🗞️ The Wrap: Mind CTRL

This week we learn the alphabet from A to H, train our minds to send a text, spend 20 minutes listening to the best of the web all while on one long flight to Santiago. Read on for more.

5 stocks making 52 week highs

1. Dova Pharma (DOVA) +34.4% in the last week
2. Seattle Genetics (SGEN) +16.8%
3. Anika Therapeutics (ANIK) +8.5%
4. Frontline (FRO) +5.5%
5. Sapnies Intl (SPNS) +5.1%

Mind CTRL

The start-up space has birthed its youngest unicorn, and just like the horned horse, CTRL-Labs has a lot to do with imagination. The New York based biotech was acquired by Facebook (FB) last week for around US$1b.

CTRL-Labs calls itself a Neural Interface Platform (don’t ask me what that means). The company aims to allow people to control computers via their mind and they want to get to the point where we can send a text simply by thinking about it. Facebook haven’t revealed their future plans for the software.

In 2012, Zuckerberg bought out Instagram for US$1b…let’s see if this laboratory can take CTRL of a similar destiny.

A to the H homeboy…

Back in 2014 the Hong Kong (HKSE), Shanghai (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (SZSE) signed the “Stock Connect” agreement allowing participants of each market to trade the others’ listing. This was meant to give Chinese investors access to HK stocks and HK investors direct access to mainland stocks. It also meant the spread between the price of dual listed stocks would have evaporated — Chinese “A-shares” trade at a significant premium to the HK listing, known as “H-shares”. That spread has not come in, with the A to H spread creeping up to 30% on some names.

Although still running, the SSE-HKSE Connect never quite took off for foreign investors in Hong Kong, leaving the US as the portal for growing Chinese companies to obtain capital and liquidity — think Alibaba (BABA) which is now the is the 7th largest company in the world by market cap.

With the trade war threatening to cut off any future listings in the US, we’ll be keeping a close eye on all Chinese stocks, particularly the 126 currently listed in the US markets. It currently looks unlikely, but who knows!

5 most traded Chinese stocks on Stake

1. Alibaba (BABA) -4.1% in the last week
2. China Online Education (COE) +87.2%…BOOM!
3. Pinduoduo (PDD) +5.5%
4. Baidu (BIDU) +4.2%
5. Netease (NTES) +0.7%

A China bear? CHAD is your man. This ETF offers a -1x (inverse) return on the top 300 stocks in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

What your generation is trading (September)

• 18–24s: UGAZ (UGAZ)
• 25–34: UGAZ (UGAZ)
• 35–44: Tesla (TSLA)
• 45–54: Micron Technologies (MU)
• 55–64: Fastly (FSLY)
• 65+: Alteryx (AYX)

What we’re listening to | The Journal by WSJ

Everyone has access to headlines. The most interesting news comes from investigation and analysis and this is what The Journal presents. “A podcast about money, business and power”, the team present stories on the biggest companies you won’t find on Google News. It definitely has the most diverse range of stories we’ve come across.

Why do we get paid monthly instead of daily? They’ve done the research. To what extent should vaping be promoted? It’s all covered in a 20 minutes audio file.

Find it here.

September’s 5 best performers

1. Lexicon Pharma (LXRX) +128.1% in September
2. Just Energy Group (JE) +115.5%
3. Alder BioPharma (ALDR) + 110.7%
4. China Online Education (COE) +87.2%
5. Dova Pharma (DOVA) +86.5%

September’s 5 worst performers

1. Tocagen (TOCA) -79.6% in September
2. Altaba (AABA) -71.9%
3. McDermott Intl. (MDR) -57.2%
4. HDFC Bank (HDB) -47.1%
5. Nio (NIO)

Trader teaser

Following the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, everyone on stage shakes hands with each-other. There were 66 handshakes. How many people were on stage?

First 3 to reply with the correct response get a 50% FX rebate on their next AUD to USD funding.

Best Buy | Latam Airlines (LTM) +22%

This trader added 22% to their portfolio in the past week and with it, enough profit for a first class flight to Santiago! They held onto Latam (LTM), the South American airline, through a period of turbulence before their ascent to 10,000ft.