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Thinking somewhat far off into the future, our researchers believe China/Asia could become the next Black Hole in the global economy.  China recently released its March PMI number which came in at 52.0 – showing moderate expansion in Chinese manufacturing.  The February Chinese PMI level was 35.7.  We strongly believe China wants to show some strength in their perceived economic recovery and that these PMI numbers are somewhat “manufactured for effect”.

We believe the real economic toll taking place in China/Asia will continue to unfold over the next 3 to 6+ months as the historic expansion of wealth and the exported foreign investment from Wealthy Chinese continues to contract over this time.  In a very similar manner to what happened in the US when the Japanese economy contracted in the 1990s – as wealth creation processes collapse, these foreign investors suddenly start to liquidate assets trying to protect their “home-country assets”.

(Suggested Reading: https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-pmi-data-coronavirus-51585666441)

We’ve recently posted an article suggesting the US Real Estate market could suddenly find itself in a real measurable collapse and we believe the foreign investors, speculators and speculative renters (Air BnB and others) will suddenly find themselves in a very difficult situation.  You can find our Real Estate article here.

As the COVID-19 virus event continues to unfold, the data from global nations will quickly identify any outlier factors and data points related to China/Asia and how they are reporting their data.  Chinese economic data has raised suspicions for quite some time with global analysts.  It seems highly unlikely that the Chinese economy rebounded from an almost complete shutdown in February and most of March to a moderate manufacturing growth level at the end of March 2020.  Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the globe, economies, and manufacturing levels are contracting as the COVID-19 shutdown continues.

(Suggested Reading: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/asias-factory-activity-plunges-coronavirus-044302834.html)

We believe the disparity between the global markets and the numbers China continues to proffer will quickly result in a complete lack of confidence in future data related to any Chinese economic activity or future expectations. We also believe the global capital markets will make an immediate shift away from risks associated with any falsified data originating from China by mitigating forward risks in investments and currency market exposure over the next 3 to 5+ years – possibly longer.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals 
before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

Source: Finviz.com

What happens when global events like the COVID-19 virus event takes place is that capital immediately attempts to identify extreme risks and attempt to move to safer environments.  Currencies are no different.  Global markets, investment, and manufacturing are increasingly exposed to risks related to the shifting markets and any false or otherwise “outlier” data being reported right now.  The bigger players can’t afford to take risks and will take active measures to protect their futures and investments.

Source: Finviz.com

(Suggested Reading: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/asia-markets-china-official-pmi-coronavirus-global-economy-in-focus.html)

Our opinion is that the Chinese PMI level of 52 for March 2020 is an outlier data point.  This virus event started in early January in China and almost all of February and March were when the globe suddenly became aware of the risks and infection spread.  Even though China may have attempted to ramp up manufacturing over the past 2+ weeks to appear to be “back to normal” – it makes no sense to us that manufacturing in China actually “expanded”, based on historical levels, that quickly.

Watch how quickly global economies and currencies work to mitigate the risks related to perceived “outlier data”.  We believe most of Asia will continue into an economic contraction over the next 3+ months and we believe the FOREX market will relate the immediate risk concerns related to Asia/China/global market expectations.  In other words, watch the currencies to see how global investors perceive risks associated with true economic activity.

The World Bank many not have a deep enough piggy bank to back the extended risks of an Asian Economic contraction lasting 6+ months.

(Suggested Reading: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/world-bank-says-coronavirus-outbreak-may-take-heavy-toll-on-asias-economy-2020-03-30)

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

I hope you found this informative, and if you would like to get a pre-market video every day before the opening bell, along with my trade alerts visit my Active ETF Trading Newsletter. If you are a long-term investor looking for signals when to own equities, bonds, or cash, be sure to look into my Long-Term Investing Signals.

Ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
Chief Market Strategist
Founder of Technical Traders Ltd.

If you do not understand implied volatility and you are buying put or call options or some combination, you have been warned!

The market continues to move very fast, has large swings, and one would think that makes it an excellent time to buy options for huge gains, right? Our Research Team believes that large Volatility swings will be here for a while. Once you understand the significant role Volatility plays in Option Pricing, you may want to avoid this investment construct for some time to come.

The VIX is at an extreme level and has only been over 50 only seven times in the past 25 years based on a daily closing price. It evident the last two trading sessions the investment sentiment has been bearish and option puts make money if price declines, which has been the popular trade of choice until now.

What many options traders do not understand, however, is that the price of options is configured using implied volatility.

The more volatility, the more expensive the options become to factor in the wild swings the underlying security may experience. This is reflected in the price the option trades off to factor in the fear and trepidation.

This can be seen in the substantial premium on top of the intrinsic pricing from the strike price.

Be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

For example, bank stocks are usually considered very conservative when implied volatility is under 20. This results in options being priced accordingly.

However, in the last few trading sessions, volatility has jumped, reaching 62 at one point this week already, which is more than 3x what you would want when simply buying options. This is a VERY HIGH RISK and a difficult time to buy options. Unfortunately, this is what most options traders do, they BUY options, and while it may work in most market conditions, this is most likely NOT the time you want to do so until such time Volatility and VIX begin to subside and we do not see that in the near future.

Let me try to explain in the most basic laymen terms because I know 95% of options trades don’t really get this, and it boggles my mind. As you know, or should know, buying options is one of the riskiest and hardest ways to profit from the market, in my opinion (and statistics continue to prove this out as MOST option buyers LOSE money). I traded options years ago and do very little options trading now, though they are still a great way to make money with certain trade setups and in certain market conditions.

OPTIONS RISK #1: TIME DECAY/THETA

In short, trying to time the market with an index, stock, sector, commodity, or currency is hard enough, but when you buy options, you make things a whole lot harder for yourself. Not only do you need to time this almost perfectly so that the underlying asset has time to move, but you need to time it with precision because now the time is your enemy (Theta).

Every day the option contract you bought is going to lose value because you lose time, and there are fewer days left for your asset to move in the direction to make up for the large premium embedded in the option price. Each day this time premium begins to erode. The closer you get to the time expiration, the faster the time premium decays.

OPTIONS RISK #2: IMPLIED VOLATILITY

This is the main issue I want to share and the reason for writing this article for you.

If options are valued in relation to implied volatility (which they are), then when the volatility is above 50 (62 as of Monday, March 9) and the option is worth $1,00.

Here is the issue, even if the price of your asset stays the same, but the fear in the market fades away as it always does from this extreme level, your option value will decline dramatically. I’m just using numbers out of thin air for the example so you can grasp the issues easily.

If implied volatility drops from 62 down to 35, the option contract value will go down with the volatility as well. The $1.00 contract priced with huge volatility could now be worth $0.85 overnight.

If you traded a short-term option contract, then you will also have time decay, and your option would drop even more to say $0.82.

Remember this is the type of price action you will experience and the VIX falling (and fear subsiding) and even if your asset price just stays the same you have the potential for a significant loss and is the reason why buying options during extreme high volatility is not the trade that should be taken.

OPTIONS TRADING TIP

If implied volatility is over 25 then 
it is usually better to be a seller of options, 
if it’s under 25, then its often better to be a buyer.

So what does a trader do? 

We encourage investors to use probabilities to work in your favor!

You could put on debit spreads: This way, some of the volatility is reduced as you sell a put or call, so the volatility premium is now in your favor, and time decay is mitigated.

OR

Sell it to those people that are so sure of this big move!

We have already identified that we are in a period where the VIX in an area very rarely seen. But since the VIX can stay here for a while, a more logical option move may be to sell calls going out into the future. Due to contango, it will retrace back down as the contango effect will begin to change as trader sentiment improves, and fear is reduced.

Credit spreads have so many advantages over simply buying calls and puts

  • Defined risk – Can only lose the difference of your strikes less the premium received.
  • If the trade starts to go against, you have backup options to manage risk.
  • Roll the trade to a future date giving your trade time to work out.
  • Sell another option spread opposite of your existing trade (if a put spread on place a credit call spread, this creates an iron condor) now giving you a larger cushion for the trade to work as you received more premium.
  • Buyback the offending strike at a loss and let the profitable strike run if you feel it has legs.
  • Buy a put to defend your spread further out in time as theta decay does not get affected as quickly.
  • Use a stop loss of 2x or 3x premium received etc.
  • or take possession of the stock
  • Income – selling out of the money credit spreads can be an effective way of generating a passive revenue stream

RISK REWARD is most important, and it is critical to get into the right trade at the right time. Remember that theta-neutral trades and buying options are when implied volatility is low. Selling options, when implied volatility is high, is your best option.

  • This is where we are right now.

I hope this helps shed some light on the basics of why buying options during high volatility is an uphill battle, no matter how good your timing is to predict the movement of the underlying asset you are trading.

In the near future, my team and I will make our options trades available to follow. As you know, timing the market is our specialty. Knowing what time frame an asset will rally or breakdown, and how far its first move will give us a distinct advantage to pinpoint the ideal option contracts to consider buying or selling for maximum short-term gains.

Happy Trading!

Chris Vermeulen
 www.TheTechnicalTraders.com