riskmanagement

Forget Finance. Supply-Chain Management Is the Pandemic Era’s Must-Have MBA Degree

The just-in-time inventory systems embraced by many businesses led to empty shelves and costly bottlenecks. That’s put a rare spotlight on supply-chain programs, which are attracting more students.

Stores with no toilet paper. Colossal cargo ships run aground in the Suez Canal. Factory shutdowns in Vietnam. Ports closed in China. It almost seems that not a day goes by without reports of another supply-chain snafu wrought by the pandemic, which dismantled just-in-time inventory systems that couldn’t cope with massive, simultaneous disruptions of supply and demand.

Companies have struggled to adapt, with some taking unusual steps. Walmart Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are chartering their own private cargo vessels so they don’t get caught short as the holiday season approaches, and logistics experts say disruptions from congested ports won’t end anytime soon. The tumult has forced companies to lavish more attention on their supply-chain professionals, who typically toil in obscurity until disaster strikes.

It’s also prompted business schools to refresh their supply-chain curricula to make sure the next generation of logistics managers are prepared for future crises. “For years, we had sort of taken logistics for granted,” says Skrikant Datar, the dean of Harvard Business School. “The pandemic caused us to rethink it.”

The problem, says Hitendra Chaturvedi, a supply-chain management professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, was that supply-chain education and theories had grown as rigid as some of the practices out in the real world. “After years of teaching without any tremors,” he says, “our courses had become less flexible.”

In response to those tremors, business schools are now emphasizing things such as risk mitigation, data analytics, and production reshoring—while also carving out room to explore more intangible topics like ethics, communication, and sustainability.

Penn State’s Smeal College of Business is adding a master’s course in supply-chain risk management next year, with lessons taken straight from the pandemic experiences of corporate partners including Hershey Co. and Dell Technologies Inc. The course will count toward a new certificate program in risk management that’s also in the works.

The W.P. Carey School of Business also plans to offer a certificate in supply-chain resilience. “It’s not like we don’t cover risk already, but this would give them a deeper dive,” says Kevin Linderman, chair of Smeal’s Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, which has grown more popular with students thanks to high-profile incidents such as the grounding of the Ever Given cargo ship in the Suez Canal in March, which snarled global commerce for nearly a week.

This academic year more than 400 juniors in Smeal’s undergrad program have declared their intent to major in supply-chain management, up from about 270 the previous year. Incoming business students who once defaulted to finance or marketing now want to explore supply-chain management, says Alok Baveja, a professor at Rutgers Business School, whose faculty includes former executives of nearby pharmaceutical giants such as Johnson & Johnson.

When they graduate, they’ll have plenty of options: A record 50 companies plan to attend a supply-chain career fair at Georgia Tech in September—about double the number that typically come to recruit students of the program—including newcomers Honda, Honeywell, and Procter & Gamble.

Students who pursue supply-chain degrees this fall are certain to get an earful about the limitations of just-in-time inventory systems, which grew in popularity during the 1990s as companies aimed to mimic the success of auto makers like Toyota Motor Corp., the gold standard of lean manufacturing. For some companies, though, getting lean “became a religion,” says Penn State’s Linderman, and their orthodoxy became their undoing when the pandemic hit and there was no surplus stock to be found.

Covid-19 exposed the weaknesses of legacy inventory systems, which typically emphasize cost reduction above all else, says Hyun-Soo Ahn, a professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. The pendulum is now shifting the other way: At Walmart, whose bottom-line focus is legendary, U.S. inventory rose 20% last quarter as it doesn’t want product shortages come Christmastime. Still, shuttered factories, port congestion, and trucker shortages have brought more chaos to already overtaxed supply chains, raising prices on groceries and jeopardizing the delivery of millions of presents for the holidays.

Classroom discussions at Penn State and other supply-chain specialists will now delve into the downsides of sourcing too much from China or any single country, while they also explore the role that new technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence can play in manufacturing and inventory decisions. Old research, meanwhile, is getting reinterpreted through the pandemic’s lens, says Gopalakrishnan Mohan, chair of ASU’s supply-chain department.

What’s also needed, though, is a realization in corporate C-suites that logistics isn’t just an expense—it can actually create value when done well, according to MIT’s Jarrod Goentzel. He’s the principal research scientist at the school’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, which works with corporations such as Amazon.com Inc. and Intel Corp. and also a lecturer in the center’s one-year master’s program in supply-chain management.

It helps that high-profile chief executive officers like Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook and Mary Barra of General Motors Co. spent time running complex supply chains before they got the top jobs, but logistics educators say greater boardroom acknowledgement of the make-or-break role such skills play is long overdue.

“Any company that says they fully understand their supply chain is lying,” says Goentzel, who believes that supply-chain practitioners should be certified just like accountants. “It’s time for the profession to wake up. The 20th century was about finance. The 21st century should be about supply chains.”

By: Matthew Boyle

Source: Business School: MBA Students Forgo Finance for Supply-Chain Management Degree – Bloomberg

Related Contents:

The Role of Marketing Channels in Supply Chain Management

Doing good across organizational boundaries: Sustainable supply chain practices and firms’ financial risk

What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Optimizing an inventory model with fuzzy demand, backordering, and discount using a hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm

Supply Chain Strategies: Demand Driven and Customer Focused

COVID-19: Alberta to donate PPE, ventilators to other provinces

Knowledge diffusion through supply chain networks

Blockchain Governance—A New Way of Organizing Collaborations

Green-supply-chain-management

Supply Chain Issues: What’s Keeping Supply Chain Managers Awake at Night

Skills and Competencies That Supply Chain Professionals Will Need

Assessing the potential of additive manufacturing for the provision of spare parts

Epidemic tests China’s supply chain dominance

Two perspectives on supply chain resilience

Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance

Lessons in Demand Management | Supply Chain Resource Cooperative

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals

4 Ways to Revolutionize Risk Management

In an uncertain climate where risk is rife, the call for a more holistic approach to risk management has never been greater.

Despite new risks having emerged amid the volatile global environment, existing risks such as cybercrime and climate change haven’t gone away. Compounding this are new regulations on the horizon, such as those recommended in the Brydon Review in the U.K., where it’s likely we’ll see increased scrutiny over risk management, compliance and internal controls in the coming months.

The rapid pace of change in the past year has undoubtedly created significant short-term challenges for organizations worldwide, but only now are the long-term consequences beginning to manifest themselves.

Arguably, Covid-19 has highlighted deficiencies in risk management that otherwise might never have been brought to light. What’s clear is that those who have taken a more dynamic and frequent approach to their risk practices have been better able to future-proof their business and tackle the ongoing turbulence initiated by the pandemic.

Here are some ways organizations can enhance their performance in four of today’s key risk areas, while maintaining rigorous compliance and agility:

Innovation risk,..

As innovation rises, so too do risks. Yet conversely, the risk of not innovating can be just as high. This places a considerable onus on risk managers to help their organizations strike the right balance between risk and reward.

Due to the nature of innovation, propositions are often in a constant state of development, rendering point-in-time engagement from risk executives impractical. For risk management to be effective, it must be embedded throughout the development process, with continuous interaction between risk and innovation teams. Furthermore, risk controls should be an integral part of product design, especially in the face of regulations such as GDPR, which maintains “privacy by design” as one of its leading principles.

Innovation risks undoubtedly alter the risk profile of an organization and potentially fuel other technology-related risks such as cybercrime and fraud—creating another strong case for implementing new risk controls and a wider discipline of digital conduct.

One prime example of innovation risk managed well is offered by e-commerce giant JD.com, whose radical advances in mitigation technology and robotics have increased the retailer’s stock price by 97% in the past year.

Cybersecurity risk

At the same time that organizations are expanding their digital footprints, cyber threats are growing exponentially in their sophistication. Although this has largely made traditional risk management frameworks unworkable, a data-driven approach can help businesses to better quantify cyber risk and sense check their cyber-response capabilities.

Data can be derived from multiple sources including audit findings, threat intelligence tools, asset life cycles and defect management to help build a real-time picture of risk, while providing key insights to the security team and senior leaders for more informed decision-making.

That said, a cyber-risk framework is only as good as an organization’s first line of defense: its valued employees. An all-hands-on-deck style is the surest way to instill a culture of cybersecurity accountability at all levels of the business, supported through training courses and robust policies to raise awareness of today’s ever-evolving cyber risks.

By identifying and addressing vulnerabilities before they become an issue, risk professionals can reduce the likelihood of their organization being a sitting target and thus protect their end clients as they continue their digitalization journey.

ESG risk

Rising expectations from stakeholders in recent years have indicated that high environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance can lead to improved profitability and business opportunities.

Microsoft is one such case in point, becoming the first company in its sector to target a “carbon negative” status by 2030. Since creating a $1 billion fund to reduce emissions and carbon usage, Microsoft received the highest ESG rating (AAA) from MSCI ESG Research in 2019.

A failure to incorporate ESG—covering a wide set of issues—into enterprise risk management practices could see businesses lagging behind their peers, particularly if they do not make the connection between ESG and materiality.

While laws and regulations mandating disclosure are a key driver for putting forth a robust ESG strategy, businesses should adopt an approach that transcends simply meeting compliance requirements. A critical starting point is to develop a purposeful culture around ESG that is exemplified at the top and instilled throughout the organization.

Board oversight is also crucial to the effective integration of ESG risk management and subsequent long-term sustainability. Senior leaders should work closely with risk teams to monitor ESG performance against the company’s goals, making activities such as megatrend analysis, media monitoring and regular ESG materiality assessments a core part of the wider ERM framework.

Continue Reading About risk management

6 steps to better third-party risk management

Why is third-party risk management essential to cybersecurity?

Risk Management Techniques for Trading

How to shore up your third-party risk management program

Your third-party risk management best practices need updating

Regulatory risk

With the regulatory landscape changing rapidly, businesses that rely on antiquated, reactive ways of managing compliance risks could open themselves up to a host of negative repercussions, from both a financial and reputational standpoint.

However, an integrated compliance framework facilitated by technology can not only enable companies to be more risk-intelligent, but can also help keep compliance standards in check, ensuring that policies are adhered to at all levels of the organization.

Coupled with a best-practice strategy for managing regulatory compliance risk, today’s advances in automation and regtech can provide a 360-degree view of compliance while delivering meaningful insights and highlighting gaps in processes or deviation from policy.

Moreover, as authorities place increased focus on the quality and completeness of regulatory data, businesses will need to show that they have systematic controls and tools in place to provide accurate regulatory and compliance reporting. By putting transparency at the heart of regulatory risk management through digital means, organizations can have the confidence that their regulatory obligations are being met, mitigating the chance of them falling afoul of noncompliance.

With a focus on high-level risks as well as the more granular impact of risk across the board, businesses will not only benefit from a competitive advantage in future, but also greater resilience and compliance in times of extreme disruption. Are you ready for a risk management revolution?

Discover Ideagen’s market-leading Pentana Compliance solution and how it can help to protect your financial services organization from regulatory risk.

Gordon McKeown

Gordon McKeown, Head of ARC Product, Ideagen

_{This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: Header image: iStock 1181145608. Headshot: Courtesy of Ideagen.}

Source: 4 Ways to Revolutionize Risk Management

More Contents:

Improving Both Sides of the Digital Banking Experience

The Pull of Data Gravity

Customers Make it Clear: Time to Adopt Green Packaging

Communication Surveillance Moves Beyond Lexicons

Covid-19 and Wildfires Spell Big Business for the Air Purifier Industry

Third Hottest July Ever Shows How Even Modest Global Warming Looks

Biden Sets U.S. Goal for Clean Cars to Be Half of 2030 Sales

Traffic Crashes Are Getting Worse. Car Ads Are Part Of the Problem.

More People Live in Flood Zones Than Previously Thought

The Plexes of Montreal Make Room for Change

Suburbs of Surveillance

Americans Are Willing to Take Pay Cuts to Never Go Into the Office Again

London Home Buyers Are Heading for the Suburbs in Record Numbers

Ex-Wife’s Property, Utah Ranch: How Wealthy Secure High Bails

Think You Know Your Bitcoin From Dogecoin? Test Your Crypto Knowledge

Tokyo Olympics Kicks Off in the Shadow of Covid

Bitcoin’s Back to $40,000: The Week in Crypto

Billionaires Are Giving Away Their Money. Here’s Where It’s Going

Covid Shows Just How Badly We Need to Close the Digital Divide

The Woman Who Did Facebook’s Racial Audit Is About to Be Really Busy

Eskom Is Seeking $2.3 Billion From Development Institutions

Marvel Calls on Asian Superheroes to Repeat Black Panther Success

Phemex Is Empowering Everyone To Trade Simply and Manage Risk Efficiently

Led by 8 former Morgan Stanley Executives, Phemex’s goal is to build the worlds most trustworthy cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform. Its leverage a “User-Oriented” approach to develop far more powerful features than any existing exchange.

Above all, they place customers first. All of the features and tools are designed with this philosophy in mind. This is why their development team is directly available and constantly gathering feedback, comments, and requests from our community on social media.

Back in 2017, as experienced professional Wall Street traders and investors, Jack Tao and other founding members of Phemex identified a lack of professionalism, trustworthiness, and customer support within the crypto industry. In the following two years, the number of users engaging in cryptocurrency trading increased significantly.

Nevertheless, existing exchanges showed little to no improvement. Realizing the seriousness of the problem, the team left Wall Street and founded Phemex in the summer of 2019. They then dedicated themselves to building a simple, efficient, but most importantly, a trusted cryptocurrency trading platform. Then, on November 25th, 2019, the Phemex platform officially went live.

Pheme (Fama) is the personification of fame and of the public’s voice in Greek mythology. While MEX stands for mercantile exchange. This name was chosen to highlight our vision and their dedication to stand as the most trustworthy trading platform.

From day one, their mission was and will always continue to be the empowerment of individuals. They want everyone in this world to have access to the right set of tools that will allow them to manage risk efficiently and trade simply. They sincerely believe this to be a fundamental right that all traders should enjoy.

For its crypto derivatives products, Phemex allows you to trade with leverage. This means that you can receive a higher exposure towards a certain crypto’s price increase or decrease, without actually holding the necessary amount of assets. You do this by “leveraging” your trade. In simple terms, this means that you borrow from the exchange to bet more. You can get as much as 100x leverage on this platform.

Leveraged trades are risky though. For instance, let’s say that you have 100 USD in your trading account and you bet this amount on BTC going long (i.e., going up in value). If BTC then increases in value with 10%, you would have earned 10 USD. If you had used 100x leverage, your initial 100 USD position becomes a 10,000 USD position so you instead earn an extra 1,000 USD (990 USD more than if you had not leveraged your deal).

As we mentioned above, in terms of Spot Trading, Phemex has adopted a zero trading fee model. Instead they just charge for monthly Premium Memberships (prices are $9.99 for 30 Days, $19.99 for 90 Days and $69.99 USDT for 365 Days). Becoming a premium member will also allow you to set conditional spot orders, you will enjoy hourly withdrawals with no limits, and will be able to gift trial premium memberships to friends.

With respect to contract trading, Phemex separates between “takers” and “makers”. Let’s describe these terms real quick. Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book prior to the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. We call makers for “makers” as their orders make the liquidity in a market. Takers are the ones who “take” this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own..

Phemex previously didn’t accept any other deposit method than cryptos, so new investors were restricted from trading here. Starting 18 June 2020, however, they partnered with a company called Banxa which is a payment gateway that accepts credit and debit card purchases of crypto.

Since then, Phemex has also partnered with Koinal, Coinify, MoonPay, and Mercuryo. You have a variety of payment options (ranging from bank transfers to Apple Pay) and rates to fit your needs.

To our understanding, Phemex does not charge any fees of their own when you withdraw crypto from your account at the platform. Accordingly, the only fee you have to think about when withdrawing are the network fees. The network fees are fees paid to the miners of the relevant crypto/blockchain, and not fees paid to the exchange itself. Network fees vary from day to day depending on the network pressure.

Generally speaking, to only have to pay the network fees should be considered as below global industry average when it comes to fee levels for crypto withdrawals.

Source: https://phemex.com

How to Diversify Your Portfolio: Strategies and Benefits

There’s a reason manufacturers make different product lines, and stores carry a range of goods: It protects their profits. If one item suffers a seasonal decrease in demand or is an outright flop, they may still be ok if the majority of the other items do well.

It’s a business strategy called diversification. And just as diversification is important in industry, it’s important for your investment portfolio as well.

The primary goal of diversification isn’t to maximize returns; it’s to limit risk. When you diversify your portfolio, you reduce your risk of experiencing massive losses when a few of your investments underperform. Read on to learn more about the benefits of diversification and for a step-by-step guide to diversifying your own portfolio.

Understanding risk

At its most basic level, risk refers to the chances that a particular investment or portfolio could suffer financial loss. Beyond this definition, risk can be broken into multiple categories:

Company risk: What is the financial strength of the company or government entity that you’re looking to invest in (often through stocks) or loan money to (often through bonds)? Does it have a low, moderate, or high chance of bankruptcy?
Volatility risk: On average, how often does the particular asset that you’re looking to invest in have losing years? For example, large-company stocks lose money once every three years on average.
Liquidity risk: How easy would it be to get your cash back out of the investment if you needed the money to cover an emergency expense?
Interest rate risk: How would your investment be impacted by a rise or fall in interest rates? Bond values, for example, tend to go down as interest rates go up.
Inflation risk: Is your portfolio’s rate of return at risk of being outpaced by inflation? This could be a legitimate possibility for portfolios that are invested solely in cash equivalents.

All investments involve some level of risk.

If safety is your ultimate goal, however, look to bank or credit union deposit accounts (savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts, etc.). Since these accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the federal government, they offer the closest thing to an investment “guarantee.”

How diversification benefits you

Diversification involves owning a mix of investments to reduce risk and volatility. Here a few common ways to diversify:

Company diversification: Owning shares of multiple companies so that your portfolio won’t be significantly harmed if one stock declines or goes bankrupt.
Industry diversification: Owning stocks from a variety of industries (technology, healthcare, energy, consumer staples).
Size diversification: Investing in companies of different sizes, or market caps, such as small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies.
Global diversification: Investing in a mix of domestic and international stocks
Asset class diversification: Moving beyond stocks and bonds, the traditional financial assets, to invest in additional types: real estate, commodities, private equity, and cash.

The more diversified your portfolio becomes, the less of a chance you’ll have of experiencing a huge loss in any given year.

Downside to diversification

Unfortunately, with investments, the chance of big losses usually goes hand-in-hand with the possibility of big wins. Diversification’s benefits often come at a cost: diminished returns.

To illustrate: a recent study, using historical data from 1970-2016, which compared the performance of three hypothetical portfolios:

Conservative: 30% stocks, 50% bonds, 20% cash
Moderate: 60% stocks, 30% bonds, 10% cash
Aggressive: 80% stocks, 15% bonds, 5% cash

If avoiding declines was your only goal, the conservative portfolio would be the clear winner. The maximum one-year loss it suffered was 14%, vs. 32.3% for the moderate, and a whopping 44.4% for the aggressive.

But when it came to annualized returns for each portfolio, the conservative gained 8.1%, the moderate, 9.4%, and the aggressive,10%.

Those slight differences may not seem like a big deal. But over a 40-plus year investment horizon, they add up. For example, if each portfolio had begun with $10,000, their final account tallies would have been:

Conservative: $389,519
Moderate: $676,126
Aggressive: $892,028

Riskier investments tend to offer higher potential returns. So, smoothing out the risks, as diversifying does, means no sickening drops — but no exhilarating lifts, either. Most investors are willing to accept the tradeoff.

How to diversify your investment portfolio

Ready to start building a diversified portfolio? Here are four diversification tips to guide you along the way.

1. Determine your risk tolerance

Your risk tolerance is how much money you are willing to lose in the short-term in exchange for the potential for higher long-term growth. There are various factors that can affect your risk level. These include your:

Time horizon: How soon will you need to take your money out of your investments? Someone who won’t be retiring for another 30-40 years may be willing to take on more risk than someone with a retirement window of 5-10 years from now.
Income needs: If you’re still working, you may decide to invest in higher-risk, growth-oriented investments. But if you’ve already reached retirement, you may prefer to focus on lower-risk investments that can provide a stable income, such as bonds, dividend stocks, and CDs.
Portfolio size: As your portfolio grows, you may choose to raise your risk tolerance since you’ll have more capital available to sustain short-term losses.

The investments you select should be guided by your risk tolerance. Those with a high tolerance for risk may invest a large percentage of their portfolios in equities. Conversely, the percentage of bond and cash holdings will typically be higher for investors with lower risk tolerance levels.

How can you determine your risk tolerance? Many investing brokers and robo-advisor websites offer free risk- level questionnaires. Some will even offer asset allocation recommendations based on your answers. You can also work with a financial advisor or money manager to build a portfolio that’s customized to your individual risk level.

2. Take advantage of mutual funds and ETFs

Once you’ve determined your risk tolerance, it’s time to begin buying the investments that will comprise your portfolio. And it’s at this stage of the game that baskets of securities such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can really come in handy.

Let’s say, for sake of illustration, that you want an asset allocation of 70% stocks, 25% bonds, and 5% cash. To truly build a diversified portfolio with that asset allocation, you’d need to buy dozens (at the very least) of stocks and bonds. And for the stock portion of your portfolio, you’d also want to make sure that you were investing in companies of different sizes, industries, and geography.

Even if you had enough capital at your disposal to invest in such a diverse set of stocks of bonds, how would you go about choosing your individual investments? Most non-professional investors simply don’t have the time that this kind of market research would require.

But by investing in mutual funds and ETFs, you can eliminate these problems. Funds make it easy to invest in hundreds or thousands of stocks, bonds, or alternative investments at once, even with limited capital (getting the variety of assets diversification requires can be expensive). And some mutual funds even offer a predetermined mix of stocks and bonds to serve as a “one-stop-shop” for all your asset allocation needs.

3. Consider moving beyond stocks and bonds

When financial professionals talk about asset allocation, they’re often referring to your ratio of stocks to bonds. But it’s worth noting that with both of these assets, your money is heavily invested in companies.

To increase your diversification, you may want to consider investing a portion of your portfolio in additional asset classes as well. For example, you may want to consider investing in raw materials by buying shares of a commodity mutual fund.

If you want to gain more exposure to real estate, you could invest in a real estate investment trust (REIT). Other alternative asset classes worth considering include private equity, collectibles (like stamps, art, or antiques), cryptocurrency, and hedge funds.

4. Regularly reevaluate your asset allocation

How do you know when you’re properly diversified? The reality is that diversification is an ever-evolving process that will change as your time horizon shrinks.

To estimate your ideal asset allocation for your age, some experts recommend subtracting your age from 110 to 120. The result is the percentage of your portfolio that should be in stocks.

Using this rule of thumb, a 30-year-old would look to invest 80% to 90% of his or her portfolio in stocks, with the rest invested in bonds and/or cash equivalents. But an 80-year old would reduce his or her stock holdings to 50% to 60%.

The estimates above are just that…estimates. To determine your own ideal ratio, you’ll need to take your specific financial situation and investment needs into consideration.

Even if your portfolio’s asset allocation is perfectly matched to your age and needs, it can become out of alignment as certain assets outperform others. That’s why it’s important to monitor your portfolio and rebalance your original asset mix when necessary.

The financial takeaway

Investing is a game of risk and returns. Take on too much risk and you could lose big, especially in the short-term. Take on too little risk (like, say, by only investing in cash equivalents) and you could really hurt your long-term returns.

Diversification is the best way for investors to find their own personal balance of risk and reward. To build a diversified portfolio that works for you, consider your risk tolerance, time horizon, and investing goals.

Related Coverage in Investing:

What is an index fund? A low-cost, low-risk way to invest in the stock market

ETFs and mutual funds can instantly diversify your portfolio, but they differ in how they’re traded, managed, and taxed. Here’s what you should know.

How to invest in mutual funds and grow your money for retirement, a bucket-list trip, or any other long-term goal

Investing for income: 7 money-generating assets for your portfolio and how to get started

The Rule of 72 is a quick, simple way to figure how long it’ll take for your savings and investments to double in value

By: Clint Proctor

Source: How to Diversify Your Portfolio: Strategies and Benefits

Sasha Evdakov: Tradersfly

We’ll cover the concept of what is portfolio diversification and should you diversify your investment. First, I want to explain to you what is the concept. Secondly, I want to show you what the smartest approach is. #tradingportfolio #diversification #investmentdiversification #portfoliotrading #investing Posted at: https://tradersfly.com/blog/portfolio… 🔥 GET MY FREEBIES https://tradersfly.com/go/freebies/ 🎤 SUBMIT A VOICE QUESTION https://tradersfly.com/go/ask 👀 START HERE: FOR NEW TRADERS https://tradersfly.com/go/start/ 🎉 START HERE: OPTION TRADERS https://tradersfly.com/go/start-options/ 📈 MY CHARTING TOOLS + BROKERS https://tradersfly.com/go/tools/ 💻 MY COMPUTER EQUIPMENT https://backstageincome.com/go/comput… 💌 GET THE NEWSLETTER https://tradersfly.com/go/tube/ 🔒 SEE OUR MEMBERSHIP PLANS https://tradersfly.com/go/members/ 📺 STOCK TRADING COURSES https://tradersfly.com/go/courses/ 📚 STOCK TRADING BOOKS: https://tradersfly.com/go/books/ ⚽ GET PRIVATE COACHING https://tradersfly.com/go/coaching/ 🌐 WEBSITES: https://tradersfly.com https://rise2learn.com https://backstageincome.com https://mylittlenestegg.com https://sashaevdakov.com 💌 SOCIAL MEDIA: https://tradersfly.com/go/twitter/ https://tradersfly.com/go/facebook/ ⚡ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://tradersfly.com/go/sub/ 💖 MY YOUTUBE CHANNELS: TradersFly: https://backstageincome.com/go/youtub… BackstageIncome: https://backstageincome.com/go/youtub… 📑 ABOUT TRADERSFLY TradersFly is a place where I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience about the stock market, trading, and investing. Stock trading can be a brutal industry, especially if you are new. Watch my free educational training videos to avoid making big mistakes and just to continue to get better. Stock trading and investing is a long journey – it doesn’t happen overnight. If you are interested to share some insight or contribute to the community we’d love to have you subscribe and join us!

Buffett Explains Why He Didn’t Do A Big Deal During The Pandemic Crisis

Berkshire Hathaway Investments

Warren Buffett came under fire for not getting out his elephant gun to make a big purchase during the market lows during the first half of 2020. Here’s how he explained it at the Berkshire Annual Meeting.

Risk Management

Buffett manages risk at Berkshire. He pointed out that the U.S. response to the pandemic was managed very well. Importantly though, it didn’t have to be. He saw a critical point as the intervention of the Fed on March 23rd 2020. Before that, companies were starting to pick up the phone and call Berkshire for help, after the Fed’s actions, help wasn’t needed. Then the fiscal reaction with the CARES Act was favorable too.

Buffett didn’t view this outcome as a certainty and viewed worse outcomes as possible. As much as he enjoys making money, he views it as more important that he doesn’t lose it and the range of potential outcomes early in COVID-19 was one reason he was cautious.

Airline Risk

The other thing that Buffett was concerned about was backstopping certain investments, specifically airlines. One major move that Berkshire made during 2020 was selling down airline stakes. Buffett explained that if Berkshire remained a major investor, then the airlines may have been less likely to get government support because the airlines could have looked to Berkshire for findings.

SPACs

Berkshire also noted that the rise in SPAC activity is making it harder to source deals, for now. This is a trend that Buffett has seen in the past, but now is particularly pronounced given the number of SPACs seeking deals on a time-limited basis. Buffett’s partner, Charlie Munger, called this “fee driven money” because the deals may be done for fees rather than because they are good deals. Buffett shared that he still had funds in the tens of billions in Treasury bills that he’d like to put to work under better conditions.

Still, it appears implicitly that Buffett does not view the COVID-19 pandemic as Berkshire’s finest hour. He points out that Berkshire did repurchase substantial shares over 2020. It also seems that there were structural reasons from the actions of the Fed in providing massive funding, and the growth of SPACs, in chasing deals, that have cut deal flow to Berkshire over recent months.

Simon Moore

Simon is the author of Digital Wealth and Strategic Project Portfolio Management. He has previously served as Chief Investment Officer at Moola and FutureAdvisor, both are consumer investment startups that were subsequently acquired by S&P 500 firms. He is a CFA Charterholder and educated at Oxford and Northwestern. Articles are informational only, not investment advice.

Source: Buffett Explains Why He Didn’t Do A Big Deal During The Pandemic Crisis

Warren Buffett is feeling much better since “the economy went off a cliff” last March. He admits he might be even happier if he had used that opportunity to invest some of the $145 billion of cash Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has been hoarding.

Tag: riskmanagement

Forget Finance. Supply-Chain Management Is the Pandemic Era’s Must-Have MBA Degree