FY-2018: What The Market Gods Giveth, They Also Taketh Away…

Tags

absolute return, annual review, Applegreen, benchmarking, blockchain, bubbles, cryptocurrencies, Donegal Investment Group, KR1 plc, portfolio performance, Rasmala, relative return, shareholder activism, Trump, Zamano

Back in much happier days (last July!), faced with indices that were (on average) broadly flat, I sagely accepted that:

‘Looking back, the first half this year seems kind of inevitable now…’

Of course, this now haunts me as absurd understatement. And an unfortunate reminder the hardest time to sell is…inevitably, when you should sell! But after a crackerjack 2017, I did see 2018 as more of a market time-out, than anything else – as reflected here, consciously or not, in the lack of blog posts & commentary. My bad…but sometimes it’s better to take stock & just enjoy how wonderful real life can be!

The same is true of my disclosed portfolio – my only reported activity was to: i) top up my Record (REC:LN) holding (which I still prefer to call bad timing, vs. an actual bad decision), and ii) re-establish my Donegal Investment Group (DQ7A:ID) portfolio allocation, after management redeemed over 50% of its outstanding shares. Elsewhere, after enjoying rapid/substantial price run-ups on certain undisclosed holdings (the main reason they never quite made it onto the blog), I focused on positioning myself for a rough October. Pals will back me up on that…but obviously it wasn’t visible here, it’s never enough when you’re right (cheap buys won’t offset damage in the rest of your portfolio), the market proved far worse than I expected, and only fools believe in all or nothing market timing anyway.

[Forget the guy who pissed you off the other day – you know the one, that dude boasting only an idiot wasn’t all in cash & set for the crash – because he’s also the guy forgets how many other times he (wrongly) went to cash, plus all the gains he’s missed out on over the years].

So let’s just go ahead & survey the actual market carnage – here’s my FY-2018 Benchmark Return – as usual, it’s a simple average of the four main indices covering most of my portfolio (& my readers’ too, I expect):

Advertisement

H1-2018 Wexboy Portfolio Performance

Tags

Applegreen, benchmarking, blockchain, Brexit, crypto, cryptocurrencies, Donegal Investment Group, investing, KR1 plc, MAGA, portfolio performance, reality TV star, relative performance, tariffs, Trump, Zamano

Looking back, the first half this year seems kind of inevitable now…

In the wake of last year’s momentum – possibly even euphoria (see my FY-2017 performance review) – H1-2018 was an unwelcome cold shower for investors. But such is how the market gods operate… And in reality, momentum was limited mostly to US investors (in particular, FAANG fans), who enjoyed 19-25%+ returns last year. Spare a thought for (unhedged) European investors: A weak dollar (down 14% vs. the euro) diluted away most of their US stock returns, while locally they earned a fairly pedestrian sub-8% return. So it’s clearly galling for European investors to now see their local markets down year-to-date (vs. a small US gain)…particularly when most of the ‘blame’ (if there is such a thing) for recent market wobbles arguably belongs to America.

But surveying other markets, we’ve seen more savage reversals of fortune elsewhere this year. Emerging & frontier markets investors enjoyed 32%+ returns last year, but were blindsided this year as markets plunged across the board, with negative returns exacerbated by local currency weakness (high current account deficits being targeted in particular). In fact, quite a few individual markets entered bear market territory. And yes, I mean actual 20%+ declines…not the feeble 5-10% ‘bear markets’ the financial media breathlessly reports these days!

Of course, the real disaster bear apocalypse happened in the crypto market – remember this table?

Take a moment & marvel once more…seems like an awful long time ago now, eh?! While Bitcoin peaked mid-December (rather unfortunate for all those kids who persuaded their folks to buy in over Xmas!), Ethereum & the rest of the market’s incredible momentum carried right into the first/second week of January. Since that peak, the entire crypto market has collapsed almost 70%, with its end-June market cap now barely exceeding $250 billion. Clearly, my #CryptoFOMO theory hit a brick wall: Despite noting a possible crypto-wobble (as I published this post mid-Jan), I argued that new money might not be ready to dive into crypto, but last year’s crypto gains would surely inflame & elevate investors’ risk appetite in the equity markets. Obviously, at the time, I didn’t quite envision such a horrific crypto collapse…or the subsequent schadenfreude.

However, I’d still argue there’s a significant asymmetry here, in terms of potential risk/reward: Crypto euphoria could well re-emerge & spill over into equities…but on the other hand (hopefully, I’m not being too blasé here!) the popping of an asset class/bubble that can be measured in the mere hundreds of billions isn’t all that relevant or serious in the global scheme of things.

Top Trumps For 2017…

Tags

Donegal Investment Group, favourite stock, Fortress Investment Group, Newmark Security, portfolio allocation, Rasmala, Saga Furs, stock picks, stock tips, Tetragon Financial Group, Trump, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund, Zamano

So, bet you thought this was about Trump…and/or his Inauguration?

Nope, sorry…just my little bit of fake news! I meant something much better – who remembers this childhood classic: Top Trumps! To know the game is to love it…though if you don’t, it probably seems impossibly quaint in today’s digital world. I still remember the De Tomasa Pantera was the best card by far in my Supercars deck – what are the chances you’ll remember a detail like that about your latest app in the years/decades ahead?! Anyway, it’s still that time of year…and yeah, I’ve cheated a little. Pretty much everybody’s finished with their Top Tips & Picks for the New Year, so now I’ll swoop in & hog your undivided attention! Well, at least ’til your next tweet…

Regular readers will know what to expect from my Top Trumps for 2017 – yep, I’m sticking with my disclosed holdings. I mean, what could be better?! [Well, except some undisclosed holdings..?! No more teasing, I swear: I’m just about finished with the (very) slow accumulation of positions in half a dozen new stocks, soon I’ll line ’em up & start work on some proper investment write-ups]. Though I should remind you, in my last post I deliberately focused on the negative aspects of my 2016 Losers…hopefully, I offer a more balanced perspective here. Or at the v least, highlight how ridiculously cheap some of these stocks have gotten!? So, let’s crack on:

[NB: i) With the near-liquidation of Alternative Asset Opportunities (TLI:LN) this month, it’s no longer a disclosed holding, ii) I highlight my current portfolio allocation (as of CoB Jan-26th) for each holding, but will use my year-end allocations (which are similar) for 2017 performance reporting purposes, and iii) I include relevant corporate/IR websites & Bloomberg tickers, but avoid posting previous write-ups, in an effort to present each holding afresh – but feel free to reference last year’s portfolio commentaries (here & here), plus it’s easy to search/find original investment write-up(s) on the blog also.]

i) Newmark Security (NWT:LN) (2.4% of current portfolio):

Share Price:   GBP 1.45p

Market Cap:   GBP 6.8 Million

A special situation…which actually obscures an underlying growth story. While these trading updates (here & here) have crucified the share price, Newmark’s electronic division still looks like the real problem here. For almost a decade now, revenue’s unchanged, while divisional margins declined relentlessly – from 20-23%, to a £(0.5) million loss today. Poor return on capital was bad enough, but losses kill any argument for keeping the division. And after 4 years as CEO, shareholders presumably have little confidence Marie-Claire Dwek can still deliver a turnaround – and her hands are now full dealing with the larger asset protection division. Noting Chairman Maurice Dwek always ran a tight ship here, the situation appears untenable – something’s gotta give…

2016 – Not Missing You Already…

Tags

absolute return, annual review, benchmarking, Brexit, Newmark Security, NWT:LN, portfolio performance, relative performance, survivorship bias, track record, Trump, US vs Europe, Zamano, ZMNO:ID

Yes, it’s that time of year again…

But I must confess mixed feelings – for me, a year-end review’s just the annual conclusion to the (auditable) tracking of my ongoing portfolio performance. More generally, though, I suspect it can be disheartening for readers – as with much of the internet, the result’s often exciting at first…but ultimately demoralising. Have a tough year & there’s nothing worse than hearing about other investors chalking up block-buster returns left, right & centre.

But that’s the nature of the beast. Gone are the days when your one & only competitor was that insufferable git down the pub each Xmas, who always boasted he’d bet his chips on yet another ten-bagger (so why’s he still in your boozer?!). But today, we have the internet…now you compete with countless investors across the globe, no matter how experienced, gifted, or born lucky they are! And most laugh in the face of home bias – so inevitably, there’s a multitude who just surfed their killer local market & totally crushed your puny performance, esp. if you were running a sensibly diversified portfolio. Not to mention how little performance can actually be tracked, or who has any real skin in the game – don’t we all start out as great traders/investors, making big bets on paper, much like gamblers always start lucky!?

[And yeah, we all know that Twitter guy who spent all year flailing about, then bounces back with a breathless ‘Up +50% again this year…my leveraged Brexit shorts & US Prez Election longs worked perfectly, bro!’. Um, why are you even reading his tweets?!]

This is not to denigrate some great investors out there, who have clearly delivered spectacular results (& who genuinely appear to owe more to skill than luck). The internet is the problem here – namely, its ephemeral & anonymous nature – how many (tens of) millions of blogs, pages, discussions, user names & identities are abandoned over the years? As for investing, there’s a far more insidious self-selection process…we tend to only ever hear about the best investors (& the best returns). I mean, how many investors just get bored, discouraged, make (the same old) mistakes, lose money, blow themselves up? Who knows – in all likelihood, they’re long gone! The blog posts cease, the messages end, the tweets trail off, they move on (or start afresh)…and that’s precisely why the internet keeps beating you: Survivorship bias.

So, take heart, mes braves – if you really must, evaluate yourself vs. the indices & the fund managers who’ve actually built a long-term track record (through thick & thin). As for the internet, exploit it for data & potential stock ideas…not to beat yourself over the head, or get led astray. Let’s not forget, passive can beat active can beat truly active for long periods (hence the more recent performance of ETFs vs. mutual funds vs. hedge funds)…as frustrating as it can be, it’s important to remember there’s little correlation between the work you put into your portfolio & your actual short-term returns. As they say: In the short run, the market’s a bitch, but in the long run, it’s a weighing machine.