by David Zeiler
With exchange Coinbase reported to be looking into going public, we're on the verge of the first big crypto IPO in the U.S.
A Coinbase stock offering will be a major event, akin to the IPOs of the social media companies a few years ago.
The firm already has a valuation of $8 billion – and it's profitable.
Here's what a Coinbase stock offering means for you...
While the hype surrounding Elon Musk's newest company is real, investors won't be able to buy Boring Co. stock soon. But that doesn't mean you won't be able to profit…
The Brent-WTI crude oil spread has surged to its highest point since May 2015.
I've flown all over the world in all kinds of jetliners, and usually when the plane gets going, I tune out the safety presentation.
Been there, done that.
But on a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Money Map Press headquarters in Baltimore to Oakland International Airport, I listened carefully as the flight attendant described the plane's safety features.
And when I looked around, I noticed a lot more passengers than usual doing the exact same thing.
Just two days before, a woman died on a Dallas-bound Southwest flight after an engine failed and she was nearly sucked out of the cabin.
At a time like this, many investors might shy away from The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), which made the ill-fated 737 aircraft in question.
But today, I'm going to show you why that would be a big mistake...
Quick! What do the following have in common?
… Kim Kardashian
… Major League Baseball
They're all third-party personalities and licensed brands for one of the hottest turnaround plays I can find in one of the hottest sectors going – mobile gaming.
Best of all, shares are still under $5.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't interest me for a New York minute. My family and I would rather be out living life than watching it or playing games about others living theirs. However, that's not true for millions.
And that's, of course, your entry...
Today I'd like to revisit a topic we've talked about extensively in the past.
It's a situation so severe that it will impact every investor when it hits.
Whether you have a pension plan or not doesn't matter.
There is a very good chance that you and your money will get taken for a ride within the next five years if you don't heed my warning.
Obviously, I don't want to see that happen, which is, of course, why I've got three very specific investment recommendations for you in a moment.
If you're thinking of investing in Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT) at the launch of its initial public offering or soon thereafter, I have two words for you…
Think again.
And here's two more…
Stay away.
Yes, Spotify has roughly 75 million registered users around the world. Yes, private markets have valued Spotify as high as $26.5 billion. And yes, Spotify's "direct listing" is an interesting experiment in stock market "democratization."
But here's the thing. As I've told you time and again, IPO investing is extremely risky for Main Street investors – and that direct listing could make Spotify's IPO even more dangerous than usual.
Plus, there's a tech player out there that is relatively new to music streaming – but that is set to eat Spotify's lunch. At the very least, this new music streamer will eat into Spotify profit margins and blunt its sales growth.
Consider that, as of February, this company's streaming service counted 36 million users. Barely a month later, that figure had climbed to 38 million.
That's a pace that should put would-be Spotify investors on notice. After all, Spotify launched in 2008, and the streamer I have in mind is less than three years old.
The music streaming sector is one we want to be in. Global Industry Analysts Inc. says it will have global sales of $9.7 billion by 2022. For its part, Goldman Sachs has predicted the streaming music market will increase to $28 billion per year by 2030.
The Pentagon just unveiled a new platform it calls Pathfinder.
No, it's not a new robotic weapons system… or a new high-tech tank… or even an innovative mapping system.
Instead, this is a program that addresses the Pentagon as a huge bureaucracy, instead of as a fighting force.
Pathfinder is a new program to migrate tons of data, some of it quite sensitive, to the cloud. And the U.S. Department of Defense is contracting with cloud leader Amazon Web Services in a deal that could eventually be worth billions to make it happen.
As you might imagine in this era of cyberattacks, not everyone in Washington is on board with the massive data migration.
They worry that the Pentagon is exposing itself to hackers who may come from China, North Korea, or Russia. After all, black-hat teams tied to those three nations attempt to penetrate our military networks on an almost hourly basis.
Here's the thing. There's a relatively new approach out there that offers far more security, not to mention a permanent record of every single transaction involving a military budget totaling more than $750 billion.
It's a system I call the Milblock.
In a moment, I'll explain just what I'm talking about.
And then I'll show you how investing in this field could land you a 10-bagger...
by Tom Gentile
Navigating some of these extreme price swings in the market can be pretty daunting to a lot of people – even downright confusing.
Now, we'll probably see this volatility continue as we wait to see what happens in The Fed's meeting on Tuesday.
We'll also likely continue to see some uncertainty in the markets surrounding President Trump's next steps for his aluminum and steel tariffs.
But whether the market swings 1,000 points down or 500 points up, there's a surefire way to survive these markets – and turn a fast profit, too.
Check out this simple little volatility trick...
Wall Street would love nothing more than for you tobelieve that rising interest rates are terrible for stocks and that there's nothing you can do to defend your money against higher rates… let alone profit.
That's simply not true.
Higher interest rates by themselves are not bad. In fact, they can be quite good for markets… it's the speed of the rise that's critical.
by Shah Gilani
The wild swings we see in the stock market aren't the result of volatility.
Volatility results from the wild swings, not the other way around.
One thing investors don't understand is that the VIX (the CBOE Volatility Index, sometimes called the market's "fear gauge") isn't predictive. It isn't a leading indicator; it isn't telling us what the future holds. It's misleading.
If you didn't know that, chances are you may not understand what's really causing wild market swings.
Here's your quick fix on the VIX and how to avoid falling into the fear gauge's trap...
