The Collision of Fundamentals and Technicals: New GICS Sector Definitions
Fundamental bottom-up investors like ourselves generally steer clear of technical indicators as they often lay diametrically opposite to our value investing framework (i.e. top-down, short-term, algorithmic, etc.). However, significant changes to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), one of the most widely used frameworks to delineate sectors, will come into effect on Friday, September 28, 2018 and is worth reviewing given several names […]
The Class 8 Frenzy
Recent months have seen U.S. Class 8 truck orders hit all-time records. The current cycle is arguably the strongest ever, and is being driven by a combination of structural and cyclical factors. For a number of reasons, this cycle is different from the one that came before it, and there are potentially nuanced ways to […]
Keep on trucking
“Truck drivers: the unsung heroes on the road” read the title of an article discussing the key role served by U.S. truck drivers. Despite the accolades, one thing remains for certain: driving trucks in the U.S. is a demanding job, with fewer and fewer people opting for this career. The resulting truck driver shortage in […]
Large Consumer Goods with a Side of VC
Autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, … consumer goods? One of the latest trends in venture capital funding has been the growing proportion of funds directed toward startups aiming to disrupt the consumer staples market. Recent shifts have removed many of the barriers to entry that for decades cemented the same brands’ spots on retail […]
Colliding Federal Debt and the Rate Hike Cycle
Following the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s recent decision to raise short term interest rates by 25bps (to 1.75-2.00%) and indicate 2 more are on the way this year, we thought it was an opportune time to revisit one of ourfavorite asymmetries when looking at businesses from the short side, namely debt and leverage. Generally speaking, if a […]
What Lies Beneath the Increasingly Unstable European Union / Euro Currency
With the recent violent market reaction across equities, bonds, FX, etc. in response to fears of Italy leaving the European Union / Euro Currency, we thought we’d take a closer look at what is happening in Europe and across the world. Populist movements are on the rise globally, from the U.K., U.S., Australia, Italy, etc. […]
The emergence of a new economic idea
What if it were true that government debt did not matter? That governments could borrow as much as they liked to fund social programs to keep their citizens educated, employed and healthy? Socialist utopian nonsense is probably the first thought that jumps to most readers’ minds. And while your author is far from convinced that […]
What to make of China’s Social Credit System?
In recent weeks, a very well-researched paper on China’s rapidly evolving Social Credit System (SCS) was published by the University of Leiden’s Rogier Creemers. We believe analysis of China’s SCS provides insight into the philosophies of China’s leadership as well as their evolving and innovative methods of effecting control. China’s SCS will ultimately affect just about […]
TV or not TV, that is the question
It is well known that television viewership habits have been evolving. And now, at least in the US, it appears ad dollars are finally abandoning the traditional television network platform. According to a Bloomberg article titled: Advertisers Tuning Out TV in Sign of Trouble for Media Companies, 2017 marked the steepest drop in US television-advertising […]
The GDPR is coming
In less than a month, new EU regulations will come into effect that go by the name of General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR). These regulations are designed to give internet users substantially more control over how their information is shared and used; and creates significant penalties for noncompliance. At first glance, this might sound […]
