Mad Hedge Technology Letter
November 1, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WILL THE TRIFOLD PHONE SAVE TECH?)
(HUAWEI), (AAPL)
Posts
Silicon Valley is usually on top of the innovation game, and as Huawei announced the launching of its trifold smartphone, one must ask whether Silicon Valley is late to the party or if this technology is even worth their time.
My guess is that foldable devices won’t move the needle, and these announcements aren’t really about moving revenue but to offer bluster in a global game of cat and mouse.
In general, the smartphone super cycle is about tapped out, and I don’t see a foldable phone as a reason for another re-acceleration of revenue.
There is a higher chance that in the next few years, this foldable technology is adapted for some other technology and written off on the balance sheet.
To think it could be some revolutionary new trend is beggars’ belief.
To be honest, many consumers are tired of screen time and can’t get off their screen because work duties connect them to the screen.
When needing a bigger screen to watch global sporting events, many would prefer a large-screen TV that doesn’t fold. This phone has no TV screen – not by a long shot.
It is a little difficult for me to understand the use case here for Huawei going big in the foldable screen business.
It’s not like the new phone will be cheap either, the new trifold smartphone will start at around $2,800, which is more expensive than most premium laptops.
Huawei announced its foldable product on the same day as Apple unveiling the new iPhone.
Apple announced its iPhone 16 Pro Max will start at $1,199 and the iPhone 16 at $799.
The first set of Apple Intelligence AI features will be available in a free software update next month.
Huawei’s Mate XT also comes with artificial intelligence features, such as text translation and cloud-based content generation.
The device is 3.6 millimeters thick when unfolded, with a 10.2-inch screen.
More than 3.5 million people had pre-ordered Huawei’s trifold Mate XT smartphone as of midday Tuesday.
The Chinese company has sought to make a comeback in the smartphone industry, which was hard hit after the U.S. slapped sanctions on the company in 2019. The U.S. in October 2022 imposed broader restrictions on American sales of advanced chips to Chinese businesses.
Apple fell out of the list of top five smartphone vendors in China in the second quarter of this year. It was the first time that domestic players held all five spots.
Clearly, Chinese tech views Apple as the top dog to compete against, but I would say that Apple’s star is waning in China.
They are being pushed out by the Chinese government, who are indirectly suggesting to Chinese consumers to go with domestic alternatives.
National champions and protecting them are the modus operandi in the age of deglobalization, and that will not change anytime soon.
As for the tech, foldable screens are a mediocre and lateral upgrade.
The size of a screen has a size limit to its usefulness, and building gargantuan screens does not suggest that it could trigger some new wave of untapped profits.
I believe Apple is smart in not aggressively pursuing foldables, and the quest continues to find the new killer tech that will take over.
Until then, tech stocks should grind up, but not in a dramatic fashion.
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
October 28, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WHEN WALL STREET MET PHARMA)
(PFE), (TSLA), (AAPL)
If corporate America were a dinner party (and let's face it, sometimes it absolutely is), Pfizer (PFE) would be that guest who showed up fashionably late with an award-winning bourbon pecan pie during the pandemic, and is now being quietly judged for bringing Trader Joe's crackers to the latest soirée. The pharmaceutical giant, which briefly enjoyed the kind of celebrity usually reserved for Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL), finds itself in the midst of what we might delicately call a boardroom intervention. With its stock price taking a dive, Pfizer attracted the attention of Starboard Value, a hedge fund with a billion dollars' worth of opinions about how to run things better.
Unfortunately for Starboard, these problems are not that simple to fix. Here's the thing about making breakthrough drugs: 9 out of 10 fail, each costs about $2 billion to develop, and even the most brilliant scientists can't tell you which one will work until the very end. This uncertainty sits at the heart of Pfizer's current predicament. After delivering a ratings blockbuster with its COVID-19 vaccine and Paxlovid treatment, the company now faces the pharmaceutical industry's dreaded sophomore album syndrome.
On top of that, every successful drug faces the same issue: it comes with its own expiration date. Patents run out, generic competitors swoop in, and suddenly everyone's asking, "What's next?"
And here's where it gets more interesting, in the way that all corporate power plays are interesting if you enjoy watching incredibly wealthy people disagree about how to become even wealthier. Take Starboard's critique of Pfizer's performance. It has all the subtlety of a CNN town hall debate, spiced up with the potential involvement of former Pfizer CEO Ian Read and CFO Frank D'Amelio — a plot twist as unsurprising as finding a filibuster in the Senate.
Having previously applied its corporate reconstruction techniques to the restaurant industry (think less Thomas Keller, more Olive Garden optimization), the hedge fund now fancies itself as something of a pharmaceutical expert. This is like suggesting that because someone successfully managed a food truck, that same person is qualified to run a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
Granted, Starboard has an impressive track record in corporate makeovers, much like the HGTV stars of Wall Street. Still, renovating a pharmaceutical company isn't the same as flipping a restaurant chain. There's something uniquely challenging about applying fast-casual dining turnaround principles to the development of life-saving medications. Some processes simply can't be rushed unless you enjoy explaining to the FDA why you thought clinical trials were more of a suggestion than a requirement.
As we try to figure out what's happening with the pharma giant right now, it helps to keep in mind that the key question isn't just whether Pfizer needs a makeover (though that's certainly part of it), but whether Wall Street's "time is money" philosophy can successfully coexist with the "science takes time" reality of drug development. It's the corporate equivalent of trying to teach quantum physics to a day trader - theoretically possible, but likely to result in some interesting misunderstandings along the way.
So, what's the play here? Looking at Pfizer's current stock price of around $28.45 (down 2.47%), the chart looks about as exciting as a waiting room magazine collection.
While the stock hovers below its 50-day moving average and sits near the lower end of its $25.20 - $31.54 yearly range, there are a few bright spots: a healthy 5.91% dividend yield and several promising projects in the pipeline - an RSV vaccine and an obesity treatment that could have customers lining up around the block again.
But here's my recommendation: Keep this one on your watchlist, but hold off on placing your order just yet.
Think of Pfizer as that once-trendy restaurant that's neither closing its doors nor winning any new Michelin stars - it's simply simmering on medium heat while the new chef (courtesy of Starboard) debates menu changes with the original kitchen staff.
Will Starboard's intervention prove to be the corporate equivalent of a breakthrough drug, or more like one of those miracle cures you see advertised at 3 AM?
The answer, like most things in the pharma world, will take time to develop. And in this battle of wits within corporate America, sometimes the hardest pill to swallow is patience - though I suspect Starboard would prefer it in fast-dissolving form.
After all, when Wall Street meets Pharma, it's less about whether the patient needs the medicine and more about timing the market's appetite.
For now, let's keep this one in the "worth watching" category until we see some signs of the stock's vital signs improving.
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
October 28, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE FUTURE OF TECH STOCKS)
(AI), (NVDA), (XLU), (XLE), (AAPL), (GOOGL), (AMZN), (META), (MSFT)
Through the vast whole spectrum of public markets, the U.S. stock market, and specifically technology stocks, are dominating versus their peers from other countries.
Heck, even Apple, just one company from a small suburb in California, is valued at a price that is greater than the entire German economy.
Does that speak to how bad the German economy is, or does it speak to the potency of public tech companies in America?
The truth is probably a bit of both.
Then, take a second and try to absorb the fact that Apple hasn’t even integrated AI into its own products yet.
The future is bright for many tech stocks, and the rally will broaden out to non-Magnificent 7 stocks.
More granularly, the US will continue to lead by market cap share as artificial intelligence benefits expand beyond a few large tech names that have dominated the market rally over the past year to companies in various industries.
Revenue production and margin improvement will be the critical levers of expansion.
The first will come from the money pouring into AI benefiting companies outside of Big Tech. This plays out as tech companies buy AI chips from the likes of Nvidia (NVDA), and as they need more power, these AI operators are forced to spend with companies in the Utilities (XLU) and Energy (XLE) sectors.
As AI makes companies more efficient and eliminates the simplest work, eventually cutting down costs, US corporates should get a boost to profit margins.
Global equity markets, including retirement allocations to equities, are basically leveraged to Nvidia.
A non-US tech company will rise over the next decade and unseat the large tech companies currently driving the US market share, like Apple (AAPL), Nvidia, Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Meta (META) are almost zero.
When we look at the revenue possibilities and understand that AI will directly cut expenses by creating efficiencies, it’s hard to see tech stocks do anything but go higher in the long term.
Even then, there will be some dips, and they should absolutely be characterized as buying opportunities.
Just look at a 3-month chart of Apple, and each month has presented a dip buying opportunity on August 6th, September 16th, and October 7th.
Apple stock is up 7.5% in the past 3 months.
When everyone complains that tech stocks are too expensive, well, they will get more expensive.
As long as leverage is able to be tapped, institutions will tap it and look for that asymmetric trade to the upside.
Tesla has also proved how hard it is to bet against tech and Elon Musk.
It usually is a terrible idea.
The setup to Tesla’s earnings meant a very low bar, and Musk jumped over it to the tune of a 22% pop in Tesla stock.
Tech is clearly in a secular bull trend, and trying to get artsy to squeeze in a microdip on the short side usually has meant a loss-taking event.
Why even try?
It’s my job to tell readers to bet on tech going to the upside, especially the quality companies that accelerate revenue by harnessing the superpowers of AI.
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
October 22, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TICK TALK)
(AAPL), (ABT), (BSX), (MDT), (RMD), (INSP), (DXCM), (PODD)
While waiting two hours to vote at the Incline Village Library this weekend, I counted the number of smartwatches in the line.
Seemed like everyone was checking their heart rates in the cold. One woman's Apple Watch even suggested she sit down after standing too long in the 40-degree weather.
That got me thinking about the billions flowing into medical wearables - and where that money should really be going instead.
Let's start with some sobering numbers about atrial fibrillation (AFib), the crown jewel of smartwatch detection capabilities.
Yes, Apple's (AAPL) 2020 study showed their watches can detect 84% of AFib cases during monitoring sessions. Sounds impressive, until you dig deeper.
Of the 50 million Americans wearing smartwatches, these devices identify only about 5,000 new AFib cases annually - a mere 0.083% of the 6 million Americans affected by the condition.
Plus, the real money tells a different story. The U.S. performs 250,000 ablation procedures yearly, creating a $3.2 billion market growing at 10% annually.
Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Boston Scientific (BSX), and Medtronic (MDT) dominate this space, with combined annual revenues of $12.4 billion from their cardiac rhythm management divisions alone.
Those 5,000 smartwatch-detected cases? They represent just 2% of annual ablation procedures. Not exactly the revolution we've been promised.
The story doesn't improve when we look at sleep apnea detection.
While Apple and Samsung tout their sleep-monitoring capabilities, their watches identify only about 60,000 of the 2 million new sleep apnea cases diagnosed yearly - that's 3% of new diagnoses.
Meanwhile, ResMed (RMD) and Inspire Medical Systems (INSP) generated combined revenues of $4.8 billion last year from sleep apnea treatments.
The smartwatch contribution to their patient pipeline is barely a rounding error.
Still, it’s not like this sector is a complete waste. The global smartwatch market stands at $58 billion and is projected to reach $98 billion by 2027, growing at 10.5% annually. Impressive, until you compare it to the traditional medical device market: $495 billion, reaching $718 billion by 2029.
The cardiac monitoring device segment alone represents $24.5 billion, expanding at 6.9% annually.
More importantly, traditional medical device companies are growing their revenues faster than smartwatch detection is adding to their patient base.
But, like I said, don't write off the sector entirely. The next generation of smartwatches promises some intriguing possibilities.
Continuous blood pressure monitoring could tap into a $23 billion market.
Non-invasive glucose tracking might crack the $28 billion diabetes monitoring space by 2027.
Enhanced sleep diagnostics could open up another $12.8 billion in opportunities.
So what's the smart play here?
Near term, keep your focus on established leaders like Abbott and Medtronic. Their upcoming Q4 earnings reports will tell us more about traditional patient acquisition trends than any smartwatch sales figures.
Watch for FDA clearances too - Abbott's new cardiac mapping system, expected in Q1 2025, could be a game-changer.
Looking out 12-24 months, keep your eye on companies like Dexcom (DXCM) and Insulet (PODD) as glucose monitoring moves mainstream.
ResMed's new sleep diagnostic platforms, launching mid-2025, could redefine how we think about sleep medicine.
Meanwhile, Boston Scientific's push into AI-enhanced cardiac monitoring might just bridge the gap between consumer tech and serious medical devices.
For long-term thinkers, watch for companies developing hybrid solutions that combine traditional devices with consumer tech.
The real breakthrough will come when medical device makers start acquiring wearable technology companies. That's when you'll know the revolution is real.
Remember, following the patient flow matters more than following the hype flow. Just like timing your visit to avoid a two-hour voting line, timing in the market is everything.
And right now, the time is right for medical device stocks, not their flashier smartwatch cousins.
Global Market Comments
October 21, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD or COMPLACENSE IS RUNNING RAMPANT)
(JPM), (TSLA), (AMZN), (FXA), (FXE), (FXB), (FXY), (NEM), (DHI), (NFLX), (AAPL), (GLD), (AGQ), (SLV), (AAPL), (NVDA), (MS), (CCJ). (VST), (AVGO), (ASML), (MU), (LRCX), (DHI), (PHM), (LEN), (CCJ), (VST), (CEG), (BWXT), (OKLO)
We are now nearly three months into an almost straight-up move in the stock market, and money managers everywhere are scratching their heads. We are now only 136 points or 2.32% from my yearend (SPX) target of 6,000, which is starting to look pretty conservative. The price-earnings multiple for the S&P 500 is now 21X, the Magnificent Seven 28X, and NVIDIA 65X.
I’ve seen all this before.
We are about as close to a perfect Goldilocks scenario as we can get. Interest rates and inflation are falling. A 3% GDP growth rate means the US has the strongest major economy and is the envy of the world. We have entered the euphoria stage of the current market move in almost all asset glasses. Gold (GLD) has gone up almost every day. Some big tech remains on fire. Energy prices are in free fall. Even bonds (TLT) are trying to put in a bottom.
Complacence is running rampant.
So, how the heck do we trade a market like this? You play the laggard trade.
The biggest risk to the gold trade is that it has gone up 40% in a year. So, what do you do? The response by traders has been to move into lagging silver (SLV) (AGQ), which has been on a tear since September.
Had enough with the Mag Seven? Then, rotate in the sub $1 trillion part of the market with Broadcom (AVGO), ASML Holdings NV (ASML), Micron Technology (MU), and Lam Research (LRCX).
Tired of watching your DH Horton (DHI) go up every day? Then, flip into smaller homebuilders like Pulte Homes (PHM) and Lennar (LEN).
And then there is the biggest laggard of all, the nuclear trade, which is just crawling out of a 40-year penalty box. With news that Amazon (AMZN) was planning to order up to eight Small Modular Reactors to power its AI efforts, all uranium plays continue to go ballistic. The proliferation of power-hungry data centers is driving the greatest growth of power needs since WWII and the Manhattan Project.
Fortunately, I got in early. This is a trend that could become the next NVIDIA, as the public stocks involved are coming off such a low base. I have personally interviewed the founders and examined Nuscale’s plans with a fine tooth come and consider them genius. The company is, far and away, the overwhelming leader in the sector. The puzzle for the pros who understand the technology is why it took so long. Buy (CCJ), (VST), (CEG), (BWXT), and (OKLO) on dips.
It's like everything is racing towards a key, even with an unknown outcome. There happens to be a big one coming up: the US presidential elections on November 6.
Speaking of elections, I took the time to participate in the first day of voting in Nevada on Saturday, October 19, at the Incline Village Public Library. I waited in line for two hours in a brisk and breezy 40 degrees. I wore my Marine Corps cap and Ukraine Army ID just to confuse people. Some got so tired of waiting in the cold that they went home, retrieved their mail-in ballots, and returned to the polls to drop them off.
I looked back on the line, and women outnumbered the men by three to one. Where did all these women come from? There used to be such a shortage of women at Lake Tahoe that it was impossible to get a date. Hunting, fishing, long-distance backpacking, and skiing weren’t used to attract such large numbers of the female gender. Maybe now they do? But now they’re driving up in Mercedes AMG’s and Range Rovers.
When I finally arrived at the front of the line, I was asked to sign an agreement with my finger, acknowledging that I knew it was illegal to vote twice. The poll worker noticed my ID. When I explained what it was in the Cyrillic alphabet, she burst into tears, apologized, and said she had goosebumps all over.
It was another blockbuster week, up over 6%. So far in October, we have gained +4.89%. My 2024 year-to-date performance is at +50.13%. The S&P 500 (SPY) is up +22.43% so far in 2024. My trailing one-year return reached a nosebleed +65.90. That brings my 16-year total return to +726.76%. My average annualized return has recovered to +52.56%.
With my Mad Hedge Market Timing Index at the 70 handles for the first time in five months, I am remaining cautious with a 70% cash and 30% long. I look for a small profit in (TSLA) to reduce risk. Two of my positions expired at their maximum profit point for (NEM) and (DHI) on Friday, October 18 options expiration.
Some 63 of my 70 round trips, or 90%, were profitable in 2023. Some 60 of 80 trades have been profitable so far in 2024, and several of those losses were really break-even. Some 16 out of the last 19 trade alerts were profitable. That is a success rate of +75.00%.
Try beating that anywhere.
Risk Adjusted Basis
Current Capital at Risk
Risk On
(TSLA) 11/$165-$175 call spread 10.00%
(JPM) 11/$195-$205 call spread 10.00%
(GLD) 11/230-$235 call spread 10.00%
Risk Off
NO POSITIONS 0.00%
Total Net Position 30.00%
Total Aggregate Position 30.00%
Netflix Soars on Blockbuster Earnings, up 11% at the opening on a 5 million gain in subscribers. The company posted earnings per share of $5.40 for the period ended Sept. 30, higher than the $5.12 LSEG consensus estimate.
Crucially, Netflix saw momentum in its ad-supported membership tier, which surged 35% quarter over quarter. The streaming wars are over, and (NFLX) won. Buy (NFLX) on dips.
Silver is Ready to Break Out to the Upside after a year-long-range trade. The white metal is a predictor of a healthy recovery and a solar rebound. It’s a long overdue catch-up with (GLD). Buy (AGQ) on dips.
Apple China Sales Jump 20% on the new iPhone 16 launch. Both Apple and Huawei's (HWT.UL) latest smartphones went on sale in China on Sept. 20, underscoring intensifying competition in the world's biggest smartphone market, where the U.S. firm has been losing market share in recent quarters to domestic rivals. Buy (AAPL) on dips.
Taiwan Semiconductor Soars on Spectacular Earnings, dragging up the rest of the chip sector with it. The world's largest contract chipmaker raised its expectation for annual revenue growth and said sales from AI chips would account for mid-teen percentage of its full-year revenue. U.S.-listed TSMC shares rose nearly 9%, and if gains hold, the company's market capitalization would cross $1 trillion. Buy (NVDA) on dips.
Weekly Jobless Claims Fall. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 241,000 for the week ended Oct. 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 260,000 claims for the latest week. Claims jumped to more than a one-year high in the prior week, attributed to Helene, which devastated Florida and large swathes of the U.S. Southeast in late September.
Morgan Stanley Announces Blowout Earnings, fueling a 32% profit jump for the third quarter. Revenue from the trading business rose 13%. That followed gains recorded by its biggest rivals as the market business lifted fortunes across the industry, and a steady rebound in investment banking fees increased dealmaking. The wealth unit generated revenue of $7.27 billion, higher than analysts’ expectations, with $64 billion in net new assets. The unit boosted its pretax margin to 28%, driven by growth in fee-based assets. Buy (MS) on dips.
Global EV Sales Up 30% in September, with the largest gains in China. Gains in the U.S. market have been lagging in anticipation of the Nov. 5 election. Chinese carmakers are seeking to grow their sales in the EU despite import duties of up to 45% and amid cooling global demand for electric cars. Chinese and European automakers were going head-to-head at the Paris Car Show on Monday. Buy (TSLA) on dips.
Dollar Hits Two Month High on rising US interest rates. Ten-year US Treasuries have risen from 3.55% to 4.12% since the September Nonfarm Payroll Report. A string of U.S. data has shown the economy to be resilient and slowing only modestly, while inflation in September rose slightly more than expected, leading traders to trim bets on large rate cuts from the Fed. Buy all foreign currencies on dips (FXA), (FXE), (FXB), (FXY).
S&P 500 Value Gain Hits $50 Trillion, since the 1982 bottom, which I remember well and is up 50X. The index hit a record high Wednesday and is trading Thursday at around 5770, up 21% so far in 2024. The index’s value is up sixfold since it stood at $8 trillion at year-end 2008, near the depth of the bear market during the financial crisis.
JP Morgan Delivers Blowout Earnings. Its stock, trading around $223, was on course for its biggest daily percentage gain in 1-1/2 years.
(JPM)'s investment-banking fees surged 31%, doubling guidance of 15% last month. Equities propelled trading revenue up 8%, exceeding an earlier 2% forecast. These earnings are consistent with the soft-landing narrative of modest U.S. economic growth. Buy (JPM) on dips.
My Ten-Year View
When we come out the other side of the recession, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age or the next Roaring Twenties. The economy is decarbonizing, and technology hyper accelerating, creating enormous investment opportunities. The Dow Average will rise by 600% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The new America will be far more efficient and profitable than the old.
Dow 240,000, here we come!
On Monday, October 21 at 8:30 AM EST, nothing of note takes place is out.
On Tuesday, October 22 at 6:00 AM, the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index is out.
On Wednesday, October 23 at 11:00 AM, the Existing Home Sales is printed.
On Thursday, October 24 at 8:30 AM, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. We also get New Homes Sales.
On Friday, October 25 at 8:30 AM, the US Durable Goods Orders are announced. At 2:00 PM, the Baker Hughes Rig Count is printed.
As for me, I am headed out for early voting in Nevada this morning. It’s been a year since I came back from Ukraine badly wounded, so I thought I would recall my recollections from that time.
You know you’re headed into a war zone the moment you board the train in Krakow, Poland. There are only women and children headed for Kiev, plus a few old men like me. Men of military age have been barred from leaving the country since the Russians Invaded. That leaves about 8 million to travel to Ukraine from Western Europe to visit spouses and loved ones.
After a 15-hour train ride, I arrived at Kiev’s magnificent Art Deco station. I was met by my translator and guide, Alicia, who escorted me to the city’s finest hotel, the Premier Palace on T. Shevchenka Blvd. The hotel, built in 1909, is an important historic site as it was where the Czarist general surrendered Kiev to the Bolsheviks in 1919. No one in the hotel could tell me what happened to the general afterward.
Staying in the best hotel in a city run by Oligarchs does have its distractions. Thanks to the war, occupancy was about 10%. That didn’t keep away four heavily armed bodyguards from the lobby 24/7. Breakfast was well populated by foreign arms merchants. And for some reason, there are always a lot of beautiful women hanging around with nothing to do.
The population is definitely getting war-weary. Nightly air raids across the country and constant bombings take their emotional toll. Kiev’s Metro system is the world’s deepest and, at two cents a ride, the cheapest. It’s where the government hid out during the early days of the war. They perform a dual function as bomb shelters when the missile attacks become particularly heavy.
My Look Out Ukraine has duly announced every incoming Russian missile and its targeted neighborhood. The buzzing app kept me awake at night, so I turned it off. Let the missiles land where they may. For this reason, I reserved a south-facing suite and kept the curtains drawn to protect against flying glass.
The sound of the attacks was unmistakable. The anti-aircraft drones started with a pop, pop, pop until they hit a big 1,000-pound incoming Russian cruise missile, then you heard a big kaboom! Disarmed missiles that were duds are placed all over the city and are amply decorated with colorful comments about Putin.
The extent of the Russian scourge has been breathtaking, with an epic resource grab. The most important resource is people to make up for a Russian population growth that has been plunging for the last century. The Russians depopulated their occupied territory, sending adults to Siberia and children to orphanages to turn them into Russians. If this all sounds medieval, it is. Some 19,000 Ukrainian children have gone missing since the war started.
Everyone has their own atrocity story, almost too gruesome to repeat here. Suffice it to say that every Ukrainian knows these stories and will fight to the death to avoid the unthinkable happening to them. There will be no surrender.
It will be a long war.
Touring the children’s hospital in Kiev is one of the toughest jobs I ever undertook. Kids are there shredded by shrapnel, crushed by falling walls, and newly orphaned. I did what I could to deliver advanced technology and $10,000 in cash, but their medical system is so backward, maybe 30 years behind our own, that it couldn’t be employed. Still, the few smiles I was able to inspire made the trip worth it. This is the children’s hospital that was bombed a few months ago.
The hospital is also taking the overflow of patients from the military hospitals. One foreign volunteer from Sweden was severely banged up, a mortar shell landing yards behind him. He had enough shrapnel in him, some 250 pieces, to light up an ultrasound and had already been undergoing operations for months. It was amazing he was still alive.
To get to the heavy fighting, I had to take another train ride a further 15 hours east. You really get a sense of how far Hitler overreached in Russia in WWII. After traveling by train for 30 hours to get to Kherson, Stalingrad, where the German tide was turned, is another 700 miles east!
I shared a cabin with Oleg, a man of about 50 who ran a car rental business in Kiev with 200 vehicles. When the invasion started, he abandoned the business and fled the country with his family because they had three military-aged sons. He now works at a minimum-wage job in Norway and never expects to do better.
What the West doesn’t understand is that Ukraine is not only fighting the Russians but a Great Depression as well. Some tens of thousands of businesses have gone under because people save during war and also because 20% of their customer base has fled.
I visited several villages where the inhabitants had been completely wiped out. Only their pet dogs remained alive, which roved in feral starving packs. For this reason, my major issued me my own AK47. Seeing me heavily armed also gave the peasants a greater sense of security.
It’s been a long time since I’ve held an AK, which is a marvelous weapon. It’s it’s like riding a bicycle. Once you learned, you never forget.
I’ve covered a lot of wars in my lifetime, but this is the first fought by Millennials. They post their kills on their Facebook pages. Every army unit has a GoFundMe account where doners can buy them drones, mine sweepers, and other equipment.
Everyone is on their smartphones all day long, killing time, and units receive orders this way. But go too close to the front, and the Russians will track your signal and call in an artillery strike. The army had to ban new Facebook postings from the front for exactly this reason.
Ukraine has been rightly criticized for rampant corruption, which dates back to the Soviet era. Several ministers were rightly fired for skimming off government arms contracts to deal with this. When I tried to give $10,000 to the Children’s Hospital, they refused to take it. They insisted I send a wire transfer to a dedicated account to create a paper trail and avoid sticky fingers.
I will recall more memories from my war in Ukraine in future letters, but only if I have the heart to do so. They will also be permanently posted on the home page at www.madhedfefundtrader.com under the tab “War Diary”.
Donating $10,000 to the Children’s Hospital
On the Front at Crimea with a Dud Russian Missile
A Gift or Piroshkis from Local Peasants
One of 2,000 Destroyed Russian Tanks
The Battle of Kherson with my Unit
This Blown Bridge Blocked the Russians from Entering Kiev
Good Luck and Good Trading,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
