Model Portfolios Update

Today we are about to dine on pizza because I am getting bored with Chinese food, however cheap and good. Before the lunch I update the Global-Investing.com model portfolios. Closed positions may be viewed by all who will note that despite the flat US market YTD our closed positions are up over 25%. To learn the current positions you need to be a paid subscriber. To view the spreadsheets more easily, please click the "printer-friendly button."

The proof of the global investing edge is not only with our portfolio selections. It is even shown by our started portfolio of closed-end and exchange-traded funds. If outside the USA they are mostly doing well, but because they are an investment vehicle for trigger-happy Americans, many funds are now at an unusual double-digit discount from their net asset value, marking fear of foreigners and panic over Putin. No, the Russians are not about to march into Germany, which is where we are best prepared to counter an offensive. They are not letting young Kim restart the Korean War even if South Koreans mock his hairstyle (while northerners try to copy it.)

So it's a good time to buy European closed-end funds.

The is a change in the advice column from last week. I have withdrawn my sell on speculative DeNA, DNACF or JP:2432. The reason is an article I read in yesterday's New York Times Business Section about its founder, Tamoko Namba, who still sits on the board and used to be the CEO. She is expected to resume being head of the company soon. Ms. Namba, who resigned as CEO when her husband developed terminal cancer in 2011, is that unheard of rarity in Japan, a female former CEO. She is also the largest shareholder of DeNA and sits on its board.

There is a bit of female solidarity involved. Ms. Namba, a Harvard MBA , worked as a  McKinsey partner until 2009 when she jumped ship to help start DeNA, a sign of entrepreneurial zeal if there ever was one. I am not sticking with the share because I sympathize.

My reasoning is that a woman at or near the helm will limit the wild acquisitions and high noon confrontations which now mark the world of mobile games, search engines, websites, social media, etc. etc., and not just in Asia. She is the fourth richest woman in Japan, according to Forbes, and the only self-made one. She also remains the point person for DeNA expansion in the US having negotiated mobile social cards with the NFL and helped buy a Japanese baseball team with some US following, the Yokahama Baystars.

She obviously is not addicted to the violent virtual world of Japanese gaming (based on Manga comics and other trash) almost all of whom are young and male. And I suspect she knows the difference between war games and competition in Internet services.  

Another reason for keeping the Japanese stock is as a reality check, because the ADR trades so rarely.

The Ides of March is over. Caesarstone Sdot Yam, CSTE, rose in Tel Aviv trading today.

However, Delek Group fell after the authorities held back approval of the 25% purchase of the Leviathan gas for export to the Pacific Rim by Woodside at the 11th hour Thursday night. The stock is being put into an escrow account pending appeals to the Jerusalem tax authorities who have little experience in dealing with energy concessions.

Today was the first day the Israeli market could react. Separately Delek also got licenses for outlying bits of the Leviathan gasfield from the Israeli Ministry of Infrastructure. But the stock fell 1.91% in Tel Aviv trading all the same. Delek has been selling bits of its financial, service station, and roadside restaurant empire worldwide to finance the development of Leviathan but it needs a foreign partner with deep pockets, unlike operator Noble Energy of Texas.  Noble helped by bringing its exploration wisdom and systems to offshore Israel and Cyprus. But it  has other fields to finance ranging from the Marcellus shale to offshore Gulf of Mexico, from the Falkland Islands to Nevada tight oil.