Stock Talk

Starbucks stock was getting crushed the last few months. Weak forecasts, some not so great PR events started taking the stock down. It got me interested to see if it may be worth picking up as it seems to be out of favour by Wall Street. Here's my mind map video that walks through my though process that led me to buy shares in Starbucks.

Fitting into my theme of investing in companies that can own the OS, JD.com is positioning itself to become a real player in online retailing. It has been one of the big players in the China market and it is looking to branch out to other parts of Asia. It is very aligned with other players like Tencent and Walmart and aggressively building out its retail ecosystem channels. The stock has been falling and some say the US trade tariff sabre rattling has put pressure on China stocks. In this episode I share my mind map exercise that I used to evaluate and ultimately led to my decision to buy into JD.com.

UPDATE #1: Since I made the decision, some significant news has come out. It was announced that Alphabet had made a $550 milliondollar investment in JD. I think its a big deal in that it validates JD's value proposition. JD has now entered partnerships with Alphabet, TenCent, and Walmart. These are companies that are aggressively trying to build out online ecosystems to own the OS for distribution in retail. Whoever can control that online platform has a good chance at building durable competitive advantage. Whatever happens, JD has connections with all the main players. The Alphabet connection also signals that both parties are looking to take on Amazon. 

Update #2: Since the Alphabet announcement, more events have occurred, specifically from the Mad King himself, who pondering restricting Chinese companies from investing in American technology companies. I wonder now if the JD/Alphabet partnership is now in doubt given the Eye of Sauron is now looking upon China quite aggressively. I cite the potential of a tariff tit-for-tat as serious risk factor that could negatively impact JD.com and other China stocks.

MGM has not been on my watchlist and I really wasn't thinking about getting into casino stocks but with a recent Supreme Court decision that essentially legalized sports gambling in the US I thought was a game changer movement that could really put gaming companies in a strong position to move. I did a quick scan and MGM appeared to be not the most producing gaming company but what drew me was management's foresight to build out sports betting platforms and services in the anticipation of the legalization of sports betting. Here's my quick deep dive that lead me to the decision to buy some MGM stock.

I've had Johnson and Johnson on my watch list for a long time. I've held it in the past and I got a pretty good return on it. After I sold when it was in the $70's the stock kept on moving and literally doubled. I thought I may never get back in but the stock since the start of the year has been falling and it went down into the mid $120's when I thought it would be good to take a look again. In this episode I do a quick dive into JNJ to see if it is still worthy to include in my portfolio.

April was calmer in terms of investment decisions compared to the past few months. With markets zigging and zagging at a much more frequent rate now, opportunities to buy some stocks and ETF’s have presented themselves. At the same time there have been some opportunities to bank some healthy profits. That’s the way markets go. Opportunities don’t set a time to arrive. They show up when they want to. That is why it is always it’s critical to have an investing playbook that reflects your investing ideology so when those moments arrive, you are not just staring at your toes wondering what to do.  In April a couple of opportunities came up that I really didn’t have specifically on my Wish List, but they fit into some of core investing ideology in terms of exposure to sectors I would like to be invested in. In this episode I walk through investment decisions I made in April.

As an Investment Coach, I spend a good amount of time working with people who are new to investing. Often one of the first questions I get from someone who is new to investing is "I want to learn how to invest are often in the form of: What stocks should I buy?" or "I have $10,000 I would like to invest. What stocks should I buy for the next 10 years?" I've been asking myself lately, why people believe that default position for investing must involve buying and selling stocks? The reality is buying and selling Facebook or bank stocks should not be your first thought when it comes to investing. In this episode, I try to figure out why people have this mindset and how it can have a devastating impact on your investing experience.

This is the third and last in a series of episodes where I walk through my investment decisions I made in March. In this episode, I share my thought process that lead me to buy shares in Southwest Airlines.

In Part 2 of my Investment Decisions series podcasts for March, I walk through the thought process that led me to my decision to buy some shares in Big Lots.

After the mini-meltdown in early February, stock prices boomeranged and made back a good chunk of their losses. In some cases the bounce was pretty big and it forced me to make a few decisions. There were a few days where the market tanked pretty big and I used them as opportunities to open some new positions. Like the previous month, I've decided to break down my decisions into 3 parts. In this post episode, I will review my decisions to buy more shares and sell some shares. The other two episodes will focus on my decisions to buy shares in Southwest Airlines and Big Lots.

RANT ALERT: Another annual Real Estate Wealth Expo has made its way through my home town. This year some serious star power was on display. Baseball players, Pop Musicians, and Dragons were regaling attendees and their slightly open wallets with tales of how to escape the rat race and live the 6-49 lifestyle. People leaving these events usually seem to feel they are on their way to financial independence or at the very least got a good cardio workout. Unfortunately the whole thing is a scam. My rant is not about the concept as Real Estate Expos like this are just the latest iteration of get-rich-schemes that prey upon the gullible. What got me concerned was the response by people, especially on social media.