Let’s talk stocks

The opinions expressed in the Blog are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry.

I haven’t made a post about stocks in nearly 6 years; it was a post about how I bought Paypal stock at $37. Today it’s nearly $290 (nearly a 700% return.) Of course I sold it and never held. UGH. Anyway, I wanted to just revisit stocks due to the whole Gamestop WSB story from a few weeks ago.

Let’s talk about that whole Gamestop thing. I actually did buy AMC stock. I bought it at $14 the day before Robinhoood blocked new buys. It closed at $18.89, so I was up 35% on the day. I was talking shit to my friends who bought DOGE coin that day, who were up way more than me. Anyway, the next day, Robinhood disallowed new buys of AMC and GME. I knew that was a bad sign, so I got out at $10, so out at -30%. I remember thinking how the pain of the loss was way greater than the euphoria in the paper gain. I believe on Monday, Robinhood allowed buys again and it went back to $14. I was a bit miffed, but I was also glad I was out of the game. That’s when I was reassured that daytrading wasn’t for me.

I think my last big stock move was when I said on Twitter how I had moved almost all of my 401K into money market (67% of my ENTIRE portfolio) due to how bad COVID was going to be. Of course looking back that was a bad move since the S&P went up nearly 20% in 2020 H2. See, clearly you shouldn’t financial advice from me.

It was near the end of December when the vaccines came out; that’s when I knew I had to reposition my retirement accounts back into the market. I moved nearly 1/3 of my portfolio into ARK investments (more about that later.) I moved the other 1/3 into one of those ‘high growth investment funds’ that your company offers. The other 1/3 was play money that I never touched. So why did I move 2/3 of my portfolio (and realistically nearly 100% of my portfolio into tech?) Because it’s the industry that I think will grow the most over the next 10 years. I mean sure you could buy travel/airlines (since it should recover after COVID) but it won’t surpass tech over 10 years. I’m not going to buy pharma, oil and gas, automobiles, finance, retail, etc. I’m sure there are some plays in there, but I just don’t think it’s going to grow as fast as electric cars (Tesla is tech right?), artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc.

They say you should diversify your portfolio and that’s why I put my money into the ARK portfolio. Cathy Woods is my diversification. Here’s a random article I found on Google. My diversification is buying the different ARK portfolios – ARKK (mostly Tesla), ARKW (next gen internet so think a riskier ARKK,) ARKG (genomics,) and PRNT (3D printing.) I think once you factor that in, I’m not nearly 100% tech – I’m prob more 100% ‘high risk high reward.’

The other 1/3 of my portfolio aka my play money (these are mostly OLDER positions):

• Apple is 1/3 of the 1/3 (I have some at $31 and some at $18. I still love them long term.)
• I bought SHOPIFY at $306 (still love them but it’s so hard for me to buy more since it’s so high.)
• AMD – got them in December during the Stockpile no fee MS deal. Up 3% only. I feel bad for Intel since they were so dominant 10+ years ago.
• GOOG – I remember buying 10 shares at $800 and laughing at how small that was. Not anymore.
• BYDDF – I bought this over a decade ago when I heard Warren Buffet made an investment. These guys were (maybe are) China’s #1 electric car maker. I got in at $8 a share and wanted to sell them many times but eventually forgot I even owned the stock.
• ABNB – I ONLY bought them because I was scared Schwab would shut me down unless I had some activity, so I went and bought them at $130 and now I’m up 50%.) Thanks MS fear.
• AFRM – This was the last individual stock I bought. You know when you try to buy a Peloton and want to pay it off in payments instead of lump sum, that’s them! Affirm Holdings! It’s like layaway for Shopify stores. I got in at $110, was talking shit when it hit $140 but now I’m down 5%.

I hate when people write about their stock wins but not their losses. That’s why I wrote about my AMC loss and the missed gains from 2020 H2. Also notice how I didn’t directly buy TESLA (it was just too much of a gamble even for me.) Here’s a 5 year chart comparing Apple to SBUX, DIS, and HD. Will it be the same over the next 10 years? Well that’s for you to decide and invest in.