Assessing EM Countries’ Vulnerabilities and MMT in EM Universe

Download PDF: assessing-em-countries-vulnerabilitiesDownload EM equity has experienced indiscriminate sell-off during the peak of this year’s market rout, with losses ranging from 20% to 60% across 18 countries. Since its March’s low, however, few countries have staged a strong asset prices recovery, whereas others are still lagging and have barely recover half of their losses (ChartContinueContinue reading “Assessing EM Countries’ Vulnerabilities and MMT in EM Universe”

August 2020: Gathering Thoughts and Some Investment Ideas

Download PDF: monthly_202008Download The Money Flow: How the Money Goes Around From a macro perspective, there is only three players that drive the economy and financial markets in a country: households, private corporations (including banks) and the government. Each player’s action impacts the other and altogether they drive the economic machine of supply and demand,ContinueContinue reading “August 2020: Gathering Thoughts and Some Investment Ideas”

World Country Valuation

Even as world equity has rebounded from its March’s low, many stocks are still cheap relative to its historical valuation. Book value multiple remains depressed as earnings multiple stayed at its historical average, as profitability declined significantly this year for majority of the market. Our three main top pick markets, Mexico, Turkey and Chile, remainContinueContinue reading “World Country Valuation”

Revisiting Our View on Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and South Africa

Download PDF: revisiting-latam-and-emea-countriesDownload Brazil: Negative Outlook Valuation is dearer than the average EM countries, although the rout has knocked out excessive valuation for Brazilian stocks. Book value multiple has indeed declined from 2.3x to 1.8x currently, but weak profitability due to depressed commodity prices has translated into an expensive forward earnings multiple at 14x, whichContinueContinue reading “Revisiting Our View on Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and South Africa”

Equity Signposts, Commodity Rebound and Chip Wars

Download PDF: turning-point-in-the-commodity-cycleDownload 5 Signposts for Global Equity Recovery The decline in DXY of late has arguably help global equity grind higher amid easing financial condition. For long, we have been highlighting the widening valuation between U.S. equity and the rest of the world, which has gone much cheaper post-COVID19 correction. In-line with previous crisisContinueContinue reading “Equity Signposts, Commodity Rebound and Chip Wars”

Indonesia: An In-Depth Analysis

Download PDF: the-investment-case-for-indonesian-equitiesDownload Preparing the Groundwork for A Takeoff Indonesia’s macro profile has significantly improved in the past decade despite still running fiscal and current account deficit. First, government spending has been reoriented toward building human and capital stock, supported by the country’s high savings rate, while public debt level remained among the lowest acrossContinueContinue reading “Indonesia: An In-Depth Analysis”

Emerging Market Equities: Betting on the Underdog

Download PDF: Monthly_202005_Betting On the Underdog Reflection on the Past Decade  The financial market is characterized by the ebb and flow “leader” and “laggard” over time. The last decade was marked by the strong dollar cycle and boom in fast-growing technology stocks. In hindsight, the weak post-crisis growth outside U.S. and Fed’s tighter monetary policyContinueContinue reading “Emerging Market Equities: Betting on the Underdog”

Monthly April 2020: Peak COVID-19, Counting the Cost of the Lockdown, and Equity Screaming Buy!

Download PDF: Monthly_202004 With the COVID-19 already spreading globally for over two months now and stock market seems to have bottomed, investors are right to ask whether we are at the peak of COVID-19 infection rate. In this article, we discuss where we are in the COVID-19 crisis cycle, the implication on countries’ banking systemContinueContinue reading “Monthly April 2020: Peak COVID-19, Counting the Cost of the Lockdown, and Equity Screaming Buy!”

Monthly March 2020: COVID-19 and The Bait and Switch in Global Equity

Downlaod PDF: Monthly_202003 Blame it on the COVID-19 Global bond investors have largely benefitted from the COVID-19 scare this year amid plunging global yields led by the U.S. Treasury. The budding signs of reflation beginning late last year have largely dissipated and investors have been running to safe haven assets, with gold price increasing almostContinueContinue reading “Monthly March 2020: COVID-19 and The Bait and Switch in Global Equity”

Tactical Trade: Short U.S. 10-year Treasury Notes

After a massively successful copper trade (up 7.17% since Dec 2nd monthly piece and closed today for profit taking) based on the thesis I wrote on this and last month’s monthly piece, I thought it would be great to supplement Putamen Growth Fund performance by also adding tactical trades based on current macro conditions. Derivatives,ContinueContinue reading “Tactical Trade: Short U.S. 10-year Treasury Notes”