This spread looks quite interesting right now. Platinum historically has traded at a nice premium to gold, of around 50-100%.
With the recent bear market in commodities, declining industrial demand, and safe-haven buying of gold, this spread has really collapsed. Platinum is now just above $1000 and gold is in the $875 range, giving a premium of 14%.
I think this offers a potentially interesting spread trade, buying platinum and shorting gold. Once the banking crisis fades and the economy returns to normal, I'd expect the premium to go back to normal levels of say 60-70%. That would be a potential 50% return, unleveraged, on a spread.
The main risk is that with impending recession, and a banking crisis, there could be further spikes in the gold prices, and the spread might actually temporarily turn into a Texas Hedge where you could lose on both sides. It would be necessary in this case to be able to withstand the potential swings. Sometimes when spreads like this have major blowouts, they actually *invert*. So it's possible that you could get platinum going to a 10-20% discount to gold for a short while. That implies a short/medium-term quotational risk of about 20-30%. So if you want to limit your downside to say 3%, you would only put 10% of your capital into the long platinum/short gold position. The advantage of being conservative is that, should the spread invert, you will have a great opportunity to add size at very favourable prices. Buying at a 15% discount would give a 100% winner if the spread eventually reverts to normal levels.
Another way to play it would be to chart the spread, wait for it to resume an uptrend, and then get long the spread - trading it just like a stock or commodity in a bull market. This lowers the risk, but gives greater chance of missing the move or suffering whipsaws.
If you are patient, you could wait for parity - you'd then have 60-70% upside vs 10-20% downside, giving a R/R of between 3.5:1 and 6:1. I'd estimate the chances of a winning trade at 50% at least, probably more like 75% from these levels.
Any thoughts?
With the recent bear market in commodities, declining industrial demand, and safe-haven buying of gold, this spread has really collapsed. Platinum is now just above $1000 and gold is in the $875 range, giving a premium of 14%.
I think this offers a potentially interesting spread trade, buying platinum and shorting gold. Once the banking crisis fades and the economy returns to normal, I'd expect the premium to go back to normal levels of say 60-70%. That would be a potential 50% return, unleveraged, on a spread.
The main risk is that with impending recession, and a banking crisis, there could be further spikes in the gold prices, and the spread might actually temporarily turn into a Texas Hedge where you could lose on both sides. It would be necessary in this case to be able to withstand the potential swings. Sometimes when spreads like this have major blowouts, they actually *invert*. So it's possible that you could get platinum going to a 10-20% discount to gold for a short while. That implies a short/medium-term quotational risk of about 20-30%. So if you want to limit your downside to say 3%, you would only put 10% of your capital into the long platinum/short gold position. The advantage of being conservative is that, should the spread invert, you will have a great opportunity to add size at very favourable prices. Buying at a 15% discount would give a 100% winner if the spread eventually reverts to normal levels.
Another way to play it would be to chart the spread, wait for it to resume an uptrend, and then get long the spread - trading it just like a stock or commodity in a bull market. This lowers the risk, but gives greater chance of missing the move or suffering whipsaws.
If you are patient, you could wait for parity - you'd then have 60-70% upside vs 10-20% downside, giving a R/R of between 3.5:1 and 6:1. I'd estimate the chances of a winning trade at 50% at least, probably more like 75% from these levels.
Any thoughts?