{"id":48884,"date":"2019-12-20T09:28:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=48884"},"modified":"2019-12-20T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:38:08","slug":"how-we-made-money-in-2019-stocks-and-sectors-we-bought-and-most-importantly-sectors-we-avoided-big-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=48884","title":{"rendered":"How we made money in 2019 — stocks and sectors we bought. And, most importantly, sectors we avoided BIG-TIME"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a year! The S&P 500 is up 29%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But, wait there’s more.<\/p>\n

Last night I went to my Vanguard account.\u00a0 I eyed my two favorite index funds\/EFTs — the two that I’ve nagged often on this blog about. Here are the incredible results:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Look carefully, Vanguard shows its S&P 500 fund up by 30.37%<\/strong>\u00a0this year. But its VGT EFT — the one I wrote about all through the year — is up a whopping 46.67%.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Technology was hot and it worked for us.<\/p>\n

A big part of our success has been my focus on staying away from areas NOT<\/strong> to invest in. I’m very proud of this. Inter alia, we stayed away from:<\/p>\n

+ Marijuana. (Check out GDC’s miserable performance.)
\n+ Bitcoin (now down to 35% of its high)
\n+ Gold, silver, “precious” metals, mining and miners
\n+ Oil and energy
\n+ Retailers of other people’s stuff and REITs
\n+ Ultra-high dividend payers — too high spells future problems
\n+ Miracle cures — especially for cancer
\n+ Hot IPOs, e.g. Uber, Lyft, SmithDirectClub, Zoom, Pinterest, Slack
\n+ Funds pushed by the likes of Goldman Sachs and single-person operators with the alleged “magic touch”
\n+ “Emerging” markets. Here’s why: My father put money in Mexico. It was earning 13%. Then Mexico devalued. I put money into a venture fund in India. It also devalued and now the present Indian prime minister is really bungling the country: Read this horrible story: As Protests Rage on Citizenship Bill, Is India Becoming a Hindu Nation? Several people have been killed as unrest spreads to new corners of the country. Many see the passage of a new law as anti-Muslim. <\/em>Which it is. — Read the gruesome New York Times story here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And from the Economist, more un-emerging country news:<\/div>\n
Reverse contagion
\n<\/em>As Lebanon’s economy drowns in debt, Syria’s begins to sink as well
\nPoliticians in both countries seem unable to cope. Click here.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Important, I kept my fuse short. 10% to 15% declines and I’m out.I missed the big run-up in Facebook. I felt super uncomfortable with all their regulatory problems. Still, Facebook is a remarkable advertising tool — perhaps the Internet’s most powerful. I’ll probably jump back in.<\/p>\n

But above all, I said NO a lot more often in 2019. As the market rose, more hair-brained schemes dropped on my desk — including ones in quantum computing and cure-all dietary supplements — stuff to eat that never touched the FDA, its scientists or its labs.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: When you buy a dietary supplement you have no idea what’s in the bottle (despite the label) and no idea how capable the factory is where it’s made. I could grind up peanuts and kale, add corn oil and call it a miracle for enhancing brains.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2019, I finally figured that my brain is what it is and it’s not getting any better — despite Prevagen.<\/p>\n

I updated my portfolio. It’s in the right hand column on the blog. Click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More gift ideas <\/strong><\/span>(for you, your family and friends)<\/p>\n

+ Glasses from EyeBuyDirect.<\/strong> Quality is superb. Prices are really cheap. And the service is out of this world. I own a million of their eyeglasses. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ From Bloomberg:<\/strong><\/div>\n
Technology & Ideas
\nBest Nonfiction Books of 2019 for Contrarians and the Curious
\nThese 15 books will challenge your assumptions and could change how you see the world.
\n<\/em>Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
+ A subscription to The Economist. Give one to all\u00a0 your kids. Here’s today’s superb double issue:<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
\n

I’ll enjoy this issue for the rest of the year. I’ve already found wonderful pieces on how Maduro stays in power in Venezuela, talented new Chinese pianists, how eels make babies (no one knows) and a sad piece on Boeing that includes:<\/p>\n

“Since March Boeing’s response has been an ugly mixture of remorse, evasion and swagger, as it gambled that it can get the MAX, and its business, rapidly back in the air. On December 19th that strategy ran out of runway when the firm announced it would suspend production of the stricken plane.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I found three wonderful pictures in the Economist’s double issue:<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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+ More gift ideas from Men’s Journal (which has a zillion)– here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/div>\n
\"\" \"\"<\/div>\n
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The Men’s Journal<\/em>‘s full list of great Christmas presents is\u00a0here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

+ NiteIze. The best bike light, comes in red (for back) and white (for front).<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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I wouldn’t ride in Manhattan day or night without one on the front and one on the back. They see me — even the drivers from New\u00a0 Jersey. Buy it from Amazon here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Finally, don’t buy your kids and grandkids stuff they don’t need and will never use. Open them an online brokerage account and buy them a share or two of companies whose products they use every day — e.g. Apple, Nike, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Adobe.<\/div>\n

\nLife is good. Things are improving<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

Someone put a short video together of the 20 good news stories you didn’t know about. It’s heart-warming. Check out the pandas.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/20goodnewsstories1.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

If you have a bit more time, take these two books to your Christmas retreat:<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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You’ll learn why and how the world is becoming a better place. I loved Sapiens.<\/em> I read every word. I’m half-way through Homo Deus<\/em>. Start with Sapiens.<\/em> Click here.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

My Christmas plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tomorrow, half the family is schlepping for a week to Anguilla. I’m included. I’ll try writing something from there. Don’t count on it. This will be me tomorrow:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Well, maybe. Most likely I’ll be playing UNO with the kids in the shade. I like UNO. Once I won. Mostly the kids win.<\/p>\n

It’s a wonderful time to be alive. The end, for today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a year! The S&P 500 is up 29%. But, wait there’s more. Last night I went to my Vanguard account.\u00a0 I eyed my two favorite index funds\/EFTs — the two that I’ve nagged often on this blog about. Here are the incredible results: Look carefully, Vanguard shows its S&P 500 fund up by 30.37%\u00a0this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48884"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48948,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48884\/revisions\/48948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}