TSLA +115% YTD

• TSLA is in the NASDAQ 100 but not in the S&P 500

The fund that Simons founded in 1982 added 3.3 million shares of Tesla in the 3-month period ended Dec. 31

James Simons, founder of Renaissance Technologies.

Renaissance Technologies, added more than 3 million shares of Tesla to its holdings in the fourth quarter of last year, as the electric-vehicle maker’s shares catapulted higher, according to public filings.

The hedge fund founded by James Simons, considered the premiere quantitative-driven investor, owned 3.9 million shares of Tesla at the end of Dec. 31, with the company’s stake in Renaissance’s portfolio jumping from 0.1% in the prior quarterly period to 1.3%, according to file-tracking site Whalewisdom.

For his efforts, he ranks No. 21 on the Forbes list of the wealthy, with a net worth of $21.6 billion.

Renaissance’s main investment offering is the flagship Medallion Fund, which has generated a 39% average annual return from 1988 to 2018, that is despite rich fees, which currently include a 5% management and 44% performance fees.

The Medallion Fund limits its assets to roughly $10 billion and is only available to Renaissance employees.

Barrick Gold completes merger with Randgold Resources; trades under the ticker GOLD

• The Canadian Barrick Gold (ABX) has merged with the British Randgold Resources (GOLD) on January 1, 2019.  
• The new company is still known as Barrick but its trading symbol on the NYSE will change to GOLD, the ticker formerly held by Randgold on NASDAQ. On the TSX, the ticker remains ABX.
• Gold miners' bearish cycle may have ended in mid-October. The probability of a golden cross occurring in early 2019 is now significantly high.

Barrick Gold (ABX) (old)

Barrick Gold (GOLD) (new)

 

Golden cross on $GOLD

It's the first bell of 2019, and the NYSE is celebrating the successful merger between Barrick Gold with Randgold Resources with their new ticker $GOLD

Barrick executive chairman John L. Thornton (center), and Mark Bristow, president and chief executive officer (center left), open the New York Stock Exchange on January 2, 2019. 

• The $18.3 billion-deal, which gained final approval in December, has created a sector-leading miner which owns five of the industry’s Top 10 Tier One gold assets and which is well placed to be the world’s most valued gold mining business, Barrick said in the statement.

The merger has created a sector-leading gold company which owns five of the industry’s Top 10 Tier One gold assets1 (Cortez and Goldstrike in Nevada, USA (100%); Kibali in DRC (45%); Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali (80%); and Pueblo Viejo in Dominican Republic (60%)), and two with the potential to become Tier One gold assets (Goldrush/Fourmile (100%) and Turquoise Ridge (75%), both in the USA). Barrick has the lowest total cash cost2 position among its senior gold peers3, and a diversified asset portfolio positioned for growth in many of the world’s most prolific gold districts.

Barrick approach community relations in Nevada (source)

The Summer Youth Employment Program, a Barrick-funded initiative, allows Shoshone youth aged 14 to 18 to gain valuable work experience in their communities. This past summer alone, 136 students participated in the program, performing jobs ranging from painting to community maintenance to elder care.

Shoshone interns. In all, Barrick provided funding for 18 Shoshone summer interns to work in their communities this past summer.

Rebecca Darling is Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Barrick in the U.S.A.

Goldman Sachs’s (GS) golden cross

The bullish “golden cross” pattern that surfaced in Goldman Sachs’s stock chart Wednesday could bode rather well for investors in the coming months, especially since the stock also appears to have reversed a five-year trend of underperformance against the S&P 500 at the same time.

A “golden cross” refers to when a stock’s 50-day moving average rises above the 200-day moving average. Many chart watchers say these bullish moving-average crossovers mark the spot that a short-term rally transitions to a long-term uptrend.

Although that’s the first golden cross in nearly two years, they aren’t too uncommon, as there have been seven previous appearances over the past 10 years. What’s relatively rare, however, is when they actually work as buy signals.

Of the previous seven, only the ones that appeared in September 2012, May 2009 and August 2005 provided good entry points to ride sustainable longer-term rallies. Those golden crosses preceded gains of 37% over five months, 38% over five months and 46% over eight months, respectively, before the stock started corrections of at least 10%.

A common theme of those three golden crosses were that Goldman’s shares were simultaneously ending long-term relative-performance downtrends when compared with the S&P 500.

And currently, RBC Capital technical analyst said he sees a “potential long-term trend reversal developing” in Goldmans’ stock relative to the S&P 500.

Apple (AAPL) death cross and Ford (F) golden cross

 Apple (AAPL) death cross : 50 dma drops below 200 dma

Ford (F) golden cross : 50 dma crosses over 200 dma

update almost 1 year later; 26 Nov 2013:
AAPL dropped 30% in the 6 months since the original post; F gained 60%