The pandemic, Fed interest rate policy and bond purchases, restrictive banking regulations, and banks’ swelling cash balances will have a lingering impact on liquidity and produce some mind-bending policies to deal with this uncharted territory.
As the pandemic emerged in March 2020, strange things happened:
o Bond markets seized up and investors panicked.
o Bond yields spiked causing severe price declines.
o Credit default swap prices (debt protection derivatives) rose 100x in less than a month.
o The dollar rose and liquidity dropped for U.S. Treasuries, usually the world’s most liquid security.
o There was substantially lower demand at U.S. Treasury auctions.
The Federal Reserve responded with an almost never-ending pile of cash, buying vast quantities of bonds with newly created cash. It has continued its purchases, at a pace of at least $120 billion a month.
But this has not resulted in “happy days are here again.” This mountain of dollars is limiting liquidity and constraining markets. That’s right, read that again if you must – too much cash can constrain the economy.
S&P 500 stock market values are experiencing the same volatility as the first half of 2020, the start of the Covid-19 pandemic (based on the 50 largest value movements as a percentage of the index’s total market value). These dramatic movements show that market volatility leads to big price movements in stocks, both up and down. There are a couple of factors combining to enhance this turbulence: The popularity of the momentum trade (buying stocks that are rising quickly and dump the relative losers quickly). Decreasing liquidity (fewer buyers and sellers for the other side of trades). Both factors magnify the market’s moves in either direction.
The Archegos implosion teaches the same lessons that apparently need to be taught over and over again.
1. High leverage eventually brings margin calls.
2. Margin calls equal disaster.
3. Margin calls come when too much leverage is attached to securities linked to market volatility.
4. All securities are linked to market volatility.
There is no such thing as uncorrelated assets anymore. Investment strategies founded on the belief that the securities held are somehow immune from previously “uncorrelated” volatility are anachronistic. Combine these investments with substantial leverage intended to enhance returns, and this strategy ends in disaster.
If it’s zero eventually, great quarterly performance is meaningless.
Fundamental drivers for pricing valuations in public markets have changed. Now, there is a new interaction among factors unseen just recently. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence have had a profound impact on the tools available and analysis presented to even the most amateurish investor. Social media, such as Reddit, Twitter, and other platforms, have allowed access to information and influence from media “stars” driving demand in an almost herd-like mentality driving up prices, and causing extreme volatility. Finally, technology has enabled a trading floor to be in everyone’s pocket. That same trading floor allows access to any information on anything from anywhere, and communication with anyone or, via social media, receive communication and information (regardless of how dubious) from anyone about any security or investment strategy.
These factors will cause unprecedented market volatility, along with extreme price movements for well-known (or perhaps more accurately, well-publicized) companies and their securities. While the supply of securities remains somewhat constant, demand for those securities is increasing (sometimes exponentially) because many more investors are now chasing those same securities.
The price of anything cannot escape supply and demand dynamics. Recent IPO activity is an attempt to meet growing demand (and raise capital at attractive prices). The new supply from IPO’s, secondary stock issuances, and most recently and monumentally, SPAC offerings, still do not provide enough supply to quench a growing and overwhelming demand. The valuations, especially those given to the SPAC’s, are entering stratospheric levels that could hardly be justified under normal market conditions. Successful investors are the ones who understand adding return without corresponding risk is the most critical component of successful investing, especially given the new equation for valuation:
Economics + Advanced Technologies + Social Media = Price
These three components are now inexorably linked and constitute an influential role in determining valuation from now on.
The More Things Change…
The pandemic has challenged many preconceived notions about the economy, markets, and public policy – and has impacted the way we live. But the inescapable truth remains unchanged:
There is no magic answer. No solution other than superior skill enables an investor to earn a high return safely and dependably. That is even more true in today’s low-interest rate, low return Tower of Babel world.
Supply Shocks and Demand Disappearance The World Needs A Bridge Loan The Fed Does Not Have the Arsenal The US economy is facing a transitory, but critical, credit emergency beyond the Fed’s normal scope. A new federal credit facility is needed to ensure that sound businesses and households have ready access to cash to get…
Look at the facts not the opinion about the facts. Anyone holding themselves out as an expert has, a very deep but narrow knowledge base that is rarely universally applicable. Fundamentally, listening to opinions rarely give useful insight. Often, it assumes looking backward but does not apply to the current situation. Global commerce, trade (and trade wars) tariffs, flexible manufacturing, and global markets, along with technological innovation and automation create significant pressures against inflation, regardless of employment levels. These are the set of facts to be considered, not an assumed economic model where few people understand the actual inputs from 50 years ago.Another example looks at revenue projections based on historical business models. But what happens when those business models are changing? We discussed the example of the metamorphosis from Blockbuster to Netflix where a fundamental change in the business model made revenue projections from the historical model meaningless. Then, Netflix had to change their business model again to one of the original production and international expansion – once again obviating existing models for revenue. Facts are what happened. Specific and verifiable. Knowledge is the appropriate combination of facts. Knowledge comes from understanding the facts that matter. Wisdom is the insight that leads to prediction. At its core, any investment strategy predicts the future. To predict the future effectively one needs the wisdom to grasp what will happen. Of course, this cannot be known, and there are many random events that can affect the future (see Anti-fragile and Fooled by Randomness by Naseem Taleb), and uncertainty should always be factored into any investment decisions or predictions.
“Assume no knowledge” (Socrates) No successful company can create or sustain its competitive strength without constantly examining its First Principles. It means defining a problem effectively, understanding the actions needed, and then implementing those plans. This requires a unique combination of perspective, talent, drive, and organizational flexibility. It is rare, but when discovered, it is…
Luck and timing play an outsized role determining any outcome – and these are extraneous circumstances one cannot influence. As in sports, sometimes the ball bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t.mportantly, winning should never be the goal because you can never do your best if you compromise who you are – your values and character – while achieving your goals. Whatever the outcome, it’s just the outcome. But the values and standards that make you who you are inviolate and supersede any near-term goal.
The current low interest rate environment increases the discounted present value of future cash flows and reduces the return demanded for every investment. In other words, when the Fed funds rate is zero, 6% bonds become disproportionately attractive. Buyers have now bid bond prices up until yields are now significantly less.What does it mean if the prices of stocks and listed credit instruments are at levels not driven primarily by fundamentals reasons (i.e. current earnings and the outlook for future growth), but in large part because of the Fed’s buying, it’s injection of liquidity, and the resultant low cost of capital and the market’s lower demanded returns on financial instruments?
We are rapidly approaching a zero-interest rate world. In the face of the dramatic negative impact of the pandemic, as well as existing and lingering economic fallout, central banks’ interest rate toolbox will be empty soon. The only remaining weapon will be fiscal policy. Among other things, fiscal policy and domestic financial markets will have an overwhelming influence on global currencies.
