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The Santa Monica Museum of Art, although I’ve never visited it, has brightened up my week. I read in a recent news story that the museum holds an art sale every year called “incognito.” The idea is simple. Hundreds of artists (over 480 this year) donate paintings, all of them in the same format (8" by 10") and the museum sells them for $300 each, regardless of who painted them. Some of the artists in the sale are quite well known, and their works are worth much, much more than the $300 price. Others are, of course, are worth much less.

A lot has been written in previous Cabot Wealth Advisories about how to pick a growth stock. The advice from my fellow Cabot colleagues is sound and, when followed, will lead to exceptional returns. The editors of the growth-oriented Cabot letters know their stuff, and can produce performance numbers that prove it. But I like value stocks, and I believe that value stocks should be included in your portfolio. In my opinion, your portfolio should contain half value stocks and half growth stocks and should not contain 100% value or 100% growth stocks. Value investing, perhaps more than any other type of investing, is more concerned with the fundamentals of a company’s business rather than its stock price or market factors affecting its price.

Instead of writing a regular issue today, I’m bringing you the top four essays from our recent contest, “How I Lost Money in the Bear Market and What I Would Do if I Had Another Chance.” Our thanks to all our readers who submitted entries -- I thoroughly enjoyed reading your reflections.

I’ve discussed the tumult plaguing the newspaper industry several times recently and after today, I’ll let the topic rest unless something noteworthy happens. But first, I want to share a few more of your letters because they express some ideas that haven’t been voiced here before. Thanks to everyone for writing in, I appreciate you taking the time to share your insights with me and your fellow readers. To read all of the past issues I’ve written about the newspaper industry and see how others responded, go to our Web site archives. If you haven’t shared your view yet, you can do so by sending me an email or commenting on our blog.

In my last issue, I touched on a couple of blast-off indicators, including one that likely triggered a green light a couple of weeks ago when 90% of all NYSE stocks rose above their 10-week moving averages. In addition, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey came out at 55 this month, a big improvement over 41 last month. But the real story is that the lows in confidence usually occur near major bear market lows. Now, I’m not the type of guy to sit here and call for the Dow to hit such-and-such a level by the end of the year; I just take it one day and one week at a time. But the 90% blast-off indicator, along with the truly historic pessimism among investors and individuals, tells me to expect higher (probably much higher) stock prices in the months and years ahead.

Last weekend, I wrote about the mostly car-free German community of Vauban and I received lots of great responses both by email and on our blog. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, the letters gave me a lot to think about and some even made me laugh. Today, I’m going to share some of those responses with you and I invite you to submit a response of your own if you haven’t yet. If you missed last week’s issue, you can read it on our Web site archives.

Back on Monday, I tackled the big challenge of our healthcare system once again, beginning with a few personal stories--including the $840 bill for my wife’s sliced thumb--and finishing with a prediction that the big pharmaceutical companies were in for tough sledding once Washington begins a serious effort to reduce costs. The responses to the column were numerous and excellent, and I share the best with you here.

There is something sadly ironic about a newspaper reporting on its own demise. Certainly it’s important for readers to know what’s going on behind the scenes and for many employees, the decisions being made at their newspapers are the biggest news of the day. But it still shocks me a bit to see headlines in The Boston Globe proclaiming that its largest union rejected $10 million in wage and benefit cuts. In what seems like a “punishment,” union members will now endure 23% pay cuts. It’s almost guaranteed that the very people who wrote, edited and laid out the story will be part of that salary slash.

We recently received a very interesting proposal from a Cabot Wealth Advisory reader who suggested an essay contest with a subscription to a Cabot newsletter as the prize for the best entry. We have never done such a contest, but the reader had obviously thought through the details, and made a very persuasive case. And we liked the idea so much that we’ve decided to hold the contest! We love competitions and we like the idea of asking Cabot Wealth Advisory readers to share their stories and we think others will enjoy reading them. The entries will give us an opportunity to get to know you better, dear reader. And the winner will have a chance to get back into the market with our best advice because the prize is a FREE one-year subscription to a Cabot newsletter!

Chevron Chairman and CEO David O’Reilly spoke about the need for energy security and alternative energy at the recent Chief Executives’ Club of Boston meeting. So clearly, with even Big Oil conceding the pressing need for alternative energies to be in the mix, the future market for Green technologies is huge. How much does Chevron believe this? It’s now the largest non-public utility producer of geothermal energy in the world and is one of the largest installers of solar panels in the United States. Even Big Oil is going Green.

It may seem unnecessary to write covered calls in a raging bull market. but that’s seldom the case. Over time you are likely to get a better return with this income strategy than just holding a market index. And you get a paycheck.

While the rest of the year looks very good for the market, a pullback is likely, if not inevitable, in the weeks and months ahead.

There should be a strong recovery and bull market on the other side of this election and pandemic. Any market spooking shenanigans in the meantime should present a buying opportunity.

This market looks like it wants to go higher. After selling off nearly 10% in September, the S&P 500 has resumed its uptrend and is not far from the all time high.

The positions remaining in the portfolio will benefit if the market continues to move higher.

November was quite a month in the market. It was one of the very best months for the market indexes in decades. The Dow was up 11.8%, the S&P 500 rose 10% and the Nasdaq gained another 11% in the month.

After a rough week, the market is right back in business. Just when stocks appeared on the cusp of a deeper selloff, the S&P 500 started off this week with the best session since June.

The situation looks bright in 2021. Several high dividend paying stocks and sectors have had a big move higher after the vaccine announcements.

The environment for writing calls has deteriorated of late as the market uptrend has been interrupted. A market moving higher increases investors’ willingness to speculate on higher stock prices, and call premiums rise. A choppy market reduces demand and call premiums.

The major indexes had a down day on the first trading day of the year.