U.S. Trucking Industry Running on Empty
The trucking industry has typically been thought of as a bellwether for the health of the American economy; increases in consumer and industrial demand result in a greater need to move raw materials and finished goods across the U.S. With that said, the current state of the U.S. trucking industry has mixed implications for the […]
Toning down the Big Aussie Short
Characterizing anything as a “big short” these days is a great way to turn heads. Following the success of last year’s Academy Award-winning movie, The Big Short – starring the likes of Christian Bale and Brad Pitt, everyone seems to be looking for the next “big short”. The movie was as entertaining as it was […]
Teradata: how did it get here?
Teradata is a pioneer and global leader in providing high end data warehouse and analytics technology solutions to large enterprises. But the industry landscape has been changing and Teradata has failed to keep pace. The likely outcome is that Teradata’s future earnings will be pressured beyond current expectations. Consequently, the Montaka Global Fund maintains a […]
The other big global risk right now
While everyone is focused on a Chinese economic slowdown and the risk of a currency devaluation – and rightly so – we are increasingly concerned with the state of the Italian financial system. By financial system, we mean to include the banking system and the state of the government balance sheet. As you will see, […]
Drilling deeper into the ground
As the price of crude oil fell from $115/bbl to $30/bbl, life for the offshore oil drillers became much more challenging. Drilling offshore was a necessary precursor to many deep-sea oil production projects – which themselves were only economically viable at very high oil prices. At $30/bbl oil, most of these projects are uneconomic; and […]
Can you visualize population distribution?
Everyone knows what a map of the world looks like, but few have a complete understanding of how populations are distributed between countries. Essentially, we are interested in looking at the ratio of population per land area. For example, Australia is a country roughly the size of the United States; yet its population of 24 […]
Why barriers to exit are killing commodity prices
Many investors understand the importance of “barriers to entry” to an industry. If an industry is difficult, time-consuming or prohibitively expensive to enter, then-incumbent industry players will be protected from competition. This is an attractive characteristic for the shareholders of said incumbents and usually results in the industry generating above-average industry returns. Fewer investors consider […]
There is something amiss in China
We are often asked if we invest on the Chinese Mainland. The answer is a categorical “No”. To understand why, keep reading. There is something amiss in China. We don’t proclaim to understand exactly what is happening domestically, yet we observe the political and economic landscape continually. Here are a few of those observations: In […]
A low returning year finishes – has another one begun?
Happy new year! Welcome to Montaka in 2016. Well, many investors will be happy to turn the page on the year of 2015. It was certainly a low-returning year (with the exception of Montaka, we are proud to write). Consider that the S&P 500 returned just +1.4% including dividends during the year in the US; […]