TLT
EURUSD: Bullish Gartley at an 800-EMA Trading in a Falling WedgeEURUSD is trading within a Falling Wedge with MACD Bullish Divergence at the 800-period EMA. All of this aligns with the PCZ of a Bullish Deep Gartley that has developed on the 1-Hour timeframe. If this support zone holds I think EURUSD will attempt a Bullish breakout that will target the 50-61.8% retraces above which may align with short term upside I'm expecting in the TLT.
TMV Triple Inverse Treasury Bill ETF LONGTMV on the 4H chart appears to be reversing a trend down since 12/28. YTD it is rising.
The reasonable target is the Fib 0.5 retracement at $40 while support for a stop loss
just below the POC line of the volume profile is $29.25. As such this is a 35% upside.
The RSI indicator shows the fast RSI rising and crossing over the slower RSI while the
relative volume indicator shows increasing volumes reacting to the price bottoming and
accumulation underway. I see this as a long trade set up while recognizing that fundamentals
such as interest rate adjustments and inflation data could impact the technicals.
Macro Monday 30~U.S. Net Treasury International Capital FlowsMacro Monday 30
U.S. Net Treasury International Capital Flows
In essence the U.S. Net Treasury International Capital Flows (US TIC Flows) refer to the movement of funds into or out of the United States through the purchase or sale of U.S. Treasury securities by foreign investors and governments. These flows of capital are an essential component of the overall balance of payments, reflecting the financial transactions between the United States and the rest of the world.
What does the data represent exactly?
The U.S. Treasury International Capital (TIC) system is compiled by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and provides information on cross-border financial transactions. The TIC data include details on purchases and sales of various U.S. financial assets and liabilities, such as Treasury securities, corporate bonds, equities, and banking flows.
In simple terms the Foreign Purchases of U.S. Securities (inflows) are taken away from the U.S. Purchases of Foreign Securities (outflows) to present a overall net figure. The net result of these two components determines whether there is a net inflow or outflow of capital.
What are the drivers of positive & negative flows?
Positive Flows (>0 on chart)
POSITIVE FLOWS in U.S Net Treasury International Capital result from factors such as attractive U.S. interest rates, a stable domestic economy, and global uncertainty that drives foreign investors to seek the safety of U.S. Treasury securities. During these periods, there is a net inflow of capital into the United States pressing the number higher above zero.
Negative Flows (<0 on chart)
Conversely, NEGATIVE FLOWS occur when other countries offer higher returns, there are concerns about the U.S. economic outlook, or global risk aversion prompts investors to repatriate funds. Exchange rate movements also play a role, as a stronger U.S. dollar can make U.S. assets less appealing.
The interplay of the above mentioned factors influences the direction of international capital flows, which impacts the balance of purchases and sales of U.S. Treasury securities by foreign and domestic investor.
Now that we have a general sense of what’s driving the data, and what makes an overall net positive and or net negative flow, let’s have a look at the chart.
The Chart
✅ Since Jan 2019 there has been an upward trend in Treasury Inflows into the U.S (Black Arrow).
❌This upward trend had one sudden interruption causing a decline from Mar - May 2023 going from positive inflows of $114B to negative outflows of $159.4B, the timing of which coincided with the 2023 U.S Banking Crisis where three small-to-mid size U.S. banks failed.
✅ Since the Banking Crisis in May 2023 Treasury Capital flows have moved from overall negative outflows of $159.4B to overall positive inflows of $260.2B. A major turn around and reversion to the long term trend.
✅The recent surge in positive inflows to $260.2B are the highest recorded since August 2022 ($275B)
In summary inflows to U.S Treasuries have been in an general uptrend since January 2019 with one brief interruption from Mar – May 2023 and inflows have increased significantly in recent months and look like they may be about to take out the Aug 2022 highs.
Recession Patterns
1. More isolated recessions that were not globally systemic events led to positive net inflows into the U.S. Treasury however larger global events led to outflows from U.S. Treasuries, particularly if those global events involved the U.S. engaging in foreign conflicts.
▫️ During the DotCom Crash (No. 3 on the chart) – The tech sector was badly hit but it was not necessarily a global recession with the associated geopolitical turmoil. Foreign investors sought safety in the U.S. Treasury Market during this time.
▫️ Similarly during the brief Gulf War Recession (No. 4 on the chart) you can see that initially, there was increased net inflows however in Jan 1991 inflows sharply turned to outflows which coincided with the U.S. led invasion of Kuwait (a response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait). This was considered a global event and thus led to an exodus of outflows and repatriation of funds from the U.S Treasury Market.
▫️ More recently during the Great Financial Crisis (no. 2 on the chart) and the COVID-19 Crash (No. 1 on the chart) there was a significant outflow from U.S. Treasuries due to the magnitude of these global events. You can imagine foreign market participants clawing funds back into their respective countries to batten the hatches and get into a defensive financial position with global systemic risks high. Better to have a bird in the hand than two in the bush when the bush is on fire.
▫️One other pattern worth mentioning is highlighted in yellow on the chart with an A, B and C. Prior to the Great Financial Crisis and COVID-19 crashes we first had a reduction in overall U.S. Net Treasuries of $373B (A on chart) and $393B (B on chart), respectively. Within 13 to 16 months of both treasure drawdowns we had a recession. We recently had a drop of $437B (C on chart) which ended in May 2023. If history repeats and we had a recession within 13-16 months of this happening, this would be sometime between June and Sept 2024. An alternative view would be that the increase in declines from $373B (A) to $393B (B) to $437B (C) may correspond with the shortening timeframes from 16 months(A) to 13 months(B) to potentially 10 months(C) for the current $437B drop (C on the chart). This would suggest March/April 2024 as a potential recession timeframe (based on the historic reductive time pattern).
The U.S. Net Treasury International Capital Flows is a fascinating chart to keep an eye on and should be added to the economic data armory as it will help us interpret what is really going on in the treasury market (there is a lot of false narratives out there ATM). It is also useful in informing us on what the global perspective is in terms of systemic risk vs isolated risk, and also from a historic recessionary standpoint offers value.
The best investors in the world call the bond market the market of truth but I have found it hard to find a chart that illustrates this through a global lens UNTIL today. This chart captures that beautifully.
Thanks for coming along again
PUKA
30-Year US Gov't Bond Yields since 1977Here is a long term view of long term US Gov't interest rates. Long term is defined as 30 years and is a common bond owned by pension funds and insurance companies and other long term investors with long term obligations.
I highlight the various ranges of interest rates as shown in these 4 boxes and the few moves that temporarily moved interest rates outside those boxes:
1. 1987 Stock Market Crash on collapsing USDollar, hiked capital gains taxes starting in 1988, trade wars with Germany, S&L crisis brewing from 1986 real estate tax law change, and Congressional moves to eliminate interest rate deductions on takeovers.
2. Orange County Bankruptcy
3. Great Financial Crisis "GFC" - massive deleveraging of the banking industry forcing asset prices down in a collapse.
4. Covid reaction by Gov't to shut economy down and stimulate spending and handouts to keep economy afloat
5. Current over-reaction to over-stimulation during lockdowns and supply chain issues.
THREE WORDS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW — TNX GOES NUTS!Bank of America says the recession and credit crunch could lead to large corporate defaults.
Credit strategists at Bank of America note that the fallout from the recession and credit crunch could see $1 trillion in corporate debt eventually become insolvent.
This is largely due to the fact that banks have already begun to refuse lending conditions after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. US debt growth has also slowed in recent years, and a "full blown" recession has yet to be officially declared.
If a full-blown recession does not occur in the next year or two, the restart of the credit cycle will be delayed. For now, analysts still predict that a moderate/short recession is more likely than a full blown recession.
Markets are increasingly nervous about the prospect of a future downturn, with the New York Fed's Recession Probability Index projecting appr. 70 percent chance of a recession hitting by April 2024. The risk comes from the Fed's aggressive 21-fold increase in interest rates over the past 15 months to tame inflation.
The US Federal Reserve, having fired a lot of "HIKE RATE" ammos over the past two years. And certainly has fulfilled its goals.
In fact, in the second quarter of 2023, the rolling 12-month growth rate of the Consumer Price Index (April value = 4.9%) was below the Core CPI (April value = 5.5%).
In human words that means prices of food and energy are deflating year-over-year.
To some extent, the risk is also heightened by the recent banking turmoil, as lenders suffer losses on their "HELD-TO-MATURITY" (and in fact "READY-TO-SELL") portfolios of long-term corporate bonds and US Government bonds, as well as in due to a sharp outflow of deposits.
The technical picture in TVC:TNX says the key trend is still strong, thanks to tailwinds from the first quarter of 2022 and support of Weekly SMA(52).
The second half of 2023 is off to an interesting start.
High quality "AAA" 10-year Bond' yield is back to pain levels corresponding to the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange last fall, as well as the collapse of regional and cryptocurrency banks as early as this spring, 2023 (like SVB, FRC and others).
At the same time, real (that is, minus inflation) rates are now certainly much higher, against each of those two marks, as inflation is down.
GOLD can be a defensive asset, as geopolitical risks still highCaught in the twin grip of elevated US yields and a stronger USD, Gold may be on the defensive over the near term unless geopolitical risks still escalate.
Escalating geopolitical and trade risks are playing an increasingly supportive role in Gold prices, engineering rallies that are likely to stay high in 2024.
Gold Price Clinging to Highs Under $2'000. The bias remains bullish despite minor retreats.
A new higher high may activate further growth. Only a valid breakdown below the pivot point opens the door for a corrective phase.
The gold price resumed its growth today, reaching the $1,990 level.
The bias is bullish despite minor downside corrections. OANDA:XAUUSD returned higher even though the Dollar Index rallied after the US Flash Services PMI and Flash Manufacturing PMI announced expansion.
Gold has taken its position as a safe haven value asset. Over the past several years Gold trades on positive path, where short-term average (1yr SMA) still above long-term average (5yrs SMA) for a 6th year in a row, since Q1'18.
The main technical graph says, that potentially technical figure known as "Reversed Head and Shoulders" is in progress, with further upside price action in a case of return back, above $2'000 per ounce.
The main graph is for iShares Gold ETF AMEX:IAU that seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of gold.
$TLT Resistance at $100 PivotNASDAQ:TLT Resistance at $100 Pivot, Friday December 15, 2023 NY Fed President Williams stated on CNBC, "We aren't really talking about rate cuts right now." This seemed to conflict with Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference. It does not matter what they say it will show up in the charts and our algorithms.
Watch TLT Support at Multi-Decade LowsPrimary Chart : Monthly Chart of TLT Showing Multi-Decade Support Levels.
A fair amount of charts have been published lately on the importance of interest rates, and conversely, long-term bonds, government or high-yield bonds. One well-known TradingView publisher @scheplick went so far as to describe the chart of the US 10-year yield as the most important chart for understanding financial markets in this season. His post was entitled, " The Most Important Chart in the World :
TLT is an iShares ETF that tracks the performance, generally speaking of long-term US Treasury bonds. Specifically, iShares describes TLT as an ETF that "seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than twenty years."
TLT has been in a severe downtrend since March 2020. Bonds yields move inversely to price, and TLT represents, in a rough sense, the price of an index or basket of long-term US government bonds with maturities greater than 20 years. So if long-term bonds remain in a downtrend, then this corresponds to the uptrend in long-term yields that has continued to break higher than anyone expects.
The Primary Chart shows TLT having reached long-term, major support at 2009-2010 lows. But a careful examination of TLT's recent lows reveals that it broke slightly below those lows, which isn't a good look for bond bulls in the long term. Supplementary Chart A shows 2009-2010 lows on a monthly chart (similar to the Primary Chart above).
Supplementary Chart A
However, TLT's reaching such a major support level, with a lower wick forming (at least initially), could imply a move higher in bonds and a concomitant move lower in yields in the near term. But remember that fighting a predominant trend (mean reversion) when it becomes extended can be one of the trades having the lowest success rate. But it can also have a higher reward rate if risk is managed well. SquishTrade does not recommend being long bonds here but rather commenting on how traders may react to major support levels in TLT's downtrend. They may be right or wrong—recall that no one likely expected long bonds to fall as far as they have, and many have been positioned long bonds since TLT was in the upper $90s!
The next few supplementary charts emphasize the nature and severity of the downtrend in long-term bonds, as represented here by TLT. The first shows TLT's 200-day simple moving average (SMA). Price is about –12.11% below the 200-day SMA as of mid-session on Friday, September 29/
Supplementary Chart B
Next, the VWAP anchored to TLT's long-term cycle high is shown in black. This confirms a long-term, and extreme downtrend in long duration US Treasury bonds. Long-term VWAPs do not always have such a noticeable downward slope. Even a bounce to $125 could present just a mean reversion (retracement) within this downtrend despite creating an uptrend on the daily or even weekly chart, which would be necessary to reach that distant level.
Supplementary Chart C
A Fibonacci channel below has been applied to a weekly TLT chart. Notice how the channel shows support right where the weekly lower wick formed—the 1.618 level of the channel. To be sure, this does not necessitate a long-term trend reversal (though anything is possible, and this could be the spot). But it does suggest the potential for a near term bounce in the shorter cycles.
Supplementary Chart D
Anyone wondering whether a long-term uptrend is still in place from the start of TLT's price history should consider the following chart. This shows decisive breaks of several long-term (and progressively accelerating) uptrends.
Supplementary Chart E
Year-end flows can be supportive of equities, though not always—note the late 2019 exception for CBOE:SPX and $NASDAQ:NDX. If some relief materializes in long-term to intermediate-term bonds, then this could coincide with some support in broader equity markets into year end, though this is by no means guaranteed.
Consider the following posts and charts on yield curve inversions posted by @SPY_Master and this author on TradingView:
These charts of yield-curve inversions should give one serious concerns about the near-term (3 months to 2 years) health of the stock market.
This post is in no way advocating any particular investing or trading strategy. Short-term trading and long-term investing can both be either devastating or profitable (or somewhere in between those extremes) to the person engaging in it.
And thanks for reading this and for your encouragement and support.
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Author's Comment: Thank you for reviewing this post and considering its charts and analysis. The author welcomes comments, discussion and debate (respectfully presented) in the comment section. Shared charts are especially helpful to support any opposing or alternative view. This article is intended to present an unbiased, technical view of the security or tradable risk asset discussed.
Please note further that this technical-analysis viewpoint is short-term in nature. This is not a trade recommendation but a technical-analysis overview and commentary with levels to watch for the near term. This technical-analysis viewpoint could change at a moment's notice should price move beyond a level of invalidation. Further, proper risk-management techniques are vital to trading success. And countertrend or mean-reversion trading, e.g., trading a rally in a bear market, is lower probability and is tricky and challenging even for the most experienced traders.
DISCLAIMER: This post contains commentary published solely for educational and informational purposes. This post's content (and any content available through links in this post) and its views do not constitute financial advice or an investment or trading recommendation, and they do not account for readers' personal financial circumstances, or their investing or trading objectives, time frame, and risk tolerance. Readers should perform their own due diligence, and consult a qualified financial adviser or other investment / financial professional before entering any trade, investment or other transaction.
Rolling (IRA): TLT Nov 17th 92 to March 15th 92 Short Put... for a .97 credit.
Comments: Alas, this could not be meaningfully strike improved, so just rolling it out as is. The deeper the in-the-money it is, the farther out in time you have to go to get paid something decent ... . Collected .79 originally (See Post Below) plus the .97 here for a total of 1.76.
Rolling (IRA): TLT Nov 17th 94 to April 19th 94 Short Put... for an .85 credit.
Comments: Another that can't be meaningfully strike improved without paying a debit ... . Collected .75 originally (See Post Below). With the .85 here, 1.60 total.
And that ... ends the November contract housekeeping portion of our show. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to do some more of this in the December contract (ugh).
TLT Core Position (IRA)In the absence of some kind of face-ripping rally, I'm going to be assigned shares in TLT here shortly, starting with what began as an October 20th 93 short put and an October 20th 89 short put. Here, I'm using short puts as an acquisitional tool, attempting to acquire shares in multi-year weakness, after which I'll proceed to cover the shares with short calls. The short call premium, along with TLT's monthly dividend, will result in positive cash flow.
There are a couple of different approaches I could utilize here to manage the shares I'm assigned, one of which is to sell a call against each individual lot I'm assigned, laddering out short calls in time as I'm assigned shares. Since I've got quite a few contracts subject to assignment, this would result in sort of a covered call spaghetti-works.
Another simpler approach would be to see what the average cost basis of all the lots I'm assigned is, and then proceed to sell calls at or above that average cost basis in a single expiry. For example, the average cost basis of the two rungs shown here is (89 + 93)/2 or 91/share. With that cost basis in mind, I would proceed to sell two calls at or above the 91 strike at a reasonably delta'd strike in an expiry that's paying. Given the distance price has pulled away from my likely average cost basis, the calls are likely to be somewhat long dated.
Given the fact that my highest short put strike is at 94, I'm more likely to sell calls at 94 initially, wait to be assigned everything that I'm going to get assigned, look at the average cost basis at that point and then adjust the short calls accordingly. Because of its simplicity, this is the approach I'll be going with, looking to stay in the shares and manage the entire position on a fairly long-term basis.
As usual, we'll see how it goes ... .
$TLT bottom. Upside ahead targeting $100+As I wrote in my last post on TLT, I had a target of $88. $88 was hit on Friday and is now slightly below it today.
I went long both via spot and calls. I took March 15 2024 calls at a $101 strike price and I'm anticipating a large move higher playing out by then.
I've marked off resistance levels on the chart. Let's see how it plays out over the coming months.
I'm not a believer in the rates are going to stay higher for longer narrative. I do think they'll be higher than where we were in 2021, but I do not think they'll stay at 5+%. I think the financial system will end up being in trouble and the only out will be to bring down rates again. I do think that'll play out sometime in the next 6 months.
Opening (IRA): TLT December 29th 90 Short Put... for a 1.20 credit.
Comments: Adding a rung out in the Dec 29th expiry at a strike better than what I currently have on.
Since I'm in an acquisitional frame of mind with TLT, I'm pretty much going to run with these until they're approaching worthless (i.e., <.05). If I get assigned, I'll proceed to sell call against.
Rolling (IRA): TLT November 3rd 88 Short Put to January 19th 87... for a .42 credit.
Comments: Received an .88 credit for the 88 (See Post Below); rolling it down and out for a .42 credit. Total credits collected of 1.30.
If I'm going to get assigned, lower is naturally better, even if it's only a strike ... .
Opening (IRA): TLT January 19th 81 Short Put... for a .85 credit.
Comments: Targeting the strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit, looking to acquire shares should we get "down there."
I would've erected a rung in shorter duration, but didn't want to do that if I couldn't get in at a strike that was better than what I currently have on.
Opening (IRA): TLT December 15th 89 Short Put... for a 1.12 credit.
Comments: Squeezing in another rung in the December monthly at the 28 delta 89 strike ... .
Since I'm getting kind of a spaghetti works here, will primarily look to add in the 45 DTE weeklies and manage the rest of the pasta as duration in those positions shortens.