Rant: The Macro commentary landscape

The landscape of macroeconomic commentary has undergone significant changes recently, with a trend towards commoditization driven by the allure of clickbait value, particularly since the start of COVID-19. Commentaries on assets like gold have not been immune to this shift. Some recent media-driven commentary on gold has been appalling, especially when many seasoned traders are aware that uncorrelated moves are often overstated, wildly so when a big shop bangs the illiquid future open to drive stop losses.

What was once a cottage industry has transformed into a crowded space, with many bucket shop analysts filling the void. While the non-veteran retail crowd eats up this crap, even some business outlets publish this nonsense, lending it some credibility to the non-educated crowd.

The prevalence of a bearish outlook is notable, as "fear sells," and many commentators lean towards a pessimistic stance. Expressing a bullish view in such an environment might be deemed unconventional or even incorrect by some. The evolving dynamics of macroeconomic commentary underscore the challenges of navigating information overload and discerning insightful analysis from sensationalized content.

Being bearish (perpetually) has become synonymous with being well-informed. On the other hand, being constructive is tantamount to being a clueless Pollyanna.

Speaking of commoditizing, you might have noticed some AXI banners. Well, here is the story. The 3 top dogs who own the company are not only terrific friends, but we have worked in the past to build OANDA to the powerhouse it once was.

To make a long story short, after a good 5-year run, we have paid out all our investors and have opted to trade our family funds under a family office operation ( Still under SPI Asset Management). So this allows us to pursue other avenues, and one of these forks is Axi Select.

Axi Select ticks off all the boxes. The program is a no-brainer if you are a retail trader looking to take the next step into the professional ranks, a Pro Trader or even a small Money Manager looking for extra seed money. At a minimum, I recommend you give this an entry-level shot, as having access to capital could be the ultimate game changer in your trading career aspirations.

We will soon introduce another Substack section filled with backtested trading signals, quantified market calls and my favourite reversion trades. We will also feature and discuss at length the 5 most prominent bank analysts' views on the broader macro, all exclusively for investors who have signed up through me to become either an Axi client or have shifted to an Axi Select trader.

I have a proven track record of building one of the best systematic B books in the business, so I know how to navigate the retail mouse trap that is more often than not filled with prats and pitfalls where spreads and swap costs are such that skews the odds well in the houses favour. But there is a way around this to level the playing field.

Hence, I would like to stress that we are not working exclusively with Axi but rather using the best broker that offers the best spreads and swaps that fit our various outright and hedging strategies.

However, the Axi Select offering has piqued our interest. And for the sake of transparency, if you open an account through us, we get a finders fee, and if you follow our trading strategy on an Axi or other broker PAMM account, we also get a fee. But a huge part of our strategy is to rebate a good chunk of the trading fee paid by the broker back to the followers to reduce their trading costs—so the more, the merry.

(click the banner for more information).