In 45 days, kaChing plans to enable the convenience of allowing users to link their trading account to the account activities of its top-performing users.
Many new and existing users on kaChing's virtual trading community have been following my activities over this past year (to the new users, "followers" enables users to receive email alerts when a trade is made or when a research is posted). The site now has 387,598 registered users.
It is not known at this time if followers will decide to do the following:
(1) Open a discount trading account on Interactive Brokers and;
(2) Link a portion of holdings to seamlessly and conveniently have mirrored trades completed based on my actions.
IQ Me Not Smart Enough
To expand on the second point, there are many other users on that site whom have shown not just good results but results that exceeded my own (I am close to, but not currently at the minimum IQ score of 70 to qualify). By that, I mean simulated virtual returns that are consistent with what they say they are going to do ("investment strategy") and what reported statistics (sharpe ratio, turnover, risk index, downside standard deviation to name a few) say they have done ("Investment IQ") against that stated strategy.
Smart users will best allocate, say, $5,000 to one mirrored "signature investor" (as KaChing calls it), $5,000 to another, and say $3,000 to yet another. The rest of the assets can and should be used to purchase other types of assets (like bonds or stocks).
The Price of Convenience
For those who do not have the endurance to manage a portfolio, or want the convenience of the "kaChing mirroring" option, I asked kaChing and was told that it will be a fairly inexpensive alternative (from 0.25% to 3% annually).
The question then becomes: how do you choose an investment manager? On June 25th, kaChing provided its viewpoint on what it thinks is the best way to choose a manager.
Let's just say that in the last month, the virtual community was in a bit of an uproar. Were users hurling accounting figures, ratios, and even philosophy?
Although my enthusiasm is high for statistics, charts, and graphs, a typical user might overlook these measures. What might be worse is that users may not take the time to understand what these measures mean.
I would urge you not to do so, especially when using these measures to distinguish the intelligent investors from the speculative lucky ones.
Take, for example, the Sharpe ratio. It was developed by Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe. A Nobel laureate! Anyone who read Taleb's works might want to take a lesson on skepticism. However, in my reading of Taleb, my interpretation of skepticism is to understand the limitations, risks, and assumptions for any system that attempts to quantify human behavior and action with a numbers. It is this interpretation, not skepticism, that every investor managing his or her own money, must have.
Security Analysis
When I first joined kaChing, I used the site to apply my investment thesis. In that time, though, I stepped up my understanding of uncertainty, random theory, philosophy (the future is far from certain), risk management (quantify risk using a range of values, higher risk does not mean higher reward)...
...I even learned about hedging strategies and macro analysis, both of which are additional tools that investors need to have an edge over everyone else. More importantly, though, I complimented the activity on the site to work on and to apply "bottom-up analysis" based on Security Analysis (Benjamin Graham).
This is not going to be enough. Not for kaChing, and most certainly not for the general unpredictability of the stock market over the next few years.
kaChing's founder, Andy Rachleff, also provided insight in portfolio management that is used by hedge fund managers and by endowment funds. Generally speaking, both performed very well over long periods (15 years or more).
Compare that to various major indexes. Some moved nowhere in 10 or even 20 years.
What will prove valuable from the insights provided in the blog is that the approach is not generally used by the popular mutual funds sold by bank institutions. Note that kaChing's statistical measure for a user's performance return for Ivy League Portfolio managers. It is hardly a walk in the park.
My Strengths Need to Grow from my Weaknesses
From a personal note, my weakness in managing my portfolio was a twofold:
(1) Sticking to a clear strategy (current holdings contain both value and growth) and
(2) Outperforming the S&P 500 since March 2009*
The plan continues to be to learn from point (1). That is, to stick to a uniform strategy so that time is allocated to one strategy. This would provide more time in identifying companies that offer very compelling returns over the long term. As paraphrase what Warren Buffett said, to let lots of pitches go by but to swing hard when the right pitch comes along.
Other Progress - Leveraging the Virtual Trading Social Network
I had the goal of being able to perform a preliminary security analysis assessment for a company in about 20-30 minutes, instead of over several hours. I leveraged the knowledge of other kaChing users to get a second opinion on calculations and assumptions.
Wall Street is like a casino, so one must always remember that odds are, the house always wins. It should then be rationalized that group thinking within a virtual trading environment might be a way to put the odds back in the individual investor's favor (realistically, other quantitative measures like free cash flow, net present value, and discounted cash flow analysis takes time, but it is a next step after performing the quicker company value assessment for a stock).
kaChing's virtual community will thrive as long as users know that the competition against each other is harmless "play time." The true competition is against themselves and against mighty Wall Street.
As for the "*"
Memo to: 583 kaChing Followers
Re: Luring Rabbits From Burrows
There is no real excuse to justify an under-performance against the S&P 500. I am staying on the original position: taking a defensive approach to the assets managed. This means being under-invested in comparison to the index.
I am not convinced that the current market value of the index is justified.
The reasons are as follows:
- Government spending, stimulus packages, tax credits (in housing and in automobiles) is creating one-time events that the market is pricing in as indefinite
- Growth in the emerging markets is also due in part to government spending
- American consumers spending much less, are less confident
- The annual "Back to school" consumer spike that was seen since 1995 is suggested to be weak this year
- S&P 500's "forward" P/E is over 100
- Market is pricing in a "V-shaped" recovery but given unemployment levels and lack of job creation, "L" is more likely scenario
- In real-terms the stock market rally in the S&P relative to other indices (emerging markets) is unimpressive
- In real-terms the stock market rally in the S&P relative to its own currency is unimpressive
Yields in corporate bonds and in U.S. debt securities will provide an indication as to which way the major indexes (and the currency) will move, possibly in the weeks ahead (September or October).
Detailed Notes on Holdings
Longs:
My investment thesis is that consumers are going to continue to save substantially. Irrational as they are, they will not give up a few luxuries in the area of entertainment. It is for this reason that I have GameStop in the portfolio (my target price is $33).
Family Department Stores invests on the above investment thesis.
Microsoft is doing everything right with its Windows 7 development and launch. It is fairly valued, but I plan to add a large position in this company. Bing search is impressive.
BCE was simply undervalued after the takeover by Teacher's collapsed due to the credit crisis. Guess what? The crisis is over (by measure of spread, but not necessarily gone for good), and BCE has not traded accordingly. BCE is also focusing on wireless growth.
Biovail deals with generic drugs. Guess what? The U.S. and everyone else wants to cut down the cost of health care and on the cost of prescription drugs. While this does not benefit Biovail directly (from my valuation analysis), Biovail is moving in the right direction to capitalize on this trend.
General Growth Properties trades on the "pink sheets" (meaning it is bankrupt). Its bankruptcy was due to the company unable to roll-over its debt. The valuation of its assets are significantly higher than that assigned by its stock market value.
My position on the 30-year Treasury is bullish. The U.S. dollar should be relatively stronger, and given the change in QE (quantitative easing) by the Federal Reserve, I believe TLT will appreciate in value, especially if or when world stock prices begin to lose confidence in itself.
Shorts:
My bet against FedEx and on the British pound is for hedging purposes. I believe the US dollar will strengthen, and that overall consumption activities are not as strong as the market is predicting.
First Solar's business model is not as solid as everyone thinks, and competitors are adapting to put pressure on this company. Its business model depends on government subsidies. Valuation is too high and needs to come down.
Rio Tinto and Weyerhaeuser are also hedge positions to counter the mis-pricing and valuation given to real estate and to commodities. Rio also has a huge debt which will be a problem should market valuations shrink again.
Furry Rabbit
Rabbits will stay in burrows until carrots are in sight. Since this market is a virtual carrot, this rabbit will stay in cover to wait and will strike with greater decisiveness when the carrot is looking a lot more real.
