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What caught my eye during this past week & what I'll be watching during the week ahead (August 2 - 8, 2021)

This was a busy week w/ a lot of developments I want to journal about so let's jump right into it. The big narrative moving markets this week is the one that I journaled about last week- China's seeming crackdown on firms listing overseas. I already disclosed that I try to limit my direct exposure to Chinese securities foucsing more on the corners of the world where I am more confident in my ability to understand & anticipate market moving developments- but China is the elephant in the EM space and what is going on China has a tremendous impact on not just emerging economies dependent on commodity exports but the global economy at large. So even if I'm not buying chinese debt offerings or RMB I of course closely follow developments there & I'll link here articles & jornal entries I think provide insight & I'll want to come back to. With that said let me add one quick thing before I link to a couple of smart pieces I read on China this week. My unsoph...

Trade Ideas & What I'll be watching in the week ahead (July 26- Aug 1, 2001)

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 No new trade ideas that I'll be putting on this week but there were some positive headlines over the past few days that strengthen my conviction in the three trade idas from last week. By far the biggest news in the space emerged out of China as the CCP, in what is becoming increasingly familiar, has taken action against burgeoning companies. This week China aimed its sight on the for-profit education sector & companies such as $TAL, $EDU, & $GOTU have all shed > 50% of their market caps since Thursday. Outside of the sector ride-hailing champion $DIDI has slumped > 20% in after-hours trading over the weekend since the Friday close. Investors the world over cannot help but notice that many of the firms that have rankled the CCP & have seemingly come under attact from chinese regulators are firms that listed outside of China. Chinese firms have listed outside of the Chinese mainland to assure investors that they will be adhering to western standards of accounting ...

Trade ideas and what I'll be watching in the week ahead (July 18-24, 2021)

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1. South African 10 yr - This trade isn't very sophisticated. Basically the currency sold off in the wake of the unrest that has swept the country since the arrest of former President Zuma. A lot of this probably by locals as a kind of insurance to protect themselves from a serious breakdown. These kind of sell-offs tend to overshoot from long-term fundamentals becuase of this impulse from locals to convert a portion of their savings into safer currencies & when things calm down the currencies will revert to trend. The sell-off was completed by Wed, and the ZAR has since recovered  > 60% of what it gave up during the sell-off. Yet, it is still nearly 40 bp off its 50d so I'm in no rush to sell. Taking a look at the charts both the 10 yr & 30 yr have recovered back to their 50d but both are still quite a ways off from where they were two weeks ago just prior to the sell-off. I still really like the 10 yr here when it's yielding 8.9% before levering it up with con...