El-Erian: Expect Major Volatility – and Big Opportunities

Mohamed El-Erian, says to expect major volatility in the coming months — volatility that will create some great opportunities.

“We have a bumpy road ahead of us, but I keep on stressing, it will create a lot of attractive opportunities,” he told CNBC. El-Erian said the global market may experiencing a shift to a “higher volatility regime,” meaning that asset allocations will become aggressive and price multiples will begin “looking high.” That’s when markets overshoot and act with too much correlation, creating the opportunity is, he says.

He also says that opportunities may well be occurring in emerging markets and oil, but he advises caution. “If you already have exposure, wait a little bit, there are going to be even more attractive positions—there are still people stuck in those markets looking to get out,” he said. “We’re going to look back on this, and this is going to be a very attractive stage. … It’s one of these things that happens once a decade… but be careful because it’s going to be incredibly volatile in the next few months.”

El-Erian also says investors would be wise to stop obsessing so much over potential interest rate hikes. He says the tightening cycle, if and when it occurs, will likely be the “loosest tightening in the history of the Fed”.