This played out very quickly. My base case is we get a “do-over” at larger scale. Trump capitulated faster and more aggressively than I expected, but hard to believe he’s done with the general policy thrust; average American hadn’t even started to feel layoffs or tarrifs, this capitulation was just from the negative effects of speculators and planners reacting to Trump policies.
My guess is equity bounce is a bull trap and we go substantially lower, but not much view on timeframe. Maybe we bounce for a few months first? Or maybe it’s just a few days? (I’m referring to equities only.) Bitcoin continues to trade as a blend of gold and equities, and gold is on a different cycle pattern to equities, very strong right now’s but might be nearing a top around ~$3,500. For clarity - I think we get another go at this same “trade setup”, in even more extreme form. Very volatile and “risky” and uncertain times. Personally I’m not short any equity here, just cash heavy and patient. If equity bounce continues and I can find some “smart” shorts I’ll consider shorting. I think >20% we get a 60%+ market decline, so there’s definitely some far left tail derivative plays with good odds.
Lastly, I like quite a few of the general economic and administrative reforms Trump is pursuing. Some version of his tariff plan would actually be a long term win for the country and likely world (largely by bringing down tarrifs in aggregate.) But even with a coherent version of the plan with competent execution, it would still bring major short term pain and require a leader with a backbone to pull off.
If I’m wrong, it’s likely because Trump capitulates more completely than it seems and truly abandons most of his current ideology and policies and ramps up the money printers. Hard to see him doing that just from people being “yippy” as he calls it.
This is a great time for all involved to reconsider their approaches! There are better and worse ways of handling our problems with unsustainable debt and imbalances, and President Trump's decision to step back from a worse way and negotiate how to deal with these imbalances is a much better way. I hope and expect that he will do the same with the Chinese, which I believe includes negotiating a deal that appreciates the RMB against the dollar, achieved by the Chinese selling dollar assets while also easing their fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate their demand. This would be a win-win. The Chinese should then restructure and monetize their excessive local government debts to get their debt overhang behind them. One way or another, there will have to be major changes to the debt/monetary orders to deal with the debt, trade, and capital imbalances problem. The next Trump administration move should be to deal with the deficit well by cutting the deficit to 3pct of GDP, which I described how I'd do without disruption in How Countries Go Broke: the Big Cycle, which you can read here: https://t.co/XlkOBUQFpw.
This is also a great time for investors who were shocked and terrified by what happened (and what might happen) to reconsider their approaches to structuring their portfolios so they don't have such intolerable risks. I can guarantee that another worse case of the market moves that terrified them will come along eventually.
While I can't squeeze in an explanation of how to structure a portfolio here, I can direct those who are interested to the Dalio Market Principles course that the Singapore government-founded Wealth Management Institute created to help educate investors: https://t.co/k7pOBjINSO. I'm also working on my next book, Investment and Economic Principles, which I will share parts of online as I write it.
Had a nice chat with Jack about how I view trading, how I manage the mental game, and my perspectives on crypto’s place in the world.
The moas mindset.
https://t.co/4DcLz5UDIb