The recent ‘meltdown’ of late 2007 and more recently 2008 has revived these issues, causing another rewriting of the rules, and will produce another brand of fund offerings that are necessary to fuel the fire of the gutsy investor.
Lightning Strikes Twice
The fresh menu of fancy, fleet-footed, sophisticated and clever structures are a gourmet delight of recipes that are all tempered by a very large bright red carrot on the end of a golden stick. Large profit promises are the icing on the cake of a continual barrage of spicy offerings aimed at the nouveau riche and the deep pockets of those with money to burn.
Stories to Die for:
We hear them all the time….
“Buy Mining stocks, China is using all the minerals for their economic boom, and cannot get enough”,
“Buy Gold, it always does well in a recession”
“Buy commodities – look at the fast rising prices”
“Buy agricultural commodities – the price of rice has doubled in the last year”
Buy, buy buy…
These are all good stories, and make sense in their own little way.
Investors should of course take note and buy a little bit of this and a little bit of that, always doing the prudent thing to spread the risk and keep the investment eggs in several different asset baskets.
Don’t Kill the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg
Just like all fields of activity there are good eggs and bad eggs.
(i) Hedging your Bets:
“A handful of Hedge funds have lost money and failed so don’t invest in those things”
But the other handful have done incredibly well and exceeded expectations
(ii) Stocks and Shares
“Markets around the world have all collapsed – get out of stocks now!”
This generalisation is true, but there are dozens of little pockets of success under this vast umbrella, where niche markets are still doing brilliantly.
(iii) A New Goose – “The Gaming Fund” –Exotica Fund A
It is time for a fresh taste, for something completely new and exciting and, so they say, potentially very profitable.
This is not based on agricultural commodities like pork bellies and chicken feet, but is the golden goose of the high-flying world of gambling and gaming.
Macau in South China is now a bigger gambling centre than Las Vegas by the way!
Gamblers always lose, while casinos always come out on top. Perhaps that is a good basis for a structured fund… The TL Group in Europe seem to think so. They have come up with a formula they hope will turn up trumps for investors who must be prepared to lock up their money for a minimum 2-year period. High risks after all must also mean the possibility of massive profits.
A little flutter with a minimum $100,000 can’t do any harm. If you are a potential Chinese mainland investor with Yuan to buy US dollars, then the weak dollar means you only need 50% of the Yuan you would have needed just 2 years ago! That is a good start.
What can “The Gaming Fund’ offer besides a big gamble?
The gamble factor is clearly red-flagged under the ‘General Investment Risk Disclosure’ warnings:
(i) Speculative Investment: High degree of Risk
(ii) An investment in the Venture will be Illiquid
(iii) No operating History
(iv) Reliance on expertise of Third parties
(v) Complex Tax structure
(vi) Delays in Reporting of Tax information
(vii) Fees may be substantial: multiple levels of fees
(viii) This General Investment Risk Disclosure is not complete
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the opportunity for fat profit:
(i) After all, the heavy boys already have stakes in the gambling industry. Goldman Sachs; Merrill Lynch; Morgan Stanley; JP Morgan and Fidelity are no slouches to risk and potential.
(ii) Online Gaming has grown from US$3 Billion in 2001 to US$12 Billion in 2005, and will increase to an expected US$ 24 Billion by 2010.
(iii) “Few investments offer investors growth opportunities with the safety of high cash flow businesses. Add in the intra-sector diversification (gaming technology, transportation, real-estate), you have the potential for high stable growth.”
(iv) Add in a low-correlation with the stock market, then the Gaming Industry is a great alternative and complementary buy for a well spread portfolio.
So ‘play the gaming game’, after all…it is always the house that wins in the end… so invest on the side of the house, and let the gamblers feed your profit! The Global Gaming Fund is definitively a chip off the new block of investment formulas being made available to the discerning investor. The guru from the TL Group says it all, “It is a statistical certainty that the house makes money. We like putting our money on the house, not on the table.” He makes a very good point, and now you can too, if you are prepared to freeze the balls off a brass monkey and take the plunge.
All Eyes on Asia
The focus of economic growth has shifted away from the paralysis now found in the US of A and Asia is the new kid on the economic block. The Gaming Industry is no exception and Macau now massively outstrips the old traditional centre of exception, with Macau, Singapore and the Philippines as the flag bearers. It is the obsession of the Chinese to gamble, and they are the main patrons.
The Old Noose
Remember the US of A – that country that used to be the dynamo of all that was progressive, developmental, and economically dynamic That cutting-edge empire that has definitively tripped up, slipping back and plunged into a quagmire of disrepute. With its self styled policing of the world under the guise of its own angelic brand of democracy. Now down on its knees. Hiding behind the year long game of who’s who in the political trivia arena. More and more branded as self righteous, arrogant, and belligerent. That side of the US of A that we all love to hate!
However, even in darkest North America, there are gleaming pockets of light. IT looms large. The general opinion, however, is that the State of that Nation is a fading image, far from the good old days when the US of A was both king, boss and omnipotent teacher.
Taking stock – Energy
Save energy, install those lights, and for heavens sake ditch those Ford Expeditions. Surely no intelligent sensitive thinking person can possibly own such a gas guzzling, obese, monstrosity. Commonly known as “Ford Clowns” amongst the conscientious energy-saving-fraternity.
The word on the street is, if you know someone who has one, tell them they can deliver it to Tondo in Manila, where the locals will strip it out, park it, and house a family of 6 in weather protected blissful comfort. The proud owner can then salve their conscience and resort to a hybrid vehicle that is built in a frame of mind conscious of the planet and our survival.
The US of A is supposed to be using 40% of the energy that humans use on our planet – no wonder if they think a Ford Clown conveys the right image and gives a good impression!
Asia is the Future
It was the west that unleashed the economic revolution, but can Asia productively and responsibly sift the corn from the chaff and pick out the good. Economic growth is one part of the jigsaw, but earth sensitivity is now the bigger picture and the golden piece in our survival. After all there is that Mormon saying that “the earth is not given to us by our ancestors, it is borrowed from our children.”
Spilling the Beans
(iv) Old and proven methods never die – Prudent Fund A
A new coat on an old investment method has proven the perfect marriage between the old and the new.
In the heart of Switzerland a new coat has been wrapped around a formula of investment that has been practiced in the UK for nearly two centuries. It is a long term strategy (needless to say!) that irons out the ups-and-downs in the markets and declares annual bonuses that are added annually, and once added cannot be taken away. The two biggest boys in the market have just declared billions of sterling in bonus additions to funds that will mean an added 10% growth per annum for investors for the next three years.
The new coat is a sophisticated way of ‘gearing’ the investors’ money.
An example:
US$100,000 invested should be ‘geared’ twice (x2) which means the investor actually gets US$300,000 active in the fund.
1st Assume the $100K grows a 12% profit in one year – the investor therefore makes a profit of $12,000
2nd the x2 geared amount of $200K makes a profit of another $24,000.
3rd Subtract the cost of the loan at 4% so the investor makes an additional profit of $17,843
4th Total profit = $29,843 or 29.8%!
Well, this is very much simplified, but you must get the drift…gearing is good if done based on the belief that the underlying investment asset will grow a profit.
This new coat on the old investment method has proven the perfect marriage between the old and the new.
Check it out, don’t be shy, contact (brucecurran@campbellalexander.com) – After all it is a clever fix, a modern mix of an exotic fund with a prudent base.
Gaming or Gearing – the investor can gain, but only if the plunge is taken and ‘funds are allocated for funds’.