2 stocks I don’t plan on ever selling
Aug 11, 2021Good morning!
Dow’s up in the early going and that puts a 4-day winning streak on the table if there’s a strong finish.
Let’s get some!
Here’s my playbook.
1 – Yesterday’s Internet outage doesn’t add up
Websites for some of America’s biggest companies got thrown for a loop yesterday including: Amazon, Google, Verizon, Delta, HBO Max, Airbnb, AT&T Fidelity, FedEx, UPS, Southwest Airlines, Home Depot, and others may have been impacted across the country and especially in major cities like New York City; Washington, D.C., and Chicago, according to DownDetector as reported by CNBC.
The situation is being described as a “connection failure” related to Akamai’s Edge DNS service and a service configuration update. Akamai says that the situation was not the result of a cyber-attack.
I do not believe that explanation for a New York minute. It’s too convenient.
Cybersecurity is one of the single largest investment trends of our lifetime because there is a long list of hostile interests wanting to bring the West to its knees. Throwing a monkey wrench into critical services would be a perfect entre, or probe to gauge the response.
2 – Dark pool abuse, 2 stocks I’ll own for life, and more
I had a great, albeit brief, discussion with the fabulous Charles Payne yesterday on his show, Making Money with Charles Payne. And, shortly afterward, my Twitter account exploded (in a good way).
Minutes later, I received an invitation to join a Twitter “spaces” call with loads of super savvy retail investors – aka #Apes - to break down mounting evidence of dark pool abuse by some of the biggest players in the game. I really enjoyed the warm welcome I received, and it was an honour.
Long story short, the discussion we had got me thinkin’.
I’m going to prepare a multi-part series on dark pools … what they are, how they came to be, and critically how to fight back and, dare I say, even win! Not sure just what that looks like yet but stay tuned!
3 – Why Chinese regulators are REALLY clamping down
The West equates economic success with freedom but Beijing views it as a source of control. I’ve spent nearly 30 years in the region, so I speak from personal experience.
The real reason Beijing is clamping down is because a very small group of entrepreneurs like Jack Ma, Pony Ma (no relationship), and Cheng Wei created companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and DiDi and completely changed the face of China’s monetary structure.
Perhaps most importantly, they also caught Chinese regulators completely asleep at the switch and embarrassed ‘em because they were so unprepared for the digital age. In Chinese, this is called “losing face.”
This morning, there’s a fresh round of retaliation and this time it’s the digital educators who are getting thumb-screwed.
4 – Better late than never for PayPal?
PayPal made headlines over its rollout of Zettle, its brand-new POS system. Mind you, POS stands for point-of-sale, not the other acronym… for now.
PayPal fans seem to be excited, but the fact is that competitors have had similar systems in place for a while. Square, for example, has a whole fleet of card and device readers, tons of integrations, and a full commerce stack. Shopify is the same.
If I were on the team, I would’ve focused more on a mass deployment of Venmo’s QR codes system that makes it possible to pay money simply by scanning a QR code. It’s fast, convenient, and most importantly, can literally be printed on a laminated sheet of paper instead of needing an expensive payment terminal. We’ve already seen this system work in Asia a la AliPay and WeChat Pay with great success.
Not a fan, but that’s just me.
5 – JPM: This is a monster development and being totally underreported
JPMorgan opens crypto trading to clients and it’s a monster development that’s being totally underreported in the mainstream press which does not understand the significance.
Long-time readers may recall me talking about this back in 2018 when I first caught wind of the situation and charted a course forward.
But that’s not the real development!
The bank began developing its own cyber currency, JPM Coin, several years ago. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, though, JPM Coin is a “stablecoin” because it has intrinsic value rather than being based on traditional supply and demand.
That’s key because JPM Coin runs in conjunction with the Link payment network used by more than 400 banks for everything from securities settlement – think repo trades – to payment flow. The next step is programmable money, and that IS coming.
JPMorgan remains THE banking choice for my investing dollars.
Bottom Line
Many people think you’ve got to take huge risks to make the big bucks, but I don’t think that’s quite right.
What you’ve got to do is take smart risks.
Let me explain.
Most people ask themselves “what am I going to lose if I do XYZ” but the most successful investors and traders flip that around. They ask what will I lose if I don’t and how do I control risks when I do?
My point is that you’ve got to be in to win, or you won’t!
You got this – I promise!
Let’s make it a GREAT day and another fabulous Friday!
Keith
