Is the Stock Market "Weak"? or should you be "Right Here" (SWV Mix)

I get so weak in the knees I can hardly speak.

I lose all control and something takes over me.

In a daze and it's so amazing, it's not a phase.

I want you to stay with me, by my side.

I swallow my pride, your love is so sweet.

It knocks me right off of my feet.

I can't explain why your loving makes me weak.

    ~ Artist: SWV     Song: "Weak " 

I was jamming to some classics and decided I needed the help of SWV to describe how I and many others feel about the economy, stocks, and life right now. Yes, only the classic hits of SWV and that soulful rhythm and blues (R+B) sound of the 90s can really assist in what this market is doing and how it's making people feel. I won't spend much time on the backdrop but if you need a reminder I tried to signal what was to come back in March. Remember it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the impacts of COVID-19 were going to be devastating. These simple facts were in front of us at the time:

- China and the Asia Pacific region had been shut down since early January and even Chinese New Year was canceled (something reported on each day from Beijing by Eunice Yoon and others)

- The market prior to COVID-19 was already near record levels. We hit those levels in my opinion around 2017 when I changed my investment style to ensure I wasn't holding stocks too long (which is contrary to what I believe in). While the market IMO wasn't overvalued, we were in the longest bull market ever recorded (if history serves me correct). Since then, the market continued to melt-up and made us weak in the knees that we could hardly speak. Truss 2019 was a great year, remember: Tesla, Okta, Sprint, Symantec Norton Lifelock, Audentes, Celgene. How good, I got rid of Tesla and Okta way to early. At the time, I was riding great gains, however; they continued to skyrocket further. I feel weak. To put things further into perspective Tesla and Okta aside...the remaining companies I named above ALL got bought out easily making 2019 one of my best years on record investment wise (and the worst personally as I lost my father).

- Finally, I was concerned about the US response to COVID-19. If you flip back to my March posts, I highlighted scenarios that are now playing out when there isn't much of a plan and poor tone at the top leadership --- I said you will get to a situation where US states would start to draw lines in the sand and say citizens from other states cannot cross state lines without strict conditions. Recently, the state of New York told people from 31 states you must quarantine for 14 days (IMO a statement basically saying don't bother coming). I was concerned about the US Lil Nas X culture of "Can't Nobody Tell Me Nothing" to an airborne respiratory disease... who knew that would seriously lead to daily fights about whether masks should be mandated.

So if the market is so SWV "Weak", why is the Nasdaq hitting highs everyday and my portfolio and your retirement plan feeling so good. Well that's where SWV "Right Here" comes in. The Federal Reserve and even Congress has been right here with STIMULUS. I don't have a running total but over $7 Trillion with a T has been pumped into the economy after it began tanking in March.  

Lately, there seems to be

Some insecurities

About the way I feel

Where I wanna be

Boy, you know it's with you

No one can do

The things you do to me

                                                                    ~ Artist: SWV     Song: "Right Here" 

haha The Federal Reserve came out swinging boy. Go back and look at the March lows and damn there were some insecurity about the way we felt. The things you do to us...well here is a list:

- Unemployment + $600

- Federal Moratorium on Foreclosures

- Stimulus Check

- Loans to Small Businesses (PPP)

- Economic Disaster Loans

- Purchasing Company Bonds

- $25 Billion Dollar Bailout to the Airlines

Was this response unexpected. Hell No, just look back to the Federal Reserve did back in the 2008 Financial Crisis. I wrote about it here and it even got its own name: the Tepper rally, for my dawg Billionaire David Tepper who laid out the investment thesis --- You DO NOT fight the Federal Reserve when they come in the big guns...they can print money longer than you can stay liquid (if you were betting the market would fall). And that's exactly what happened...they came in with helicopter money, making it rain.  Don't knock my hustle, read here how a strategy from a decade ago prepared us for what to expect:  Tepper - Don't Fight The Fed Reminder

I hope this wasn't complicated but I think you now get how to position yourself going into the end of year and 2021. As my friend said it best after reading my posts, the Federal Reserve and others won't let the machine fail (and this is capitalism👌).  Fast forward to today, the extra $600 unemployment boost IS NOT being renewed. A second stimulus check is coming but smaller and I believe going out to less people. The Federal Moratorium on foreclosures has been extended but what are you going to do if you are a renter...sign up for paying 1 year of back rent once you finally get a job?? This new stimulus package comes in at roughly $1Trillion which will put the government easily over $8 Trillion in newly printed debt...AND after this round I don't feel there is any appetite for more. With 2 new states recently surpassing New York in COVID cases (California, Florida) and states like Texas and Georgia never really shutting down and cases rising...I'm positioning myself for when the Federal Reserve stops pumping the economy full of steroids (whips I mean stimulus).  Delta and American have announced 25K + layoffs after their stimulus ends October 1st and I'm afraid many announcements like this will be coming if we cannot get the cases under control (basically a vaccine). I'll continue to ride the wave and not fight the Federal Reserve but I'll be sleeping with one eye open. Most of my retirement funds are in cash and I'm riding the wave from my personal investment account where I willing to take the risk. Don't get greedy.

My Free Trade Reveal: The stocks that haven't performed well in my portfolio. Notice the theme RETAIL:

COTY - Purchased @ $10  

AMC - Purchased @ $11

Foot Locker - Purchased @ $59

Kohls - Purchased @ 57

Tapestry (formerly Coach) - Purchased @ $30

Red Robin - Purchased @ $20

I was up at one time in all these positions except I believe Foot Locker and Kohls and decided to be aggressive. Lesson(s): manage risk, don't get greedy, and don't believe the hype. Restaurants and Retail are not doing well, bankruptcies are rising and I am working to get out of these positions.  Peace Out

Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD) -- A Possible Solution To Coronavirus

Investing In Yourself – Using Pillars to Build Your Core	https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2015/04/urbanomics-pillars-path-set-for.html
Setting Budgets + Saving for Black Swans	https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2013/02/personal-finance-budget-101-free-credit.html
	https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2019/11/hey-henry-high-earner-not-yet-rich.html
How to Open My First Brokerage Account	https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2015/04/personal-finance-101-starting.html
Diversify your Life (Mind, Body, Soul, + Investments)	Search My Blog

How Are You Feeling -- It's Lit!
This month, I'm still riding high as Symantec/Norton LifeLock and Sprint have me toasting for more good luck to come.  Norton Lifelock offered shareholders a special dividend of $12 this month so you guessed it...we goin' to Disneyland just like Patrick Mahomes said after winning the Superbowl MVP. If you're not good at math well here goes -- if you owned 100 shares you got a $1200 deposit in your and let's say you owned 1000 shares, well you guessed it -- you'd be getting $12,000 for betting on a stodgy OLD cybersecurity company. Sprint and T-Mobile have just announced the deal will likely close by April 1st so in my world of Risk Management...there are NOT many more obstacles to overcome this deal closing as one of my biggest investments in my life closes. I hold Sprint in both my retirement and personal account and Norton Lifelock just contributed only to my retirement account.

Stop Reinventing the Wheel -- Learn From the Greats
I often joke with people that by speaking positive vibes into the world -- you can speak things into existence.  So one of the biggest lessons I've learned over time is to read and research how other greats have walked. I call it the Lexus philosophy. I recall a Lexus executive speaking at a roundtable series in college and I thought the building blocks of the company were simple and smart.  They knew who did what well. By this I mean, he noted that: German's had great engineering, American's dominated in design, and the Japanese were dominant in manufacturing without significant defects. So when Lexus set out they simply decided to borrow best practices from the best companies in the business. I use this philosophy everyday -- don't overthink it...reuse it.

Black History Moment
George Washington Carver - Some called him a botanist or an a pioneer agronomist. He developed amazing uses for plants - peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. Being born a slave didn't stop Carver, he went on to obtain his undergraduate degree from Iowa State and then he accepted a job at the Tuskegee Institute where he invented and reinvented products -- more than 300 way to use peanuts to may products like soap, skin lotion, and paint. Wow - Witness Greatness
Gilead (GILD) - Repurposing Drugs for the Next Virus
Gilead Sciences is a value stock that's right up my alley. I've owned the shares for a few years and it hasn't done a whole lot. But in life, sometimes you have to be patient with just like Carver was with his crops. They had a blockbuster Hepatitis C drug that was no longer protected by patents so they enjoying the legacy riches from that investment and moving on to others. To speed up the process they invest in Kite Pharma in 2017 to bolster their pipeline. But I'm highlighting Gilead today because like Carver, I find in fascinating that firms repurpose things to create new products. In this case Gilead is using an existing HIV drug to fight a new battle against the Coronavirus. Gilead is developing an experimental drug called remdesivir and based on the numbers that continue to come out of the region, I hope the containment measures and drugs of tomorrow can assist to limit the impact of this virus going forward. The options market appears to be betting on Gilead moving higher and I could see it move towards the $80-85 range.

Symantec / NortonLifeLock - It Goes Down In The DM

It's December and I wanted to recap my best performers this year. I hope these notes serve as a way to help develop a strategy and display that it's not hard to invest in things you know.  Ironically, I trade enough that I don't know exactly who were top dawgs until I began doing a little bit of data analytics over the year. So I'll let you know who surprised me and why they made the list from my notes.

Symantec Corp. (SYMC) now known as NortonLifeLock NASDAQ : NLOK

In 2019, Symantec Corp. stumbled onto my radar. Quick background, they are one of the old guards in the IT and cybersecurity space.  They are huge and in almost every large companies data center and for consumers like you and me...many of us use their Norton Anti-Virus system on our home computers. I started hearing rumblings that the financials have not been good and the CEO was stepping down, which led the stock to fall, over 10% I believe (May 2019).  So hear is a name I know is in every large company across the globe and in many households.  So I put my alert to buy Symantec and being a little greedy I waited to pounce at an even lower price. This example shows investing is about both timing and price. 

How my trade unfolded:

Early July 2019 - News hit that Broadcom Inc. had DM'd (my version of trying to hookup) with Symantec Corp. for somewhere around $28 a share. I was right YES! But only on the time of the stock, being greedy on the price, I did NOT own any shares and the stock had probably moved up from around $22 to $26. It wasn't official because Symantec Corp. said if you like it put a bigger ring on it...$28 ain't good enough. For me, watching this was tough because it made sense, but you win some and will lose many. But never forget about the ones that got away.


July 15 2019 - News broke that Broadcom Inc. was officially no longer in Symantec Corp.'s DM. They wanted no part of a golddigger, reaching for more money. Symantec Corp. was officially left at the alter and the stock dropped big time over 15% and was back where I first found it. A song popped into my head: "You don't know what you've got until it's Gone" and I decided to finally
buy Symantec Corp. Why, it was like Broadcom Inc. had done all of the hard work of getting the phone number and then giving it to me to make the call. So I went in big because I knew Symantec Corp. should be trading around the $28 dollar range. Now that's what I call a wingman.

August 8 2019 - Yup you guessed it Broadcom Inc. had the same song in their head too and wanted Symantec Corp. back. But they were more cautious and only wanted to buy Symantec Corp.'s enterprise business which supports those big companies that I talked about...NOT the anti-virus business they sell to consumers like us. How much: $10.7 billion deal, the stock move up to the 24-25 range.

November 5 2019 - Symantec Corp. (SYMC) is no longer in the enterprise space so they are "Feeling Good As Hell" with their new focus on consumer security products and identify protection and change their name to NortonLifeLock NASDAQ : NLOK   (Note: they bought LifeLock a few years ago)

December 10 2019 - Saw news today that McAfee (owned by Intel now) and a few Private Equity Firms are DMing NortonLifeLock. So the stock has jump above $26 dollars on the news

I wanted to thank Symantec / NortonLifeLock, Broadcom, Intel McAfee, and the Private Equity Firms for giving me my best position of the year and all the drama that unfolded better than a scripted drama show or TMZ news feed because I can make $$ of this drama.  Thank you Yo Gotti and Lizzo for songs that popped into my head as I wrote this. Reminder, if I can do it you can too.  I'm tagging Symantec / NortonLifeLock because I think other suitors may be lining up. #investandchill   #investingintheDM #hookupalert