Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Asset Class Returns As At 31 July 2009




The month of July was a very exciting month. Things really moved! Emerging markets continued to defy most expert predictions by surging headlong, led by China. It wasn't just emerging markets but developed markets surged as well. The funny thing is that when emerging markets moved, we always get the nasty and critical pieces on how and why emerging markets are too risky and have no reason to outperform the developed markets - hello... how the fuck do you think we got into this current mess, thanks to the fucked up brilliant greedy financial experts in developed markets!!!

REITs is a very interesting vehicle as they will only attract buyers when investors can see a genuine bottoming in the real estate space. Although the REITs are mainly representative of the US sector, it does indicate some vibrancy - despite its 10.4% gain last month, REITs as a whole is still down 41.3% year to date, an indication that there is still a long road to recovery. Another way to look at them is that it is time to really buy aggressively those REITs that currently yields very well (low teens) in Grade A or even Grade B offices. Wait another two months, and it won't be so attractive anymore.

080309.GIF

Despite the concerns over commodity price gains in recent weeks, its pretty clear that the gains have not been excessive. As a group it is only up 3.2% and on a year to date basis, it is still down by 38%.


p/s photos: Chrissie Chau




1 comment:

Jonas Lee said...

Greedy financial experts are the small bit players in this saga.

We got into this mess because of Milton Friedman and the neo-classical economists who thought that the central bank can control credit through the money base. They also thought falsely that we are in a fiat currency system. The other culprit are the bankers who were brave lenders in a boom but cowards in a bust, leading to the present credit crunch.

Go read Steve Keen on The Roving Cavaliers of Credit at his blog http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/