March 2020 – Smart Money Asia

Online Coaching – Perfect Timing

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I hope everyone is safe and well in these difficult times. One thing you are probably doing is spending a lot more time at home. And with that comes a lot more time online, particularly using internet communication tools like Skype and Zoom.

You may have noticed that I offer personal finance coaching. This also includes online coaching, which was initially meant for people living outside the Kanto area, but is fast becoming the norm in these times of social distancing.

Now would be a great time to get your finances in order and take advantage of one of the best opportunities to invest you will see in years. Below is the 25 year chart of the S&P 500. You can see quite clearly the benefit of investing during severe market downturns in 2000 and 2008. Why not make use of the extra bandwidth you have and put some money to work for you?

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Among other things, I can help you figure out:

How much you have available to invest and how much you should be keeping in cash for emergencies.
What currency is best for you.
What kind of account would be right for you.
How to allocate when you get the account.
How to maintain your investments over the long run.

More information, including rates, is available here. If you would like to book a coaching session, or you have some questions before getting started, please get in touch with me via the Contact Form.

Spice up your Investments with Satellites

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Is the Covid-19 market plunge getting you down? Tired of being told not to panic and stay diversified? (by people like me!) Are you thirsting for something interesting and exciting to invest in rather than the usual steady and boring stuff?

Then this post is for you! Let’s look at something fun! However, before we jump in, please read here to make sure you understand what I mean by Core / Satellite holdings. In short, core is the sensible diversified allocation linked to your base currency and risk profile that you put 80-90% of your money in. Satellite is the other 10-20% where you swing for the fences!

Some areas that are typically classed as satellite holdings would be: hedge funds, direct stock picking, commodities, structured notes, private equity, biotech, property and cryptocurrency. This is by no means a definitive list and there are many other investments that would be considered non-core, depending on your risk profile.

Here are a few unique satellite holdings that I have come across recently:

ARKK – Ark Innovation ETF: Run by Cathie Wood, the Best Investor You’ve Never Heard of, Ark is a stock picking fund, focussed on innovation in DNA Technologies, Energy, Automation, Manufacturing, Next Generation Internet and Fintech. Ark are currently looking rather smart for their heavy backing of Tesla. Their holdings contain a heady mix of 3D Printing, Gene Therapy, Biotech and Blockchain Technology. This level of active management in highly specialised areas would usually come with a hedge fund 2 and 20 price tag, but the expense ratio is just 0.75%. ARKK is listed on the NYSE so you will need a brokerage account that can access that exchange to access. More here.

GBTC – Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: According to this article, a recent study by brokerage giant Charles Schwab showed that GBTC is in the top 5 holdings for Millennial investors, (currently aged between 25 and 39) ahead of Netflix and Walt Disney. GBTC offers investors access to Bitcoin returns via their brokerage account. The Trust trades like a stock or ETF and, for a 2% annual fee, it takes care of the issue of custody of crypto, so you don’t have to worry about losing your private keys. Bitcoin purists would probably rather hold the real thing, but GBTC is proving popular as an alternative way to get exposure to Bitcoin returns. This could be interesting with the upcoming Bitcoin Halving on the horizon. I would note that not all brokerages allow trading in GBTC. From what I can tell it is available in the US on Schwab, Etrade, TD Ameritrade and Interactive Brokers. More here.

CHNA / CNCR – Loncar China Biopharma ETF / Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF: Given the origin of the novel corona virus Covid-19, China Biopharma is kind of a hot topic right now. Despite the current panic, this article argues that now could be a good time to buy. Companies in the Cancer Immunotherapy space are harnessing the power of the body’s own immune system to offer an innovative alternative to current treatments, which makes for an exciting and potentially rewarding investment opportunity. Loncar’s ETFs are NASDAQ listed. More here.

If you are living in Japan or elsewhere in Asia and looking for a US brokerage account then your best bet for getting an account open is probably Interactive Brokers. See this post for more details on brokerage accounts.

Hopefully that’s helped take your mind off the doom and gloom. Please note that these are not recommendations, and all of the investments mentioned should be considered as belonging in the High Risk category. That’s why they are satellite holdings. We are talking about around 5% of your total investments in any one of these strategies. Please feel free to share any interesting satellite holdings you like. I would love to hear from you.

Note: I have no affiliation with any of the investment companies mentioned above.

Disclaimer: This should go without saying, but the information contained in this blog is not investment advice, or an incentive to invest, and should not be considered as such. This is for information only.

Corona Correction

Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and there’s plenty of toilet paper!

When panic sets in, it’s good to take a step back and focus on the simple things you can do, rather than joining the stampede for the exit. And panic certainly set in last week in global stock markets. You may remember that a correction is defined as a 10% decline in market value. The one last week was one of the fastest ever, and the drop is now approaching 15%. 20% is bear market territory.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just stocks that fell. The 3%+ fall in the gold price on Friday (likely profit taking) shows that being well diversified means having more than one defensive strategy in your portfolio. Even truly diversified portfolios were down between 3% and 8% from their highs last week, depending on risk profile.

Clearly we don’t know where we are heading now in terms of the spread of Covid-19. It seems likely we will see a significant increase in cases worldwide over the next few weeks. However, it is interesting to note that in China, where the virus originated, infection rates are slowing and business is slowly starting to resume. With luck, the rest of the world will follow a similar pattern. If it does, then more market panic followed by a quick recovery is not an unreasonable expectation, particularly as central banks are likely to respond with further easing.

So what should we be doing? I’m certainly not offering trading advice at a time like this but there are certain common sense actions worth considering:

If you were already well diversified, relax. You were setup correctly and have done the best you can. Perhaps look at rebalancing when the panic dies down.
Same if you are investing monthly and averaging into the market. You get to buy cheaper this month!
If you were heavily invested in stocks, how much have you really “lost”? The S&P was near all time highs before last week, so a pullback would not have been out of the ordinary, even without the Covid-19 panic. If you invested capital recently your timing was not good, but do you want to sell into the panic and book the loss? Learn your lesson and move on.
If you are looking at the current drop as a buying opportunity, good for you. Get your capital into position – if it’s just a simple domestic transfer to your investment account then no problem. If you have to send money overseas it may take a little longer to organise.
Even pros will struggle to call the bottom. Let the panic subside and buy slowly. Maybe allocate a little each week. Markets could always fall further.

Most of all, look after your health and stay sensible. Without pointing fingers at the reactions in particular countries, I saw footage of hundreds of people lining up, bunched close together, to buy masks. It’s probably not a good time to follow the herd…

And yes, Japan makes its own toilet paper and there are warehouses full of it waiting to be delivered to stores soon!