Looking ahead to 2018, what do recent events like Disney’s content war with Netflix, Bitcoin’s volatility and general market movements mean for you and your investments? (Reading time 3:12 mins)
This information does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider if the relevant investment is appropriate having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.
1. Disney takes a chunk of Fox
Once again, The Simpsons have accurately predicted a future event years before it finally occurs – the animated cartoon had an inkling Disney would buy 21st Century Fox 20 years ago, and it actually happened just a few days ago.
Disney has agreed to buy a chunk of 21st Century Fox’s assets for over US$50 billion, placing them firmly in the content streaming race with Netflix.
What does this mean if you’ve invested in entertainment & media companies?
The entertainment media companies of the 21st century are in a huge battle for content. The companies with the deepest pockets that can consistently produce big budget, popular shows are likely to come out on top.
With this acquisition, Disney could quickly become a major competitor to streaming services like Netflix.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
Our managed funds are not currently invested in purely traditional media companies, nor do they have any direct exposure to streaming services such as Netflix. However, we do have indirect exposure to VOD (video on demand) services through our portfolio companies Apple and Amazon.
Apple is projected to ramp up its original content spend to US$4.2 billion by 2022 as part of an effort to expand a rebranded Apple Music.
Jeff Bezos’, CEO of Amazon has remained tight-lipped on its original content budget for Prime Video, but analysts have estimated it to be around US$6bn for 2017 alone.
2. Will markets crash or soar in 2018?
2017 has been a good year for investors, with most major global share markets seeing strong positive gains. Here’s what we believe may happen next year with 2018 around the corner.
What does this mean if you’re invested in the share market in 2018?
We believe the conditions are in place for markets to have another positive year in 2018.
Most of the major economies globally are on track for continuing positive growth. Low interest rates and major tax cuts should also help companies grow their earnings.
We see the key risks to a positive market being geopolitical (North Korea, Trump) and any material slowdown in China as the economy continues to reform.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
From the data we’ve researched and analysed, we believe the investment drivers for trends we have built AltasTrend’s managed funds around will continue to grow strongly in 2018.
Being long-term investors, we are conservative when investing money, therefore will not be chasing shares where valuation has run too far ahead of the company’s prospects.
We are also working on potentially launching new Trends for investment in 2018, so stay tuned.
3. What does 2018 look like for Bitcoin?
From an investment perspective, 2017 certainly has been the year of Bitcoin. We get asked almost daily about Bitcoin, and have written extensively on this topic as a result.
What does this mean if you’re invested in Bitcoin?
It means you could experience investment volatility and will potentially be making or losing money very fast. For instance, you could see a rise or fall of 25% in the value of your investment in a short space of time.
We’ve seen reports suggesting Bitcoin is either worth nothing or it could be worth several hundred thousand dollars each. In truth, we think no one really knows. If you are speculating on Bitcoin in 2018, do it sensibly and only use money you are prepared to lose.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
We design our managed funds for investors who are more interested in building the value of their investments over the long term, rather than speculating on an overnight, get-rich-quick scheme. Our managed funds are built around trends that we believe are set to grow for the next decade or more.
For example, we are confident that the online shopping industry will continue to grow over the next 10 years. Compare that to Bitcoin, can anyone say for certain it will still be around in 10 years?
For more about the types of managed funds AtlasTrend provides, click here. Sign up for full details on what the Trends invest in, and access actionable investing insights.
