👀 Astra Capital Closes down, The Long Trade is back on, Beware the VIX

Hi guys, it’s Kieran! Another week in the markets is upon us, so let’s get into it.

📢 Prop Firm Industry News

Astra Capital Funding closes down. They arrived with a bang. A billboard in Times Square and plans for trader floors in all the major cities around the world. One month later… gone. This industry never ceases to amaze.

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Check out the firms with the biggest payouts over the last 7 days 🏆️ 

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🕜 Economic calendar

Here are this week’s red folder news events. Key events to look out for are US Jobs and GDP numbers on Thursday and Core PCE, which is the Fed’s favorite gauge on inflation, on Friday.

📈 The Macro View

Huge inflows into equities last week. The risk trade is being put back on.

From Deutsche Bank “Net flows into global equity funds were very strong in the week ending September 18, driven almost entirely by flows into US equity funds (+$39bn vs -$2bn in the previous week).W

Overall Positioning still neural.

On Goldman Sachs Prime book, overall positioning saw a slight uptick but nothing noteworthy yet. As we have seen these past few weeks, hedge funds have been consistent sellers and are probably still underweight. The long equities trade has a long way to go before being crowded again.

Sentiment stuck in neutral

We hit all time highs in the S&P 500 last week but Bank of America's bull/bear indicator has not moved from the neutral zone. A lot of people are skeptical about this rally and remain watching on the sidelines. Is the pain trade up or down from here?

Beware the seasonality. Time for VIX.

Whatever your view, keep in mind VIX seasonality is supposed to kick in right here. Mid-September til early October is historically a bad time for the stock market so whatever you play, make sure that you are always risk managed.

That’s it for this week. Have a good one and stay safe out there!

Kieran

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