Amazon dropped 90% in the dotcom bust.
At that point it had no earnings and no-one believed it. Other companies with few sales and no earnings, but just dreams, fell by the wayside. We’re not there today.
In my youth I was a financial reporter for Australia’s Wall Street Journal — it was called the Australian Financial Review. I wrote the daily stock market report. No one I called for an explanation ever had an idea why it went up or down that day. And I still don’t.
My portfolio is down today. Annoying, largely because it started the day up and I had fond thoughts of a bright, sunny day.
There are eight “strategies” today:
+ Buy oil stocks, because oil is going over $100. I own CVX. I just nibbled at XOM. There are others.
+ Buy financials, like banks, because interest rates are rising. I’ve never been able to time financials and, as a result, I have not done well with stocks like PayPal, SQ, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley. In fact, I’m out of financials for the rest of my life. They join my list of “too hard.”
+ Buy the dip on stocks you like, e.g. Apple, Nvidia and Ford.
+ Buy Microsoft because it’s doing everything right, including buying Activision.
+ Cramer says buy companies that make things and earn a profit. My biggest winner today is PANW (Palo Alto Networks), which is losing money. My biggest loser today is Ford, which makes things and is making money. Go figure.
+ Day trade a stock like Amazon. Look at its chart. It’s enormously predictable in the short-run. I don’t have trading skills. But friends who do, tell me it’s the best stock to trade because of its predictability.
+ Eye your stocks that are down 15%+. They’re probably not worth holding any longer. Dump them. Remember hope is not a strategy. Time to sell GNRC.
+ Do nothing on the basis that covid/omicron/supply constraints will be over soon. By summer we’ll be back to “normal.” Go play tennis. I’ll join you in a month or so when I fix my shoulder. Don’t expect any serving from me. My game will be dinks and lobs. I’ll win because I’ll drive you nuts chasing my junk balls. Read the book Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert.
Order your free Covid test kits today
Click here:
The best quiches in the world
They’re made by Pieconic in Chatham, NY, my present hometown.
I eat the cheese and broccoli pie a week. It’s delicious. The quiches (in many flavors) are available on-line from Williams Sonoma. Highly recommended. Click here.
My telecom technician visited this morning
Here’s what I learned:
+ If any of your equipment is more than three years old, replace it with new stuff. That refers to everything from cable boxes to Internet routers.
+ Elon Musk’s Internet satellites — called Starlink — are amazingly good. If you live in the boonies or can only get DSL from your miserable phone company, Elon’s satellites are a real alternative. They’re fast and reliable. They’re still in beta so you may need to do some begging to become a customer. When you’re signed, you get a self-install package in the mail with all the equipment you’ll need.
+ Satellites have pluses over streaming services like YouTubeTV. For example they don’t suffer the buffering you get on slow landline copper connections. The best investment you can make in your home is a one gigabit fiber connection — even if it costs you $5,000 for the install.
+ The closer you get your fiber box to your home router the better. Right next to each other on the same shelf is the best. Don’t let them install your fiber box on the outside of your home.
+ If you have DirecTV turn on the adjustment that lets you receive both HD and low def TV. They’re on different satellites. Sometimes (with weather) . you can’t HD. Getting low def is better than getting nothing.
+ My favorite TV provider is YouTubeTV. It’s remarkably reliable. remarkably intelligent, and records lots of shows for me.
+ Roku is great for getting to lots of streaming, including Vera, the British detective, on Amazon Prime which Susan and I are addicted to
This is a beautiful book
I won’t summarize it. It’s a good overview of where we are as nation today. Jamie Raskin, in my humble opinion, is brilliant.
It tasted awful without salt
I got used to it.
It tastes awful without sugar.
I’ll get used to it.
Sugar looks harmless. It’s not. It’s poison. The more I read about sugar’s ills, the more I avoid it.
How to shoo off unwanted guests
Exhibit A: My lunch plate after Rosie licked it clean.
The story: At a dinner party eons ago, the host collected all the plates. She placed one by one on the floor for the family dog to lick clean.
After she had a pile of newly-cleaned plates, she announced to her guests that she would place the newly-cleaned dishes back in the closet. Hence she was “now ready” to serve desert. The guests from hell beat a hasty retreat in disgust And the family spent the rest of the evening laughing.
This is our Rosie.
I get press releases
I actually received this press release yesterday:
Favorite video
Mrs. Hughes, who’s wonderful:
Favorite cartoon
Enforced isolation is taking a toll on all of us
It leads to stress, and then higher blood pressure, etc.
There are solutions — exercise, meeting your mates for breakfast, sitting in a hot tub, taking an afternoon nap, watching the Australia Open (It’s on ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel).
Everyone of us is different. Check your blood pressure to see if your need is urgent. 120/70 is close to perfect.
See you tomorrow, when we’ll discuss Putin and his likely next moves with Ukraine and their implications for the market. — Harry Newton
