I am a part of the team which is responsible for management and hedging of commodities exposures. Some say corporates are good only in following advice from banks or brokerages. I do agree corporates do not have market insight of a bank. But here is a problem. It is not bank or broker or a hedge fund that has biggest risk that markets will go against them. These guys always have an option to do nothing and wait for a better trading opportunity where as we don't. We have to continue to purchase commodities, spend currencies for daily business. Such company is always exposed to changes to market price even if it decides not to hedge. In fact my company has probably one of the biggest short commodities portfolio in the world. Managing such risk effectively is a challenge. It is like being between a rock and a hard place. You get your behind kicked all the time be senior management, whether it was a missed opportunity to hedge or hedge that turned to be out of the money. Critics will say if you lost money on your hedge then you probably bought it cheaper on physical market. let's face it, nobody wants to loose money, full-stop.

So I do not have an option to do nothing as I am always in the position (short in this case). I think people like me have higher motivation to earn positive return on their portfolio then other players. In fact my intention is to bring hedging to a performance benchmark of proprietary trading.

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Friday, August 13, 2010

Going to "Kububrum" PART 2

So we continue "Kububruming"....

Honestly, I was impressed by German GDP and in the beginning my emotions took over and it felt like we might even post the low for the time being. Yet, markets did not think this way. Like French say "Bon..." What are we looking at now?

S&P threatens to close down under all short term and long term moving averages. Moreover it gapped through 50d moving average. Whatever happens this is not a "buy" market. Looking for a retest of "flash crash" lost at 1062 and possibly lower, as momentum is still not oversold. Keep in mind that fundamentals have yet to catch up with the price action so the move there might be choppy from here.


EUR has its old skeletons resurfacing with long term solvency of Greece, Ireland and Italy being in question... I still think that it is France that will have a problem, as it is a ticking bomb with soaring social security costs and high taxation. Good 2Q GDP numbers do justify rally off 1.18, however market is discounting slowdown if not contraction....Last support to be taken out is May highs that coincide with 50d moving average:


Oil's summer rally looks to be coming to an end as we roll through all moving averages. There is some support that comes with bollinger bands and channel support line, but overall price action looks corrective within larger bear trend:


Even feels like Copper will give up in such environment, but technical picture is not yet turning bearish... probably this is another shoe to drop in overall bearish environment:


Overall no sign of bottoming in risk assets yet. But again, sentiment got hit but we need to see fundamentals catching up with the price action. Have a good weekend!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Going to "Kububrum"

Going to "Kububrum". This is the new word in the English dictionary that probably describes best my feeling about today's markets. Feel free to ask me for proper pronunciation. Anyway...

There is no such thing as "market went to far to fast" or "market is cheap or expensive". There is only direction or no direction... have a look at currencies today. EURUSD lost 300 pips... something we have seen only in time of crisis or when we had a big surprise... I doubt yesterday's FOMC statement was a surprise, we all knew Chinese economy was slowing, but not falling off the cliff. So where did surprise come from? I don't have an answer to this question. Read my posts instead. Market can bite you hard if you are unprepared...

Where to from here? While Asia still has to absorb European and US mood, which is clearly turning grim, I will take evening off and will not make any suggestions as it feel like this week's move is done.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Respect the lines

Asia is gaining more weight in leading the rest of the world markets, so I looked at Chinese markets...


You rarely see horizontal support and resistance lines for Shanghai composite. However if there is one, market respects it. Whether current pattern is head and shoulders in development is uncertain, but, from here, I am looking for a retest of the recent lows if we stay under the line.

Another instance of such behaviour occurred in June-July 2008 when financial crisis was just in the beginning:

Monday, August 9, 2010

Don't you worry, FED is there to save us again! Or not?

Have I missed much last Friday by taking a day off? Well, not really, but at least I spent a day out of the markets out in the air... Fresh look at the markets and looks like we have new dogma: "Fed is going to save us again!" Tomorrow is the FOMC decision and looks like this idea is on the mind of people. At least it is keeping the market supported ahead of it. That's good news. The bad news is...


Must be frustrating for US officials to acknowledge their economy is doing worse then Europe. Especially when Europe is undergoing budget cuts that could eventually limit growth. In the US this looks like happening even without forced budget cuts. Well, some states have understood that the cannot borrow more and decided to cut on employees expenses as it can be seen from the latest NFP report.

Where do we go from here... I doubt FED has enough bullets  to meet expectations of the market. Downgrading economic outlook is damaging by itself. Acknowledgement of this has to be followed by certain promises, but as I said it would be difficult for me to imagine something that markets does not know already. And not meeting expectations might just the last shoe to drop...

I think we might be even better of if FED does not say anything about worsening economic outlook. We'll see tomorrow.

Meanwhile on some ideas I follow:

- NYMEX gas has broken through long term support channel discussed last week so I don't see any good  upside potential from here for the time beeing.
- Oil looks to be a good sell as it was the most vulnerable following NFP release last week. CFTC report showed increase in the long positions - surely it might be a disappointment for oil bulls.
- S&P remains vulnerable under 1130-1135. see last week graphs for more
- It looks like calling a top in EURUSD proved to be a difficult exercise, but its fall today following some very good European data might be just it. Tomorrows US data and German GDP numbers will give more clarity on the direction.

No graphs today as I am out of time.