Arabica Coffee Futures. The Canary in the Coal MineWith nearly 60 percent up path performance in 2024, Arabica coffee futures rose above $3.00 a pound, the highest mark since May 2011, as traders assess potential problems with next year’s crop in top producer - Brazil.
Despite recent rains, soil moisture levels remain low, leading to limited fruit development and excessive leaf growth, local traders said.
U.S. and European coffee lovers are getting ready to tighten their belts as natural disasters have hit the world’s two largest coffee-producing countries, causing commodity prices to more than double in the past five years.
Droughts in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, and severe typhoons in Vietnam, the second-largest producer, have severely disrupted the global coffee supply chain, driving up production costs that are increasingly being passed on to consumers.
In addition, there are reports that Brazilian coffee farmers are holding back shipments of coffee to the market in hopes of higher prices, leading to further shortages, tighter supplies of coffee on the spot market, and higher prices.
Coffee is literally the “Canary in the coal mine,” signaling climate change, the ecological crisis, and its impact on agriculture.
The idiom originated within the Industrial Revolution in England (back to late XVIII century), when coal miners, lacking modern gas-monitoring equipment, would take canaries (birds) into the coal mine with them. And when dangerous gases like carbon monoxide (which is odorless) accumulated in excess in the mine, they stopped the birds chirping and killed the canaries before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to leave the tunnels immediately.
As some of the world’s largest coffee-consuming regions, coffee lovers in the United States and Europe will find the price hikes particularly hard to stomach.
According to German consumer data company Statista, Europeans consume about 3.2 million tons of coffee a year, accounting for nearly 33 percent of the world’s total coffee consumption, while Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee daily (which equates to 146 billion cups of coffee consumed in the United States each year, or nearly four cups a day for every American adult).
In fact, coffee is more than just a morning ritual in the United States; it has become a cultural and business driver.
But understanding the depth of America’s love affair with coffee may be as complex as the drink itself, and of course, more complex than the current coffee prices.
Natural disasters have taken a heavy toll.
Brazil, which accounts for about 40% of the world’s coffee production, is battling one of its worst droughts in decades. Dry conditions have severely impacted Arabica-growing regions, reducing yields.
The 2023–24 crop cycle is already seeing a sharp drop in production, with some estimates suggesting output could fall by as much as a fifth (20%).
The impact is being felt most acutely in Minas Gerais, Brazil’s largest coffee-producing state and home to high-quality Arabica, which has seen months of lower-than-normal rainfall.
Brazil’s farmers are battling the country’s worst drought in seven decades and above-average temperatures.
While Brazil dominates the Arabica market, Vietnam is the world’s leading producer of the cheaper Robusta beans used in instant coffee. Earlier this fall, Typhoon Yagi devastated the country’s main coffee-growing regions in the Central Highlands, killing at least 60 people and injuring hundreds more.
Thousands of hectares of coffee plantations were estimated to have been damaged, leading to significant losses in both the current crop and future production potential, as the damaged trees will take years to recover.
A perfect storm of environmental concerns has driven prices to all-time highs, above US$3.00 per pound of coffee beans.
The combined impact of drought in Brazil and the typhoon in Vietnam has sent global coffee prices soaring. The International Coffee Organization (ICO), an intergovernmental body made up of coffee-exporting and -importing countries, reported that prices rose nearly 20% in the third quarter of 2024, reaching their highest level in nearly a decade.
The ongoing effects of climate change make a quick return to stability difficult. The sector remains vulnerable to extreme weather conditions, which could further disrupt future harvests. In addition, growing global demand, particularly in emerging markets such as Asia, could continue to put upward pressure on prices, further slowing recovery efforts.
As the world’s two largest coffee producers struggle to recover from the crisis, the outlook for the global coffee market remains uncertain.
Climate change is reducing the area of land suitable for growing coffee crops, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, creating a range of challenges for the sector and coffee drinkers in the US and Europe.
In technical terms, the main 12-month graph of coffee prices indicates another buyers attempt to storm the round, 250-cent mark.
Since the price is near to consolidate by the end of the year above this round number, it can contribute to a further rally and multiple price growth in the foreseeable future.
USINTR
Interest Rate Strategies: Trade Smarter with Fed Rate DecisionsInterest Rate Strategies: Trade Smarter with Fed Rate Decisions
Trading interest rates may seem straightforward at first: buy when cuts end and sell when they fall. However, this approach often defies expectations, as determining when rate cuts truly end isn't as simple as pointing to a rate pause following a cut. While today’s Federal Reserve rate decisions are made during scheduled (and unscheduled emergency) Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, this wasn’t always the case. Before the 1990s, the Fed often made changes outside of meetings. The shift to exclusively deciding rates during FOMC meetings was implemented to provide greater transparency and predictability for markets.
Topics Covered:
How Are Interest Rates Traded?
Three Interest Rate Trading Strategies.
Key Insights from Backtesting Interest Rate Trading Strategies.
Interest Rate Trading Indicator (Backtest For Yourself).
█ How Are Interest Rates Traded?
This strategy focuses on trading around Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, including hikes (increases), cuts (decreases), and pauses. These decisions are believed by many to have both short- and long-term effects on the market.
Key Strategy Concepts Backtested:
Buy on Rate Pauses or Increases: Go long (buy) when the Fed pauses or raises interest rates, typically signaling market stability or optimism.
Sell on Rate Decreases: Go short (sell) or close longs when the Fed cuts rates, often indicating economic concerns or slowing growth.
Buy on Specific Rate Decreases: Enter trades when the Fed implements specific rate cuts, such as 50 basis points (bps) which represents 0.5%, and analyze market reactions over different time horizons.
█ Strategy: Long during Pauses and Increases, Short during Decreases
This section examines the effectiveness of going long on rate pauses or increases and shorting during decreases. This strategy performed well between 2001 and 2009, but underperformed after 2009 and before 2001 compared to holding positions. The main challenge is the unpredictability of future rate changes. If you could foresee rate trends over two years, decision-making would be easier, but that’s rarely the case, making this strategy less reliable in certain periods.
2001-2009
Trade Result: 67.02%
Holding Result: -31.19%
2019-2021
Trade Result: 19.28%
Holding Result: 25.22%
1971-Present
Trade Result: 444.13%
Holding Result: 5694.12%
█ Strategy: Long 50bps Rate Cuts
This section evaluates trading around 50 basis point (bps) rate cuts, which is a 0.5% decrease. Large cuts usually respond to economic stress, and market reactions can vary. While these cuts signal aggressive economic stimulation by the Fed, short-term responses are often unpredictable. The strategy tends to perform better over longer timeframes, as markets absorb the effects.
1971-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: -0.19%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: 2.41%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: 2.46%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 11.4%
2001-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: -2.12%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: -1.84%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: -3.72%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 1.72%
2009-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: -15.79%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: -6.11%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: 7.07%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 29.92%
█ Strategy: Long Any Rate Cuts
This section reviews the performance of buying after any rate cut, not just large ones. Rate cuts usually signal economic easing and often improve market conditions in the long run. However, the size of the cut and its context greatly influence how the market reacts over different timeframes.
1971-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: 0.33%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: 2.65%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: 4.38%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 8.4%
2001-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: -1.12%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: -0.69%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: -1.59%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 0.22%
2009-Present
Trade Duration: 10 trading days — Average Return: -3.38%
Trade Duration: 50 trading days — Average Return: 3.26%
Trade Duration: 100 trading days — Average Return: 12.55%
Trade Duration: 250 trading days — Average Return: 12.54%
█ Key Insights from Backtesting Interest Rate Trading Strategies
The first assumption I wanted to test was whether you should sell when rate cuts begin and buy when they end. The results were inconclusive, mainly due to the difficulty of predicting when rate cuts will stop. A rate pause might suggest cuts are over, but that’s often not the case, as shown below.
One key finding is that the best time to be fully invested is when rates fall below 1.25% or 1.00%, as this has historically led to stronger market performance. But this can be subject to change.
█ Interest Rate Trading Indicator (Backtest For Yourself)
Indicator Used For Backtesting (select chart below to open):
The 'Interest Rate Trading (Manually Added Rate Decisions) ' indicator analyzes U.S. interest rate decisions to determine trade entries and exits based on user-defined criteria, such as rate increases, decreases, pauses, aggressive changes, and more. It visually marks key decision dates, including both rate changes and pauses, offering valuable insights for trading based on interest rate trends. Historical time periods are highlighted for additional context. The indicator also allows users to compare the performance of an interest rate trading strategy versus a holding strategy.
Hmm... Something Interesting & Sweet is Brewing in T-Bond MarketIEF is a longer maturity, longer duration play on the US Intermediate Treasury segment. The fund focuses on Treasury notes expiring 7-10 years from now, which have significantly higher yield and interest rate sensitivity than the notes that make up our broader 1-10 year benchmark.
IEF`s average YTM is significantly higher than US-T Aggregated benchmark's. Of course, the higher yield comes with significantly higher sensitivity to changes in rates, particularly those at the longer end of the yield curve (10-year key rate duration).
The fund changed its index from the Barclays US Treasury Bond 7-10 Year Term Index to the ICE US Treasury 7-10 Year Bond Index on March 31, 2016. This change created no significant change in exposure.
IEF's narrow focus and concentrated portfolio have been popular, so the fund is stable and easy to trade.
The main technical graph represents IEF' Total return (div-adjusted) format, and indicates on developing H&S structure, as US Federal Reserve tight monetary policy seems is near to ease.
$USINTR / US Federal Reserve Interest Rate 2024-2025US Federal Reserve Interest Rate 2024-2025
And here’s the chart of the interest rate. ECONOMICS:USINTR
I’ll just take a wild guess! Don’t judge me too harshly, but they might keep the rate steady, with a potential cut closer to the elections.
Logically, though, it would make more sense to cut it now, so the masses think there’s no recession coming and that the “Democrats” are saving the world like Chip and Dale.
But people seem to forget that it’s the Democrats who’ve hiked the rate from 0.25% to 5.5% over the past four years, putting the economy in its worst shape in the last 15 years. Getting excited about these 0.25-0.5 point cuts is, at the very least, naive.
So, at the November meeting, most likely just before the elections, we might see a “boost”—a rate cut of 0.5, or even a whole point (wishful thinking). This could lead to another spike in Bitcoin’s price.
These thoughts lead me to believe that the Democrats (Kamala Harris) will win, followed by one more meeting in December, where they might hold or lower the rate again with the new U.S. president in place.
And by late January 2025, the world might plunge into chaos, oops—I mean the rates will start climbing again. The next cut might not come until 2026.
That’s why I’d expect the recession we’ve been hearing about for over two and a half years to finally kick in.
Just my two cents!
$USINTR - A Month of BreathThe Federal Reserve left the target for the Fed Funds Rate ECONOMICS:USINTR
unchanged at 5%-5.25%, as expected, but signaled rates may go to 5.6% by Year-End if the Economy and Inflation do not Slow down more.
It is the first pause in the tightening campaign following ten consecutive hikes that lifted borrowing costs by 500bps to the highest level since September 2007.
Throughout Fed's announcement The Dollar Index TVC:DXY
plunged to what can be said Wave C completed from A-B-C
Elliot Waves Correction
(attached ideas)
Have the markets priced in Inflation ECONOMICS:USIRYY and Interest Rates ECONOMICS:USINTR ?
TRADE SAFE
*** NOTE that this is not Financial Advice !
Please do your own research and consult your Financial Advisor
before partaking on any trading activity based solely on this Idea .
Golden Doomsayer judgment is that inflation still highGold prices traded higher midafternoon on Wednesday as a report showed US inflation is still high.
Gold for June delivery was last seen up, again near US$2,400 per ounce.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday reported the April consumer-price index rose by 0.3% from March.
Shelter, gas prices remain sticky.
Notable call-outs from the inflation print include the shelter index, which rose 5.5% on an unadjusted, annual basis, a slowdown from March. The Shelter index (the largest US CPI component with near 32% weight) rose 0.4% month over month and was the largest factor in the monthly increase in core prices, according to the BLS.
Sticky shelter inflation is largely to blame for higher core inflation readings, according to economists.
In technical terms, Gold prices are on positive path, firmly above 26- and 52-weeks SMA, while 50/200-weekly SMA Golden Cross that occurred in 2017, still works pretty well, helps year after year to robust gain in yellow metal.
Technical perspectives are near 2550 and 2800 per XAUUSD ounce in this time.
🎲 Interest Rates. To Cut, or not to Cut. That is the questionJamie Dimon Sees ‘Lot of Inflationary Forces in Front of Us’, as in recent interview to Bloomberg JPMorgan CEO has warned for months that rates could stay high.
Jamie Dimon said he’s still more worried about inflation than markets appear to be.
The JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said significant price pressures continue to influence the US economy and may mean interest rates will be higher for longer than many investors are expecting. He cited costs linked to the green economy, re-militarization, infrastructure spending, trade disputes and large fiscal deficits.
“There are a lot of inflationary forces in front of us,” Dimon said in an interview on Bloomberg Television Thursday. “The underlying inflation may not go away the way people expect it to.”
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed at record highs Wednesday amid optimism over monetary policy easing after a measure of underlying US inflation cooled in April for the first time in six months. Dimon said that markets have been healthy for a while, but that doesn’t necessarily predict the future.
“If you have higher rates and — God forbid — stagflation, you will see stress in real estate and leveraged companies, and private credit,” Dimon said.
“Stocks are very high, and I think the chance of inflation staying high or rates going up are higher than people think,” the CEO said. “My view is whatever the world is pricing in for a soft landing, I think it’s probably half of that. I think the chances of something going wrong are higher than people think.”
The CEO has been warning for months that inflation could be stickier than many investors are predicting, and wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that his bank is prepared for interest rates ranging from 2% to 8% “or even more.”
Dimon said that “a lot of happy talk” is why markets aren’t pricing these elements in.
Even though a bigger surprise would be higher rates, Dimon said that geopolitics could create the “main stress that we’re worried about” amid the impact those dynamics have on oil and gas prices, trade and alliances. With war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, tensions in North Korea and the use of nuclear blackmail, the geopolitical situation is “very tense,” he said.
When it comes to China, the right thing for America is to “fully and deeply” engage, he said. Still, the fragile relationship between the two countries makes banking in the country — where Dimon said JPMorgan has roughly 1,500 multinational clients — a riskier prospect.
“They’re not leaving China, so we’re going to serve our clients there, we’re just much more cognizant the risk is higher,” he said. “You look at China from a risk-reward basis, it used to be very good, it’s not so great any more.”
Basel III
The financial world has been in a heated debate over US proposals tied to what’s called the Basel III Endgame — an international regulatory overhaul initiated more than a decade ago in response to the financial crisis of 2008. US regulators have decided to adjust the original proposals following substantial backlash. Dimon reiterated his comments that the proposals are excessive.
“I would love to know what the end game is,” Dimon said. “Regulators should answer the question: What do you want — How do you want the system to work?”
Uncertainty pushes Gold prices (XAUUSD) more higher, later than The US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday reported the April consumer-price index rose by 0.3% from March.
Shelter, gas prices remain sticky.
Notable call-outs from the inflation print include the shelter index, which rose 5.5% on an unadjusted, annual basis, a slowdown from March. The Shelter index (the largest US CPI component with near 32% weight) rose 0.4% month over month and was the largest factor in the monthly increase in core prices, according to the BLS.
Sticky shelter inflation that was one of the main reason of 2007-09 Financial crisis is largely to blame for higher core inflation readings, according to economists.
The main technical graph is an inverted (normalized) chart for expected Federal funds rate at mid-March 2025, based on respective Mar'25 FedFunds Futures Contract (ZQH2025).
Following the upside trend, as well as forming reversed Head-and-shoulders structure, the nearest target can be around 8 1/4 - 8 1/2 over the next 12 months.
Historical backtest analyses says, this scenario is not a nonsense, as in early 1980s the difference between US 10-Year T-Bond rates and US Interest rate has been already hugely negative at similar market conditions (fighting against non-stop inflation).
Let's see what is next in nowadays..
MACRO MONDAY 10~ Interest Rate & S&P500MACRO MONDAY 10 – Historical Interest Rate hike Impact on S&P500
This chart aims to illustrate the relationship between the Federal Reserve’s Interest rate hike policy and the S&P500’s price movements.
At a glance the chart highlights the lagging effects of the Federal Reserves Interest Rate hikes on the S&P500 (the “Market”). In all four of the interest rate hikes over the past 24 years the S&P500 did not start to decline until 3 months into an interest the rate pause period (at the earliest) and in 3 out of 4 of the interest rate pauses there was a 6 – 16 month wait before the market begun to turn over. The move to reducing interest rates (after a pause period) has been the major warning signal for the beginning or continuation of a major market decline/capitulation. We might have to wait if we are betting on a major market decline.
In the chart we look particularly at the time patterns of the last two major interest rate hike cycles of 2000 and 2007 as they offer us a framework as to what to expect in this current similar hike cycle. Why is this cycle similar to 2000 & 2007?.. because rates increased to 6.5% in 2000, 5.25% in 2007 and we are currently at 5.50% in 2023 (sandwiched between the two). These are the three highest and closely aligned rate cycles over the past 24 years. The COVID-19 crash is included in this analysis but has not been given the same attention as the three larger and similar hike cycles 2000,2007 & 2023.
The Chart
We can simplify the chart down to FIVE key points (also summarised hereunder):
1. Previously when the Federal Reserve increased interest rates the S&P500 made significant
price gains with a 20% increase in 2000 and a 23% increase in 2007.
- Since rates started increasing in February 2022 we have seen the S&P500 price make a
sharp decline and then recover all those losses to establish an increase of 5% at present
since the hiking started.
- This means all three major interest hike cycles resulted in positive S&P500 price action.
- For reference, a more gradual rate hike pre COVID-19 also resulted in 20%+ positive price
action.
2. When the Federal Reserve paused interest rates in 2000 it led to a 15% decline in the
S&P500 and then in 2007 it led to a 28% increase in the S&P500. It is worth noting that a
lower interest rate was established in 2007 at 5.25% versus 6.5% in 2000. This might
indicate that this 1.25% difference may have led to an earlier negative impact to the
market in 2000 causing a decline during the pause phase. Higher rate, higher risk of
market decline during a pause.
- At present we are holding at 5.5% (between the 6.5% of 2000 and the 5.25% of 2007).
3. In the event that the Federal Reserve is pausing rates from hereon in, historic timelines of
major hike cycles suggest a 7 month pause like in 2000 or a 16 month pause in line with
2007 (avg. of both c.11 months). For reference COVID-19’s rate pause was for 6 months.
- 6 - 7 months from now would be March/April 2024 and 16 months from now would be
Nov 2024 (avg. of both Jun 2024 as indicated on chart).
4. As you can see from the red circles in the chart the initiation of Interest rate reductions
have been the major and often advanced warning signals for significant market declines,
including for COVID-19.
5. It is worth considering that before the COVID-19 crash, the interest rate pause was for 6
months from Dec 2018 – Jun 2019. Thereafter from July 2019 rates begun to reduce (THE
WARNING SIGNAL from point 4 above)…conversely the market rallied hard by 20% from
$2.8k to $3.4k topping in Feb 2020 at which point a major 35% capitulation cascaded over
6 weeks pushing the S&P500 down to $2,200. Similarly in 2007 the rates began to decline
in Aug 2007 in advance of market top in Oct 2007. A 53% decline followed. The lesson here
is, no matter how high the market goes, once interest rates are decreasing it’s time to be
on the defensive.
Summary
1. Interest Rate increases have resulted in positive S&P500 price action
2. Interest rate pauses are the first cautionary signal of potential negative S&P500 price action however 2 out of 3 pauses have resulted in positive price action. The higher the rate the higher the chance of a market decline during the pause period.
3. Interest rate pauses have ranged from 6 to 16 months (avg. of 11 months).
4. Interest rate reductions have been the major, often advanced warning signal for significant and continued market decline (red circles on chart)
5. Interest rates can decrease for 2 to 6 months before the market eventually capitulates.
- In 2020 rates decreased for 6 months as the market continued its ascent and in 2007
rates decreased for 2 months as the market continued its ascent. This tells us that
rates can go down as prices go up but that it rarely lasts with any gains completely
wiped out within months.
September – The Doors to Risk Open
We now understand, as per point 2 above, that an Interest rate pause is the first cautionary signal of potential negative S&P500 price action. Should the Fed confirm a pause in September 2023 we will clearly be moving into a more dangerous phase of the interest rate cycle.
Based on the chart and subject to the Fed pausing interest rates from September 2023 we can now project that there is a 33% chance of immediate market decline (within 3 months) when the pause commences with this risk increasing substantially from the 6th and 7th month of the pause in March/April 2024.
I have referenced previously how the current yield curve inversion on the 2/10 year Treasury Spread provided advance warning of recession/capitulation prior to almost all recessions however it provided us a wide 6 - 22 month window of time from the time the yield curve made its first definitive turn back up to the 0% level (See Macro Monday 2 – Recession Timeframe Horizon). Interestingly September 2023 will be the 6th month of that 6 – 22 month window.
Both todays chart and Macro Monday 2’s chart emphasize how the month of September 2023 opens the door to increased market risk. Buckle up folks.
March/April 2024 – Eye of the Storm
On Macro Monday 2 – Recession Timeframe Horizon our average time before a recession after the yield curve starts to turn up was 13 months or April 2024 (average of past 6 recessions using 2/10Y Treasury Spread).
From today’s review of the Interest rate hikes impact on the S&P500, we have a strong indication that March/April 2024 will be key high risk date also.
Now we have two charts that indicate that the month of Mar/Apr 2024 will come with significantly increased risk.
Its worth noting a pause could last 16 months like in 2007 lasting until Nov 2024, at which point we would be pretty frustrated if we had been preparing defensively since Mar/Apr 2024. Just another scenario to keep in mind.
The Capitulation Signal
Based on today’s chart, should interest rates at any stage decline we should be prepared for significant market decline with immediate effect or within 2 months (at worst). Regardless of any subsequent increases in the market, these would likely be wiped out within 6 – 9 months by a capitulation. An optimist could run a trailing stop and hope it executes in the event of.
Bridging the Gaps
Please have a look at last week’s Macro Monday 9 – Initial Jobless Claims if you would like to measure risk month to month. The chart is designed so that you can press play and have an idea of the risk level we are entering into on an ongoing basis. In this chart we summarised more intermediate risk levels with Sept-Oct 2023 as Risk level 1 (yield curve inversion time window opens and potential rate pause risk increase) and Nov-Dec 2023 as stepping into a higher Risk Level 2 (as increase in Jobless claims average timeframe will be hit). Should the yield curve continue to move up towards being un-inverted and should Jobless Claims increase then Jan 2024 forward this could be considered a higher Risk level 3 leading the path to our Risk level 4 defined today which is March/April 2024.
Final Word
It is worth noting that the Fed could surprise us and start increasing rates again, they may also not pause interest rates in Sept 2023. For this reason I included the small black and red arrows that provide a general timeline across different rate periods to help us gauge a market top (red arrows) and a market bottom (black arrows). The black arrows suggest a time window of 27 – 32 months from now being the market bottom. A lot of people are focused on when a recession or capitulation will start, we may want to start thinking a step ahead and prepare for the opportunity that will present itself at a market bottom. Having a time window can help us plan and be psychologically prepared to consider taking a position in a market of pain and fear should the timing window align. If we are expecting this bottom in between Oct 2025 and Mar 2026, we can make more rational decisions when the streets are red.
We can try to make more definitive calls and decisions on an ongoing bases so please please do not take any of the above as a guarantee. We know the risk is increasing now and a lot of charts indicate incremental increases in risk up to Mar/Apr 2024, Nov 2024 and even January - March 2025. All of theses dates are possible trigger events but ultimately we don’t know. We are just trying to prepare and read the warning signs on the road as we drive closer to a potential harpin turn.
If you have any charts you want me to look at or think would be valuable to review in the context of the above subject matter please let me know, id love to hear about it.
PUKA
IMPORTANT! Bitcoin Long-term Price Projection Update!I have officially decided to update our long-term price projection for Bitcoin. A major key change is the elimination of the mini-bull market. Instead we are expecting the current bull market to develop into a major bull market. There is also a very high likelihood that this will be the only bull market for the 4th cycle. In this video we partially stepped outside of The Crypto Weather Channel world to explain our reasoning behind these changes. Thanks for watching!
DOW(N)? | A Dollar Milkshake ScenarioI feel bad when I am filling up your feed with my non-stop posting.
There are too many charts that I want to talk about. I could post them as "updates" to my earlier ideas. But this would be confusing for me and for the reader.
Therefore, here is another short chart analysis.
The last few months were peculiar. DJI began diverging away from the other main indices, SPX, NDQ. A significantly strong movement of DJI the last few months brings hope to the Equity Bulls.
A fast and high-reaching Bull Run.
A discrepancy between indices is not necessarily hopeful. In classic Dow Theory, when different parts of the market moved differently from others, it signaled an alert that deserved attention. As a classic example, when the railroad index didn't confirm the general index growth, this could have been bad news. While the Dow Theory is replaced from more modern methods, it is fun looking back and analyzing using the most classical of methods. It certainly gives a new perspective into what we analyze today.
While price discounts all, relationships matter. SPX, DJI etc don't live on their own. Their price is highly subject to the fundamentals of the economy, which are hard to calculate. The only thing we can do is take the fundamentals into equation, and make a retrospect analysis into some charts, just to get some perspective.
I will now explain why I believe such a discrepancy occurred. An exotic chart follows, making some calculations on DJI.
Later on you will understand what this chart means. Similarly for SPX:
It appears that there is a fundamental ceiling above. And DJI just upthrusted to reach it.
Fundamental ceilings like these cannot be predicted. We can see them from their effect in long-term charts.
In 2022, what we lost in Equity value, we gained in Dollar strength. Therefore we calculate DXY*DJI to get some perspective of the absolute DJI price. It is sort-of the price of DJI relative to the world economy.
While there are similarities to 1995 - and while anything could happen - I believe that this is a fake-out. But the future of Equities might not be like we expect them to be.
The post-2020 period is a period that resembles a blow-off top.
In my 1-year experience, DXY and Equities depend on the Yield Curve. We all know that, the Yield Curve has significant importance in calculating Equity performance.
While short-term movement depends on the yield curve, the long-term movement depends on long-term yield rates.
And this correlation between the Yield Curve and DXY makes sense.
The yield curve represents the "rate money is created out of thin air". It's inverse represents the "rate money is destroyed".
DXY is a measure of dollar strength. Strength of currencies depend on many factors (most of which I don't have the knowledge to analyze). One of these factors is currency scarcity coupled with interest rates.
With all of that we can conclude to the following consequences of a possible dominance of the dollar.
-- It is obvious that dollar dominance will lead DXY much higher.
-- Money Supply is rapidly decreasing. The FED is dedicated into killing inflation.
-- A correlation between DXY and the inverse of yield curve might lead to the following conclusion:
A decisively high DXY needs a deep yield inversion. And perhaps we are stuck with a multi-year yield inversion.
Price might get rejected upon attempting to enter the long-term formation. It will have significant trouble re-entering the money-creation-area (positive yield inversion)
As for the effect in equities, things are quite complex...
For the following charts, I will be replacing DXY with the yield-curve, which is the fundamental movement that affects dollar strength.
Until now, Equities haven't felt the effect of the Yield Inversion.
This may soon change. Price reached a significant retracement and with a sloped ceiling, bearishness is apparent.
This chart is concerning for equities. It describes the absolute strength of the Equity Market. And with so significant divergences in such a big scale, it comes to show the sheer scale of the damage that might be coming in equities. And it will be real damage, damage that we haven't already felt.
All of these are calculations are in relative performance. It is hard to calculate the effect in equities in absolute terms.
One thing is for sure: A deepening yield inversion will keep the real equity prices higher for longer. Therefore we cannot calculate anything while we are in this upside down period.
And who knows... The recession everybody expects may never come. If the yield curve is negative for years, the dollar will be making higher highs in strength.
And a strong dollar isn't necessarily bad for equities. It is in the hands of corporations to keep the game going, and investors happy. In the years to come, the equity market may not be able to make new all-time highs. But this is not a lose-lose scenario for equities. Companies instead of rewarding investors with higher index prices, they can reward them with higher dividends.
After all, an investment in dollar-denominated markets is like investing in dollar itself. And if you believe in the Dollar Milkshake, then everything measured in dollar is most definitely for you!
The recession everyone is convinced that is coming, may never come.
Capitalism has worked tremendously well for the US.
QE and the Stock Market mania fed the .com bubble.
Who knows, maybe QT and the Dollar mania may feed another bubble.
Capitalism and money work in mysterious ways... Bubbles and Recessions come when nobody expects them to come.
With so much money printed, we either created a recipe for disaster, or a recipe for the biggest bubble humanity has ever seen.
Who knows what the effect might be if that money supply is put to work.
And with such a significant shift in Bonds (from long-term bullish to long-term bearish), the money invested in them will eventually leave the Bond market and seek other adventures.
No matter what happens, the future is scary and exciting!
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
SPX | Let The Roaring '20s Begin!As the famous billionaire said in December 2021 (elon), the "prophet" who is apparently loved and trusted by everyone. I don't know why...
Disclaimer, SPX by itself will probably not follow this path, things are quite complex as you will soon find out.
First of all, Recession is not something simple. Everyone talks about it, but it is not always meaningful.
This year, equities weren't in a recession. While on the one hand the prices dropped, the denominator (dollar value) increased.
The 2022 "Recession" is not apparent, we have just hit the mean. Note that the channel is automatically drawn from 1950 using the Log-scaled Linear Regression indicator.
Taking note of the above, we can interpret that instead of SPX following the 1920's bubble, the pair SPX*yields will.
These charts above give us a valuable lesson. Until now, a .50 increase in yields had little effect on the direct equity value.
A monthly rate hike of 100 points had little meaning in the 80s. A change from 15% to 16% on yields for example, is just a 6% increase in the immediate price of money.
A change from 0.25% to 4.50% in 2022, is an 18x increase.
This means that the immediate effects of such an increase are dramatical. The 2022 "recession" occured just because price was so rapidly revalued. The change in dollar value is "effective immediately", when a rate-hike comes. Everything measured in dollars is immediately repriced accordingly. Even if price may take time to show it, cost does change.
The USOIL true price changed immediately. US investors enjoy a massive discount in oil price, while the rest of the world "enjoys" a bull-flag.
But this phenomenon will not last forever. Rates will eventually hit a ceiling and the FED will pivot. I will now try to "estimate" when the tightening schedule might end.
Had the 2020 crash not happened, this would be an average rate-hike schedule. It lasts 7 years.
This puts the end of the tightening schedule to the end of 2023.
So to add these together, we expect a QT environment until the end of 2023, and stable decrease of yield rates starting in 2024. Now I will try to make sense of them all, and try to find a probable behavior of SPX based on the yield hike-drop schedule. For simplicity, I pretend that the terminal rate is already here (or priced in). After all, the US10Y chart shows signs of peaking. We can conclude that even if this is not the terminal rate today, and based on the FED announcements, the market has already priced in the full extent of the tightening schedule.
I will return to the modified USOIL chart. We have seen that in reality, the price for oil (the main contributor to inflation) dropped a lot thanks to the tightening schedule. The USOIL/yields chart is like a time machine. It shows the final price equities/commodities will take when the dollar-repricing (rate hike) circles around the economy. We can conclude that the rate hike schedule was successful and will cool down inflation (inside the US)
With all of the above, it is safe to assume that:
Inflation has peaked (for now?).
The rate-hike schedule / QT environment will persist until the end of 2023.
From 2024 we can expect rates to drop.
By multiplying or dividing with yields, we can make conclusions for the reason why we were not in a recession this year. Since equities and yields are multiplied to calculate the true equity value, we don't have a clear indication on why the true value is increasing. Charting SPX/yields can help us understand "thanks to who is the true SPX chart increasing".
By analyzing them, we can get more indications on the future movement of SPX.
We assumed that yields have nearly peaked. They will remain constant or increase a little for the months to come.
Equities have no reason to continue a sell-off now that yields have almost peaked and the worst of inflation has passed. So we expect equities to increase compared to steady yields in the following months.
Taking all of that in account, we can end up with the following charts:
A probable scenario:
An improbable scenario:
More about the trends in the following idea:
Moral of the story, always have a plan B. Make sure not to waste it creating a bubble.
When inflation drops and equities bubble, there will be no reason for rates to increase. Just like in the 2018-2020 Recession, we will beg for the FED to drop rates to feed the bubble. When there is no more room for yields to drop, equities will. The equity market is infested with weapons of mass destruction (derivatives). It is bound that we see a burst of this long-term bubble.
Final question of the night: Why would anyone print an astronomical amount of money to make so little in the end?
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
PS. I've talked about how the 2018-2020 Recession no-one remembers is a micrography of the 2008-2009 Recession.
For reference, look at the rate-hike schedule, and notice the little "step" that appears in the end of the 2008 rate-drop schedule. The same appeared in the 2020 crash.
On the left, the modified-GFC is visually similar to the standard GFC chart (with and without yields transformation). On the right, the bubble SPX experienced in 2018-2020 now looks like an actual recession.
PS2. This crazy idea I posted may not be so crazy after all...
PS3. In 2025, Nostradamus (another pseudo-prophet) told that WW3 would come. The same I heard from many others.
endtimeheadlines.org
PS4. The two sources of wealth are theft and inheritance. -Aristotle Onassis
PS5. I am not a trader, I am a father. Take what I say with a grain of salt.
Warning DrumsJust a short update for today. It is important, so it deserves an idea on its own.
For the first time since 2019, the FED is now officially giving money into the system.
What could this mean for the US economy? Are they sensing weakness or is this just a response to the recent banking crises?
Now let's look at the history of bailouts.
Price made a higher-high, and stayed high for months until the GFC.
Similarly in 2019, without anyone concerned about recession, the FED pivoted and cut rates.
This might be the beginning of more bailouts. Who knows how many more...
There is a big difference however...
Historically, during periods of economic weakness, the money input was higher than the output.
Now, the scale of money going out of the system is astronomical.
So much so, that is literally bull-flagging.
Money supply metrics cannot be ignored.
Record low RSI for money supply.
Beware, these scale of these events is incalculable. The numbers we witness here are massive (RRPONTTLD).
The money supply monster we have created is more powerful than it's creator.
What must be done to fight it? And who will be the first to fall?
Do note that RRPONTTLD is a sum of agreements. The effect of such a dramatic money drain out of the system will take years to show itself. This M2SL drop is just the tip of the money-berg.
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
SPX | Early AccessI have posted about this chart before, but I wanted to show it more clearly this time.
Above we see SPX, the standard chart. Below we see a custom index I invented, which is VVIX/VIX. It is a neat way to make sense of the chaotic nature of VIX. To clear things out, I have hidden both charts and instead I show an indicator called WLSMA. It is tremendously helpful to smoothen the "fog" the standard chart creates. In the end I will add the link to the inventor.
I took great care on drawing these trendlines. I tried to get into the mind of the investor back then, and drew the lines that best made sense, and could provide some actual meaning.
On the chart, red arrows are drawn. These are the times when the VVIX/VIX chart violates decisively it's trendline. On the same dates, I created arrows on the SPX chart to get an idea of just how early this method warns us. While this method may not be useful for traders (I am not a trader, I am just passionate analyzing charts), I find it incredibly interesting on how these two correlate, and make actual sense.
I find VIX by itself completely useless. Don't get triggered by what I said.
How on earth is VIX = 20 a good buy-in strategy? It is as about as useful as RSI getting below 80. Again don't get triggered by it and flame comments down below. Numbers and money don't mean nothing. It is perspective and values that make sense.
Now onto some charts:
In 2008 we were notified from VVIX/VIX all the way back in February of 2007, and got a confirmation on April of 2007. This is not a typo, 1 year before the GFC.
Curiously, this happened when FED's tightening schedule was near it's end.
Also interesting is the April-September period of 2008, when the VVIX/VIX chart showed signs of hope when it broke above it's trendline.
And compared to now:
We can conclude similarly for the 2010-2015 period.
And the 2016-2020 period.
And the 2020-2023 period of course.
Are we approaching this hopeful period before the crisis?
A comparison between 2008 and 2023, in the period of deadly hope.
Link to the inventor of the WLSMA indicator:
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
The Oil WarOil is strictly tied to dollar price (petrodollar).
World investors/consumers are under tremendous pressure, with absolute oil price exploding, coupled with an explosive dollar. They have to pay the cost for both...
US investors enjoy a very competitive oil price (compared to treasuries). This year an investment in USOIL was very negatively performing compared to treasuries.
Do note that there is a discrepancy between consumer oil (USOIL) and investment oil (USOIL/modified-yields).
Rate hikes are not for inflation, they are for economic war advantage. During a war period, and in a deglobalized world, you need substantial purchasing power to import, and selectively export goods.
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
USINTR - still in a upside trend ( wth 30yr backtesting)
*High winning rate with backtesting by my strategy
Right now ECONOMICS:USINTR is still in the upside trend.
This means that it has been consistently performing poorly and may not be a good investment opportunity in the short term.
🔔 Be prepared for reversals.
It's advisable to be patient and wait for the downward trend to occur before the risk market confirms a bullish market again.
Good luck!
This chart measures pain.Spoiler alert, there is a lot.
Inspired by a fellow trader, link to his idea. He is the reason I took the stock market seriously.
An easy-to-explain chart.
As NoOneWhoIsSomeone explained better, FEDFUNDS increases when an economy is strong. Therefore it can be a modificator for prices. The FED increases the rate when it smells money, and money smells when there is strength, historically...
Now the FEDFUNDS race now is for inflation (amongst other conspiracy stuff)
Does this chart work??? I don't know...
Orange line: It is SPX in log scale.
Blue line: I tried to add in the equation the FEDFUNDS rate. The price of SPX is divided by M2SL. This takes out of the equation the money printing. Now we multiply by 10-FEDFUNDS rate. I could do many different calculations but this is good enough for my knowledge. I am no trader, I have even managed to forget physics I did one year ago, so you could't possibly call me a genius. So take this with a grain of salt.
What we find out is a new blue line which could be a measure of today's strength of economy.
Throughout history, the two lines followed together, with the blue line surpassing the orange. Therefore the "strength" is higher than the SPX reading. In 2008 the lines followed through in exactly the same fashion. Even in 2000, albeit the blue line being slow, they both reached the same bottom.
What we see now is the incredible. The economy's strength is already in trash. And for quite some time...
It appears that my extreme ideas are not that extreme after all...
Go ahead, post some hate comments below, like some did in the idea I linked.
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
Inflation!Oh yeah, inflation... Just how much though???
One of the main "benefactors" for inflation is money supply. Printing money fast and not managing it to create growth, is bad... unsurprisingly. For the last 2 years, an astronomical amount of money was printed. But have we seen it's effect?
To figure out these HOT questions, we use charts. Opinions don't do us any good for important issues, facts do.
First: M2SL (Money Supply)
Specifically the rate of change. We use the ROC indicator, set in 24 months.
This chart above, the ROC is looking familiar...
It looks like the rate of change in money supply, follows the inflation rate. So we might have something.
I hear you say, on the far right we see an explosion in money supply ROC, and we witness the explosive inflation rate we had this year. Thankfully, ROC is now almost turning negative, and inflation is showing signs of slowing down.
Not so fast.
Look at the following chart.
In this chart we have 3 lines, blue is money supply ROC, orange is time-synced inflation rate, and the faint white line is inflation moved 2 years earlier. I tried to match the money supply ROC peaks with the inflation peaks of 1970s.
Do note that the M2SL ROC for a specific date, takes the average ROC for the past 24 months (2 years). So the delay between money printing and inflation showing it is at least 2 years . The ROC chart is delayed by itself, and it shows inflation change 2 years before the official inflation rate changes.
Alarmingly, the chart above shows us that we are in the middle of inflation explosion.
A magnified view.
I hear you say again, but inflation is rapidly dropping, so it is peaked. This chart above does have an indication of scale as well as timing. It is obvious that the rate of change stood much higher for long, more than any other time in history. So inflation should be quite substantial. Perhaps more than 15% we had in 1970s. We need to prove that it is higher though...
Second: Total money printed
I tried comparing the cumulative money printed in the decade before the inflation peak, this led me to a dead end. Percentages are identical.
It looks like an inflationary shock today, too much was printed too fast.
This is a key difference between the two periods.
Third: What is the "fair" amount of money we should have printed?
So what if, we try comparing money supply with the total GDP. The ratio M2SL/GDP. If you saw my previous idea, I learned that the GDP/M2SL ratio is basically the money velocity.
The idea behind the M2SL/GDP (which is 1/M2V) is simple, just how much excess money have we printed for the gross domestic product we have? I hastily explained in my previous idea, and I will try to explain it again, comparing these two different periods.
During the period of stagflation (1970s) we had money velocity in a slow but steady growth.
Now we have the complete opposite.
We have too much money printed for how much we produce. I don't have the knowledge to pinpoint how much of an increase this could cause to inflation though. I tried some things in my previous idea.
And finally, fourth: Yields
This are disappointing. Markets don't want high yields, and they refuse to price-in higher yields.
It could take many months before this barrier is broken. This is a 3M chart, so timeframes are quite long.
Market's yield is preceding FEDFUNDS. While I am not experienced on the mechanics of how the FED and the market are reading/predicting/using yield rates, this chart shows us that FEDFUNDS always follows US02Y.
Keltner channels show us the opposite side of the EMA Ribbon. If we trust the one, we trust the other.
We are almost inside the top Keltner channel, a bearish phenomenon.
Unfortunately for the low-inflation-dream, we might have reached a top for now. FEDFUNDS is poised to grow a little more, and US02Y shows signs of weakness.
Like 2008 (and every other rate-hike-era), we may have reached a top.
And an extra: Inflation predictions for other countries
I talk about the US, but I am from Greece. Right now, we are voting for next years budget. This budget is presented as a great one (let's not get into politics). Everything is good regarding it. Curiously, on the first paragraph basically, it states that "this budget is made considering an average inflation rate for 2023, 5 points higher than this year.
(I am paraphrasing, I don't present an official transcript)
Inflation reached a high of 12%, a 30 year record. Europe countries like mine, are bracing for higher inflation for next year. The problem is nowhere near to a solution.
Tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground.
-Father Grigori
Hedge for High Interest RatesHere is great high interest rate hedge. While I wanted to use USINTR to compare, it didn't look obvious for easy analysis, so I used USIRYY instead since both are greatly correlated. The Fed keeps talking like a dove but acting like a hawk: like promising soft landings from transitory inflation, yet suddenly choosing rare 75 bps increase, even though they previously implied 50 bps would be the most. So, I expect next few rate raisings will be at least that much, possibly a full point even during this summer. That would be great for this ETF going up, which is currently on sale, thanks to more direct & intense QT from the Federal Reserve.
More tightening till Interest Rates match 10Y Bond Yields (US)If history is any indicator we shouldn't expect any pivots in monetary policy until 10Y Bond Yields come down to Interest Rates or Interest Rates hike to the former's level.
For 10Y Bond Yields to come down we need to see lower inflation or inflationary pressure.