I look at this week’s losses and puke.
Our losses in tech stocks have been much larger than in other “normal” stocks.
Today Nasdaq is down nearly four times the Dow.
But I take comfort that we made the right decision to go with tech stocks.
Here’s the last two years of tech stocks (in blue), versus the S&P 500 (in green) versus the Dow (in brown).
And I realize I’m “up” far more than than my losses of the last couple of awful weeks.
In short, I’m playing with the bank’s money. While my paper losses are painful, I’m grateful for:
+ My family. They’re all healthy and all vaccinated — except for one grandchild, who’s too young.
+ My health and condition. For someone my age, playing tennis every day has kept me moving. Moving is the key.
+ I don’t borrow to buy stocks, or to buy anything. I know leverage can juice your returns, but it can decimate your net worth when markets are falling, as they are now. I suspect that margin calls are a huge contributor to this present decline.
I’m also grateful that none of our family is stupid.
To wit, today’s New York Times has an obituary for Marcus Lamb, a founder of the Texas-based Christian television network Daystar,. Marcus has been dismissive of Covid-19 vaccinations. He died on Tuesday after contracting the coronavirus. He was 64.
Instead of getting vaccinated, he said “we can pray, we can get ivermectin and budesonide and hydroxychloroquine,” referring to several drugs that have not been approved for Covid treatment by the Food and Drug Administration. He denounced vaccination mandates for schoolchildren.
Last month, on a Daystar show, Jonathan Lamb said his father’s Covid infection had resulted from “a spiritual attack from the enemy.”
Yup, that’s it. A spiritual attack.
You can read the obit here.
We should give thanks for technology and its number one accomplishment of the last 18 months:
Us humans have never produced a vaccine as fast as did this one.
Stupid advice
Buy the dip and sell the rally? Are you nuts?
Here’s Apple over the last five days. Where would you buy and where would you sell?
You’d lose your shirt. Apple got hit with rumors that sales of its magnificent iPhone 13 were flagging. Who knew.
Mildly bad rumors are taken as disasters in this market.
Ditto for DocuSign, down 42% today on earnings and guidance that didn’t deserve that humongous hit. Read the DocuSign news here.
Here’s Nasdaq over the same five days. It got hit by news of the first Omicron victim. It was predictable that one idiot would turn up. (There are now many more.) But that the news would have such a huge impact on tech stocks….? Who knew.
51 Things in Europe that Every Traveler Needs to Experience
I love this place. It’s Lake Bled in Slovenia. If I can’t travel, I can look at pretty places. The other 50 places are in this Condé Nast Traveler . Click here.
Put your life insurance on autopay
I’m not a fan of life insurance. But, if you have it, put it on auto-pay. From my friend Peter Blau:
A friend of mine, mid 60s and in apparently great health, just died of an undiagnosed heart problem in front of his wife and adult children who’d gathered at the family home for Thanksgiving.
To compound this terrible tragedy, his widow discovered a sizable term life policy the man had been faithfully paying for decades, lapsed just two months earlier due to a missed premium payment.
It’s quite possible that the very illness that took his life is what caused him to forget a bill he’d never before missed.
While the family is exploring legal options, the lesson for seniors is clear: have all your insurance policies paid by automatic direct debit.
How to stay productive
Anthony Fauci hasn’t taken a day off in 20 months. Here’s how he stays so productive. Read the article in FastCompany. Click here.
Good advice
+ Beware of gift cards and bitcoins. They’re used in scams like phishing. Don’t open email attachments. That’s where you’ll really lose your shirt.
+ Sign up for two factor authentication whenever you can get it. It’s typically a code sent to your cellphone. But it can also be a token gleaned off an app called SecuriD.
+ Hand cream works. I like Gold Bond healing. Cheap.
+ ICDSoft.com has a 90% discount sale on. Good place to host your web site and manage all your emails. Their software is super easy to use. ICDSoft hosts this web site and blog.
How could I not invest?
These people are having so much fun thinking of Grandpa’s imminent demise. They won’t have to pay for his burial. Yippee!
Their web site is called — wait for this — www.BurialInsurance.com.
Favorite latest cartoons
In conclusion
We have a vaccine. Most people are getting it. More people will. The administration is not locking us down. Employment is coming back. Business is booming. Technology continues day by day innovations.
We can handle this. Sit tight on your stocks. Don’t sell.
And…next week, the Stephen Spielberg’s new West Side Story movie will open. The trailer is magnificent. Watch it here:
Rita Moreno is in the movie. She’s 89.
Spielberg, 74, cast Moreno as the newly created character Valentina in the latest film adaptation.
See you soon. Harry Newton
