August can be a perilous month for investors. It is a month when there is little volume or liquidity in financial markets and this August appears to be an especially treacherous one.
Among the most vulnerable – perhaps surprisingly – are emerging Asian markets, where aggregate private sector debt has been building up. That is because the combination of high leverage and lack of liquidity is not a happy one when investors are feeling nervous.
This summer, the markets have been hit by a bout of fear from a combination of the prospect of a world with less easy money and more dangerous gunmen. Since their July peaks, emerging market debt and currencies have weakened.