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How Bitcoin Finished An Astonishing Year

Posted on January 9, 2018January 9, 2018 by Matt Thalman

If you look at a chart of Bitcoin during 2017, it really only went higher during the first 11 months. The in the middle of November it was as if the cryptocurrency was strapped to a rocket ship as the price shot higher until mid-December.

While early investors made a killing on Bitcoin in 2017, the real excitement all happened in December. Bitcoin started 2017 at $996, began the month of December at $10,500, then peaked on December 17, 2017, at $19,206, but ended the year at just over $14,000. When Bitcoin hit its peak, it was up nearly 100% for just the month of December, but even after falling $5,000 in only 14 days, it still ended the month up more than 30%.

While Bitcoin may have only risen 30% in December, it increased more than 1,350% in 2017, with nearly 400% of that gain coming in December and 800% of its coming after November 1st. So what happened in the last two months of the year that caused the price of Bitcoin to rocket higher, in such as short period? Continue reading "How Bitcoin Finished An Astonishing Year" →

HealthEquity - Continued Double-Digit Revenue Growth

Posted on January 8, 2018January 11, 2018 by Noah Kiedrowski

Introduction

I’ve written a handful of articles highlighting HealthEquity Inc. (NASDAQ:HQY) in 2017 as a great growth play in the rapidly growing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) space. HealthEquity just reported beats on both the top and bottom line, beating revenue and EPS estimates by $1.39 million and $0.04, respectively. It’s noteworthy to point out that revenue was up 30% year-over-year for its Q3 FY18 quarter. HealthEquity is a major player in the HSA secular growth market and has continued to gain market share over the years. HealthEquity has posted annual revenue growth of 42%, 44%, and 41% when comparing FY14 to FY15, FY15 to FY16 and FY16 to FY17, respectively. If consensus estimates are accurate for FY18, revenue growth will come in at 27% when comparing FY17 to FY18 (Figure 1). The sustainability of this growth will likely move in lock-step with the growth in the HSA market in addition to optimizing revenues extracted from the investments within these accounts via offering investment advising, collecting fees from the investment line-up and its newly announced 401k with paired HSA offerings. I feel that HealthEquity will continue to post strong growth as it services the double-digit HSA growth market and manages more assets and investments within these accounts. As HealthEquity rolls out additional products such as the launch of its 401k offerings paired with HSA accounts, HSA members elect to invest money within these accounts and accounts age; revenue will continue to accelerate with stock appreciation.

Figure 1 – Fiscal year-over-year growth in revenue, number of HSA accounts and custodial assets
Continue reading "HealthEquity - Continued Double-Digit Revenue Growth" →

2017's Best Performing Non-Leveraged ETFs

Posted on January 5, 2018January 4, 2018 by Matt Thalman

The stock market had an amazing year in 2017, with the S&P 500 increasing more than 19.9%, but some Exchange Traded Funds performed substantially better. Most investors wouldn’t expect a large fund to outperform the S&P 500, unless they were using leverage, taking on outsized risk through trading in volatility, or investing entirely in international/developing markets.

But, surprisingly there were a few ETF’s that not only outperformed the S&P 500 but crushed it while just being mildly risky. Below is a list of a few of them and then an explanation as to why they performed well and whether or not their hot streak can continue in 2018.

Best Performing ETFs of 2017

While this list was intended to help investors find ETF’s which offered lower risk than one would find with leveraged ETF’s, the best performer still had a little more risk than most investors should be comfortable with. The outsized risk with ARK WEB x.0 ETF (ARKW) is that its largest holding is in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), which makes up 6.71% of the fund. The next largest is Amazon.com (AMZN) making up 6.08% of the fund. Twitter (TWTR), Athenahealth (ATHN), 2U (TWOU), Tesla (TSLA), Netflix (:NFLX), NVIDIA (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG)(GOOGL), and JD.com (JD) round out the fund top ten holdings. GBTC’s performance in 2017 was primarily the reason ARKW crushed the overall market, but moving forward investors shouldn’t bet on that continuing to happen.

Ever since the Bitcoin futures began trading on the CBOE and CME, the price of Bitcoin has stabilized. If you are considering buying ARKW, just know that you are taking on more risk than a typical ETF due to its exposure to Bitcoin, but maybe that is why you want to own ARKW. Personally, though if I were thinking about investing in Bitcoin, I would just invest directly into the crypto-currency, not muddy the waters with GBTC due to its pricing. Continue reading "2017's Best Performing Non-Leveraged ETFs" →

New Tax Laws Could Mean a Boom for Stock Buy-Back ETF’s

Posted on January 2, 2018January 2, 2018 by Matt Thalman

Now that the Senate has passed a tax bill and President Trump has signed off on it, investors should get ready for a few significant changes that are likely to begin happening. While the bill has been touted as a way to boost the economy and help the middle class, some economists disagree; mainly on the idea that if corporations have a lower tax bill, they will higher more workers and pay their current employee’s more money.

History has shown that when repatriated money comes back to US soil, it is largely used for share buybacks. In 2004 there was a one-time tax holiday when repatriation of foreign earnings was brought back home and taxed at a rate of 5.25%, not the usual 35%.

In 2004 fifteen companies brought back $155 billion, of the total $312 billion. Those 15 companies increased their share repurchases by 38% between 2005 and 2006. There was a clear correlation between share buybacks increasing the repatriation of overseas cash. Continue reading "New Tax Laws Could Mean a Boom for Stock Buy-Back ETF’s" →

Top Currencies Vs. Gold: Which Fiat Could Beat Gold in 2017?

Posted on December 30, 2017January 1, 2018 by Aibek Burabayev

This is a traditional post with a performance review of top currencies versus gold at the end of the year.

The fiat money is represented by 7 currencies: US Dollar (USD) and 6 components of the US Dollar Index (DXY) placed by weight: Euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swedish Krona (SEK) and the Swiss Franc (CHF).

Chart 1. Year-To-Date Dynamics Of Top 7 Currencies Versus Gold: The Only Winner

Diagram by Aibek Burabayev; Source: tradingview.com

This year the gold was almost as strong as last year compared to the top currencies and only one rival could escape from its death grip. The Euro was also very strong this year as the Euro Index scored a hefty 7.26% gain against its peers (USD, GBP, JPY, CHF). It helped the euro to outweigh gold by 2%. Last year the EUR finished on 5th place.

Below is the full ranking for Y2017 with the Y2016 places in the brackets. Continue reading "Top Currencies Vs. Gold: Which Fiat Could Beat Gold in 2017?" →

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