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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Way too much risk in the equity market

Way too much risk in the equity market

Courtesy of Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns

Following up on my “Sell equities” post, I want to highlight a factoid from today’s David Rosenberg’s Breakfast with Dave distribution.

Never before has the S&P 500 rallied 60% from a low in such a short time frame as six months. And never before have we seen the S&P 500 rally 60% over an interval in which there were 2.5 million job losses. What is normal is that we see more than two million jobs being created during a rally as large as this.

In fact, what is normal is for the market to rally 20% from the trough to the time the recession ends. By the time we are up 60%, the economy is typically well into the third year of recovery; we are not usually engaged in a debate as to what month the recession ended. In other words, we are witnessing a market event that is outside the distribution curve.

I had been pretty bullish in March and April.  But almost immediately, this rally just went straight up in a moon-shot kind of way that makes someone like me who is more oriented toward fundamentals a bit nervous. After months of wondering how long this thing could last, I’ve finally said sell.

I’m not saying that the rally can’t continue (after a correction).  That depends in part on the economy and reflation. What I am saying is that a two- or three-sigma move should have you asking yourself a lot of questions. And since this is a two- or three-sigma move to the upside, you should be taking profits, not chasing that last dollar.

The video below from 7 Sep with Cazenove’s Robin Griffiths gives one the bigger picture.  Going into treasuries is a flight to safety. Going into gold is the same. Notice that Griffiths dispels the notion that Gold is an inflation hedge alone.  In reality, it is a paper money hedge and its rise represents a fiat currency rejection as much as a portend of inflation.

Source: Breakfast with Dave, 18 Sep 2009 (PDF) – David Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff

 

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