What does Steve W think about the situation in the Ukraine? Find out in this week’s Playing FTSE Podcast!  

In an exciting week in markets, we kick off with a game from Steve W. The man has a one-track mind for Tesla and is in awe of the sheer size of Elon Musk’s... company. So this week’s game involves Paul and Steve D trying to guess whether collections of other well-known companies together have a bigger market cap than Tesla. Is Tesla bigger than all our favourite REITs? Find out as we play!  

There’s loads of interesting stories, too. After the game, we talk about Sony buying game developer Bungie, following on from Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Paul and Steve D talk about their gaming history and the relative strengths of each acquisition. Paul tells us why he’s playing arbitrage on ATVI ahead of the Microsoft deal and Steve W thinks about the valuation and whether or not this is a sign of panic from Sony.   

The rest of our show is a huge, Huge, HUGE earnings rundown. The Steves have been watching the earnings reports this week closely and they’ve been paying attention to what you need to know about loads and loads of companies. If you’ve been taking your eye of the earnings ball or been focused on the big moves from Paypal, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon, then the Steves have something to get you on track. Along the way, we have a deep dive into Paypal and Alphabet, where Steve D tells us about how Alphabet has overcome its enormous size to put up some big numbers and Paul tells us of his bewilderment at Paypal’s weak earnings. And yes—we talk about the stock split. Steve W’s not a fan.  

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Hey, Paul here. I think you should try Genuine Impact, they make choosing good investments simple. You'll get 30 days free trial to all Premium features, no card required. Plus, use my link below and we both get an extra 1 month free Premium (worth £3.99)! https://genuineimpactapp.page.link/Ajup

In this one we bring back stocks for Paul! A feature we had when Paul mentioned he was on the lookout for stocks a couple of months ago. In a bizarre twist Steve W brings a slightly overpriced, high-margin growth stock and Steve D brings a deep value industrial stock which he thinks has a lot of upside! Which one will Paul like most? Find out in this midweeker!

How’s your been week? It’s been choppy in the markets lately, but find out how we’ve been doing in this week’s Playing FTSE Show!  

Steve D’s got the game this week. Stocks, it turns out, don’t only go up. Steve D’s found some that have gone down pretty spectacularly. He also seems to have bought most of them at some point or another. In this week’s game, Steve W and Paul attempt to figure out how far down various stocks (mostly Steve D’s stocks) are over the last year. These games are tough — will Steve W get ANY of them right? Find out as we play “Yowch to date”. Also, don’t miss Paul’s update on TransMedics and Steve W’s philosophical conundrum.  

Earnings season rolls along causing volatility in individual stocks. We have a look at a couple of our favourites after the last week or so. Tesla’s been catching Steve W’s eye with a handy beat on Q4 estimates. The stock’s trading lower now, though, on account of the fact that limitations to manufacturing mean that Tesla aren’t going to be launching any new models in 2022. Steve W leads us through the impact of this and considers the implications of Tesla’s market cap in terms of success, valuation, and productivity. Everyone has an opinion on Tesla, including the JP Morgan analyst who has a price target of $290 on the stock. Paul talks about Tesla’s margins and Steve D joins in with questions about Elon Musk and the new humanoid robot.  

Last it’s Netflix, which had a fascinating earnings call. Steve D’s in this stock and has been having a close look at the earnings from this week. Subscriber growth is slowing a bit and the stock took a big hit after its earnings at the end of last week’s show and the stock dragged Amazon and Disney down with it. Steve D looks at the relationship between the three companies and discusses why he’s been buying alongside Bill Ackman. Steve W compares Netflix to the other fans structurally and Paul talks about the valuation on Netflix.   We finish up with a bit of off-script live discussion of Apple and Robinhood. One did well, one did badly. See how we react in real time…  

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Hey, Steve W here. If you'd like to have a look at Genuine Impact for their revenue breakdown charts and a load of other features, too, I've got a link here for you. You'll get 30 days free trial to all Premium features, no card required. Plus, use my link below and we both get an extra 1 month free Premium (worth £3.99)! https://genuineimpactapp.page.link/N4s1

Join the gang this week as they delve into Michaels question about the brightest battery companies and battery metal miners in the industry, no long-shots, we go for the ones actually doing the business...because after all, who doesn't think EV's, Hydrogen or Hybrids are the future of transport?

Support the show:  

Appreciate the show and want to offer your support? You could always buy us a coffee at: 

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There are many ways to help support the show, liking, commenting and sharing our episodes with friends! You can also check out our clothing merch store: https://playingftse.teemill.com/ 

We get a small cut of anything you buy which will be reinvested back into the show....COMPOUNDING! (you read that in Svens voice right? Did Briscoe mention he got Sven on the show!?)  

Show Notes:  Things we mentioned in the show!  

Svens Free Course: https://sven-carlin-research-platform.teachable.com/p/stock-market-investing 

Sven Carlins Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/InvestwithSvenCarlinPhD 

Aswath Domodarans Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AswathDamodaranonValuation/videos 

Psychology of Money Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychology-Money-Timeless-lessons-happiness/dp/0857197681 

Tim Hales Smarter Investing Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ 

Motley Fool Investment Guide Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Motley-Fool-Investment-Guide-Streets/dp/1501155555/

What is Vestas? What does Steve W plan to do with his premium bonds? And what do we think about podcasts that are better than ours? Find out on this week's Playing FTSE Podcast!  

We start this week's show with a game from Steve D. Paul and Steve W try to guess how long different CEOs have been in post. Jamie Dimon, Lisa Su, and Mark Zuckerberg all make an appearance, along with some other business leaders that you might not have heard of. Twenty questions means that Paul doesn't have a chance. Or does he...?  

Next is the Motley Fools' restructuring. We're big fans of the Motley Fool (the US one, not the UK one) and we've often cited their podcasts as a source of knowledge, ideas, and facts that we use on our own show. They've restructured their show portfolio, though. Out with the Industry Focus/Market Foolery/Motley Fool Answers and in with a daily Motley Fool Money show. The Steves have been having a listen. Find out what they think of it.  

Following this, we've got exciting news from Trading 212. Stocks that were once available in an ISA and then weren't available in an ISA are available in an ISA again. Some of them, anyway. We point out some of our favourites -- Paul and Steve D discuss wind turbine company Vestas and Steve W gives us his take on nothing at all but suggests that JD.com looks like it's at something of a discount to its historic levels. Keep an eye out for Newcrest Mining though -- a rare mention of a gold miner on the show.   

Lastly, it's a segment that Steve W *does* have something to say about. His own money. Having discovered that he owns some Premium Bonds that haven't been making much of a return, Steve's hunting for somewhere to redeploy his capital. He's looking at the REIT sector and thinking about how he measures the success of his investment and his returns. Paul and Steve D pile in with their thoughts.

This week, we’re all about BONDS. What does the price of bonds have to do with the price of stocks? Are bonds attractive investments? And what does the FED’s stance on bonds have to do with anything?  

Instead of a game, we kick off this week with Steve D’s news that he’s rearranged the way he thinks about his portfolio. Instead of having a core and satellite model, where some stocks form a solid base with riskier investments layered on top, Steve’s transitioning to a portfolio-and-penalty-box model, where some stocks get the silent treatment for a period of time. What does this mean and which stocks are currently on the sidelines? Steve explains.  

The game is shortly behind, though, and this one is a cracker. Since Paul hasn’t had a chance to play a game by himself (the Steves each did one at the end of October) this week’s game is called Steve, Steve, Steve and Steve, or Not Steve. The Steves offer out a variety of statements and Paul’s job is to figure out whether it applies to Steve D, Steve W, both Steves or neither Steve. Did Steve D once own Citibank? What was Steve W’s first stock investment? Who has more shares in Monzo? Find out by playing along with Paul!  

After a quick pivot into a not-ad (this week our show is not-sponsored by Wise Alpha), it’s into a discussion of bonds. We don’t talk much about bonds. But it’s good to be aware of them and know what the opportunities and the risks that they present are. Steve W explains why he thinks that a certain kind of dividend investor might be well advised to look at bonds as part of their investment strategy and how preferred stocks represent a kind of mid point between common stocks and bonds.   

Sticking with bonds, the next item on our agenda is the FED. Earlier this week, the minutes of the FED meeting from December were released and the markets took a dive. The minutes revealed discussions of decreasing the FEDs balance sheet and raising interest rates in light of the US economy running hot. But what does all this mean? Paul and the Steves talk about hawks, doves, selling bonds, buying bonds, interest rate rises, treasury yields, and the great irrelevance of it all for investors.

This week we tackle Toms query - how important is the New Year to us? Do we change strategies? Alter weightings? Or adjust to the new market conditions? You'll only know if you listen through to this weeks midweek FTSE ;)