Global Market Comments
March 5, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARCH 3 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(BRKB), (CRM), (ZM), (AAPL), (AMD), (DIS), (CRSP),
(BRKB), (PLTR), (NVDA), (TLT), (TSLA), (GLD),
(SLV), (VSAT), (EUO), (GME)
Tag Archive for: (PLTR)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the March 3 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from frozen Incline Village, NV.
Q: Are SPACs here to stay?
A: Yes, but I think that in the next bear market, 80% of these SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) will disappear, will deliver large losses, and will continue charging you enormous fees until then. It’s either that or they won’t invest their money at all and give it back, net of the fees. So, I’m avoiding the SPAC craze unless it's associated with a very specific investment play that I know well. The problem with SPACs is that they all come out expensive—there are no bargain basement SPACs on launch day. Me, being the eternal cheapskate that I am, always want to get a great bargain on everything. The time to buy these is actually in the next bear market, if they still exist, because then investors will be throwing their positions away at 10 or 20% discounts. That’s always what happens with specialized ETF, closed-end funds, and so on. They are roach motel investments; you can check-in, but you can never check out.
Q: What do you think of Elizabeth Warren's asset tax idea?
A: It’s idiotic. It would take years to figure out how much Jeff Bezos is worth. And even then, you probably couldn't come within ten billion dollars of a true number. We already pay asset taxes, our local county real estate taxes, and those are bad enough, delivering valuations that are miles from true market prices. There are many other ways to fix the tax system and get billionaires paying their fair share. There are only three things you really have to do: get rid of carried interest so hedge funds can’t operate tax-free, get rid of real estate loss carry forwards which allow the real estate industry to basically operate tax-free, and get rid of the oil depletion allowance, which has enabled the oil industry to operate tax-free for nearly 90 years. So those would be three easy ones to increase the fairness of the tax system without any immense restructuring of our accounting system.
Q: When will share buybacks start?
A: They’ve already started and have been happening all year. There are two ways the companies do this: they either have an outside accounting firm, buying religiously every day or at the end of every month or something like that, so they can’t be accused of insider trading; or they are in there buying on every dip. Certainly, all the big cash-heavy companies like Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) or Apple (AAPL) were buying their shares like crazy last March and April because they were trading such enormous discounts. So that is another trillion dollars sitting under the market, waiting to come in on any dip, which is yet another reason that we are not going to see any major sell-offs this year—just the 5%-10% variety that I have been predicting.
Q: Is it time to buy Salesforce (CRM)?
A: Yes, Marc Benioff’s goal is to double sales in two years, and the stock is relatively cheap right now because they’ve had a couple of weak quarters and are still digesting some big acquisitions.
Q: Is CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) good buy?
A: Yes, I would be buying right here; it’s a good LEAP candidate because the stock could easily double from here. We’ve only scratched the surface on CRISPR technology being adopted and the potential growth in this company is enormous—I'm surprised they haven’t been taken over already.
Q: Will you start a letter for investing advisors on how to deal with the prolific numbers of Bitcoin?
A: There are already too many Bitcoin newsletters; there are literally hundreds of them and thousands of experts on Bitcoin now because there’s nothing to know and nothing to analyze. It’s all a belief system; there are no earnings, there are no dividends, and there is no interest. So, you purely have to invest in the belief that somebody else is going to take you out at a higher price. I think there is a big overhang of selling in that when they raise the number of Bitcoin, we’ll get another one of those 90% crashes that Bitcoin is prone to. So, go elsewhere for your Bitcoin advice; your choices are essentially unlimited now, and they are much cheaper than me. In fact, people are literally giving away Bitcoin advice for free, which means you’re getting what you’re paying for. I buy Bitcoin when they have a customer support telephone number.
Q: Zoom (ZM) has come down a lot after a big earnings report—do you like it?
A: Long term, yes. Short term, no. You want to avoid all the stay-at-home stocks because no one is staying at home anymore. However, there is a long-term story in Zoom once they find their bottom because even after we come out of the pandemic, we’re all still using Zoom. I have like five or ten Zoom meetings a day, and my kids go to school on Zoom all day long. They’re also bringing out new products like telephone servers. They’re also raising their prices—I happen to be one of Zoom’s largest customers. I’m paying $1,100/month now, and that’s rising at 10% a year.
Q: What would be the best LEAP for Salesforce (CRM)?
A: The rule of thumb is that you want to go 30% out of the money on your first strike. So, find a current stock price; your first strike is up 30%, and then your second strike is up 35%. And all you need to double your money on that is a bounce back to the highs for this year, which is not unrealistic. That’s the lay-up there with Salesforce. That’s the basic formula; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Walt Disney (DIS), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB), Palantir (PLTR), and Nvidia (NVDA) are all good candidates for LEAPS.
Q: How often do you update the long-term stock portfolio?
A: Twice a year, and we just updated in January, which is posted on the website in your membership area. If you can't find it, just email customer support at support@madhedgefundtrader.com and they’ll tell you where to find it. And we only do this twice a year because there just aren't enough changes in the economy in six months to justify a more frequent update.
Q: When do you think real estate will come back?
A: It never left. We’ve had the hottest real estate market in history, with 20% annual gains in many cities in 2020. And that will continue, but not at the 20% rate, probably at a more sustainable 5% or 6% rate. Guess what the best inflation play in the world is? Real estate. If you’re worried about inflation, you want to run out and buy a house or two. The only thing that will really kill that market is a rise in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to 5%, and that is years off. Or a rise in the ten-year treasury to 5% or 6%—that is several years off also. So, I think we’ve got a couple of good years of gains ahead of us. I at least want the market to stay hot until my kids get out of high school, and then I can sell my house and go live on some exotic tropical island with great broadband.
Q: When you’re doing LEAPS, do you just do the calls only or do you do these as spreads?
A: You can do both. Just do the math and see what works for you on a risk/reward basis. You can do a 30% out of the money call 2 years out and get anywhere from a 1,000% to a 10,000% return—people did get 10,000% returns buying deep out of the money LEAPS in Tesla (TSLA) a year ago (that’s where all the vintage bourbon is coming from). Or you can do it more conservatively and only make 500% in two years on Tesla spread. For example; do something like a Tesla January 2023 $900-$950 call spread. If Tesla shares rise to $950, that position is an easy quadruple. But do the numbers, figure out the cost today, what the expiration value is in two years, and there you go.
Q: Do you think overnight rates could go negative as some people predict?
A: Not for a long time. They will go negative at the next recession because we’re starting off such a low base—or when we get the next pandemic, which could be as early as next year. We could get another one at any time from a completely different virus, and it would generate the same stock market results that we got last time—down 40% in a month. We’re not out of the pandemic business, we’re just having a temporary break waiting for the next one to come along out of China or some other country, or even right here in the USA. So that may be a permanent aspect of investing in the future. It could be the price we pay having a global population that's at 7 billion heading to 9 billion.
Q: Expiration on LEAPS?
A: I always go out two years. The second year is almost free, that’s why. So why not go for the second year? It gives you twice as much time to be right, always useful.
Q: My two-year United States Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) $125 put LEAPS have turned very positive. Is this a good trade?
A: That is a good trade, which you should put on during the next (TLT) rally. If you think we’re going to $105 in 2 years, do something like a $127-$130 two-year put LEAP, and there's a nice four bagger right there.
Q: Your Amazon (AMZN) price target was recently listed at $3,500, below last year's high, but I’ve also seen a $5,000 forecast in two years. Are you sticking with that?
A: Yes, I think when you get a major recovery in the economy, Amazon will be one of the only pandemic plays that keeps on going. It’s just taking a rest here with the rest of big tech. The breakup value of Amazon is easily $5,000 a share or more. Plus, they’re still going gangbusters growing into new industries that they’ve barely touched so far, like pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and so on. So yes, I would definitely be a buyer of LEAPS, and you could do something like the January 2023 $3700-$4000 LEAP two years out and make a killing on that.
Q: Anything you can do in gold (GLD)?
A: Not really. Although gold and silver (SLV) have been a huge disappointment this year, I think this could be the beginning of a capitulation selloff in gold which will bring us a final bottom, but it may take another month or two to get there.
Q: How can I sell short the dollar?
A: You sell short the (UUP), or there are several 1X and 2X short ETFs in the currencies that you can do, like the ProShares Ultra Short Euro ETF (EUO). That is the way to do it.
Q: What is the best timing for buying LEAPS?
A: Buy at market bottoms. A year ago, I was sending out lists of 10 LEAPS at a time saying please buy all of these. You need both a short-term selloff in the stock, and then an upside target much higher than the current price so your LEAP expires at its maximum profit point. And if you’re in the right names, pretty much all the names that we talk about here, you will have 30%, if not 300% or 3,000% gains in them in the next two years.
Q: Do you think Tesla’s Starlink global satellite system will disrupt the cell tower industry?
A: Yes, that is the goal of Starlink—to wipe out all ground communication for WIFI and for cell phones. It may take them several years to do it, but if they do pull it off, then it just becomes a matter of pricing. The last Starlink pricing I looked at cost about $500 to set up, open the account, and get your dish installed. And the only flaw I see in the Starlink system is that the satellite dishes are tracking dishes, which means they lock onto satellites and then follow them as they pass overhead. Then when that signal leaves, it locks onto a new satellite; at any given time they’re locked onto four different satellites. That means moving parts, and you want to be careful of any industry that has moving parts—they wear out. That’s the great thing about software and online businesses; no moving parts, so they don’t wear out. And that’s also why Tesla has been a success; they eliminated the number of moving parts in cars by 80%. I’m waiting for Starlink to get working so I can use it, because I need Internet access 24 hours a day, even if all the local hubs are out because of a power outage. I’m now using something called Viasat (VSAT), which guarantees 100 megabyte/second service for $55 a month. It's not enough for me because I use a gigabyte service landline, but when that’s not available then I can go to satellite as a backup.
Q: Is there too much Fed liquidity in the market already? Why is the $1.9 trillion rescue package still positive for the market?
A: Firstly, there is too much liquidity in the market; that is screamingly obvious. If you look at liquidity over the decades, we are just staggeringly high right now. M2 is growing at 26% against the normal rate of 5%-6%. What the stimulus package does is get money to the people who did not participate in the bull market from last year. Those are low-income people, cities, and municipalities that are broke and can’t pay teachers, firemen, and policemen. It also goes to individual states which were not invested in the stock market. It turns out that states that were invested in the stock market like California have money coming out of their ears right now. And it gets money to low wage workers with kids who are certainly struggling right now. So, it is rather efficiently designed to get the money to people who need it the most. There is still half the country that doesn't own any stocks or even have savings of any kind. One or two people might get it who don’t deserve it but try doing anything in a 330 million population country and have it be 100% efficient.
Q: Is inflation coming?
A: Only incrementally in tiny pieces, so not enough to affect the stock market probably for several years. I still believe technology is advancing so fast that it wipes out any effort to raise prices or increase wages, and that may be what the perennially high 730,000 weekly jobless claims is all about. Those jobs that might have been there a year ago have been replaced by machines, have been outsourced overseas, or the demand for the product no longer exists. So, as long as you have a 10% unemployment rate and a weekly jobless claim at 730, inflation is the last thing you need to worry about.
Q: Is there any way to cash in on Reddit’s Wall Street Bets action?
A: No, and I would bet the majority of people who are trading off of these emojis and Reddit posts are losing money. You only hear about these things after it’s too late to do anything about them. I don't think you’ll get any more $4 to $450 moves like you did with GameStop (GME) because in that one case only, there was a short interest of 160%, which should have been illegal. All the other high short interest stocks have already been hit, with short interests all the way down to 30%, so I think that ship has sailed. It has no real investing merit whatsoever.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
February 26, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(EV INDUSTRY GOES FROM HOT TO HOTTER)
(TSLA), (GM), (EV), (SAIC), (PLTR), (ROKU)
The electric vehicle market is blossoming into a mega tech growth industry and we are just entering the sweet spot of it.
Just take a look at the variety of options now on the market.
China has been doing its best to catch up to the standard bearer Tesla (TSLA) with generous government subsidies spawning a tidal wave of new investment.
A Chinese company partnering with GM has been able to introduce an electric vehicle (EV) selling in China for $4,500 and is now miraculously outselling Tesla's posher cars.
The compact car is proving a home run for state-owned SAIC Motor, China's top automaker.
The Hong Guang Mini EV is being built as part of a joint venture with US car giant General Motors (GM) and yes, this is the same joint venture where Chinese companies “borrow” the proprietary intellectual property.
This is just another example of the breadth of options out there and the insatiable popularity of the mode of transport in a world of climate change and the broad-based pivot to sustainable ecological business.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global electric vehicle market will be worth $985.72 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4% over the next six years.
Electric vehicle sales are poised to surpass the highest level on record in 2021.
Edmunds data shows that EV sales made up 1.9% of retail sales in the United States in 2020 and that number is expected to surge to 2.5% this year.
Edmunds analysts anticipate that 30 EVs from 21 brands will become available for sale this year, compared to 17 vehicles from 12 brands in 2020.
Notably, this will be the first year that these offerings represent all three major vehicle categories: Consumers will have the choice among 11 cars, 13 SUVs, and six trucks in 2021, whereas only 10 cars and seven SUVs were available last year.
As it is true that compact vehicles will rule the road in China, Americans have a love affair with trucks and SUVs, to the detriment of compact cars.
Each EV manufacturing decision will need to have localization in mind.
This isn’t to say that China can produce EVs at the quality of Tesla, but it shows that alternative models of EV battery capabilities, range, and performance also have a strong place in the consumer world.
This isn’t just a Tesla world with everyone living in it.
The Chinese government has bet the ranch on EVs as it reduces the smog-induced megacity pollution that has been public enemy one, two, and three.
Clean air is a sensitive topic among Chinese urban dwellers.
The Chinese communist party offers EV license plates for free and they are guaranteed. In many cities, it can take years to receive a license plate for a petrol engine through various lottery systems.
The Tesla Model 3 sells for about $39,000 in China factoring in price cuts due to its local production.
So what does this mean for the short-term future of EVs?
First, they are showing growth numbers that almost every cloud executive would love to put on the radar for many tech investors.
Second, Elon Musk’s Tesla and The Hong Guang Mini EV are primed to be flooded in all markets overseas creating an ironic situation where Europeans are buying a cheaper EV from China instead of the homegrown stalwarts of BMW, Audi, and Mercedes.
China has been adamant that they want to secure higher manufacturing ground and this phenomenon is coming hard and fast for the Europeans and everyone else who have continuously kowtowed to Chinese business.
Reports have linked these Chinese mini EVs to a Latvian automaker who could sell an iteration of the car in Europe. However, the price is likely to be twice as high due to European environmental requirements.
This also paves the way for Tesla to eventually roll out a compact car to sell in the German market and the entire European Union.
Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is a European manufacturing plant under construction in Grünheide, Germany and the campus is 20 miles south-east of central Berlin on the Berlin–Wrocław railway.
Of course, at first, they will produce the American models of the Tesla, but my guess after that is they will start right-sizing their models for the local market in all shapes and sizes.
This would be the new contact point in terms of funneling Tesla products into Europe and instead of SUV/Pick-up trucks, they will create something more akin to a Fiat-sized car to suit the European market.
Although the EV market is still in its infancy, Tesla not only has first-mover advantage and the best of breed stamp of quality, but has the manufacturing prowess in terms of battery and knowhow that others don’t.
That being said, beneath the robustness of Tesla, a lot of movement is taking place as we speak and we still do not have the 2nd or 3rd Teslas emerging from the pack and we will gain more insight into who that is in the next few years.
For the next 10X bagger, potential start-ups that could take the EV market by storm is where readers should put their money, but this comes with great risk.
But I’ve been pretty good at guessing 10 baggers with recommendations such as Roku (ROKU) and Palantir (PLTR) on the way to achieve 10 bagger status.
As many understood from the first pandemic year of 2020, just throw money into Tesla and watch it explode higher.
Tesla is still an incredibly bullish tech story and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of its up moves.
The moment Tesla’s quality starts to erode and Chinese low-quality EVs catch up, that would be the cue to take profits on Tesla, but that day is long off.
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
February 17, 2021
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE TECH COMPANY COZYING UP WITH THE WHITE HOUSE)
(PLTR)
I hate to be a cheerleader but that is what I am about to do for the secretive big-data firm Palantir, co-founded by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
With funding from the CIA’s non-profit venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, Palantir (PLTR) is named after mystical orbs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” universe that can see both the past and present and allow users to communicate over vast distances.
To be concise, PLTR is the gold standard of data mining stocks and I urged readers to pile into this stock at $10.
That was then and this is now.
This stock is clearly a 10-bagger and after surging past $44 in January, the stock has consolidated to $28 today.
The fundamentals supporting this narrative is ironclad with the CIA delivering premium opportunity to accrue recurring government revenue.
We aren’t going into the semantics of how PLTR runs its business but in short, it basically provides customized software to clients analyzing large tranches of data for reasons ranging from finding suspected criminals to improving companies’ manufacturing capabilities.
The company acknowledges that government customers use its technology to kill people, so investors not comfortable with the deeper meaning behind the technology and revenue should steer away from this one and go with the softball versions of big tech.
Palantir gets both criticism and praise for the powerful nature of its data analytics software.
For example, critics allege Palantir's profiling tools used by intelligence and immigration agencies sometimes operate under a cloak of secrecy with zero oversight.
Palantir’s tools are not just for killing bad guys, they have also signed up companies from sectors that include healthcare, energy, and manufacturing.
Palantir has two main services that analyze data: Palantir Gotham and Palantir Foundry.
A customized option, Palantir Gotham is used by companies, government agencies, and law enforcement to combine information to decipher previously unseen patterns and identify relationships between sets of data ranging from social media posts and addresses to license plate numbers and personal relationships.
The algorithm then summarizes content together to make broader conclusions from the data.
Meanwhile, Foundry is a ready-made solution focusing on clients ranging from pharmaceutical and automotive businesses to aviation companies like Airbus and is meant to cut down on the costs associated with Gotham, such as the need for multiple on-site engineers.
Who is the CEO?
Alex Karp.
A graduate of Stanford Law School.
Karp has been explicit in his belief in the need for Silicon Valley companies to work with the U.S. government and law enforcement agencies precisely because they are American companies.
Palantir refers to effective applications of its software such as combatting Ponzi scheme conman Bernie Madoff to disaster recovery to thwarting cyberattacks and fighting child exploitation.
Not only that, Palantir’s software was deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in 2018 alongside Team Rubicon, an organization of military veterans that responds to disaster areas. With Palantir’s Gotham Operations module, the group identified and responded to neighborhoods in the greatest need of assistance.
How does the software directly help real-time U.S. soldiers in the field?
Its software helped the U.S. military track insurgents in Afghanistan planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by finding correlations between weather patterns, command wire IED attacks, and biometric information found on explosive devices.
Palantir has also sold its software to the Salt Lake City Police Department, helping officers reduce the time it takes to perform complex investigations by 95%.
Granted, this tech company is not for everyone, which is why many global brands such as Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and American Express have terminated relationships.
In the short term, PLTR blistering rally will face an expiration of a lockup that allows 80% of total shares to be sold which could unleash a wave of selling from insiders tempted to cash in their shares.
The company’s market valuation at 39 times 2021 sales estimates implies revenue growth well in excess of 40%, at this pricy level, it makes PLTR an easy sell the news victim.
PLTR has tanked for two consecutive weeks and shares are down 18% from a record high late last month.
The overheating of shares has come back to reality with a tepid annual sales growth forecast of at least 30%. That suggests a significant slowdown from last year.
By comparison, sales growth in 2020 reached 47%, even surpassing $1.1 billion.
The silver lining is that government sales jumped 85% reassuring investors that the quality of sales could not be higher.
The company insiders have waited years to unload shares, and if there is a significant dip, I would put money to work in PLTR.
Shares are going to $100 and readers should ride the ladder up with them.
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
December 21, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE BEST WAY TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR TECH PORTFOLIO)
(NVDA), (PLTR), (AMD), (APPL), (OTC:SFTBF), (INTC), (QCOM)
Superiority is mainly about taking complicated data and finding perfect solutions for it. Trading in technology stocks is no different.
Investing in software-based cloud stocks has been one of the seminal themes I have promulgated since the launch of the Mad Hedge Technology Letter way back in February 2018.
Well, if you thought every tech letter until now has been useless, this is the one that should whet your appetite.
Instead of racking your brain to find the optimal cloud stock to invest in, I have a quick fix for you and your friends.
Invest in The WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund (WCLD) which aims to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index (EMCLOUD).
What Is Cloud Computing?
The “cloud” refers to the aggregation of information online that can be accessed from anywhere, on any device remotely.
Yes, something like this does exist and we have been chronicling the development of the cloud since this tech letter’s launch.
The cloud is the concept powering the “shelter-at-home” trade which has been hotter than hot in 2020.
Cloud companies provide on-demand services to a centralized pool of information technology (IT) resources via a network connection.
Even though cloud computing already touches a significant portion of our everyday lives, the adoption is on the verge of overwhelming the rest of the business world due to advancements in artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) hyper-improving efficiencies.
The Cloud Software Advantage
Cloud computing has particularly transformed the software industry.
Over the last decade, cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses have dominated traditional software companies as the new industry standard for deploying and updating software. Cloud-based SaaS companies provide software applications and services via a network connection from a remote location, whereas traditional software is delivered and supported on-premise and often manually. I will give you a list of differences to several distinct fundamental advantages for cloud versus traditional software.
Product Advantages
Speed, Ease, and Low Cost of Implementation – cloud software is installed via a network connection; it doesn’t require the higher cost of on-premise infrastructure setup and installation.
Efficient Software Updates – upgrades and support are deployed via a network connection, which shifts the burden of software maintenance from the client to the software provider.
Easily Scalable – deploying via a network connection allows cloud SaaS businesses to grow as their units increase, with the ability to expand services to more users or add product enhancements with ease. Client acquisition can happen 24/7 and cloud SaaS companies can more easily expand into international markets.
Business Model Advantages
High Recurring Revenue – cloud SaaS companies enjoy a subscription-based revenue model with smaller and more frequent transactions, while traditional software businesses rely on a single, large, upfront transaction. This model can result in a more predictable, annuity-like revenue streams making it easy for CFOs to solve long-term financial solutions.
High Client Retention with Longer Revenue Periods – cloud software becomes embedded in client workflow, resulting in higher switching costs and client retention. Importantly, many clients prefer the pay-as-you-go transaction model, which can lead to longer periods of recurring revenue as upselling product enhancements does not require an additional sales cycle.
Lower Expenses – cloud SaaS companies can have lower R&D costs because they don’t need to support various types of networking infrastructure at each client location.
I believe the product and business model advantages of cloud SaaS companies have historically led to better margins, growth, higher free cash flow, and efficiency characteristics as compared to non-cloud software companies.
How does the WCLD ETF select its indexed cloud companies?
Each company must satisfy critical criteria such as they must derive the majority of revenue from business-oriented software products, as determined by the following checklist.
+ Provided to customers through a cloud delivery model – e.g., hosted on remote and multi-tenant server architecture, accessed through a web browser or mobile device, or consumed as an application programming interface (API).
+ Provided to customers through a cloud economic model – e.g., as a subscription-based, volume-based, or transaction-based offering Annual revenue growth, of at least:
+ 15% in each of the last two years for new additions
+ 7% for current securities in at least one of the last two years
Some of the stocks that would epitomize the characteristics of a WCLD stock are Salesforce, Microsoft, Amazon-- I mean, they are all up, you know, well over 100% from the nadir we saw in March and contain the emerging growth traits that make this ETF so robust.
If you peel back the label and you look at the contents of many tech portfolios, they tend to favor some of the large-cap names like Amazon, not because they are “big” but because the numbers behave like emerging growth companies even when the law of large numbers indicate that to push the needle that far in the short-term is a gravity-defying endeavor.
We all know quite well that Amazon isn't necessarily a direct play on cloud computing, but the elements of its cloud business are nothing short of brilliant.
But ETF funds like WCLD, what they look to do is to cue off of pure plays and include pure plays that are growing faster than the broader tech market at large. So you're not going to necessarily see the vanilla tech of the world in that portfolio. You're going to see a portfolio that's going to have a little bit more sort of explosive nature to it, names with a little more mojo, a little bit more risk because you're focusing on smaller names that have the possibility to go parabolic and gift you a 10-bagger.
One stock that has the chance of a 10-bagger is my call on Palantir (PLTR).
Palantir is a tech firm that builds and deploys software platforms for the intelligence community in the United States to assist in counterterrorism investigations and operations, and my call was to buy them at $10 after it’s IPO, it's up to $26 and has an easy pathway to $50.
This is one of the no-brainers that procure revenue from Democrat and Republican administrations even though its CEO Alex Karp has been caught on video making fun of the current administration’s leaders.
In a global market where the search for yield couldn’t be tougher right now, right-sizing a tech portfolio to target those extraordinary, extra-salacious tech growth companies is one of the few ways to produce alpha without overleveraging.
No doubt there will be periods of volatility, but if a long-term horizon is something suited for you, this super-growth strategy is a winner and don’t forget about PLTR while you’re at it.
Global Market Comments
October 2, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(SEPTEMBER 30 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(NVDA), (AMD), (JPM), (DIS), (GM), (TSLA), (NKLA),
(TLT), (NFLX), (PLTR), (VIX), (PHM), (LEN), (KBH), (FXA), (GLD)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the September 30 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA with my guest and co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader. Keep those questions coming!
Q: Which is a better buy, NVIDIA (NVDA) or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)?
A: NVIDIA is clearly the larger, stronger company in the semiconductor area, but AMD has more growth ahead of it. You’re not going to get a ten-bagger from NVIDIA from here, but you might get one from Advanced Micro Devices, especially if a global chip shortage develops once we’re out the other side of the pandemic. So, I vote for (AMD), and did a lot of research on that company last week. You can find the report at www.madhedgefundtrader.com but you have to be logged in to see it.
Q: Do you have any thoughts on the JP Morgan Chase Bank (JPM) spoofing cases, where they had to pay about a billion in fines? Is this a terrible time to invest in banks?
A: No, this is a great time to invest in banks because this is the friendly administration to banks now; the next one will be less than friendly. On the other hand, an awful lot of bad news is already in the price; buying these companies at book value or discount of book like JP Morgan, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. All the bad behavior they’re being fined on now happened many years ago. So yes, I still like banks, but you really have to be careful to buy them on the dip, just in case they stay in a range. If you stay in a range, you’re buying them call spread, you always make money. The bigger drag on share prices will be the Fed ban on bank share buybacks but that may end after Q4.
Q: Is it time to buy Disney (DIS) after they laid off 28,000?
A: This is a company that practically every fund manager in the company wants to have in their portfolio. However, it could be at least a year before they get back to normal capacity in the theme parks, meaning customers packing in shoulder-to-shoulder. So, it could be another wait-for-a-turnaround, buy-on-the dip situation for sure. This company is so well managed that you’re always going to have to pay up to get into the Mouse House. By the way, my dad did business with Disney during the 1950s so we got Disneyland opening day tickets and I got to shake Walt Disney’s hand.
Q: How desperate is General Motors (GM) in buying the fake Tesla (TSLA) company, Nikola (NKLA), who've been exposed as giant frauds? Is GM hopeless?
A: Yes, the future is happening too fast for a giant bureaucracy like General Motors to get ahead of the curve. The fact that they’re trying to buy in outside technologies shows how weak their position is, and of course, it’s a great way to get stuck with a loser, as Tesla selling out to anyone. The Detroit companies are all stuck with these multibillion-dollar engine factories so they can’t afford to go electric even if they wanted to. So, I expect all the major Detroit car companies to go under in the next 5 years or so. Electric cars are already beating conventional internal combustion engines on a lifetime cost basis and will soon be beating them, within 3 years, on an up-front cost basis as well.
Q: Will Netflix (NFLX) pass $600 before the year's end?
A: I’m expecting a monster after-election rally to new all-time highs in the market and Netflix will be one of the leaders, so easy to tack on another hundred bucks to Netflix. That’s one of my targets for a call spread if we can get in at a lower price. And if you really want to be conservative, buy 2-year LEAPS, two-year call options spreads on Netflix, and you’ll get an easy 100% return on those.
Q: Who will win, Trump or Biden?
A: Neither. You will win. I am not a member of any political party as I would never join any club that would stoop to have me as a member. Groucho Marx told me that just before he died in the early 70s. Don’t ask me, ask the polls. Suffice it to say that the London betting polls are 60%-40% in favor of Biden, having just added another 5% for Biden after the debate. My expectation is that Biden picks up another point in the opinion polls in all the battleground states this weekend. So, Biden will be up anywhere from 6-10% in the 6 states that really count.
Q: What will the market impact be?
A: It makes no difference who wins. The mere fact that the election is out of the way is worth a 10% move up in the stock market.
Q: Should we keep the January 2022 (TLT) 140/143 bear put spread?
A: Absolutely, yes. That’ll be a chip shot and we in fact should go in the money on those number sometime next year. A huge cyclical recovery will create an enormous demand for funds and crowding out by the government will crush the bond market.
Q: Do you think it would be better to wait a week or two to lock in refis on home loans?
A: I think we are at the low in interest rates in the refi market. Even if the Fed lowers interest rates, banks aren’t going to lower their lending rates anymore because there's no money in it for them. It’s also taking anywhere from 2-4 months to close on a loan, as the backlogs are so enormous. If you can even get a loan officer to return a phone call, you’re lucky. So, I wouldn't be too fancy here trying to pick absolute bottoms; I would just refi now and whatever you get is going to be close to a century low.
Q: Why so few trade alerts?
A: Well, very simple. We only do trade alerts when we see really good sweet spots in the market. There aren’t sweet spots in the market every day; you’re lucky if you get 1 or 2 in a month. Then we tend to pour in and out of the market very quickly with a lot of alerts. There is no law that says you have to have a position every day of the year. That buys the broker’s yacht, not yours. You should only have positions when the risk reward is overwhelmingly in your favor. That is not now when our market timing index is hugging the 50 level. At 50, you actually have the worst possible entry point for new trades, long or short, so I’d rather wait for it to get away from that level before we get aggressive again. We have gone 100% invested multiple times in the last two months and made a ton of money. So, you just have to wait for your turn to get a sweet spot, and then you’ll make a very quick 10% or 15% in the market. Patience is rewarded in this business.
Q: Would you wait for the election because of the high implied volatility?
A: No, I would not wait. The game is to get in at the lowest price before the election. When the implied volatilities drop after the election, the profits you can make on these deep out of the money LEAPs drop by about half. Thank the volatility while it’s here because it’s creating great trading opportunities now, not in two months after the volatility Index (VIX) has collapsed.
Q: What about Zoom (ZM)?
A: As much as Zoom has had a 10-fold return since we recommended it a year ago, it looks like it wants to go higher. The Robinhood traders just love this stock; it’s a stay at home stock, stay at home is lasting a lot longer than anyone thought. Zoom is just coining it on that.
Q: Is the best outcome a Biden presidency and a Republican Senate?
A: No, that is the worst outcome. When you have a global pandemic going on, you don’t want gridlock in Washington. You want a very active Washington, controlled by a single party that can get things done very quickly. That is not now, which is possibly a major reason that we have the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world. It’s because Washington is doing absolutely nothing to stop the virus; the president won’t even wear a mask, so yes, you need one party to control everything so they can push stuff through. If it works, great, and if not then you kick them out of office next time and let the other guys have a try.
Q: Will property markets be up 20% by the end of the year?
A: If you live in a suburb of New York or San Francisco, then yes it will be up that much. For the whole rest of the country, the average is more like 5% gains year on year. In the burbs of these big money-making cities, prices are going absolutely nuts. My neighbor put his house up and it sold in a week for a $1 million over asking. So, the answer to that is yes, hell yes.
Q: Can you explain why the IPO market is suddenly booming now?
A: A lot of these companies like Palantir (PLTR) have been in development for 20 years, and prices are high. On valuation terms, we are at dot com bubble peaks now. That is the very best time to take your company public and get a huge premium for your stock. When the world is baying for paper assets, you print more of them.
Q: What is the best way to play real estate?
A: Buying the single home building companies like Pulte Homes (PHM), Lennar Homes (LEN), and KB Homes (KBH).
Q: What is your Tesla overview in China?
A: Tesla’s already announced that they’re doubling production of the Shanghai factory, from 250,000 units a year to 500,000. They built the last one in 18 months. It would take (GM) like 5 years to build something like that.
Q: Why has gold (GLD) lost its risk-off status?
A: It’s now a quantitative easing asset—like tech stocks, like bitcoin, and the stay at home stocks. It is being driven much more by QE-driven speculators flush with free cash than anyone looking for a flight to safety bid. When this group sells off, gold drops as well. The only risk-off asset right now is cash. That is the only “no risk” trade.
Q: What does reversal in lumber prices tell you?
A: Lumber was another one of those QE assets—it tripled. But you have this monster increase in new home building, huge demand for new homes in the suburbs, huge import duties leveled by the Trump administration on lumber coming from Canada. Also, a lot of people are getting COVID-19 in the lumber mills. So, they’re having huge problems on the production side in lumber, as a result of the pandemic.
Q: Are there any alternative ways to buy the Australian dollar besides (FXA)?
A: You go into the futures market and buy the Australian dollar futures. That is an entirely new regulatory regime so can be a huge headache. It requires you to register with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which is the worst of all the major regulators, but that is an alternative. If you’re an individual and not regulated instead of being a professional money manager, then it’s much easier.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Summit of Mount Rose