Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Money Coming Out of Treasuries And Into Gold

To understand how the macroeconomic picture is changing, we can take a look at how various asset classes are changing relative to one another. With that in mind, see the chart below, which shows the ETFs for four asset classes -- Treasuries, gold, commodities, and the S&P 500 -- to see where money is moving.


The chart illustrates the following:
  • 20+ year Treasury bonds were rising, but now appear to be consolidating and possibly turning bearish
  • S&P is rangebound between 850 and 950
  • Gold is rallying
  • Commodities are still in a bear trend

Interpretation

The rise in gold coupled with weakening Treasury bonds, commodities, and S&P suggests the market is still rooting out false forms of wealth -- and that the market is shifting to gold as its preferred method of safety. Inflationists will posit that the rise in gold results from greater inflation concerns, and this may play a part into it as well; money supply indicators and money velocity indicators are both pointing to inflation.

Trade Setups

Two potential trade opportunities come to mind:

1. Betting on a continued exodus from Treasuries into gold, in that the market will continue to favor gold over Treasuries as a safe haven
2. Long commodities relative to S&P; commodities seem grossly underpriced relative to the S&P, doubly so for those expecting a deflation spiral.

Disclosure: Long gold.

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