VIX ETF

Market surge in November  U.S. and foreign equity markets had an exceptional month due to major progress towards a coronavirus vaccine and expectations of easy monetary policy from central banks. The S&P 500 is up +10.9%, EFA (Developed countries) +14.3%, EEM +9.2% while hard hit economies like Italy and Spain are up +25% and 27% respectively.   Safe heavens under pressure The surge in stocks has put competitive pressure on safe-haven assets such as bonds … Read more

Election volatility October turned out to be a volatile month that ended up negative for most assets classes: The U.S. market lost -2.5%, gold (GLD -0.5%), Treasuries (TLT -3.4%) while the U.S. dollar was flat (UUP +0.1%). Our strategies pretty much followed the market correction with performances ranging from -0.2% to -3.1% for non-leveraged strategies. The HEDGE for this past month was almost half in Gold and half in TLT, so the large drop in … Read more

Election and volatility On September 22th, we received the following message as our main broker increased margin requirements for U.S. stocks: Consequently, to protect (the broker) and its customers, … will increase margin requirements by as much as 35% above normal margin requirements leading up to the November U.S. election. With the increase fully implemented, the new requirements would be 67.5% Initial and 33.75% Maintenance (vs 50% and 25%) In effect, this is similar to … Read more

As a follow-up to the changes implemented last month in response to the delisting of UGLD and ZIV we are implementing again some changes: New 2x leveraged Universal Investment Strategy New 2x leveraged US Market Strategy New Portfolio configuration & reoptimization To keep the newsletter manageable we’ve detailed these changes in a separate post. All strategies positive. Another good month for LI strategies and portfolios, most returning 3-5% for the month of July. July’s notable … Read more

Back to normal? All strategies came in positive for the month with a range of returns from a low of +2.8% to a high of +14.5% for the Maximum Yield strategy. Year-to-date figures are mixed but reasonable around a mean of -2%. The S&P 500 is down -9% while emerging markets (EEM) are down -19%. Looking at the table above, it does not reflect a world where whole economies are frozen, cities are in lockdown, … Read more

First priority – Keep yourself and your family safe We would like to express our sympathy and support to all the families affected by the coronavirus. We wish everyone good health as it is our most valuable asset. Second priority – Keep your portfolios safe a. The Strategies Below are the performances of our strategies and benchmark ETFs since the start of the year. March felt like a never ending roller coaster ride, both in … Read more