The Few Bets That Matter
Concentrated Equity Investor, AI Infrastructure
Sea, MercadoLibre, Nike and Lululemon have potential but are not buys until a confirmed uptrend forms. A good company is not necessarily a great stock, and a downtrend does not reverse on one earnings beat and a few green weeks. Sea gave back all its post-earnings gains as traders took swings, shorts covered and funds bought, showing it had not bottomed. Investors should hold names already trending, with clear higher highs, and keep these on a watchlist. x.com
Political uncertainty and Amazon competition have held MercadoLibre's stock back despite a humming business. The company is great and the stock deserves to turn, but at roughly 45 times earnings and only about 12% gained over five years, it has remained a difficult stock to own. x.com x.com x.com x.com
Lululemon is not worth bottom-fishing even though the bad news will eventually be priced in, because forward estimates keep falling and a bottom is hard to time before fundamentals bottom. The business is not a zero: its stores are still busy, if less than before. There are better places to look for a bargain. x.com x.com x.com
Sea Limited's strong execution and regained management trust make the beaten-down stock a buy here. After a rough two years following Covid, it faces less competition in its home markets than Amazon or MercadoLibre face in theirs, yet its stock trades very low. Existing holders should be loading up or question their conviction; long-term margins remain uncertain for both Sea and MercadoLibre. x.com
South American political unpredictability keeps investors from rewarding MercadoLibre's excellent fundamentals. Today's selloff illustrates that risk, despite the strength of the business. x.com x.com
Coupang, Sea and MercadoLibre remain dead money: their charts are broken, they are still overvalued and they face too much competition. Even after recent gains in Sea, they could stay dead money from here; they might be value, but that won't be known for a couple of years, and value traps are a devastating source of capital impairment. x.com x.com
Latin American equities' sell-off looks overdone as long as the underlying businesses keep growing and fundamentals remain intact. Under that condition, the drop is market noise, and MercadoLibre and Nu Holdings could offer attractive opportunities amid the panic. x.com
Lululemon, Nike, Under Armour and On look like cursed value traps because rising competition and unpredictable fashion trends keep eroding their positions. Lululemon has lost its niche dominance as the luxury standard and is now one of a dozen rivals, such as Vuori, Alo and Athleta, chasing the same buyers. Lululemon sits at six-year lows, Nike at 12-year lows, Under Armour at all-time lows and On back at 2022 levels. The products may still be good, but competition is overwhelming. x.com x.com … Show more
Lululemon no longer looks worth owning after guiding both revenue and earnings down. Consumer discretionary is dead, and AI is holding up the entire economy, though for how long is unclear. Long-dated Treasuries are the better trade now, even as @epictrades1 quotes Michael Burry saying Lululemon is his largest position and he would buy more under $100. x.com x.com
The election news is more bark than bite for Nu Holdings, MercadoLibre, StoneCo and PagSeguro. Funds and institutions seem to have been caught off guard and need to unwind positioning; the four should recover nicely over the next few weeks or months. x.com
MercadoLibre may not be a buy yet, since its margin-compressing investment cycle looks set to run for a while. An AI-assisted review of gross and operating margins against prior investment cycles points that way, after a first read of the risk/reward had looked like a buy. The stock is worth revisiting at the end of the year. x.com x.com
