Columbia is Popping Up on My Radar
Macro
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2013
John Thomas is a 50-year veteran of the financial markets. He spent 10 years as a financial journalist, ten more years trading for a major investment bank, and another decade running the first dedicated international hedge funds. Seeing the incredible inefficiencies and severe mispricing offered by the popping of multiple bubbles during the Great Crash of 2008, and missing the adrenaline of the marketplace, he returned to active hedge fund management.
With The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader, his goal is to broaden public understanding of the techniques and strategies employed by the most successful hedge funds so that they may more profitably manage their own money.
He publishes a daily research newsletter, and offers one of the most successful trade mentoring services in the industry. He currently has followers in 134 countries.
In his free time, John Thomas climbs mountains, does long distance backpacks, practices karate, performs aerobatics in antique aircraft, collects vintages wines, reads the Japanese classics, and engages in a wide variety of public service and philanthropic activities.
His career has taken him up to 20,000 feet on Mount Everest, to the edge of space at 90,000 feet in the Cockpit of a MIG-25, and to the depths of a sunken Japanese fleet in the Truk Lagoon.
Why they call him "Mad" he will never understand.
My current scenario for global equities has them selling off over the summer, then a rebounding led by emerging markets starting sometime in the fall. In that case you want to start building short lists of high growth countries to pile into, once the turn comes.
I would be including Columbia on any such list. It enjoys that sweet spot of being an oil exporting emerging country whose shipments hit an all-time high OF 884,000 barrels a day in March, about half the quantity that Libya once shipped. The quality of the government has improved dramatically over the last decade. It is a narco state no more, although public and investors’ perceptions lag deeply. The country has seen upgrades by leading credit agencies. Billionaire Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has recently been seen as a major investor.
The country also enjoys one of the world’s most favorable demographic pyramids. A young, upwardly mobile workforce is producing a rising tide of consumers and a burgeoning middle class, while expensive seniors requiring social services and medical care are few and far between.
Columbia was the world’s best performing equity market in 2010, bringing in gains of over 100%. That was how the country ETF (GXG) performed. Is history about to repeat itself?
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