Business

Two months ago, we revealed the list of stocks most hated by the buy-side: that increasingly clueless cabal of Hotel California groupies which, unable to do fundamental analysis (thanks to the Fed) is forced into the same trades and then, when a paradigm shift strikes (as happened ever so frequently over the past year) is crushed under their own and their peers' weight leading to the worst hedge fund performance year since 2008. We said to go long these names in advance of hedge fund liquidations and collateral and margin calls.

Earlier today we reported that when it comes to Saudi Arabia, things are going from bad to abysmal, with the market is clearly aware of it. Saudi riyal forwards hit their highest level in almost two decades as oil plummeted: twelve-month forward contracts for the riyal climbed 260 points, and set for the steepest close since December 1996 on growing speculation the world’s biggest oil exporter may allow its currency to slide against the dollar for the first time since 1986 (incidentally, Bank of America's "Number One Black Swan Event For The Global Oil Market In 2016").

Another day, another fresh all-time record low in The Baltic Dry Index as Deutsche Bank's "perfect storm" appears ever closer on the horizon. Plunging 4.7% overnight to 445 points, this is 20% lower than the previous record low in 1986 and as one strategist warns, "It’s a brutal start of the year, there’s just nowhere to hide on the market."

Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

One of the (many) fascinating things about this latest global financial crisis is that there’s no single catalyst. Unlike 2008 when the carnage could be traced back to US subprime housing, or 2000 when tech stocks crashed and pulled down everything else, this time around a whole bunch of seemingly-unrelated things are unraveling all at once.

"2015 was unsually poor."

That's how Citi's iconic credit strategist Matt King begins his latest report, starting with a chart we have shown previously, namely that total returns across most asset classes in 2015 were downright miserable - "near zero or worse" - and that as a result the active manager comunity was humiliated to a degree not seen since 2008, especially in the high yield space, where as we know, several liquidating mutual and hedge funds were forced to gate over the past month.