Kitco selling Rhodium

I take a look once in awhile at Kitco’s precious metal store and notice they are now selling Rhodium.

Rhodium is a very interesting precious metal and it is by occurrence about four times less common than gold. Other metals of roughly similar concentration are Iridium, Ruthenium, and Rhenium – all a bit cheaper than Rhodium.

I don’t have any particular love for precious metals other than that they are nice to look at and feel (especially the density), but one big concern as an investor would be – are you actually getting what you paid for? Once you receive the Rhodium in the mail, how do you know you got shipped the precious metal instead of shreds of some other (cheaper) metal? Obviously you are relying on the reputation of Kitco (which is solid) but once you sign for the package in the mail and rip open the container, how do you verify Rhodium?

At least with gold there is a basic non-destructive test you can run at home to knock off all forgeries (water displacement). Unfortunately, the density of Gold is nearly identical that of Tungsten, so to detect Tungsten forgeries you have to resort to an interesting methods (e.g. determining how fast sound waves travel through the metal – sound moves through Gold about twice as slow as it does through Tungsten). Also, working with Tungsten is very difficult (the melting point of Tungsten is very, very high, much higher than gold).

If I ever bought a gold bar, the first thing I would do is the displacement test. It would also be rather fun to perform.

A large component of value for most precious metals is the psychological value that somebody else had to go through a lot of work to mine and refine a lot of ore to concentrate the metal into a nearly pure form. This is contrasted with industrial usage, where you can make a genuine argument with respect to the value of a metal.

For example, if somebody invented a way to repel gravity, but it had to rely on Rhodium, you can be sure that the price of Rhodium would skyrocket and it would quickly replace crude oil as being the most commonly quoted commodity in the news.

Bellatrix Exploration debentures trading lesson

I own (clarification: after today, this should be “owned”) some debentures of Bellatrix Exploration (formerly True North Energy Trust). They mature in June 2011, coupon of 7.5%. They also were a relatively safe pick to be redeemed at maturity.

Today the company announced they raised money for more debentures and announced their intention to redeem the existing debentures. The debentures have an early redemption term as follows:

Subject to closing of the Offering, Bellatrix intends to give notice on or following the closing date of the Offering of its intention to redeem its currently outstanding approximately $84.9 million 7.50% Convertible Unsecured Subordinated Debentures due June 30, 2011 (the “Existing Debentures”). The Existing Debentures are redeemable for an amount of $1,050 for each $1,000 principal amount of the Existing Debentures plus accrued unpaid interest if redeemed on or prior to June 30, 2010 or an amount of $1,025 for each $1,000 principal amount of the Existing Debentures plus accrued unpaid interest if redeemed after June 30, 2010. A determination as to the redemption date will be made prior to closing of the Offering. Proceeds from the Offering will be used by Bellatrix to partially fund the redemption of the Existing Debentures and the balance of the redemption amount is intended to be funded through bank indebtedness.

Earlier this year, Bellatrix debentures were trading very close to 102.5, which was my exit price. I was actually the asking price at one point in time, but nobody bought my asking price. I had assumed the company would wait until June 2010 to mature the debt and just left my open order at 102.5, assuming they would never consider an early redemption at 105.

I was apparently wrong – the debentures today traded from 102 to 104, settling around 103.5. The people buying above 102.5 obviously are speculating that management will be redeeming earlier than the June 30, 2010 date.

The math is pretty simple – the new convertible debenture deal closes on April 20, 2010. If the company redeems early, they will pay $2.125 million more in redemption premiums if they do it immediately after the deal closing than if they did so in June 30, 2010. If they wait the 2.3 months before redeeming, they are paying $1.22 million in interest payments, and this also does not include the company’s ability to utilize the $85 million in capital during that time period. Even if they redeem today, they will be paying $1.59M in interest expenses, much less than the $2.125 million they would save by delaying the redemption.

The calculation highly suggests the debentures will be redeemed on June 30, 2010, and anybody buying Bellatrix at 103.5 is insane. When the debentures are deemed, they will receive a -3.6% annualized return on their investment.

The trading lesson here, however, is that keeping open orders in this manner exposed myself to the risk of this happening and as a result, I am short a small amount, but an amount that certainly would have paid for quite a few ribeye steaks.

I also could have avoided this issue by actually waking up at 5:30am Pacific time and reading the press release to cancel my order, but Pacific coast investors automatically face the handicap of having the financial world set on the eastern time zone (even for an Alberta corporation) and I was obviously asleep at the time.

I am happy, however, that this trade was successful in the overall scheme of things.

Canada Interest Rate Projections – March 2010 – Effect on mortgages

With all the talk about the Bank of Canada wanting to raise rates, it is instructive to look at what the futures market is saying about the issue. It should be noted that the next scheduled rate announcements are as follows:

April 20, 2010
June 1, 2010
July 20, 2010
September 8, 2010
October 19, 2010
December 7, 2010

A rate increase on or before the July 20, 2010 meeting is a guarantee. The question is how much?

The markets currently say the following:

Month / Strike Bid Price Ask Price Settl. Price Net Change Vol.
+ 10 AL 0.000 0.000 0.000 99.480 0.000 0
+ 10 MA 0.000 0.000 0.000 99.440 0.000 0
+ 10 JN 0.000 99.320 99.325 99.360 -0.040 21736
+ 10 SE 0.000 98.870 98.880 98.910 -0.040 33614
+ 10 DE 0.000 98.400 98.410 98.450 -0.050 19923
+ 11 MR 0.000 97.980 97.990 98.030 -0.040 6402
+ 11 JN 0.000 97.630 97.640 97.690 -0.050 3215
+ 11 SE 0.000 97.320 97.350 97.410 -0.080 1445
+ 11 DE 0.000 97.040 97.060 97.140 -0.090 707
+ 12 MR 0.000 96.810 96.840 96.910 -0.080 50

The three-month interest rate will be:

June 2010: 0.68%
September 2010: 1.13%
December 2010: 1.60%
March 2011: 2.01%
June 2011: 2.37%

Reading my tea leaves, this would suggest that the Bank of Canada will raise per the following schedule:

April 20, 2010 (No change – 0.25%)
June 1, 2010 (No change – 0.25%)
July 20, 2010 (+0.75% to 1.00%)
September 8, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.25%)
October 19, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.50%)
December 7, 2010 (+0.25% to 1.75%)

It is also likely that by June 2011 that interest rates will be around 2.5%.

The only effect these rate increases will have on mortgages are for floating rate mortgages (ING Direct offers them at prime minus 0.4%). This would mean that rates would go up from 1.85% to 3.35% by the end of the year and roughly to 4.1% by the middle of 2011. For most borrowers on floating rate mortgages, they will likely see their interest payments at least double over the course of the year. As an example, for somebody borrowing $300,000, their interest payments will increase from roughly $450/month to roughly $1000/month by the middle of 2011.

In terms of fixed rate mortgages, rates are essentially set by the bond market, and the bond market has already “baked” in these projected rate increases. The best available 5-year fixed rate mortgage is 3.69% currently. Given a choice between these two options, it is a rare time where taking the 5-year rate would be the prudent option.

It is likely once interest rates start to increase that banks will increase the “prime minus” spread from a typical 0.4% currently to around 0.8% – the peak discount which was seen in the last housing rush.

Either way, the lack of ultra-cheap credit will have an effect of slowing down the housing market considerably.

Natural gas prices getting slaughtered

The “discovery” of economical shale gas mining has done an extraordinary job of depressing natural gas prices since the price shock of 2008:

It is noted that the spread between crude oil and natural gas prices have reached an all-time divergence, but this is likely to be temporary – it will just be a matter of time before the laws of supply and demand force effective conversion between the two commodities. For example, it makes it more economical to use a higher natural gas input to achieve an output of crude given the price spread. Activities such as tar sands mining are very intense on natural gas (to generate steam) and as a result, the market should equalize over time.

One of the worst ways of playing natural gas is by purchasing a Natural Gas ETF (UNG), as it does not actually hold the physical commodity – traders will eat away at the fund when it has to rollover its futures contracts. Even purchasing calling options or the futures directly still exposes you individually to rollover risk. You could buy long-dated futures, but there is very little liquidity in the marketplace and you pay a significant premium, as the market is anticipating future price increases.

The only real way for people to play natural gas on a long-term basis are to purchase producers with considerable reserves. Which producers to pick is a matter of risk tolerance and market pricing. Typically if an investor wishes to be fancy, they would ideally pick a producer that has a marginal cost structure such that the cost to produce natural gas is that of the present market price; such a company will be losing significant amounts of money and will be trading at depressed valuations. Assuming this is the case and assuming the market has significantly marked down the equity in such a money-losing company, it is a very speculative way of playing for a natural gas price increase.

This principle also works with any other commodity on the planet – including crude oil and gold companies. Again, it depends on doing your homework with respect to valuations and knowing what value you are receiving when you put in the order for shares.

A more conservative strategy and one that relies on other market participants to have done their homework to receive a fair price is to purchase shares in EnCana or Canadian Natural Resources, which are the top two natural gas producers in Canada. After the split-up of EnCana and Cenovus, EnCana is a much more “pure play” on natural gas than Canadian Natural Resources. With either company you will not see your money double over the course of a year or two, but it will certainly be there at the end of the day and also provides a bit of comfort with respect to inflation-proofing a portfolio. Despite all of the media and political attention paid to carbon emissions, it is a given that natural gas and crude oil continue to be consumed in massive quantities for the foreseeable future. The only promise is that, over the long run, it will get more expensive.

Canadian Taxes – Waiting for the T3

Anybody invested in income trusts should know that the T3 slip, a statement of income from trusts, is required for applicable trust holders by March 31 of every year. This is usually the last tax form to come in, and it will explain how much income (and what type of income) you received over the year.

The reason why the T3 slip comes so late is to give trusts sufficient time to finalize (and audit) their financial statements for the fiscal year.

Impatient investors that want to get cracking at their personal income taxes, however, can go to CDS Innovations’ website and get a sneak preview of most publicly traded entities’ allocation of income. T3 statements for the 2009 tax year can be found here. Just note, in theory, a trust can change the reported allocation on March 30, 2010 and one should never submit their income tax return using the preliminary data.