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Wondering when to buy stocks? It’s a smart question. Luckily, the answer can be relatively simple. Here’s how to time the market.

Pokemon Go has swept the nation these last three weeks, and seemingly everyone (myself included) has joined in on the fun. It reminds me a lot of how the stock market works.

One of the portfolio stocks reported a big earnings miss; increases dividend and moves from Strong Buy to Buy.

I’m adding E*Trade Financial (ETFC) to the Growth Portfolio today.

The market is testing key levels, as are many indicators, but today’s bounce is a small positive. Today’s bulletin is about Shift4 (FOUR), which cracked support on huge volume two weeks ago and hasn’t been able to bounce at all since. We’re going to sell one-third of our position today and see what earnings brings tomorrow. Our cash position will be around 38% after the sale.

Credo Tech (CRDO) up 10% on Earnings

I noted last week that the outperformance in growth stocks was contributing to some underperformance in our portfolio. That situation has now been flipped on its head. Growth stocks started lagging in the middle of last week, and for the week, the S&P 500 lost 1.24%, the Dow dropped 1.54% and the Nasdaq fell by 1.04%. Utilities and REITs—year-to-date laggards—were the week’s best-performing sectors.

With rapid adoption of cloud-based technologies, subscription software and online advertising, communication, commerce, etc., it’s apparent that technology companies play an increasingly important role in the global economy.

A major challenge in 2024 for investors and analysts alike will be separating the artificial intelligence (AI) “pretenders” from the “contenders.” Super Micro Computer (SMCI), a recent Explorer recommendation, was up 23% this week, and Exscientia (EXAI) shares were up 13% yesterday.

Markets are a bit subdued with low summertime volatility, though some Explorer recommendations are doing very well in the power sectors of cyber and space. Today we take a look at Brazil, which is struggling with high unemployment, Covid-19 and political instability though we offer a new recommendation in a high-growth sector with a clear uptrend in share price.

After a fairly quiet March, emerging markets came to life this week after the revelation of unexpectedly strong manufacturing growth in China, progress on trade talks and lower interest rates—which always help emerging markets.

This week we have a new recommendation that helps power emerging market consumer spending, a key driver as these markets transition from exports to consumer spending to fuel their growth.

This has been a relatively quiet week for us in terms of quarterly reports as Repligen (RGEN), which reported this morning (details to follow), was the only portfolio company on the schedule.

This month we’re going with a little-known consulting company that’s growing revenue and EPS in the double digits as it helps organizations adapt to the changing times.

It is growing especially quickly in areas like digital transformation, which is challenging for lumbering organizations in the healthcare and education segments where the firm generates the bulk of its revenue.

With a fresh revenue and profit growth strategy and a plan to return more money to shareholders, this little company’s stock looks great.

Enjoy!

Surging data center demand. Electric vehicles. Heat pump HVAC systems. Severe weather events. Hurricanes. Rising sea levels. North Carolina flooding.

This is just a short list of the drivers behind rising electricity demand, the harsh realities of being behind the curve when it comes to global warming, and the resulting push toward energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Today’s portfolio addition is a small and still-unknown company that helps solve these challenges, moving the country toward a more sustainable, clean-energy future.

I think you’ll find it interesting.

Most of us never take practical economics classes that dive into everyday finances, how to save, how to invest, or how to plan for the future. If you’ve taken an economics class at all, you probably learned more about supply and demand than you did about setting aside an emergency fund. That means that most of what we “know” about money we learned from our parents or just sort of picked up as we went along. So this month, let’s put to rest some of the most pernicious money myths and unfounded beliefs that keep us from achieving our long-term financial goals.

As readers may know, we are generally not the biggest fans of private equity. Our biggest concern is that, while earlier private equity and venture capital funds were remarkably successful in identifying and capturing highly profitable investments for their clients, more recent vintages, going back perhaps 10-20 years, have mostly produced large profits for the fund managers. News that many Johnny-Come-Lately funds will actually lose significant money on the Instacart IPO highlights this problem. High-quality and early movers will likely post enormous profits.

Last week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority hosted hundreds of bankers including the heads of 90 global financial institutions to discuss the current status and future outlook for the world’s capital markets. Despite the increasingly tight grip that China has on Hong Kong, which is leading to a diminished relevance for the island state, notables including Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and Goldman Sachs head David Solomon participated in the in-person meetings. The draw: Hong Kong remains an important gatekeeper for access to mainland China’s financial markets.