Global Return Asset Management Up 41% In 2019 With Net of -40%

Global Return Asset Management commentary for the month ended December 31, 2019.

Dear Friends and Partners,

In December we generated a net return of 1.1%.¹

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Q4 2019 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

For the full year, we generated a net return of 40.6%.¹

We ended the month with 27% of assets in Cash and a Net Market Exposure of negative 40%.

The 5 Most Important News Stories of 2019

News is everywhere. It's become the oxygen of our daily lives.

And because we’re creatures of habit, it's easy to get stuck reading the same headline news about whatever crisis-dejour is being dished at the moment. At the national level, we’re currently being served the impeachment process and political turmoil in the Middle East. Local news is similarly unappetizing; mostly, it reports on house fires and murders. Blah.

No matter your politics or hometown location, I can’t imagine these stories are satisfying. Therefore, I've decided to list five news-worthy stories from 2019 that should be infinitely more palatable. These stories didn’t make the headlines, but they offer us a refreshing break from the daily deluge of clickbait-crises.

In no particular order:

1. By selling cookies, a 5-year old girl raised enough money to pay-off the lunch debt of 123 students at her school.
2. Thanks to conservation efforts, the humpback whale population reached 25,000 this year, from a low of several hundred after decades of whaling.
3. Improved access to healthcare and mental health services has reduced global suicide rates by more than 30%.
4. A female Chief in Malawi has annulled the marriages of 2,500 child brides and sent the girls back to school.
5. The city of Seoul is organizing daytime disco parties for senior citizens to tackle loneliness and dementia (don’t miss this excellent video).

I picked these five stories because they profile important topics that impact everyone in the world – altruism, health, human rights, and much more.

News is like the friends we pick or the partner we select, over time it changes us. News shapes our opinions on important topics, it affects the conversations we have, and it alters our behaviors, especially in the investment industry.

Like investing, I’ll keep a watchful eye on the popular headlines news but continue looking for the stories that offer the most value.