TIB: Today I Bought (and Sold) - An Investors Journal #123 - US Healthcare, Titanium, Bitcoin, 56 Percent Club

Reaching for the skies through Titanium and looking for the exits in US Healthcare through covered calls. And Bitcoin is open for trading again. Insurance and Lithium makes it into the 56 percent Club

Bought

Osaka Titanium Technologies (5726.TK): Titanium. When I did the deeper review of the Van Eck Vectors Rare Earths and Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) a few days back (TIB121), I said I would dig into the components to see what was driving the performance. I know Lithium is and I have wide scale investments there already. Three thoughts came together. Boeing had record orders placed at the recent Paris Air Show.

My investing coach had identified Osaka Titanium as a candidate breakout stock a few months ago. Titanium was one of the metals in the REMX list. I put up a REMX chart (Black bars) and compared it with the performance of the other titanium stock listed (Tronox Corp (TROX) - orange line) as it is also listed in US Dollars. Voila, solid outperformance from titanium in the last few months.

Then a step across to see price development for titanium oxide over the last 5 years. Price seems to have found a bottom and is breaking out.

http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/ferro-titanium/

Last piece is to look at Osaka Titanium (black bars) compared to Tronox (orange line). Be aware though there is a currency impact in this chart as one is listed in Yen and the other in US Dollars. Osaka Titanium is currently lagging Tronox by 60 percentage points.Price seems to have bottomed out - it has not really decided whether to break out. Strong aircraft orders; a strong need for missile defence systems will see it through to making up its mind.

Income Trades

HCA Corporation (HCA): US Healthcare. I had set up orders to sell strike 85 covered calls which were not taken up. When the Obamacare Repeal and Replace bill failed to pass in Congress, healthcare stocks dipped based on fears that there was increased uncertainty facing healthcare insurers.

I felt it would be wise to exit the sector. HCA price had dropped below $80 - so I set up a covered call to sell the August 17 strike 80 call options for 0.88% premium (0.89% to purchase price). Closing price $78.96 (new covered call). Price needs to move another 1.3% to reach the sold strike. Should price pass the sold strike I book a 1% capital gain.

Cryptocurency

Bitcoin (BTCUSD): I was watching the Bitcoin price on a shorter timeframe market and put on a pending order for a half position (i.e., 5 BTC) to trade a reversal on a one hour chart. If the entry triggers this makes the low a higher low and a ring low reversal.

That order was triggered overnight and price has now gone past yesterday's high. If this level holds (i.e., price does not retrace today) the reversal point will have been on the 0.50 Fibonacci retracement I drew yesterday. It turned on 0.50 last time.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH). I note the market is now abbreviating this as BCH and not BCC as previously. My broker has still not opened trading in this. Price has slid overnight and is trading in a range of $325 and $400 depending on which exchange you look at. It sure looks like I am holding on. There will be solid arbitrage opportunity when it becomes easy to move BCH between exchanges (23% on the spread I saw)

ZCash I reduced the allocation of my mining pools away from Zcash to Expanse and Ethereum. Mining returns look better. The best arena is still Ethereum Classic - this is not offered in the mining pool. I will continue to mine Expanse as this diversifies my mining risks.

https://whattomine.com/ provides a great way to compare mining returns

You can participate in mining Bitcoin and alt-coins (Ethereum, Expanse and Zcash) at http://mymark.mx/DragonMine

Currency Trades

Forex Robot did close trades (0.10% return) and is trading at a negative equity level of 6.9% (higher than prior day's 5.7%). You can follow the robot live at http://mymark.mx/LiveUSITech

56 Percent Club

A little while ago a friend asked if I could name any 56 percent returns for 12 months (apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum and STEEM which are off the scale). In TIB103 I did a 12 month version. I have done the analysis again but I have widened it to include all timeframes.

I have split the list into two parts to separate out stocks and options. The 12 month items are starred. The new entrants to the 12 month list will surprise you

• We thought the commodity boom was over in Australia. Maybe it is coming back. BHP - the Great Australian mining company makes it to the list via an options trade. More surprising is the emergence of Emeco Holdings (they rent mining equipment) which was close to bankruptcy 12 months ago. 72% on a stock holding in 6 months - WOW!!
• Insurance is firmly back on a growth path both in US and in Europe with 3 stocks one of which is new on the 12 month list
• Lithium did retreat but it is back above 56% with the Chilean salt brine producer SQM new on the 12 month list at 70% for the stock

The longer term list is testament to an investing approach that was getting back onto beaten up sectors when they were down

• US banks and insurance companies
• Europe as a whole
• European banks and insurance
• Japan was just like that in 2011 when I started investing
• Bulk shipping
• Steel making
• Automotive

What looks like it is missing is Technology stocks - the reason it is missing is I have sold my Apple holdings (AAPL) and currently invest through rolling up options in the Technology Select ETF (XLK). Cumulative returns are well ahead of 56% but not individual options trades.

Cautions: This is not financial advice. You need to consider your own financial position and take your own advice before you follow any of my ideas.

Images: I own the rights to use and edit the Buy Sell image. News headlines come from Google Search. Titanium image is credited below the image. All other images are created using my various trading and charting platforms. They are all my own work

Tickers: I monitor my portfolios using Yahoo Finance. The ticker symbols used are Yahoo Finance tickers

Charts: http://mymark.mx/TradingView - this is a free charting package. I have a Pro subscription to get access to real time forex prices

Bitcoin: If you want a low cost way to enter Bitcoin, you can buy a package for as low as €50 (in Bitcoin) and earn Bitcoin at a rate way better than your bank could offer - think weeks instead of months. http://mymark.mx/USIBitcoin

August 3, 2017