Reader’s Choice – STOCKjAW.COM

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PINS. Driving Point.

FEBRUARY 26, 2021. Soaring growth seems everywhere just now. O.K. well, big growth isn’t created equal. Big growth can blow your socks off in a day, or burn your portfolio to the waterline. Or? You can turn to pure value, and watch it creep cautiously toward cozy single-digit annual returns. Or? You could look at Pinterest. As of pre-market Friday PINS has returned 129% over the past six months. Is that value? Pinterest is not just offering soaring returns. The stunning growth is underpinned by real fundamentals. Think 76% y/y revenue growth. That’s value right? And that’s why we’re talking “PINS. Driving Point.”

BUSINESS, CULTURE, Editor's Choice, EDITOR'S DESK, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, Reader's Choice, THINKING NOW

You–the Real Retail Target

FEBRUARY 20, 2021. Retail investing means dancing with the big money. The subject is money and the object is to get it–from us. It’s always worked that way, until Reddit traders turned the tables and nearly squashed Melvin Capital. What does that mean? That for the first time in history the retail investor flipped the game on the predacious big money gangs. How was this Reddit move described? A “flash mob.” Retail investors have been the strategic target of stunningly-sophisticated “firms” forever. How?
Think account management fees, account maintenance fees, trading fees, commissions, the 2/20 hedge fund structure, and private equity’s short selling schemes, a practice that works, and profits, against every long retail investor. “You–the Real Retail Target.”

FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, MEDIA, Reader's Choice, STOCKS, TECHNICALS, THINKING NOW, TRADING

Zero to Eighty% in Six Months. Ford.

NOVEMBER 19, 2020. Pop the hood on your car and sneak a peek. Right. WTF? The once recognizable is gone. Car guts look very different now, as does the car business. Ford’s looking in too–into it’s own business. What are they seeing? “Trucks and SUVs–all good. Love that. The dumpy sedan’s dead. Broom that.” What else? The Chinese operation’s politicized and chaotic. And then there’s our shareholder base.
Customers love the F-150, and batteries too. F’s blending those next year. The new Mustang Mach E’s flat rubber-burning evil, with no range. The revamped Ford Explorer launch was a monkey rodeo. Jesus. Empty showroom floors never please, or sell. That means you have to “incentivize” customers to buy cars they can’t touch. They did, incentivize. The press and public excitement surrounding the new Bronco is through the roof.
Meanwhile F’s share price has rocked heavenward by 80% in just six months. That’s promising. Or perhaps extended? From its’ Dearborn base just outside of Detroit, Ford’s shooting for the moon with EVs, and running on pure adrenaline. The real threat of extinction will do that to a company. Extinction feels very real when you sport a $4 share price–$3.96 back on March 23rd this year.
Well, again, that puny share price has been seriously juiced since by a crazed confluence of market factors. There’s also a whole new segment of shareholders who care nothing for dividends, raging risk, or the company’s years of ruinous struggle. O.K. Yet, the question now is, do you believe in “Zero to Eighty% in Six Months. Ford.”(Cover photo. 2020 Ford Shelby GT-500)

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Bonds Don’t Suck.

MAY 2, 2020. Bonds are Fa King awesome. Like losing money? Then don’t worry about bonds. Most enjoy protecting theirs.
Yet no one ever launches the real bond punchline. All we ever hear is “yields dropping” or “prices rising.” Only after losing money does one truly learn to value protection, and bonds. Thus the phrase “your first loss is your best loss.” Bonds are brilliant yet treated like some OTC digestive. Not here.
No savvy equity investor should ever rebalance or tie their shoes without the butt-simple bond truth.
Learn it once and own it forever. Bonds are not lame and safety and yield are only a slice. It’s only the safety story that’s lame. Why “Bonds Don’t Suck.”(Photo; Ryan McGuire)

Editor's Choice, FUNDAMENTALS, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, Reader's Choice, STOCKS, THINKING NOW

4 Bullets To Savvy Dividends

OCTOBER 26, 2019. Dividends don’t flutter from fall skies like seasonal leaves. Dividends are paid out of cash flows, if there’s enough. Who has enough? It isn’t always those promising. No problem. Checking’s a piece of cake. We’ve got cake.
But paying isn’t the only issue. Dividends are paid by companies doing real business, in a rapidly changing environment. No one gets a free pass through macro chaos or the battle for market share. The fight for cash flow goes on everyday and everywhere. That includes “dividend aristocrats” like JNJ, with it’s’ 57 year history of consecutive dividend raises. How about an affordable, recession-proof, price-performing example, paying 4%? We’ve got that too.
Hoping to be paid regularly for the market risks you take isn’t rocket science. But it isn’t simply aristocratic standing either. Smart people get this one wrong, routinely. We’ve got the right, in “4 Bullets to Savvy Dividends.” Make sure you’ll be paid, top and bottom–and enjoy.

CULTURE, Editor's Choice, FUNDAMENTALS, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, Reader's Choice, STOCKS, THINKING NOW

Dividend Joy. How Now.

OCTOBER 15, 2019. Standing butt-naked on the beach–is that a dividend? Maybe that’s the joy. Either way, there you are. Why? You found your dividend, and they pay, everyday. What would you do to get there? We learned what to look for and we’re sharing. We also came to terms with a criminal bank. Wouldn’t you? Wells is different now. “Really?” you question. Naw, not really–maybe. Corporate culture is as difficult to change as a raging surf. Besides, crime pays well, for a while. Wells knows.
Once and for years Wells was run like some rum-poisoned pirate ship. Former CEO John Stumpf’s gone, replaced by a tenured insider present for all the criminality. Absolutely nothing else has changed, except for the firing of thousands who were only following heavy-handed dictates of senior management bent on committing sprawling fraud. He’s gone too. Now there’s a new guy coming. He’s the FNG. So, let’s say Wells is in progress.
Meanwhile, Morningstar pins a $58.00 price target on the stock. That suggests a 16% up move from here. That’s without the 4.15% dividend. Is it worth it? What makes any dividend stock worth owning? We use wells and a new Barron’s article as examples and lessons.
We pose all the proper dividend questions. STOCKjAW talks “Dividend Joy. How Now.”

FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, Reader's Choice, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Data Babylon No Mo. Alteryx.

SEPTEMBER, 12, 2019. “Data analytics” you say? Blood clot. Data has always partied to its’ own specific beat. Lawless Babylon. Nothing’s compatible with nothing and data don’t care. Party on.
Yet insight-rich data falls like confetti over our days. Industry wants that insight. Yeah, from that lawless confetti party. That’s Alteryx.
The Irvine, CA-based company is a twenty-year-long overnight sensation. It’s cured data’s degenerate ways, and delivers goodness straight to the masses, and it’s saving huge amounts of time and labor for everyone. Did we mention it’s up 95% YTD? That’s after its’ -21.19% drop over the past 5 days–the first in its’ history. But is that bad?
Data-driven systems do dictate our every day, but data itself doesn’t need to dominate them. Derived from divergent sources it has always resisted all but the most laborious attempts to mash it together and peer deep inside. Now Alteryx makes that simple, fast, and even predictive. Alteryx “democratizes” data. Now data analytics is “self-serve,” regardless of where the goop comes from. “Data Babylon No Mo. Alteryx.”

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Do We Have A Witness? GE.

AUGUST 18, 2019. The shocking is often unbelievable until it’s believed. Does a historic track record of truth matter? Not really. It’s more fun to simply scoff and savage the messenger. There’s always time to act like you were a professional from the start.
Harry Markopolos has a track record. You’ve heard of Madoff. Harry made that call, four times. The SEC slid his 30 page Madoff Ponzi scheme road map into the trash and split for lunch. They treated him like some mad urban shepherd spouting stories of invisible monsters.
On Thursday Markopolos made another call, this time on GE. He was promptly encircled and ripped on by smug CNBC “hosts.” Aren’t they paid to shed light? No apologies for stark professional failure will be forthcoming. That’s how arrogance works.
Never mind that the man clearly stated his expertise is forensic accounting, and that he and his team worked for seven months investigating. Providing a bullet-point breakdown went nowhere. That’s also how arrogance works.
Charges are just that, until proved. Skepticism is human and healthy. Brute contempt upon first hearing is known as arrogance. “Do We Have a Witness? GE.”

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Blind Investing by Fidelity. It’s More Fun Without Those Pesky Facts.

JULY 18, 2019. Someone wants your help with their Fidelity retirement account you say? Nice. Fidelity’s literally got that covered. Their “Limited trading authority’s” darkly ingenious. Just close your eyes and select.
Who doesn’t enjoy a blindfold for a car rite, or while investing? Handcuffs and half-facts too. Relax, it’s only your nest egg. All mutual finds smell different over the phone. Besides, investing research grows dull when you can actually see the facts.
Admit it. Everybody loves game show-style retirement navigating. Details muck everything up. Fidelity’s unique Zero-View format is for anyone attempting to help a participant in any of the retirement plans they manage. How? Fidelity snaps off the lights and instructs you to ask questions, over the phone. Two ways past this bat-mad lunacy. “Blind Investing by Fidelity.”

FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, MEDIA, Reader's Choice, TECHNICALS, THINKING NOW

Bank Shots. Rates Play Rim Protector.

APRIL, 6, 2019. Buckle your couch belts for all the excitement. It’s simultaneously time for both the Final Four, and Earnings Season. Did your bank transfer? “Survive and move on” remains the way. Please be advised. No shortage of Cinderellas or shilling money managers exists now. And once again, none will fail to foul or front for their favorite financial.
It’s make believe time all over again. Super-heated gases will leak forth from your screens. Back up., content and advertising will meld. Trash will be talked. This smear of nonsense will end only after earnings are done, the nets are cut down, or CNBC finally bloats into a purely promotional gas giant.
“We love Tech–and the financials right here.”
Goddammit. Jamie Dimon doesn’t even “like the financials right here.” “Why do you like the filthy financials?” “They’re cheap, like dirt, and they hit their fros.” Well–of course they do. What else have the banks had to do, except work their fros? NIM is nonexistent.
The banks haven’t done a goddamn thing since that guy on the $10 bill was running the Treasury. What about now? Did Wells Fargo, Chase, or Skank of America transfer to your Final Four? STOCKjAW takes a reality look, again.