Investment Management

Week 30: Buybacks Over Dividends, AlphaFold Breakthrough and The First 3D Printed Bridge

Jul 28, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 6 mins to read)

Briefing: This week, three topics caught our attention. Equity yields are higher than reported. The S&P 500 dividend yield is approximately 1.25%, but when you include buybacks the yield is closer to 2.25%. Investors may not appreciate how the buyback yield is positively impacting them from both a tax and income perspective. AI is contributing to real scientific breakthroughs. AlphaFold is AI's...

Week 29: Interest Rates, Venture Capital and High Yield Debt

Jul 21, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 8 mins to read)

Briefing: Following many decades of incredible success, venture capital investing is aggressively funding the next wave of innovative disrupters. The high yield rate, the rate that investors earn from buying "junk" rated companies, is the lowest it's been since 2007, which signifies very low bankruptcy risk. Where should future interest rates settle now that the 10 year treasury rate is back do...

Week 28: The All Electric Future & Battery Technology

Jul 14, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 5 mins to read)

GM recently announced strategic plans to convert its entire product line into electric vehicles by 2035. For context, GM sold 6.8m new vehicles last year out of 78.5m total, making them one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world. It's a bold, but necessary move to create a sustainable and environmentally aware future. Given our increasingly electrified world, battery technology will ...

Week 27: Chinese IPOs, Global Ownership, and The AI Race

Jul 7, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 6 mins to read)

Briefing: With all of the recent news on Didi, the Chinese version of Uber, it's a good time to revisit the challenges and opportunities related to investing in Chinese companies. Similar to the US, China is a highly sophisticated global technology leader and many investors have successfully participated in the rise of Alibaba, Tencent, JD, and so on. Investors have had to ignore the quirks of ...

Week 26: The Dollar, Lumber and Cybersecurity

Jun 30, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 6 mins to read)

Briefing: There are three themes that rose to the top this week as we head towards a much-needed long Summer weekend. In spite of the many noisy headlines: the dollar is not on the verge of collapse, lumber prices are normalizing fast and there is an exponentially increasing need for cybersecurity. Let's dive into each of these in turn below.

Week 25: Mission Driven Investing, Avoiding Headwinds and Considering the Stakeholders

Jun 23, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 7 mins to read)

Impact investing has gone through a revolution of sorts over the past few years. For decades, communities have voiced continuous concern that shareholders are myopically focused on short term profits at the expense of society as a whole. ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing was considered to be more of a marketing strategy or a charitable endeavor instead of a high quality investme...

Taking Stock of Mega Trends

The currents that move us forward

Jun 16, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 7 mins to read)

Keeping track of megatrends is a valuable investment exercise to practice on a regular basis. Megatrends are not often covered accurately or with full context by CNBC or the front page of the WSJ. Daily financial media is incentivized less to broadly inform and more to create an immediate emotional reaction. These trends happen slowly until they become obvious and enormous. Understanding the un...

What Is 5G And What Does It Mean For Me?

A revolution in flexibility

Jun 9, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 8 mins to read)

The first generation ‘1G’ wireless telecommunications standards began in the 1980s. Each subsequent “G” refers to a new decade of updated minimum industry standards. 2G was the 1990s, 3G was the 2000s, and so on. By the end of the current decade, we’ll be talking about 6G and the latest and greatest standards for the 2030’s. Since 5G is often in the news, we thought we’d cover it this week to a...

Population, The Biden Budget, and Bailouts

Assumptions and expectations set by the US

Jun 2, 2021 - Max Osbon ( 6 mins to read)

Last week, the Biden Administration released its 2022 budget for the US Government. Along with many details about how the $6+ trillion budget is allocated, there is a table covering their assumptions including GDP growth and interest rate changes. Given the government has considerable controls to help turn these assumptions into reality, let’s take a closer look at our government’s projections ...