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[Editor’s note: Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose, is filling in for Simon today.] The year was 1999. I was working for a small newsletter company with its Asian research offices based in Manila, Philippines. The dotcom boom was in full swing. And, just like today, companies with no profits, burning through
[Introduction from Simon: While I’m down in southern Chile today inspecting the farming operations of our thriving agriculture business, I thought I’d send you an excerpt from Tim Staermose’s quarterly update to his investors. You probably recognize Tim’s name; he’s Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist and editor of our popular 4th Pillar Investment
It’s one of the best sectors in the world for explosive gains… Deeply cyclical industries such as shipping, oil & gas, mining, and the service industries that supply them are one of the few areas of the market where you can actually make 5 to 10 times your money… and you can make
[Editor’s note: This letter was penned by Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist and editor of the 4th Pillar Investment Alert.] If you know me personally, you know I have a lot of hair. So when I go get a haircut, I always feel bad that the price is the same for
[Editor’s note: Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose, is filling in for Simon today.] One of the wealthiest countries in the world– the place where there are more millionaires per capita than anywhere else on the planet– now has a dirt cheap stock market. It’s Singapore. And right now, the total market
[Editor’s note: Our Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today from Yangon, Myanmar.] Since so much of Asia is on holiday for the Lunar New Year, I decided to travel to Myanmar to check out how the economy is developing. Myanmar was once the wealthiest economy in Southeast Asia.
August 10, 2015 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s note: Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in today while Simon is teaching at his annual youth entrepreneurship workshop.] In 1970, one United States dollar bought 360 Japanese yen. It also bought 363 Indonesian rupiah. Today, that same dollar buys just 124 yen. But,
July 22, 2015 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s note: This letter was written by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose.] The selling in gold (and silver) stocks has been nothing short of brutal in the past several sessions, save for a modest bounce Tuesday. The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index of precious metals mining companies is now
July 7, 2015 Hong Kong [Editor’s Note: This missive was penned by Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist.] The Chinese stock market bubble is bursting. And the government is hitting the panic button. Having actively encouraged the bubble with cheap money, lax margin loan regulations, and constant cheerleading and propaganda, Chinese authorties
December 16, 2014 Sydney, Australia [Editor’s note: This letter was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose] As I was preparing to go and meet a friend who runs a nascent fund management business in Sydney yesterday, I noticed there was a lot of unusual activity going on a block or
November 28, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s Note: This missive was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose] I spent two days in China earlier this week. Among other things, I wanted to get a feel for where people on the ground see the currency heading. My personal view is that, as
September 29, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s note: This note was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose.] A few days ago, Bill Gross, the world’s most famous bond fund manager, sensationally resigned from PIMCO, the firm he co-founded in 1970. Trouble had been brewing behind the scenes at PIMCO for months,
June 17, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s note: This letter was written by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose.] 49 million empty houses and apartments. That’s the situation in China according to new research from Gan Li at Texas A&M University. Professor Gan conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of the Chinese
May 21, 2014 Hong Kong [Editor’s note: This letter was penned by Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose] I just got back from the Myanmar Investment Summit. Things are improving rapidly in the country since they started to open up a couple of years ago, and the opportunities are incredibly exciting. Just
[Editor’s note: This column was written by Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose] Earlier in the year I published a piece, setting out why I thought a weaker Australian dollar was inevitable. In light of the recent bounce in the Australian dollar, some people have asked me about it. My views have
April 10, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] In a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island today, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced a significant step toward the opening of China’s capital markets. In short, it will soon
March 24, 2014 Bali, Indonesia Palladium is like the Rodney Dangerfield of precious metals. It never gets any respect. If you ask someone about precious metals, in fact, just about everyone has heard of gold and silver. And occasionally platinum. But palladium is one of those obscure precious metals that few people think
Forget tapering. Forget Ukraine. The largest single risk to the world economy and financial markets right now is China. What’s going on in China reminds me a lot of what I witnessed firsthand when I lived in South Korea in the 1990s, before that economy’s crash in 1998. Just as China now, South
December 18, 2013 Hong Kong [Editor’s Note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in today while Simon is scouting new agricultural properties.] Earlier this year I ate a $36 hamburger in Sydney. And after the sticker shock wore off, I wrote about the Australian dollar’s massive, obvious overvaluation. When
October 24, 2013 Hong Kong [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today.] China’s major cities have a huge air-pollution problem. And in other breaking news, the Pope is Catholic. It’s obvious that all the heavy industry, coal-fired power plants, and choking traffic congestion, etc. have
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today.] Recently, I had the not-so-pleasant experience of dissolving my marriage. My wife and I never had kids, and our lives were going in completely different directions. We remain friends. But we were spending hardly any time together, and
June 20, 2013 Burnt Pine, Norfolk Island [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today.] If you’re looking for a clean, safe, English-speaking tax haven, with a mild, maritime climate, and an advanced, Western lifestyle, Norfolk Island should be on your radar. This unique external territory
June 6, 2013 Jakarta, Indonesia [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in today while Simon is looking at agricultural property in Chile.] It’s always a bit amusing to meet an investor making money in the markets right now who actually thinks it’s because he’s smarter than everyone else.
Myanmar is among the hottest “frontier” investment markets today. The country is going from an authoritarian regime to democracy, from a conflict situation to a situation of relative peace, and, most importantly, from a closed economy of state-owned companies, to an open, free market economy. Such positive change all at once in one
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today from Hong Kong.] It took me two attempts. But, today I opened an account at the Bank of China. The reason? They’ll no longer buy gold bullion from you unless you bank with them. I wasn’t selling personally.
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today from Bay of Islands, New Zealand.] The wealthy have been diversifying internationally for centuries. Baron de Rothschild famously sent four of his five sons to different points of the compass: one to London, one to Paris, one to
Over dinner with a friend in Busan, South Korea yesterday, the conversation turned to residency and second citizenships. My friend is a successful entrepreneur who’s lived in South Korea ever since I first met him in 1996. Right now, he has an investors’ visa. The requirements are simple; when he got his, an
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist is filling in for Simon today from San Jose, Costa Rica.] It’s easy to see why people like Costa Rica so much. The country is gorgeous, and the climate can be excellent. There are plenty of cooling breezes to keep it comfortable year-round, despite
Five full years on from the financial crisis, stock markets have regained lost ground and are within striking distance of new record highs. Yet, it’s only NOW, after all the gains from the bottom have been made, that the investing crowd is starting to put money back into stocks. Curious. When stocks were
January 9, 2013 Sydney, Australia [Editor’s note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] No matter where you live in the Western world right now, the sands of your local economic landscape are likely shifting. To gain your footing, it’s essential to learn classic arbitrage techniques.
December 5, 2012 Hong Kong [Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] Since 2009, the benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange index has been in a deep funk. Last week, in fact, the index hit 4-year lows and dipped below the psychological 2,000 level. Further, a recent
Reporting from: Hong Kong [Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] In another absurd example of what happens when unrestrained money printing meets idiotic government taxes, the price of parking spaces at a suburban apartment complex some 40 minutes from central Hong Kong is now
November 13, 2012, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. [Editor’s note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] Surabaya in East Java is a glamorous old city that became a colonial stronghold during the time of the Dutch East Indies. It was also the starting point for the Indonesian
October 22, 2012, Bangkok, Thailand [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today.] When it comes to investing in Asia, the two countries which soak up the vast majority of investment chatter are India and China. And with good reason, they’re the two largest economies in
October 3, 2012 Bali, Indonesia In the investment world, it’s said that the best remedy for high prices is… high prices. And the best remedy for low prices is… low prices. In other words, when the price of an asset is high, demand cools off until prices fall. When the price of an
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