Semiconductors

Tech has been the most money generating sector the past decade. Especially, semiconductor companies are the trend setters in this segment. Soon if not now, data will become the most valuable resource in the world. Data computing and processing power is in high demand in the business world. That is where semiconductor companies come in. Personally, I like NVDA, AMD and INTEL in the segment. NVDA and AMD have been on a tear since last year. NVDA was around $29/share in Jan.2016 and it is $152/share  as of today. It has become a dominant player in datacenter thanks for its high power GPUs in deep learning. Meanwhile, AMD is trying to catch up with NVDA and INTEL in marketshare. As one of the top gainers in S&P 500, AMD is getting some momentum with their new CPUs and GPUs line-up this year. The new Apple’s iMac Pro will be equipped with AMD’s new Radeon Pro Vega GPU and is set to be one of the fastest all-in-one machines available in the market. The tech sector has suffered a selloff during the past few days, a lot of tech stocks price dropped around 5% to 10% accordingly. However, I am still bullish and liking the potentials  of these companies mentioned above. For long term investors, there should not be any panic over the past few days. Big data is the way to go in the foreseeable future.

P.S. I have a position in AMD as of today. May look into re-entry to NVDA in potential dip.

HIMX

Moody’s downgraded China’s credit rating from A1 to Aa3 last week. However, there was not much impact to the market. Chinese banks are still very strong as well as real estate tycoons in China. To be honest, Aa3 rating is still very good compare to most of countries in the world. Investors don’t need to be panic over it. Speaking of Asian market, Himax Technologies (HIMX) is one of the companies that attracted my attention. It is a manufacture of display drivers for LCD screens. Most of its market shares are in Asia. Its performance is not particularly impressive in past couple of years. The company has changed its strategy and invested heavily into AR/VR components manufacturing and 3D sensors. AR/VR market is expected to grow to $85 billion by 2020. Personally, AR/VR is going to gain momentum into mass population in the future. You may not see any immediate returns on HIMX. I’m still bullish in the long term.

P.S. I have a position in HIMX

What happened to AMD?

Tech sector:

What happened to AMD? Advanced Micro Devices Inc. published its Q1 earnings report after market closed on Monday. They increased revenue by 18% compare to last year at $984 millions, which is about $400K shy from wall street estimated figures. Also, earning per share increase to -$0.08 from -$0.14 a year ago. However, AMD’s value dropped 24% since Q1.ER. It’s about $10.11 per share as for today. What’s going on with AMD? AMD is one of the hottest stock in 2016, but a lot of the hype was from investors’ expectation. AMD’s earnings is not bad at all compared to previous year, it is just that wall street and investors have much higher expectation than that. As a result, its share price took a hit. There was also some panic selling contributed to it. I’m still very bullish to AMD in a long term perspective. Vega, its high end GPU is coming out in the end of June. Also, AMD’s server CPU Naples is due to launch some time in Q2. There are a lot of activities going on. AMD recently bought a small VR company which is specialized in wireless technology in VR. They have also been working on AI/Deep learning sector. There is no doubt that AMD is going to be valuable in the long run.

P.S. I have positions in AMD.

What’s ETF?

What’s ETF? Have you ever purchased a basket of apples in a supermarket? Similarly, ETF is a basket of assets such as: stocks, commodities or bonds. Simply put, it can be also traded in an exchange just like a stock. Investors of ETFs get paid from earned interest or dividend. ETF is less volatile than stock because of its diversified portfolio characteristic. As a result, you won’t see any short squeeze like some stocks may have. It’s friendly for investors who are looking for less risky investment. ETF is usually to focus on a particular market index. However, there is a large range of ETFs you can choose from in the market right now. It may be difficult to choose a good one. Personally, I still liking the tech sector. Here are two of the ETFs I’m looking at: PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors ETF and iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund.

P.S. I don’t have any position in any ETFs at the moment.

Saudi Aramco

Energy Sector:

I came across this interesting  work-in-process IPO a few weeks ago. Saudi Aramco is one of world’s most valuable companies based in Dhahran. Its value is estimated somewhere between US$1.5 trillion and US$10 trillion. It is said that JP Morgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and HSBC will be the underwriters to this IPO. It is eyeing on listing on New York, London and Toronto as for now. I won’t be surprised if they add another listing somewhere in Asia since the Saudi government is really interested in getting more Chinese investors involved.  A lot of i-banks have their eyes on this super profitable opportunity. If anyone could even get into an advisory role of a piece of the pie, its potential financial gain would be huge.  The company itself is closely related to Saudi government, moreover, economically it also contributes a lot to public sectors in the country, therefore the complexity of restructuring is huge. There are still a lot of work need to be done before it can go public. I would  say we have to wait until at least the end of 2018 or sometime in 2019 to see it happening. This is definitely going to be the biggest IPO to date when everything is said and done. We will keep an eye on any updates in the future.

Experience in DRYS and Fed rate hike

Dryships Inc is a bulk shipping company base in Athens, Greece. This is a stock which you should definitely stay away from if you are a value investor. It has had 4 reverse splits since last year. Simply put, if you had a position at the beginning of 2016, you would had lost 98% value of your holding by today. According to its owner, they have bought 4 new ships for $121 millions at the beginning of 2017. Free cash flow is about 1.43M as of December 2016. The stock has been in $1.6 range since March 01, 2017. The company has about 140M in debit the end of 2016. Shipping stocks are very volatile in general due to its cyclicality. For day traders might be a good chance to short.

Federal Reserve are expecting to make a decision about rate hike at 2pm eastern time today. If the rate is increased as expected, banking sectors and some other financial services companies could be benefited. Manulife  Financial Corp.(MFC) is one of my picks. It has a steady growth rate from both of its businesses in Asian and North American markets. It’s bullish for long term investor.

P.S. I still hold a small position in DRYS T.T.

Recommended holdings

Welcome to my first post! I will be posting regularly about personal investing from now on.

Recommend Sectors: Technology

#Advaced Micro Devices(AMD): One of the hottest stock in the market right now. AMD was almost in bankruptcy talk a couple years ago. Ever since they hired Lisa Su as CEO in 2014, the management of the company did an excellence job in turning it around. Its Ryzen chips lineup are expected to be out during 2017. It’s going to help AMD attain market share from INTL dominance. It offers an alternative cost effective product to customers in the chips market. Stock price of AMD are up from $2/share to $14.59 as of today in a year expand. This stock is bullish for investors who are looking for long term value.

#Facebook(FB): With current active 1.86 billion users, facebook inc. is going to be a force in the market for years to come. Their ecosystem is very healthy. It has great cash flow. I’m very bullish on this stock long term. My price target is around $229/share in two years.

#APPLE Inc.(AAPL): Believe in Warren Buffet:) It is super cash rich. It has a healthy growth year over year. I’m bullish on this stock for the long term as well.

P.S. I have positions on both AMD and FB at the moment.