Time for a thread about US NatGas and why it will surprise to the upside...
There’s an exceptional opportunity setting up in the energy space, in particular for US NatGas and related equities.
I’ll explain the setup in this thread and also reveal my top pick. 🤠
1- I’ve been meaning to write this thread for awhile now, but the recent M&A action in the energy space has brought this opportunity to the forefront.
Let’s start simply by charting Henry Hub continuous NatGas prices over the last 20 years:
2- It’s at a generational low.
NatGas hit an ATH of almost $16 in Dec of 2005.
Since then, it’s been a brutal grind to much lower prices, owed to the all-too-easy access to financing as well as the hypergrowth in US shale and associated gas.
3- That’s all coming to an end. After more than a decade of this dynamic, financing for drillers is now getting yanked. As a result, they’re drilling a lot less. Capex is collapsing and more cashflow is expected to go toward paying down debt.
Rig count is now at historic lows:
4- You might be wondering, how can prices be at generational lows while rig count is too? It almost seems counterintuitive.
But the answer is simple: low prices discourage drilling, hence, the lower the price the lower the number of rigs. And vice-versa.
5- Importantly, there is a lag between drilling and pumping, so the effects on production of this historically low rig count will be felt soon enough.
Put simply, the seeds have been sown for a massive and unavoidable structural loss in US shale supply growth.
6- Currently, there’s some exciting M&A action taking place too. $EQT just made a takeover proposal to $CNX.
If $EQT acquires $CNX as rumoured, $EQT would become responsible for ~6.5 Bcf/d, giving them material pricing power.
7- As I see it, consolidation in the industry is great for NatGas prices because it makes it easier to enforce discipline, meaning that prices need to rise higher before raising production.
This will ultimately result in a longer bull cycle.
8- While I love both $EQT and $CNX as individual companies, my favourite pick is neither. I believe the greatest risk/reward exists in $AR, both from a relative and fundamental standpoint.
9- Brief note on $AR: Aside from gas, $AR is the 2nd largest NGL producer in the US, and propane demand is ramping thanks to increased use of outdoor heating lamps as restaurants prepare for socially-distanced, outdoor seating this winter.
But $AR is also quite gas-heavy.
10- Now, even though the working down of current gas inventories still largely depends on weather outcomes, if weather delivers, we could see silly upside volatility across the Winter’21 strip.
11- But even if upside is limited from here, the entire Winter’21 and ‘22 strips are already sitting comfortably above $3. If these prices hold steady, I am of the opinion that NatGas E&Ps should trade a lot higher from this point.
12- I’ll also note that while $AR is my preferred pick, I favour a basket approach for this play, with my top picks having been $AR/ $EQT/ $RRC/ $SD.
13- Also, the recent reversal in energy relative to tech (which I proxy by the QQQ/XLE ratio) is interesting and worth noting.
Charting the last 20 years of this ratio, we can see how overstretched tech is from a relative standpoint to energy:
14- When this unwinds, I believe the unwind will be violent.
In March 2000, as @contrarian8888 has noted, tech was outperforming energy by 100%. By year end, energy was outperforming tech by 100%. So a 200% reversal in under a year.
Will history will rhyme here? Perhaps...
15- All in all, very exciting times for NatGas investors.
Buckle up, the best is yet to come!
HT to those who’ve been on top of this opportunity for awhile now:
Why We’re on the Precipice of Another Bitcoin Mania...
A thread.
Note: it has nothing to do with Bitcoin replacing fiat money anytime soon.
1- We can quibble all day about whether BTC is “the future of money”.
Briefly, I think not, since I fundamentally believe that any money must have “non-monetary use value” in the free market before it becomes money. (Yes, this would disqualify govt-issued paper money too.)
2- But I digress, as debating Bitcoin’s status as “money” is not the aim of this thread.
Rather, the aim here is to persuade you that *institutional buying* of Bitcoin will likely propel the third big Mania at some time in the not-so-distant future.
2- Inflation persists throughout history for a number reasons. One important reason is that the structure of democracy is conducive to it, esp. as people figure out they can ‘vote themselves money’ and the inflation tax becomes a transfer mechanism for public demands.
3- Inflation is also the political path of least resistance, especially when governments around the world are saddled with gargantuan deficits and even larger debt-piles.
Think about it. Much easier to conjure endless trillions from thin air than to default on social security...
1- We’re seeing a massive and unprecedented expansion of the money supply, and at at alarming rates. I don’t care what you think about M2, this sort of growth should not be dismissed.
Longer term, this will shape up to be ‘Project Zimbabwe’, as @hkuppy has coined it.
2- While this sort of monetary inflation first manifests in the capital markets (most noticeably as a boom in stocks), it eventually raises the prices of goods & services too (imperfectly proxied by CPI).
For this to happen, we need higher money velocity, now at an all-time low:
1- The Fed is fighting deflationary forces because nature is trying to collapse unprofitable zombie companies that specialize in capital destruction. Since our monetary system is debt-based, a collapse of zombie companies creates a collapse in the money supply, i.e. deflation.
2- Deflation can feed on itself because it causes asset prices to fall. When asset prices fall, the asset side of companies’ balance sheets fall. But the liabilities side does not. So equities are wiped out.
3- The Fed is deathly frightened of deflation, which they think are falling prices, because they associate that with the Great Depression of the 1930’s. To offset falling prices they print massive amounts of currency and use it to buy everything in sight to lift asset prices.