Tag Archive for: letter

Upslope Capital’s Q1 2022 Investor Letter

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Closeup shot of an unrecognisable businesswoman calculating finances in an office

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Dear Fellow Investors,

Upslope’s objective is to deliver attractive, equity-like returns with significantly reduced market risk and low correlation versus traditional equity strategies. Q1 was a volatile, but relatively favorable environment for Upslope’s approach, which skews towards defensive, value-conscious investments. This has continued into April, as Upslope is now up year-to-date (vs. -7% for the S&P Midcap 400 index) as of this writing.

Upslope Exposure & Returns1

Benchmark Returns

Average Net Long

Net Return

S&P Midcap 400 ETF (MDY)

HFRX Equity Hedge Index

Q1 2022

66%

-0.3%

-5.0%

-0.3%

Last 12 Months

64%

+5.9%

+4.1%

+8.9%

Since Inception*

47%

+10.0%

+11.6%

+5.0%

Note: clients should always check individual statements for returns, which may vary due to timing and other factors.

*Since Inception returns are annualized.

MARKET CONDITIONS – REGIME CHANGE

Q1 had it all: a speculative growth bust, war, inflation/commodity crises, rising rates, lingering pandemic issues, and a briefly inverted yield curve. The only thing missing: an above-average correction in the stock market. In February, the S&P 500 bottomed at almost -14% YTD – dead in-line with the average draw- down for the market since 1980 – and closed the quarter just -5%. With a macro and geopolitical backdrop seemingly much worse than “average,” it’s hard not to be impressed with the resiliency. I’m not sure if this bodes well or ominously for the period ahead. On the one hand, stocks rising in the face of bad news historically suggests that bad news is priced in. On the other, we’ve had multiple episodes since January 2020 where stocks didn’t care about bad news until…they suddenly did.

“Regime change” continues to be the theme of 2022. Regime change in financial markets and regime change geopolitically. In financial markets, we saw a hard shift from growth to value stocks early and a persistent step-up in inflation. These are big, broad changes to trends that have lasted, by some measures, 10+ and 40+ years, respectively.

Given the violent undercurrents in markets, opportunities abound – both long and short. Many SPACs and other speculative growth stocks have whipped…

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Claremore woman targeted with inheritance letter scam

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CLAREMORE, Okla. — A Claremore woman is sharing her story after spotting an old scam with a seemingly new twist.

“This is an opening, it’s an interesting one, but it’s an opening to get a hold of what I do have,” says Karen Rowden.

Rowden took a break from the jewelry she carefully crafts by hand to read a letter she just received, supposedly from an administrative manager of an overseas financial institution.

“She was contacting me because of a financial opportunity, and that made me want to look at the rest of it,” Rowden says.

The letter said she was about to become a millionaire, many times over, but there was no return address and had a Portuguese stamp.

“It was about an amount that was in a safe deposit box in a bank, and the bank evidently is not in the United States.”

As she read further, Rowden found out a gentleman, with her last name, had passed away, and left $26 million in that safe deposit box, and the bank was trying to find next of kin, to inherit the money.

“That sent a red flag up,” she says. “And I was not supposed to speak about this to anybody for any reason.”

Rowden was to receive 40% of the money, the institution would keep 50%, and the other 10% would go to charity.

“It was so far out, I thought someone might actually get excited, and believe it.”

Karen says the letter sparked concern, for others, especially other seniors.

“If I got one, then a bunch of other people get them.”

Most of them, Rowden says, most likely tore it up and threw it away, but it’s the one, or two, or three people, that may fall for it, that she wonders about, worries about, those few that scammers target, and thrive off of.

“They’re just things that are set up to bilk people out of what they have, and that irritates me, that makes me angry.”

Scam letters like these, cyber security experts say, usually don’t mention any fees you’ll have to pay to receive the money. That comes when a target contacts the scammer, and the fee may only be $20, $40 or $50.

It’s your financial and personal information scammers get, so they can raid all of your accounts. Experts say if you receive a suspicious letter or email, first talk to someone you trust — a family member,…

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Robotic Assistance Devices Receives First Order of Previously Received Letter of Intent for ROAMEO Mobile Security Robot

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HENDERSON, Nev.–()–Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (OTCPK:AITX), today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Robotic Assistance Devices Inc. (RAD) has received an order from one of its authorized dealers for RAD’s ROAMEO 2.0 (Rugged Observation Assistance Mobile Electronic Officer). This dealer had committed to up to 20 ROAMEO units in a prior Letter of Intent (LOI).

This first of several expected ROAMEO units will be deployed within a major Hollywood studio whose name cannot be disclosed due to existing non-disclosure agreements.

“ROAMEO, being the first mobile device that is part of the RAD system of devices, is on track for many amazing deployments,” said Steve Reinharz, CEO of AITX and RAD. “Receiving this order during the first week of ROAMEO 2.0’s public tour was great. We expect to regularly announce more ROAMEO orders as we convert LOIs to firm orders and inevitably close more deals with other prestigious clients.”

ROAMEO 2.0 was unveiled to the public at last week’s NCS4 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona to an audience of spectator sport security executives. Due to the overwhelming reception of ROAMEO at NCS4, another conference at the same resort, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers requested an appearance of ROAMEO at their keynote address. Later this week, ROAMEO will be on exhibit at the IAAPA Expo, beginning November 16th in Orlando, Florida.

The company confirmed that the nation’s continuing labor shortage is forcing security services dealers and forward-thinking end users to seek alternatives to manned security guard positions. These alternatives include the use of autonomous, AI-driven robotic solutions. ROAMEO is a mobile security robot that is nearly 7 ft. tall and weighs over 700 lbs. According to the company, ROAMEO is built to autonomously patrol a property or periphery and survey its surroundings, conducting routine patrols, recording, and reporting back to the central command center.

Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD) is a high-tech start-up that delivers robotics and artificial intelligence-based solutions that empower organizations to gain new insight, solve complex security…

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Letter from London: Ransomware is wreaking havoc in Hackney

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Vicki Bates, a retail worker who lives in east London, has been furloughed twice during the coronavirus pandemic and says she is owed nearly £1,000 ($1,400) in housing benefit by her local authority. She has been unable to log into her account on Hackney Council’s website since October 2020 and describes her predicament as the culmination of months of administrative errors.

“I really rely on those payments to be able to get things for my daughter,” she told me, during a telephone conversation. “We’ve got her school uniform to buy in the next couple of months. That is a large chunk of money and a bit of a worry.”

Bates is one of tens of thousands of Hackney residents — the borough is home to some 280,000 people and 10,000 businesses — who have been affected by a crippling ransomware attack on the council’s website. (In the interest of full disclosure, I live in Hackney and use the website regularly.) The breach took place in October 2020, disabling a number of vital local services, including systems that allow residents to access social security benefits, and pay rent and council tax.

Over the past few years, ransomware attacks on public and private institutions, including councils, utility companies and banks, have become an increasingly common form of online terrorism. In late 2020, dozens of U.S. hospitals and healthcare organizations were hit by malicious code distributed by cyber-criminals. Security analysts said the hacks were tied to a Russian gang known as UNC 1878 or Wizard Spider

Large corporations and financial institutions have the means to pay off ransomware gangs. For example, Brazil-based JBS SA, the world’s largest meat processing company, gave the equivalent of $11m to hackers who broke into its computer system in June. 

Ransomware attacks on public institutions like Hackney council have become common in the last few years.

However, U.K. local authority budgets have been progressively slashed since the financial crisis of 2008, rendering most councils incapable of spending such large sums of money, even if they could get past the miles of red tape necessary to do so. Hackney has faced some of the most brutal cuts in…

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