Dwight Anderson: Long Palladium, Short Platinum (Ira Sohn Presentation)

We're posting up notes from the Ira Sohn Conference.  Ospraie Management's Dwight Anderson gave a presentation on going long palladium, short platinum, as well as long Westlake Chemical (WLK).  He's a fundamental investor focused on bottom-up research, mines, agricultural.  Was previously at Tiger Management, Tudor Investment Corp.

Long: Westlake Chemical (WLK). Ethylene, and Vinyls (options on improving housing volumes) Petroleum-based competitors are bleeding cash. Westlake improves from shale in US. As of 2013, Ethyne prices will drop by 0.25 a pound, a 50% increase in WLK eps. $55, should earn $5 this year. Replacement value $75. Management is expanding capacity, still $150M FCF.


Long Palladium/Short Platinum:  Changes in prices gets no supply response for Palladium. Platinum: auto is 65% of demand, then tech, dental, jewelry, per vehicle can't be less, despite engineers efforts. In 2007, 75M vehicles, 4.1M oz. of platinum, but at 85M vehicles, it fell to 3.1M. So story is simple, Palladium is taking share from Platinum.


P.S. - Don't miss other presentations from David Einhorn, John Paulson, Bill Ackman & more: notes from Ira Sohn Conference 2012.

Best Investments During Inflation

So, what is the best investment during inflation? The good news is that there are a multitude of securities and assets that can protect against inflationary pressure. The bad news is if such a scenario comes to fruition, your purchasing power is reduced. The main thing to keep an eye on is the money supply. Throughout the crisis, the monetary base has expanded, but has yet to materialize in the money supply. If/when this comes to fruition, you'll be prepared after learning how to invest for inflation below.

Interestingly enough, deflation has been the top concern amongst investors as of late and yesterday we detailed the best investments during deflation. But investors have quickly forgotten that inflation was the primary concern just a mere few months ago. This revisits a post we originally published in August 2008 examining investment scenarios for inflation versus deflation. Regardless of outcome, investors need to be prepared for either.

Why should you be worried about inflation? Well, how about because one of the greatest investors of this generation is concerned. Yup, Baupost Group's Seth Klarman is worried about inflation. Not to mention, Kyle Bass, the hedge fund manager who predicted the subprime crisis as well as sovereign defaults has voiced concern about inflation and significant currency devaluation around the globe. For every prominent investor worried about deflation, there is another concerned with the converse scenario.

Here are the best investments during inflation:

Avoid Cash/US Dollars: Inflation typically results in domestic currency devaluing. You can fight this by simply not holding it and allocating the capital into other assets and investments. Nowadays, cash is most certainly part of the asset allocation picture. During inflation, you want to have as little of it on hand if possible. Since it devalues during inflation, those of you wishing to press your bets against the US dollar can buy the PowerShares Bearish US dollar index fund (UDN).


Buy Gold & Precious Metals: If you'll think back toward the end of the crisis, gold was all the rage. As the Federal Reserve's printing presses worked overtime to churn out US dollars to resuscitate the economy, many became very worried about inflation. Their number one investment to protect against this? Gold. While precious metals in general are a solid bet, gold in particular is seen as a hedge against uncertainty and a store of value. For an in-depth thesis as to why you should buy gold during inflation, we turn you to out post on successful hedge fund manager John Paulson's gold fund. He launched this vehicle last year as a means of betting against the US dollar. Another option is the stocks of companies that mine the metal. One hedge fund recently opined that gold is good, but gold mining stocks are better.

We've detailed how countless other prominent investment managers favor yellow bricks. John Burbank's Passport Capital outlined the rationale for owning physical gold. David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital also owns physical gold. Those of you who don't have access to physical bars can invest via the SPDR Gold Fund (GLD). Practically all of the hedge funds that are not investing in physical gold use this investment vehicle for their gold exposure. If gold doesn't tickle your fancy, legendary investor Jim Rogers sees opportunity in silver and palladium which can provide you with precious metals exposure. PALL is the ticker for playing palladium while SLV is a way to play silver.


Buy Crude Oil: Going long oil ties into the whole 'buy commodities' theme as protection. In a truly inflationary environment, oil is supply inelastic; any increase or decrease in price would not result in a corresponding increase or decrease in supply. In the past we've outlined how to invest in crude oil, as there are many investment vehicles out there, each with pros and cons. These funds include USO, DBO, & USL and are examined in-depth via the link above.


Short Fixed Income: Bonds should be avoided due to a weak domestic monetary system. In particular, avoid US Treasuries as they will underperform. As yields start to rise, bond prices will fall. A plethora of prominent investors have gone this route in order to gain inflationary protection. Seth Klarman has purchased out of the money puts on bonds. He's acquired tail risk insurance against a sharp rise in interest rates that protects him should rates skyrocket to 10%. Legendary hedge fund manager Julian Robertson had previously put on a curve steepener trade and then shifted to a constant maturity swap (CMS) trade. These are more advanced trades and typically are reserved for institutional investors. Retail investors can buy puts on or short the iShares 20+ Year Treasury (TLT).


Buy Emerging Markets: A weak domestic currency (US dollar) implies higher returns can be found abroad in other countries. A monetary system in trouble in the home land means your dollars should be invested abroad (especially consider commodity producing nations such as Australia and Brazil). You can invest in either emerging market currencies, equities abroad, or investment funds denominated in those foreign currencies. For broad emerging market equities exposure, one can purchase iShares Emerging Markets Index (EEM). For the Australian Dollar, consider FXA and for Brazilian exposure, consider EWZ.


Buy Technology: While this was also a suggestion for investing during deflationary times, it applies to inflation under the same rationale. Regardless of environment, technology is in demand and will continue to evolve.


Buy Treasury Inflation Protected Securities: These types of treasuries (known as TIPS for short) provide the safety of a government bond with the bonus of protection against inflation. You can buy these outright, or via the iShares Barclays TIPS fund (TIP).


While inflation was all the talk only a few months ago, it has since taken a back seat to deflationary chatter. Given the back and forth, it only makes sense to examine both scenarios. In the depths of the 2008 crisis we broadly examined investment scenarios for inflation versus deflation. At the time, it was unclear what type of environment we'd be entering. While still not entirely evident to this day, many have postulated that deflation in the near-term will then give way to inflation in the longer-term. A compromise of views, if you will. We've mapped out inflationary defenses above and for a look at the converse scenario, be sure to check out the best investments for deflation. Now you have a loose framework for either environment.

Jim Rogers Sees Opportunity in Silver and Palladium

From time to time, we like to check in on investment guru Jim Rogers to catch up on his thoughts on the markets and global economy. We do so of course due to his past success with the Quantum Fund he previously ran with George Soros. Nowadays, Rogers invests his money under Rogers Holdings and he has some pretty staunch viewpoints. Rogers himself proclaims he is a poor market timer. So while he may be early on an investment theme, he often finds and rides macro trends. To some, his views seem repetitive. But you must keep in mind that he very frequently appears in the media and is seemingly asked the same questions over and over. The last time we checked in on Jim Rogers we saw that he was shorting market indices. From all of these interviews, one of his stances has become abundantly clear: he loves commodities and in particular, precious metals.

In his recent slew of interviews, Rogers has proclaimed that he is fond of gold and still owns it. However, he is not buying more nor is he selling. In the end, he actually thinks gold will be a bubble in the distant future. For some reason he tosses out the year 2019 as his estimate, and it seems he thinks gold's reign will last a decade or so. He thinks this bubble top is a ways off because governments have been debasing their currencies at a rapid rate. Historically, he points out, this has always led to higher prices for real assets and he thinks this time will be no different.

Speaking on the subject of gold, Rogers says that, "I know the old (gold) high, adjusted for inflation, is over a couple thousand dollars an ounce. I know it'll get over that in the next decade. It depends on how much they debase the currencies. It's all part of the same picture... most governments everywhere only know one thing and that's to print and spend money that they don't have. Whenever you do that, it debases currency, always has, and until I see some governments realize that they have to do something else, then I plan to own gold and other precious metals and other real assets."

This of course is not the first time we've detailed a prominent investor's fascination with gold. John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co started a gold fund mainly to bet against the US dollar and the currency debasement that Rogers centers his thesis around. We've also seen John Burbank's hedge fund Passport Capital lay out the rationale for owning physical gold. Not to mention, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has owned physical gold for some time now. Inflation is a very legitimate future concern for some of the top minds in the investment industry. Rogers is no different.

His main rationale here stems from the fact that many long-term bull markets end in hysteria and bubbles. He doesn't like to buy things at all time highs and that's pretty much where gold is trading these days. As such, Rogers' interest has been piqued by other metals.

If he had to buy a metal right now, he said he would focus on depressed metals such as silver or palladium. Rogers points out that silver is 60-70% below its all-time high while palladium is around 50-60% below its all-time high. He already owns all four metals: gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. Throughout all his interviews, he was very adamant that he was not selling his gold, but he was not buying more either.

Shifting to Rogers' views on currencies, he is particularly fond of the renminbi. While it is not his favorite overall investment due to liquidity concerns, it is the long-term investment he is most certain of. Rogers mentioned this last week in talking with Bloomberg. And on CNBC that same week, Rogers reaffirmed that he is still long commodities and short stocks due to the withdrawal of government stimulus and his anticipation that central banks will keep the printing presses rolling. This is directly in line with what we saw from Rogers' portfolio in early May.

Lastly, we wanted to highlight that Rogers has been eyeing the events surrounding the oil spill as well. We've already detailed how Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners has bought BP, citing valuation and extreme circumstances. Rogers hasn't quite gone that far yet, but it has definitely caught his eye. On the topic Rogers ponders, "Is it the end of BP? I doubt it. Somewhere along the line I expect that I will buy BP. But I'm not buying it now - just watching to see what happens." In his experience, he notes that disasters are usually a great time to buy. On that same note, he also cautions that there's usually plenty of time to buy into the opportunity presented by the problem. For the time being, Rogers is more than comfortable to wait and watch the proverbial knife drop before jumping in the (oil coated) water.

Embedded below is one of his recent television interviews with CNN Money where he talks about various topics of interest (email readers will need to come to the site to view it):



That wraps up the latest views and portfolio positioning from investment guru Jim Rogers. For more of his thoughts and to learn from this investment guru, check out Rogers' books, Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market as well as A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing.

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