Currency

John Taylor of FX Concepts: Greece Will Leave Euro This Summer

John Taylor, the founder of the world’s largest currency hedge fund FX Concepts, spoke with Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker and Sara Eisen and said that Greece will leave the euro this year. He went on to say that, “this summer I think is very likely…the Europeans aren’t going to give them money, the IMF’s not going to give them an OK. They will be out of money in June.”

Courtesy of Bloomberg Television

CLICK HERE to watch the video

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Saving the World

As I said, there can also be the problem of those in the real world being ignorant of how government truly functions as well. I have straddled both worlds and try to relay what I have learned from a unique position I have had for decades. This is why there has been a major effort by those in New York to shut me up at all costs, because what I have to say will kill the golden goose that fuels the corruption in New York City. Government is NEVER rational or logical in its thinking process. This is exploited by New York banks on a regular basis. Installing bankers as the head of the US Treasury is far better than the head of the Fed. This gives them cabinet status and direct links into Congress as well as the White House.

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Buy the Bear

Dear Readers,

Your metals team has just returned from the Casey Research Recovery Reality Check conference in Weston, Florida. I think the quality of the speakers was perhaps the best ever. There were clever tales and insights aplenty, but I’ll cut to the chase for investors in the metals and mining sector: The correction we’ve been experiencing was discussed at length, and while no one is sure when it will bottom, legendary investors in our sector are buying now.

Some say my calls to buy the best of the best mining stocks in the midst of a continuing share-price decline evoke a fear akin to what one feels trying to catch a falling safe. It may help to know that investors today are buying alongside Rick Rule of Sprott Global, John Hathaway of the Tocqueville Fund, and Doug Casey, of course – among other legendary resource investors.

I interviewed Rick in Florida, as you may have seen in last week’s Conversations with Casey. We both have a sense that the meltdown in our sector may well get worse before things get better. The “sell in May” conventional wisdom could collide with an already bearish sentiment and truly rustle the whole resource-sector herd to the share-price slaughterhouse.

We Should Be So Lucky

I’ve said that before: we should be so lucky as to get another 2008-style buying opportunity – and that’s what we’d have if the market melts down from this low point.

I’ve also said “buy low and sell high” so often, it’s starting to sound like I’m stuttering. It sounds easy, but it’s not – if it were, everyone would do it, and there’d be no profit in it. Contrarianism 101: You have to buy when others are panicking and there’s blood in the streets. That means you have to master the fear and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

Email from some unhappy readers whose recent share purchases are down have made me wonder if they thought we were joking or merely being rhetorical about this. The whole idea behind the tranche buying system we advocate is to take advantage of downward volatility, and the objective of placing stink bids is to capture “stupid” prices. I meant exactly what I said: we offered guidance on lower prices because we believed a major correction was a distinct probability. Well, here it is.

I see the buying opportunities shaping up with fear and excitement. My fear is not that our speculations won’t work out: rather, it’s that – as happened in 2008 – too few investors will have the courage to follow through on their contrarian ideals. The excitement, of course, is that we face truly spectacular contrarian opportunities.

“When Will the Pain Stop?”

A friend, reader, and fellow speculator who attended our conference asked me half-jokingly when the market would bottom. He knows I don’t have a crystal ball, but the way he phrased it was interesting: “When will the pain stop?” It was delivered with a smile that showed he understood the long-term trend we’re betting on remains solid; when you believe in a better future but suffer pain in the present, you don’t want your life to end – you want the pain to stop.

I said I saw the slaughterhouse potential mentioned above, and that I was hoping for a chance at phenomenally stupid prices on great companies. However, any number of factors could reverse the market’s current fear-dominant sentiment back to being greed-dominant again. Scary news on the geopolitical front – just one potential black swan among many – could send gold shooting north in short order. With many gold companies severely undervalued, that could bring greed back to the forefront with a vengeance.

I also interviewed John Hathaway (coming soon to an inbox near you), who said he thinks we’re close to the bottom now. Gold stocks are already undervalued and he’s buying.

To Read More CLICK HERE

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For the past couple of months I’ve anticipated that the rally in risk assets would run out of steam and turn lower…I’ve waited for confirmation…and I think we are seeing confirmation now…in spades! We have the NEWS and we have the CHART PATTERNS…I’m trading on the expectation of lower commodity prices, lower stock prices and a higher USD over the next few months.

The news:

North American stock markets closed lower on sluggish US economic data and growing worries about the Eurozone…there are important elections this weekend in France and Greece (but also in Germany and Italy) that may ramp up Eurozone concerns…the Eurozone is the Eye of the Storm for market risk-on/risk-off psychology right now…both political and economic risk (i.e.: a breakdown of Franco-German cooperation/escalating debt crisis.)

If the US economy is sluggish with poor employment growth…then Europe is a disaster. The global economy is slowing and the klieg lights are looking for winners in The Least Ugly Beauty Contest….  

But look at the charts:

KEY WEEKLY REVERSALS are powerful trend change signals…a number of markets made highs on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 on bullish enthusiasm then turned down for the balance of the week as fear set in. (Interesting that we are on the anniversary of May 2, 2011…a date I have label a KEY TURN DATE.)

We have Definite KEY WEEKLY REVERSALS in AUD (down 3 cents on week), NZD, Euro, Crude Oil (down ~$7 on the week), TSE (lowest close YTD) Nasdaq, Teck Resources, Wheat, and others…

To Read More CLICK HERE

On the Odds of an Ease

A friend sends me the following chart to support his conclusion that another round of QE is coming from the Fed sometime in June. The chart tracks the ten-year bond and the performance of the S&P since 2009.

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Some thoughts on the info provided in this graph:

+While both QE1 & 2 were ending, the S&P fell.

+Operation Twist appears to have successfully restrained any increase in long-term interest rates.

+The European Long Term Financing Operation (LTRO) liquidity operations had a significant positive impact on US equity prices.

+As of today, the spread between LT interest rates and the S&P is the widest it has been in three and a half years.

+ The current level of the ten-year bond is the same as it was during the height of the recession/depression during the 1Q of 2009.

My observations:

    – Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge (among others) has been pounding the table with the thesis that what drives markets today is not the size of the Central Bank balance sheets, it is the daily/weekly flow of additional monetary easing that matters. I think the chart confirms this.

    – Twist and LTRO are finished for the time being. Bond yields are reacting to the economic slowdown that comes with the ending of these monetary jolts. Stock markets around the world have flattened out; there is good evidence that an equity market correction is underway.

    – The huge gap in the current spread between bonds and stocks is scary. Notice that the orange and white lines have crossed numerous times in the past. If the lines were to cross again, it would imply that either interest rates have to shoot up, or the stock market is looking at a very sizable adjustment. I see little chance for interest rates to move higher in the current environment. This sets up the possibility for an out-sized down move in stocks.

    – Everyone (most importantly Bernanke) is aware of the information that is contained in this chart. Bernanke is also aware of Durden’s point: you have to feed the beast every week, and you have to commit to weekly feedings far into the future, or markets will get grumpy.

    – The expectation from all directions is that the Fed and the ECB will (once again) rise to the occasion (June is the popular time frame), and when they act, stocks will go “green” again.

    – That the market is so convinced that the Fed will bail it out (or prevent any significant decline) allows for the very high spread between stock prices and interest rates that exists today. There is a high degree of complacency in the market. It believes the Fed is the backstop, and it will always be there when markets flutter.

To Read More CLICK HERE