Responsible Investor Portfolio Weekly Update, October 3rd, 2020 | $TCEHY $NEM $BK $SYF $CLIX $GRUB $PCG $LVMUY $LRLCY $PEUGF $WBD.MI $DSV.CO $DANSKE.CO $NOW $QCOM $DQ $FDX $AMWL $CIEN $AAPL $GOOG

September is finally over and has seen the global markets go lower despite the uptrend in the last trading days of the month. Our Responsible Investor portfolio has beaten the market over this period by 0.9%. In mid to long term investing this is crucial because compounding is amplified relative to the market average performance. When friends ask me how to invest 10k € I suggest that they buy a US market index ETF because that´s too small a sum to diversify your portfolio with a group of stocks with which you can aspire to beat the market. Starting from 30 to 40k €, however, one can have about 25 to 35 different stocks, ETF or bond positions and it makes more sense to pick a diversified group of superior stocks rather than accepting the market average return.

I don´t normally keep a stock beyond a loss of 10% and in that respect construction company Webuild is a “stinker”: because I believe the stock has a great potential for capital appreciation and is somewhat subject to the fluctuations of the Italian stock market, I have not pulled the plug yet. This week I have lowered the stop loss price as you can see from the table below and when the technicals are right, I might even send an accumulation alert.

Volatility seems range-bound lately, especially in the last 3 weeks. It remains well above 20 and the news flow is such that there are less opportunities for it to reduce particularly considering there are now only 30 days to the US presidential election and one of the candidates has contracted Covid-19. The recent pullback has provided an entry point to a few good stocks such as $CIEN $AAPL $GOOG and $ORSTED.CO, let’s see if the coming week will be a good time to make a purchase.

Banks and financials were the strongest positions of our portfolio this week, with $SYF advancing by 9.2%, followed by $DANSKE.CO (5.7%) and $BK (4.0%). Our two consumer cyclical stocks, both trading on the French stock market also showed their strength as $MC.PA gapped 3.9% higher and $OR.PA rose by 1.9%. In the meantime very soft inflation data were published in Europe and with the second wave in full swing in most countries, it will be interesting to see what is the next move the ECB will make on the monetary policy side.

The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.

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Responsible Investor Portfolio Update, August 29th, 2020 | $TCEHY $NEM $BK $SYF $CLIX $GRUB $PCG $LVMUY $LRLCY $PEUGF $ELC.MI $WBD.MI

Just when one might have started thinking that the FED was running out of ideas to sustain the growth in the stock market, Jay Powell announced an unprecedented change to the inflation policy from 2% as a goal to 2% on average as the target. Not that inflation has gone up during years of balance sheet expansion, including in the EU, but it does provide more room should it pick up and pass the 2% mark. That news depreciated the dollar even further relative to the euro.

In more recent news, Japan was hit by the sad news of their long-standing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announcing to step down due to illness after 8 years of service and one year before the natural end of his term. This exerted pressure on the Japanese stock market as it can be seen from the drop the $EWJ ETF had on Thursday. It will be interesting to see whether his successor will continue to embrace the so-called “Abenomics” and maintain the stability Abe achieved by ending a streak of several predecessors who only lasted 1 year on average as PMs of Japan.

The US stock markets have had an impressive week with the three main indices all closing 2%+ higher. Europe had a good week as the Stoxx index moved 1.1% higher but the national stock markets performance varied: for example Italy was up 0.7% while Denmark was down 0.3%.

No changes to our portfolio this week. Our best performer was $SYF which gapped 7.8% higher, followed by one of our two banks stocks, $BK, which grew by 5.1%. $GRUB fell 4.4%, however that’s not concerning given how much it has run over the past weeks.

On my watchlist there are stocks like $WDAY, $QCOM and inverse ETFs such as $SQQQ.

The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.

2000828 RIP

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Responsible Investor Portfolio Update, August 15th, 2020 | $TCEHY $NEM $BK $SYF $GILD $GRUB $SQQQ $SCO $PCG $LVMUY $LRLCY $PEUGF $ELC.MI $WBD.MI

Another positive week for the global stock markets with Europe over-performing the US. The Italian stock market jumped almost 5% while the Stoxx index gapped 2.77% higher. The Dow and the S&P500 were up 2 and 1%, respectively. The Nasdaq was very quiet and closed marginally higher.

There are increasing calls from investment banks for a potential future over-performance of the Stoxx versus the US Stock Markets which have run a lot: YTD, the S&P500 is up 4.7% while the Stoxx index is down 10% and the FTSE MIB lags behind with a -13,82%. There are exceptions within Europe: for example the Danish stock market being up 15% YTD and currently has a P/E of 31. With our portfolio consisting of European stocks for 68% at present, we are geared to benefit from a possible mid-term rise of the European stocks.

We have had 3 winners this week as $SYF , WeBuild and Elica rose between 5% and 7%. This week’s sell off in gold has negatively impacted on $NEM , down 7%, however this precious metal is expected to rise further in the near future.

$TCEHY continues to be hit by anti-China US policies and, more recently, by the dispute between $AAPL and $GOOG vs Epic Games, the company behind popular video game Fortnite in which Tencent has a stake.

Two of our positions hit the SL price, namely $SCO and $GILD. For the latter it might have just been bad timing as the fundamentals and the valuation remains strong: we might get back in if the earnings continue to grow and the technicals suggest an entry point.

The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.

2000814 RIP

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Responsible Investor Portfolio Update, August 1st, 2020 | $TCEHY $NEM $BK $SYF $GILD $GRUB $SQQQ $SCO $PCG $LVMUY $LRLCY $WBD.MI $IMA.MI $ELC.MI

It is surprising how the global stock markets are capable of shrugging off just about any news headline recently. This week was no different. The pandemic keeps wreaking havoc in many developing countries and of course in the US as a second wave in Europe seems inevitable now. Check out these great graphs from the Financial Times.

On Wednesday the CEOs of the largest 4 tech companies, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook appeared before a US Congress Committee to be “grilled” on anti-trust accusations. You can’t say anyone of them lost their cool, really, and when the same companies all reported their Q2 earnings after the close the following day on the one hand it seemed that as if there is nothing to stop them from hoarding cash, and on the other it does reinforce the point of whether there is fair competition and reasonable profit.

The US markets were up this week, especially the Nasdaq, while the World Stocks Index was mostly flat. Italy saw a sharp decline, just shy of 5%, and the European stock markets in general were also down (Stoxx index fell by 2.6%). The other stock market we watch closely, the Nasdaq Copenhagen, was less badly hit with a 1.4% loss and continues to outperform most European stock markets.

We keep finding great investment opportunities in the Italian stock market. A classic rule when it comes to personal finance is to invest in what you know. This past week I have sent two new buy alerts, one for mid-cap in the Industrial sector called IMA (which is already up 14% since my buy alert) and another one for a Consumer Cyclical stock called Elica, both traded on the Italian stock market.

I am disappointed by the recent weakness in WeBuild which tanked 21% this week. This is a good example of why focusing only on valuation is not sufficient to pick (or deciding to stick with) a stock: if the market is against it, you won’t see it grow. With the 38.2% fib level broken, there is the risk of further depreciation. I will look into it more closely in due course and send an alert if I sell/reduce/accumulate.

WBD.MI_YahooFinanceChart

I realised that one of our SQQQ position was incorrectly reported despite the ETF having hit our SL price of 8.1$: apologies for the inconvenience.

So far we have not included dividends in the total return and I will endeavor to add this information in a future update as some of our stocks have already paid a quarterly dividend since the inception of the RI portfolio.

The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.

200731 RIP

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Responsible Investor Portfolio Update, July 25th, 2020 | $TCEHY $NEM $BK $SYF $GILD $GRUB $SQQQ $SCO $PCG $LVMUY $LRLCY

I was on holidays for the last two weeks and while I took a break from the weekly blog, I kept an eye on the markets and even sent three buy alerts over this period. So much has happened within the span of a fortnight, from the worsening of the pandemic in the US, to the diplomatic tension between the US and China and the start of the earnings season. While the first two may offer an excuse for a correction, all eyes are on earnings which will be the reality check for this frothy market.

Two months have passed since the inception of the Responsible Investor Portfolio and we are still in the black with a total return of 1.9% (excluding dividends) whereas the market is up 1.3% (0.6% market beat).

The majority of our 18 portfolio positions are traded in European currencies whereas 43% is in USD. Over the last two weeks the USD has lost 4.4% vs the Euro and this impacts on our portfolio on which I report in USD.

We initiated a position in Tencent the week before last and also one in the Italian contractor WeBuild (previously trading as Salini). Following the approval of the EU Recovery Fund and a positive technical signal, I also sent a buy alert for an ETF which reproduces the price of a selection of European dividend stocks and is traded on the Italian stock market, EUDV.MI.

The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.

200724 RIP

If you don’t want to miss my alerts, please subscribe to Responsible Investor or follow me on Twitter. I also run an eToro portfolio which currently has 15+ positions and can be accessed via this link.