Tag: Investing

Searching For Honesty In Financial Markets And Why Short Sellers Should Not Be Demonised

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

Today, I think there are too many people dabbling in the stock market and investing in highly speculative assets. Despite the cratering in stock prices in 2022 and the very brief crash in 2020, we are still in one of the longest bull markets of all time that began in 2009.

But whether we are in a bull market or not, I am still blown away by the valuations of many stocks and other assets and the sheer amount of dumb money still in the market. Over three years ago, the well known short seller Jim Chanos commented that, ‘We are in the golden age of fraud’. In an interview with the Financial Times from July 2020, Chanos commented on the market environment at the time as; “a really fertile field for people to play fast and loose with the truth, and for corporate wrongdoers to get away with it for a long time”. He further expands on this by getting to the root of how such an environment was created;

‘ a 10-year bull market driven by central bank intervention; a level of retail participation in the markets reminiscent of the end of the dotcom boom; Trumpian “post-truth in politics, where my facts are your fake news”; and Silicon Valley’s “fake it until you make it” culture, which is compounded by Fomo — the fear of missing out. All of this is exacerbated by lax oversight. Financial regulators and law enforcement, he says, “are the financial archaeologists — they will tell you after the company has collapsed what the problem was“. ‘

In this paragraph Chanos nails beautifully the problem not just with the present state of financial markets and the industry as a whole, but with the current zeitgeist. The post truth world of ‘my facts are your fake news’ where real truth and wisdom has been forsaken is a real problem and dangerous. The Silicon Valley “fake it until you make it” culture has been exacerbated by the huge tail wind of a decade plus of zero percent interest rates and mountains of cheap and easy money. Such a background of very loose monetary policy has enabled many startups and companies with shoddy fundamentals that should have gone bust a long time ago to remain a going concern and in some cases even thrive with massively bloated market valuations. During this time wild levels of risk taking and speculation are rampant resulting in highly distorted and inefficient markets. Huge bubbles in highly dubious securities emerge with many dishonest charlatans with large followings on social media pumping these garbage entities to naive and unsuspecting investors. When the bubble eventually bursts it is those same impressionable investors who are left holding the bag. In the worst cases, some bet with money they didn’t have and couldn’t afford to lose. These incidents are especially common in the cryptocurrencies space and also for so called meme stocks – stocks made popular by a large following on social media. Often these stocks have market valuations completely divorced from their true intrinsic value. In some cases these companies should be insolvent, but are kept going by a zealous cult like following of investors happy to pay any price without questioning the fundamentals and integrity of the companies.

Short sellers often get a bad rep. In some cases this is justified. There are indeed short sellers who are nefarious and have a vulture-like mindset. However, there are those like Jim Chanos who play a very crucial role in the markets by searching for companies that are committing fraud and lying to investors. And they are often onto those companies at a very early stage way before the financial regulators get involved. As Chanos comically states, these regulators ‘will tell you after the company has collapsed what the problem was‘.

Chanos is famous for his large bet against Enron. At the time it was a darling stock and very popular with investors, but Chanos after having undertaken a deep fundamental analysis on the stock realised that the company was cooking its books and that at some point this would land the company in serious trouble. Whilst numerous financial commentators would be speaking glowingly and talking up the stock, Chanos, however, knew that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. The financial regulators were asleep at the wheel only acting after the fact.

Today we are still living in the golden age of fraud. Despite the 2022 wobble in equity prices and inflation spikes and rapid increases in interest rates, there are still too many investors playing foolish games who haven’t learnt their lesson. There are still zombie companies and entities trading on eye watering market valuations and worse, companies still trading at huge valuations that are committing fraud and the financial regulators continue to do next to nothing. This is precisely why short sellers like Jim Chanos should not be vilified. In fact, quite the opposite. They should be revered and respected. They search for honesty in the markets, pointing out the bad actors and the companies engaging in crooked behaviour. And I have no problem when they make money. Even when they make a lot of money. It is much easier to go long on a stock than it is to go short. Short selling is a difficult and highly risky venture. Even if you have spotted a company engaging in fraud and other egregious activity, the difficulty is getting the timing right when betting against it. The market valuation of the company may continue to remain irrationally high for a very long time creating huge losses for those that chose to bet against it. Short selling can be a very lonely path and often a financially ruinous one too.

Nicholas Peart

January 3rd 2024

(c)All Rights Reserved

LINKS:

Financial Time article: Jim Chanos: ‘We are in the golden age of fraud’ July 24th 2020 (https://www.ft.com/content/ccb46309-bba4-4fb7-b3fa-ecb17ea0e9cf)

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/reading-glasses-book-read-4330761/

WHEN GOLD BEGINS TO SHINE

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

So much has been written about gold. Over the last decade it has been a frustrating asset to own. My own view on gold is that it is currently an unfashionable and misunderstood commodity. I also find that a lot of what is written about gold to be cliched and the truth is more nuanced.

Many say that gold is a hedge against inflation, but this is far too simplistic. It is also not enough to say that gold is a hedge against the US dollar. Although, generally speaking I find the latter point to have more truth in it than the former.

I also find it interesting when people compare gold with prominent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin; the main argument being that Bitcoin has the same scarcity properties as gold. In the case of Bitcoin, it has a supply cap of 21 million coins – thus it can act as a store of value; a kind of ‘digital gold’.

I think this digital gold comparison is flawed. Although gold can be volatile, it has nowhere near the same levels of volatility as Bitcoin. During the last decade Bitcoin as an asset has performed extremely well. If you had purchased some Bitcoin in 2012, today you would still be sitting on an eye watering return. The period from around 2009 to 2021 has seen assets, notably many technology and growth stocks, increase exponentially in value. It is also no coincidence that during this same period interest rates have been at mostly rock bottom levels. This period of loose monetary policy and cheap and easy money has resulted in a dazzling stock market boom in the USA. If you look at the chart of the NASDAQ index, which is full of tech and growth stocks, you will see that in 2009 it was trading at less than 1500 points. Towards the end of 2021 it had reached an all time high in excess of 16000 points. That is some unbelievable asset inflation in a period of just over a decade.

Although many staunch Bitcoin supporters will deny this, it also seems to do very well when interest rates are low and money is cheap and abundant. Rather than being a safe haven against financial meltdowns, it behaves like a speculative technology stock that goes to the moon with interest rates at 0%. A vast proportion of Bitcoin supporters are young people whose only real experience of the financial markets is the landscape over the last 12-13 years since the Financial Crisis. They have never experienced high interest rates or any long lasting bear market. I think this point is very significant; many Bitcoin holders have never experienced a prolonged bear market and high interest rates. They have never been in the eye of a catastrophic financial meltdown.

Although the returns of gold and other precious metals like silver have been poor compared to Bitcoin and many high profile growth stocks over the last decade, it should also come as no surprise. When markets are performing well and there is abundant liquidity in the financial system, gold is not one of the primary assets that tops investors lists of assets to invest in. It is more enticing to invest in speculative high risk assets that are going gangbusters. When Bitcoin and some flavour of the month tech stocks are on a tear in this loose financial environment, positive feedback loops are created as more and more investors pile in. Investors see the returns being made on these assets or they see some of their friends making a fortune and they want in too – thus the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) bug enfolds them.

So when does gold shine? Gold will begin to shine when feelings of total despair and hopelessness are at it’s zenith. Since the beginning of this year, the more speculative areas of the market that have been performing very well for many years until 2021 have now been experiencing dramatic falls in their market values. Inflation has roared towards double digits in the US, the UK and the Eurozone and central banks have had to increase interest rates. Yet, interest rates are still nowhere near current inflation rates. If central banks were to dramatically hike interest rates to match inflation rates I believe this would cause a financial meltdown like no other – it would far eclipse the carnage of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-9. Although markets have fallen, they are far from this stage. There is still lots of speculation going on and inexperienced investors still playing foolish games. Inflation may have reached 40 year highs, but because interest rates are still low lots of speculation continues. The price of gold has actually been drifting downwards over the last few months and this has resulted in some commentators stating that it is a poor hedge against inflation. Yet, these commentators are missing the point. Although inflation is at high levels, there is still a lot of liquidity in the markets. There is no real urgent reason to hold gold. However, there may just come a time when interest rates increase to unforeseen levels and liquidity begins to totally dry up as money becomes more expensive. Investors panic and thus begins an amplification of negative feedback loops and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) kicks in. It is the moment when investors swear that they will never invest in the stock market again and that they will never ever again touch cryptocurrencies that I believe gold and by extension other precious metals like silver and platinum etc will begin to perform very well.

By Nicholas Peart

24th September 2022

(c)All Rights Reserved

Why Going For That Big Short May Not Be So Smart

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

The economist John Maynard Keynes said it best with his immortal words about financial markets being able to stay irrational longer than one can stay solvent. I think it was Keynes who said those words yet it doesn’t matter. What matters is how important and powerful those words are. I personally think these are some of the most important words of advice for any investor whether they are a novice or seasoned. One may have complete confidence and conviction in a security they are investing in yet there is always the chance that things don’t go according to plan regardless of how much due diligence they may have done on it.

The Big Short is a well known book by Michael Lewis, which was later made into a successful film. The book is about an investor and fund manager named Michael Burry who places an enormous bet against subprime mortgage bonds. He was one of a small handful of investors who at the time discovered how rotten those bonds were and how they had the power to create an enormous financial crisis, which they eventually did in 2007-8. He placed his bet relatively early in around 2005. At the time, it was seen as a rather contrarian thing to do as the majority of people in the financial world were amazingly unaware of how toxic those bonds were.

Although Burry would eventually be vindicated and handsomely rewarded for his bet, I personally think that the way he went about it wasn’t so smart. To be clear, I am not for one moment knocking his deep research and analysis. In fact, I applaud his diligence and ability to discover serious flaws in that corner of the market whilst everyone else it seemed was asleep at the wheel. Yet I don’t think it was a smart move for the following reasons. Firstly, his move to short those bonds represented a very high percentage of his total fund, which made a lot of investors very nervous. If you are a fund manager or work for a fund, it is quite common for an individual security to not represent more than 10% of the total fund. Anything higher than that percentage has the potential to create a lot more risk and volatility to the fund. What’s more, it was expensive to hold such a large short position as large payments to service it were due every month. It was understandable why those investors and others at his fund were nervous and had very little patience. Secondly, and more importantly, I don’t think Burry ever familiarised himself with Keynes’ quote. Although it took about two years for his bet to come good it could have taken much much longer. It is entirely plausible that had his fund had to wait even longer for his bet to come good there would have been so much pressure on Burry to finally close his short and thus cut the loses the fund was making by holding it.

You see it doesn’t matter whether Burry was fundamentally right in his analysis. He was completely correct. These bonds were a train wreck waiting to happen. But that’s not the point. The point is that timing the markets is very very difficult. Alternatively, Burry could have done the following. He could have still made his bet yet it wouldn’t have represented more than 10% of his total fund for example. That way, there would be less tension and pressure on Burry to close his position in the event that it was going to take so long to come good. What’s more, it would have still made him and the investors in his fund a lot of money when that day would eventually arrive.

This brings me to another well worn adage in the investment world of never having all your eggs in one basket. Although this may be a cliché it is so very true. Although enormous fortunes are made by putting all one’s huevos in one single basket, it is also the fastest way to blow up a portfolio. Burry’s enormous bet came good and he was rewarded, but he could also have been fooled by randomness by some unusual twist of fate.

Over the last few years many investors, including some well known names, lost a lot of money shorting Tesla. Although the rationale behind their decision to short the company was completely understandable, namely that the market capitalisation of the company was not reflective of it’s fundamentals, the share price has nonetheless continued to climb even higher. This right there should be a warning in the perils of going for that ‘big short’. As I already stated, it is ok if such a position is not so great that it poses a serious risk to an entire portfolio. But one can only imagine those legions of investors having a Michael Burry style moment with Elon Musk’s company.

Interestingly, it seems that Burry himself has now thrown his hat in the Tesla Short ring. I may be wrong, but it appears that his fund is betting against Tesla to the tune of 40% of the entire weighting of the fund. I wish him luck. Will his bet come good again? Or will he join the scores of other investors who got badly burnt betting against Elon?

By Nicholas Peart

10th August 2021

(c)All Rights Reserved

Image: thewrap.com

One Golden Rule To Heed Before Investing In A High Risk Venture

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

Before you decide to invest in a company, start-up or venture that is highly risky, there is one very important rule that all investors should heed. We are all aware of the obvious rules such as doing sufficient due diligence and only investing what we can truly afford to lose. However, a less obvious rule, and the one which I am talking about in this article, is focused on having Skin In The Game.

The origin of this phrase is debatable although a quick Wikipedia search tells me that it originates from derby races whereby the owners of the horses taking part in these races have ‘skin’ in ‘the game’. More recently, it has been written about extensively in the works of Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Put simply, it refers to how much ‘skin’ a person has in something or how much personal risk they are willing to take on. For example, in the case of entrepreneurs or founders of businesses, an entrepreneur who has the vast majority of their net wealth tied up in their business has considerable Skin In The Game. Even though they will be handsomely rewarded if the company is successful, they will also go down with the ship and face financial ruin if the company goes belly up. This latter point is crucial.

When I analyse high risk ventures, one thing that is a huge red flag for me is a genuine absence of Skin In The Game. A founder or director of such a company needs to have the majority of their own capital invested. ‘Share options’ do not count. However, ‘director buys’ do.

Another red flag is when founders and directors draw huge salaries, especially if the company is not currently generating any revenues. If a company is not yet making money, a company will be raising money via debt or equity placings (issuing more shares) to keep it a going concern. This is precious cash and should not be eaten up in the form of generous remuneration packages. Alarm bells should be ringing if this is the case.

Founders and directors who have a considerable amount of Skin In The Game in a venture is an indication not only that they truly believe in what they are working on and executing, but also that they are motivated and kept under a considerable amount of pressure to ensure that the company succeeds. They believe in the company so much that they are more than willing to match their considerable belief via taking on a considerable amount of personal monetary risk. If the company doesn’t succeed they will be financially ruined. There will be no government or organisation ready to bail them out if they fail.

I have seen so many high risk ventures collapse where the founders and directors have come out of the wreckage mostly unharmed. They always drew big salaries and their equity stakes were mostly in the form of options rather than purchased with their own money. Founders and directors with little to no Skin In The Game are not under any acute pressure to contribute in the best ways they can. They don’t believe in the company they are working for nor is their heart really in it. It is merely a gravy train.

Thus, before deciding to invest in a company, start-up, venture or anything that is highly risky, one should always ask, ‘How much Skin In The Game do the founders and directors have?’

 

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

Image: valueresearchonline.com

THE FOLLY OF MARKET TIMING: Focusing On Percentages Not Prices

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

It is natural to get in the habit of trying to buy or sell shares at a particular price. Sometimes we may get lucky and reach our desired entry or exit point. Other times, we may not always get what we want in this respect. I fall into this trap myself a lot of the time, yet, perhaps unwittingly, am I playing a mugs game?

The future is uncertain. Nobody can predict the future and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise. I have written articles where I have talked about where I think certain things may be going, but the truth is anything can happen. I know nothing. Even if we have deep and unmatched levels of foresight we can so very easily, in the words of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, be fooled by randomness. We can be knocked off our perch by completely random and unforeseen events way out of our control. This is one reason why it is important to have a diversified and balanced investment portfolio. If one sector or stock is particularly badly hit by some unexpected event, at least your other investments in other stocks and sectors are not affected. That old chestnut of ‘not keeping all your eggs in one basket’, whilst it may sound hackneyed, still rings true.

Whilst we may or may not be able to get our desired buy or sell price for a particular stock, one thing we do have complete control over is how we weigh and structure our investment portfolios. There may be a company you highly rate and want to invest in, but you want to invest in it at the right price. Right now, you consider the current price too high and have lower price in mind that you hope will arrive. But what happens if that price never comes and instead the share price of the company just continues to climb in value? Instead of hoping to get the right price, or worse, the lowest price, why not say to yourself, ‘What percentage of my total investment portfolio do I want this company or security to represent?’. I think dealing in percentages rather than prices can not only help you to be a better investor, as it can take away a lot of the unnecessary stress and anxiety associated with trying to buy or sell a security at ‘the right price’. It can also help you overcome deeply ingrained cognitive biases.

When you focus more on what percentage of your investment portfolio you want a security to represent, rather than chasing a price, that can give you more control and balance. If the investment goes down in value, the percentage weighting it represents in your portfolio also goes down. If the investment goes up in value, it’s percentage weighting also goes up. By this you can then decide whether you want to be more overweight or underweight in the percentage weight of this particular security. If you want to be more overweight, you buy more. If you want to be more underweight, you sell a portion.

The percentage of what a security represents of your total portfolio is in many ways more important than the price you pay for it. Even if you end up overpaying for a stock or security, if it represents a percentage of your portfolio that is not too detrimental to the overall performance than it is not so bad.

 

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved 

 

Image: datanami.com

 

The Dangers Of Story Stock Investing

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

Investing successfully requires a lot of boring fundamental analysis and often the best stocks to invest in are in boring overlooked, but undervalued companies with strong fundamentals and a decent margin of safety. These companies are not prone to hype.

On the other hand you have story stocks. Investing in a story stock does not mean that your investment will go down in value. On the contrary, a stock with a powerful story could make you very rich. Look at Amazon. Then again look at the multitude of other stocks, which had a powerful story behind them, but that was it. Fundamentally they were houses made of cards, which soon collapsed. The Dot.com crash from twenty years ago is littered with such casualties. More recently, the whole WeWork disaster is a prime example of company with an enticing and exciting story (as well as a charismatic and convincing leader), yet with very shaky and fragile financial fundamentals.

The problem with story stocks is that the stock valuation gets to a point where it is propped up much more by the goodwill of the story alone than by the company’s fundamentals. This is very treacherous territory as even a mild downtown or modest bit of bad news can send the share price crashing back down to Earth.

A stock with a unique story behind it is psychologically very alluring. Doing some solid due diligence such as analysing company reports and financial statements requires effort and if you dont have much experience on that front it can seem very daunting. However, with practice and learning you can become better at analysing and understanding all this nitty-gritty stuff, which also enables you to make better investment decisions with a cool head. Knowing exactly what you are investing in and having even just a modest understanding of the full financial health of a company is a very reassuring thing.

I suppose we prefer stories to analysis, because stories have much more of an instant cognitive resonance. Our minds can be lazy and it’s so much easier and more soothing to be swayed by a good story or glowing article in the media on a stock. More succinctly, sometimes a powerful mantra alone is enough to sway us. Software is eating the world or It’s the wave of the future or You are investing in a slice of history or Nobody else is doing what this company is doing are a handful of mantras that can make us overly bullish on a particular stock without questioning it further or taking it apart via some deep research.

The problem with such stories and mantras is that they activate and play to our emotions and making investment decisions based on emotions is never smart. We always have to have a healthy, balanced, critical and analytical mindset to investing without allowing our emotions to hijack and influence our decision making. A cool head always wins.

 

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

Image: 4.bp.blogspot.com

Could Copper One Day Become A Precious Metal?

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

copper bullion

Copper is an important and much needed commodity. It is classified as an industrial metal. However, what if at some point in the future it became scarce enough to be reclassified as a precious metal?

Such a scenario seems inconceivable at this stage. After all copper is much more abundant than precious metals such as silver and gold. Most view it in the same light as other industrial heavy weight commodities such as iron ore or crude oil; fundamental resources in the movement, development and growth of the world.

Much of the world’s copper sources are also concentrated in just a few areas of the world most noticeably in Chile, which is the world’s largest copper producing country. Peru is the second biggest producer of copper followed by China and the USA. In 2018, the total global production of copper was 21 million tons. By comparison in that same year, the total global production of usable iron ore was 2.5 billion tons. For aluminium it was 60 million tons, for nickel it was 2.3 million tons, for lithium it was 85 thousand tons, for silver it was 27 thousand tons, and for gold it was 3.26 thousand tons.

A United States Geological Survey (USGS) global assessment of copper deposits around the world conducted in 2014 stated that there contained 2.1 billion tons of copper resources (note resources and not reserves) discovered under the ground while the number for ‘undiscovered resources’ of copper came at 3.5 billion tons. As of 2018, total global reserves of copper were 830 million tons. 

In 2018, total global reserves for the following commodities were as follows…

Iron Ore: 170 million tons of ‘crude’ ore reserves containing 84 million tons of iron reserves. *However it should be noted that the total amount of identified iron ore resources under the ground currently stands at 800 billion tons of crude ore resources containing 200 billion tons of iron resources. 

Aluminium: Global resources of bauxite (from which aluminium is extracted) are estimated to be between 55-75 billion tons.

Nickel: 89 million tons. *Total global resources of nickel are currently identified at 130 million tons 

Lithium: 14 million tons. *Total global resources of lithium are currently identified at 62 million tons

Silver: 560 thousand tons. *Silver is primarily extracted as a by-product mostly from lead-zinc mines, then from copper mines and then thirdly from gold mines 

Gold: 54 thousand tons.

So in light of all my findings, could copper one day become a precious metal? In my view, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Even if there is a growing demand for copper, the fact is, compared with silver and even other industrial metals like nickel and lithium, there is simply an abundance of copper. The current total global copper reserves are nearly ten times greater then the current total global nickel reserves and over a thousand times greater than the total global silver reserves, never mind gold.

Still, copper is aesthetically a very attractive metal and I rather like the novelty value of owning a few pieces of copper bullion. You can often buy a 1kg bar of copper via most bullion dealers for a very modest sum and the German bullion company Geiger Edelmetalle has a number of copper coins and bars you can buy from their online shop.

However, if you wanted exposure to copper in your portfolio, as with other industrial commodities such as iron ore, crude oil or aluminium, you are better off investing in blue chip mining stocks such as Rio Tinto or Antofagasta, which produce a lot of copper. What’s more, both companies also pay a dividend. Alternatively, you can invest in a copper ETF, where you have direct exposure to the copper price, but without the added stress of having to worry about factors such as company mismanagement or political issues when investing in copper related mining companies.

Both these options are far more practical than owning physical copper, which is just not feasible at current prices if one wanted to accumulate a large position. Even accumulating a growing stack of physical silver at its current prices can incur high storage costs if you wanted to store it with a reputable bullion dealer.

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

SOURCES/FURTHER READING

Main USGS link for commodity stats…

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/commodity-statistics-and-information

 

Copper production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-coppe.pdf

Iron Ore production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-feore.pdf

Aluminium production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-alumi.pdf

Nickel production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-nicke.pdf

Lithium production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-lithi.pdf

Silver production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-silve.pdf

Gold production 2018 link…

Click to access mcs-2019-gold.pdf

US Stock Markets Are Looking Frothy

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

Frothy-beer-960x540

Back in December 2017, I wrote an article focusing on the toppy valuations of equity markets around the world. Back than the NASDAQ stock exchange in the USA, which consists of mostly growth stocks, was trading at around 7000 points. Considering that the NASDAQ was at less than 1500 points just over 8 years ago during the Financial Crisis, I thought 7000 points was an extraordinary valuation over such a limited timeframe.

However 2018 was the first year in a while to really test global markets. The first wobble occurred in February followed by a more rocky period between the months of October and December of that year. During the latter time period, the NASDAQ fell to around 6,300 points having reached an all time high of over 8000 points earlier in the year. Yet what is extraordinary is that since December 2018, the US stock markets have rallied back towards all time highs. As I write this article, the NASDAQ is currently trading at close to 8,200 points, whilst the S&P 500 (featuring the 500 largest publicly traded US listed companies) has just hit 3000 points for the first time ever. Much of these rises have been driven by the performance of large tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. Amazon is back to trading at its all time high of over $2000 a share on a very high P/E (a company’s share price to its earnings per share ratio) multiple of over 80. Amazon along with Apple and Microsoft currently have market caps close to $1trillion – in fact, as I write, Microsoft is now trading at $1.05trillion. Microsoft has a lower P/E than Amazon (around 30), whilst Apple has the lowest (17). The P/E metrics of this trio of trillion dollar behemoths mean currently Apple is generating the most cash.

Yet what is interesting when analysing the multi year charts of the NASDAQ and S&P 500 indices, is that they have both been in a bull market for ten years. This is the longest bull market of all time for a stock market. The reason why I am currently rather concerned and on my guard is due to multiple factors. I cannot neglect that a low interest rate environment for many years coupled with quantitative easing have contributed to this lengthy bull market. Yet when I look at many tech companies and other growth companies that make up the NASDAQ, I cannot help but feel that a lot of them are being propped up by positive sentiment and lots of goodwill in relation to their fundamental net asset valuations. Some companies are just simply too powerful and potential amounts of thorough government regulation in the future cannot be overlooked. Facebook, Google and Amazon, no matter how much it may be denied, are in their own ways powerful monopolies. Facebook has the largest social media empire in the world, Google the largest search engine and Amazon the largest e-commerce business. Because of these unique characteristics, to some, their valuations are justified, and some would even argue that in spite of their already high valuations, the scope for even further upside continues to be vast. This belief in the continuing bright futures of these companies, is also taken into account in their current valuations.

When I wrote my article in December 2017, I mentioned the well known British fund manager Neil Woodford who at the time went on record to say that many growth companies were trading on very high valuations and that value investing had been neglected. Over the last couple of months Woodford’s funds have run into problems regarding unquoted and illiquid investments and his main fund is currently suspended. I am surprised with some of these unquoted and non-dividend paying companies in his portfolio, especially as they contradict his value investing philosophy, which has in the past set him in good stead. However, I do believe that value investing has currently gone out of fashion, like a has-been popstar. Some of the largest holdings in Woodford’s portfolio at one point (before he had to sell large chunks to generate liquidity) were Imperial Brands and housebuilders like Barratt Homes and Taylor Wimpey. These are stocks in unfashionable industries paying large dividends. The tobacco industry has had a torrid couple of years with the main companies trading at depressed valuations yet paying very high dividend yields. Fears over a declining number of smokers and more regulation on the tobacco industry have spooked investors. Yet what I find deliciously ironic is that many high growth publicly traded cannabis companies like Tilray and Canopy Growth are trading at very high valuations and neither pay any dividends. Dividends are an important source of income, especially in a low interest rate environment with low yielding government bonds. Investing in high growth tech companies often deprives one of this valuable source of income and even when tech companies do pay a dividend, it is not very much (Apple pays a very modest dividend of 1.50%). I can understand that tech companies that start to generate cash prefer to reinvest much of their profits to further grow their businesses and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact I admire this, yet all this means is that for solid dividend income one has to look elsewhere.

Black Swan events aside, perhaps the greatest thing to derail this current bull-market is another financial crisis related to the enormous levels of global public and private debt, which are at all time high levels. The current debt in the US is at a record $22.5 trillion. It’s quite funny for this record US debt level to correlate with new record highs for both the NASDAQ and S&P500 stock markets. At some point the resident party DJ will have to pull the plug on the beats. When this will happen don’t ask me. Furthermore, I hesitate to predict when as I’ve been wrong more times than I have been right. I do believe though, that in times like these it is always a wise move to have some insurance assets. Some say one should have 5% of their assets in gold bullion. Others prefer safe government bonds, arguing that the price of precious metals are driven by sentiment and there is no guarantee that their prices will go up in the event of a financial crisis. They are of course not wrong and I will even further add that precious metals don’t pay any income. Yet I like gold and silver. Silver even more since it is fundamentally more undervalued than gold. Instead of the conventional wisdom that one should allocate 5% of their portfolio to gold bullion, I would allocate at least 10% of ones portfolio towards precious metals with 70% in silver and 30% in gold. For more information on why I am particular bullish on silver, you can read my last article here.

 

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

Disclaimer: This article reflects my opinions and should not be taken as professional financial advice.

 

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Why Silver Is Currently Fundamentally Undervalued

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

Silver-Bars

Silver is currently an interesting commodity and precious metal to be watching. During the last spike in the price of gold over the previous two weeks, the silver price barely moved. In fact, the silver price has been depressed for some time now.

Below I am featuring three charts. The first chart shows the silver price per ounce in dollars over the last 50 years, the second chart shows the gold price per ounce in dollars also over the last 50 years, whilst the last chart shows the silver to gold ratio over that same time frame. The last chart is more interesting to me, as the current silver to gold ratio stands at 92. In other words, one unit of gold is currently equal to 92 units of silver. During the last 50 years this ratio has traded at a range between 100 and less than 20.

 

The silver price per ounce over the last 50 years (as of 9th July 2019)

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The gold price per ounce over the last 50 years (as of 9th July 2019)

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Silver to gold ratio chart over the last 50 years (as of 9th July 2019)

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Silver has been derided many times as a ‘poor man’s gold’. It is a misunderstood commodity and is currently not very fashionable. In fact, precious metals generally are not really in vogue, especially amongst a lot of younger people who have more of an interest in cryptocurrencies. I am also interested in cryptocurrencies, but they are very hot right now, whereas precious metals are generally not. The recent price rise in gold was very modest when one compares the price rise of Bitcoin over the last few months, which propel some to deem Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the new store of value assets and gold and silver as store of value assets of the past. Bitcoin has many times been hailed as the new gold or ‘digital gold’; a supply-capped gold powered by electricity. On the other hand, one could also argue that gold is Bitcoin without electricity or the internet.

But all the noise aside, lets get back to the fundamentals. There is an insightful article on the Royal Mint website regarding the scarcity of precious metals on this planet. The article entitled, How Rare Are Precious Metals?, discusses the ‘mass fraction’ of precious metals or how many kilograms of precious metals exist in the Earth’s crust per billion kilograms of crust material. According to the statistics in the article, gold represents 4kg per billion kg of crust material and silver 75kg per billion kg of crust material. This means that gold is around 18-19 times scarcer than silver. Yet today it is priced 92 times higher. One reason for the depressed price of silver could be that in many countries the purchasing of silver coins or bullion from a registered dealer such as Sharps Pixley incurs additional VAT costs. This also explains why the price of silver coins and bars in those countries are higher than the spot price of the metal. However in some cases silver is exempt from VAT charges if it is kept in a vault provide by the dealer. Gold, on the other hand, is exempt from VAT either way, which explains why the price of gold coins and bars is closer to the spot price.

Both gold and silver are insurance assets in an unstable, unpredictable and financially indebted world. Yet right now it is silver that arguably has greater potential upside. Even though gold is used to a small degree in industry, silver is used on a far greater scale, meaning it is not purely just a store of value. As with crude oil, a severe disruption to its supply would cause the price to spike in a very short space of time.

As silver can be quite impractical and costly to store in great quantities, an alternative way of investing in pure silver is via an Exchange Traded Fund or ETF. It is important though to select an ETF where each unit is directly backed to a physically held unit of silver. The added beauty too of a silver ETF is that you are investing in silver at pretty much the spot price. The ETFS Metal Securities Ltd Physical Silver (PHSP) is a good one with a modest annual charge of 0.49%. Vanguard specialise in ETFs and their silver ETF may have even lower charges. I also highly recommend purchasing silver via Bullion Vault. You can invest in silver very close to the spot price and have it stored in a vault in selected cities around the world. Their monthly storage charges are also very reasonable.  Yet one of the advantages of a pure ETF is that it can be put in an ISA meaning you want have to pay capital gains tax.

Investing in silver mining companies is another way of gaining exposure to the price of silver. Sometimes the gains can be higher than owning physical silver or an ETF. Yet you take on additional risk such as political risk and also company mismanagement. One of the largest publicly traded silver mining companies is the Mexican based company Fresnillo (FRES). There are also a bunch of smaller publicly traded silver mining and exploration companies, but these carry more risk.

There are many places to purchase physical silver coins and bars. I like Sharps Pixley and Bullion By Post. The latter is a little more expensive but has a greater range of silver products. The Royal Mint is the UK’s official precious metals mint but prices are also not cheap. A smaller silver trader I like very much is the Newcastle based Silver Trader run by Martin Whitehouse. He sells silver coins and bars, which other leading dealers don’t stock. Furthermore, he also sells silver coins and bars via Ebay and has lots of positive feedback.

 

By Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

 

Sources:

Main image: atlantagoldandcoin.com

Graphs extrapolated from the website Bullion By Post

How Rare Are Precious Metals?

 

 

 

Could Gold And Silver Bullion Be The Best Place To Invest Your Money For The Next Few Years?

Posted on by Nicholas Peart

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This is not going to be an easy article to write. Almost two years ago I wrote a similar article focusing on why investing in gold could be a smart move. This was around the time of Donald Trump’s surprise US presidential victory. Like the result of the UK Referendum to remain or leave the European Union, it was a classic black swan event, which very few foresaw. Around that time the conventional wisdom was that the world was going to go to hell in a handcart and that gold or anything seen with ‘defensive’ qualities was the place to invest your money. Gold in fact did not do much after Trump’s surprise win and actually went down in value. By the end of 2016 gold was just trading at less then $1200 an ounce. As of today gold is trading at $1232 an ounce.

Many analysts and others have been mystified by the lack of movement in the gold price over the last two years when one takes into account much of the geo-political situation and volatility engulfing the world. During that time period the biggest winners have been cryptocurrencies. 2017 was the year when Bitcoin and interest in other cryptocurrencies exploded. I mentioned Bitcoin briefly in my article from two years ago yet my understanding of the currency was limited. From January 2017 until the end of that year, the price of Bitcoin went mad shooting from $1000 a coin to almost $20,000 by December of that year. I remember being in a café in Amsterdam in June 2017 investigating Bitcoin further. Around that time the price was $2500 a coin. It had already more than tripled in value since the time I wrote my last article on gold around the start of November 2016. Even at that time I thought the price was overvalued and I was sceptical, especially since a new kind of herd mentality was manifesting. By that time interest in other cryptocurrencies was also taking hold. Ethereum, for many months just the preserve of hardcore crypto-heads and early adopters, was also exploding in value. It was my sister who first made me aware of Ethereum back in April 2017. Around that time the price was $50 a coin. At the start of the year the price was only $10 so it had an even bigger rise than Bitcoin. Yet two months later at the café in Amsterdam I was flabbergasted to witness the price shoot up even further to almost $400 a coin. Litecoin, the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, only around $4 a coin at the start of 2017, was trading at $30 a coin in June 2017. When the first surge of mainstream interest hit Bitcoin towards the end of 2013, Litecoin was by far the second most popular cryptocurrency. But since that first spike of interest, Litecoin (and Bitcoin) crashed and was in the doldrums for over three years before the next spike in 2017.

Since the start of 2018, the bubble burst for crypto and many cryptocurrencies lost a lot of their value. Interest still remains high and compared to the others, Bitcoin has held its value the best trading around the $6,500 mark over the last couple of months. You may be thinking why am I mentioning cryptocurrencies when the focus of this article is supposed to be on gold and silver? It is because there are some who think that certain cryptocurrencies take away the monopoly that precious metals have traditionally always had as a so-called ‘store of value’. It has been said that all the gold in the world amounts to the capacity of just three Olympic size swimming pools. It is scarce. Yet some argue that Bitcoin (and also Litecoin) is also a store of value since it has a supply cap of just 21 million coins. Two of the biggest investors in Bitcoin, the Winklevoss twins (also known for their association with Facebook), have gone as far as saying that Bitcoin will replace gold as a traditional store of value and that in the future, the scarcity of gold will be eroded by asteroid mining. It is true that Bitcoin has certain advantages gold doesn’t have. If you own lots of physical gold or silver you may have to store it in a vault and there will be storage charges. Moving it around with ease may also prove tricky. There is none of that with Bitcoin since it is digital and can also be used for swift payments. But that can also be its undoing; the fact that it is digital. In some countries such as Bolivia, it is illegal to trade Bitcoin or to use it as a payment method. At the end of the day, global governments can very easily outlaw it. Even if you had lots of Bitcoin in cold storage on an external hardrive in your bedroom it would be useless if that happened. That doesn’t mean to say I am against Bitcoin and crypto. I kind of have a secret admiration for it as, despite its volatility, it has enabled many ordinary citizens in some countries like Venezuela, which has been devastated by hyperinflation, to protect their hard earned savings from being further decimated in value. It isn’t always easy to acquire precious metals or even hard fiat currency for ordinary citizens in those parts of the world, so crypto can fill that gap in its accessibility.

I cannot predict the future of Bitcoin or where it and other cryptocurrencies may be heading. One of my biggest concerns regarding Bitcoin is that it is still far from being widely adopted and the people that own it are only doing so for speculative purposes. What’s more, I can only think of one place where I used Bitcoin and Litecoin to purchase something and that was at a Bitcoin café in Prague last year. Then again, more fool me if cryto goes an another epic bull run reaching dazzling new heights.

The reason why I like gold and silver is because neither are really in vogue at the moment. They are not as sexy or hot as crypto and I like the fact that the prices haven’t moved much and are still depressed compared with the new heights they both reached during the early part of this decade. Yet gold and silver can be frustrating assets to hold. If you go on YouTube there are no shortage of ‘gurus’ forecasting how gold will go to $10,000 an ounce and silver $1,000 an ounce. There is a lot of cynicism regarding gold and silver. Some argue that all those so called experts have been saying that gold will go to the moon for many years and it just hasn’t happened. Gold and silver haven’t moved much since the last spike around 2011-12 and so many gold and silver holders are understandably experiencing a heavy dose of fatigue and impatience.

Gold and silver prices are very difficult to predict and can sometimes move strongly for no rational reason at all. Traditional factors such as inflation, political instability, low interest rates, a weakening US dollar or a global stock market crash are no guarantee that a rise in the price of gold or silver will follow. Yet one thing is as clear as day; global debt levels are at an all time high. Not just in the developed world but also in the developing world especially in China. Most global stock markets have also been on a long bull run since 2009, yet this month we have witnessed the first signs of this bull market being derailed. In the process the price of gold began to rise, albeit very modestly. I would like to think that now the fortunes of gold and silver are finally about to change and I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point over the next few years, gold and silver prices started to go on a dazzling bull run similar to the one in the crypto space last year. If this happens sentiment towards these precious metals will change with a lot of ordinary investors wanting in to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome thus enabling the price to rise higher. The beauty of the insane crypto bull run last year was that very few people saw it coming. If you read most of the comments on YouTube videos dated before 2017 relating to Bitcoin, most are negative and completely write off Bitcoin. A lot of that sentiment has changed now.

Generally, I prefer gold and silver bullion to owning shares in gold and silver mining companies. Yet on the other hand, just a modest rise in the price of gold and silver can cause an even bigger rise in the share price of gold and silver mining companies. What’s more, some of these companies also pay a dividend. But then you are also exposed to things like political risk if the mines are located in politically unstable parts of the world. Or company mismanagement etc. Owning gold and silver bullion protects you from these risks.

One site I like as a UK resident is called Bullion Vault. It enables one to invest in gold and silver bullion with no minimum limit. You can invest in just £10 worth of gold (which at current prices means owning less than a gram). And you can also choose the location of your vault in cities like London, Zurich, New York, Singapore etc. There are storage costs yet the storage costs are greater for silver than for gold. You do not own your metal physically in your hands (although there are bars you can purchase), but rest assured that the metal you purchase is yours safely in a vault and you would still own it even in the unlikely event that Bullion Vault itself went bust.

You can of course purchase gold and silver bars and coins, yet its your responsibility where you decide to store them. The Birmingham based BullionByPost is the largest online bullion dealer and a good contact to have.

 

Nicholas Peart

(c)All Rights Reserved

 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article are mine and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. It is always important to do your own research before making investment decisions. 

 

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