TradeStop

Inflation data came in hotter than expected. Inflation had dropped three months in a row before January. The jobs market remains robust despite layoffs in the tech sector. Although the market is pulling back, stocks and growth stocks, in particular, have shot up in 2023. These are not things the Fed likes to see, and now the fear is that the Fed will raise interest rates by 0.5% rather than 0.25%. Suffice it to say these factors contributed to the pullback in stocks last week. And let's not forget the fact that, whatever the decision, JPow can make matters worse by talking. Whether or not there is a recession, the market generally bottoms before a recession ends. This is an example of the market being forward-looking. The coming week/weeks could give some opportunities to lower one's cost basis on stocks. Just as growth stocks rise faster than the broader market, they also fall faster. For some investors, that type of volatility is (understandably) too much to handle. I designe...

I've been waiting for earnings season to wrap up, the FED announcement, and the economic data before writing or trading too much. SNOW reports earnings on March 1 and CRWD on March 9. If those stocks drop after earnings, I plan to pick up shares. At the very least, I will DCA those positions. I have some concerns about GOOGL's leadership, fractures in the company, and workers are leaving GOOGL for other opportunities and airing out dirty laundry. The stock is cheap, but I am in no rush to add. Tech is pulling back after a nice run-up. A swing trader would have sold the top (probably using indicators candles as signals) and walked away with a 30% profit or so (assuming a mostly tech/growth stock portfolio). But I am a long-term investor and only sell shares when 1.) The opportunity cost is not so favorable, and I want to buy better opportunities 2.) Taking some profits to put in the piggy bank for an opportune time to buy 3.) When a stock has become too large a position in my po...

  The market has been on an incredible run lately. Growth stocks are on fire and we may have seen multiple short-squeezes today (including UPST). Here is the Model Portfolio's performance since its inception on 11-29-22 against two benchmarks. Model Portfolio:     11.0% SPY:                              5.2% QQQ:                            10.0% Growth stocks, which make up a majority of the portfolio, tend to move in extremes. When the market is up, they rise fast. When the market is down, they drop lower than blue-chip and value stocks. Growth investing comes with a lot of volatility, and if one cannot handle the dramatic ups and down, then growth stock investing might be right for that person. While the Model Portfolio is up significantly, that can change fast -- which leads me to the next topic. There was ...