It’s not a happy time for stocks. Normally, I would recommend buying stocks that make things and services that excite — e.g. Tesla, Ford, Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Generac, Marvel, Adobe, Moderna.
But, they all peaked in the fall of last year. They’ve all been on a bumpy trip down.
I get mad at myself when I see CNBC reporting a big jump up — like on Zillow or Twilio. Then I realize, they’re jumping from way down where they’ve fallen.
I thought of comparing stocks to buy on typical share matrixes — like price earning ratio. But this market is probably not going to get major positive until it gets over inflation and fed rates hikes.
I’d like to buy more PANW and UNH. I have bought more Ford. A friend asked should he buy Ford? I emailed back:
It’s a good time to buy Ford.
But it’s not urgent. It could easily fall further in this volatile market.
I like its management, its product lineup, its adoption of the cloud for trucker business services for “free” money (i.e. not have to bend steel and make physical cars), its improving finances and the “buzz” it’s getting in the financial media.
Most importantly, Ford makes sense to me: I understand its products. I’d like to buy at least two of them — the F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E. I feel positive about Ford. If it falls further, I will buy more.
To sum it all up
2022 is not the easy investing world 2021 was. All the assumptions of 2021 – IPOs, hot stocks, the cloud, low interest rates, endless Fed money infusions, etc. are all over.
Last November Nasdaq.com wrote:
Most recently, NerdWallet (NASDAQ:NRDS) saw a fantastic debut. Shares skyrocketed 91% in IPO debut, giving the personal finance website a market cap of $2 billion. Other major IPOs this year include GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB), Amplitude (NASDAQ:AMPL) and Toast (NYSE:TOST).
Last night I looked at the latest share prices of these Nasdaq IPO favorites. They’re all way down. That also includes Affirm Holding (AFRM) which is way, way down. They’re trying to make money out of lending money to people to buy big TVs and dishwashers, etc. Are you kidding? The more I look at the fintech companies, like PayPal, Square, SoFI, the more skeptical I get. None of these guys are adding significant value. I may like Privacy.com. But I’ve been emailing the company to interview an executive. No one is responding. What a dumb way to run a company! Stripe is going public and is peddling its pre-IPO shares to the great unwashed (including me). It will be a failed IPO if it does IPO at all. Stripe is like PayPal. I can’t figure out what it offers that’s valuable, other than hype.
The good news is that venture capital for startups is still key – and may be the major way of making decent investment returns in 2022. But don’t hold onto them. IPOs are spiking and then cratering.
I weigh in on Spotify
Joe Rogan is boring. I don’t learn anything when I listen to him. I don’t care what he or his guests push. He’s protected by our First Amendment.
We all have a responsibility to figure truth from falsehood. That’s our responsibility as citizens. We can’t blame Rogan for vaccine hesitancy and our resulting low vaccination rates. Our federal government did a magnificent job of creating vaccines in record time. But it did a perfectly miserable job selling the vaccines to the American public. Thousands of dying unvaccinated people pleaded for the vaccine on their death bed. Did you see one ad of a dying truckdriver (or anyone) pleading for the vaccine on his deathbed? We saw plenty of anti-smoking ads showing gruesome images of lost vocal cords and hideous speaking tubes. You seen the equivalent for covid? Washington has lost the plot of how to convince people to take the vaccine. Mandatory doesn’t always work.
Spotify does great work. There’s a fantastic two hour plus Lex Fridman podcast with Elon Musk. If this podcast doesn’t make you want to double your investment in Tesla, nothing will. Elon’s is awesome – in his breadth of knowledge, his ambitions and his forecasts. Watch the podcast – you can for free. You’ll be blown away when Elon forecasts that work for many of us will be “optional,” as robots take over. You can get onto Spotify for free, download their app and actually watch the interview with Elon.
Spotify itself is a lousy investment. I haven’t paid them a nickel for the good and bad stuff I’ve watched and listened to. Though Spotify’s technology is impressive, they’re losing gobs of money and their share price is cratering. This is one year.
A better can opener
Just when you thought nobody could invent a better can open, there’s this.
$19.37 at Amazon. Makes a great Valentine Day gift. Click here.
How I’m living to 120
+ At a stop sign: I stop fully. I look both ways twice. Then I move.
+ I hold the handrail going down stairs and really watch the last step. (I keep nagging on this, because readers email me and tell me their latest idiocy — falling down the last step.)
+ I eat less and nap more.
+ I’m back to playing tennis every day.
+ I don’t take the memory booster Prevagen, which contains apoaequorin, a protein found in jellyfish which, according to my research, don’t even have a brain.
+ I’m no longer watching curling on CNBC. I’ve become less suicidal.
+ I am taking covid as serious as I did before I had three shots. I have too many friends and relatives who contracted covid, despite three shots –two plus booster. Several readers are now finagling a fourth shot. Email me and I’ll tell you how to get a second booster.
Satire from The Borowitz Report
MyPillow Customer Finds Classified Documents Inside Duvet
The customer began taping together the shredded documents and found several relating to national defense.
From Andy Borowitz at the New Yorker
Many web sites pretend to offer “objective” advice
I found this delicious quote on Forbes.
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors’ opinions or evaluations.
Yup, and pigs will fly:
Latest favorite cartoons
It’s 46 in Columbia County. The ice is melting. And our wonderful Spencertown postmistress, Katie Buchan, told that Spring was here.
The ice storms sure were gorgeous, but treacherous. You don’t see ice-bound, glistening trees often.
Joe Ross of the newsletter Ross Rant wrote this morning:
The good news is, as inflation continues, profits and nominal corporate profits and personal incomes increase until the recession hits, and so tax revenue increases, which makes it easier for the government to pay the massive debt service.
He’s very optimistic about “hanging” out among the big tech firms which will continue to do well — but not Meta (aka Facebook). There’ll be an even bigger move into technology solutions to deal with the labor cost and shortage issues, and so companies that provide labor saving software and machinery will thrive. There will likely be an increasingly major move to autonomous machines, trucks and systems.
I’m heavy into chip makers. and technology companies, especially ones dealing with customer satisfaction.
See you perhaps over the weekend as I seek “bargain” stocks.
Good luck on that Harry. You’re better at tennis.
See you soon. – Harry Newton
