In Search of the Perfect Investment

By now, most of us should have sold enough to have a bucket of cash somewhere. But still hold enough stock in our favorite companies.

Please don’t let the cash burn a hole in your pocket.

Please don’t try to catch falling knives. They’re still falling, though apparently not this morning.

Please don’t try to get “creative.” Wall Street will soon come to our “rescue”  with creative places to stash our money. Last time they came up with with Auction Rate Preferreds. They all went broke. Beware of creative money market funds — especially those that have corporate debt. Goldman is trying to save one of its money-market funds.

Don’t try and figure where this is going.

You can’t shut the world down, send everyone home and expect predictability.

Millions of jobs have disappeared. Industries have collapsed.

The personal pressures are immense. The brain is not working. His doctor told my unhealthy friend to get “some exercise.” He went to the gym and caught the virus. Dah! A friend’s business got hit by a tornado. A friend of a friend committed suicide. He seemed in a good place. No one knows what demons were at work.

Staying at home, the refrigerator is within walking distance. I’ve chunked on four pounds. I’m a fat pig, certainly well on the way.

The Fed is coming to our rescue. But elsewhere (like in Congress), Washington seems its usual dysfunctional place — eight square miles surrounded by reality. They couldn’t agree on a stimulus bill — for what dumb reasons?

There is good news. Mimi celebrated her 92nd birthday yesterday with a 43-person flawless Zoom Video. The call had relatives on from Los Angeles to Paris. From South Dakota to Florida. People called in on their laptops, their iPhones, their smart phones, their landlines. They all agreed Zoom Video was the greatest invention since sliced bread.

Here’s a clip from the Zoom birthday video. That’s Tess.  You could slide the participants’ screen across the top. You can see me in the top left.  On the bottom are the many neat Zoom controls. Last Thursday, the New York Times wrote soon there may be no phrase uttered more than “Can someone mute?” You can see the mute button on the bottom left. The boss of the call slides the various people in and out of the main screen. Everyone sees and hears what’s going on. It was a wonderful one hour — in some ways better than being there in person – but not possible today.

Stocks benefiting by all this: ZM (Zoom Video), DOCU (DocuSign), TDOC (TelaDoc Health) and hopefully AMZN (Amazon). I still have two shorts — BA (Boeing) and XOM (Exxon Mobil).

Had I been super-intelligent, I ‘d have got my brain earlier around what was happening and shorted  all the obvious disasters — from airlines to casinos. But I stood there like a deer caught in the headlights.

Morning Brew send this today It shows where we’ve been this year.

Where’s the world going?

Terry Gardner of C. J. Lawrence recorded a beautiful video. He talks  about 2008 and lessons.

He highlighted three changes this new world is bringing us:

+ Remote classrooms.

+ Remote engagement. From Zoom to Microsoft’s Skype.

+ Ecommerce. He mentioned Amazon.

You can watch his excellent presentation here:

Spring is officially here

Here in up upstate New York, it’s snowing this morning. But the daffodils are emerging:

History

This is the last 42 years of the Dow. We’ve come a long way. Recently we’ve fallen a long way, We will eventually eke back.

And now the refrigerator beckons…

See you tomorrow. Harry Newton