Tuesday 1^st September 2020

Over night Apple and Tesla shares split, one for four and one for five respectively I think. But that aside, these company’s equities (and a few other tech companies) have been going up, in what feels like a straight line, for a while now.

I read people have been piling into Apple and Tesla more than anything else. NAB Trade have confirmed this for Australian’s buying US stocks.

Here in Australia, AfterPay (APT) was down at around $9 in mid March and is now around the $90 mark. It’s a 10 banger in just six months on the ASX. It’s still loosing money, but the buy now pay later fanfare is only increasing.

The mainstream media continues to pollute minds focusing on COVID case numbers. I don’t know how any of these newsreaders sleep straight at night. The moral compass they use is permanently broken. It’s a disgrace.

Added to my holdings today.

A mate messaged me about some of the incredible things happening in the DeFi space (Decentralised Finance). Some big businesses, including some Australian banks will be using block chain technology. From memory, the ASX will be using it soon too, in some capacity.

 

Wednesday 2^nd September 2020

Yesterday the RBA kept interest rates on hold and announced they’ll pump $110 billion stimulus into the economy in cheap loans to businesses and households as state boarders remain closed crippling stacks of businesses nationally.

The fall in GDP around the world for the June quarter is mind blowing. 20.4% in the UK, 13.8% in France, 11.8% in Canada, 10.1% in Germany and 9.1% in the USA.

Australia is officially in recession with a 7% contraction in the June quarter.

 

Thursday 3^rd September 2020

So far this year Victoria has had 541 fewer deaths (from all causes) than this same time last year.

Germany came out in the last 24hrs saying they believe Russian opposition leader who recently and suddenly passed away, was poisoned.

What an interesting world we’re living in!

Closer to home, this afternoon the accounting firm I use had a zoom session for their clients hosted by an analyst from Vanguard for investors.

They polled the participants at the beginning of the call asking us the biggest risk factor on the horizon and 75% of people said renewed waves of COVID. I don’t think it’s COVID that’s feared, more likely the politician’s response to it and it’s economic costs.

Vanguard suggested Australian equities are at a fair valuation as is the US, ex-AU developed markets and emerging markets, with the AU market the best value of these four in their opinion.

Their 10-year forecast for AU equities is 6.8% and global equities (unhedged) 6.4%.

We’re 1-2 years to get ‘back to where we were’ and we’re 2-3 years to get back to where we ‘should have been’ is their projection. Time will tell.

The analyst got a question around how do we pay back all the borrowed money for COVID support. She suggested it’d be a combination of three things:

1. Economic growth
2. Inflation
3. A combination of decreased government spending and tax hikes. Typically done as 2/3^rd’s spending decrease and 1/3^rd tax hikes.

Finally, the question of gold was raised. She mentioned since the 1980’s the volatility of gold has been greater than volatility in the equity markets. Vanguard doesn’t see gold as an asset class as there’s no real rate of return, it’s typically a more speculative play.

One point that's often confusing is volatility  equals risk in equity markets. It doesn't. It’s simply a reflection of liquidity. Of course there’s the sequence of return risks upon initially retiring and relying solely on investment income. For gold though, volatility in it's value is interesting. Why? If it’s a genuine store of wealth, then it’s not doing its job as it’s value fluctuates all over the place.

Of course, some will disagree, which is one of the things that make’s life so interesting.

 

Friday 4^th September 2020

CBA CEO Matt Comyn said some property investors should consider selling. “It would be sensible for some customers to be contemplating about whether now was the right time to reduce some of that outstanding debt,” he said.

Investment lending is at it’s lowest since 2004.

A mate messaged me yesterday of news the Australian Government will release a report soon concluding Fintech will use block chain technology and it’s basically the future.

There’s a lot of noise around crypto currencies, block chain, decentralisation, etc. My mate is right into and keeps me up to date on the basics.

I don’t know enough to have a concrete opinion, but am curious to learn more. I like the idea of a decentralised system and think block chain technology will be a large part of our future financial transactions.

How this all looks and executes day to day, I’m not sure. Plus, in my (limited) thinking, there’d need to be a ‘reserve currency’ similar to what the USD is now. Perhaps that could be Bitcoin or maybe people could use any number of coins to exchange for goods/services directly. As technology improves the options increase. 

Finally, the old bullshit detector is in overtime hearing about some (definitely not all) of the ‘alt coins’ and the stories behind them. Not unlike the Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos story, where she created a story/vision/narrative so powerful she fooled some of the highest profile people in the world. There’s a podcast series ‘The Dropout’ is a fascinating listen. https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/the-dropout/

xxxx told me a guy he knows in NSW who decided to create a coin himself and launch an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) a couple of years back. The guy did not have soft wear skills, nor did any of his partners or advisors. That didn’t stop him going ahead and creating a story…

 

Monday 7^th September 2020

The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ closed lower on consecutive days last week, as did the ASX. Luckily, this continued on the ASX's international ETF’s today so I added to mine.

Also today, USANA’s new Preferred Customer Bonus Program and Refer a Friend Program for our customers kicked off!

Exciting times! We as business owners are better compensated for connecting customers with our exceptional nutritional supplements.

Plus what’s even cooler, is our customers can now earn ‘credit’ for referring/sharing the products too, meaning they can potentially get their products for HUGE discounts.

Referral based business at it’s best and now seamlessly automated in here in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Mexico, Columbia, Germany, UK, the Netherlands, Romania, Italy, France and Spain.

In other news, yesterday the Victorian Premier released the states plan to exit lockdowns, by adding weeks to the current lockdown!

Three negative quarters of GDP coming right up!

 

Wednesday 9^th September 2020

Over night S&P500 down 2.78% and the NASDAQ down 4.11%, while Tesla down 21%!

It’s ok though; they’ve completed capital rising of $5 billion dollars and are still up a couple hundred precent for the past 12 months.

Talked to a mate about cash buffers and topping his back up after his prior 6 months of buying. His ‘sleep at night’ factor is being stirred up.

Cash buffers are an interesting topic. From my understanding, mathematically, it’s better to be fully invested and sell if you really need cash. The compounding of being in the market longer with more money is the advantage, superior to the cash buffer going backwards in a bank account.

Emotionally, it’s a different story. Having a cash buffer can do wonders for people’s comfort and sleep at night factor, especially in the market conditions we find ourselves in now.

There is no hard fast rule when it comes to cash buffers. If you’re working with small overheads you might feel fine with one. If you’ve got lumpy income or are solely dependent on your investment income, you may feel better having 3-36 months living expenses stashed in cash.

Talked to another mate about the maths of divesting a holding and reinvesting that capital back in to the market immediately versus doing it with a degree of timing.

He spread sheeted it using end of day prices. He put the capital into two different LIC’s. The outcome on one was there was no difference if he reinvested immediately or waited (which he did) and the other he did about 2.5% better by timing it.

But, that was random and it’s not to say he might have done even better tomorrow or next week or next month sometime.

He’s got a few more direct holdings to divest over the next 12-24 months so we’ll see how it plays out with the others.

I added to one of my holdings again today, lowering the cost base and increasing the number of shares held. While not the goal, it feels good.

 

Friday 11^th September 2020

According to Macquarie Research, overall Australia’s listed companies earnings per share dropped 20% in the 2019-2020 financial year. Considering most of this happened in just the final four months of Australia’s financial year (March – June).

We’re now into the 3^rd month of the new financial year and not much has changed except Victoria will take us down further being in lockdown until October at this stage.

From October all the Job Keeper and other stimulus will start pulling back slowly. It’s going to be interesting how it plays out.

The 2020 Australian Investor Study put together by the ASX has some interesting stats. Check it out: https://www.asx.com.au/documents/media/australian-investors-adapt-to-challenging-market-conditions.pdf

What caught my attention was of the 19.4 million adults in Australia 9 million hold investments outside of their home and superannuation. With 6.6 million holding listed investments.

 

Monday 14^th September 2020

It’s taken long enough, finally CEO’s of CSL and BHP along with Westframers already coming out publicly at the Andrew Government for lockdowns in Victoria.

I was told earlier this month the World Health Organisation (finally!) came out with guidelines around eating healthy foods, exercise and reducing alcohol. Too little too late, fear has spread faster and wider than the virus itself.

A mate recommended I watch ‘The Social Dilemma’ doco on Netflix. Cannot recommend it high enough. Do yourself a favour and check it out, particularly if you tend to waste too much of your life on social media platforms.

 

Thursday 17^th September 2020

New Zealand economy contracted 12% in the past 3 months, while the Australian unemployment rate dropped from 7.5% down to 6.8% released today. That’s approx. 111,000 new full and part time jobs. There are still 921,800 unemployed around the country. 

 

Friday 18^th September 2020

Qantas CEO took an 83% cut in income this financial year. Last year he made $10 million, while this year it was $1.7 million and declined $1.4 million of bonus shares.

On the topic of shares, xxx paid it’s final dividend today, though I opt for the DRP and get more shares.

What’s interesting is I can think of nearly 10 people very close to me who also received more shares or dividends today from xxx.

Got to say, it feels pretty good to have had a small influence in them building equity and/or receiving more passive income.

 

Monday 21^st September 2020

The National Rugby League told staff this morning 25% would be cut in a bid to save $50 million dollars of expenditure over the coming years.

Added to my international holdings today.

 

Tuesday 22^nd September 2020

Divested probably my favourite individual company today after a lot of mental back and forward the past few days. It was a win-win outcome irrespective of my decision as I still hold a bunch of it indirectly via the index and LIC’s I own and I’d have been happy to continue holding it too.

I decided to take a profit. Will put it back into the market more broadly tomorrow. 

 

Wednesday 23^rd September 2020

The Reserve Bank of Australia is banging on about their next move.

Decades of progressively cheaper debt has impacted society’s behaviour towards debt. Borrowing $500,000 at 9% interest is worlds apart from borrowing the same $500,000 at 2.5% as an example.

Fact is central banks have absolutely failed in achieving their inflation-based targets over the past 5-10 years and this recession has thrown another spanner in the works.

Universities here in Australia have been hit hard by COVID and the boarder closures.

 

Thursday 24^th September 2020

Added to my global developed market holdings today with the US down again overnight. 

 

Friday 25^th September 2020

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today opened the gates for banks to lend money again via some significant reforms from what I can tell. Credit (another word for debt) will be more available once again. What could possibly go wrong?

Today I’m putting together the finishing touches for an online interview I’m with Ironman Champion Matt Bevilacqua as part of an online USANA overview tomorrow for USANA Australia and New Zealand. Following the interview I’ll give a brief overview on the potential part-time income side of USANA.

Added greater exposure to Asia and the emerging markets today, as part of my international holdings.

 

Saturday 26^th September 2020

Interview and overview done! Went live online to around 1000 people from Australia, New Zealand and a few people in North America too. Some feedback came through quickly too, which is always appreciated.

Here's the link to check it out: https://youtu.be/0FgVef4g0jk

 

Monday 28^th September 2020

Yesterday was the official end to Job Keeper payments. From today, the criterion tightens to receive a reduced support payment for the next three months.

Vanguard today released the estimated distributions for the July – Sept quarter. Distributions are down for the three funds I hold, compared to same quarter last year, though not near as low as I thought they’d be.

For example, VAS (Vanguard Australian Share) ETF will pay around $0.57c per unit while same quarter last year it distributed $1.07/unit. It’s down around 46%, less than I thought it would be.

 

Wednesday 30^th September 2020

Added to my international holdings today, before it goes ex-dividend tomorrow. Again, its not the goal, but feels good to push up next quarters dividend income.

On another topic… Below is a release from the Orthomolecular News Service on Vitamin C and COVID-19. 

These case studies are a good example of what appropriate dosed Vitamin C can do in just three days and many had a previous medical history. This is just one micro-nutrient in isolation, available everywhere that’s cheap, safe and effective for general health and wellbeing.

Imagine adding micro-nutrients in optimal dose (Vit D, zinc, magnesium, etc) plus regular exercise, with healthy eating, deep high quality sleep, drinking clean water, cutting out sugar, fatty and processed foods combined with a positive, determined and optimistic state of mind?

But nothing sells and controls human behaviour like fear…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, September 27, 2020

Vitamin C Treatment of COVID-19: Case Reports

by Andrew W. Saul and Doctor X

Many years ago, when I was first starting out in the natural healing field, a physician said to me, "You are lucky. You have no license to lose." When doctors are to be silenced, they are simply threatened with loss of their license to practice medicine. State licensing board attacks on physicians are private and administrative. Such proceedings never get to open court; they never get to a jury. It is all behind closed doors. The most effective instrument of compliance is a bureaucracy, not the judiciary.

And it works.

That is why I am publishing this series of 22 case reports from a board-certified specialist but without revealing the doctor’s name. I want this physician to keep being able to practice and heal sick people.

Read them and decide for yourself about the merits of vitamin C against COVID-19.

1. 47 y/o female with PMH (previous medical history) of anxiety, depression, hypothyroid presented with 11 day history of fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, muscle aches, SOB (shortness of breath), abdominal pain and loss of appetite. She tested positive for COVID and received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By day 3, fatigue, cough, SOB and appetite all improved.
2. 63 y/o AAF (African American female) with PMH of sickle cell trait presented with 10 day history of fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, fever, muscle aches, congestion, headache, SOB, nausea. Patient was COVID positive and received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 7.5/25/25 grams. By day 3, fever and headache resolved. Fatigue, cough, aches, and SOB all significantly improved. 
3. 35 y/o WM (white male) with PMH of HTN (hypertension, i.e. high blood pressure), high cholesterol, sleep apnea presented with 1 week of cough, DOE (dyspnea on exertion, i.e. gets out of breath with exercise), fatigue. Patient was COVID positive and received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By day 3, fever resolved, fatigue was improving, and cough and DOE significantly improved.
4. 36 y/o WM COVID positive with no PMH presented with 4 day history of dry cough, chills/sweats, SOB and headache. Patient received 3 days of 25 grams of IV Vitamin C. By day 3, cough was still present and patient did have a loss of taste and smell but otherwise had no complaints.
5. 66 y/o male COVID positive with PMH of asthma, DM (diabetes) HTN presented to the clinic with 9 days of fatigue, cough, body aches, sinus congestion, HA (headache), SOB, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of day 3, fatigue, SOB, cough improved slightly,  and his aches, congestion, diarrhea and HA resolved.
6. 30 y/o AAM (African American male) with PMH of HTN and DM presented with 2 week history of fatigue, sinus congestion, productive cough, SOB and loss of appetite. He tested positive for COVID the day before arriving to our clinic. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By day 3, fatigue and sinus congestion improved. His appetite was back to normal. Cough and SOB significantly improved and he was able to walk up stairs again.
7. 19 year old WF (white female) with no past medical  history.  She tested positive for COVID. Symptoms of fatigue and sinus congestion have been present for 1 day.  She completed 3 days of vitamin C IV, 25 grams.  On day 3 she had no symptoms except for slight loss in sense of smell and taste. 
8. A 19 year old WM with a history of asthma and pertussis as a child.  He tested positive for COVID.  He has been having symptoms of fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, muscle ache , sinus congestion, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite for 4-5 days prior to visit.   He completed 3 days of vitamin C IV 25. By day 3 he had no symptoms and felt great. 
9. 67 y/o WM with PMH of diabetes and hypothyroid presented with symptoms for 1 month including fever, fatigue, cough, body aches and headache. He tested positive for COVID 1 week prior to his arrival to the clinic. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, his fever, headache and body aches resolved, and fatigue and cough significantly improved.
10. 60 y/o male with PMH of DM2 (diabetes type 2) presented with symptoms for 1 week. COVID positive. Symptoms included fever, fatigue, dry cough, muscle aches, congestion, headache, SOB, abdominal pain, and nausea. He also had chills/sweats and loss of taste and smell. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, his cough was slightly improved, headache was resolved, SOB improved, nausea improved, chills and sweats resolved, and taste and smell were coming back.
11. 59 y/o AAM with PMH of HTN and COVID positive presented with symptoms for 3 weeks. Included fever, fatigue, headache, SOB, chills and sweats. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, fever resolved, fatigue and SOB and cough were all improving.
12. 34 y/o WF with no PMH but COVID positive presented with 4 day history of back pain and HA that did resolve prior to her first IV. She completed 3 days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams and had no symptoms on day 3. 
13. 43 y/o AAF with PMH of endometriosis fibroids and b/l PE (bilateral pulmonary embolism, i.e. blood clots in lungs) and COVID positive presented with symptoms for 8 days. These included fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, mild SOB, diarrhea, chest pain with coughing. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, fatigue, cough and sore throat and chest pain resolved and patient reported feeling much better overall.
14. 38 y/o AAF with PMH of ADHD and COVID positive presented with 2 days of fatigue. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, her fatigue was improved and patient had no other symptoms.
15. 45 y/o AAF with PMH of hypercholesterolemia and CVA (cardiovascular attack i.e. stroke) and COVID positive presented with symptoms for 2.5 weeks. These included fatigue, cough, HA, SOB, nausea, chest tightness, loss of appetite. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, patient reported improvement in fatigue, cough, SOB. Nausea resolved. Chest tightness was minimal. 
16. 41 y/o WM with no PMH and COVID positive presented with 9 days of fatigue, dry cough, and headache. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, fatigue was improving, cough was minimal, and headache had resolved. 
17. A 67 y/o female with PMH of high cholesterol and COVID positive presented with 1 week of symptoms including fatigue, nausea, fever, and poor appetite. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, fever resolved and fatigue was improving.
18. A 65 y/o female with PMH of Hashimoto's disease, depression, and COVID positive presented with 2 weeks of fatigue, chest tightness, and poor appetite. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, chest tightness resolved and fatigue was improving and appetite was improving.
19. 31 y/o female with PMH of asthma, anemia, and allergies, and COVID positive presented with 1 week of fatigue, dry cough, congestion, and loss of smell. Patient received 3 consecutive days of IV Vitamin C 25 grams. By the end of the 3rd day, smell had returned, appetite was much improved, congestion resolved, and fatigue resolved. Cough also resolved.
20. A 67 year old WM with past medical history of kidney stones.  He tested positive for COVID.  He started with symptoms of fever and fatigue. He completed 3 days of vitamin C IV, 25 grams.  By day 3 symptoms had improved and he was back to 95%.
21. A 38 year old WF with no past medical history.  She tested positive for COVID. She started with symptoms of  fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, muscle ache, sinus congestion and headache that have been present for 2 days prior to her appointment.  She completed 3 days of vitamin C IV 25 grams. By day 3 She felt much better and only had a mild sore throat and PND (Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, i.e. difficulty breathing at night).
22. A 42 year old WM with no past medical history. Tested positive for COVID.  Symptoms started 10 days ago.  He started with fever and body aches.  He also developed nasal congestion, dizziness, PND and difficulty taking deep breaths.   He completed 3 days of vitamin C IV 25.  By day 3 he felt much better. He still had some fatigue and mild congestion, but overall he felt much better.  He is now able to take deep breaths without problems.

To sum up: Virtually all the above COVID patients received 25,000 mg of vitamin C intravenously for three days. They all recovered, and many recovered with spectacular rapidity. This information is being censored by the commercial news media. It is being kept off Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube. That is why OMNS has issued this release. As A. J. Liebling said decades ago, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

Withholding vitamin C treatment information from the public withholds it from the patient. We accuse the media of negligence. They can correct this at any time.

Until they do, we will do it for them.

To learn more: Several dozen articles related to vitamin therapy for COVID are posted for free access at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml . Many are available in French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Italian, Korean, Chinese, and Norwegian. Japanese translations may be found at https://isom-japan.org/top_after .