The Russia sanctions resulting from the invasion of Ukraine in February have created confusion in the market. These sanctions are the first to affect many publicly traded equities on US and European Exchanges in recent memory. I am writing a Q&A today covering the mechanics of what is happening from my perspective.

It’s that exciting time of year after taking stock of 2021. Hopefully, we’re all a little wiser and still motivated to improve and set up new investing goals. Markets-wise, 2021 was probably a better year than 2020 for most. There was no massive drawdown at the beginning of the year, and fiscal and monetary policies were accommodative and in sync through most of the year.

Still, there is room for improvement. I have spent the past couple of weeks reviewing my performance, trades, and journal entries from last year to better understand what went right, where I messed up, and how I can do it better in 2022. Hopefully, sharing this exercise can inspire and motivate you to consider similar practices.

About six months ago, I introduced the idea of investing in Turkey. Unfortunately, it was not and still is not the ideal home for capital. The perception of politics is foggy, currency depreciation appears to be accelerating, and the sentiment is lackluster at best.

I am stepping back to do a quick survey of the broader Emerging Markets (EM) space. The broad EM index has dramatically underperformed as compared to developed markets for the last decade.

Commodities investing tends to focus on the price of the underlying good. Investors typically concentrate on the good or its producers. For example, in one of my first posts, I outlined various ways of playing the uranium sector.