MELI

Documentary: The Bitcoin Phenomenom

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Produced for SQ1.tv, this Bitcoin documentary looks at the history, the ideologies, and the conflict between the politics of the early-adopters and the VCs/entrepreneurs pushing to take Bitcoin mainstream. Source: SQ1.tv. Financial Tech Services: ACIW, EPAY, FDC, FIS, FISV, FLT, GPN, MA, MELI, PAY, PYPL, V, VNTV, VRSK, WEX, WU Banks – Regional and Asset Management: AB, AINV, AMP, ARCC, BCH, BEN, BGCP, BKU, BLK, BMO, BNS, CM, FSIC, ISBC, KKR, LAZ, LM, MAIN, MTB, NABZY, NYB, OCN, PBCT, PFG, PSEC, RY, SBNY, SBSI, STT, TCAP, TD, VLY, WBK  Banks & Money Centers: AXP, BAC, BBT, BK, C, DFS, FITB, GS, HBC, JPM, KEY, MS, NTRS, PNC, RF, STI, TCB, USB, WFC

Bitcoin’s Price Leaps Toward $11,000

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Image shown: Cryto-currencies are in vogue, and the most popular Bitcoin has “gone exponetial.” This is incredible. Bitcoin has caught the financial markets by storm, and the ranks of the greedy are driving its price ever higher. Financial Tech Services: ACIW, EPAY, FDC, FIS, FISV, FLT, GPN, MA, MELI, PAY, PYPL, V, VNTV, VRSK, WEX, WU Banks – Regional and Asset Management: AB, AINV, AMP, ARCC, BCH, BEN, BGCP, BKU, BLK, BMO, BNS, CM, FSIC, ISBC, KKR, LAZ, LM, MAIN, MTB, NABZY, NYB, OCN, PBCT, PFG, PSEC, RY, SBNY, SBSI, STT, TCAP, TD, VLY, WBK  Banks & Money Centers: AXP, BAC, BBT, BK, C, DFS, FITB, GS, HBC, JPM, KEY, MS, NTRS, PNC, RF, STI, TCB, USB, WFC

Does Visa Ever Disappoint?

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Image Source: Visa The credit card network hit all-time highs today. We continue to be huge fans of the company’s fundamentals. By Brian Nelson, CFA Another day, another new high for top-weighted idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, Visa (V). Briefing Investor said it succinctly: Visa…is trading at a new all-time high after the company reported better than expected fourth quarter results and gave encouraging guidance for fiscal 2018… Visa owns a global payment network. Unlike American Express (AXP) and Discover (DFS), which own payment networks and issue credit, Visa doesn’t take any credit risk — Capital One (COF) is a bank that issues a lot of credit cards. Visa is a technology company in the financial sector, just … Read more

The Wisdom of Oaktree’s Howard Marks

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Image Source: emmolos The latest memo from Oaktree’s Howard Marks here should be read and then read again. The section on passive investing is an absolute treasure. “Passive investing is done in vehicles that make no judgments about the soundness of companies and the fairness of prices.  More than $1 billion is flowing daily to “passive managers” (there’s an oxymoron for you) who buy regardless of price.  I’ve always viewed index funds as “freeloaders” who make use of the consensus decisions of active investors for free.  How comfortable can investors be these days, now that fewer and fewer active decisions are being made?” — Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Financial Tech Services: ACIW, EPAY, FDC, FIS, FISV, FLT, GPN, MA, MELI, … Read more

Best Ideas, Dividend Growth Newsletter Alerts and More

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Image Shown: The stock price performance of Boeing. Let’s take a look at recent news from newsletter portfolio holdings. We’re also parting with a “trade” we never should have made in the first place, and we’re letting go of one of our favorite restaurants in light of deteriorating technicals. This and more… By Brian Nelson, CFA Aside from predicting the ongoing inflation of the current equity market bubble in the US so far in 2017, we also thought crude oil prices (USO) would continue their recovery. Unfortunately, this hasn’t exactly worked out, and US crude oil prices have now entered a “bear market,” now falling below $43 per barrel. Are we saying that we know where crude oil prices are … Read more

Brazil: Sorry For Your Losses

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The Brazilian equity markets are in free fall. “Brazil is in a deepening recession, which may grow into depression, as unemployment continues to rise and corporate credit quality deteriorates. Those that made a bundle investing in Brazil’s commodity-driven export boom have been looking to cash out, if they haven’t already, and the real continues to weaken on deteriorating sovereign credit and rampant inflation. Any interest rate hike by the US could have the unintended effect of sending Brazil’s local yields to the mid-teens to account for incremental currency risk and credit deterioration, which would only exacerbate debt service costs as a percentage of the country’s shrinking GDP. This, in turn, could be the catalyst for even more asset flight out … Read more

Valuentum’s 3 Breakthroughs in the Field of Finance and More

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Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson pauses for a picture before speaking at the CFA Society of Houston in March 2017. By Valuentum Editorial Staff Let’s cover Valuentum’s 3 major breakthroughs in the field of finance. The first one is big and may challenge you to rethink everything you think you know about investing. 1. On a logical framework, Valuentum has debunked John C. Bogle’s landmark syllogism that has paved the way for the concept of index investing. Index investing has been built on a logical shortcoming, whether supported by evidence or not. We think it is important that the investment community know of this. Read (pdf): The “Luck” and “Randomness” of Index Funds (2018), Brian Nelson, CFA See video documentation: /FALLACY_of_Index_Funds To … Read more

Fair Value Estimate Changes: Facebook, Twitter, Caterpillar and More…

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  By Kris Rosemann and Brian Nelson, CFA Let’s begin this edition of Recent Material Fair Value Estimate Changes’ with a discussion of some of the highest-profile names that made the list. If you require background reading on why we make changes to our valuation models, please see: What causes fair value estimates to change? Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding Facebook (FB) continues to separate itself from other social media companies, and we continue to be impressed by its free cash flow generating prowess and net cash-rich balance sheet. Our most recent fair value estimate increase comes largely as a result of greater optimism regarding the sustainability of the company’s pace of revenue growth, reflected by a hike in our mid-cycle … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

Visa Boasts One of the Best Business Models on the Market Today

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Global payments technology company Visa (V) showed us why we continue to like the company when it reported fiscal first-quarter results Thursday. The firm is not a bank and does not issue cards or extend credit or set rates/fees for account holders of Visa-branded cards, but it does operate one of the most advanced processing networks, and we can think of few other business models that generate a stronger competitive advantage. Visa takes on no credit risk–unlike American Express (AXP) and Discover Financial (DFS)–but remains an integral part of the secular trend toward a cashless society and online consumption, where most transactions are not made with cash. Visa is the largest retail electronic payments network in the world based on … Read more