In this second installment of Chris' FANG+ Index analysis using his Best in Breed system, he'll take a look at the remaining three stocks - Alibaba, Tesla, and Twitter - to determine which is the best (and worst) of the bunch.
Our Chris Johnson is going to show you what's grabbing everyone's attention lately: the FANG+ Index and the five actively traded growth stocks within it.
Today, he'll be looking at Nvidia and Baidu using his Best in Breed analysis...
As we deal with current market conditions, we're left wondering if we should stay or cut our losses and forsake the market.
August can be a tough time. Volume is low, with all those movers and shakers in the Hamptons instead of on Wall Street. In fact, historically, this is one of the weakest-performing months of the year, particularly for the S&P 500:
August shows gains a measly 43% of the time, the worst rate of any month.
Average returns for August are -0.2%, placing it among the bottom three months.
And since 1987, August has the singular status as being the worst month for the index.
I could go on, but let me give you the "executive summary": August is just not a buy-and-hold month.
This is the right way to play it... Full Story
As we deal with current market conditions, we're left wondering if we should stay or cut our losses and forsake the market.
August can be a tough time. Volume is low, with all those movers and shakers in the Hamptons instead of on Wall Street. In fact, historically, this is one of the weakest-performing months of the year, particularly for the S&P 500:
August shows gains a measly 43% of the time, the worst rate of any month.
Average returns for August are -0.2%, placing it among the bottom three months.
And since 1987, August has the singular status as being the worst month for the index.
I could go on, but let me give you the "executive summary": August is just not a buy-and-hold month.
This is the right way to play it...
In this second and final installment on the FAANG stocks, our Chris Johnson looks at the remaining FAANGs - Apple, Google, and Netflix - to determine where they currently stand and how best to rake in the profits moving forward...
In this two-parter, our Chris Johnson takes a close look at each of the FAANG stocks to determine whether they've been "defanged" or not.
There's few stocks that are as talked about as Netflix, especially after releasing its recent mixed earnings report, which investors were quick to defend. In fact, our Chris Johnson did some research and came up with some very impressive findings...
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion, co-authored by Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Warren Buffett, chair of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., titled "Short-Termism Is Harming the Economy."
It made quite a splash, with lots of pundits opining that maybe these guys were onto something.
The truth is Buffett and Dimon's opinion is without merit. Worse, it's dangerous.
The "short-termism" they claim is harming the economy manifests itself in earnings guidance from managers of public companies.
As if CEOs' and CFOs' earnings guidance impacts America's $19.4 trillion economy. It doesn't.
The authors state, "Today, together with Business Roundtable, an association of nearly 200 chief executive officers from major U.S. companies, we are encouraging all public companies to consider moving away from providing quarterly earnings-per-share guidance. In our experience, quarterly earnings guidance often leads to an unhealthy focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term strategy, growth, and sustainability."
It's a bait-and-switch - they want you to "watch the birdie."
Because what the authors really want to do away with isn't just earnings guidance... It's earnings reporting.
That's not my opinion: That's exactly what they've been advocating.
And it's not even close to being in investors' (which is to say our) best interests...
Quarterly earnings reports reduce company performance and allow day traders to rob retail investors blind.
Here's what the SEC should do instead and the only strategy you need to stay one step ahead of the Street.
The big "money center" banks are at the pinnacle of the U.S. and global economies. Like sleeping next to an elephant, every single little move they make has an outsized impact on every dollar you own. No investor can afford to ignore what they're doing, lest they end up on the wrong side of a gigantic capital wave.
The regionals - banks with presence in five, 10, or more states - are different. They're important, don't get me wrong, but I watch them like a hawk for the same reason I listen to the results of my annual physicals: to make sure everything's working right, and nothing disastrous is looming out there.
That's because, as the history of the financial crisis clearly tells us, regional banks are where you find the very first signs of the kind of gross stupidity and borderline criminal behavior that can spread to the money centers.
It's like "monkey see, monkey do," except the sequence runs, "little monkey do, big monkey see, all the monkeys take complete leave of their senses, and the global economy crashes."
After Tesla released its quarterly earnings results, the company's shares started trading lower, which is a familiar position for Tesla.
In fact, there's a trend in post-earnings stock movements that has our Chris Johnson excited...
McDonald's earnings beat made headlines today, but it's not our favorite company to buy right now.
Our two favorite companies with the greatest growth potential are actually widely considered "overpriced."
Chris Johnson's trading program is screaming for him to get this double-digit earnings winner out as a buy today.
What could be better? We're now in the first full week of the season, with 62 S&P 500 companies on the docket.
This is a critical season that I believe takes on more significance than most. That's because the market itself is at a critical juncture - a tipping point, if you will.
The bulls and bears are in a monster tug-of-war over the market's direction during the next few months, and, naturally, earnings could be the factor that tips the scale one way or the other.
I couldn't be more fired up about the next few days - and you will be, too, once you see this...
Last Friday, the first wave of bank earnings reports hit Wall Street, when JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and scandal-stricken Wells Fargo & Co. released their first-quarter financials.
Now, ask any one random person in a "Man in the Street"-style interview what they'd expect of the "Too Big to Fail" banks' performance, and I'd bet you would get a shrug and hear something like, "I dunno - they probably made a ton of money, right?"
And that random person would be right... by about half. The big banks do make a ton of money, to be sure, but that's not the most important reason to sit up and pay attention.
That's right: Even if you don't own a single share, big bank earnings calls are a can't-miss event.
Listening to the big bank conference calls is like listening in on closed-door conversations with the U.S. financial industry's most powerful players.
These bankers not only control most of the economy's loans and deposits, but they also get a very clear picture each quarter of how individuals and businesses are faring and where they appear to be heading.
The calls are a road map, essentially, or a cheat sheet that can give you some dynamite investing ideas, not to mention precious intelligence on the state of the American economy.
In a market environment with a lot of "loose ends" relating to recent headlines, our Chris Johnson is going to share what every investors needs to know with earnings season upon us...
