Investing in undervalued securities worldwide

Weekly Update 17 March 2025

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This content is provided for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security.

The prevailing tone on the stock market this year has been caution. This has been particularly evident in the US, where the economy has weakened due to the negative confidence effect of President Trump’s policies. But there has not been any real panic yet, which suggests the current sell-off may have a little further to go.

The VIX index, a measure of investor unease, peaked at 28 a week ago. It has since declined to 22. In genuine panics, the VIX typically reaches the 30-40 range.

Fundamentally a deeper sell-off would probably be driven by President Trump doubling down on his tariff and other policies. Trump has so far shown few signs of backing down from imposing tariffs or from deporting immigrants. It may be that the markets will have to decline a little more before the pressure to change course intensifies.

At the same time, it is difficult to see why a severe crash or a bear market should be imminent. The US private sector is still in good shape. The federal government is laying off workers, but it makes up only a small share of total US employment. The US central bank the Federal Reserve retains the capability to lower interest rates should the economy start to slow down more rapidly than expected.

While the portfolio has been insulated from the US economic slowdown so far, it would not be beneficial for European stocks ($EUSTX50) if the US fell into a proper recession. In that case, US bonds, gold and the Japanese yen would be better investments than stocks.

I expect to see a slowdown in the US, but no actual recession. The European economy could outperform as Trump’s policies are leading European governments to counteract Trump’s tariffs and the changed US defence policy via investments and stimulus. In my central scenario, US stocks ($SPX500) go nowhere, the Tech sector underperforms, and European Value and Small Cap stocks outperform.

The portfolio is positioned for this economic scenario because despite the positive shocks experienced this year, expectations about the European economy remain average. I like to turn defensive only when everybody else is optimistic.
uk.investing.com/economic-calendar/sentix-investor-confidence-268

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Unite Group and Enel were sold, Barclays bought.

Copy Trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

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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. 51% 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.

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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.

This page is provided for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to copy the Triangula Capital strategy or to buy, sell or hold any 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.

Cheap Stocks in Cheap Sectors

The strategy invests in geographies 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.

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

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.