Left Brain Thinking

Freddy Garcia, first vice president of investments at Left Brain Wealth Management, says that even in sectors that have been sluggish and slow, there can be companies with the right fast-growth characteristics.  He cites PayPal and Square as examples, noting that they have excelled amid the pandemic and should keep on rolling, even as most of the financial sector can be viewed as being mostly struggling value stocks.  

Noland Langford, chief executive officer at Left Brain Investment Research, is always shopping for stocks with the potential for fast price appreciation, but he's found two in a surprising place, the traditional shopping mall. While stories of the so-called retail apocalypse have scared many investors away from traditional retailers and mall operators, Langford and the Left Brain analyst team are high on two names that they believe turn around that story line and rise up as survivors with rebound potential strong enough that they come from this unlikely sector to be worth a look now.

Mark Hines, managing director at Left Brain Investment Research, says that the 5G evolution is fueling growth among major players that is going to continue even when the pandemic ends and the stocks that have benefitted from providing improved stay-at-home technology have seen the big wave settle down. He discusses Nvidia, which is up roughly 125 percent this year but which has the potential to double again in the near-term, fueled by the technology upgrades sweeping the tech business.

Freddy Garcia, first vice president of investments at Left Brain Wealth Management, discusses how the election did -- or didn't -- change the outlook on the growth stocks that the firm liked before the voting, and talks about why the cyber-security sector is a space that can support a number of fast-growing issues, including one stock that's up about 150 percent this year but still has plenty growth ahead.

Brian Dress, director of research at Left Brain Investment Research, discusses why investing in China should appeal to growth-oriented investors now, and singles out Tencent Holdings as a stock that highlights the good reasons to invest in emerging markets now. Highlighting Left Brain's methods, he notes that Tencent has already been a strong growth story, but that has merely positioned the company for significant expansion that shows no signs of slowing from here.

Janice Quek, senior analyst at Left Brain Investment Research, checks in from Singapore and explains the benefits to investors brave enough to put money to work in Southeast Asia, highlighting Sea Ltd. - ticker symbol SE -- as a stock that can use its status as a platform company that can benefit from the pandemic to continue the explosive growth it has seen this year into the foreseeable future.

With a spate of companies -- including most of the FAANG stocks -- releasing earnings this week, it's game on for Brian Dress, director of research at Left Brain Investment Research, who describes earnings season as 'the Super Bowl and the Olympics all rolled into one, and we get it four times a year.' He explains how Left Brain uses calls, transcripts, numbers and more to find potential buys in stocks and bonds, and singles out bonds in Cleveland Cliffs -- a company where the third-quarter results proved points made in the prior quarter -- to highlight how earnings reports reveal opportunities.

Noland Langford, chief executive officer at Left Brain Investment Research discusses the firm's 'fresh look' process and then highlights two stocks that recently came through that research process. The new reports on Crowdstrike and Uber suggest that the stocks have the growth characteristics to earn the green light from investors now.

Brian Dress, director of research at Left Brain Investment Research discusses Jarvis, the firm's proprietary securities-evaluation application and how it helps to decide which stocks deserve the attention of Left Brain's analytical team. He discusses the balance between art and science in the process, and then discusses Beyond Meat (ticker symbol BYND), the popular alternative-food company whose stock that passes the test with both Jarvis and the analysts.