In Search of the Perfect Investment

Oil has dropped to its lowest level since 2009 when we were inching out of that awful recession. Other commodity prices are ultra-low, also.

Commodity prices are affected by:

+ China’s slowing.

+ More supply (especially in the case of oil — U.S. fracking and the Saudis pumping max to hurt the American frackers.

+ Pricing at the margin. A small change in supply determines commodity prices.

Stay away from, or short any and every oil producer or supplier. At these prices for oil, their upcoming financial results are going to be truly awful.

My new friend Max Wolff is a brilliant economist, working with an impressive outfit called Manhattan Ventures Partners, that, inter alia, trades in hot private (largely technology) companies before they go IPO. It has reaped huge gains (for itself and its clients) in the usual suspects as their valuations have skyrocketed — including, Facebook, Airbnb, Evernote, Tesla, Pandora, LinkedIn, etc.

Max has a wonderful expression:

Sailors don’t fall In love. Every day is a new port

I was thinking of that wonderful saying as I listened to the endless nonsense being spouted on CNBC on Apple this morning.

They like it. They don’t like it.

I know they got to talk about something, anything and fill time.

Personally I think Apple is under major pressure in China. And China is meant to be its next growth market.

Don’t own too much Apple, as I once did. Be a sailor. Better for the psyche.

11 things Samsung’s new Galaxy phones can do that the iPhone can’t. Some of them are pretty impressive — like being able to pay at any magnetic swipe terminal, not just one that has NFC (near field communications). Or being able to capture a screenshot of an entire web page rather than just what’s on the screen. Or run two apps on one screen. Click here.

I must admit to being seriously annoyed with the buggy-ness of my iPhone 6. It took nearly two hours on the phone with Apple Support to “fix” it recently, but I still can’t see iPhone emails on my Apple Watch. I “upgraded” to Apple’s latest iPhone software. That took nearly an hour of false starts and error messages last night. I’ve spent too much time fiddling with my iPhone and iTunes. Apple professes great ease of use. Not always so. That’s this morning’s bitch.

The stomach affects the brain. A leading neurologist has strong evidence that what you eat affects your brain, and what you eat can cure brain diseases. He was lecturing on public TV last night. I was engrossed. HIs book is Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain-for Life by David Perlmutter. Click here.

CHECK. CHECK. CHECK.I walked out of the eye doctor last night with the wrong prescription… He got it wrong. CHECK. CHECK CHECK.

This weekend. I’m going to the country today for a nice long weekend with my daughter, her husband Ted, and most important Sophie, who’s going to have her first birthday in 11 days.

If you didn’t read yesterday column, please do. It has oodles of stuff on meditation and picking stocks, China’s devaluation, Inside the GOP Clown Car, The Donald and several bad (but good) blonde men jokes. Click here.

Harry Newton.

Rosie had her teeth cleaned yesterday under anesthetic. Not her usual self. Poor baby!

How can she NOT be interested in her delicious meal? (Hint: It’s really disgusting.)

I really should own AMZN, AZO, SKX and ULTA. High fliers is where the gains are in our desultory market. I still think we’ll still be hit. But I can’t time the hit. So, I’ll play the heat. And keep the stops tight. Meantime, BX has a great yield of 7.5%. Good to own.