It has been a fun weekend. Between the escalation of Greek crisis and the surprise liquidity measures in China, it was as if the market never closed.
When considering market significance of a geopolitical event, it is important to distinguish between
- The actual economic effect
- The immediate impact on market players
In the case of the on-going Greek debt crisis and the potential so-called “Grexit”, remember that Greek economy commands only about 2% of the Eurozone GDP. Whether Greece muddles through or exits, the long-term economic impact should be moderate.
Two points that have been made by multiple people:
- Greece exit might create a blueprint for an exit by other countries on the periphery, such as Portugal or even Spain.
- Eurozone might be actually economically better off and the euro incrementally stronger without Greece.
What concerns me now though, is whether whatever happens in Greece may trigger a market panic or even a new crisis. There I encounter the “positioning” conundrum.
Paradoxically, it is easier to describe what would happen to the markets in the aftermath of a completely unanticipated and destructive event such as 9/11. We would expect a sharp equities sell-off, a flight to U.S. Treasuries and to defensive currencies such as dollar, swiss franc, and yen. The reason is that if market players are not positioned for this particular event, it is easy to guess what they would do.
But when an event was in the making for five years, the prediction is much harder. The “buy the rumor, sell the fact” paradigm comes into play. If we assume that most of speculative money was already positioned defensively with respect to Greece, any resolution may come as a relief.
But let’s go to the next level. If the speculators anticipate the post-resolution relief rally in Greek bonds and stocks, they may actually not be positoned defensively.
You know that I know that you know…
A parallel begs to be drawn with the Russian crisis of 1998. Russia didn’t default exactly overnight. But market players were anticipating either default or devaluation of ruble, not both. Caught by surprise, over-leveraged hedge funds folded like dominos, liquidating all positions, good or bad. Everything, from swap spreads to implied equity vol to municipal bonds went into a crisis mode.
So the question we have to ask ourselves is not just what exactly going to happen to Greece, but how is the “fast money” positioned.
Greek banks are not opening on Monday.
Stock market is likely not opening.
Virtually nothing should surprise us on Monday morning. Not a huge market commotion, not a relief rally, and not even business as usual.
Generally I am a fan of the concept that “crisis doesn’t happen on schedule”. We have learned it after the Y2K. And we knew in advance, about all the deadline for Greece and the dates for Brussels summit.
As I write this on sunday afternoon in California, the euro is down moderately (1.5-2%) and US Bonds are rallying quite a bit. My usual intuition would be not to get overexcited and stay with my core positions without adding anything. Which happen to short euro and long bonds as all my readers know.
If anything my bias would have been to expect for things to calm down and pull back to normal on Monday.
However, for me China is the enormous extra variable in this equation. I have tweeted earlier that extraordinary measures taken by the PBOC over this weekend indicate to me that might more problems there than it looks from the outside. Indeed, the correction in the stock indices like SHCOMP which are still tremendously up on the year is hardly a disaster by itself. But the aggressive central bank’s response may instill further doubt rather than inspire confidence.
But beware of contagion! Risk aversion in Europe may spill into Asia and converse. And when it comes to positioning in China – I have a feeling – the majority market players expect the government to be able to back-stop any crisis.
This type of confidence has been a path to disaster over and over again in the course of history.
My readers know me as a general global growth and economy bull. I don’t cry “crisis” often. But the confluence of events over last few days is making me view risks as highly elevated.
