Stock Talk

In Part 2, I start to drill down a bit further on trying to answer a fundamental questions that every investor is asking. In this episode I apply one of the core principles of market based economics. Supply and Demand. Makes sense as a stocks trade in a…market…that contains buyers and sellers. The way buyers and sellers behave plays a critical factor into how stock prices are set.

In this first of a five part series, I take a deep dive into trying to answer a fundamental question that works directly and indirectly into every investment decisions. What makes stock prices go up and down? What makes a stock valuable? In this episode, I start at a high level by exploring a core foundational element that we often overlook but plays a critical role in driving stock prices.

March came in like a lion for my portfolio. An angry lion. My portfolios took some body blows that I really didn’t see coming and it forced me to make some hard decisions. There were also some good outcomes as well as some stocks continue to benefit from the market reinvigoration thanks to the 180 pivot by the Federal Reserve to pause on future interest rate increases for the rest of the year.

Investment Decisions Taken:

Sold shares in CVS Health Inc. (Ticker: CVS)

Bought more shares in Winpak Inc (Ticker: WPK)

Bought more shares in Southwest Airlines (Ticker: LUV)

Sold shares in Tiffany Inc (Ticker: TIF)

Sold shares in Tyson Foods (Ticker: TSN)

After coming off the previous month where I made no decisions to buy or sell stocks and ETF’s in my portfolio, February couldn’t be more opposite. The trigger that got me to move was the louder chatter that the Federal Reserve was going to put the breaks on any future interest rate increases. To me this sudden 180 degree shift by the Federal Reserve was a game changer for the markets. In this episode, I walk through the investment decisions I made in February.

Investment Decisions Taken:

NEW POSITION: BOUGHT SHARES IN ISHARES GOLD BULLION ETF (TICKER: CGL.C)

NEW POSITION: BOUGHT SHARES IN VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS ETF (TICKER: VEE)

NEW POSITION: BOUGHT SHARES IN SOUTHERN COPPER COMPANY (TICKER: SCCO)

NEW POSITION: BOUGHT SHARES IN CANADIAN NATURAL RESOURCES (TICKER: CNQ)

NEW POSITION: BOUGHT SHARES IN ISHARES PHARMACEUTICAL ETF (TICKER: XPH)

With commodity prices including copper falling, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at some copper stocks. Southern Copper was one I've owned in the past so I thought I'd check in and see if there may be an opportunity to buy in.

With commodity prices falling off and the Federal Reserve signalling they will pause on future interest rate hikes, the dynamics of a falling US$ and rising commodity prices including oil could be in play. I decided to do a quick analysis of CNQ which is considered among the big players in the Canadian Energy scene to see if there may be an opportunity to jump in.

Yes it been a full 4 years since I opened up my Robo Advisor account. For those new to investing, a Robo Advisor is a new wave of wealth management companies that invest on behalf of others using an online platform and a combination of algorithms and computer coding to buy and sell specific investments and manage portfolios. Four years ago these firms were just stepping into the investing conciousness, but since then they have mushroomed and even traditional investment companies are now offering some flavor of online investment management services. It all seemed quite appealing however there was one thing that many marketing materials, blogs, and mainstream media was avoiding (and still are I might add)…do these types of services make money for investors?

 Since no robo advisor company back then was interested in disclosing their performance (they still avoid it) other than citing research that their strategy is superior, I decided four years ago to try an experiment and find out for myself. I setup an account with one of the big Robo Adviser firms. My goal was to go through the process and blog about my experience and more importantly, the results. I’ve always said that we need a good five years to really get a handle on how effective these services are compared to traditional wealth management services. Well, we’re at the 80% mark of my ROBO journey, so let’s check back in and take a look at how it’s doing now and see if we can squeeze any conclusions about the service.

The way 2018 ended in the markets with culminating in the Christmas Eve massacre followed by the post-Christmas bounce, it looked like 2019 would be more of the same. Turned out the market continued to bounce high and at one point erased most of the damage of last year. In this episode, I share the Investment “Decisions” that I made in January.

I always get questions from people about investing. In this episode I share a few questions and offer my takes:

Is stock picking more art than science?

How do you come up with different investment ideas?

What is the first metric you look at when you research a stock?

What are the tricks in investing in the stock market?

One of my motivations as an Investment Coach is to make people more street smart when dealing with the investing industry (banks, mutual funds, wealth management companies, brokers, robe-advisers etc). Even though more people today are investing on their own, the reality is you cannot invest in a bubble, and whether you go the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) path or work with someone, you will still have to work with the industry. You have to co-exist with them.

So loyally and faithfully we will march into our local branch (or lounges), or a financial adviser’s office, or a Starbucks and begin the dance. The thing is before you even make contact they have you sized up.

They think you’re an idiot and they are going to go out of their way to make you feel like one.

The industry has developed a rather air-tight formula for getting us to shell out our hard earned savings and the core component of their value proposition is to make us feel inadequate or give us a bad money image. In this episode I will share with you this formula and give an example of this ritual and more importantly how we can overcome these negative connotations they are projecting to us.