In Search of the Perfect Investment

As FANG stocks get pricier, I keep searching for new hot stocks.

Cramer suggested GTT, which has a truly amazing two-year chart:

GTT provides telecom and cloud-connecting services to large companies. Some facilities it owns. Most it rents. It’s growing fast, borrowing lots of money to finance its growth, and losing lots of money  in the process.

GTT’s business is scaleable. It can get huge. It clearly believes it can. And it wants you to believe, also. I found this bothersome piece of bragging in one of its investor presentations:

I should have a better feel for this company. Heck I wrote (along with Steve Schoen) the industry bible:

GTT’s investor presentation has this chart:

The chart, is misleading. This is what they connect to. So could any Fortune 1000 company.

Right now, I’m feeling uncomfortable with GTT. I’ll keep watching it.

The lesson here is simple: It’s hard work to check out new stocks. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.

Not good to bet against Tesla

To my brain, there are two seriously creative entrepreneurs in our time — Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Elon Musk of Tesla. Amazon’s stock has skyrocketed:

Tesla’s stock hasn’t:

Yesterday I drove a Tesla. It’s a joy. My next car will be a Tesla. I’ll also buy Tesla’s solar and battery energy stuff soon.

Tesla is revamping Elon’s incentive pay. I gave my proxy.

The proxy statement “from the Independent Members of Tesla’s Board of Directors” included:

When we went public in 2010, we were a relatively small company with only one product — the Tesla Roadster, a high-priced and low-volume electric sports car. Since that time, we have developed a range of sustainable energy products, including electric vehicles that are not only the world’s highest-performing cars, but also the safest and among the top-selling in their categories. We have also grown our annual revenue by about 100x and our market capitalization by almost 35x, from about $1.6 billion to over $55 billion. We are proud of what the company has achieved and the significant value that has been created for all of our stockholders. But there is much more to be done.

As you know, we are more than a car company. We are the world’s first vertically integrated sustainable energy company, with a wide variety of products, from generation to storage to consumption. As we described in Master Plan, Part Deux, the next phase of our development involves a number of exciting plans that will further accelerate the inevitable shift toward a sustainable energy future. These include expanding solar energy generation through Solar Roof and other solar products and seamlessly integrating them with battery storage, building out our vehicle product line to cover all major forms of terrestrial transport, continuing to advance autonomous technology to create a fully-self driving future, and enabling sharing so that your car can make money for you when you are not using it.

The Internet, however, is abuzz with negative stories on Tesla, like:

+ More Evidence Of Tesla’s Sales Collapse: Down 63% In Europe This Quarter

+ In Hushed Tones, Tesla’s VIEs Tell A Story

+ Tesla Needs A March Miracle

If you let this stuff get to you will miss out owning an iconic stock. Buy more on a pullback. I am.

Buzz around Wall Street

+ Has SNAP found a floor?

+ Has GE found a floor?

+ Has Fitbit found a floor?

That’s the buzz.

Who knows?

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

Am I big on catching falling knives? No.

I can’t time the bottom. Every time I’ve tried, I failed.

I prefer to wait for better financials and a more defined upward trend in the stock.

More on hearing aids

+ Sometimes you don’t want to wear them — when you’re playing tennis, showering, having a quiet dinner, walking in the woods. Hearing aids can make small sounds very painful.

+ It’s not a good idea to tell your wife she’s speaking too loudly. I tried. That got me, “I’ve been deliberately speaking loudly for 20 years because you couldn’t hear….” The rest was not pretty, but  I deserved it for delaying buying hearing aids.

+ You may want to buy a hearing aid with rechargeable batteries. My batteries died in the middle of a movie. I didn’t have replacement batteries. Drat. I called Costco. They don’t sell a rechargeable version of my ReSound Forte. They’re calling the factory on Monday. The nice thing with rechargeables is you charge them nightly along with your iPhone and your Apple Watch.

+ A friend has a different hearing aid with a Bluetooth app on his iPhone. The app does all my Bluetooth app does, except his also tells him the charge in his battery. Mine only tells me when it’s about to die.

Costco says carry spare batteries.

This is the classic Skiing at Copper Mountain Video. It’s short, and funny.

Why Kim Jong Un really wants to meet with Trump

PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)-Kim Jong Un has revealed to close associates that he has offered to meet Donald J. Trump only as a means of achieving his real goal: meeting the former adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

A confidant of the North Korean dictator said that Kim revealed his true intentions behind the Trump invitation at a high-level government meeting on Thursday night. “Kim said that he was a big fan of Stormy’s, and he decided that meeting with Trump would be a `necessary evil’ if he wanted a chance to meet her,” the confidant said.

According to the confidant, Kim first attempted to arrange a meeting with Daniels through his close friend, the former N.B.A. player Dennis Rodman, “but, when Dennis said that he didn’t know Stormy, Kim was, like, `Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to go through Trump, then.’ ”

Kim reportedly is prepared to use whatever leverage is necessary to force Trump to broker the meeting with the erstwhile porn performer. “If Kim doesn’t get to meet Stormy, the missile tests resume,” the confidant said.

When told about Kim’s real reason for offering to meet with Trump, a White House aide initially expressed shock, but then added, “Now everything makes sense.”

The insurance policy

The cowboy was trying to buy a health insurance policy.

The insurance agent was going down the list of standard questions.

“Ever have an accident?”

“Nope, nar a one.”

“None? You’ve never had any accidents?”

“Nope. Ain’t never had one. Never.”

“Well, you said on this form you were bit by a snake once. Wouldn’t you consider that an accident?”

“Heck, no. That dang varmint bit me on purpose.”

Tennis at Indian Wells, California. The tournament is on The Tennis Channel.  So far, it’s the best tennis I’ve seen in eons. Federer and Serena are still in.

Indian Wells main stadium.

Susan and I have been once. We’ll be there three more times this week. Since Larry Ellison (of Oracle fame) bought it, the place has become a gem.

Harry Newton, who apologizes for the lack of great new recommendations in today’s blog (except for Tesla and Amazon). It takes a lot of time to research the frogs. I figure it’s about 100-to-1. You research 100 ideas to find one you like enough to invest in. I really annoyed I can’t get a handle on exactly what GTT does.

Did you enjoy our portfolio’s gains on Friday? They were stupendous. Thank you Harry. Our portfolio is in the right hand column here.