Firstly, results since Februaury are basically flat with “winners and losers” offsetting each other. Droneshield and Tesla have been trending sideways lately as confusion over their future reflects our broad portfolio. Gold has also struggled reccently but it’s probably because of the Iran War effect of the people selling gold (i.e. reserves) whilst they don’t have income due to the blockade. This effect makes gold a good Buy until things normalise and resumes it’s rising trend.
Obviously, the Iran war is just the most recent of events casting further doubts about what lies ahead? President Trump keeps adding to the uncertainty with no end in sight of the effects on oil prices and what it will do to inflation?
Add the growing threats of how AI is changing the economy and corporations growing acceptance of using it, then we are setting up for a future where there will be “winners and losers” as some grow whilst others fail. In addition, employment struggles as more companies reduce workers in the name of profits whilst the poor get poorer and middle classes shrink too. The next year could prove the be the “turning point” and something needs to change economically (and probably politically) to ensure that we avoid future “riots” and “revolutions” as the “rich get richer”.
There’s just too many possible ways this can “play out” (also due to the increasingly difficult politics of the world’s major powers) that we just need to keep watching it and try to adapt to it as it unfolds.
As a result, the younger genertions are not really interested in a “buy and hold” investment approach but rather more likely to take quick profits over and over again because they are having to “live” off their gains. Of course, the problems could be that they are not thinking that they will have to pay tax on some of the profits. In addition, recent CGT changes will actually increase the government’s revenues which is needed to help the same people who may be struggling to find employment. It’s the old “give with one hand and take with the other”.
These proposed CGT changes from 1 July 2026 will impact our future decisions as less tax discounts will be available if shares are not held for more than 12 months. Making this a brief window of opportunity to buy and sell shares before the changes take effect.
Regarding actual investments, one example was buying Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US) shares and taking almost a 100% gain within a month! Whilst we never cry over taking a profit, the share kept going from our sale price of $380 to $460 – this shows how volatile the markets can be and few shares normally perform like this.
Another recently good performer, which we only took some partial profits on, were WeeBit (WBT.AX). It’s risen from about $1.50 to over $7 in just the last year!
A current detailed list of our current Shares can be found here: Aware Investors Portfolio-20260525
Cryptocurrencies have struggled similar to gold. They are reserves which are being used by those with few other “liquid” assets in difficult times. When global conditions improve, these could resume their uptrends when investors are able to rebuild their reserves.
All the Fund Managers have moved away from the ASX SYSTEM and we are in the complicated process of providing the growing Anti-Money laundering records and individuals details (this means they want to know the details of all investors behind the funds). This makes them a less attractive investment propostition for us in future. In addition, we will review and probably liquidate some of them because most fund managers have not been performing well and struggle to adapt to the global politics and market movements. The alternative way to manage these would be to open an investment accout with Netwealth, or other investment platforms, which would again simplify buying and selling these Managed funds units. As usual, we need to consider if their fees are actually providing enough value when compared with direct investments in shares.