Muir said he exited his short positions because the reward to stay bearish was no longer worth the risk. Wall Street’s fear gauge — the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX — climbed above 60 Monday. It was in the low teens when he first made the wager, he said.
Kevin Muir, the investor behind the popular financial newsletter The Macro Tourist who went short high-flying US tech stocks in December, says it’s time to start getting back into the market.
The former RBC trader says he’s unwound all of his bearish bets, and is now scooping up shares of everything from copper miners to shipping companies, with a particular focus on firms that generate significant revenue outside the US. The play, which he dubs a “rest-of-the-world trade,” is partly a bet on the fiscal stimulus he says countries from China to Germany to Canada will be forced to unleash to shield their economies from Trump administration tariffs.
“I’m dipping my toe in,” Muir said in an interview. “Although I’m bearish on US stocks, and I’m bearish on the US economy, I expect the rest of the world to spend money on fiscal expansion.”
