Let's put this in perspective. This is a 6-month chart, so it goes back through mid-September. SPY was somewhere around 112 back then, and it closed at 126.xx today. That's a 12.5% return over 6 months, or 25% annualized. Wow, what a great stock market! OK, yes, from the high of 134.xx one month ago on February 18, SPY is down 6%, or 72% annualized -- but of course if you really think it's going to continue at this pace for 11 more months, I have some swampland to sell you. But let's look at the last month, shall we?
- Major unrest in the Middle East, including full-scale revolt in many of our oil suppliers, has caused Crude Oil futures to shoot up above $100/bbl (only $98/bbl today - what a bargain): well into production-drag territory;
- Japan suffered the worst earthquake in... what? forever? a long freaking time, anyway, and its nuclear plants are about to unleash a glowing hell on the Pacific Rim;
- The festering pimples in the European economy are starting to look like they're about to pop one after another: Ireland, Portugal, Greece, etc;
- The Federal Reserve's credibility is finally starting to be questioned, and major indications have started surfacing that inflation will be a bigger problem than people have been assuming;
- And Charlie Sheen, OMG.
Watching the activity in the market on Feb 23, I started worrying that we were about to see another Flash-Crash-type event. The spreads were widening and the markets were looking really jittery. I bought some puts on SPY, expiring in April. I still have them, and I see no reason to sell them just yet. I also have a bullish option spread that simulates a collar in NDX. It's pretty deep underwater (duh), but this is a continuation of the collar trade I've been running for a long time, and I won't be changing it now.
Besides the stock market, what have been the other financial effects over the last month or so? And just for fun, I'll talk about my activities where appropriate.
- The Canadian Dollar roared up and then slunk back, since the Fed-bashing started early on, but the flight-to-quality has taken over the last few days.
- I bought FXC (the Canadian Dollar ETF) today.
- The Ten Year Note, in a strong downtrend at the end of the year and trading sideways-to-down through mid-February, suddenly pointed its nose at the sky as of the end of last week and turned on the after-burners.
- By rights, the CiG trade should be short the ten-year note futures, but I opted for buying S&P futures instead, reasoning that the return on S&P should be more extreme than on Ten Years. I was right. I bought S&P on the close, and was just stopped out for my max loss a moment ago.
- Crude Oil futures traded as high as $107/bbl on March 7, and are back down to $97/bbl now in a pretty (but meaningless) isosceles triangle pattern on the chart. Daily ranges expanded big-time, as the market tried to constantly adjust to unfolding events in the Middle East. It's back down now mostly on Dollar strength, I think, but 97 is still far above the 85 it started from in February.
- Agriculture futures (corn, wheat, soybeans) all have the same triangle pattern as Crude Oil, without the big gap-up at the beginning. Again, USD strength as everyone runs like hell into something "safe".
- I hold DJP, which is a commodity ETF which holds 33% energy, 30% agriculture, and 31% metals. This is a long-term play against the USD that I put on back in January. I have no interest in selling it at this point -- I only wish I'd bought a long time ago.
- Gold has traded pretty sideways recently, victim of the risk-on/risk-off tug-of-war that's been going on since Charlie Sheen started distracting us from trivial Middle Eastern matters.
- I've had big gold positions on for a long time, and just today I sold some calls that are due to expire on Friday, taking a small loss. When the nuclear crisis in Japan finally settles down, I'll buy some more, because the dollar will suddenly seem like a bad idea again.
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