The VP Blog
A blog about financial markets and our investing framework
What’s Good for Workers is Bad for Companies
Recent data from the labour market and the National Federation of Independent Business shows that wages will be picking up quickly this year. The NFIB compensation plans is now at the highest point in the last twenty years. Small businesses expect to raise wages, and...
read moreBoE Mood Changes
This post is taken from our April 24th weekly report. Much like the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England has been itching to normalise monetary policy following nearly a decade of providing emergency assistance to the economy. Buoyed by the run up in prices over the...
read moreWhat’s with the Name Variant Perception?
Shakespeare said, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” While this appears true superficially, studies have shown that words can actually affect our perception of an object. Names matter. So, in this article we’ll...
read moreCZK: Pausing for Breath
Since we highlighted the potential of CE3 markets in July 2017 in light of the global reflation trend, our preferred trade – short EURCZK – has made a modest 2.8%. Even after this relatively anaemic rally, we believe that the koruna will now take a breather. As a...
read moreTactical Long in MLPs for April
This post is taken from our weekly report dated April 3rd 2018. In our November 28th 2017 Weekly report, we recommended short-term long MLP positions into year-end on bearish sentiment and fundamental divergence of the MLP index vs crude oil prices. This worked well...
read moreWorth Revisiting UK Equities
The tectonic political shocks of the last two years have left UK equities feeling unloved. In US dollar terms, UK equities have returned -5% year-to-date, underperforming the majority of developed and major emerging markets (top-left chart). This is despite the...
read moreThe UK’s Deleveraging Failure
The synchronised nature of the global economic recovery has fanned speculation that the post-crisis deleveraging in developed countries has finally come to an end. However, we err on the side of caution and cite evidence from the UK, which suggests there has been...
read moreHeadwinds for US Manufacturing
The US manufacturing ISM is currently at levels last seen before the 2008-09 recession. While this reflects the recent optimism about growth prospects in the US, we see several headwinds to the industrial sector. The top-left chart shows the ISM against the VP...
read moreFade BoC Rate Hikes
This post is taken from our March 13th weekly report. In our February Monthly we suggested selling CAD, and buying Bankers’ Acceptances (BAs), the Canadian analogue of Eurodollar futures. With ~64bps of rate rises priced in from the BoC over the next year, we saw...
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