Yesterday was the biggest day ever for my portfolio.I can take more “yesterdays” but the ups and downs each day are a little stomach churning. Here’s the last five days. whew!
Here’s the reason for yesterday:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve will use its meeting next week to try to calm fears that the central bank is nearer to raising short-term interest rates, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal’s Jon Hilsenrath on Thursday (i.e. yesterday). The report, quoting officials, says that Fed Chief Ben Bernanke will stress that any move to reduce the pace of quantitative easing won’t mean the Fed is close to ending the program. (My emphasis.)
There are several things to note about this market:
1. It’s a bumpy day-to-day ride you have to ignore if you want to retain a modicum of sanity. The “bumpiness” comes from rumors and crazy events overseas.
2. Most stocks move together. Up and down.
3. The market is unforgiving about pricey stocks who disappoint in their earnings or growth, e.g. LuluLemon.
4. You have to dump stocks that disappoint. And do it quickly. You’ll notice changes in my recommended portfolio >>> over there in the right hand column >>>
5. You don’t want to be in bonds. Hence you’re relegated to equities and stomach churning. What fun.
Cramer picks five stocks for long-term hold. Once a year Cramer does his Investing is a Family Affair show. He pushes two ideas:
1. You can do better with individual stocks than you can with funds, since funds are designed to reward their managers with fees.
2. Kids ought to start investing young — even if they own only one share.
Here is the impressive performance of his Kid Friendly Portfolio. This performance is over several years. I don’t know how many.
He changes the portfolio every year during his Investing is a Family Affair Show. This is his present portfolio:
1. Disney (DIS)
2. McDonalds (MCD).
3. Whole Foods (WFM).
4. Gap (GPS).
5. Google (GOOG).
You’ll notice he dumped Apple, Nike and Hasbro for Whole Foods (nutrition for the kids) Gap and Google.
I have no problems with this portfolio. You should buy ten shares of each for each of your young kids or grandkids.
Mary Meeker’s forecasts for the Internet. She put out 117 slides on what’s happening in the Internet and where it’s going (sort of).
Click here.
Fixing the digital economy. This New York Times piece is a perfect companion to Mary Meeker. Good weekend reading. Click here
Can anyone top this vacation picture?
I know that this is a column about investing. I know that the this picture is irrelephant. Note the happy smile on the female elephant.
Once upon a time, they considered me the mini-Murdoch. We were both Australians in the U.S. And we were both publishers. I was very mini. I didn’t have the ambition, nor the wives, nor the children from different wives. I still have the same wife, and she’s a keeper. I have two children from the same wife. That makes my estate planning a lot easier. Murdoch has six children from three wives. He’s worth about $11 billion, slightly more than I’m worth. Rupert is 82, and probably looking for another young wive. This writeup — the latest Borowitz Report — amused me.
Murdoch Divorce Stuns Satan
HELL. (The Borowitz Report)-Word that the News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from his wife, Wendi Deng, came as a “total surprise” to longtime Murdoch confidant Satan, the Lord of the Underworld said today.
“I am totally blindsided by this,” Satan told reporters. “He and I talk every day.”
Citing his long history with the media titan, the Hound of Hell said, “We go way back. I gave him the idea for Fox News. I told him to hire Roger Ailes. That’s why this is such a shock.”
A frequent dining companion of the Murdochs, Satan said he “didn’t have a clue that they were having problems.”
“I’ve had dozens of dinners with them in the Hamptons,” he said. “Did they bicker? No more than other couples. But they seemed to be on the same page about all the important things, like creating corrupt media monopolies and buying politicians. I thought they were for keeps.”
Adding that he “cares deeply about his friends,” Satan said the news about the Murdochs had hit him especially hard: “I was just starting to get over the Putins.”
The Prince of Darkness said he first got word of the Murdoch divorce about an hour before the official announcement: “My banker at Goldman Sachs called and told me to sell my News Corp. stock right away.”
Harry Newton who has given up on salt and cut down on his sugared-drink intake. Nice cold water with dinner is better than Coke. My son will be happy about the salt. It’s not difficult to give up on adding salt to everything. You just stop. One day to the next.
We have a nightly routine. At 10:59 PM, Monday through Thursday, Susan and I crawl into bed and watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Jon Stewart is off for the summer, replaced with John Oliver, who’s very funny also. You can watch this past week’s excellent shows on Comedy Central’s web site. Click here.
Loves a Many Splintered Thing….Han Suyin
I have to say I applaud the move of this site from bad investment advice to bestiality. It is long overdue. Please, more photos of animals mating less of you trying to tell us about smart financial moves.
I disagree with the Cliffster…he is just blabbing like he is doing a soliloquy with his flagpole
He’s got his definition of bestiality all wrong too. It typically means people having sex with animals. Which is not what we have here.
No, but you’re obviously going in that direction. And it’s an improvement over, say, Harry’s List of Best Shorts that came out just before the market ran up for a year.
I don’t know Harry – she doesn’t appear to be smiling – it looks like she’s resigned herself to it or else muttering expletives…
Men think she’s smiling. Women think she’s muttering expletives. II guess we’ll never really know, since she’s a elephant. It is amusing, however, to fantasize.
You might want to consider “Diamond Crystal” Kosher Salt at 280 mg per 1/4 teaspoon…Morton Kosher salt has 480 mg per 1/4 teaspoon and regular iodized salt is something over 900 mg. Potatoes and some other things just have to have a little salt to taste good. I sprinkle lightly with Diamond Crystal. When reading any food labels for content, be sure also, that it is not processed in China! Never eat anything from China. Nearly all the fish in restaurants, Costco, Sam’s Club and major grocery chains serve & sell shrimp and other fish from China and other Far East countries…all terribly polluted and unsanitary. Check for “country of origin” not just “processed by” or “packaged for”.
Adding salt is not good for you, period! I gave up ever adding it to food years ago – was, and is, very easy. Read any and every food label and be shocked – salt, salt, salt, sometimes cleverly disguised. Restaurant food is soaked in it and hard to escape.
Easy to avoid restaurant food…eat at home, we rarely eat out. I do not cook with salt but add it to my potatoes at the table. I, the guy, do all the cooking at home.
At least one person is offended by the elephant picture. He’s having a bad day because his quarterly IRS payment is due today. He doesn’t think anything is funny today.
Thanks for the reminder about the due date of the quarterly estimate.
check the labels for salt content for the foods you are eating you will be shocked how much is in them already a slice of bread could have up 200 mg.
Yeah, I know the problem. Everything processed has salt. Oodles of it. I eat little processed food. I try to eat bread from the local organic baker.
Another hidden source of salt is soup. Soup is really high in sodium, so to avoid it, you can’t drink any of the soup, which pretty much defeats the point of soup.
Man, I just read about eyeball licking.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57589423/japanese-eyeball-licking-trend-carries-blindness-risk/
Just my luck. I just had my eyeballs licked yesterday. You always learn about this sort of stuff too late. Does anyone know the incubation period for this stuff? Man.
Eww, didda whore lick your eyes?? or was it some lot-lizard whore roaming around pico gardens.
Man-o-man. I once got some tuchas crust in my eye during a Vietnamese tuchas wash in Saigon. I got ocular C difficile of the eye and needed biacitracian ointment. May that stuff burned…..I had to put a one – inch bead from corner to corner on the eye and let it soak in. I couldnt see squat since that stuff hazed my pupils.
Even yogurt! Soda’s, you name it.