Let's Go Splunking - Splunk Inc (NASDAQ: SPLK)

I finally get to write about a stock in my line of work -- CYBERSECURITY! So awhile back, I was tracking the DMs of a few friends in my Mansa Musa Network. I don't recall which ones, but it may have been my guys from the A-Billi squad: Mario Gabelli (Gamco Investors) or Jeffrey Smith (Starboard). But long story short is SPLUNK had been underperforming in the stock world. In the regular world it's like the person that has been single for too long and is finally looking for someone to "Put a Ring on It". So, like the horrible reality TV shows of today, they announced they were looking to hook up in a very public way. I saw my buddies mentioning the value in SPLUNK, but I didn't pull the trigger early on. I was tardy and finally decided to pick up some shares ONLY when they finally announced they had found a partner. This partner was the deep pocketed company, called CISCO. They are well known for their enterprise networking and routing equipment. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the device most people attach to their home network for internet that allows you to have wireless or WIFI service.

Definitely do not quote me because it has been a while, but I believe the buyout price was set at $157.50. So, what I did was use a well-known trading strategy on wall street. You've heard me refer to it before at the arbitrage approach. This means if I have high confidence that the deal (or hook up) is going to get done, an investor like me can benefit from the "spread" or difference between the price of when the deal is announced and what the final buyout or hook up price is. The risk becomes IF the deal does not get done (if the bride is left at the altar), this situation becomes a train wreck. Is this possible? Yes, it is --- see my posts on Tegna. This deal was thought to be all but certain and then the FTC stepped in and said the deal was harmful for customers across the country. So, you saw a stock go from $17 to nearly $22+ and come all the way back down because the deal was under investigation and ultimately canceled.

Now back to SPLUNK. I wanted to show you all what corporate governance looks like and what ownership looks like from an investor's standpoint. I got an email telling me it's time to vote on whether I think the merger should occur. I've pasted that screenshot here. I hope and believe this means we are one step closer to closing the deal. This is a great example of how hookups can help your portfolio.

All Things Investing: Gas Prices | Interest Rates | Venture Cap | Crypto

 

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
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Also Coming Soon - a series on #HowtoInvest. People have been reaching especially after the spikes in Gamestop, AMC, and other stock to learn the basics. I self taught myself how to invest beginning at the age of roughly 18 and have never stopped. To be a good investor and ensure you are not gambling (speculating), I'll cover (hardest parts of investing in RED):

Budgeting 101 - How to Fund Ur Investments?

Why Stocks as an Investment?

What is Ur Investment Profile + Personality?

How to Pick Stocks?

When to Buy Stocks?

How to Enter My Trade?

How Many Stocks Should I Own?

When to Sell Stocks?

Am I Speculating (Gambling)?

Don't Complain About Gas Prices --- Invest

I recently reminded a cyber student training under me not to complain when they see gas prices rising. Use it as a lesson, when things are low buy them on discount. In my older posts, hopefully you noticed the trend where I began to buy few oil and gas investments:

UCO - Bloomberg Crude Oil

Par Pacific Holdings (PARR) -  a oil and gas exploration and production company

When gas at the pump was super low, that was a signal for me to buy it and store it as an investment (so to speak). My only problem as you read was trying to get to cute. It was volatile and I sold it to take advantage of what some of my billionaire buddies do, tax loss harvesting. While UCO was down I sold in at the end of the year to offset my gains and my plan was to repurchase around January 31st (because you have to wait 30 days) to buy back into it for tax purposes. Well all through January oil started to skyrocket. As my wife says, don't be cute just pay the damn taxes...yes ma'am.

Finance 101 - Interest Rates

Many on main street (that's you) don't know that their bank's mortgage rates are loosely tied to the Treasury's 10 Year Interest Rate. I won't bore you with my poor man's econ class but when interest rates drop, mortgage rates soon follow. My next reminder is be patient. I have been talking about refinancing for months now and I finally got the terms I was looking for and close in 1 week. I own 2 home both with rates at 3.25% or lower which means I have optionality going forward. More to come.

Hedge Funds | Venture Capital | Private Equity

I like to speak things into existence and I look forward to starting a wealth management fund someday. I have my hands full in the cybersecurity space but if Elon Musk can build Tesla, solar panels and SpaceX...I must learn how to build my disparate business to scale and sustainability. I was listening to the CEO of a tech firm called Bevy described how they partnered with minority venture funds and I was surprised to learned these VCs (as they are called) are prominently displayed on their website...job well done Bevy...I want to learn how to use your product too. This has motivated me to link with VCs of color such as Kobie Fuller, Arlan Hamilton, Mac Conwell, TD Lowe, Reuben Ogbonna II, Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, Baron Davis (former NBA player), Olatunde Sobomehin, and Michael Johnson (yes Olympic Gold Medalist) and others who were listed as investors or advisors to this young start up. A reminder here to save your pennies...it takes money to make money. To invest in COMPANIES you need to expose yourself to more than just stocks, investing in private companies often leads to outsized gains just ask Nas (made an estimated $100M) and Kevin Durant in Coinbase.

Cost Conscious (Value Investing)

I was reading an article which tried to give insight into Roku recent resurgence. For those of you that don't know Roku have been an amazing investment for me. It's easily in my Mansa Musa Hall of Fame and just became a 2 Bagger!! Yes major bag alert as Wendy's would say. The article is what I would call a two-fer. It discussed a rumor that Comcast might consider sliding into the DM of Roku and or VIACOMCBS. Both stocks are major holdings of mine and I've benefited greatly in the last few weeks from this speculation that Comcast needs to strengthen its streaming option called Peacock. ViacomCBS was beaten down to the point where they traded at prices I like...like getting a 50c candy bar...which is rare to find. So I buy and hold and hope others see the value in a hidden gem. Roku on the other hand is a serious disrupter. We have a Roku soundbar and love it! This is a Growth stock true and true. It's like owning Drake when he signed to Young Money, the investment just keeps delivering.

I'm not a businessman...I'm a Business

So my side hustle has been doing amazing. It sounds simple but to build a company you need to be a company that can solve someone's problem. I've found a way to do that by simply not saying NO. I used to term business away because I wasn't looking at the writing on the wall. Companies all across the country contact me for cybersecurity help. So eventually I stopped saying no and started saying how can I help you. I've hired 3 staff in the last month and this is me moving slowly because my focus right now is on my health. But nothing is more empowering that to give people hope, to give them jobs, and to plant seeds. I plan to spin-off a business that will help people get their business registered, use digital invoicing, payroll, cashflow, and bookkeeping/accounting tools. I hire all types of people but focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion goals to ensure there is diversity in tech. The biggest thing I share with my cyber advisors, consultants, residents, and interns --- is have great soft skills. Don't just be confident on your block --- be confident in a board room, meeting, or gala too. 

Cyber - Crypto, Ransomware

I've been flooded with news about Crypto. I'm still on record, what value does it serve me IF I have to convert that investment back into dollars. I could have just used Zelle, Paypal, Cash App, Venmo. So clearly the primary purpose for bitcoin until full regulation comes in for illegal and illicit activities. My investment in Symantec / NortonLifeLock has boomed as NortonLifeLock has said it will allow consumers to mine for crypto in the future. Breaches are through the roof because the hackers trade in bitcoin in hopes that their trail can't be caught...isn't that basically money laundering. But the hope of Bitcoin may be a bit oversold. Did you read the story about how US was able to retrieve millions of  ransom dollars paid in the Colonial Pipeline hack. Can anyone tell me how that happened for a secure encryption platform where the transactors are anonymous. Either the password was hacked, stolen, or those transactors weren't as anonymous as they thought. Either way I'll stick with my insured bank account for now and just Zelle you your cut of dinner. 

Peace I'm Out

When To Buy - When Markets are Going Down (Mary J Blige Style)

 

PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER ALERTS:

This is a quick hitter post. I wanted to reiterate the "Loner" / "Cancel Culture" investment philosophy I sometimes use. In my previous post, you've seen I often come to the aid of companies that have flat out done or said some stupid things. We are human, make mistakes and should not automatically get canceled. But if you break the law, cause harm to another, or invade my or someone else's space --- I have a different frame of mind. Yes, I said it don't be a 'Karen', BLM hater, Asian hater...or just a hater in general. Life is short, can't we all just get along.

The following premium alerts were triggered yesterday and they represent companies I was following and waited until they got picked on. Every quarter companies release a "health check report" called a quarterly earnings report. These companies were flying high, released their quarterly health check and then got beat down. The beautiful thing I do is to set an alert and wait for it to ring. Similarly to my home buying lesson --- don't get emotionally attached or fall in love with an investment. haha I play hard to get...and it's served me well. Once these alerts trigger, I trade them and send them to my subscriber group. If you're at work on the clock, I can't expect you to search for these stocks, so I have your back and deliver them straight to your phone and inbox.

The market was down big yesterday at one point. It reminded me of Mary J Blige's song "I'm going down, when you're not around" and since I was around I bought these stocks on a down day. If you can guess these stocks correctly, I'll reveal these new purchases:

Stock 1: Hint: Zoom meetings have sent these stocks higher. Say cheese!

S******* Inc 

Health Care : Health Care | Small Cap 

Stock 2: Hint: A grumpy billionaire in my Mansa Musa network is buying this stock so we went huntin' in packs together.

B******* Inc 

Health Care : Pharmaceuticals | Large Cap 

Stock 3: Hint: What does scrolling, streaming, and banning have to do with this stock.

T*******

Communication Services : Interactive Media & Services | Large Cap 

Stock 4: Hint: It appears I beat Cathie Woods into stocks like Draftkings; however, I like this bet she making here and decided to follow Cathie here.

S******* Inc 

Communication Services : Entertainment | Mid Cap

As a cybersecurity expert, I've learned to take advantage of Machine Learning. So I use handpicked data points, enter them into a rules engine, and when my data points hits I get that information sent to me. It's the best way to have my $$ working for me while I'm sleeping. I wake up and then make investments after evaluating that data. If you can guess this stock correctly, I'll reveal the new purchase:

Stock 5: Hint, Indeed, I rolled the dice on this stock and think its a winner.

****** Inc NASDAQ: J*******

Industrials : Professional Services | | Based in China

#getthebag