The year 2022 has truly been a uniquely humbling year. Financial assets tumbled across the board in reaction to FED’s response to rising inflation. With the exception of energy, prices across capital & commodity markets fell, and the positive correlation was astounding.

Our portfolio has experienced a 31.53% downdraft in the year. In 4Q 2022 equities had been hit hard, especially after the last 2022 FOMC meeting that took away hopes for a year-end rally. We think that the rate hikes are entering its last inning especially with improving inflation numbers and the base effect starting to take place in 2023.

During the last quarter of 2022, we consistently exited some positions in Chinese-related stocks when the prices were trending higher while opportunistically and gradually buying into some American-related stocks that were trending lower and that we have a constructive long-term view of.

The recent price volatility should not make us lose sight of the opportunities before us. We highlight several remarkable events and breakthroughs in 2022.

Moderna and its partner Merck have demonstrated a 44% reduction in the number of deaths and events of relapses for melanoma (a type of skin cancer) in an early trial. Just as mRNA provided the vaccine that helped stemmed the Covid pandemic, it now provides hope against another dreaded enemy, cancer.

And just one more of many, 2022 showed us ChatGPT, a platform that enables its user to interact with a non-human chatbot that possesses human interactiveness. This platform highlighted to the world the dawn of the artificial intelligence era is upon us. Companies like Nvidia and Google are racing to enable AI, and even more, use AI to improve the quality of our lives.

On 5 December 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the first time ever successfully achieved positive fusion ignition i.e.: replicating how the sun produces energy. This is another step towards clean, cheap, and sustainable energy.

What a time to be alive! What a time to be investing!

Dec 2022