The Best Stock to Buy Today, "Templeton Style"

Editor's Note: Downturns are scary, but companies in Keith's Unstoppable Trends - like the pick he shares below - will weather the storm. By joining his Total Wealth newsletter, you can learn more about these trends, plus get access to all of his strategies, picks, and analysis, free of charge - just click here - there's no charge!

Today, we're going to take a page out of one of the greatest playbooks in history - that of Sir John Templeton - to show you how you can profit from this technical mess.

You've heard me talk about him before - but just in case that's a new name for you - Sir Templeton was known for "buying at points of maximum pessimism."

He was known to buy during massive downturns, during economic recessions, or simply during times when the headlines seem impossibly dark and market activity impossibly crazy... like the present.

Most famously, for example, Sir Templeton purchased $100 worth of every stock that was trading below $1 per share on the New York and American Stock Exchanges in 1938 on the eve of WWII.

In total, he purchased 104 stocks for $10,400. Even though 34 of the 104 companies were bankrupt at the time, he was able to sell those shares for nearly four times the money he had initially invested just four years later.

Sir Templeton would go on to found the Templeton Growth Fund (TEPLX), and over the next 25 years, Templeton had a hand in creating numerous highly successful international investment funds - nearly all of which relied on some form of buying during times of seemingly impossible market stress. In 1999, Money Magazine called him "arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century."

Must See: This Great Depression-Era "Secret" Helped Transform Two Teachers into Millionaires. Read More

Today, many investors are faced with the same circumstances Templeton faced during his career, especially this past Monday living through the single largest point downdraft in market history... followed by a 1,167-point intraday swing during Tuesday's trading.

There's no doubt in my mind that there will be more volatility ahead, but history shows very clearly that the bull market can continue as long as the economy and corporate profits remain strong. It's just a matter of when... not if.

Which brings me back to our "Templeton" moment.

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I believe the "best" buy you can make today is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA).

In case you're not familiar with BABA, it's often proclaimed as the "Amazon of China."

In reality, though, it's a lot more:

  • The company is still undervalued despite the fact that revenue has increased by more than 50% a year for the past five years.
  • The company's growth is jaw-dropping. Its cloud computing platform grew by 99% in Q3 2017, while international growth came in at 115%. Further, it added 20 million mobile users to bring the total user count to 549 million, or roughly 56.47% more than the total 310 million estimated Amazon users.
  • The company is controlled by founder Jack Ma and a select group of insiders who, together, control roughly 95% of outstanding shares. That means, in contrast to U.S. executives who are "one and done" every quarter, Ma and his band of executives have a huge incentive to stick around for the long term.

It's the perfect "Templeton" buy.

Alibaba is down 16.46% from $206.20, the all-time high it set on Jan. 31 - just a few short weeks ago.

In closing, the markets are like a lake that's had a stone thrown into it. There are ripples - meaning volatility. But, like the water over time, those ripples eventually give way to smooth water and the big profits we know are out there even I as type.

Buy low and sell high every chance you get - just as Sir John did.

Editor's Note: "Must-have" companies backed by Unstoppable Trends are a cornerstone of Keith's wealth-building strategy. But there's another type of investment he wants Money Morning Members to know about. It's one of his favorites, a kind of "desert island fund" he'd buy if he had to park his money in one place, "retire" from civilization for 20 years, and come back to a pile of money. Click here to learn more

The post The Best Stock to Buy Today, "Templeton Style" appeared first on Total Wealth.

About the Author

Keith is a seasoned market analyst and professional trader with more than 37 years of global experience. He is one of very few experts to correctly see both the dot.bomb crisis and the ongoing financial crisis coming ahead of time - and one of even fewer to help millions of investors around the world successfully navigate them both. Forbes hailed him as a "Market Visionary." He is a regular on FOX Business News and Yahoo! Finance, and his observations have been featured in Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, and MarketWatch. Keith previously led The Money Map Report, Money Map's flagship newsletter, as Chief Investment Strategist, from 20007 to 2020. Keith holds a BS in management and finance from Skidmore College and an MS in international finance (with a focus on Japanese business science) from Chaminade University. He regularly travels the world in search of investment opportunities others don't yet see or understand.

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