A list containing the number of ways this recession is unique is quite long, which is making navigating these waters as an investor much more difficult. While unrelated, below is a brief mention of two that are on my mind.

1) Virtual annual meetings

With in-person annual shareholder meetings cancelled, every investor can now attend meetings online without booking a flight and a hotel. Not all meetings are created equal. Some have long Q&A sessions for shareholders and in-depth slide decks, while others stick to business and offer little in the way of helpful data points for investors. So while it may be a hit and miss activity, for those companies you follow closely and are contemplating adding or shedding shares, look to take advantage of virtual meetings this year.

2) Premature bankruptcies

Navigating the corporate bond and preferred stock markets these days is really tough, as liquidity and solvency are tougher to drill down. Making it even harder is the fact that many companies appear ready to file Chapter 11 before they need to. They probably figure that the pandemic offers a great excuse and management can keep their jobs after the businesses emerge. Why not take the opportunity to clean up the balance sheet and be stronger coming out of this?

Consider Diamond Offshore, an offshore oil driller than just filed. The company disclosed assets of $5.8 billion of assets, $2.6 billion of debt, and cash onhand of $435 million, according to Bloomberg. In addition, DO announced that they do not need any debtor in possession financing and will use existing cash to operate while proceeding through court. I cannot recall a time when a company has filed with so much cash onhand and didn’t need a loan to continue operating. And they are not alone, JC Penney is reported prepping for bankruptcy despite having $1 billion of existing liquidity.

These are truly unique times. Good luck out there everyone.

Full Disclosure: Long puts of DO and JCP at the time of writing, but positions may change at any time