Mad Hedge Technology Letter
October 22, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(BOMBSHELL HITS AD TECH)
(SNAP), (FB), (GOOGL), (AAPL)
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
October 22, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(BOMBSHELL HITS AD TECH)
(SNAP), (FB), (GOOGL), (AAPL)
So, first the good news — SNAP expanded revenue by 57% year-over-year.
It was only a few years ago that this tech company was the backwater of social media, but it’s done its bit to catch up with the crowd.
SNAP targets the 18–29-year-olds and although not minted, there are pathways for a lifetime of revenue generation from this cohort.
In a rough environment battling Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB) and despite these challenges, they crossed $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time.
That was the good news and now you might want to cover your ears so put on those earmuffs.
The reason SNAP missed guidance by $3 million was because there have been changes to advertising tracking in Apple’s iOS system.
These ongoing changes to digital advertising were introduced as part of iOS 14.5 and were announced ahead of time, and now that move is started to suppress the bottom line for the social media giants.
SNAP anticipated some degree of business disruption, and unfortunately, their provided measurement solution did not scale as expected.
Basically what’s happening is that it’s more difficult for advertising partners to measure and manage ad campaigns for iOS.
Advertisers are no longer able to understand the impact of their unique campaigns based on things like the time between viewing an ad and taking an action or the time spent viewing an ad.
Real-time campaigns and creative management are hindered by extended reporting delays and advertisers are unable to target advertising based on whether or not people have already installed an app.
Without these business analytics, SNAP’s platform is less attractive because sale conversions are a great deal lower.
This impact was compounded by the ongoing macroeconomic effects of the global pandemic with advertising partners facing a variety of supply chain interruptions and labor shortages.
The ongoing magnitude and duration of these global supply and labor disruptions are inherently unpredictable.
Also, businesses do not have the inventory or operational capacity to support incremental demand.
SNAP expect customers to cut marketing budget given the diminished need to drive incremental demand at a time when supply chains are not able to operate at peak capacity.
This in turn that reduces their short-term appetite to generate additional customer demand through advertising at a time when their businesses are already supply-constrained.
The big question is: how bad will the Apple changes impact SNAP in the future?
SNAP is down 25% in today’s trading and that’s just them.
Facebook is down around 6% and Google is also off 3%.
Apple has signaled that they aren’t willing to accommodate the tracking techniques of the social media companies.
Clearly, investors are worried about the magnitude of the drop in shares, and this does a great deal to kill the momentum in the stock.
This isn’t the end of the world because I would like to point out that these changes happened in June and July, yet SNAP was still able to grow revenue by 57% year over year.
But I will say this will crimp the growth elements in the business model and lower the ceiling.
Growth rates of high 50% could start trending towards the lower 40% and investors hate that.
The company is still quite small — less than $90 billion of market cap.
This is exactly what SNAP didn’t want because comparatively speaking, Google and Facebook will be able to absorb this better with their war chest of capital readying itself to plug in the gaps.
The stock essentially gave back a year of performance in one morning, but I do view this as a buying opportunity and readers who have a long-term view will certainly profit once SNAP work itself through this problem, but it will be closer to a crawl up than big gaps up in prices.
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
August 30, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(A GREAT ALTERNATIVE IN THE AD TECH SPACE)
(SNAP), (AMZN), (FB), (GOOGL), (SDC)
I know many readers gripe about certain tech stocks being too expensive like Google (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), or even Amazon (AMZN), but that’s not the case for all high-quality tech names out there.
There are still deals to be had.
An undervalued tech name in the same industry, albeit more diminutive than the three I just mentioned, is ad revenue platform Snap Inc. (SNAP).
Their story is a good one and their revenue model appears to be maturing at an optimal time while still exhibiting many elements of explosive growth.
To see what I mean — Snap grew both revenue and daily active users at the highest rates they have achieved in the last four years.
Daily active users grew 23% year-over-year to 293 million — expanding revenue by 116% year-over-year to $982 million.
This outperformance reflects the momentum in SNAP's core advertising business and the positive results of their team serving ad partners helping them to generate a return on investment.
SNAP benefited from a favorable operating environment and continued success with both direct response and large brand advertisers — continue to leverage performant ad products to grow an advertiser base globally.
Adjusted EBITDA improved by $213 million compared to last year, marking the third adjusted EBITDA profitable quarter in the last 12 months as SNAP continues to demonstrate the leverage in their business as they scale.
They are also fully absorbed in making progress against revenue and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) opportunities, which I believe will be driven by three key priorities.
First, driving ROI through measurement, ranking, and optimization.
Second, investing in aggressive sales and marketing functions by continuing to train, hire, and build for scale.
And third, building innovative ad experiences around video and augmented reality, with a focus on shopping and commerce.
The commitment to these three priorities, along with a unique reach and large, engaged community, allows SNAP to drive performance at scale for businesses around the world.
They have proven through results in North America that with a robust team, surrounding resources, and a local focus, they can accelerate revenue.
They are now taking that model and replicating it in several markets that they have identified as having a large digital advertising market and significant levels of existing Snapchat adoption.
It’s true to say they still have a lot of room to grow in some of the world's most established ad markets outside of North America, especially in Europe.
For example, in the UK, France, and the Netherlands, SNAP reaches over 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds — 75% of 13- to 34-year-olds.
SNAP continues to invest heavily in video advertising, with the goal of driving results for advertising partners and connecting them to the Snapchat Generation.
For example, SNAP worked with Nielsen to help U.S. advertisers understand how to more efficiently reach their target audiences via Snap Ads.
The Total Ad Ratings study analyzed how over 30 cross-platform advertising campaigns reached people on both Snapchat and television.
The analysis showed that Snapchat campaigns contributed an average of 16% incremental reach to advertisers' target audiences, and over 70% of the Gen Z audience that was reached by Snapchat was not reached by TV-only campaigns.
This is especially important as people are increasingly cutting the cord, and mobile content consumption continues to grow, presenting SNAP with a large opportunity to help advertisers reach the Snapchat Generation at scale.
Augmented reality advertising is delivering a return on investment that is measurable and repeatable, which is encouraging the incremental businesses to invest in AR.
For example, Smile Direct Club (SDC) leveraged a Goal-Based Bidding Click optimization for Augmented Reality (AR), which drove 49% of Snap customer leads in Q2 and was the most effective ad unit at driving traffic for their business compared to other social channels.
The success of the Lens ultimately encouraged Smile Direct Club to include AR Lenses as part of their long-term business strategy.
SNAP is betting the ranch on efforts to help advertisers improve conversions and ROI, and recently launched optimization for AR, which allows advertisers to optimize their AR campaigns for down-funnel purchases and fits well into the broader shopping strategy.
SNAPs bread and butter region of North America is hitting on all cylinders with revenue growing 129% year-over-year in Q2, while ARPU grew 116% year-over-year as they continue to benefit from significant investments made in sales teams and sales support in the prior year.
At a 30-thousand-foot level, the global internet services market was valued at over $450 billion in 2020, the year in which the pandemic fundamentally altered how society functions, accelerating a push towards digital offerings.
The internet market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5% through 2027 and reach a value of $652 billion. US-based equities presently control close to 30% of the total global market share in the industry.
My takeaway from this is that even though there is GOOGL and FB in this space, the pie is growing so fast that there is easily room for others like SNAP.
One must believe that if SNAP keeps operating anywhere close to its pandemic performance relative to other companies, they are surely guaranteed to be a buy-the-dip company.
In terms of price action, that’s exactly what we have witnessed as the price has zig-zagged up by 300% — the stock price goes two levels up and retraces back one — rinse and repeat.
Just view the big down days as optimal entry points into a burgeoning social media platform and deploy capital.
In the short term, on the monetization side, I have to note that the fiscal comparisons will be more challenging in the second half as SNAP begins to lap the acceleration in top-line growth that they experienced in the prior year.
Once that sell-off gets baked into the equation via a 3-5% sell-off, readers should jump back into SNAP.
Global Market Comments
August 26, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(GOOGLE’S MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN QUANTUM COMPUTING),
(GOOGL), (IBM)
Global Market Comments
August 19, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MY NEWLY UPDATED LONG-TERM PORTFOLIO),
(PFE), (BMY), (AMGN), (CRSP), (FB), (PYPL), (GOOGL), (AAPL), (AMZN), (SQ), (JPM), (BAC), (MS), (GS), (BABA), (EEM), (FXA), (FCX), (GLD), (SLV), (TLT)
I am really happy with the performance of the Mad Hedge Long Term Portfolio since the last update on February 2, 2021. In fact, not only did we nail the best sectors to go heavily overweight, we also completely dodged the bullets in the worst-performing ones.
For new subscribers, the Mad Hedge Long Term Portfolio is a “buy and forget” portfolio of stocks and ETFs. If trading is not your thing and you don’t want to remain glued to a screen all day, these are the investments you can make. Then don’t touch them until you start drawing down your retirement funds at age 72.
For some of you, that is not for another 50 years. For others, it was yesterday.
There is only one thing you need to do now and that is to rebalance. Buy or sell what you need to reweight every position to its appropriate 5% or 10% weighting. Rebalancing is one of the only free lunches out there and always adds performance over time. You should follow the rules assiduously.
Despite the seismic changes that have taken place in the global economy over the past nine months, I only need to make minor changes to the portfolio, which I have highlighted in red on the spreadsheet.
To download the entire new portfolio in an excel spreadsheet, please go to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, log in, go “My Account”, then “Global Trading Dispatch”, the click on the “Long Term Portfolio” button, then “Download.”
Changes
Biotech
Pfizer (PFE) has nearly doubled in six months, while Crisper Therapeutics (CRSP) has almost halved. Since the pandemic, which Pfizer made fortunes on, is peaking and we are still at the dawn of the CRISPR gene editing revolution, the natural switch here is to take profits in (PFE) and double up on (CRSP).
Technology
I am maintaining my 20% in technology which are all close to all-time highs. I believe that Apple (AAPL), (Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL), and Square (SQ) have a double or more over the next three years, so I am keeping all of them.
Banks
I am also keeping my weighting in banks at 20%. Interest rates are imminently going to rise, with a Fed taper just over the horizon, setting up a perfect storm in favor of bank earnings. Loan default rates are falling. Banks are overcapitalized, thanks to Dodd-Frank. And because of the trillions in government stimulus loans they are disbursing, they are now the most subsidized sector of the economy. So, keep Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Bank of America, which will profit enormously from a continuing bull market in stocks. They are also a key part of my” barbell” portfolio.
International
China has been a disaster this year, with Alibaba (BABA) dropping by half, while emerging markets (EEM) have gone nowhere. I am keeping my positions because it makes no sense to sell down here. There is a limit to how much the Middle Kingdom will destroy its technology crown jewels. Emerging markets are a call option on a global synchronized recovery which will take place next year.
Bonds
Along the same vein, I am keeping 10% of my portfolio in a short position in the United States Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) as I think bonds are about to go to hell in a handbasket. I rant on this sector on an almost daily basis so go read Global Trading Dispatch. Eventually, massive over-issuance of bonds by the US government will destroy this entire sector.
Foreign Exchange
I am also keeping my foreign currency exposure unchanged, maintaining a double long in the Australian dollar (FXA). Eventually, the US dollar will become toast and could be your next decade-long trade. The Aussie will be the best performing currency against the US dollar.
Australia will be a leveraged beneficiary of the synchronized global economic recovery through strong commodity prices which have already started to rise, and the post-pandemic return of Chinese tourism and investment. I argue that the Aussie will eventually make it to parity with the US dollar, or 1:1.
Precious Metals
As for precious metals, I’m keeping my 0% holding in gold (GLD). From here, it is having trouble keeping up with other alternative assets, like Bitcoin, and there are better fish to fry.
I am keeping a 5% weighting in the higher beta and more volatile iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which has far wider industrial uses in solar panels and electric vehicles. The arithmetic is simple. EV production will rocket from 700,000 in 2020 to 25 million in 2030 and each one needs two ounces of silver.
Energy
As for energy, I will keep my weighting at zero. Never confuse “gone down a lot” with “cheap”. I think the bankruptcies have only just started and will stretch on for a decade. Thanks to hyper-accelerating technology, the adoption of electric cars, and less movement overall in the new economy, energy is about to become free. You are looking at the next buggy whip industry.
The Economy
My ten-year assumption for the US and the global economy remains the same. I’m looking at 3%-5% a year growth for the next decade after this year’s superheated 7% performance.
When we come out the other side of this, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates still at zero, oil cheap, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 700% or more from 35,000 to 240,000 in the coming decade. The American coming out the other side of the pandemic will be far more efficient, productive, and profitable than the old.
You won’t believe what’s coming your way!
I hope you find this useful and I’ll be sending out another update in six months so you can rebalance once again. If I forget, please remind me.
Stay healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
August 17, 2021
Fiat Lux
FEATURED TRADE:
(EYES ON THE PRIZE)
(STAA), (UNH), (LLY), (AMZN), (V), (NKE), (MA), (GOOGL)
The investing world is filled with buzzwords, and one of the most widespread lately is “compounders” – aka stocks with the capacity to generate double-digit compound growth in terms of revenue and earnings.
They’re typically dubbed as the “next” Amazon (AMZN), Visa (V), or Nike (NKE), making them heavy favorites among growth investors aggressively looking for companies that can generate high returns in the next five to 10 years.
Ultimately, the goal is to find the next “10 bagger.”
Most investors are perfectly content with big and popular compounders like Mastercard (MA) and Alphabet (GOOGL).
Since the healthcare and biotechnology sector has its own well-known compounders, such as Eli Lilly (LLY) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH), it’s easy to miss the smaller lesser-known companies that are consistently generating high growth in their profits over the past years.
A good example of this is Staar Surgical (STAA).
Founded way back in 1982, this under-the-radar stock is up by over 243% over the past 12 months and more than 85% this year alone.
Saying that the company has had an impressive 2020 despite the pandemic is an understatement.
The company’s latest product is an implantable lens that works to correct myopia or nearsightedness.
This technology addresses a potentially massive market, taking into consideration the growing number of vision-related problems globally.
Staar anticipates the lens, which has already been made available across Europe and even Asia for roughly five years now, to enter the US market by the fourth quarter of 2021.
Inasmuch as the human eyes are considered powerful organs, they are definitely far from perfect. That’s why eyeglasses and even contact lenses have been in the market for decades.
Aside from its new product, Staar’s bread and butter is its Visian implantable collamer lenses, which are designed to deal with various vision issues including myopia (nearsightedness), presbyopia (an incapability to focus on nearby objects), and astigmatism (blurred or distorted vision).
Although they are quite different, many people confuse Staar’s solution with LASIK.
The key difference is that LASIK surgeries necessitate trimming of the cornea using lasers to correct the vision of the patient.
In contrast, what Staar does is to implant the corrective lenses directly in the eye, specifically behind the patient’s iris but right in front of the cornea.
This makes Staar’s solution reversible and, of course, less invasive compared to LASIK.
To date, Staar’s surgery is more expensive at $3,500 per eye, while LASIK costs roughly $2,246 for each eye.
However, this cost is expected to go down as more doctors eventually choose Staar implants over other options.
Looking at its trajectory, Staar could lead to LASIK becoming obsolete in the same way that radial keratotomy stopped being the norm before.
So far, Staar remains profitable and continues to grow its quarterly profits by 18.3% year over year. However, it’s the long-term revenue that shareholders would stand to gain most.
At this point, roughly 30% of the world is diagnosed as nearsighted. By 2050, over half of the population may require vision for myopia alone.
Meanwhile, 75% to 80% of adults between ages 45 and 74 are already struggling with presbyopia.
These figures spell massive opportunities and lucrative markets for Staar’s vision lines, with the annual spending on cheaper alternatives like eyeglasses projected at $48 billion.
Silently growing companies in the seemingly humdrum market are often pretty sneaky.
Vision correction doesn’t appear to be a white-hot investment sector that calls for urgent investment.
Only a handful of investors possess the foresight to view mundane products and services, like eye surgeries, as lucrative investments.
However, there’s usually a flicker of greatness in the most unlikely markets.
Global Market Comments
August 3, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TESTIMONIAL),
(TEN MORE TRENDS TO BET THE RANCH ON),
(AAPL), (AMZN), (GOOGL), (TSLA), (CRSP), (EDIT), (NTLA)
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