Leon Cooperman: “When The Market Finally Goes Down, It Will Move So Fast Your Head Will Spin”
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Tyler Durden
Leon Cooperman is a frequent guest on CNBC, and recently we heard that he is a fully invested bear who laments the idiocy of contemporary markets.
Cooperman says he’s keeping an eye out for “a lot of things…for a signal of change,” including Fedspeak, inflation, market action, the action of gold or Bitcoin, the dollar exchange rate and interest rates overall.
He says that market structure is broken. “When there’s a real fundamental reason for the market to go down, it’s going to go down so fast your head is going to spin. There’s no stabilizing forces in the market right now. When the market goes down, it’ll move so fast your head will spin. It’s all algorithms.”
Cooperman acknowledged that his biggest position is a contrary view, adding that he was long energy heading into 2021. He doesn’t want to take chances on bonds; he doesn’t want to see his capital confiscated.
The only certainty in this market, according to Cooperman, is that someday, things will change: “Things will change when it’s least expected, but right now the cyclical conditions are in favour of the market.”
Cooperman also had some choice words for Treasuries, which he dismissed as totally mispriced with negative real-world rates, and for Bitcoin, which he said doesn’t make a great deal of sense. “I have a great respect for Barry Diller, he was on recently and he said Bitcoin is a con job. The one thing I do know is it’s not in the interest of the US government to support the development of a rival currency.”
Cooperman added that Bitcoin does not make a great deal of sense, and recommended that investors who are nervous about the world consider investing in gold instead.