Friday File: Blockchain Week ends, Two Buys, One Sell and some portfolio thoughts
by Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe | December 8, 2017 4:49 pm
Adding two small positions in cobalt and tech, a stop loss in Axis, and thoughts on CoreSite, Berkshire and more for the Friday File
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Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2017/12/friday-file-blockchain-week-ends-two-buys-one-sell-and-some-portfolio-thoughts/
In Canada the bitcoin/blockchain fever is accompanied by the cannabis fever, leading to bad puns such as WEED (the largest cannabis company) has reached a new high! All that is not just smoke and mirrors, some serious developments. Anyway, this article may be useful: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/bitcoin-bull-shows-how-to-get-bitcoin-exposure-without-baggage
I bought some Ripple this past month. Looks to be promising with Ben Bernacke on the board. Just a bit if it starts an upward trend
I have been loading up on XRP and XLM slowly as well.
Just so you know…
Ripple
Company owned (UNL list in hands of Ripple labs).
Centralised, partially distributed (referring to the UNL list).
No distribution (Premine).
As opposed to most cryptocurrencies like…
Bitcoin
No company is in control.
Decentralised and distributed.
Emittance of own currency for fee-model.
Best-effort distribution (mining, PoW).
Rockshield Capital (rks-cse) is a fund that privately owns many of the best marijuana and blockchain companies out there. trades at less than half of its net asset value –
Off-topic comment:
Why do so many people these days use various forms of this popular, but worthless figure of speech: “I’ve gone ahead and …”? (found above)
The “gone ahead and” is unnecessary. It adds nothing. If you take those words away from the sentence readers would not notice that they were gone (and they might appreciate that they weren’t used).
This is particularly popular, for some unknown reason, with on-line presenters, who are frequently saying things like: I’m going to go ahead and click on this…
Drives me close to crazy.
Just sayin…
Seriously, grammar police on Stock Gumshoe? I proof grammar every day so when I am off work I like to read articles with fun colloquialism.
Stewl, while you may think yourself a stalwart defender of grammar there are mistakes in your post and it is wordy. Example, why use “particularly popular” when “particularly” adds no value. It is a filler word and unnecessary. Same with “for some unknown reason”. Leave out the “unknown” and it is implied with “for some reason”. “Unknown” adds nothing.
Why use “If you take those words away” instead of “Taking those words away”? That saves two words. You definitely messed-up with “who are frequently saying things like”. Why not use “who say things like”? “Frequently” is implied.
I could say, “why do people use phrases like ‘who are frequently saying things like’ ”
Let this be a discussion about stocks and let people use phrases with which they feel comfortable. Life is too short for that garbage.
I “went and got” as in I went and got my socks from the drawer, chaps my drawers.
Thanks for sharing that, lol.
BTLLF has been getting blockchain play. Company that has reportedly drawn the interest of the U.S. Navy.
Hey Steve, where/when did you learn that ? My shares have been spiking last week and I can find no such reference. Any links would be appreciated.
Many Thanks.
Travis, I enjoy your commentary and I find it informative. Regarding bitcoin, Teeka Tiwari in The Palm Beach Letter makes the case that it is a “safe haven” for your money. When Cyprus and Greece limited withdrawals, and did some other not nice things to depositors, bitcoin jumped in value. In addition, with the US$ having lost 95% of its value in the last 100 years or so, it could also be thought of as protection for your purchasing power. I am a recent bitcoin enthusiast with a very small portion of my capital in bitcoin and friends but I can understand why people may believe in its future–regardless its current valuation.
I suppose. Like all other assets, real or virtual, it’s worth what other people believe it’s worth. I put a lot more faith in gold than in cryptocurrencies if it’s a SHTF episode that concerns you, simply because of the thousands of years of human tradition with gold… but in the end, gold, too, is worth what someone will pay you for it at the time you need to sell. There’s good history there, but surely no guarantees.
I could have bought bit coin back when it started in fact tried to do so but could not figure out how to make it work or set up the account. It still makes no sense to me, can I hold it? look at it? show it to some one? The dollar based on 1964 $ is worth 7.8 cents today, only because they took the silver out of the coinage and opened the gold window. To me something has to be real.
The first bitcoin purchase was pizza in Jax FL- 10,000. Go figure. with 1200+ and more everyday of new coins I simply do not understand. BITCOIN was simply to be currency for transactions and its not very good @ that as opposed to other coins. I found out too late about CRYPTO20 coin (but there are more index coins coming). Other investments I was interested in such as platforms on ICONOMI, The Token Fund, and others are simply not open to US investors unless one has the savvy of establishing offshore via VPN etc. The RIPPLE coin sounds promising due to its perceived acceptance by traditional banking system and lightning fast transactions. I can understand the desirability of a globally accepted digital currency (I think of citizens of countries with unstable currencies like Venezuela, Greece etc and people who gather their income form unlawful activities such as drug and arms dealers and those who desire to digitally offshore from taxing authorities) but I simply cant understand how this open system will be able to provide the stability needed for a currency.
And the more I think about it I believe there is the possibility crytpo-currency might change the way small businesses and anyone who deals in cash will operate in the US. Marijuana recently became legalized in my state (it was already the #1 cash crop) and the lament of anyone in the weed business is the USG treatment of their transactions due to still illegal federally. Now with crytpo-currency no more problem, they can make payments, payroll, purchases, etc- in other words conduct business seamlessly. Also, for the small businessperson or anyone who can make transactions in cash without receipts one can now do it off the books without a taxable event being recorded for IRS, the account is now somewhere in the Ethernet definitely not in the US. It will be a new way of conducting business without big brother watching. In-lieu of the person cleaning your house and loosing 28% to taxes and SS- now you can pay them straight out with a crypto. You can pay less and they can take home more.
EXCELLENT Friday File Travis. Thank you.
I have learned through experience that gains that come quickly can evaporate in an instant. At the time of the tech boom you could have cashed in gains and bought good quality 10 year bonds yielding 5 or 6 percent.
At the time of the current crypto boom you can buy large cap equities with an average portfolio yield of 4 percent.
An attorney I know once did some work for a small quoted company and was paid in equity, as the company had little cash. A reverse takeover and ASE listing saw his small amount of work turn into over a million dollars.(1980s dollars) Despite a lot of argument from the new board that the company was headed for substantial growth he was eventually persuaded to sell most of his stock. The company later nosedived and foundered as a result of fraud.
So the question people with large crypto gains have to face is how they will rationalise their actions five or ten years from now. Will they be able to say “I made $ large from the crypto boom and cashed in – leaving some potential further gains for the buyers” or will they be telling their tale of lost $ large/ millions in bars to anyone who will listen.
I’m in the camp that see’s gold dropping in price perhaps because of the bitcoin enthusiasm as a buying opportunity as it bottoms. I don’t see gold fading away as Russia, China and many others are buying more gold now than in the past. Can they all be wrong? I doubt it. Those in my generation would rather add to my gold position during times of volatility than a new currency that is difficult to understand or could be stolen or hacked any minute. Sure gold is and has been manipulated but it has been time tested which gives me a sense of security when the markets change in direction. I may be old fashion but you need to have some confidence that your investment won’t disappear overnight when the world can change in the time it take to tweet something stupid. JB
An fairly unknown play on Blockchain is Overstock. They own a company, Medici Ventures, that is focused on blockchain technology development.
$CTEQF Clean Teq
Hi Travis et al:
Travis, I respect your analysis and I am grateful for the forum you provide; so it makes me feel pretty good that you have decided to take a position in Clean Teq.
If there were an obvious unnoticed flaw in the company, I am sure you would have spotted it.
A few comments about points in your essay. The financial reports will look awful since they have virtually no income. However if one considers the backers, I think there is no danger of a financial failure.
The lack of confidence absent a bankable feasibility study is also an understandable concern. However the actions of the company make it clear that they are going ahead with construction: they have purchased millions of dollars in equipment, paying cash, as well as a Port-a-Camp for 300 people who will be involved in the project; and they have announced a timetable for production of Q1 2019.
So they are not waiting for a Bankable Feasibility Study, and I assert that the financing is not going to be a problem…conceding, as you point out, that nothing in this world is 100% certain.
As a conservative analyst, you have done what many others do, which is to focus on the “here and now” aspects of the company. These are nickel and cobalt. And I also concede that short-term, the stock is likely to rise or fall based on these metals.
However there are three other sectors of business which Clean Teq has more than speculative potential: These are the scandium potential, the water purification business, and the “virtual mine” potential of proprietary mineral extraction operations on waste and ore dumps. One caqn discount these potential revenue streams in a current valuation; but given the likelihood that all three sectors are
eventually going to be realities, it is my opinion that conservatism of discounting them entirely results in a drastic undervaluation of the company.
I am long Clean Teq, it is by far my largest position.
Nice postings as always hn. Cleanteq to me is a great company. I think it is a long term investment. Many people are freaking out over a 10 percent move which in the long term is nothing. If you believe in the company when it dips buy more. Friedland will prevail on this one as usual. I am long Cordoba and continue to be so despite others fears. He became the majority stakeholder not to long ago and even with the corner it has backed itself into I don’t think it’s going to matter in the end and I have bought more after it dipped greatly and will do so again if it continues to dip. Only time will tell I guess. As for blockchain, a few not to mentioned companies I think weill do well are HIVE and SING. SING is a promising small company that continues to be debt free and buy up cannabis companies. They are a blockchain and cannabis investment. Long Clean Teq, SING and HIVE.
All this bitcoin stuff is just to fast for me. It reminds of the DOTCOM trading in the 90’s. You could just throw a stock ticker out there and people would buy it. I know I did.
That being said, I did buy two Litecoin back in Oct at $58. I would have bought (wish I did now) bitecoin but I wanted to have a “whole “coin rather than a faction of a coin. I was sitting here on Thursday after watching bitcoin go up $2000 or so, as I took a leak in the toilet, thinking of buying some more litecoin. It was selling for about $95. So, I decided to sleep on it. Now, it is at $161 as I type. Snooze you lose!
Is this going to end up like the DotCom phase? Or as some compare it to: the Tulip Bulb Bubble. I don’t know, but I feel like I have to be in it, just in case it is real.
I wrote an letter setting forth a system of switching to $Wampum, but apparently Lynn must have thought I was being frivolous and it was blocked. Roger (Very Irregular)
Hi Roger, nothing has been blocked (and we don’t mind frivolity). Perhaps it was lost in the ether somewhere, sorry, we didn’t see it come through on our end.
What do you think about Blockchain—BLKCF
Overstock is an indirect cryptocurrency play worth looking into.
Mark Cohodes, a brash short-seller, has been long Overstock for a while and continues to promote it on twitter. He had been short OSTK a decade ago, the first time the stock went crazy. I keep an eye on him more for his short positions, since those are at least more entertaining, and I don’t know if he’s right, but he’s a smart and analytical guy.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-10/short-seller-cohodes-unveils-overstock-long-in-u-turn-on-old-foe
As you hinted at, the boring established players will likely be the winners in blockchain tech. My pick is Visa (V). I own it. A lot of obscure names get throw out there, but the thing is Bitcoin/blockchain is not sneaking up on anyone. All the smart money (especially in financial services) has seen it coming for at least a few years now. If you think Visa currently has wide margins, wait until they build the blockchain network that we’ll actually use for real commerce. (The hard part might be managing credit card perks as fees come down dramatically.) But cashless is the trend and I don’t think one can go wrong with any of the major card networks.
Good points. When it comes to financial services, it’s really hard to upset the apple cart — the big guys tend to keep winning, partly because of the huge cost of building a competitive market or brand or regulatory oversight process.
$IPAY, anyone?
Just a thought about crypto currencies. If a rogue nation allocates a power station and hardware, they can generate foreign exchange for no measurable cost. The currencies mined could be released by regime supporters – exchanging for gold might muddy the trail – then used to fund illegal activities. So the guidance which governments and central bank governors will be getting from their security services will I think be somewhat negative to say the least.
Does anyone know anything about cryptocurrencies offered by Altucher? His program costs $4000.00,with a $1000.00 off for first 2000 applicants. He claims to be able to weed out the 90% that have no chance of succeeding. He offers only the ones he and his team have vetted. Promises 1000% upside to your portfolio of cryptocurrencies.
Travis, I was wondering if you could do a article on the best companies to invest in the USA regarding the pot explosion. Cal. is to go to recreational use in Jan 2018. Michael Robinson had a article on Dec 9, 2017 titled “the California pot explosion – the three best ways to profit from this historic moment.” I would also like ant input from other readers. thanks, ed
YES…
Also check out this thread: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/03/microblog-420-investors/comment-page-2/#comments