Investing in undervalued securities worldwide

Weekly Update 27 March 2023

Share Article:

It looks like the first quarter of 2023 will end with a gain for stocks, after choppy market action.

In January, markets rallied on the Chinese reopening, lower energy prices and lower inflation.

In February, there was a reversal after the US economy re-accelerated, interest rates increased, and equity valuations fell.

In March, a mini banking crisis broke out. The stock market was, however, resilient, as it appeared that the crisis was contained to only a couple of banks.

In the short run, we are optimistic on the market because it seems that the banking system has stabilised, positioning is below average, and investors are pessimistic. Our target for the $SPX500 over the next 1-2 months is 4,300.

This is only a short-term tactical view. On a 6-9 month horizon, we believe stocks will trade lower. The inflation problem is not solved; bank lending standards are tightening; and there has been no real panic at any point during the 15-month bear market.

Given the positive near-term outlook, we are planning to increase the risk level of the portfolio this week, but will not go all in. A new position has been opened in emerging market local currency bonds on the view that the banking situation has stabilised, the US dollar may weaken, and the Chinese re-opening is gaining momentum, all of which should benefit emerging markets.

2023 performance YTD
@triangulacapital +8.9%
$SWDA.L +3.8%

Portfolio changes
Sanofi and Newmont Mining Corp were sold. The proceeds from Newmont were deployed into Kinross Gold and Pan American Silver. A position was opened in the iShares JPMorgan Emerging Market Local Govt Bond ETF.

Share Article:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Disclosures

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFD assets.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

eToro (Europe) Ltd., a Financial Services Company authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC) under the license # 109/10.

eToro (UK) Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the license FRN 583263.

Your capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, visit etoro.com/trading/fees.

Pietari Laurila is not a registered investment advisor and does not offer investment advisory, fund management or wealth management services.

Triangula Capital is a brand name, not an incorporated entity.

This page is provided for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to copy the Triangula Capital strategy or to invest in any fund or security.

2009-2020 performance figures are from Pietari’s personal Interactive Brokers account. They are time-weighted returns calculated in accordance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS).

From 2021, performance is calculated by eToro.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Track Record

It is often said that past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.

That is true. But there is also some evidence indicating that portfolios that performed better in the past, do perform better in the future.

“[…] top-decile prior-alpha funds produce annual future alphas of about 150 bps, net of fees” Source

Risk warning: That is only one study. In general, past performance is not indicative of future results.

Aligned Incentives

Pietari invests the majority of his net worth in the strategy. This ensures that his interests are aligned with investors who copy the strategy.

“Funds with high-incentive contracts deliver higher risk-adjusted return, and the superior performance remains persistent. The top incentive quintile of funds outperforms the bottom quintile by 2.70% per year” Source

Risk warning: Pietari holds accounts with multiple brokers and may therefore have a conflict of interest when deciding which accounts he should trade in first.

Unconstrained Investments

The strategy has fewer constraints on its investments than traditional mutual funds.

The strategy portfolio can be invested in stocks, bonds or cash and these allocations can vary over time.

Compared to traditional mutual funds, the strategy also:

  • holds fewer securities
  • trades more
  • avoids following the index

Each of these points has been shown to be an important predictor of portfolio performance.

“We […] find that portfolio concentration is directly related to risk-adjusted returns for institutional investors worldwide” Source

“A one-standard-deviation increase in turnover is associated with a 0.65% per year increase in performance for the typical fund” Source

“We find that truly active funds significantly outperform closet indexers. Further, we find that the truly active funds are able to outperform their benchmarks on average by 1.04% per year” Source

Risk warning: Concentrated portfolios with few positions can suffer large losses if bad news arrives about any of the companies in the portfolio.

Higher Risks for Higher Returns

The aim of the strategy is to maximize returns, even if this means taking more risks than usual.

The strategy invests in countries and sectors where values have collapsed due to macroeconomic problems.

Within these geographies and sectors, the strategy overweights stocks that trade at low valuations on measures such as price-to-earnings or price-to-net asset value.

Every stock in the strategy portfolio must also be a good company, with no obvious red flags or long-term threats to its business model.

Risk warning: The strategy portfolio tends to be concentrated in risky stocks, which means that its losses in any market downturn will likely exceed those of the market index.