And here are some companies to consider from each theme
It is a New Year, and the markets are trying to figure out what to do. Does tech still run? Is it time for value stocks to finally shine? Is the bull market going to end, or is it just getting started?
Already, in just five days, 2021 has shown it is not going to be boring. We started off the week with five or six takeovers or privatizations, had a quick market slump and then a quick rally, and, oh yeah — a riot or insurrection, depending on who you ask — in Washington. Meanwhile, the zombie virus keeps mutating and shutting down the world and killing people. No wonder there is a risk premium on owning equities!
Here at 5i Research/i2i Fund, we spend very little time though looking at such things. We like to look at companies. A great company is still going to be a great company, even in a bad economy. A great company doesn’t really care who is
But we don’t really like predictions. They are usually wrong. Instead, at year end we prefer to review what the year brought, and see if we can learn anything from the past 12 months.
We think everyone will agree it was not a ‘normal’ year. The world has never been completely closed before. Even in the financial crisis of 2008, or in the Depression of the 1930s, one could still get a quick coffee or have dinner in a restaurant. In 2020, for part of the year, one could not even do this.
As of a couple of weeks ago, after nearly a decade off, I got back into the portfolio management business, becoming an associate portfolio manager, for the i2i Long/Short US Equity Fund, with Belco Private Capital as the registered exempt market dealer for the fund. What motivated me to return to portfolio management? Here are five reasons:
There is no job like it
What other job ensures that every day is completely different? What other career puts you on the front line of every single important news event? What job expects you to predict the future? Think about it: Portfolio managers literally need to know almost everything. That’s because everything, collectively, impacts companies, the market and investment psychology. What other job has great math on your side? You can only lose 100 per cent on a stock when you are wrong. But when you are right — oh boy — you can make 1,000 per
