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Fari Hamzei

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It Is Time

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Fari Hamzei



Historically, a major bank bailout by Government is very bullish for the stock market 6 to 12 months hence.


Generous government financing announced today by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will underpin the so-called Public-Private Investment Program aiming to rid banks of up to $1 trillion in toxic asset-backed securities which are road blocking the economic recovery. Dept of Treasury kicked this Program off with $75-$100 billion that comes from its existing $700-billion bailout fund approved by Congress last fall. Both FDIC and Federal Reserve are also partners in this program to provide additional debt financing as a way to leverage up both TARP and TALF resources. This morning, both PIMCO and BlackRock have expressed strong interests to participate. This is all very good news.


This Program could be classified as the Mother of all Bank Bailouts. I say could, because, given all the recent false starts, it may take the Treasury up to couple months to properly set the Program up and then up 3 to 6 months to see any concrete results.
Given Stock Market is a forward discounting mechanism, it may be the right time to slowly step back in. As many of you know, to conserve capital, we scaled back our trading tremendously since October-November timeframe as our equity markets became over driven by outsized fear and not by logic. Now, with the events of last two weeks, my thinking is that we may want to slowly put our toes in. Initially, our trades will not be swinging for the fence. We need to hit a few singles and doubles first.


Given how everyone is on a very tight budget these days, we offer two avenues:


A) For the next three months, we will email 2 trades per month (from entry, stop management and exit instructions) to all MSA Members free of charge. This List has over 10,000 opted-in (3X of last year) and it may take several minutes to email out the order to all. The trades will be biased both long and short. As in the past, each trade will offer a rationale, a clear entry instruction (normally at a limit price) with a stop management price once we are in. Exit orders will be either limit or market orders.


B) Reduce our monthly fee by 50% for those who want to receive 1 to 3 trades per week very fast. Again, they will be both biased long and short. Here is the link http://www.hamzeianalytics.com/phoenix_spring_special.asp



And, do not miss our webinar this weekend. We will go over these items this Saturday and answer any questions you may have.

Happy Holidays

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Fari Hamzei

As this tumultuous year comes to a close, we are all grateful for our resilience in a very tough market. With volatility at the highest in a decade, coupled with heavy losses and redemptions at hedge funds, it has been truly bloody out there. The wisest course has been to lay low, waiting for clearer days to set sail again in these rough seas.

Yet at this holiday time we are reminded that the treasures of this world come and go. We must always be thankful, therefore, to God for our health and our confidence as we move forward. Above all, we must never forget those who are less fortunate during this Holiday Season.

Wishing you and yours peace and blessings at the Holidays, and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

I think the worst is over

Tweet I think the worst is over

Fari Hamzei

Last Wednesday thru Friday, NDX $wPut/Call Ratio hit 4.6, 5.9 & 40+ on huge $wVolume ($700M, $2.4B and $7.4B, respectively). That is a lot of put buying by the institutions (NDX options are NOT for mom & pop traders, even at normal vol levels (VXN stayed above 60 last week)). The last time we saw these $wPCR levels for NDX, it was during the 2001-2002 dotcom debacle.

For those of you who remember my calls on CNBC back then, the readings at these levels for NDX are very bullish 1 to 3 days forward. We should expect 100 pt move in NDX in 3 days (registered 41+ today) which means, most likely, the AAPL earnings report tomorrow after the close, will be viewed very favorably.

In addition, a major perma bear threw in the towel today, LIBOR had eased off overnight and US short-term interest rates went up. In the last hour, there was a lot of mutual fund buying today. This is all good for equities.

Bottom Line: The chance of revisiting the Oct lows is now highly diminished albeit not zero.

Warren Buffett has been buying here

Tweet Warren Buffett has been buying here

Fari Hamzei

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors."

from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17buffett.html

China is closed right now. This news will get more exposure over the weekend. Stay LONG !!!!

We like DDM, MOS, KBR, JPM, GS, MS, GE, DD, HIG, HPQ, QQQQ and SPY here.

Reg FD: We have established, for some of our affiliates (family and friends), long positions in the above names in the last two weeks for a long term hold (with no use of margin or leverage).

What History Tells Us About the Market

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Fari Hamzei

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368241652024977.html

Food for Thought for this Chapter of our Journey Together

Tweet Food for Thought for this Chapter of our Journey Together

Fari Hamzei

http://faithhopeandfiction.com/blog/comments.php?no=203

Comments for Timer Digest as of Friday, September 26, 2008

Tweet Comments for Timer Digest as of Friday, September 26, 2008

Fari Hamzei

As I sat down to write the commentary for today, Friday, September 26—given what we have gone through in these tumultuous past two weeks—I recalled the words of wisdom of a respected colleague and good friend. These words were bestowed on us as the first salvo in the first chapter of Master Traders by none other than one of the greatest market tacticians in recent years, Jeff deGraaf, CMT, CFA, formerly of Lehman Brothers.

"In the market, arrogance without fear will eventually break you. Fear without arrogance will leave you paralyzed at the most inopportune time. The delicate balance of fear and arrogance fosters appropriate aggressiveness without the recklessness."

As Washington continues to bicker over the fate of our frozen credit markets, while investors worldwide hold their breath, and with Presidential and Congressional elections in less than 40 days, I see our forward near-term game shaping up as a binary trade, with a 1 or 0 outcome. Since the ZERO outcome is not acceptable to our way of life in this great nation, we will march forward with a strong LONG BIAS. Our markets are eager to ratchet up as soon as the Proposed Treasury Authority to Purchase Troubled Assets is approved by both houses of the Congress and the news hits the wires.

For this play, we prefer the financials, capital goods, technology and consumer cyclicals.

My Market Timing Comments for Timer Digest as of Friday, September 19, 2008

Tweet My Market Timing Comments for Timer Digest as of Friday, September 19, 2008

Fari Hamzei

Last week, we experienced an extremely oversold market that led to a classic capitulation as our global financial system shook to its core. This was telegraphed by very high “new lows” readings, high “down-volume to up-volume ratio” readings, and also very high VXO and VXN readings (based on our Sigma Channels patterns). Sunday marks the Fall Equinox. As I have written every year, within +/- 2 days, Fall Equinox often marks a key reversal for the markets—in this case, mostly likely to the upside.

Comrade Paulson (who was just awarded his second Order of Lenin Medal for his Thursday Night Massacre of Net Short Hedge Funds) and Uncle Ben timed the US Government's $700+ Billion taxpayer (read: poor) bailout of our investment banks (read: super rich) extremely well—just hours ahead of expirations of September Equity Index Futures and European-style Equity Index Options. (Seriously, I consider this a brilliant move that truly did save the integrity of our equity and credit markets and, perhaps, Capitalism as well, from a meltdown).

For the next two weeks, we suggest that you stay the course and keep your longs in tact. We expect a "local" peak around Oct 2nd / 3rd and a "local" trough by Election time (Nov 4th).

Implications of Gold's Rise Relative to Oil

Tweet Implications of Gold's Rise Relative to Oil

Ashraf Laidi

Over the past 8 weeks, we alerted clients that the gold/oil ratio would continue to recover from its July record lows as oil begins to underperform gold. The latter would recover as the dollar drops on deteriorating macroeconomic fundamentals and further erosion in financial markets, thus, triggering re-emerging expectations of Fed cuts. Ever since the gold-oil ratio bottomed to a record low of 5.8 in July-courtesy of soaring oil prices relative to gold, the rebound was inevitable, especially as the ratio was well below its 37-year monthly average of 13.0 (see dotted horizontal line).

The latest jump in gold oil prices to a 5-week high of $895 per ounce and the simultaneous dip in oil prices below $92 per barrel is consistent with the aforementioned analysis. The chart below shows each time the gold/oil ratio had bottomed, a rebound was accompanied with a US recession, Fed easing and dollar weakness (accompanied by rising gold). In fact, since 1972, each of the last five U.S. recessions was preceded by 20-30% declines in the gold-oil ratio from its most recent highs. (See attached file )

RATIONALE
During economic expansions, rising demand for industrial metals and energy boosts both oil and gold prices, thus leading to a rising or steady gold-oil ratio. But when substantial advances in oil are the result of supply factors (political risk, wars, acts of god, labor union action, OPEC action/rhetoric, refinery shutdowns and falling inventories), oil prices tend to overshoot, clearly outpacing any gains in gold in relative terms, producing cost and inflationary repercussions for importers and consumers.

The chart shows how bottoms in the gold/oil ratio (shaded areas) were followed by declining or contracting GDP growth. In each of those cases, the Fed was obliged to cut rates and the dollar sustained fresh damage.




1973-75 Recession
1974 quadrupling of oil prices triggered sharp run-ups in US gasoline prices and a subsequent halt in consumer demand. Resulting USD drop pushed gold up by 15%. But faster oil appreciation dragged down gold-oil ratio from a high of 34.0 in July 1973 to 23.2 in October of the same year, before extending its fall to12.2 in January 1974. By 1974-75, the U.S. and the major industrialized economies had fallen into recession.

1980-82 Recession
Tumbling dollar and record oil main culprits to the 1980-82 recession. Gold-oil ratio dropped from 15.3 in January 1979 to 11.4 in August 1979 due to a doubling in oil to $29 and a more modest 30% increase in gold.

The 1977-79 dollar crisis forced OPEC to further hike prices to offset FX value of oil revenues. Iran revolution endangered oil supplies, thus ensued a 200% increase in oil between 1979 and 1980, giving rise to the second oil shock within less than 10 years.

The Gold-oil ratio fell anew from early 1981 to mid 1982 as oil remained around the mid $30s while gold plummeted from the $830s territory to $400 on waning impact of Soviet-Afghan. In summer 1981, the gold-oil ratio dipped to a 4-year low of 11.4 amid plummeting gold and stable oil, then onto 9.0 in Summer 1982, in line with the deepening 1981 recession which extended into mid 1982.

1985- 86 Slowdown
In autumn 1985, the gold-oil ratio bottomed at 10.6 from its 16.9 high in February 1983 due to relative stability in gold & oil. 35% decline in gold-oil ratio proved successful in signaling the 1985-1986 slowdown and resulting Fed rate cuts in February-July 1986.
Unlike in prior cases of falling gold-oil ratios, GDP growth avoided a contraction partly due to the offsetting positive effects of 1986 oil price collapse following OPECs flooding of oil.
The same idea applied for the recessions of 1990-91, 2001-2 and the current slowdown which has yet to called a recession.

MORE DETAIL ON HOW THE GOLD/OIL RATIO IS USED CAN BE FOUND IN CHAPTERS 6 AND 9 OF MY BOOK.