Current Net-nets in Japan

As I write this at the beginning of September, the SnP-500 index - the index representing the 500 most valuable companies in The United States- marches on toward all time high levels. Other world stock indexes have rebounded rather quickly as well. The SnP-500, the FTSE100 (England), the Euronext index, and broad Canadian ETFs have all recovered most of the value that they lost after the catastrophic month of March, and now seem to be heading toward highs.

Although many traders subscribe to the idea of buying something at a high price and selling it for an even higher price, riding the market's momentum can hardly be considered investing in my eyes. I would prefer to look into opportunities that have a lower chance of losing their speculative valuations, even if I am at risk of missing out on the gains of the Apples and Teslas of the world.

So where is there value for nimble investors? 

Carrying on with my discussion of net-nets from the previous posts, there is plenty of value for investors who are adaptable enough to look beyond the green pastures of the SnP. The following is a list of 22 companies that are trading below the book value of their current assets minus their liabilities. These are companies that are trading for a lower price than their liquidation value. You are looking at companies that are demonstrably trading for lower than they are worth in a fire sale. On top of that, all of these companies are both profitable and cash flow positive. Although the potential of these companies to lose money from continuing operations is real - especially during a worldwide pandemic- the individual risk is minimized if one is to buy into the group as a whole. As a group, the potentially losing investments would be vastly compensated by the gains from the stocks that get recognized by the market and trade up to a more accurate valuation.

As can be seen below, this portfolio as a whole is valued at a Price/Net Current Asset Value (P/NCAV) of 0.71. So, not quite the famous "dollar for fifty cents", but the discount to real value is still quite large. The lighter green portfolio is even cheaper but your risk of owning losing stocks increases as you reduce the number of stocks in the portfolio. 

Disclosure: I am invested into Ticker numbers 6346, 5900, 5971, 7297, 6496, and I am looking to build positions in other stocks in this list. Many of these equities are extremely illiquid and orders may take weeks to fill. I recommend always using LMT orders!