This morning the market opened. My portfolio was way down. I was ecstatic. Stocks were on sale.
Then I got roped into some Honey-Dos. And bingo, that was the end of the bargains, as my portfolio came roaring back.
Yuch.
My Republican friends are thoroughly depressed. They might lose the Senate. Then the communist/socialist/irksome Democrats will kill the goose that laid the golden egg of 2020’s high tech share prices.
I don’t see why Republicans are depressed.
This is not difficult. The country has two basic fixable problems:
+ Get the vaccine in everybody’s arm.
+ Get the economy moving — get 20 million people back to work.
There’s your focus. Focus (which the present Administration has lacked) and money will solve those two problems.
Fortunately money is cheap. The cheapest it’s ever been. What could be a better investment for America than getting everyone vaccinated and getting the economy moving. It’s bleeding obvious.
This cartoon trivializes the problem. But you get the message.
For a country that built the national highway system, got men to the moon, vaccinated 6.5 million New Yorkers against smallpox in less than a month in 1947, invented the cell phone and the Internet, it shouldn’t be too hard to get two shots into every American’s arm by Summer.
And then, by Fall, the economy should be roaring. Roaring big time. Which is why you should own lots of shares NOW.
I bought some more GNRC, OKTA and TSLA. I also nibbled at a couple I’m looking at — LOOP and KEYS.
Allocation
There are a thousand theories on how much you have allocated to each of your holdings. If you have a 99% of your portfolio in one stock, you’ll do well if that stock does well. But you won’t be cushioned if it falls.
There’s no correct answer. You own more the more confident you feel in that stock. My ten largest holdings are AMZN, AAPL, NVDA, TSLA, SQ, SHOP, GNRC, PYPL, NIKE. and GOOGL. But my portfolio is skewed. AMZN is ten times as large as my investment in GOOGL. That’s not how it started. Appreciation in one more than the other has made a big difference.
When I was in business, there was one business, one investment. Everything I owned (barring an apartment) was in it. It was all I had. It did well, no I never thought about allocation. But the business is gone. I’m half retried.
Now I make dumb decisions based on how I “like” the stock. I have remarkably little money in my top five performers (the ones that have risen the most0 — ENPH, NET, CRWD, PTON and ROKU. As I write this, I should buy more ROKU. … But it’s so high.
I’ll figure the correct allocation theory out for me before I die. No promises, however.
I slide off our snowy driveway yesterday and put my Subaru Outback into a ditch. Today’s “best investment” was a set of new tires. $656.
The digitization of the world
Your kid (or you) should be looking at how can you fix an industry you know something about:
+ ParkWhiz gets me parking spaces in New York City when I visit there for a couple of days. It saves huge.
+ Kourts has really improved the booking and billing of tennis time at our upstate indoor club, the Old Chatham Tennis Club. Come visit and play — if you can get time. I had to start at 6:45 AM this morning to sneak in a few games. (I lost.)
+ RSA Securid has added a major level of security to my bank account.
There remain a zillion industries that desperately need simple, useful apps.
How about this? Someone has figured something out already: The Apple App Store has 1.96 million apps available for download. The Google Play Store has 2.87 million.
Apps are your kids’ and grandkids’ future. They’re scaleable. You don’t need a factory. But you do need a little office space.
Bitcoin is on a tear
I don’t own any bitcoin. I don’t own any cannabis stocks. I don’t own any sports betting stocks. Nor any electric vehicle stocks (except Tesla). Nor any miners. Nor any gold stocks.
I kick myself for being an idiot and missing the gains in bitcoin. I console myself. I don’t own stocks I don’t understand and/or which make me feel uncomfortable.
My biggest goal today is not catching it
In LA, the ambulance crew decide if you’re going to live or die. There’s no hospital bed to take you to if you get sick with Covid in LA.
It will get worse in coming days as Christmas and New Year holidays bring their toll.
Please don’t do stupid. Stay home. Wear a mask. Keep away from your friends and family. Go Zoom.
Hacking problems
I meant to write a big piece today on hacking. Maybe tomorrow.
For now please change the password on your bank and brokerage accounts — anywhere you have money — to something long and hard.
Think of the punchline to the old joke: What does a Polish lady get on her wedding night that’s long and hard?
Answer: A new last name.
Enjoy these
That’s it. I’ll see you tomorrow. — Harry Newton
Georgia hangs in the balance.
10 Happiest Countries in the World, Ranked
From Conde Nast Traveler.
Click here.
https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/the-10-happiest-countries-in-the-world
Oxygen rationing in LA. Making the ambulance drivers decide who lives or dies.
