Latest Surprise That Has Sensitized Me!

 RUSSIA WAR AND US SANCTIONS KILLS ONE OF MY INVESTMENTS

I had been investing in an ETF that focused on Russian Companies. (URUS) I had been in this ETF for some time, and it was preforming pretty well. (not a ton of asset value increase, but a reasonable dividend)

This was all before the war, and of course before the US Embargo of Russia. Well, when the war began, it was pretty quick before the US sanctioned Russia, and cut off all money coming and going between the countries.....that instantly caused the URUS ETF to stop trading and then basically "close" there was really no way to liquidate it, and in theory the stocks of the companies contained were still alive and well, just NOT accessible to owners. 

All the funds I had there are essentially in limbo, or GONE depending on how you think this all shakes out. The account lists it as a value of ZERO and they are noted as being "suspended". The ETF firm has told clients that they will be liquidating the accounts by the end of 2023....so in theory, the stocks could come back and all would go along from here. I doubt the dividends from the sanction period would ever show up.....and quite honestly, I think the position has been ZERO'd. (Thank you US government for pulling me over the coals without even a warning)

THIS SENSITIZED ME TO RISKS IN OTHER NON-AMERICAN INVESTMENTS

After this problem, I started to think about some of the other stocks I owned. I owned three stocks traded on the US exchange that were Chinese ADR, (Stocks on other markets that were also traded on the US exchange) 

When the temperature around Taiwan and China started to come more to a boil, this came back to top of mind.....but I just didn't think we had the sort of antagonistic relationship with China as I thought we (the current administration) has with Russia. (Russia has been a whipping boy for our current government for all kinds of things) I didn't see that being quite the case with China, but then I thought more about an article that said that Chinese President (or whatever his title is) has met with Putin 50 times in the past few years.......and our President has maybe had two or three meetings....and I think these were phone calls at that.

But even this didn't get me to the edge of the cliff.....

SO WHAT GOT ME ON THE EDGE

I came across this interview with Kyle Bass, who is a private wealth manager who I have heard in the past, and to me sounds very intelligent. He apparently knows a lot about China, and he pretty clearly outlined a possibility of war between the USA and China! (the video of that interview is below)

Needless to say, having just been surprised by my investments in Russia evaporating, I was not in the mood to lose three Chinese company stocks. I owned two oil companies and one Chinese bond fund....The two oil companies are good dividend stocks, and they were even making me some capital appreciation. (even during the recent market downturn) But I just don't want to be surprised again....and I sold all three of them.

WHAT DID I REPLACE THEM WITH?

Well, I decided to reach out and buy another BRIC country oil stock, a company on Brazil. Is that a risk....sure, I think Brazil is actually more aligned with Russia than the USA these days, but I don't know that we are going to war with them and so unlikely to get "killed" by US sanctions. Of course, anything is possible....finger crossed.