Taking a bit of a break waiting for markets to get a clear footing and direction. Got a lot of cash in hand - time to sit back a bit.
Portfolio News
In a week where S&P 500 dropped 0.7% and Europe rose 1.35%, my pension portfolio rose 2.02%. A lot more commodities than the main indexes hold - big gains from Canada and ASX gold, silver and uranium stocks
Big movers of the week were Evolution Energy Minerals (EV1.AX) (66.7%), Lodestar Minerals (LSR.AX) (41.7%), Fortuna Metals (FUN.AX) (41%), AuKing Mining (AKN.AX) (40%), Azincourt Energy Corp(AAZ.V) (40%), Star Minerals (SMS.AX) (38%), Terra Critical Minerals (T92.AX) (33.9%), Grand Gulf Energy (GGE.AX) (33.3%), Neo Energy Metals (NEO.L) (32.9%), Skyharbour Resources (SYH.V) (31.1%), BPM Minerals (BPM.AX) (30%), Viking Mines (VKA.AX) (30%), Cauldron Energy (CXU.AX) (29.6%), Lotus Resources (LOT.AX) (25.2%), Geiger Energy Corporation (BEEP.V) (25%), Stroud Resources (SDR.V) (25%), DevEx Resources (DEV.AX) (23.7%), Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp (WUC.CN) (23.5%), Euro Manganese Inc(EMN.AX) (22.9%), Anfield Energy Inc(AEC) (20.9%), Sigma Lithium Corporation (SGML) (20.1%), Atha Energy Corp (SASK.V) (20%), Pursuit Minerals (PUR.AX) (20%), Hecla Mining Company (HL) (19.9%), Paladin Energy Ltd (PDN.AX) (19.8%), Aurelia Metals (AMI.AX) (19.3%), GoGold Resources Inc(GGD.TO) (18.4%), Boss Energy (BOE.AX) (18.3%), Coronado Global Resources Inc(CRN.AX) (18.1%), Articore Group (ATG.AX) (17.9%), Bayhorse Silver (BHS.V) (17.1%) Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS) (16.8%), Peninsula Energy (PEN.AX) (16.8%), F3 Uranium Corp (FUU.V) (16.7%), Orezone (ORE.AX) (16.4%), Kaiser Reef (KAU.AX) (15.9%), Aura Energy (AEE.AX) (15.8%), Global Atomic Corporation (GLO.TO) (15.8%), Coeur Mining (CDE) (15.6%), Zinc of Ireland NL (ZMI.AX) (15.4%), TechGen Metals Ltd (TG1.AX) (15.2%), F4 Uranium Corp (FFU.V) (14.3%), Laramide Resources (LAM.AX) (14.3%), Lifeist Wellness (LFST.V) (14.3%), Sun Silver (SS1.AX) (14.3%), Dawson Geophysical Company (DWSN) (14.1%), Alligator Energy (AGE.AX) (13.5%), Iondrive (ION.AX) (13.3%), Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF (URNJ) (13.1%), Power Minerals (PNN.AX) (13%), Elevate Uranium (EL8.AX) (12.9%), CGN Mining Company (1164.HK) (12.6%), Dateline Resources (DTR.AX) (12%), VHM Limited (VHM.AX) (11.8%), Northern Dynasty Minerals (NAK) (11.5%), Myriad Uranium Corp (M.CN) (11.1%), Panther Metals (PNT.AX) (11.1%), Bannerman Energy (BMN.AX) (10.9%), Forsys Metals Corp (FSY.TO) (10.6%), West Coast Silver (WCE.AX) (10.4%), Coty (COTY) (10.2%), VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) (10.1%), Shionogi & Co (4507.T) (10%), Silex Systems (SLX.AX) (10%), Sunrise Energy Metals (SRL.AX) (10%)
A whopping 65 stocks make the big movers list - have to think the portfolios have hit the sweet spot. It is a commodities sweet spot. The big themes are well represented. Frm the top: alternate energy (9 stocks), rare earths (3 stocks), gold/silver mining (17 stocks), uranium (27 stocks), marijuana (1 stock)
US markets had a rocky week on the back of Greenland tariffs idea which hammered the US Dollar with a bit of a recovery when that idea was put to bed. Still ended a down week and the US Dollar remains under pressure
Massive rise in silver price (and gold) drives the US Dollar story. Commodity cycle is building.
Crypto Struggles
Bitcoin price headed lower all week dropping below support level and finishing the week 5.2% lower than the open with a peak to trough range of 7.3%.
Ethereum price headed lower too finishing the week 9.6% lower than the open with a peak to trough range of 13.9%.
Nuclear Energy Holdings
A few small changes in holdings around the Lotus Resources (LOT.AX) consolidation selling fractional shares and a few auto-invest purchases. Key is a 2.4% increase in valuations - more than the pension portfolio did.
One key change in Top 10 with Lotus Resources (LOT.AX) coming into Top 10 in slot 7 pushing enCore Energy Corp (EU) out. Share of portfolios surprisingly drops 0.7 points to 27.3% - something else was doing better. Clues lie in the big movers list above - other commodities
Holdings by Stage shows small changes with Technology creeping to 11%
Alternate Energy Holdings
No changes in holdings and a tidy 3% increase in valuation - more than the portfolios did
No changes in the ranking of Top 10 stocks though ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT) does drop 1.5 points in slot 1. Share of Others does rise just short of a point to 13.2% - still looks like an ETF. Overall share drops a little to 7.6%
Bought
Fiverr International (FVRR): Internet Services. Assigned early on sold put in sp. Breakeven $21.83 vs $16.16 close (Jan 23) - 5 cycles since the last assignment in June 2025. This is not as ugly as it looks as there are a swag of sold puts built into the breakeven for the holding before this addition.
Strike Energy (STX.AX): Australian Gas. Averaged down entry price in pp following positive moves in other Australian gas stocks. The company has delayed the release of West Erregulla reserves and resources position to Q1 2026
The additional time required reflects the Company’s commitment to ensuring that its reserves and resources disclosure is robust, defensible and fully aligned with best -practice reporting standards in line with the Petroleum Resource Management System (PRMS). Importantly, the delay should not be interpreted as an indication of any adverse technical
outcome.
Seen statements like that before. Chart tells the story - a steady drift lower from 2024 highs and a bottoming out with several touches at the bottom - this should hold as a solod support level. The broker target still stands.
Trade initially entered on talk of a take over by Gina Rinehart - see TIB745 for the Intelligent Investor story
Rio Tinto (RIO.AX): Mining. Added a parcel of stock in pp. ASX does options with a 100 multiplier making it easier to do options trades than London with its 1000 multiplier. Dividend yield 4.23%.
Somehow forgot to post the chart explaining the idea. At the simple level wanted to be in on the possibility of a Glencore (GLEN.L) merger. Did the comparison charts with Glencore (GLEN.L - the bars) to see what side to be on. Rio Tinto (RIO.L - dark blue line) is the laggard also with a big gap to Eramet SA (ERA.PA - green line) assigned last week.
NICO Resources (NC1.AX): Nickel. Next Investors idea to push along the battery materials angle. Entry comes after completion of a share placement at 9.1% discount to closing before the trading halt and a 7.5% premium to the 5 day VWAP. Price information was clearly leaked or front-run as first tranche was 10% higher again. As with all Next Investors ideas I do two entries - one to get in and one at the price pre-newsletter. In this case the two trades closed on successive days. The key project is the Wingellina nickel-cobalt project located in Western Australia - reputed to be the largest nickel field worldwide.
Sold
BPM Minerals (BPM.AX): Gold Mining. Took profits out of holding in pp for 68% blended profit since November 2025. Might have taken out too much as the assay results that came out two days later on the Forelands project in Western Australia are very solid
• FLRC007 – 9m @ 7.77 g/t Au from 75m, incl. 2m @ 21.73 g/t Au from 75m and
1m @ 23.39g/t Au from 83m
• FLRC010 – 6m @ 6.72 g/t Au from 28m and 2m @ 20.77 g/t Au from 40m
• FLRC020 – 2m @ 12.33 g/t Au from 134m and 5m @ 2.22 g/t Au from 105m
• FLRC019 – 1m @ 17.24 g/t Au from 131m
Next Investors idea. They are still spruiking the trade.
Cryptocurrency
Switched a bunch of altcoins for Binance Coin (BNB) on their clear out small balances process. Three of the coins (ENJ, FLOW, TFUEL) would have started out as $100 lots - now worth not a lot. The others are dribs and drabs form other situation - example, GAS is the reward token for staking NEO.
ASX Portfolio
The segment reports trading in ASX fractional share portfolio. Trade entries are made based on stock screens looking for undervalued stocks (price to book, price earnings, price to sales) that are showing technical signs of breaking a downtrend. Exits are made at 35% profit or 25% if 52 week high is lower than 35% advance. New buys are in $500 lots. Scale ins and top ups in $250 lots
New Buys
Austral Resources Australia Ltd (AR1.AX): Copper/Gold Mining. Good to see a copper miner on the screens with copper prices rising.
Chart starts with a relisting in December 2025. Price traded along a narrow band for most of December 2025 and started to move with gold prices. The addition of the copper mine adds to the potential.
Top Ups
Yancoal Australia (YAL.AX) Coal Mining. Dividend yield 10.26%.
Chart shows price ran out of momentum, reversed and consolidated for a few months and then dropped out of the channel. Quite often we see price doing this and powering ahead after passing he top of the channel. This entry is about the same level as the previous one (the left hand blue ray)
Sold
No sales
Auto-Invest - Grandkids
Fourth month running mini-ETF investment for my two granddaughters for $100 a month spread across a mix of uranium and rare earths stocks. Auto-invest programs carry no fees on entry
- Orpheus Uranium Ltd (ORP.AX): Uranium.
- Global Uranium and Enrichment (GUE.AX): Uranium.
- American Uranium (AMU.AX): Uranium.
- Dateline Resources (DTR.AX): Rare Earths.
- Locksley Resources (LKY.AX): Rare Earths.
Income Trades
Covered Calls
Stayed out of markets all week with only 16 covered calls written all in one portfolio (Europe 1 US 15)
Naked Puts
A bit more active selling puts - with a huge cash balance can afford to carry more risk and the returns are 3 to 4 times higher.
Sold puts happy to own at lower prices
- Commerzbank AG (CBK.DE): German Bank. Return 1.4% Coverage 12.8%
- Fresenius SE & Co. (FRE.DE): German Healthcare. Return 1.48% Coverage 4.8%
- Sixt SE (SIX2.DE): Europe Vehicle Rental. Return 1.69% Coverage 4.7%
- Volkswagen AG (VOW.DE): Europe Automotive. Return 1.06% Coverage 8.3%
- NatWest Group plc (NWG.L): UK Bank. Return 1.23% Coverage 9.1%
- Rio Tinto Group (RIO.L): Mining. Return 1.47% Coverage 5.9%
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Bitcoin Mining. Return 4% Coverage 26.8%
- Range Nuclear Renaissance ETF (NUKZ): Nuclear Power. Return 1.08% Coverage 9%
- NuScale Power Corporation (SMR): Nuclear Technology. Return 3.67% Coverage 34.4%
- Invesco Solar ETF (TAN): Solar Power. Return 1.29% Coverage 14.6%
- Mirion Technologies (MIR): Nuclear Technology. Return 2% Coverage 17.5%
- QuantumScape Corporation (QS): Battery Technology. Return 6.32% Coverage 14.5%
- Glencore plc (GLEN.L): Base Metals. Return 1.9% Coverage 8.6%
- Carrefour SA (CA.PA): French Supermarket. Return 2.2% Coverage 1.8%
- Deutsche Bank AG (DBK.DE): German Bank. Return 1.13% Coverage 9.2%
- DHL Group (DHL.DE): Europe Logisitcs. Return 1.93% Coverage 1.5%
Rio Tinto Group (RIO.L): Mining. With multiplier of 1000 shares per contract worked out the risk on the puts sold two days back was huge. Closed out half the holding for 46.6% profit in sp. Will close out the other half and rely on stock positions OR test ASX for options liquidity and trading cots.
Credit Spreads
Netflix (NFLX): TV Streaming. Netflix announced solid results - market took umbrage at the investment spend on content and smacked price 5% - prefect level to set up a credit spread below that for ROI 30% and Coverage 3.1%
Resources
Cautions: This is not financial advice. You need to consider your own financial position and take your own advice before you follow any of my ideas
Images: I own the rights to use and edit the Buy Sell image. News headlines come from Google Search. All other images are created using my various trading and charting platforms. They are all my own work
Tickers: I monitor my portfolios using Yahoo Finance. The ticker symbols used are Yahoo Finance tickers. Crypto tickers come from TradingView
Charts: http://mymark.mx/TradingView - this is a free charting package. I have a Pro subscription to get access to real time forex prices
Investing: Interactive Brokers provides comprehensive global markets coverage with very competitive commissions. Open an account to earn up to USD 1,000 in IBKR stock. https://mclnks.com/ibkr
Crypto Trading: Binance offers a wide range of coins to trade, tight spreads and low fees if you use BNB to pay https://mymark.mx/Binance
Kucoin offers a wider range of altcoins than many of the other exchanges. I do like to diversify my holdings in case an exchange gets knocked over. Grab 15% discount on your trades when you open an account on this link https://mclnks.com/kucoin15
Gate.io offers a solid range of coins many of which have been delisted elsewhere. Have chosen to share the commission rebates. 40% is the rate - split 30% for me and you get to keep 10% for any people you invite. https://mclnks.com/gateio
Tracking: Keeping track of your crypto trades is a whole lot easier with CoinTracking.info. Get 10% off all your account upgrades https://mymark.mx/CoinTracking
Aus/NZ Investing Sharesies provides low cost, fractional share investing for Australian and New Zealand residents covering stocks in those countries and US. Start investing with as little as $20 https://mclnks.com/shares
January 19-23, 2026