2026: Second Quarter Review

Portfolio Update 
- Uranium (URNJ): Exited at the end of April – a couple of months later than ideal, as flagged last quarter. OM is now more actively using technical signals to help time position sizing; having ignored the first warning in January, he acted on the second in April.

- Crypto/China/India: Exited the remaining stub positions mid-quarter.

Together, these exits pushed cash above 25% by quarter-end. Part of this is a timing mismatch – capital left Crypto, India and China before new ideas (Brazil) were sized up. That, plus a likely re-investment in Uranium, should bring cash down in the third quarter.

Performance and Review
Our Man’s portfolio rose +4.3% during the second quarter, substantially lagging both the S&P 500 TR (+15.2%) and the MSCI World (+14.0%). The portfolio underperformed in every month of the quarter – rising in April (+6.5%), well behind the index rally, then falling outright in May (-0.2%) and June (-1.8%) while markets continued higher.

For the year, the portfolio (+8.5%) sits a little behind the S&P 500 TR (+10.2%) and MSCI World (+10.4%).

The medium-term history of the portfolio is below: 

 

Second Quarter Attribution

 
There are few surprises behind the underperformance: an average of ~20% cash during the quarter, no direct AI exposure, and weak commodity performance. The cash drag isn’t as bad as it looks – about one-third of it came from exiting URNJ at a small profit, which helped avoid a 20%+ loss over the rest of the quarter.

OM was late to recognize AI’s demand pull through the supply chain and missed the initial move, choosing instead to hold indirect exposure – through the US Reindustrialization theme (data centers, grid buildout, etc.) and Commodities (metals used in chips and power). That indirect exposure worked well over the last year but got hurt in Q2 as capital rotated hard into direct AI/growth names. Nothing changed in the theses on Uranium (-261bps) and Commodities (-40bps) – capital simply rotated out, and that will happen intermittently.

Not investing in HBM/DRAM manufacturers was a major error of omission. The setup mirrors Shipping/Tankers, Tin and Uranium: supply is fixed, demand jumps, and price is the variable that adjusts.  AI data centers need HBM (high-bandwidth memory) to feed GPU clusters, and it draws roughly 3x the wafer capacity of standard DRAM per bit; manufacturers are shifting production toward HBM’s better margins, tightening conventional DRAM supply and pushing DRAM prices up 90%+ per quarter. OM has known this was coming for almost a year but wasn’t invested.  Before April 2026 this was because there was no effective way to own it; the manufacturers are mostly single non-US companies (Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia), there was no dedicated ETF, and the names were too small a slice of broad semiconductor ETFs to matter.  This changed with the April 2026 launch of a Roundhill DRAM Memory ETF. The sin was knowing this ETF was launching but not acting. The excuses are the usual ones – “up too much already,” “wait for a pullback,” “don’t want to buy the top” – and none of them really matter.
This is a recurring lesson for OM, tied to his personality and approach rather than a rule for everyone, and a reminder of why investing is hard.  It is better to be early and small than not there at all, and if you can't be early but do have conviction then at least be small. It's easier to size up an existing position than start a new one.

The rest of the portfolio held up well:
-    European/UK Financials (+200bps) began to re-rate on strong results – particularly returns on tangible equity – aggressive buybacks, and analyst upgrades.
-    US Reindustrialization (+184bps) benefited from capital rotating toward direct AI beneficiaries.
-    Tin (+155bps) prices remained strong – Alphamin Resources returned ~10% of its market cap as a dividend, though the stocks remain underappreciated by the market.
-    Carbon Credit Allowances (+101bps) strengthened after CARB removed the policy overhang and began finalizing steeper cap-tightening trajectories (10-14% per annum vs. 4% previously).
-    Argentina (+74bps) banks benefited from continued pro-market reform, accelerating private credit growth, and healthy net interest income.
 

Shipping/Tankers (+4bps) and Idiosyncratic Equities (-0bps) were flat.  The exited stub positions added small gains: India (+5bps), China (+5bps) and Blockchain/Crypto (+6bps).

Portfolio (as at 6/30/26 - all delta and leverage adjusted, as appropriate)
Dislocations: 33.7%
14.1% - Uranium (URNM)
6.9% - Argentina (BMA, GGAL, SUPV)
6.6% - Tin (AFMJF, MLXEF and SBWFF)
6.1% - Commodities/Mining (LUNMF, TLOFF, PMCOF and IVPAF)

Thematic: 37.4%
10.4% - US Reindustrialization (AIRR)
10.2% - European/UK Financials (BCS, LYG, NWG)
9.2% - Shipping/Tankers (STNG, INSW, TNK, DHT and FRO)
7.6% - Carbon Credit Allowances (KCCA)

Idiosyncratic: 2.5%
2.5% - Equities (JOE)

Shorts/Hedges: 0.0%

Cash: 26.3%

Disclaimer: Nothing above should be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. While Our Man is invested in all of the securities mentioned, that alone is a terrible reason for anyone else to be. Our Man also holds some cash and a few other positions (of negligible value). Investors should always do their own work and make decisions based on their own circumstances, objectives, and risk tolerance—and not because Our Man happened to mention something here. 

Things from my Newsblur; 2024 Part I

OM aims to publish six Newsblur posts this year instead of waiting to accumulate numerous articles. Thus, expect shorter posts with 4-5 articles but with more timely content.

The Best Day.  The Very Best Day.
OM loves football (aka soccer), especially his team - AFC Wimbledon. Recently, they faced their hated rivals in a heated match, echoing John Green's sentiment that "football is the most important of all unimportant things."  I’ll spare you all the details, but this is a short 5min video that OM will come back to whenever he needs a pick me-up!

For those who don’t want to watch it; as OM tells his kids – prepare, give your best, and control what you can.  Success isn’t guaranteed, but sometimes – just sometimes – you will score a 94th minute winner in front of your fans, the roof will be lifted off and everything will make sense for a little while.   
(John Green/@vlogbrothers on YouTube)

The Profile Interview: Rob Henderson on Why We Hold ‘Luxury Beliefs’ and Develop ‘Status Anxiety’
A slight departure from the norm but I think a good one;  I have read Rob Henderon’s blog for a few years now and I’m working my way through his just released memoir (Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class).   I like them both a lot but it’s not for everyone, amongst other things it requires holding conflicting views of the author and some of his ideas at the same time.  For those who are curious, The Profile’s (also a good read) interview is a good starting point.

The most interesting of Henderson’s ideas is the term he coined, ‘luxury beliefs’, which he defines as “ideas and opinions that confer status on the affluent, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes and everyone else.  A core feature of a luxury belief is that the believer is sheltered from the consequences of his or her beliefs.”
(The Profile)

Things I Don’t Know About AI
There is no shortage of opinions on AI, but this is an interesting way to think about what we don’t know.   Written by a Founder/VC, the opening sentences sum it up; “In most markets, the more time passes the clearer things become. In generative AI (“AI”), it has been the opposite. The more time passes, the less I think I actually understand.”
(Elad Blog)

Can Trade Intervention Lead to Freer Trade
OM believes that there’s something wrong with the version of ‘free trade’ today, and that the next 50-years are likely to see something quite different from the last 50-years.   Michael Pettis article delves more into this, and his introduction sums the issues up well!

“A well-functioning trading regime would permit neither the large, persistent trade imbalances that characterize the current global trading system nor the perverse flow of capital from developing economies to advanced economies. Global trade needs new rules that encourage a return to the benefits of free trade and comparative advantage.”
(China Financial Markets)

Things from my Newsblur; 2023 Part II

 As summer rolls around, here’s Part II for your beach reading!

The Man Who Broke Bowling
If you’re anything like OM, you occasionally find yourself at the bowling alley throwing a sad mix of 7s and 8s with the odd strike thrown in.   You’re certainly not like Jason Belmonte, who’s revolutionized the sport by throwing…two-handed!   
(Eric Willis, GQ magazine)


Relax for the Same Result
This is an old post that OM goes back to every so often when stressed and rushing to get something done by a deadline.   It’s a good reminder of the unproductive effort due to stress and how it neither helps the quality or speed of our work.
(Derek Sivers)

What Will Transformers Transform?
As regular readers will know, OM is a fan of Dr. Rodney Brooks and often posts his year-end update of prior predictions.  With everything that’s been written about Artificial Intelligence and GPT models (both the good and the bad), his article from a couple of months ago is worth rereading.  The punchline; “Calm down people. We neither have super powerful AI around the corner, nor the end of the world caused by AI about to come down upon us.”
(Rodney Brooks)


30,000 Reasons Wages aren’t Falling
We’ve spent much of the last year being told recession is imminent, unemployment is about to spike, and that wage hikes are coming to an end.  While we might be getting closer to that point, OM suspects that the world has also changed somewhat; that we are moving from a world that favoured capital to one that benefits labor.  It’s been something OM has been meaning to write about for a while now, but it’s a complicated subject and he’s never quite found the right words.  The good news is that Erik Renander found some of them…
(Erik Renander, Your Weekend Reading).


Turkey: How Mehmet Simsek convinced Erdogan to drop his low interest rate policy
A portion of OM’s portfolio is in dislocation investing, where on first read the idea will look ugly.  Hopefully, kind reader your initial reaction will be “WTF???  Are you insane!” but will slowly trend towards “that’s weird, but kinda interesting!” over time (e.g. Uranium).  The key is being able to invest when valuation is cheap, fundamentals are turning, and there’s a narrative to draw others in!   Well, Turkey is exceptionally cheap, there are hints of a change, and it has the benefit that it can be geopolitically promiscuous between the US and China.  However, especially after Erdogan’s recent victory at the polls, it has lacked a narrative that will draw investors in.  Perhaps this major change in economic policy is the start of a ‘normalization’ in Turkey that at least removes the negative narrative.
(Ragip Soylu, Middle East Eye)


This is Biology’s Century – We’re not Ready for it
The phrase ‘biology’s century’ has been around for a while but has so far accurately encapsulated the 2000s with a record number of drugs approved including novel treatments for cancer, diabetes, numerous vaccines and the first gene therapies.  However, biotech’s limits are now testing the medical infrastructure that we have built and many of the solutions favor the expedient over the rigorous.
(Matthew Harper, STAT)