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How to buy stocks in today’s bull market

After today, my agita has improved, predictably.

The market roared today. Especially in tech stocks. Our portfolio rose 3.5%, That’s a lot in one day.

Let’s try some “logic.” We are in a bull market. Reasons? The economy. Stimulus. The vaccines, etc.

All bull markets have down days, like we saw last week. Nobody quite knows why stock prices plummet one day and skyrocket the next.

That’s just what they do. Learning to live on a roller coaster is the price of owning shares.

Picking the shares to own is not difficult.  You want fast-growing companies, with some “buzz.” That’s what the market rewards by pricing them higher as they report higher sales/earnings, and gurus talk more about them.

I have made your job easier by listing stocks I like in the right hand column of my website. Click here.

I don’t expect you to own all of them. Go through the list and pick ones you’ve heard of — maybe bought something from. Or read something about them. Don’t worry about the traditional metrics of valuing stocks — like price earnings ratio. Thirteen stocks on the list have P/Es over 100. That’s way beyond any old time stock analyst will tell you make any sense. But – here’s Tesla. Today it rose 6.36%. Its P/E, according to my Fidelity screen, is 1,086.32. That’s ridiculous. I own Tesla. I wish I owned more. Will it go higher? I’m not betting against Elon. Everyone who has, has lost out.

There are stocks I don’t own. I don’t own Boeing. I’ve read too much about their horrible management culture. If I were less scared of flying on their planes, maybe I’d own some shares.

Apple products give me a lot more pleasure than Boeing products. That’s why Apple is my largest holding. Today it was up 5.39%. Little gives me more pleasure than FaceTime with the kids or the constantly updating PhotoStream photos of the kids.

There are some stocks I own for special reasons — like Altria (MO) which yields 7.89%. Put a bundle into that, you could earn enough to buy dinners at restaurants — should I ever go to one again.

I don’t find this stuff rocket science. I am regularly confronted with people who say things like, “The stockmarket is too risky. I’m staying out until I eye the right time to jump in.” If you’re in that camp, here’s one simple tip:

Look at the last five days of Apple. If you had put a limit buy order in at $121 in the last five days (where I have drawn the green line) you would easily made five points. It looks like at $121 to be what they call “a support level.”

Susan and I got the second Moderna shot

Al little achiness. A little tiredness. All over by the third day.

Now feeling great.

This is where I’m going for my first trip overseas

This is a sign on a road near Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia.

For more on these wonderful animals which live in trees but occasionally walk to another tree.

This is nice nostalgia

You’ll learn the lyrics’ meaning.

Great cartoons

Looks like Square is going higher tomorrow. I’m up 58.2% in Square.

See you tomorrow. — Harry Newton