Health stocks

Unfortunately, when private hospital or private health fund owners earn a lot, the government interprets it as paying them too much with rebates, rather than because of good management or increased number of privately insured patients.

NIB made a 60+% rise in profit at last announcement.  Its members are not reimbursed beyond schedule which was frozen by Labor government and conveniently extended by the Coalition government to 2020.  Hence, it has been screwing its members!  And those screwed are not complaining!!  It is THE only big health fund in NSW that does not pay over the schedule fees for KNOWN-GAP scheme.

And with visible evidence that the number of private patients utilizing their private hospitals is falling, I can't see why profit won't fall.  Also, one listed private health fund has falling membership (quite drastically).

BHP

The world's biggest miner on any stock exchange...  Yet, with great turnaround, the share price fell today in spite of a BETTER than expected figure.  I had once thought of selling it off but after Samarco disaster, it is too late to jettison this mining stock.  It is one of the main blue chips in any superannuation fund.

So, I left it where it belonged... in the dustbin in my portfolio.  However, the new management seems a lot more prudent and responsive.  So, I kept it.  In fact, with the fall in share price when the result is so good, and expected to do better with higher oil, iron, copper and coal price, why not top it up?

I love it when investors sell in the face of good news which is beyond expectation and with possible continuation of even better prices for the commodities it sells.  Dividend has also increased.  I am sure my late father will agree with my strategy :-)

Placements

Whenever I hear a stock is doing a capital raising, then you know that as an investor in that company, you are fucked.

Placements are the most unfair way of raising money because it screws the small investors.  The big investors and institutions get to buy shares at a cheaper price.  And when the stock is listed, they often make a 5-10% profit even when the share price dips because they bought at a much lower price than prevalent market price when there was a trading halt.

Today, I got screwed over GXY... accounting for a heavy fall in one portfolio.  Hopefully, it is only for the short term as the money will be used to develop another lithium deposit in Argentina.  Lithium in brine is more expensive to extract.