Here it is again. My options from last month all expired unexercised. It's always nice to hang onto cash earned from conservative hedges. I have renewed my covered calls on FXI and GDX to expire next month. I also renewed a short cash-covered put position under GDX, which I am increasingly likely to do as the price of GDX keeps dropping. I realize I'm risking having more shares of GDX put to me but I don't mind doing so if they're getting cheaper. A bigger pile of a hard asset ETF is one thing I wouldn't mind holding as the U.S. approaches hyperinflation.
I mentioned recently that I'm strongly interested in adding natural resource MLPs to my portfolio as a hard asset hedge against future hyperinflation. I still plan to do so at some point but I'm much more skeptical now that using ETFs of MLPs is a viable way for me to do so. Those ETFs have some odd ways of recalculating their daily NAVs that have the same effect as using leverage. I hate leveraged ETFs and want to stay as far away from them as possible. I may just go for a few reasonably priced MLPs and their associated operating companies (i.e., pipelines).
I'm also still looking for long positions in currencies of countries with low debt/GDP ratios and high transparency. If I can't find correspondent banks in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada then I will need to look at currency ETFs.
I also wonder whether an agribusiness stock will perform adequately as a hard asset hedge. People still need to eat even if the domestic currency they use to buy groceries is depreciating. Maybe owning a farm or even a backyard greenhouse is a substitute for such a stock; the big difference is that I would literally eat the yield.
My remaining California muni bonds mature in about a month. I will not replace them with any fixed income instruments at all, although I would consider the sovereign debt of the three countries I mentioned above if those bonds were available to U.S. investors in their pure individual forms. I am still not sure whether an ETF of TIPS will keep up with a hyperinflating U.S. dollar until I finish analyzing the fine print. I do give myself a lot of homework but it's worth my time if it protects my net worth from chaos in the U.S. economy.
Nota bene: I am not a financial adviser, planner, or counselor. Please bear in mind that the above discussion is not any kind of financial advice for investors. Like I've said in my legal disclaimers, nothing I say in any of my materials constitutes investing advice. I do not tell other people what to do with their own money. Enjoy my discussions as a form of entertainment.
I mentioned recently that I'm strongly interested in adding natural resource MLPs to my portfolio as a hard asset hedge against future hyperinflation. I still plan to do so at some point but I'm much more skeptical now that using ETFs of MLPs is a viable way for me to do so. Those ETFs have some odd ways of recalculating their daily NAVs that have the same effect as using leverage. I hate leveraged ETFs and want to stay as far away from them as possible. I may just go for a few reasonably priced MLPs and their associated operating companies (i.e., pipelines).
I'm also still looking for long positions in currencies of countries with low debt/GDP ratios and high transparency. If I can't find correspondent banks in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada then I will need to look at currency ETFs.
I also wonder whether an agribusiness stock will perform adequately as a hard asset hedge. People still need to eat even if the domestic currency they use to buy groceries is depreciating. Maybe owning a farm or even a backyard greenhouse is a substitute for such a stock; the big difference is that I would literally eat the yield.
My remaining California muni bonds mature in about a month. I will not replace them with any fixed income instruments at all, although I would consider the sovereign debt of the three countries I mentioned above if those bonds were available to U.S. investors in their pure individual forms. I am still not sure whether an ETF of TIPS will keep up with a hyperinflating U.S. dollar until I finish analyzing the fine print. I do give myself a lot of homework but it's worth my time if it protects my net worth from chaos in the U.S. economy.
Nota bene: I am not a financial adviser, planner, or counselor. Please bear in mind that the above discussion is not any kind of financial advice for investors. Like I've said in my legal disclaimers, nothing I say in any of my materials constitutes investing advice. I do not tell other people what to do with their own money. Enjoy my discussions as a form of entertainment.