I interviewed Maleeha Bengali on 12-1-2020. She runs an active trading and investment recommendation newsletter focusing on commodities and commodity-related equities. She uses a top-down macro perspective and combines that with bottom-up fundamental relative value analysis.
She had an extensive career in commodity trading and research before starting MBB Corner. She was a long/short manager at Noble Energy (NE). Noble Energy is the major Asian trading Group. I’d say it’s somewhat comparable to Glencore (OTCPK:GLNCY). She also worked at UBS (UBS) and Goldman Sachs (GS.PK). I’ve always been curious about how difficult it is for an independent researcher to leave an institution. From being surrounded by highly motivated and talented analysts to alone behind a monitor. Without the information that can be accessed in an institutional environment.
Maleeha is extremely well informed about what’s going on in the commodity space. But she also gained the experience and built the systems that let her turn all that information into actionable insights. I found it super interesting to learn what she’s thinking about the current state of affairs but also to find out more about how she developed her philosophy.
After that, we discuss all the commodity-related macro topics like the U.S. dollar and the price of gold, silver, oil, and copper. Maleehal prefers to trade commodities through futures and equities.
She explains her reasoning behind her favorite trade which is to go long silver miners. Individual companies like Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM), Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS), First Majestic (FR) but she actually likes the Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) and its brethren very much. She expects a silver price between $30 and $40 is possible. As it contains equities of mining companies in the silver mining space the operating leverage adds a lot to the upside. This particular ETF has an expense ratio of 0.53%, yields 0.90%, and here are its top 15 holdings:
Source: Seeking Alpha
Interestingly, I learn that a die-hard commodity trader is interested in cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and these play a role in how she develops her views.
You can find MBB Corner here and follow Maleeha on Twitter here.
I write the Special Situation Report. I look at special situations like spin-offs, share repurchases, rights offerings and a lot of M&A events. The point is to make money with risks under control. Check it out here.
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Disclosure: I am/we are long GLD, WPM. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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