DFND is a rare bird - all-weather performance

22 jun 2020

This is a core holding in times like these IMHO -- it's no rocket ship, but look how well it weathered the March cofefe-19 dip. Better bad weather performance for sure, and decent acceleration in the upturn.

22 jun 2020

Nota

I just looked at its holdings, though, and it's mostly in cash with a giant -30% short on NEM (Newmont gold miner). The next biggest short is -13% on FE (FirstEnergy). The biggest regular holding is WST at 1.59%. Not sure why they'd make such a massive negative bet on a company that quite sound.

Their strategy: "The index is designed to select the companies for a long position that have the highest probability of increasing their dividend in a 12-month period and select the companies for a short position that have the highest probability of decreasing their dividend in a 12-month period."

13 jul 2020

Nota

Actually I checked and the holdings information is wrong at Fidelity. NEM is not a big short at DFND. Not sure how they got that wrong, but I am planning to buy a boatload of this tomorrow.