Category

COVID-19 Stock Market Crash

Technology

Your Startup Investing Playbook: Two Trends to Avoid, Two We Love

By , VC Advisor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

In the months (years, even) leading up to the COVID-19 crisis, I saw many investment opportunities that left me feeling skeptical. Their valuations were high. There was overly optimistic thinking surrounding their potential.

It reminded me of Warren Buffett's adage of "be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful."

What I see today is much better: many high-quality startups available at highly attractive valuations. In other words, it's an excellent time to be greedy as others are fearful.

History supports the timing. During the last market downturn – the Great Recession – some of the greatest tech startups of the generation began… Uber, valued at $5.4 million in 2010, now with a $58 billion market cap… Instagram, acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012 and now valued at $100+ billion… WhatsApp, valued at $1.5 billion by 2013 and then acquired by Facebook for $19 billion just one year later… and many others.

And those who invested as early as 2008 and 2009 had the benefit of investing at a much lower valuation than those who invested before and after the Great Recession.

Before diving into startup investing, there's one more key step. In order to maximize our returns, it's important to examine the trends that defined Q2 2020 (April through June), the first full quarter during COVID-19. We need to determine what shifts in consumer (or business) preference will be short term vs. long term in nature – which trends will persist as we adjust to a new COVID-affected life, and which may reverse.

Here are two trends to avoid and two giving us excellent startup profit potential today… Full Story

Here are two trends to avoid and two giving us excellent startup profit potential today...

Trading Strategies

This "Special Trade" Is Tailor-Made for Your Profit Goals

By , America's No. 1 Pattern Trader, Money Morning • @powerproftrades - • Print | Email

Sandwiches, suits, couches, Bitcoin mining rigs – pretty much anything I can think of, there's nothing quite like getting something custom made, just the way I like it.

There's trucks, for instance. If you click here, you can take a look at my trophy-winning custom job… "Goliath."

Goliath came off the "shelf" as a Ford pickup… then we made some tweaks here and there.

I'm really proud of it (as you can see). Goliath is beautiful and practical; we regularly pile in for family road trips, rolling in style in a ride that's got "my truck" written all over it.

Putting together a good trade is the same way – custom made.

When you put on the special trade I'm going to tell you about in a second, you'll be making a move that's perfectly tailor-made to your unique risk tolerances and profit goals… Full Story

Earnings

The Best Way to Profit on the Most Important Earnings Season in 10 Years

By , Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email

Four times a year – once each quarter – publicly traded companies drop their protective veil and give investors a look at their books.

It's kind of like a financial "State of the Union."

We call it "earnings season."

It's always one of the most important times of the year for stocks.

And the current earnings season – which started this week, and which will continue through the month of July – is the biggest and most important in a decade.

Not since the Great Recession of 2007-2009 have the stakes been so high.

At risk is the $10 trillion in shareholder wealth that's been created since the market bottomed in March.

In my 30 years of professional trading, I've never seen a stretch where investors needed actual results and "forward guidance" from companies reporting their earnings as much as they do right now.

My job – and I love it – is to categorize the stocks of these companies as "high risk" or "low risk" and to guide you accordingly. What I'm going to show you will let you add to your portion of that $10 trillion windfall – and avoid giving any of it back… Full Story

My job - and I love it - is to categorize the stocks of these companies as "high risk" or "low risk" and to guide you accordingly. What I'm going to show you will let you add to your portion of that $10 trillion windfall - and avoid giving any of it back...

Trading Strategies

How to Profit from the Massive Mobile Investing Trend

By , Quantitative Specialist, Money Morning - • Print | Email

The only constant in life is change. That goes double for markets: Investing, just like everything else, evolves.

The latest evolution has, for some folks, turned investing into something like a video game…

Armed with a smart phone and their trading app, tons of new investors are taking the markets by storm. No kidding – it's not a bit unusual these days for friends of mine to whip out their phones and buy shares of stocks that they've never heard from outside of a mention on Twitter, or some other 24/7 social media feed.

I hate to say, "When I was your age," but when I was growing up, investors would thoroughly research the fundamentals and technicals of a stock before moving hard-earned money into it. More recently, they'd at least plug the ticker into a search engine to get some insight to what they're buying.

Nowadays, though, it seems that if "RealK1ttyL0ver77" posts on their Twitter account to buy shares of "Kitten Mittens Holdings Ltd." because they're "real dope," people buy big, and before you know it, Kitten Mittens jumps 700%.

It's all about what the crowd is doing, and that has major downside.

A real-life example would be Hertz Global. Investors, who looked at a sub-$1 stock and saw a bargain, piled in by the busload. The stock rallied 700% even as its (inept) management team was dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the bankruptcy filing!

Sometimes there are real bargains… and sometimes cheap is cheap for a good reason – but that's a truism that seems to have been forgotten for the moment.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not knocking new trading apps or their new legions of users. I think it's fantastic that a new generation of investors – who, you could argue, have been clobbered by both the 2008 financial and the 2020 coronavirus crashes – are accessing the massive opportunities the markets provide.

More investors in the market means that there is the opportunity for more robust, fairer pricing.

More dynamic markets also means that more ideas are going to flow through the daily narrative. Simply put, crowdsharing of investment ideas means that you're more, not less, likely to find an investment that fits your risk and objective profile.

I'm a hardcore optimist. I've found ways to harness this huge momentum shift for everyone reading today, whether you're a new investor or an old hand.

You're going to be able to make better decisions on platforms like Robinhood and learn how to leverage the crowd's activity on there for maximum profits… Full Story

You're going to be able to make better decisions on platforms like Robinhood and learn how to leverage the crowd's activity on there for maximum profits...

Technology

Why You'll Want to Say Goodbye to the Fortune 500 Company and Invest in Startups

By , Special Contributor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

If the world's largest corporations don't take action soon, they risk dying out altogether.

It all has to do with one thing: innovation.

The Fortune 500 list was first published in 1955 by Fortune Magazine. Since then, 88% of the list's original companies no longer exist, having merged, gone bankrupt, or fallen from the ranks, according to the American Enterprise Institute.

The list has seen near constant turnover since its founding, with brick-and-mortar companies like Armstrong Rubber, Pacific Vegetable Oil, and Riegel Textile being replaced by tech-focused companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and eBay.

In fact, Forbes Magazine reports that only 50 years ago, the average Fortune 500 life expectancy for a company was 75 years. But today, it's only 15 years… and it's getting shorter.

This tells us a few things:

  1. The public markets change quickly, and they're insanely competitive. Both of these characteristics contribute to high corporate turnover rates.
  2. Even if a company is pulling in major revenue today, there's no guarantee that it'll do the same tomorrow as industries keep changing.
  3. A company's progress and revenue go hand in hand with innovation. If a company isn't willing to develop new, outside-the-box ideas, it won't be able to keep up.

It may sound like a brutal ecosystem… but a dynamic market is a good thing… Full Story

It may sound like a brutal ecosystem... but a dynamic market is a good thing... Full Story

Marijuana Industry

This Could Be the Top Cannabis Company in the Country

By , Money Morning - • Print | Email

It was the first cannabis company in Florida.

And just last week, it celebrated the opening of its 51st dispensary in the Sunshine State.

It was the first to be able to deliver to its customers at scale.

It's licensed to open more storefronts than any other cannabis company is legally allowed to operate.

That's just scratching the surface of how profitable this company can be.

Its unparalleled growth continues to separate it even further from its competitors – making it an impressive case study in how cannabis companies can achieve total market domination.

Right now, this company is securing its status as the leader in one of the biggest medical markets in the country.

And at $13 a share, it's an absolute bargain right now...

Technology

Tesla Stock Is Up 242% - Here's How to Play It Now

By , America's No. 1 Pattern Trader, Money Morning • @powerproftrades - • Print | Email

Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Google – they're most people's go-to stocks right now. They're the biggest in the world. And they have one major thing in common…

They're expensive.

GOOGL is currently trading around $1,500 per share, and AMZN is sitting at $3,100.

For most traders, it's just not worth it to buy shares for more than $1,000 each just to see gains of 10%, 15%, or 20%.

That's why I like to make money on these highfliers with a different tactic. It's one that costs only pennies on the dollar, and it comes with a chance to double my money. That's right – the payout is much bigger, and it arrives much faster.

See, instead of buying these stocks, I rent them. And today, I'm going to show you how to do just that with one of the crown jewels of the car industry – and by crown jewel, I mean a serious profit player.

I'm talking about Tesla. TSLA shot up 42% in the past two weeks alone, to around $1,400 a share. And with these four strategies for playing this lucrative stock, you'll get the chance to pocket some of that serious profit… Full Story

And with these four strategies for playing this lucrative stock, you'll get the chance to pocket some of that serious profit...

Technology

This Aerospace Powerhouse Will Double Your Money (and Seriously Upgrade Your Vacations)

By , Defense + Tech Specialist, Money Morning • @Robinson_STI - • Print | Email

Jet travel is as fast as it's ever been, thanks to new materials like carbon fiber, and ultra-efficient turbofan engines, like General Electric's GE9X and Rolls-Royce's Trent XWB.

Still… a trip from my home in California's Bay Area to, say, Sydney is a grueling, boring 15-plus hours. New York to London clocks in at more than seven hours, and the busy New York to Los Angeles route takes nearly five-and-a-half hours.

But what if you could take off from San Francisco and land in Sydney in a little over three hours? Or make the trip from JFK to London Heathrow in 90 minutes? How about a 230-mile hop between Washington, D.C., and New York that takes just four minutes?

Those incredible travel times are very, very possible traveling at Mach 5 – five times the speed of sound, or around 3,836 miles per hour.

It's become what's known as "hypersonic" speed, and before much longer, it's going to make those mighty GE9Xs and Trent XWBs look like steam engines.

The technology to take us hypersonic isn't coming tomorrow, or "just around the corner" – it's here now. Today.

It's not available to commuters or vacationers – yet – but it's the top priority of American, Chinese, and Russian defense firms.

That makes this tech critical to our security. At the same time, owning the industry leader I've identified here is going to be critical to your prosperity… Full Story

That makes this tech critical to our security. At the same time, owning the industry leader I've identified here is going to be critical to your prosperity...

Facebook

Your Safe, Low-Cost Way to Play Facebook Stock This Summer

By , America's No. 1 Pattern Trader, Money Morning • @powerproftrades - • Print | Email

In just the past two weeks, Facebook Inc. stock has fallen from $242 down to $216, only to climb back again to $245. It's under a microscope right now, with around 800 companies – including giants like Coca-Cola Co., Hershey Co., Ford Motor Co., and Unilever NV – having "paused" their extensive ad buys.

The world's biggest social media site hosts around 2.6 billion active monthly users, so it's the ballpark all advertisers want to play in. Together, they paid Facebook almost $70 billion to do just that in 2019.

But those advertisers (or, more to the point, those advertisers' everyday customers) want Facebook to do more to police the content that appears on its site. So this "pause" in ad buying is really a de facto boycott.

Now, however you feel about Facebook's politics, if you're an investor, "boycott" is a scary word.

Advertising is Facebook's bread and butter, and when that all-important revenue stream is threatened, for any reason, all kinds of questions come up about Facebook's near-term value as a buy-and-hold stock. As my colleague, D.R. Barton, Jr., told you last week, though, there's still good reason to bet on FB for the long haul.

And as I'll show you today, the best way to make money on Facebook right now is to trade it.

The smart move is "renting" Facebook for a couple of cents on the dollar; that'll slash our risk and potentially put a cool $1,000 in our pockets toward the end of the summer.

There's only a short time frame for us to set up this trade. Here's how it works… Full Story

There's only a short time frame for us to set up this trade. Here's how it works...

Marijuana Industry

This Technology Will Fuel Hundreds of Billions in Cannabis Profits

By , Defense + Tech Specialist, Money Morning • @Robinson_STI - • Print | Email

Cannabis has come a long way in a short time and has gone through its first (but certainly not last) ultra-explosive growth phase.

Then it underwent an expected, healthy correction, where investors and companies figured out which ideas worked and which ones didn't.

What emerged was a cannabis sector that's stronger and more robust than it was just four years ago.

Now legal marijuana is primed and ready for the next leg higher.

And the innovative, sophisticated technology our Michael Robinson will show you today is going to help propel it higher.

You see, those cannabis companies that realize the critical importance of high tech will have the edge they need to crush the competition – and deliver extreme returns to their shareholders.

Here's how...