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A growing share of adults believe their finances are heading in the wrong direction, and if you count yourself among them, it’s time to do something about it. This month, it’s time for a financial checkup. We’ll dive into the 10 financial mistakes you must avoid when it comes to spending, saving, investing, and even managing your credit, so you can get yourself on the path to a clean bill of (financial) health.

Only three months ago, the financial community, including investors, analysts, economists, commentators and others, despaired that the Fed’s rate tightening program would produce a hard landing. The resulting combination, of higher interest rates and slowing/negative earnings and economic growth, is toxic for stock markets. Not surprisingly, the S&P 500 tumbled 27% from its highs to touch 3,500 in mid-October.



With the turn of the calendar and minimal discouraging economic news, the same financial community is now optimistic that we’re headed for a soft landing, or possibly no landing at all (economic growth remains positive). Worries that the Fed will inexorably keep raising interest rates have been replaced with the view that perhaps only 25 or 50 basis points of further increases are ahead. The outlook previously labeled as “toxic” has been transformed into “supportive” for equities. In the three short weeks since year’s end, the S&P has lifted 5%.

Environmental, social and governance investing sounds good on paper, but is that really what you’ll be getting when you buy an ESG fund?

In today’s note, we discuss a flurry of key news developments for several of our portfolio positions, including Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Atlassian (TEAM), Intel (INTC) and Janus Henderson Group (JHG).


Two strong earnings reactions after Thursday’s market close bode well for two of our recent portfolio additions.

Designed for both beginners and experienced options traders who seek a disciplined, easy-to-follow options trading system. Chief Analyst Jacob Mintz’s call, put and covered call/buy write recommendations allow you to limit risk, providing leverage and profiting in both up and down markets.

Today’s recommendation is a medical device company whose one product—an insulin delivery system for diabetics—is growing market share rapidly.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor. We hope you enjoy reading the January 2021 issue.

With the turning of the calendar, we list eleven long-term secular trends that we see shaping the world for years to come. We also include four additional trends that investors may think are enduring yet which we have less certainty about their ability to continue indefinitely.



Contrarian investors can benefit from considering these trends. Sometimes the most appealing stocks are those that superficially go against them.



The current recommended list includes 14 names, with Merck (MRK) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) added this month. Earning season is starting soon, so we’ll get updates on how these companies are faring and provide our commentary and analysis on them.



Please feel free to send me your questions and comments. This newsletter is written for you and the best way to get more out of the letter is to let me know what you are looking for.



I’m best reachable at Bruce@CabotWealth.com. I’ll do my best to respond as quickly as possible.

When saving for retirement, most investment gurus tell you to start young, live a disciplined life, diversify and take the long view. But some of us are too old to start young. If you fit into that category, the best way for you to approach investing for retirement might be to allocate some of your portfolio for growth stocks. But make sure you have a system to follow if you choose that path.

Remain mostly bullish, but continue to play things on a stock-by-stock basis. The overall market remains in fine shape, and we’re pleased to see many growth stocks find buyers in recent days (though many still appear to need more time to rest after big runs this year). In the Model Portfolio, we’re buying a 10% position in a leading Bull Market stock that’s pulled back a bit after a decisive breakout. That will leave our cash position near 18%.

On average, our portfolio is outperforming the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index (the most common benchmark for small caps) in 2016. We have a few stocks lagging the index, largely because of a drop in a few stocks over the past few days.

Not much has changed with the market’s picture—most stocks (especially cyclical stocks) are very strong, and we’re happy that the Model Portfolio is off to a good start this year after a great 2020. However, things are also quite frothy, few stocks are at attractive entry points and there remains a bunch of crosscurrents (day-to-day rotation, etc.) that’s making timing trickier.

With the Federal Reserve signaling that the interest rate hiking cycle is over, and there may even be rate cuts in 2024 the bulls cheered this news as the S&P 500 gained 2.5%, the Dow rallied 2.9%, and the Nasdaq added 2.85%.

With the Federal Reserve signaling that the interest rate hiking cycle is over, and there may even be rate cuts in 2024 the bulls cheered this news as the S&P 500 gained 2.5%, the Dow rallied 2.9%, and the Nasdaq added 2.85%.

Despite some weakness early in the week, the indexes bounced back in a big way, closing at new all-time highs. For the week the S&P 500 gained 1%, the Dow added 1.07%, and the Nasdaq soared higher by 2%.

Despite some weakness early in the week, the indexes bounced back in a big way, closing at new all-time highs. For the week the S&P 500 gained 1%, the Dow added 1.07%, and the Nasdaq soared higher by 2%.

The market boomed today after a tamer-than-expected inflation report, with the Dow exploding higher by nearly 1,200 points (3.7%) and the Nasdaq surging 761 points (7.3%).

When the market turns back up, having the shopping list ready will save a lot of research time, and money can be quickly directed into those names that have convincing uptrends. Here are five mid- and small-cap software stocks that are on my radar as potential buys for investors. With forecasts suggesting cloud software will drive 50% of all software investment through 2019 (equal to average annual growth of 18.3%), these stocks deserve a spot on any growth investor’s wish list.

Most of the stocks in our Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio are behaving quite well; two stocks streaked to new highs in the last few days. I have no changes to the portfolio this week.

Although it is plenty large to be relevant (its economy is the 9th largest in the world and is comparable in size to that of Canada), to many investors Brazil remains a regional backwater mired in political scandals and weak corporate governance. Weak oil prices combined with poor government leadership led to sharp recessions in 2015 and 2016.

However, the country’s fortunes may be turning upward. In this issue, we look at five companies that should benefit from Brazil’s incipient turnaround, and also have appealing turnaround potential in their own right.