The US dollar has been an incredible reflection of financial conditions this year. By extension, the correlations between the dollar and risk assets have held firm.
Equities and crypto were under pressure whenever the US dollar trended higher in 2022.
And when the dollar was correcting, equities and crypto were trending higher.
The strategy was simple: long Coinbase $COIN above the May lows while cutting our losses below there.
And, lo and behold, it took out those pivot lows. Like any responsible trader using good risk-management practices, we took the loss on the chin and got out of the position.
We were either plain wrong or got the timing off on the trade, so we stuck to our plan and obeyed the price action. We thought the stock was good for a bounce.
Don't let these drawdowns fool you; there is nothing stopping this market from getting worse. Over the last week, we've seen even more downside participation manifest, with many coins taking out their most recent November pivot lows.
In our Dec. 5 note, Hitting Resistance, we argued the case for continued caution.
With the S&P 500 $SPX testing its channel resistance, the US Dollar Index $DXY sitting on long-term support, and the correlations to legacy markets getting tighter, there was no conviction to be had in long positions.
In recent weeks, we've seen risk-off action persist, with the S&P closing the last two weeks down more than 5%. Further, altcoins have slumped, with many taking out their November lows.
This remains an incredibly sloppy tape, where high cash positions and patience provide the trading edge.
Equity markets have stalled at logical resistance zones, while the greenback looks primed to experience a mean-reversion rally. At the same time, Bitcoin $BTC, Ethereum $ETH, and most altcoins are either below their June lows or messy at best.
It's no surprise crypto stocks continue to slide and now trade at year-to-date lows.
Alright, in all seriousness, there's been a fair amount of rumors surrounding Binance's solvency this week. This narrative originated from Binance's ambiguous proof-of-reserves and internal audits.
Following these questions, Binance saw a net outflow of $1.3B over the last few days, with many prominent trading firms withdrawing nine-figure amounts.
And Binance's public image has been under fire, with the company's official Twitter account leaking a private chat log featuring a crypto trader with over 280,000 followers.
It appears you are still confused in regard to the reason your account was put into withdrawal-only mode. @CoinMamba, here is a screenshot of your conversation with our CS agent. pic.twitter.com/Na2MagN6Dy
Over the last few months, I've started taking my fitness and my health more seriously.
In my first fourth months of strength training, I packed on 30 pounds and added close to 100 pounds on my squat and deadlift. I started out at a tiny frame for my height, so my progress has been no surprise.
While I've been growing at this rate, I've needed to prioritize my recovery. That meant eating tons of food, getting plenty of sleep, and only training three days a week.
It isn't rocket science.
In fact, it's the very physiology of training: stress, recovery, and adaption.
Without sufficient recovery, there is no growth.
Whether or not you're on a fitness journey, I think we can all relate to the pleasure of a weekend recovery. These two precious days allow us to review the events of the prior week while planning ahead for the days to come.
Our Monday crypto letter is a manifestation of this recovery process. It's our weekly "state of the market" that documents how we're approaching crypto as a collective.
I certainly get a ton of value from putting my thoughts down on paper.
There's been no questioning how we've been positioned in crypto markets.
For the longest time, we've promoted high cash positions in this tape. Patience has been a significant virtue for traders to maintain.
Extending on this overarching theme, we yet again argued that caution is advised in the short term in yesterday's note.
While we've been putting forward the utility of patience in this cryptocurrency market for some time, we especially see a confluence of concerning data points.
Most importantly, the S&P 500 is once again testing its channel resistance and AVWAP off the highs, where it has found resistance over the last year.
Further, the dollar index is retesting its breakout level from the 2017 and 2020 highs following the collapse of the FTX and Alameda ecosystem.
Equities and cyclicals have seen some modest gains off the lows, while growth areas and crypto markets have waned. In fact, by our calculations, this year has seen one of the greatest disparities in performance between growth and value.
You can see it when you compare something like Bitcoin or Ethereum against the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Sure, crypto markets have been dragged down by the FTX contagion. Still, perhaps the bigger driver of this price action has been the macro flow out of long-duration growth assets (crypto included) and into traditional value areas.
We're talking industrials, materials, and, of course, energy stocks.