A few weeks ago, after the initial burst of selling from the S&P all-time highs in early February fizzled out and stocks stabilized in the 5500-5700 level, we reported that after selling a record $193 billion in 2 weeks, CTA - who had previously been 100% net long - had turned fractionally short, and they would no longer be the source of any marginal selling in a flat market. But not in a market that continued to slide... and certainly not in a market that would go on to lose a staggering 10% in 2 days as it did late last week.
Which means one thing: CTAs are about to become big time sellers all over again.
For the answer "how much" we go to Goldman's flow guru, Paul Leyzerovich, who published a note on Saturday (available exclusively to pro subscribers), in which he writes that the new baseline coming into Friday was for a whopping $104BN of global equities next 1 week sales and $141BN cumulative 1-month sales.
