Hedging the Possibility of Russia invading Ukraine

post by Annapurna (jorge-velez) · 2021-12-23T01:13:49.399Z · LW · GW · 1 comment

This is a question post.

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    21 Annapurna
    9 Annapurna
    8 quanticle
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Assume that you know with a high degree of confidence that Russia will invade Ukraine in February 2022. 

Also assume that you have an investment portfolio invested 100% in VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index).

You think that if Russia invades Ukraine, this will affect your portfolio in a negative way. 

Aside from doing a direct hedge (Buying buts on VTI), in what other ways would you attempt to hedge your portfolio?

Answers

answer by Annapurna · 2022-01-23T01:59:30.918Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I found the perfect hedge: 

I bet $5,000 to win $33,500 that the following Metaculus question resolves YES https://metaculus.com/questions/8898/russian-invasion-of-ukraine-before-2023/… 

Bet is voided if resolution is ambiguous. 

comment by Liron · 2022-10-16T20:38:29.828Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Nicely done

comment by Pee Doom (DonyChristie) · 2023-08-08T04:53:16.659Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Did you actually bet the money?

answer by Annapurna · 2021-12-23T01:18:27.876Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

A few ways to hedge that were floating in my head:

Long natural gas futures

Long Brent oil futures

Buy VIX calls

Buy DXY calls

Buy VGK puts

answer by quanticle · 2021-12-23T01:57:26.146Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

You think that if Russia invades Ukraine, this will affect your portfolio in a negative way.

But why would you think this?

comment by Dagon · 2021-12-31T23:55:38.566Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1476642007426777092

is a reasonable summary of what Russian military leaders might be thinking.  I'd say invasion with long-term troops is still unlikely, but some form of hot conflict seems to be brewing.

Replies from: quanticle
comment by quanticle · 2022-01-16T00:41:33.528Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I should have clarified. My question was not about whether Russia would or would not invade Ukraine. My question was, conditional on Russia invading Ukraine, why do you think your portfolio of investments would be negatively affected?

The US and Russian economies are not tightly coupled. Yes, the uncertainty from a military act could cause price spikes (especially in commodities that Russia exports), but historically these have dissipated in a matter of months.

So why not sit tight and do nothing?

answer by [deleted] · 2021-12-23T07:47:56.937Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
answer by quanticle · 2021-12-23T01:57:10.794Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

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comment by Dagon · 2021-12-23T03:12:48.770Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Knowing ONLY what you've just said, the direct hedge seems pretty smart.   If you know other things (like more precision about the invasion, or specific components of VTI that will rise or fall), you can certainly make better trades.  

But if that were the case, you'd probably already be trading in those components rather than VTI in the first place - money you have in giant indexes is because you're not claiming to know more than "the market" on any specific topic.