Huff RSS

Streaming my life + thoughts on the market and technology

HA 80

Archive


follow christopherhuff at http://twitter.com


Jul
9th
Thu
permalink
Farming as the Next Big Thing
Jul
8th
Wed
permalink
The Generation M Manifesto - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org Great read. I’m an idealist sometimes, so what?
Jul
7th
Tue
permalink
Chicago Scrap, pixelated
Chicago Scrap, pixelated
Jul
6th
Mon
permalink
MIT Technology Review: Why Incompetence Spreads Through Big Organisations Kind of throws a wrench in the whole system, eh?
permalink
Looking forward to exploring more of Green Bay this summer
Looking forward to exploring more of Green Bay this summer
permalink
Anchored in Nicolet Bay over the weekend
Anchored in Nicolet Bay over the weekend
Jul
2nd
Thu
permalink
Check out the average hourly workweek stats. Somewhat concerning. Chart courtesy of Freakonomics

Check out the average hourly workweek stats. Somewhat concerning.

Chart courtesy of Freakonomics

Jul
1st
Wed
permalink
The US Online Job Market Was (still) Down Big In June 2009 - O'Reilly Radar
Jun
30th
Tue
permalink
It seems everyone is talking about correlation lately. Above is a very rough picture of how things have changed over the past couple years. I find it interesting that we’ve had two unique periods of high correlation between equities (SPY, EEM, EFA), commodities (GLD, DBC) and bonds (IEF - 10 year Treasury). In the Fall of 2008, shit was hitting the fan. This past Spring, correlation tightened during a ferocious rally (with the exception of gold). The conventional view has argued for a healthy mix of asset classes to avoid large drawdowns. Well, it didn’t help in September/October and if you were trying to hedge in March/Arpil, there wasn’t much available as everything with a high beta ran up. So, as the Bloomberg article linked above points out, cash turned out to be one of the better tools. I’m partial to the idea that Abnormal Returns suggests, maybe because it’s what I’ve been striving for over the past few months: - 1/3 “risk free” assets (cash, sovereign bonds) - 1/3 risk assets (equities, high yield, commodities) - 1/3 active allocation (market timing strategies or fund managers that are flexible in terms of asset classes)

It seems everyone is talking about correlation lately. Above is a very rough picture of how things have changed over the past couple years. I find it interesting that we’ve had two unique periods of high correlation between equities (SPY, EEM, EFA), commodities (GLD, DBC) and bonds (IEF - 10 year Treasury). In the Fall of 2008, shit was hitting the fan. This past Spring, correlation tightened during a ferocious rally (with the exception of gold). The conventional view has argued for a healthy mix of asset classes to avoid large drawdowns. Well, it didn’t help in September/October and if you were trying to hedge in March/Arpil, there wasn’t much available as everything with a high beta ran up. So, as the Bloomberg article linked above points out, cash turned out to be one of the better tools. I’m partial to the idea that Abnormal Returns suggests, maybe because it’s what I’ve been striving for over the past few months:

- 1/3 “risk free” assets (cash, sovereign bonds)
- 1/3 risk assets (equities, high yield, commodities)
- 1/3 active allocation (market timing strategies or fund managers that are flexible in terms of asset classes)

permalink
Finished up the first half of 2009 with somewhat of a whimper. The obvious story has been a return to risk since March, and it shows in tech and emerging markets. Perhaps buy and hold is back…as long as correlations keep moving up.
Finished up the first half of 2009 with somewhat of a whimper. The obvious story has been a return to risk since March, and it shows in tech and emerging markets. Perhaps buy and hold is back…as long as correlations keep moving up.