About a month ago, when the financial markets were more skittish, I saw a series of four articles on more interest in distressed debt investing (One, Two, Three, Four).  In this market, it didn’t surprise me much because we have too many smart people with too much money to invest.  It reminds me a bit of a RealMoney CC post that I made a year and a half ago:

		David Merkel
		Make the Money Sweat, Man! We Got Retirements to Fund, and Little Time to do it!
		3/28/2006 10:23 AM EST

What prompts this post was a bit of research from the estimable Richard Bernstein of Merrill Lynch, where he showed how correlations of returns in risky asset classes have risen over the past six years. (Get your hands on this one if you can.) Commodities, International Stocks, Hedge Funds, and Small Cap Stocks have become more correlated with US Large Cap Stocks over the past five years. With the exception of commodities, the 5-year correlations are over 90%. I would add in other asset classes as well: credit default, emerging markets, junk bonds, low-quality stocks, the toxic waste of Asset- and Mortgage-backed securities, and private equity. Also, all sectors inside the S&P 500 have become more correlated to the S&P 500, with the exception of consumer staples. In my opinion, this is due to the flood of liquidity seeking high stable returns, which is in turn driven partially by the need to fund the retirements of the baby boomers, and by modern portfolio theory with its mistaken view of risk as variability, rather than probability of loss, and the likely severity thereof. Also, the asset allocators use “brain dead” models that for the most part view the past as prologue, and for the most part project future returns as “the present, but not so much.” Works fine in the middle of a liquidity wave, but lousy at the turning points.

Taking risk to get stable returns is a crowded trade. Asset-specific risk may be lower today in a Modern Portfolio Theory sense. Return variability is low; implied volatilities are for the most part low. But in my opinion, the lack of volatility is hiding an increase in systemic risk. When risky assets have a bad time, they may behave badly as a group.

The only uncorrelated classes at present are cash and bonds (the higher quality the better). If you want diversification in this market, remember fixed income and cash. Oh, and as an aside, think of Municipal bonds, because they are the only fixed income asset class that the flood of foreign liquidity hasn’t touched.

Don’t make aggressive moves rapidly, but my advice is to position your portfolios more conservatively within your risk tolerance.

Position: none

We are still on the side of the demographic wave where net saving/investing is taking place, and that forces pension plan sponsors to find high-return areas to place additional monies.  Away from that, the current account deficit has to be recycled, and they aren’t buying US goods and services in size yet.  That’s why there will be vultures aplenty, outside of lower quality mortgages.  Even the debt market for new LBO debt is slowly perking up.  The banks pinned with the loan commitments may be able to get away with mere 5% losses.  Away from that, investment grade and junk grade corporate bonds are looking better as well.

Now, don’t take this as an “all clear.”  There are still significant problems to be digested, particularly in the residential real estate and mortgage markets.  CDOs still offer a bevy of credit issues.  There will be continued difficulties, and I don’t expect big returns.  But with so many willing to take risk at this point, I can’t see a big drop-off until they get whacked by worsening credit conditions.