He's a crypto skeptic. Might be a Ponzi scheme, biggest one we've ever seen. A lot of people tell him that he just doesn't understand the new world and that he's missed the boat. Maybe. He's been saying this for a long time, yet it keeps going up.
Volatile asset, will remain so. Might go to $1M before it goes to $0, doesn't know. Recognize what you're trading and the trading momentum of the greater fool theory. Limited supply and growing demand, so the price is going up. No one can tell you what it's worth. No cashflow, makes no money for you, not a productive asset. A speculative asset. If you think there are going to be more buyers than sellers, and it breaks $100k, enjoy it while it lasts.
The closer you write your option to the money, the higher your premium will be. That's the basic definition of an options strategy. But you're going to get no capital gain. It's a very tax-efficient strategy. If you're looking for high income and no growth, some of these ETFs are really good choices. Overall, he likes these strategies as ways to get income from the markets.
Believes they write only a part of the underlying at the money. Some of the ETFs have a bit of leverage, so you need to investigate. Again, don't just look at the yield and jump on it. In some markets the yield will help. In others, it will really hurt your total return as opposed to owning something without the options embedded.
Lending in real estate finance. Very interest-rate sensitive. If you think interest rates are going to rise, as in 2022, then it will underperform significantly. Will do better if rates fall. Thinks the BOC has a bit more to go on that, so there could be a bit more upside.
But the stock's already rallied back to highs of 2021, so risk/return not that attractive. Risk/return looks more interesting around $16-17. He'd call it neutral to underweight at this point.
He tends to be more of a trader than a very long-term investor. But he looks around the world and asks what's relatively cheap compared to a lot of things in the market that are very expensive? He looks at Warren Buffett, who is holding a lot of cash right now.
Whether the correction for the broader markets comes in a year, a month, or 3 years, he doesn't know. But Warren's building this massive cash pile to take advantage of at some point. So that's Larry's mindset. He wants lots of dry powder as he looks for companies where there's relative value.
Future of the US dollar
Long-term perspective is really important. Currency started floating about 50 years ago. He's looking at a chart that goes back to the early 1970s. Currently, the CAD is sitting around $1.40. The average CAD rate is $1.23. Very little time in the last 50 years was it actually at $1.23; either at a significant premium or discount.
Historically, the Canadian interest-rate environment always had to be higher than the US to prevent the CAD from weakening. This was due to our having twin deficits -- capital account deficit, and current account deficit. Capital account deficit: investors globally buying fewer Canadian assets than Canadians are buying foreign. Current account deficit: terms of trade.
As we get into 2025, investors should think about where they own a lot of foreign securities, and exposure that isn't hedged (ETFs are a great example), and where they can flip to a version of a fund that locks in the currency. When the CAD goes back to that median level (and it will at some point in the next number of years), there's a significant amount of currency appreciation that would, otherwise, start working against you.
In the short term, it could go to $1.42 or $1.43, even spike to $1.45. Those are targets where you'd want to hedge some currency exposure.
We think DOL is a very high quality name and are quite comfortable with it for a long-term hold. We are comfortable buying at the current price, but a good entry price would be $140. DOL would be our top pick for exposure here, but another option with more of a growth tilt could be ATZ.
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The last quarter was a bit mixed, and thus the stock has not done a whole lot this year (down 16%). The balance sheet has a bit of leverage (1.5X cash flow net), but is in significantly better shape than it was in prior cycles. It is expensive on current valution but very strong EPS growth is forecast for 2025 (more than 3X). It has seen a few broker downgrades since the quarter, but if it can execute on its growth plan in '25 we would expect investors to sit up and pay attention. It remains fairly cyclical so the economy does need to co-operate here. There has been a small amount of recent insider buying, which is positive.
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SMCI has decided to replace the CFO and add more senior legal leadership. It says it will not need to restate any prior issued financials. This is also positive. But...the company did not specifically affirm guidance. Customers certainly may have backed off on purchase orders, so for the moment we would not rely on projections. The stock is very cheap and momentum and short covering will likely take it higher. But we will be more comfortable when we actually see a reported quarter which shows growth has not been negatively impacted by recent events.
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Long US treasuries and writes covered calls to generate income. If you look at the chart, while you've been making 17% in yield, you've lost the equivalent in price terms. You must look at total return. Those that focus on the yield and don't understand the return are doomed to risk. Volatile.
Instead, just hold TLT or ZTL -- US bonds at the long end of the treasury curve -- and don't worry about the yield so much.