Correlation – Harlyn Research LLP

Some Safety Plays May Not Work

Friday, April 7th, 2023

Positive correlation between equities and bonds still a threat

The top-down consensus is rightly gloomy about the outlook for earnings estimates and equity benchmarks in the US. The problem is that the market shares this analysis and still refuses to go down. We need an additional catalyst to shake us out of the current trading range. A mild US recession is not the main risk to balanced portfolios, provided bonds rise while equities fall. What we worry about is a bear market in everything, if the current regime of positive correlation between equities and bonds continues. There are ways to mitigate this, by lowering the beta in your equity portfolio, increasing exposure to Europe (and anywhere else that may benefit from a weak dollar) and increased exposure to cash and money market funds.

Filed under: Categories: Bear Markets, Correlation, Equities, Recession, US Treasuries

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Eight Non-Consensus Views

Monday, December 19th, 2022

A bearish consensus can still be complacent

We agree with the idea that US equities are going to suffer in the New Year, but disagree with many of the assumptions surrounding this view. We think US Treasuries are behaving like a risk-asset and cite their current elevated volatility as evidence. We highlight the positive correlation between equities and bonds, which means that there we may well repeat the bear market of everything we saw in H1 2022. On this basis, the dollar strengthens temporarily and the trough in equities is delayed till Q3. When the recovery comes, sectoral and geographic leadership in equities in likely to change and China will be a much bigger part of the story than Western investors currently imagine. The outlook for oil is anyone’s guess, but it will influence inflation expectations and generate bursts of volatility in all markets, contrary to its current benign behaviour.

Filed under: Categories: China, Correlation, Dollar index, Energy Prices, Market Timing, Sector Strategy, United States, US Treasuries

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How to Manage Falling Treasuries

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Buy Credits where volatility is still falling

We think that the best way dealing with falling Treasuries is to stay in fixed income and to seek out situations in the credit markets, which are priced for high levels of risk, and where volatility is still falling. The problem with reducing duration or buying inflation-linked bonds is that the Fed and other central banks can force you to unwind it if they want to.

Filed under: Categories: Correlation, Duration, High Yield, US Treasuries

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The Way We Live Now

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

Positive correlation meets asset allocation theory

Most of the major developed equity markets, except the US, are positively correlated with their local government bond market. This makes portfolio diversification very difficult, but the basic conclusion is that if you think government bonds are going to fall, you should expect equities to fall further.

Filed under: Categories: Correlation, Diversification, Global Equities, Government Bonds

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