Investors ponder further shocks after North Korea jolt

LONDON: After this week’s war of words between the United States and North Korea triggered the biggest fall in global stocks since the US presidential election, investors are wondering what other off-radar shocks may be waiting to rock world markets.

Although there is little sign so far that investors are protecting themselves against a major sell-off, some say the current environment masks latent risks.

“Every day, our risk models tell us to take more risk because of falling volatility but with markets being where they are, we have to be very careful in not following them blindly,” said James Kwok, head of currency management at Amundi in London.

“So we try to project scenarios on what can go wrong and where are markets not looking.”

Such has been the extraordinary period of stability in financial markets in recent years that world stocks have hit a series of record highs while gauges of broad market volatility have plunged to record lows.

Every day, our risk models tell us to take more risk because of falling volatility but with markets being where they are, we have to be very careful in not following them blindly. James Kwok, Amundi head of currency management

That benign investment environment has been fostered by central banks which have pumped vast sums of cash into economies since the global financial crisis that began a decade ago, lifting asset prices globally.

Flows into most asset classes have already overtaken peaks reached before the financial crisis.

For example, inflows into active and passive equity funds have nearly doubled to US$10.9 trillion at the end of June 2017 from a September 2007 peak, according to Thomson Reuters Lipper data. Inflows into bonds have meanwhile increased nearly three-fold to US$4.1 trillion in that period.

Broad market gauges of risk, such as the CBOE Volatility Index, better known as the VIX, and its bond market counterpart, the Merrill Lynch Option volatility index remain pinned near record lows despite a spike this week.

But analysts say low market volatility masks the heavy weight of options written on these gauges by investment banks betting that the calm conditions will persist for a long time.

That has been accompanied by the growing popularity of inverse volatility ETF products, which have doubled in value this year as market volatility has cratered.

Morgan Stanley strategists say the volume of bets on volatility remaining low means even a small increase in price swings could force some of these leveraged bets to unwind, triggering shock waves in the financial system and sending stock markets tumbling. — Reuters