Shipping - gambler’s paradise?

I hope you like this series I am doing on the fascinating world of ships.

If you don't like my posts just tell me and I will find something else to post about. NOOOOTTTTT!!!

I would like to start out today by giving you this great quote that says a lot about why I find this industry so cool. Then I will talk a little about how shipping fund administrators decide which types of ships to buy. I'm gonna keep doing this whether you like it or not because I find it fascinating and its fun...:-)

A FASCINATING INDUSTRY

Why be devoted to an industry that has colossal 20-year cycles of boom and bust, barbaric volatility and razor-thin margins on nearly every deal? It’s downright masochistic (and not that there’s anything wrong with that if you are ‘in to it’).

The answer is easy: The shipping business is international, very sexy and has a flair for the dramatic. It’s a gambler’s paradise and there remains a whole swathe of money to be made - although none in the game would openly admit such for fear of giving away their scheme(s). However, it is also like Al Pacino said in Godfather 3 in re trying to peaceably exit the Mafia, "Each time I try to get out, they pull me back in!"

Shipping is a family where most everybody in the industry has an overlapping Rolodex, where marriages can still create grand alliances, where trading implications for whole nations and the globe itself can still be influenced by a couple of players using a shadow broker on a mobile sipping a Singapore Sling at Harry’s listening to some Dexter Gordon rip-off act.

The world of shipping business is like the royal families of then world: They are all related, may well be inbred, likely assume that whatever they touch is gold (regardless of how bad a deal may or may not smell to whatever other dumb-ass, in the deal makers’ opinion, looking at it) and are afraid of being amongst the general public – "For good reason, non shipping people are ‘shiete’".

Once in shipping it usually means one is in for life and if one tries to get out, don’t be surprised when you get sucked right back in by a giant balloon-like white orb on sale-lease-back from the set of Patrick McGoohan’s "The Prisoner".

"You see Number 6, you will find that it is very peaceful here". "Yes Number 2, I trust I will…"

SHIPPING INVESTMENTS

There are various ways of investing in ships. But why would you want to do that?

So that you can rent the ship out!

There are also different types of ships you may consider investing in.

CONTAINER SHIPS AND BULK CARGO SHIPS

These include container ships (with lots of those big metal boxes on them) and bulk cargo ships (with big rooms called holds that carry oil or something).

What would the investor profile of a ship that can hold both containers and bulk cargo look like?

The choice of which type of ship to invest in, will depend largely on the goals of fund administrators. Those who advertise high-yield funds, will tend to buy more bulk cargo ships because of the associated volatility.

Funds that promise long term steady and sustainability growth, however, will want to make sure they invest in a lot of container ships. A hybrid strategy would be able to make good use of hybrid ships.

These would be vessels that have the ability to carry both bulk cargo such as oil as well as container cargo.

I OFTEN POST ABOUT MARITIME SHIPPING, POLITICS, AND LANGUAGES. UPVOTE, RESTEEM, COMMENT, AND/OR FOLLOW ME IF YOU LIKE THIS TYPE OF CONTENT!