Investment "Logic"

Once again, it's been awhile since I've provided an update or completed missing quarterly reviews.  Time to put in some extra work and get caught up.  To start out with, my portfolio has been under performing the S&P 500 this year.  As of today, I'm just over 2% behind the S&P 500.  I'm finding this to be quite frustrating and am trying to figure out what/how/why that is the case after last year's over performance.  I have yet to figure out the solution, as many of these companies are still just as great as they always have been, but they've been out of favor in the market for the last couple months.  This is potentially a temporary thing and a test to my conviction in the holdings. That said, there are other factors to consider as well.  The US Dollar has leveled off and shown a little strength with the rise of interest rates and lack of similar actions in other reasons, for example.  And to top that off, Trump just elected Larry K...

Yesterday I sold my entire stake of the iShares MCI Eurozone ETF at a price of $43.825.  While I haven't been able to post my weekly summary due to technical problems, followed by a busy life, I had written that the picture for that holding has started to change pretty significantly.  First, there is a lot of Tariff talk going on.  The EU is starting to look to Tariff the US after we set tariffs on steel and aluminum.  This is taking a hit to the market, overall, and makes it difficult to see as much growth and momentum for European companies if they can't make as much off of selling product to the US.  The second big event was the appointment of Larry Kudlow as the President's Chief Economic Advisor.  Larry is well known for his stance on "King Dollar" or a strong dollar, which goes against this fund in particular, as it is unhedged and was chosen to take advantage of a strengthening Euro to Dollar.  Since all of these events haven't taken place, ...

Back on February 27, Ionis announced their fourth quarter and fiscal year 2017 results.  Instead of diving into results, the company started out with talking about its pipeline.  As I have been anticipating, we have some updated information on the PDUFA (and thus the retail approval) for Inotersen, which will be July 6.  At the same time, their EU review has also been accelerated and things continue to go smoothly.  With approval, Ionis will be ready for immediate launch of the drug.  They also appear to be getting close to deciding on a partner to take on the drug, which is a bit of a mix on emotion.  Giving it up means that Ionis will give up revenues, in exchange for all of the sales and marketing efforts, but given where they are in the process, the company should be able to maintain relatively high royalty rates.  Similarly, we also received an update on Volanesorsen, with the FCS therapy going in front of the FDA on May 10.  Again, the p...