With all the talk this week about stock market darlings, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about losses. Because losses can be temporary, just like gains, but losses tend to leave a scar. What’s amazing is how quickly losses are forgotten by investors, and the cycle repeats. Because, wait for it, “it’s different this time.” No, it’s not. Not to ruin your Friday, but emotionalism, greed, fear, and “hey, look how much that guy’s worth” have been around since the beginning of time. And it’s been shown by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky that the pain from stock market … [Read more...]
Don’t Get Capsized by Unbalanced Investments
Your Survival Guy’s been telling you for a while now how much overlap I’m seeing in mutual funds and ETF holdings. This has been good for performance, with the S&P 500 tech companies rowing the boat. But how long can that last? My concern is the overall investor exposure to just one sector without them even knowing it. Instead of being crowded to one side and risking capsizing, why not build a portfolio that’s not so overweighted in one sector? Balanced funds are good, but even they are forced to buy the big tech companies because of the size of their assets under management. They … [Read more...]
America’s Pastime Isn’t Baseball, It’s This
You know America’s pastime isn’t baseball. It’s real estate and stocks. You probably have a good idea about house prices in your neck of the woods, and anywhere else you’re interested in. But when it comes to your home, most of the time, you’re not hanging on to its Zillow price, for example, quarter to quarter. That is unless you’re trying to sell your home and even more so if you’ve got a down payment to buy another contingent on it being sold. That puts a bit more pressure on you. You’re relying on the market to do something for you. And it doesn’t always work out. The same goes for … [Read more...]
DIVIDEND: Because You Will Need One to Survive
How do you feel about taxation without representation? Not good, right? How about working your day job for an IOU? Exactly. Not going to happen. But that’s what we see with most tech stocks these days. You have management giving away stock options to retain employees and to goose their own net worth, living on a prayer that the stock price will go up. And the average investor, day trader? They’re not raising money for companies. Please. They’re trading. It’s a zero-sum game. This will change. There was a time when investors demanded a cash return on their money in the form of … [Read more...]
Is Your Money with the #1 Online Broker?
UPDATE 2.20.24: Are you with the right broker? Again in 2023, Kiplinger's (and also Barron's) named Fidelity the best online broker. Originally posted October 20, 2016. "No surprises here as Kiplinger’s names Fidelity as the top online broker thanks to its mix of services, investing products, and retirement-planning tools. If you don’t have an account with Fidelity then you’re missing the boat,” I wrote to you in September. Choosing the right custodian could be one of the easiest, yet most important moves you make as an investor. Choose the right one. As Dick Young wrote in the … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Wine, Guns, Chicken, and Stocks
Your Survival Guy just finished reading Climbing the Vines in Burgundy: How an American Came to Own a Legendary Vineyard in France about Alex Gambal’s journey in the wine business. Not that he needed to do it. He wanted to. He left the family commercial real estate business and with his young family became entrenched in all things Burgundy. It’s a detailed account but not necessarily a happy one. As with nearly all entrepreneurs, it involves sacrifice. One small comment that stood out to me was how the locals like the store-bought chicken not the much sought-after poulet de Bresse. You can … [Read more...]
Investors Livin’ on Prices Are Livin’ on a Prayer
How is it that investors treat their money like they’re living on a prayer—hoping for the stock market to do something for them—but when it comes to everyday spending, they hold on to every nickel like it’s the last one they’ll have? They read, and read, and read about this car and that one. They know this washing machine vs the others. They know when there will be “sales,” and they scour the internet, putting artificial intelligence to shame. Then, ask them what their stocks do to make money, and there’s, wait for it…silence. Ahhh, the sound of silence. But that doesn't last long…because … [Read more...]
Congratulations Brad Marchand on Your 1,000th NHL Game
Brad Marchand of the Bruins chalked up his 1,000th game for the team on Tuesday night, as Your Survival Guy had previewed earlier that day. In The Boston Globe, Kevin Paul DuPont describes Marchand's career in Boston, writing: Brad Marchand’s Tuesday night found him lined up at his customary spot on left wing, awaiting puck drop at the Garden, fussing and fidgeting and looking to gain an inch, the slightest territorial edge, as he bodied up against Nicholas Paul, the Lightning’s 6-foot-3, 229-pound right winger. They are the kind of matchups the 5-foot-9 winger has faced for 15 years, one … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy and Family at the Bruins
Your Survival Guy and family went to the Boston Bruins hockey game this Saturday, and, no, a fight did not break out, but that’s the nature of today’s game, favoring speed and skill. Unfortunately, it was a forgettable game except for some unforgettable stats like the Bs getting only eight shots off through the first two periods and being outplayed in every aspect of the game. The Capitals Alexander Ovechkin closed it out, making it 3-0 on an empty netter in the third, giving him 57 for his career, the most in the NHL, surpassing Wayne Gretzky. Not a stat I want to participate in, as the … [Read more...]
Make Sure You Get Paid to Invest in Stocks
Your Survival Guy wants you to be paid to invest in stocks. Think of investing as collecting cash, much like a landlord collects the rent. Too much weight is given to prices. Prices are a qualitative event. They’re opinions. Show me the money. That’s quantitative. In The Wall Street Journal, Jon Sindreu discusses the future of dividend investing, writing: This might seem to validate what the Federated Hermes portfolio manager and market historian Daniel Peris argues in his new book, “The Ownership Dividend.” He says that ultralow interest rates and the rise of high-growth digital companies … [Read more...]
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