Blogs

On Monday and Tuesday we heard from two outstanding guests on Real Vision. Milton Berg, Founder and CIO of Milton Berg Advisors, joined Ed Harrison yesterday to highlight a series of bullish signals that are flashing for stocks. There is only one problem. The signals are late. That has led Berg to wonder if US stocks are now trading more like commodities than equities.

On Tuesday, we had one my favourite guests, volatility master Charlie McElligot, managing director for cross-asset strategy at Nomura Global Markets.

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Last week, the Index pushed up even higher as metals and markets pushed higher yet.

Some Canadian stocks are poised to be relative winners if inflation expectations keep rising and insiders can help guide us towards opportunity. That is the key theme in this week's Insights free newsletter.

The swoosh-shaped inflation expectations recovery continues 

We also look at a potential way for institutions and financial advisors to participate in the junior mining bull market. Click here to read.

Diego Parrilla, portfolio manager and author of “The Anti-Bubbles”,  likens portfolio construction to putting a soccer team on the field. In the coming decade he sees equities as being the strikers and options as being the goal-keeper. On Real Vision today, he explains his approach which includes using options to get defensive exposure to assets like Treasuries. He believes the 60/40 balanced paradigm is not suited for the coming decade. Unless one believes 10-year yields are going negative, his conclusions make a great deal of sense.

Stocks as strikers, options as goal-keeper (pic: Jeffrey  F. Lin)

In terms of the team that I am putting on the field, my strikers are G-economy recruits that include the Horizons Cdn Insider Index ETF (HII; which uses the INK Canadian Insider Index under license). They also include a variety of other investments.

When I started to see Murray Sinclair loading up on Dundee Corporation (DC.A) in May, it helped firm up my conviction that the junior mining rally was going to have some legs. I had not seen him do much in terms of filings over the past few years, but why Dundee now? The penny started to drop over the weekend and today we wrote about our take on how Dundee could provide an on- ramp for institutions and advisors into the junior mining area.

While some pension funds and advisors will have their own strategies to get into the space, many will not devote the resources needed to get exposure to a group. That is where Dundee with its established name and cash stash has the potential to provide diversified exposure to the space for players who do not want to manage a bunch of  junior stocks in their portfolios. Club members can watch the video summary now and a free version will be available here before the close.

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Last week, the INK CIN made a strong charge before finally pushing up and through the milestone 1,000 level. It rose 32.75 points, or 3.3%, and closed at 1018.85, flourishing 6.6% in the last month alone.

When Mike Green of Logica Capital Advisors posted his thoughts on the direction of stocks March 26th, he suggested there was almost an inevitability of higher equity prices. In making his dispassionate and prescient bullish call he said:
 

Then the unavoidable conclusion is that markets could aggressively reprice higher as money flows into passive strategies; this becomes particularly true if the United States is engaged in a pattern of aggressive stimulus.

More than three months latter, the Nasdaq 100 Index has made a new all-time high and the S&P 500 is up for the year. Mike Green nailed it. But now, he is worried. In particular, he is worried about creeping middle class unemployment that will adversely affect those passive flows. He reveals a worried outlook in the Friday Real Vision Daily Briefing which I urge everyone to watch.

When the virtuous passive cycle turns

In the INK Chat investing strategy channel, I discuss how I am responding to this new information from Mike Green and why I believe our July 23rd morning report provides some insight into what could happen in the weeks ahead.

Two heavy-weight quant-oriented investors take to Real Vision today to answer the question, when will this period of extreme valuations end? Mike Green sits down with investing legend Rob Arnott who is the founding chairman of Research Affiliates and discover they have more in common than just concerns about current market valuations. Both took it on the chin in more ways than one during the tech bubble twenty years ago.

Arnott also explains an index fallen angel phenomenon that should be of interest to any active manager that invests in the US market. It is great interview to start off the weekend, especially for those in parts of Canada that have a long one!

INK Ultra Money has an eye-opening Real Vision episode with David Andolfatto, economist and senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In an insightful interview with Pedro da Costa, David answers some big questions including whether the Fed has launched helicopter money and the central bank's role in generating wealth inequality. It is a great interview and is another example of why I brought Real Vison onto the INK platform. Please enjoy!