and corporate bond issuers] within the context of a feared liquidity crisis if and when rates turn higher and institutional investors might run for the exits at the same time, MarketsMuse.com fixed income fix profiles global macro observations from Barry Ritholtz, the Bloomberg View columnist who writes about finance, the economy and the business world. Barry started the Big Picture blog in 2003 and is the founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management, an asset management and financial planning firm. Below is excerpt from Barry’s Mar 17 Bloomberg View article”The Worldwide Deficit of High-Quality Debt”

Continue reading →

ETF News

Euro Exposure? Eurozone Bond ETFs In Advance of ECB’s QE

January 8, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

MarketsMuse.com update courtesy of extract from Jan 6 ETF.com article by Dennis Hudacheck, with a look at Eurobond ETFs $HEDJ,$DBEU, $HEZU, $EZU, $DBEZ, $VGK, $FEZ, $DFE

All eyes are on the European Central Bank’s Jan. 22, 2015 meeting, as it’s no secret that ECB President Mario Draghi has been hinting at a large-scale quantitative easing program for some time.

There’s no guarantee the ECB will actually implement any such program in January, but the consensus seems to be that there will be some type of big announcement on that front sometime in the first quarter of 2015.

At the same time, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to begin raising rates in mid-2015. This opposing force between the world’s two largest central banks has strategists calling for a currency-hedged strategy to capitalize on a rising-equity/falling-euro scenario in Europe.

An Equity ETF Designed For A Weakening Euro For currency-hedged options, the $5.6 billion WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ | B-47) is by far the leading ETF in the space.

Despite its “Europe” name, HEDJ focuses exclusively on eurozone securities. That means that for better or worse, it excludes the U.K., Switzerland and Sweden, which account for roughly 50 percent of Europe’s equity market capitalization, combined.

More importantly, it carries a significant exporter bias, attempting to capitalize on a weakening-euro scenario. The dividend-weighted ETF does this by screening out any company that gets more than 50 percent of its revenues from within Europe.

This makes HEDJ geared toward investors with a strong bearish view on the euro. Naturally, the fund favors consumer sectors over financials compared with vanilla, cap-weighted European indexes (MSCI Europe IMI Index).

This now-blockbuster fund tracks its index well and trades more than $80 million a day at 3 basis point spreads, keeping overall trading costs very low.

‘Neutral’ Currency-Hedged Products Contrary to popular thinking, investors interested in currency-hedged Europe ETFs don’t necessarily have to be bearish on the euro. They might have a neutral view, and simply prefer a purer equity exposure by taking any currency fluctuations out of the equation.The Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF (DBEU | B-66) is also a leading ETF in the space, and takes a broader approach, including all of developed Europe, beyond the eurozone.

It tracks a cap-weighted index and neutralizes exposure to the euro, the British pound, the Swiss franc and a few other European currencies against the dollar. DBEU has more than $710 million in assets and trades with robust liquidity that’s sufficient for small and large investors alike.

For a neutral currency take on the eurozone, rising in popularity is the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EMU ETF (HEZU), which literally holds the $7.5 billion iShares MSCI EMU ETF (EZU | A-63) with a forward contract overlay to neutralize euro exposure.

For the entire analysis from ETF.com, please click here

Global Macro Strategy, slider

Most Professional Investors Headed The Wrong Way First: A Global Macro Strategy View

January 5, 2015 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

MarketsMuse editor note: below insight courtesy of Rareview Macro LLC’s global macro strategy newsletter “Sight Beyond Sight” is a great read for investment professionals who want to start off 2015 on the right leg.

Wrong Way First (“WWF”) Trading

An astute market practitioner that we are fond of once coined the trading phrase “Wrong Way First” (“WWF”). WWF refers to the risk the professional investment community is exposed to at the beginning of every New Year – that is, the first trade will be a reversal in the consensus positioning and inflict severe PnL duress.

While it is true that substantial wealth is only really created over time (i.e. by investing), the money management business is beholden to the Gregorian calendar and that means performance resets at the close of business on December 31st. Put another way, if you manage money for a living you’re only as good as your last best trade.

Therefore it should be of little surprise that professionals begin each January more focused on not getting caught up in a New Year’s malaise rather than trying to take advantage of opportunities by adding new risk or pressing 2014 positions. The memory of last January, a month which included the unwind of the long Japanese Nikkei and Chinese Yuan carry trade strategies and inflicted severe PnL duress, is still too fresh to forget. This is especially true considering it took the macro strategy six months to climb out of its negative PnL hole and it was only saved when the US Dollar theme sent down a ladder to climb up.

While there are many key discussions underway to start 2015 it is important to highlight that the dominant theme emerging from our discussions with any risk takers is concern over a WWF trading theme materializing. Such is the nature of this business, especially for absolute return strategies.

Our interpretation of these conversations is that the tolerance level to withstand PnL duress around any theme that is currently at a momentum and sentiment extreme – such as long Equities, fixed income duration, and the US Dollar, short Crude Oil, and underweight Emerging Markets – is very low.

As way of background if you apply this theme to actual positioning it reveals that the top WWF candidates across the major asset classes are: Continue reading →

Global Macro Strategy

Macro-Strategist Speaks Out Re Summer Sleepiness?: A Rareview with Sight Beyond Sight

August 18, 2014 MarketsMuse Staff Reporter Leave a comment

Below extract courtesy of this a.m. edition of Rareview Macro LLC’s daily publication “Sight Beyond Sight”

Editor Note: Performance Speaks Louder Than Words, and the SBS model portfolio as of Aug 15 is a noteworthy +3.72% YTD (and 0.33% WTD) when compared to the universe of macro strategists who, according to news media, have been struggling (whether because of mis-timed moves, over-reaction to events, or completely missing the geo-political mark)

Many in the professional community have rebalanced their long positioning out of Europe or remain short on it against another region. The underbelly of the macro strategy is very weak and many are forgetting that unless the inflation metrics really weaken from here, there are multiple steps that will need to be taken before full-scale European style QE can be introduced. That means part of the recent spread compression, where investors bought on the view QE was imminent, needs to come out of the market. The same can be absolutely argued about Gold, since the backdrop of relative peace and the traditional correlation of the metal to Brent Crude Oil should bring the price down.

Interestingly, this de-escalation of risk is not a result of diplomacy by any party to the Ukraine or Iraq conflicts. Instead, it is the result of ongoing military progress on both regions. Continue reading →