So who’s holding the hot potato of systemic risk now? Everyone. One of the greatest con jobs of the past 9 years is the status quo’s equivalence of risk and volatility: risk = volatility: so if volatility is low, then risk is low. Wrong: volatility once reflected specific short-term aspects of risk, but measures of volatility such as the VIX have been hijacked to generate the illusion that risk is low. But even an...
Read More »Gold Hits All-Time Highs Priced In Emerging Market Currencies
Gold Hits All-Time Highs Priced In Emerging Market Currencies – Gold at all time in eight major emerging market currencies– A stronger performance than seen when priced in USD, EUR or GBP– As world steps away from US dollar hegemony expect new gold highs in $, € and £ – Gold is a hedge against currency debasement and depreciation of fiat currencies Gold Prices in Emerging Markets Currencies, 2010 - 2018(see more posts...
Read More »Global Asset Allocation Update
There is no change to the risk budget this month. For the moderate risk investor the allocation to bonds is 50%, risk assets 45% and cash 5%. The extreme overbought condition of the US stock market persists so I will continue to hold a modest amount of cash. There are some minor changes within the portfolios but the overall allocation is unchanged. - Click to enlarge There have been two major developments since...
Read More »Silver’s Positive Fundamentals Due To Strong Demand In Key Growth Industries
Silver’s Positive Fundamentals Due To Strong Demand In Key Growth Industries – Increased efforts in green energy and advanced technology set to boosts silver’s demand – Four-year supply deficit set to increase due to fewer mine openings and discoveries – Bank manipulation may be why silver under performing – TD Securities and the Bank of Montreal expect silver to be best performing precious metal in 2018 – Growing...
Read More »Global Asset Allocation Update
There is no change to the risk budget this month. For the moderate risk investor the allocation to bonds is 50%, risk assets 45% and cash 5%. The extreme overbought condition of the US stock market did not correct since the last update and so I will continue to hold a modest amount of cash. Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future… Niels Bohr Every time I see that quote I think to myself, “but that...
Read More »The Savings Rate Conundrum
The economy is booming. Employment is at decade lows. Unemployment claims are at the lowest levels in 40-years. The stock market is at record highs and climbing. Consumers are more confident than they have been in a decade. Wages are finally showing signs of growth. What’s not to love? I just have one question. If things are so good, then why is America’s saving rate posting such a sharp decline? The answer is not...
Read More »Where To Invest When (Almost) Everything’s in a Bubble
Many things that are scarce and thus valuable cannot be bought on the global marketplace. Now that almost every asset class is in a bubble, the question of where to invest one’s capital has become particularly vexing. The ashes of wealth consumed by the 2008-09 Global Financial Meltdown are still warm, at least to those who never recovered, and so buying assets at nosebleed valuations in the hopes of earning another 5%...
Read More »Key Charts: Gold is Cheap and US Recession May Be Closer Than Think
Every year, Ronald-Peter Stoeferle and Mark J Valek of investment and asset management company Incrementum put together the report In Gold We Trust – 160-plus pages of charts and thoughts, mostly gold-related, on the state of the world’s finances. There’s so much to look at and consider. It’s a sort of digital equivalent of a coffee-table book. Yesterday I got an email from them, containing a “best of” – a compendium of...
Read More »Gold Up 74% and One Of Top Performing Assets Since Last Market Peak 10 Years Ago
– 10 year anniversary of pre-Global Financial Crisis market peak in S&P 500 on October 9th– Gold up 74% since the last market peak a decade ago; 11% pa in USD, 9.4% pa in EUR and 12.4% pa in GBP– Precious metal has climbed $736/oz on Oct 9th 2007 to $1278.75 ten-years later– S&P 500’s 102% climb is thanks to asset-pumping policies by central banks, rather than value– Gold’s performance is slowly forcing...
Read More »Gold Up 74percent and One Of Top Performing Assets Since Last Market Peak 10 Years Ago
– 10 year anniversary of pre-Global Financial Crisis market peak in S&P 500 on October 9th– Gold up 74% since the last market peak a decade ago; 11% pa in USD, 9.4% pa in EUR and 12.4% pa in GBP– Precious metal has climbed $736/oz on Oct 9th 2007 to $1278.75 ten-years later– S&P 500’s 102% climb is thanks to asset-pumping policies by central banks, rather than value– Gold’s performance is slowly forcing...
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