Newsletter
8 weeks into the Game – what are the leaders up to?
The market has been fairly positive, which is reflected in player portfolios, there are 48% of players in profit
and the average portfolio is $50,093.
If you’re not in profit you might be looking at the top players who have increased their portfolios by up to
$14,000 and wondering how they are doing it.
To help answer your question, this fortnight we are taking a look into the trading activity of a few of the
leaders as well as some of the most popular stocks traded by the top 15 players.
The top 15 players: Amongst the top 15, we have a mix of strategies, 2 have chosen to buy and hold, 5 have held mostly with
only a couple of sells and 8 are using a buy and sell strategy.
Some of the most popular stocks traded by the top players include MSB, NAN, AHY, AAD and CGC.
An inside look – 3 portfolios: We have randomly chosen 3 leading portfolios*. In fairness to these players, we have hidden
some of the shares they have invested in; however, this doesn’t stop you from seeing the strategy the top players are using.
Please remember, that trying to immediately replicate the leading portfolios would be missing the point, as the shares they hold
may have already shown their greatest gains.
Player A: This player has chosen to buy and hold. They are holding MSB, MTR and two others. They purchased in February and
haven’t sold at all. The sectors they are invested in are health care, consumer discretionary, energy and materials. They are
holding very little cash.
Player B: This player has bought and sold quite a lot. In some cases, they have sold and taken profits and then reinvested in the
same company again. They have also not been afraid to sell to cut their losses. They are holding 5 companies at present –
including MSB, ORE, SYR and two others. They are fully invested with very little cash.
Player C: This player is also buying and selling, but not as much as Player B. They are holding 6 stocks including CGC, MSB,
AAC and 3 others. Again, selling to take profits but are also willing to sell to cut losses. Plus they have also have chosen to
reinvest in a stock after taking profits. The sectors they are invested in at present are consumer discretionary, healthcare,
consumer staples and energy.
You can view player portfolios here. (CSV 2KB)
As you can see the top players are using a variety of strategies. It is important to remember, it is about playing your own game,
learning and testing your own strategies and seeing what works for you.
How is your Game plan going? We’d love to hear from you ­ what lessons you have learnt so far, whether it is from a mistake,
something you have tried and it is working well, a book you have found helpful. Email your feedback to [email protected].
Diving into 2 shares held by the leaders ­ Simply Wall St
How do the top Game players pick their winning stocks? Is it luck, or do they really know what they’re doing?
Well, we can’t be too sure but what we are sure of is that all of you want to know what the top players are holding! We have decided to take things a little further and dive into a couple of shares held by some of the top Game players:
1) Costa Group Holdings (CGC)
CGC produces, packs, markets and exports fresh fruits and vegetables. They have a market cap of $2B, and have been a strong
performer since Game play began, up a cool 15%. Since listing on the ASX in just 2015, the share price has doubled.
While charts and prices are nice to look at, it’s the fundamentals that determine whether a company is worth investment
consideration. Let’s take a look at whether CGC can be a strong player going forward.
Looking at their profit history, we can see revenue has almost doubled in the last 4 years. At the same time, we can see that the
company was able to turn out a profit in the last year, and is showing a sign of increasing in the coming years. At least that’s the view of analysts, who predict a 43% increase in earnings for 2017. The insider buying should also show some promising indicators to current and potential investors, with a significant amount of
insider buying relative to selling in the last 3 months. Even the CEO has been loading up on more shares.
With a solid debt to equity ratio of 30%, a nice 2.2% dividend and strong future growth on the cards, CGC looks like a strong stock
based on its fundamentals. However, when we look at its gains over the last couple of years, one questions whether that increase
can sustain at the current rate. Check out the company report on Simply Wall St here (note, if you have not already created an account, please do so on the
following link so you can access it for free for the entire duration of the Game)
2) Nanosonics (NAN)
Nanosonics engages in research, development and commercialization in infection control and decontamination products. Only a
5% gain since the Game started doesn’t sound too promising, but remember, we can’t look at the past performance and make
assumptions about what will happen in the future.
Similar to CGC, Nanosonics has recently become profitable. Perhaps this is a reason why they haven’t been paying a dividend,
but this is expected to change in the future, with the company expected to pay a small dividend going forward. Whilst Aussie investors are very passionate about their beloved dividends, it is sometimes a refreshing sign to see a company like
Nanosonics not paying one, as it indicates that they are focused on growth and investing for the future. . The company has virtually no debt, which is a strong sign for their future stability.
On top of this, the projected future earnings from analysts is bullish, with strong revenue growth predicted. Whilst the top Game players seem to be patient with this one, it’s hard to tell whether we will see explosive growth and strong
capital gains in the next couple months of the Game. If this was the real market though, it would be extremely important to look at
the long term viability of the company as opposed to only looking with a short term horizon. Check out the company report on Simply Wall St here (note, if you have not already created an account, please do so on the
following link so you can access it for free for the entire duration of the Game)
To Sum up
Whilst these two companies may not be the reasons why the Game players got to the top, they are a couple of the commonly
held stocks. It’s interesting to note that each player has had a different strategy and often held very different stocks, which have
contributed to their high returns.
It’s important to always keep track of your portfolio and analyse its strengths and weaknesses. Whilst you’ve probably been using
Simply Wall St for just stock research, don’t forget you can also use their portfolio tool to track your Game portfolio and get
deeper insight than just the returns. Game Update