Saturday, March 25, 2023

My Positions

Not much changed.  My shorts are still slightly in the red while waiting for the big bear market.  Dunno weather it'll be a crash like March 2020 or continue to be a long one like 2001-02.

Update 23/Apr - the numbers were wrong, there was an extra minus sign making one of my shorts long. The real numbers in Mar were:


The only position changes have been:
  • Bought gold in Feb.  As we move into the second half of the bear market and rate expectations drop, gold should do well.  Unless we get a crash like March 2020.
  • Interactive Brokers forced me out of my short Italy (EWI) position at the worst time, I replaced it with XLB, BITO, XOP, INDA.
  • Still regularly adding cash, the salary from my day-job as a garbage man.  Added around 3% cash this year.
The percentage changes:
  • Oil dropped, and my oil/gas producers/pipelines with it.  Oil price is the biggest factor affecting my portfolio.  Wiped off around 4-5% of the portfolio.  My bet on oil rising due to Chiana reopening failed.  Still holding these positions.  Tempted to buy more Equinor now.  Or Tidewater.  Dunno....they'll drop if we get a crash, but could go up if its a long-drawn-out bear market.
  • Delfi rose 30% on good results to become my largest position.  Not selling, its still cheap-and-growing, will buy a little more if the market crashes.
 Overall, still treading water.  Its a tough market, for longs or shorts.

Saturday, March 4, 2023

My Shopping List

Long term I think we're in a decade of inflation.  After a 6-12 month downturn, commodities should continue their bull market.  I'm holding my opex commodity producers (energy, palm oil) and want to load up on capex commodity producers in the downturn.  I think the next bubble won't be the last (tech & crypto), it'll be commodities.

Short term I believe we are in for a market crash and a recession in the first half of this year. Don't know when.  After I cover my shorts, I need to buy.  Real money is made being long.  This is my watchlist.  Top of the list are dividend-paying blue chips that your grandfather would approve of, the bottom is the most speculative shit that can fly:

  • Delfi (SGX): Largest Indonesian chocolate maker, net cash, paying out half its profits at just under a 4% yield.  Can be re-rated as a growth stock if it can grow for a few years.  Potential multibagger: 3 to 5X over 5-10 years.  I can only buy a little, since I've already loaded up.
  • Singapore banks: Dividend paying cyclicals, too expensive now, wait for a recession.  No point doing a deep dive since they are all the same.  OCBC is the most conservative, DBS has the highest beta (with historically the highest write offs in a recession).  UOB has the least exposure to China.  Probably 30-40% upside in a cycle if I play it right.
  • Maybank (KLSE): Another conservative, high dividend payer.  Low beta banking stock, ~6% (peakish) dividend at 80% payout ratio. Maybe 20% upside in a cycle.
  • Boustead (SGX): A strange mix of businesses consisting of Asian ESRI software licensing, industrial real-estate and oilfield equipment providers.  Financially conservative: Net cash, pays out half its profits as dividends.  Could double in the next few years as oil E&P picks up, 5% yield at 50% payout ratio while you wait.  Asian Centure Stock's paid report.
  • S&P 500: For my retirement account.  Won't do great with high energy prices and inflation, but there's some beta to be earned if I buy in a crash.  Sell when the recession's over.  Maybe 20-30% upside next cycle after a crash.
  • Gold: goes up when real rates go down.  I am holding GLD now, into a recession/crash as interest rate expectations start to fall.  Want to hold Gold Miners (GDX or GDXJ) coming out of it, as interest rates fall and inflation expectations rise.  Lets see.
  • Aluminium: Norsk Hydro.  One third of the aluminium price is from energy.  European smelters have been closing down.  Pays a giant dividend based on massive 2021 (peak) profits.  But its a capex commodity, so wait for the downturn.  Norsk Hydro is a low-cost producer, Alcoa is further out on the risk/reward curve.
  • Rockwell Automation: As the US re-industrialises and wages stay high due to retiring boomers, we should see a secular increase in automation.  This stock is too expensive now, needs to halve to ~160 for me to catch falling knife.  Its cyclical - trades closely with the Nasdaq - so I might get a chance.
  • Copper: Theres always been a story about an impending copper shortage for electrification/EVs.  I prefer to treat it as a cyclical.  Just buy COPX in a downturn.
  • Largan Precision looks interesting.  Small bet due to their industry risks (biggest customer is wary of them), but it is reasonably priced.  50-70% upside now, more if the market crashes like I expect. (Asian Century Stock's paid report).
  • Tin: A cross between a capex and opex commodity, half of it is used for electronics.  Again wait for the downturn.  MLX:ASX and MSC:KLSE could go up 3-5 times from the next cycle's bottom. 
  • Lithium: Another capex metal.  If EV demand explodes, it may be a decade long bull market, like iron ore from 2001 to 2010.  Demand and supply are impossible to project, as they just exponential increasing curves.  Still too expensive now, wait for a pullback.
  • Bitcoin.  The world's first decentralised digital currency.  Trades like a risk-on commodity, so wait for the downturn.  After which its probably got 2-3X upside in the next cycle.  
  • MercadoLibre: South American Amazon, with a growth runway, may benefit from Sea Limited's decline.  Although its a real business, its a growth stock, so don't bother to value or model it.  Latam benefits from high commodity prices, and Mexico from NAFTA.  Its really just a high beta play - buy after a downturn, hopefully sell one or two years later when everyone's happy.  Make it a small bet so I don't get shaken out by high volatility.  3 or 4X upside in the next cycle.
  • ChainLink: A cryptocurrency, I see it as a venture capital fund or company trying to establish a monopoly on all off-chain operations for defi....remember defi?  If defi takes off, its like buying Microsoft in 1995 or Amazon in 2001.  Just a small bet: theres plenty of ways this goes to zero.  20X upside.

Every paragraph above - except gold - says "buy in a downturn".

Its all the same trade.