News & Views

News & Views

When Doves Cry (Oct 2014)

David B. Iben, CFA discusses why we believe that valuation is the key determinant of risk (permanent loss of purchasing power) and why short-term price fluctuations are not risk, but are an annoying, often painful, creator of opportunity. While When Doves Cry reminds us of the Fed’s cooing over taking the risk out the marketplace, Prince’s apocalyptic anthem, 1999 will be used as a medium to lay out quite a bullish case for active management.

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The Saddle Ridge Hoard (Jun 2014)

Following the story of a California couple who stumbled on a coffee can filled with treasure, David B. Iben, CFA discussed the idea that investors often obsess over the wrong type of “risks’ and why this error in judgement presents outsized money-making opportunities.

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The Wizard of Oz (Nov 2013)

David B. Iben, CFA, uses the classic tale, the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, as a parody of the world’s central banks, elected representatives, Neo Keynesian academics and the rest of the central planners and why we at Kopernik plan to forsake easy gimmicks and follow the yellow “BRIC” road.

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My Fair Lady (Jul 2013)

My Fair Lady, (MFL) has been reprised many times over the decades. It started as Pygmalion in London, later coming across the Pond as MFL, and as many versions continued to be cast on various stages throughout the world, it was adapted for film and became a popular, award-winning movie. Therefore, it seems in the spirit of things to reprise my Commentary from four months ago.

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The Nifty Seven (Jan 2024)

As Benjamin Graham points out, "The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists." In her year-end letter, Deputy CIO Alissa Corcoran highlights the extreme optimism and pessimism in today's markets. Drawing parallels to the 1960s and 1970s, she notes that there are similarities in investor psychology and warns of the risks when price is not considered in investment decisions.

The U.S. momentum market is on a roll. However, Kopernik is finding opportunities by venturing into less loved areas of the market, such as real assets and emerging markets. Corcoran argues that now may be the time for investors to sell to optimists and focus on the fundamentals.

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Uranium 2023 (Dec 2023)

In the third iteration of our uranium whitepaper, Kopernik energy analyst Stephen Rosenthal explores the state of uranium investing in 2023. When our previous whitepapers came out, uranium was far from popular with investors - now, it seems like we’re finally sitting at the cool kids’ table in the investing cafeteria.

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Misunderstandings Present Great Opportunities (Jan 2023)

In his latest commentary, Kopernik analyst and co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy, Mark McKinney analyzes and compares how the current developed world’s characteristics such as inflation, excessive deficits, censorship and politicized economic decision-making are looking more like emerging markets. This begs rethinking the prevailing rules and risks applied in the valuations of both. Is the valuation premium awarded to developed markets for so long still warranted? Or do emerging markets with sizable discounts offer better investment opportunities due to the misunderstood risks?

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A Differentiated Approach to ESG (July 2022)

In this whitepaper on ESG, Kopernik’s investment research team provides an update to our March 2021 webinar on the same topic. In summary, ESG is important, complex, and nuanced. This whitepaper will give an update on how we think about the current ESG environment, provide examples of the types of ESG risks we are evaluating, and explain how we integrate ESG risk into our valuation process.

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Managing Geopolitical Risk in a Global Portfolio (July 2022)

In this whitepaper, Kopernik’s investment research team builds on our April 2022 webinar about geopolitical risk, breaking down our process and examples of both successes and losses in emerging markets. Evaluating geopolitical risk has always been a key factor in our global investment process. As global crises have made our role as investment manager more crucial than ever, our mission of being independent thought leaders could not be more pertinent.

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Fear is Good (July 2022)

In his latest commentary, Kopernik analyst and co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy, Mark McKinney, compares today’s U.S. market to the tech bubble of the late 1990s and 2000s. He also gives examples of the many “mini bubbles” that have already burst under the surface of the bigger names in the index. Lastly, there are some thoughts on the US Dollar, inflation, and gold.

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The Super Terrific Happy Hour Podcast - With Stephanie Pomboy and Grant Williams featuring David Iben - July 8, 2020

Kopernik CIO, David Iben, joins Stephanie Pomboy & Grant Williams to discuss the art of value investing, the challenges it faces in today's market environment and why it's a bad idea to write any obituaries for the strategy just yet. Tune in to this podcast to listen as Dave discusses the cycles he's witnessed over his career as he gets ready to enter his fifth decade in the business, the lessons he's learned and offers some thoughts on where value can be found off the beaten path as equity markets scream towards all-time highs.

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Financial Advisor - Emerging Markets Roar Back, Too - June 5, 2020

Kopernik CIO, David Iben, recently discussed with Financial Advisor where Kopernik is finding attractive opportunities within the emerging markets.

Read the full story here.

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Value Invest Interview (Part 1) - June 2, 2020

Kopernik CIO, David Iben, was recently interviewed by Robert Hunter from Value Invest.

Listen to the interview (Part 1) here.

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Value Invest Interview (Part 2) - June 2, 2020

Kopernik CIO, David Iben, was recently interviewed by Robert Hunter from Value Invest.

Listen to the interview (Part 2) here.

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Bloomberg Radio - May 10, 2020

Our CIO, Dave Iben, went on Bloomberg Radio to discuss where he's currently finding attractive buying opportunities around the globe, and why some of the safest investments, such as gold mining stocks, might also have the most upside.

Listen to his full interview here.

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Russell Investments - The Tradeoffs Between U.S. and Global Equities - featuring Dave Iben - May 7, 2020

Kopernik CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager, Dave Iben recently sat down with Russell Investments to discuss the case for investing beyond the U.S. Originally presented at a Russell Investments event for institutional investors. You can watch the full video here.

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