This is a two-year chart of a popular airline called Southwest Airlines. Look at it.
When was the best time to buy. Somewhere around the middle of May last year, when the world looked bleakest? Or now when it’s up 2.4 times? OK. that’s pretty obvious. Buy when the world is bleakest. But when does it look bleakest? When is it poised for what we see here?
Here’s another one:
You benefit by these extraordinary moves by buying very low. My savvy friend Ed puts in ultra-low limit orders on his favorite stocks and waits until they get filled — sometimes not for weeks or months. Sometimes never. You have to be very disciplined. And patient, like Ed.
My friends in real estate tell me the only thing they can affect in a real estate transaction — from buying to fixing, to tenanting to selling — is the price they buy the property at. Repeat: the price they buy the property at.
Today the big bargains are not in stocks. They’re in real estate. My friends, the brokers, tell me prices have tanked. The New York Times had a piece “The Market for Houses Goes Poof. Inventory that’s for sale has cratered for reasons that the pandemic’s may not magically fix.” Click here.
Not all charts look like this. Here’s Verizon over two years. It’s gone nowhere. But its bouncing around is perfect for day trading.
Ladders and stairs
I nag. Every time I do, a reader emails his father fell and is now in hospital with busted ribs and fractured hip.
The last stair down is the most dangerous.
All steps on ladders are dangerous, especially the top ones. Lean over the top shelf…
The vaccine’s nasty after-effect
This really happened.
A friend had his 2nd dose of the vaccine and couldn’t see on the way home. Blurring and all that.
He called the vaccination center for advice. Should he see a doctor, or go straight to the hospital?
He was told NOT to go to a doctor or to a hospital, but to go back to the vaccination center and pick up his glasses!
China’s absolute power
China just blocked Signal, a popular encrypted messaging app. The New York Times writes:
The likely block [of Signal] further limits communication options on China’s internet, where the government has built a sophisticated system of censorship and surveillance to control speech. Over the past 15 years, Beijing has steadily winnowed down the major foreign communication tools available to regular Chinese users. Services like Google’s Gmail, Facebook’s WhatsApp and Twitter are all blocked.
In recent years, Signal had grown a modest following in China among activists, journalists, lawyers and others as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has presided over a series of campaigns to crack down on the media, civil society groups and online speech broadly.
Meantime Tencent is having its share of problems. I read on The Business Times.
China’s top financial regulators see Tencent as the next target for increased supervision after the clampdown on Jack Ma’s Ant Group.
All this casts a serious pall over investing in Chinese stocks. In short, don’t.
Remember my recent post “How two Chinese companies illustrate my core investing principles. Today’s key takeaway: Sell your Alibaba (BABA) shares instantly, if not sooner.” Click here.
Power corrupts. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men…” — Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet.
Sir John
Buzz – Elon Musk attracts it big-time
For the full story, click here.
The Jewish Husband — hysterical
If you don’t see the picture, click on the link.
Taking a day of rest
No tennis today. I now exercise with walks from my desk to the refrigerator.
I sold PLUG. I don’t like it when companies say they have to re-do their accounting. That raises a red flag in my tiny brain.
Somebody is buying BABA and it’s bouncing — without me.
Today I can concentrate on something fun — like assembling K-1s and 1099s.
Gives excitement a whole new meaning.
See you soon. Harry Newton
