Friday Haymaker
Special Edition: Great Minds
Special Edition: Great Minds
“There are times to make money and there are times when the focus should be on not losing too much money. Today, my conviction is that investors should focus on ‘staying rich”, rather than ‘getting rich’. This is not a time to be a hero. The goal is to survive.” -Charles Gave, esteemed friend and mentor of the Haymaker
“The social media panic in response to a not even 10% equity market correction was remarkable…The social media commentary exhibited an element of entitlement, as if the Federal Reserve is here to backstop people’s risk taking.” -Mike O’Rourke, Jones Trading’s Chief Market Strategist
Based on the wild market volatility seen since last Thursday, the monster rally in the formerly pulverized yen, the related blow-up in the yen carry trade, and rising recession fears, we thought a Haymaker Special Edition was in order. Accordingly, we’re offering our subscribers summary thoughts on these events and others from some of Team Haymaker’s brightest allies. As you will soon see, this is a most impressive collection of financial strategists and economic experts.
It is with high gratitude that we share their insights; we do thank them profusely for their contributions to this issue. It’s comforting to know we’ve got friends… especially, of such lofty stature. Reflecting their acuity, all of them have, in recent months, been warning of trouble looming, both for the economy and stocks.
One point we’ll make on volatility is our shock at seeing the main index measure of this – the VIX – hit 65 on Monday. That’s among the highest readings ever, indicating mass panic in the equity market. Yet, even at the low, the S&P was within 9% of the all-time-high it set just last month. This is an oddity we admit we don’t fully understand. Then again, bizarre developments continue to occur with increasing frequency these days!
Another side note is that we wanted to clarify a comment we made in this week’s Making Hay Monday edition. In it, we indicated that global oil demand this year was running 2.6 million barrels a day higher than in 2023. While that appears to be accurate for July 2024 vs July 2023, the last 12 months have not shown that type of cumulative increase.
The Haymaker Team
