About

Ahead of the Curve provides analysis and insight into today's global financial markets. The latest news and views from global stock, bond, commodity, and FOREX markets are discussed. Rajveer Rawlin is a PhD and received his MBA in finance from the Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, UK. He is an avid market watcher, having followed capital markets in the US and India since 1993. His research interests include capital markets, banking, investment analysis, and portfolio management, and he has over 20 years of experience in the above areas, covering the US and Indian markets. He has several publications in the above areas. He currently teaches business and management students at CHRIST University. The views expressed here are his own and should not be construed as advice to buy or sell securities.

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Showing posts with label yield curve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yield curve. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

Indicators that Matter

There is a plethora of indicators to track while evaluating financial markets. Here are some important ones:

1) The Chinese Yuan:

The Chinese Yuan is often a proxy for the risk on trade. Periods of strength in the Chinese Yuan as seen in the last 3 months, have often been accompanied by up moves  in risk assets such as stocks, commodities and emerging market currencies:

source:investing.com

chinese yuan
2) The S and P 500 Price to Sales Ratio:

This is a key valuation measure and price to sales ratios greater than 2 have often symbolized over valuation while ratios lower than 1 have produced undervalued buy opportunities:

source: multpl.com

valuation

3) The Yield Curve:

The yield curve is a very reliable economic indicator and an inverted yield curve like we have now has often been followed by recessions or periods of rapidly slowing growth, while an upward sloping yield curve is often indicative of an expanding economy:

source: ETF Trends
yield curve

4) CNN Money's Fear and Greed Indicator:

This is a sentiment indicator which is a combination of several sentiment indicators and indicates whether market participants are fearful or greedy:

source: CNN Money

fear and greed

5) The Skew Vix Ratio:

This indicator is another sentiment indicator and values below 5 tend to mark panic bottoms while values above 15 tend to mark complacent tops. This ratio has been making lower highs and lower tops of late suggesting that there may be one more panic bottom in the not too distant future:

source: Stock Charts

skew vix ratio


Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Yield Curve about to Invert?

The spread between 10 year US bonds and 2 year US bonds is currently at 5 year lows and will likely go negative post the fed rate hike next week. This would most likely cause the US yield curve to eventually invert and is a harbinger of a decelerating/recessionary economy going forward. Will tax cuts save the day? I doubt it.

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My Asset Allocation Strategy (Indian Market)

Cash - 40%
Bonds - 20%
Fixed deposit - 20%
Gold - 5%
Stocks - 10% ( Majority of this in dividend funds)
Other Asset Classes - 5%

My belief is that stocks are relatively overvalued compared to bonds and attractive buying opportunities can come along after 1-2 years. In a deflationary scenario no asset class does well other than U.S bonds, the U.S dollar and the Japanese yen, so better to be safe than sorry with high quality government bonds and fixed deposits. Cash is the king always. Of course this varies with the person's age.