Harga Minyak, APBN dan Hedging

Baca buku-buku mengenai ‘Peak Oil Theory’ cukup meyakinkan saya bahwa harga minyak tinggi tampaknya tidak dapat dihindarkan.  Usd 150 sampai usd 200 pr barrel bukan lagi angka yang muluk. Oleh karena itu, ada baiknya pemerintah untuk mulai mempertimbangkan untuk hedging atas kemungkin melambung terusnya harga minyak di pasar dunia.  Cara terbaik adalah dengan menggunakan oil futures market.

Beberapa perusahaan penerbangan dunia sudah mulai melakukan hedging harga minyak sejak beberapa tahun yang lalu. Hasilnya, untuk 2 - 3 tahun kedepan, rata-rata harga minyak mereka hanya sekitar USD 55 per barrel! 

Memang benar untuk melakukan hedging perlu biaya yang tidak sedikit. Akan tetapi, biaya ini tidak akan seberapa dibandingkan potensi biaya yang akan timbul jika harga minyak mencapai USD 200 per barell, baik itu biaya ekonomi maupun sosial (economic and social unrest).

Tanpa hedging, negara kita akan terus terombang-ambing oleh gejolak di pasar minyak. Jika harga minyak terus naik, APBN kita akan tambah berdarah-darah. Tidak ada salahnya bagi kita untuk mengurangi pendarahan ini. Cara tercepat dan terbaik untuk memberhentikan pendarahan ini adalah dengan melakukan hedging. Baru, setelah itu, fokus dapat dialihkan untuk mencari solusi jangka panjang untuk mengatasi masalah permintaan (penggunaan) BBM yang relatif tinggi ini.

Tapi, sekali lagi, dalam jangka pendek ini, we have to stop the bleeding now. Karena kalau tidak, seperti yang Keynes katakan: In the long run, we are all dead.

Harga minyak memang masih ada kemungkinan turun lagi. Akan tetapi, menurut peak oil theory, penurunannya tidak akan seberapa. Potensi kenaikkan harga masih jauh lebih mungkin daripada potensi penurunan harga. Atau, dengan kata lain, potensi upside vs downside tidak sebanding. Jadi, hedge!

 

Just a thought.

 

Comparison and selection of investment projects: A new standardized risk measure

Standaridized risk measurement terus berusaha diperbaiki. Perhatikan juga topik mengenai semi-variance Markowitz dimana dia mengatakan semi-variance theoretically more robust than variance (atau saudaranya, standard deviasi).

ABSTRACT

On the basis of drawdown criterion and investors’ target return, a new risk measure called the standardized risk measure is presented in this paper. It is a relative quantity, which defined as the expected loss of value in the required target return divided by the maximum expected loss of value when the probability of failure is guaranteed under the standardized distribution of investment return. The definition is promising and superior to the traditional risk measure in that it readily makes the comparison of different investments be fairly easy and convenient regardless of their currency denominations, given that their return distributions belong to a category with identical standardized distribution.

INTRODUCTION

The risk quantity of a project is a critical index for risk investment. Whether it is measured properly is fairly important. The traditional method of measuring risk is to define it as the fluctuation of investment return at its expectation. In other words, if the investment return R is a random variable, the variance of R is given as [sigma]^sup 2^(R) = E[(R-E(R))^sup 2^], or the standard deviation [sigma](R) is used as the risk measure. This measure has three drawbacks. First, risk generally means that when an investment is taken, the return target required by investors may not be reached. The traditional method unreasonably fixes the mean of return E(R) as the target. Second, the traditional method uses the “fluctuation” to measure risk. Thus the upward fluctuation that is actually what the investors want is calculated into the risk as the downward fluctuation is done. This is not reasonable as well (see [2], [3]). Third, investments are often multi-period. For example, suppose that initial price of a financial security is P (O), holding this asset until the nth period, its price in nth period is P (n). Then the relative return of investment over n periods is Read more »

ETF dan Pasar Modal

Dari Kompas.

Analisis Danareksa
ETF dan Pasar Modal
Senin, 10 Maret 2008 | 01:41 WIB
Oleh Ernawan Salimsyah
Sejak 18 Desember 2007, pilihan efek untuk berinvestasi bagi investor di Bursa Efek Indonesia semakin bervariasi dengan dicatatkannya dan diperdagangkannya dua reksa dana. Efek reksa dana berjenis seperti ini dikenal sebagai exchange traded fund atau ETF. Peluncuran dua ETF ini, mengacu pada indeks LQ45 dan SUN, telah menandai dimulainya sejarah industri ETF di Indonesia. Read more »

Delta Neutral Strategi Yang Jitu?

Di dunia trading options, tidak ada strategi yang paling jitu. Yang ada adalah strategi yang paling cocok dengan toleransi risiko atau temperamen anda. Setiap strategi options mengandung kekuatan maupun kelemahan.  Tidak ada strategi yang selalu untung di situasi pasar yang berubah. Kunci sukses di options trading adalah dengan menerapkan strategi yang cocok dengan situasi pasar. Masalahnya, situasi pasar berubah terus secara kontinyu. Akibatnya, banyak traders yang rugi karena menerapkan strategi yang salah. Tidak ada yang namanya “Instant Expert” di options trading.  Perlu pengalaman yang memadai untuk suskes.  Kalaupun anda untung banyak walaupun baru bermain sesaat di options market, faktor keberuntungan mungkin lebih berperan dalam hal ini. Tunggu beberapa bulan lagi, kemungkinan besar hasilnya akan berubah.

Rekan saya bingung, kenapa dia kalah terus. Strategi yang dia terapkan - “Delta Neutral” - seharusnya untung karena secara teori, kalau pasar bergerak, posisi delta neutral dia akan untung. Pasar sudah bergerak, tapi kenapa dia masih rugi?

Inilah contoh bagaimana “imperfect understanding” atau pengetahuan parsial (hanya sebagian) dari seorang trader bisa berakibat buruk. Rekan saya, yang sebenarnya cukup sophisticated, seorang fund manager, lupa bahwa trading options adalah trading di multi dimensi. Bukan trading di satu dimensi saja (harga), seperti trading saham. Di options, anda secara tidak langsung trading di : harga, waktu, volatilitas dan suku bunga. Posisi dia mungkin saja delta neutral (harga netral), akan tetapi bisa saya pastikan, posisi dia tidak netral secara volatilitas, waktu maupun suku bunga. Akibatnya, pergerakan harga yang dia harapkan akan menguntungkan posisinya (posisi dia delta neutral, long gamma), ter offset oleh time decay dan  volatilitas yang menurun. Jadinya, rugi! Bahasa teknisnya, posisi dia: delta neutral, lomg gamma, short theta dan long vega.

Moral of the story: hati-hati trading options.  Tidak semudah yang anda bayangkan seperti yang diberikan di seminar-seminar options yang kian menjamur. Kalau pengetahuan anda tanggung-tanggung saja, kemungkinan besar anda akan rugi dalam jangka panjangnya.

Just my 2 cents.

Sharpe Ratio - Indikator Yang Ampuh?

Sharpe ratio sering digunakan para Analyst untuk mengukur bagus atau tidaknya suatu Fund, Reksadana misalnya. Suatu Fund yang memiliki Sharpe Ratio yang tinggi konon disebut sebagai Fund yang baik, karena memiliki risk adjusted return yang baik (tinggi). Peringkat Reksadana pun sering menggunakan Sharpe Ratio sebagai salah satu faktor penentu. Masalahnya, penghitungan risiko Reksadana dalam formula Sharpe Ratio ini menggunakan standar deviasi. Penggunaan standar deviasi bisa sangat merugikan Fund yang menghasilkan return yang tinggi. Coba bayangkan:

Return Fund A / bulan : 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%,1%,1%,1%,1%,1%.

Return Fund B / bulan: 1%, 2%, 3%, 5%,1%,7%,2%,5%,8%,2%.

Total return Fund A 12 bulan = 12.68%

Total return Fund B 12 bulan = 42.05%

Fund A Sharpe Rationya (tak terhingga) jauh lebih tinggi dari Fund B (hitung saja sendiri), walaupun returnnya jauh dibawah Fund B.

Akibatnya, berdasarkan Sharpe Ratio ranking Fund A diatas Fund B.

Sharpe Ratio bisa menghukum funds yang kinerjanya tinggi. Akibatnya, banyak yang mencari indikator alternatif, misalnya Jensen Alpha, Sortino dsb.

Trading Opsi, Mudah?

Ada yang datang ke saya dan berkata: Pak saya punya strategi opsi yang risikonya rendah (karena break evennya jauh dibawah harga beli) dan punya upside potential yang tinggi. Ini bukan gambling pak, karena kemungkinan kalahnya kecil. Dia lupa prinsip : There is no free lunch. Low risk, low gain. Kemungkinan lossnya mungkin memang kecil, tapi kemungkinan gainnya juga tidak kalah kecilnya. Malahan dengan broker bid-ask spread, kemungkinan menang jadi lebih kecil dari kemungkinan kalah. There is no free lunch.

Setelah saya kutak-katik strategi dia, teman saya baru mengerti bahwa the strategy is not as good as he previously thought (strategi tsb tidak sebaik yang dia pikirkan sebelumnya)!

Happy trading!

Larry Williams on Market Prediction

LARRY: The randomness. There’s a huge amount of randomness in the stock market and commodity markets, and that’s why you bet small because at any given time, while I may have a market that’s perfectly set up, Greenspan says something and literally in 3 or 4 words can change everybody’s – all the investors, the Commercials’ the public’s – view of the marketplace. Because the markets are uncontrolled, there’s such a high degree of randomness in them, that’s why you’ve got to bet small, because you’re absolutely right. I remember when President Eisenhower had his heart attack and the market just crashed. It came back a little, well, it did come back in almost a couple of days. The same thing in the Kennedy assassination, the market broke real bad. Nobody knew that was going to happen, but a lot of money was lost. The crash of 1987 was a 3 or 4 day event, but it wiped out billions and billions of dollars. So, you have to have your protection against those excess moves in the marketplace that I think are totally unpredictable. And like you said, I’ve been doing this for 45 years. I’ve seen everybody try to predict the market and nobody – and I’ll underscore, nobody – has ever been able to correctly predict the market for very long. Maybe they’ll get lucky. I’ve gotten lucky a couple of times – called a high and a low –  but can I do it successfully all the time? Nobody does it. Nobody’s ever done it. So you’re going to have losses. You got to protect yourself from that. [34:40]

Does Win/Loss Percentage Even Mean Anything?

Dari TradingMarkets.Com

Does Win/Loss Percentage Even Mean Anything?

One of my biggest pet peeves in this business is that of traders constantly searching for that perfect system, newsletter, or so-called “guru” that will catapult them from failure or inconsistent performance to immediate and consistent profitability, when no such thing exists. As such, one of the industry myths I wanted to address as a prelude to setups was the following: So what’s the big deal about probability? Well, I strongly believe that success in trading is far more dependent upon the understanding, acceptance and application of probability principles than any other facet. While the concept of probability may seem simple and reinforcing for some traders, grasping and making probability do the work for you remains a strong challenge for many who continue to struggle in their trading journey.

Read more »

McKinsey warns of threats to US financial leadership

Dari the Financial Times .
McKinsey warns of threats to US financial leadership
By Gillian Tett in London

Published: January 16 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 16 2008 02:00

The US looks poised to lose its mantle as the world’s dominant financial market because of a rapid rise in the depth and maturity of markets in Europe, a study suggests.
The change may have occurred already, not least because US markets are beset by credit woes, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank affiliated to the consultancy.”We think the differential growth rates are so significant that it is quite likely Europe has overtaken the US,” said Diana Farrell, author of the report.

“They are now neck and neck, which means exchange rates are very important. It is a real change.”

A power shift is also under way in Asia as the Chinese market continues to boom while markets such as Japan stagnate.

McKinsey suggests China’s booming trade surplus has put it into the position of being the world’s largest net exporter of capital, topping Japan, Germany and the oil exporters for the first time.

The findings are likely to attract attention from bankers and policymakers since they come amid an intensifying debate about the changing pattern of financial power - an issue likely to be centre stage at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

In previous decades, most US policymakers and bankers assumed their domestic markets were the largest and most sophisticated in the world, and sought to export their model of financial capitalism to other parts of the globe.

But the credit crisis has dented confidence in the health of America’s financial institutions and its model of finance.

Meanwhile, since the launch of the single currency in 1999, European markets have been steadily growing in liquidity and size.

And other parts of the world, such as Asia and the Gulf, are enjoying rapidly growing financial clout due to their large surpluses - a shift exemplified by the recent decision of Asian and Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds to take large stakes in big US banks such as Citigroup.

The study by McKinsey, which provides one of the most comprehensive independent snapshots of financial flows, covers the trends in 2006.

But analysts say their initial research following the subprime shock suggests the credit turmoil has intensified these trends in 2007 in terms of the global pecking order.

In 2006, McKinsey calculates that America’s markets had some $56,100bn of assets. Europe, including the UK, had $53,200bn of assets, a sharp increase on recent years.

On recent trajectories, this implies that Europe overtook the US in 2007.

“The main message that emerged about financial deepening and what is happening outside the US in 2006 continued in 2007,” Ms Farrell said.

The UK accounted for some $10,000bn of assets, according to McKinsey, while the eurozone accounted for $37,600bn.

Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Norway accounted for a combined $5,600bn.

Emerging markets must correct imbalances

Dari Financial Times.

Insight: Emerging markets must correct imbalances

By Francisco Blanch

Published: January 9 2008 16:24 | Last updated: January 9 2008 16:24

Recent US interest rate cuts have helped create a liquidity boom in emerging markets (EM), fuelling demand for raw materials and boosting stock markets. In turn, robust demand and a global oil supply contraction in the third quarter of 2007 recently pushed crude oil briefly above $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the US dollar is close to record lows, both against the euro and on a broad basis. More interestingly, the long-term correlation between oil and the dollar has moved from a historical average of -1 per cent to -80 per cent of late.How are the spike in oil prices and the slide in the dollar related?Ultimately, they are linked to one common theme: the ambition of EM countries to support exceptional domestic economic growth by using non-market based mechanisms. Since China became a WTO member at the start of the decade, first a pegged and then a semi-pegged currency regime has kept Chinese labour extremely competitive, fuelling export-oriented domestic growth for years. A similar development has taken place in other EM countries. Read more »