Digging Deeper into Iron Ore
While there is no physical shortage of iron ore on earth (fourth most abundant element on the planet), from time to time markets forget this overarching fact and in response to transient supply disruptions, can materially distort price levels of the commodity. The current iron ore market exhibits such characteristics visible from the price of […]
A Deep Dive into Chinese Cemeteries
The Montaka team has recently done some research on the Chinese death care industry. Clearly a unique space both as an investment opportunity and otherwise, I thought our insights might be novel and interesting for our readers. The industry is underpinned by a deep connection to China’s cultural history, with traditional funeral processes such as […]
IPO investing: Mind the GAAP
The disappointing public market debuts of private market darlings Uber and Lyft, and the nervous handwringing of their unicorn compatriots waiting in the pipeline (WeWork, Airbnb, Slack to name a few), serve as another reminder to investors of the importance of sound financial analysis using financial metrics that bear some semblance to reality. In order […]
As democracies fragment, autocracies strengthen
Are democracies fragmenting? It certainly appears so. In numerous democratic political systems around the world, we are seeing a rise in the success of minor parties and independent candidates. Major parties – on both sides of the political spectrum – that have dominated for generations are failing to retain their vote. Power is increasingly being […]
Cruise Lines: Smooth Sailing or Heading for an Iceberg
The team at Montaka Global recently looked at the cruise line industry and thought it might be interesting to share some of our insights with our investors and friends of the firm. The cruise line Industry is highly consolidated with the three largest players representing ~80% of industry revenues. Carnival / CCL is the world’s largest cruise line […]
Boeing Failures Illuminate Greater Software Challenge
“If x: do y; else: do z.” The beauty of software is in its ability to eliminate human error; a computer can be trusted to execute code accurately every single time, all at incredible speeds while occupying minimal space. But what happens when the code is so complex that the humans writing it cannot identify […]
Transcending Advertising
How many ads have you seen in the last 24 hours? If you had to guess you might say 50, 100, or even 200. The answer is likely much higher, with Digital Marketing experts estimating that Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. The omnipresence of ads in our everyday lives […]
Fed goes full reversal
In December, when US equities were in freefall over concerns about trade, the economy and Federal Reserve tightening, the Fed decided to raise interest rates for the fourth time in 2018 and reaffirmed its autopilot QT stance, sending stocks to their first intraday bear market since the GFC. Having realised their mistake and with the […]
More than Money: Lessons from the Premier League
With only eight rounds left of this season’s English Premier League (EPL) we thought we’d reflect on the world’s most popular soccer competition from a few angles. The EPL now reaches a television audience of 4.7 billion people across 185 countries, which has driven broadcast rights to increase by ~24x, from £192mm to £4,554mm in […]
Deciphering Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
By now we have all heard the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) with the mysterious technology representing the next cutting edge “mega trend” in computing. AI can be thought of as the simulation of human intelligence by computer systems with the most rapid advancements currently emerging in “machine learning”. Machine learning is the core building block […]