Investing in Real Assets in a Digital World

<p>Investing in natural resources and commodities is a tricky business. Investors in these sectors must look at individual companies and the macro variables that go into intrinsic values, such as future precious metals and energy prices. These prices are known to go through volatile cycles, the timing of which can be hard to get right.</p> <p>Walking us through this process is Will Thomson, the founder and managing partner of Massif Capital. Thomson's fascinating journey took him from Afghanistan to Lloyd's of London before founding Massif Capital.</p> <p>The Massif Capital Real Asset Strategy is a global long/short equity strategy built around bottom-up stock picking.&nbsp; The firm is focused on creating a portfolio of businesses within the Energy, Basic Materials, and Industrial sectors that balance the environmental and economic realities of achieving a carbon-neutral economy.</p> <p>Before founding Massif Capital, Thomson served as a strategic and economic advisor to NATO in Afghanistan. Cochrane and Thomson begin their conversation by looking at factors that might determine when emerging economies are ready for investment and when they're not. Specifically, Thomson details the elements that make Afghanistan a challenging place for profitable investments at this time.</p> <p>Thomson describes Massif's strategy to Cochrane as one that is not focused on future commodities prices, a risky proposition at best, but one that instead drills down to specific catalysts for individual companies. For instance, if a copper mining company is trading at a steep discount to its net asset value (NAV), Massif Capital will take a closer look to explore its long-term prospects and how soon it can come to realize its true value. When inputting the future prices of copper into the equation, Thomson looks at its historical prices, including its 10-year lows, highs, and averages, to determine a realistic idea of how copper prices can react to a range of conditions.</p> <p>Thomson also shares his unique perspective on ESG investing