Playing & Trading Strategy

We were up 4.6% this week, a decent increase but down from the past 2-3 weeks.  Not much was happening this week for Universal apart from the news finally hitting that Cruise would indeed be a part of The Mummy reboot.

I've made one change in strategy; I've decided to prioritize the movies I think have the most growth potential more than the upcoming wide releases.  I'll still take a full position on Hail, Caesar! and Race by the time they open, but I've decided there's no reason to keep funds parked in them in the weeks leading up to release a) when it seems there probably won't be much movement until a few days before (in the case of Race), or b) to take the ride up and down in a narrow range during that same period when it's not serving us (Hail, Caesar!).  Instead, we're now fully invested in Warcraft, and I'm in the process of adding The Secret Life of Pets.

I've also jettisoned the investments we had in 6 Miranda Place and Ballers.  I thought it would be good for the Fund to invest in some of the smaller movies I'm recommending as buys while looking at the Universal slate, but I've realized that it's not in our best interest with our August delist date.  As such, I probably won't be investing in anything without a release date, nor will I be playing the long-term game with anything that releases past our delist date.  I may invest in those stocks when they have news items and get some heat, but it'll be temporary.  It just doesn't make sense to leave a chunk of cash hanging in a stock that won't see a large portion of its movement until after UNIVX has cashed out for 2016.  I'm hoping this strategy tweak will help us further improve our numbers.  With that, let's continue our ongoing look at Universal properties.

The Best Man Wedding

The Best Man cashed out at $27 back in 1999, and the sequel The Best Man Holiday hit $67 in 2013.  It seems likely The Best Man Wedding will probably duplicate Holiday or exceed it.  HSX lists Wedding as being in development, but IMDB lists it as in production and has it slated for a 2016 release.  I think this makes Wedding a great investment, and it's currently a steal at $2 and change.  Wedding may not have a release date yet, but I believe it's going to go soon, and this isn't a film that's going to languish in development.  If not for what I've just written about not wanting to tie up the Fund's cash in films that don't have a current release date, I'd be going full-in on The Best Man Wedding.

Battlestar Galactica

This is a property that got its IPO way back in 1999, and I think this one qualifies for development hell.  Bryan Singer is still theoretically attached, but that news was first announced in 2009.  The most recent news here has been writer Jack Paglen working on the script in 2014, but he's currently busy with Alien:Covenant.  I'm surprised this hasn't been put to bed considering the success of the rebooted television show making it somewhat irrelevant, and perhaps it will continue to linger indefinitely in development, and perhaps at some point it will eventually go.  But I wouldn't be tying up any money on it at this point.

The Birds

This one initially had its IPO in 2005, and at one point brilliantly had Naomi Watts attached.  Hey, if you're going to do a Birds remake, Watts is a fantastic choice.  She's no longer listed on HSX, and I believe she is, in fact, gone from the project.  In 2014 there was talk of Dutch director Diederik Van Rooijen making his American/studio feature debut with it, but there hasn't been news since.  This one is trading for pennies, so there's almost no harm in purchasing it, but it's also terribly unlikely anything will happen with it.

And that wraps up another week.  Our next wide release is Hail, Caesar! on February 5th.