Fifth largest drop in the stock markets opens new opportunities

When markets hit record highs they turn jittery and corrections follow. This week we saw what some count as the fifth largest drop in stock market values ever. The portfolio has not been helped by a cooling of the interest in the ever expanding range of cryptocurrencies. More than 90 major cryptocurrencies quoted lower this week. For most cryptos, we may already be seeing a slow decline, reason why I decided to cut losses on NEO, XLM and BCH and may close Ethereum and Bitcoin soon:  http://iitm.be/cryptos4asset . I will also try to open more short positions in cryptos in addition to the short position on $BTC.

 

Because of market volatility I have been setting tighter stop losses on profitable positions, leading frequently to positions closing with small profits, followed by re-opening similar long positions at marginally lower prices. This has helped to lock-in profits from the likes of Aareal Bank AG / ARL, Aixtronic SE / AIXA, Alibaba Ltd / BABA, Davide Campari SPR / CPR, Cellectis SA / CLLS, Hella AG / HLLE, Leoni AG / LEO, Siltronic AG / WAF, Solvay SA / SOLB, as well as minor short trades in Paypal Inc / PYPL and and Petrofac / PFC.

 

A trade war?

Much of the steel dumped by China is generic and low grade. Despite some job losses in western steel mills, western consumers have been benefiting from cheaper steels and aluminium going into tins for food and drink and cheaper construction steel for factories, supermarkets and bridges. In turn much American produce and crops are sold overseas at lower prices than in their home market, thereby giving Chinese farmers cheaper pork and chicken feed and consumers cheaper food. Consumers throughout the world have been benefiting from increased competition through growing international trade. There is a chance that the American administration wants to direct their trade negotiation with the Chinese towards extracting greater respect for Intellectual and an opening of their market for Foreign Direct Investment. As far as the EU as the world’s largest consumer market is concerned it has much leeway in trade talks, I don’t expect the USA to start a trade war with the EU and our portfolio reflects that.

 

US stocks tend to have stretched price to earnings ratios. Our portfolio contains more EU shares than most on eToro. I expect the value our portfolio of shares in excellent and promising businesses to grow over the coming days and weeks, as pressure on the US administration increases to calm markets.

 

The market correction is probably worrying for the copy trader. However, if you share my optimism in the recovery of stocks like Santander SA / SAN, ThyssenKrupp AG / TKA, Unilever plc / ULVR, Inditex SA / ITX et al, then now is an optimal moment to copy my trades on eToro: http://iitm.be/oroetoro

Gene editing technology – the CRISPR tech fund

eToro is launching a CRISPR-Tech fund with a minimum investment requirement of US$5,000. Some of these gene editing firms are starting important trials, hoping to receive approval in medicine, agriculture and even human gene editing.

 

eToro users who wish to profit from this hot investment trend but don’t want to risk $5,000 of their hard earned cash could copy a trader investing in the fund.

 

As the genome editing technology is at a trial stage, I have taken the decision to place CFD orders on some of the companies developing CRISPR technology: eg Cellectis SA $CLLS (ZVA / FR0010425595, France), Intellia Therapeutics Inc.  $NTLA (38I / US45826J1051, USA) and TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEV / US8816242098, Israel).

Other CRISPR-Tech developers I have an eye on are Uniqure B.V.  $QURE (UQ1 / NL0010696654, Netherlands) and CRISPR Therapeutics AG  $1CG (CH0334081137, Switzerland).

 

I have opened CFD positions in some health sector firms in gene editing and pharmaceuticals, taking advantage of yesterday’s dip in CRISPR Technology developers : Sangamo Bioscience Inc ($SGMO), Intellia Therapeutics Inc ($NTLA at $20.90) and Editas Medicine Inc ($EDIT at $30.88), Merk Inc ($MRK at $56.60) and Agilent Technologies Inc ($A at $70.62). Had opened two positions in Cellectis SA ($CLLS at $31.46) of France previously. I have also acquired shares Cellectis SA and in pharmaceutical generics maker TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd of Israel at €16.12 – $TEV also have a hand in gene editing technology CRISPR.

 

=== update 12/JAN/2018 ===

The CFD orders I placed on CRISPR-Tech developers during this week’s dip have worked well. Only Cellectis SA CLLS  is still in red (opened at $31.46), while Agilent Technologies Inc (A opened at $70.62 +2.73%), Sangamo Biosciences Inc (SGMO opened at $16.87 +7.27%), Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NTLA opened at £20.9 +5.33%) and Editas Medicine Inc (EDIT opened at 30.88 +12.79%) have turned green.

I am also bullish for my share holdings in CRISPR Therapeutics AG  $1CG (CH0334081137, Switzerland) and Cellectis SA (ZVA / FR0010425595, France). The shares in TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEV / US8816242098, Israel), which I acquired at €16.12 ended the week 2.38% up.

=== update 31/JAN/2018 ===

Acquired shares in CRISPR Therapeutics AG A2AT0Z CH0334081137 of Switzerland at €21.20 on 12/JAN/2018, during the health sector dip on 30 January, I sold CRISPR Therapeutics AG $1CG at €35 and bought back into it the same day at €34.

 

Used the health sector dip on 30 January to finally buy shares in Dutch #CRISPR developper #Uniqure B.V. at €15.50. Unfortunately, $QURE UQ1A1XDTV NL0010696654 sees little volume.

 

=== addition 16/MAR/2018

CALYXT INC of New Brighton, Minnesota uses CRIPSR -Tech to develop crops with improved nutritional and agricultural characteristics. It uses gene editing techniques such as TALEN to change the genome. The former Cellectis SA subsidiary filed for an IPO in June 2017. CALYXT INC ($CLXT WKN: A2DU9F, ISIN: US13173L1070) stock price has dropped since it’s IPO and I feel it at a good level to acquire shares.