3 charts that show why we’re short Australia

I am as patriotic as they come when it comes to my country but hold no bias when it comes to an economic assessment and what is realistic, instead of emotional, when it comes to an investment portfolio. Most economists, analysts, brokers and owners I see can't seem to make the same distinction! For us, our Aussie growth expectations continue to disappoint. So whilst our growth expectations for Australia are trending lower and lower as they are, we continue to be positioned to benefit from a weakness in corporate earnings and sell-off in stocks in the country (Chart 1). Our assessment is similar, with our Aussie inflation expectations too (Chart 2). After being long Aussie dollars in November and December, we shorted the Aussie dollar at the start of the year. As we started looking deeper into 2016, our analysis resumed to show weakness relative to the U.S economy (Chart 3). Our short Aussie stocks and short Aussie dollar positions combined make up 7% of the portfolio. (VIEW LINK)