I just spent a lovely weekend visiting Mt Gretna with my friends Kamer and Beverly at Beverly’s antique home. It was very beautiful and relaxing. We did experience a summer storm with lots of lightning and thunder in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the lightning hit a tree that took out a neighbor’s porch, but other than that the weekend was mostly uneventful. Just like a relaxing weekend should be.

I took Gracie and she was her sweet and polite self. Eating bacon with us at the local, and fabulous, café for breakfast. She barked at the occasional passing by of a large dog, keeping us informed. But mostly just hung around enjoying being with her pack of three.

Beverly’s home was lovely; all wood paneled rooms and beautiful design features for a home built probably in the 1800’s. Only one thing was a little disconcerting, the floors sloped as well as the porch. She plans to fix the sloping porch, but I don’t think it is possible to fix the floors unless she were to lift the whole house and put it on a new foundation. One of her neighbors actually did this to their home. In the meantime, I had to develop my sea legs.

To get there and back Kamer and I drove in Kamer’s brand-new electric Volvo. So fun. Together we all learned how to charge the car on the highway using Apple Green. Apple Green differs from Tesla charging stations in that it has a nozzle for both Tesla’s and one for all other EVs. They work very different from gas nozzles; you swipe your card and then you wait for the charging station to get ready to charge, a minute or two later it begins. It works the same at the end. You swipe your card and then wait a minute or two for it to power down. We are expert now.

Kamer loves to listen to books on Audible when she drives. She already had a very interesting book ready to go when we first started our journey to Mt Gretna. It was “These Strange New Minds” by Summerfield. It was fascinating. It described how super powerful chips where used to create AI. He broke down language and described in detail how programmer’s developed Large Language Models such as Chat GPU-4. Ultimately AI models will include all human knowledge. He also makes a case that AI does not have human emotion or independent thought.

To my mind. If AI contains all human knowledge. And humans are basically liars. Then it follows that AI lies. Ponder that.

I think they found them in the old faithfuls, Apple, MSFT, Google, Costco. All up, everyone else down.

Too much war. Too much trade wars. Too much Trump. Waiting for Warsh who should speak this week. I don’t think he will move the needle. But let’s see.

Keep tuned.

We went through this the last time Trump was President, no big surprise, here we are again. Different reasons, same leadership.

The good news. The market has probably hit bottom. This means that most stocks will start to go back up. The fall is always faster than the increase in value, meaning you have to wait longer for your favorites to get back to where they were.

If you had to sell to cover your margin, you could now buy as your stock portfolio goes up in value. Since the rise is slower than the fall, you can catch your stock on their way up with more upside potential depending upon the company’s profit and appeal.

Sometimes, the market just seems like a popularity contest. I thought that when I watched how far SpaceX dropped after it’s IPO. But maybe that had more to do with the fact the people buying the stock thought it had a big upside potential, and they were all looking to make a profit and get out of the stock quick. I guess I’m hoping Musk has lost some of his allure. Time will tell on that one.

This far in Trump 2.0 it has been a rocky ride. For those of you who have stuck with it, I hope you are doing well and will continue to hang in there. I may be just an optimist, but I think the market will rebound and everyone will get accustomed to Warsh’s handling of the Fed. Given Trumps latest activities, I would look for at least one rise in interest rates before the end of the year. I think the market has already factored that in. Well, let’s hope so.

Until next time - - -

There is a new wrinkle: Interest rates. There is a 60% chance they will stay as is, and a 40% chance they will go up.

As you know we have a new Fed Chair. Unlike prior Fed Chairs there is no signaling what he might do. We know Trump wanted Powell gone because he knew he couldn’t tell Powell what to do. Will he be able to tell Warsh what he wants him to do? If Warsh listens to Trump, rates will stay the same. If he has access to all the data he needs to make a proper decision, then rates may go up slightly, maybe 25 basis points.

He is scheduled to speak on Wednesday after the Fed Board meets. We have to wait to see what he will do, however in the meantime, the stock market is hedging it’s bets and declining in anticipation of a rate increase.

Trump has paused his war against Iran. But that alone has not allowed for a rise in the stock market. He also reinstituted tariffs. Tariffs are another drag on the market and result in higher prices of everyday goods. Example, just think if they pass the housing bill, and people start building lots of houses, the cost of lumber that we get from Canada will be increased due to the 50% tariff Trump just imposed. Maybe they will be lucky, and he will create a carve-out for the lumber industry.

Bottom line: We may have to wait until after “Fed Speak” to find out if this turns into a bear market (a drop of 20% throughout the market) or not.

Our leader decided to keep attacking Iran, even after the Houthis declared they would cut off another seaway tankers use to transport oil. Plus, he brought back tariffs in spite of the Supreme Court’s “No”. This time 50% on all our trading partners, particularly Canada, our best trading partner and friend.

From the financial reports you would think the market dropped because hyperscaler’s were spending too much on data centers and AI, while adding debt to their balance sheets. That might be true, but it hasn’t changed many companies profit margins very much, so I am skeptical.

As a result of Trumps’ actions (my opinion), the market dropped like a stone.

What do we do when this happens?

I can tell you the best advice I ever got during big slumps in the market was to do nothing at all. Do not sell, do not panic, as the companies have not changed; unless you know otherwise, they are all still doing quite well and making lots of money. Hold tight and wait for the market to come back.

If you buy on margin, you might need to worry about the margin on your account. If you do need to sell something to cover your margin, I would get rid of the big losers and keep the winners. If you are sharp about it, it might be a good time to reposition. Sell something that is going down and purchase a stock you notice is going up or has more historical potential to go up. Examples: MU, AVGO, or AAPL to name just three.

Today’s news suggests, Trump may have been convinced to pause his attacks against Iran.

If this holds, and is not just propaganda, look for an uptick in the market next week.

No kidding, the market under Trump and the Republicans is a rollercoaster ride. So hang tight.

That leads us to an interesting quandary. What if the person managing the contest, was, himself, a writer of one-act plays. And what if the person managing the contest decided to enter the contest by submitting one of his own plays? And further what would happen if he, the manager of the contest, happened to be the winner?

What would you think? Would you think something fishy went on? Would you think he had a right to submit his one-act play just as much as anyone else? What if he had submitted under a pseudonym?

To submit your play you had to pay a reading fee of $20. That is the only thing required outside of the play itself.

I hear there was a lot of complaining that the cost to enter was too much. But really that is what all of the contests charge. If one wants to submit one’s work to any of those calling for submissions, you have to pay at least $20. Some writers suggested there should be a discount if you submitted more than one play. A two for one discount. I guess if you submitted three plays, there would be a three for one discount.

So there is nothing stopping the gentlemen running the contest from submission of his own one-act play, or is there?

Transferring all of the stuff from my old computer to my new one, a breeze.

Opening up each app and trying to use it, a test of my intellectual capabilities. Remembering the password for each and every app and going through an entire setup process for each separately, takes all my fortitude. Every app now has AI. And there is a button for your fingerprint. So why aren’t these two things working together and activating all your apps for you at once, or I’ll even take separately? That is the question?

It only took an hour to activate Microsoft Office with Word and Excel both of which I use regularly. Different steps for each as if they were totally unrelated

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Alright that has been my rant for the day.

The sky out my window grows dark. A storm is approaching. I hear thunder in the distance. My little dog is asleep on her cushion beside me. I think I’m good.

Defaulted to watching soccer playoffs, England vs. Argentina. You know who one. I must say that last goal was breathtaking. It took a minute for the winning team to realize it was over and they had won. And then the melee ensued. Argentina has a chance to win the World Cup for the forth time when they come up against Spain. I will be watching Sunday.

Can’t decide which is more exciting, whose one-act play is deemed best, or which team wins the World Cup.

“Write one true sentence,” he writes, “Start with the first true simple declarative sentence.”

He writes about Gertrude Stein, “her friend,” and Paris. I can’t say that I have met a famous writer recently, or ever. I have meet folks who have written for newspapers and magazines, but a serious writer and a known writer of my time. No. So that subject is out.

I am in Washington, DC, a transplant from Los Angeles. LA has really become unlivable. Too much traffic. Too many people. Too expensive. No trees. In comparison I find Washington to be very easy. It makes me happy to live here.

I look out of my window and see the lush growth of the trees along Rock Creek. If I listen closely, I can hear the birds, in particular a very insistent woodpecker. There are three types of woodpeckers living in the trees and each makes a peculiar sound distinct from the other two. This one is very loud so, although I cannot see the bird today, I do think it is the largest of the three, the pileated woodpecker. They are large and have a bright red crest on the top of their heads. They are the woodpecker of cartoons, I think.

You might be interested to know the names of the other two. They are the red-bellied woodpecker. This one actually has a white belly; there is red on its head, but a smaller amount compared to the pileated. The smallest woodpecker is the downy woodpecker. They are mostly black and while; the male has a small red spot on the back of his head.

To be continued - - -

I was browsing Substact today and someone wrote, “The best way to know life is to love many things,” attributed to Vincent Van Gogh. I thought about this for a minute or two and realized that is exactly what my little dog, Gracie does every day.

From the moment she came into my life, this little black poodle, has had an attitude. She loves everyone and everything. She is thrilled to go for her walks and see new things. She gets excited to meet a new dog, a new squirrel, a bunny, a bee, or a butterfly. She wants to smell them all. She loves the sound of voices talking, she thinks all sounds are directed to her. She wants to stop and greet whoever is making those sounds.

And in return, everyone who knows her, or sees her on our walks comes prepared with treats. There is a woman who I do not know, but who insists she is a “fan” of my dog. Gracie has a fan club?

One of her jobs she has taken on is to warn us when she hears a siren. We live on a busy street and there is often a police car, an ambulance, or a fire truck with a loud siren whizzing by. Gracie stops. Listens carefully, and then she lifts her little head and gives off the sweetest howl. Anyone walking, on both sides of the avenue, stops, looks toward the sound, and laughs. The whole street laughing. I love it.

Seeing the world through Gracie’s eyes. Understanding love is everywhere life is. That is her gift.

Take heart, we all can’t be in on every stock that takes a big leap. My favorite in the category is GE Verona (GEV). I have been making lots of money just following this one this year. It is a company that provides equipment for infrastructure buildout of AI storage facilities; generators and turbines. Others currently doing well on my list are AMD, NBIS, and CRWD.

The big news this past week, of course, was the SpaceX IPO. As promised it went up, but not as much as I thought it would, and then down – and importantly, the insiders have not been able to sell their shares yet. It looks like it will not be the boondoggle that was hoped for. I would say “I told you so, but I’m not that kind of person.”

Based on the sad performance of SpaceX, Open AI is rethinking whether or not to actually complete their public offering. One interesting clue they might not was their inability to find a buyer for the Biopic of the company’s CEO, Sam Altman. Anthropic has made no noise regarding not going through with their IPO, so I would say it is still on track for the fall.

An interesting article in Bloomberg this weekend was regarding the regulation of AI, and which monied people are behind regulation following Anthropic’s lead, and who is behind less regulation. Check it out.

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You might ask what does this company offer the buyer of its shares? First you get a piece of a space program whose goal is to colonize Mars. But the main plan of the company is to build data centers in space. This is actually a good idea. The Times has been reporting that people do not want to live near a data center. I think the complaint is similar to living close to high-power lines. Then we have to ask if these data centers give off a hum of energy, what will happen when they are floating around in space, or are on Mars? I, for one, can’t wait to see what is going to happen.

The next big IPO will be Anthropic or OpenAI, both companies have now filed their initial papers but have not set initial public offering dates. I find these companies more interesting than SpaceX as they are providing services that can be used by companies and individuals; ChatGPT and Claude and their offspring. These companies represent a revolution in computing that may change the future of our species and the way we work.

The world’s governments’ are way behind in addressing the issues that will arise from all this computing power. To discuss those issues are way out of my lane, so I will leave that to others, but it is something an investor should be aware of and educate themselves about.

So for today, tune in, watch the show, and let’s see what happens with SpaceX shares. My guess, as you know, is that they will shoot up like a rocket and then sell off. If you are interested in investing, my advice is wait for the dip.

Each of these companies has been selling stock in the private market. Currently SpaceX stock is selling for $128/share and OpenAI is selling for $733/share. Anthropic is no longer offered, it went up more than $300 when they filed to go public, current price if you could buy it is $589/share. If you want to purchase private stock, a company that offers this opportunity is Forge.

My experience with IPO’s is that when they go public the price shots up like a rocket, then those who got in early start selling their shares, and the price goes down. The price goes down again when insiders are allowed to sell their shares. This term varies depending upon the stock and is easily looked up on Yahoo Finance, or Bloomberg. The term could be 1- or 2-years.

I find that it is best to wait until after this initial price levels out. Then watch it like any stock. When it gets down to a price that seems reasonable for the particular company you are watching buy it. Remember with these three, none of them are currently in profit. They will be, but they are not now. Second thing to be aware of is that they need to spend a lot of money setting up their data centers. So it will be a while before they have excess cash on their balance sheet. Currently they do not meet two of the criteria that would make me buy, that is profit, and balance sheet cash. Is this offset by their bright future? That is the decision to be made.

Bottom line, a whole lot more interesting than crypto, and definitely three companies you want to keep your eye on. Certainly a fun time to be alive.

You decided to take your profit (I did). Now wait for the dip. Buy. Buy the dip. Watch your favorite stocks, when they get down to your price, have your limit order in, and buy it. It will go up. Maybe not today, but it will go up. Usually the days before a holiday, is less trading volume and markets don’t move a lot one way or the other. So plenty of time to get your orders in.

What are the outside forces influencing the Market? Bond and Oil prices rose when Trump said he was going to start bombing Iran. They went down when he announced he would not do that due to pressure from neighboring states. His statements influence the market, and that makes the market, (and us) a little crazy. But – we are still waiting for peace to break out and ships to start moving easily though the strait. So far everything he has done increases prices and gives the Fed a reason to increase rates rather than decrease. We will see what they say at the next meeting with our new Fed Chair Walsh.

Most importantly, for my tech stocks, Anthropic won, Musk lost his case against them. The court escaped folly by ruling on a technicality, Musk waited too long to bring the case to court. Nvda had another record quarter, increased their dividend, and announced its intention to buy back stock (should cause the stock to go up). Big tech news will be the IPO’s of SpaceX, Anthropic, and ChatGPT. Probably in that order starting maybe in September.

If you are buying and selling stock, I would love to hear from you and your experiences. And please subscribe - it is free.

Until next time,

So here I am telling you how I buy and sell stock. I bought GEV at 1007. My goal was to sell at 1100. While I was busy writing my last installment, the stock went to 1122. I was so busy writing my piece, I forgot to put in my sell limit order. When I finally turned my attention back to the market the stock had dropped down to 1065. I missed it! Now I am waiting for it to go back up. It will, I just have to be patient. Just like I keep saying, patience is everything when buying and selling stock. Also paying attention helps.

My granddaughter has AAPL. She noticed yesterday that it has gone up a lot since she bought it. She asked me if she should sell it now. I think it will continue to go up for a while. My opinion is just let it ride until she has time to focus on the market, then when it starts to go down, sell, and buy the dip. The general trajectory of AAPL at this moment in time is trending up. Several market makers have predicted it will go up to the low 300’s, currently at 297.

What did she decide to do? She sold and took her profit. Never a wrong choice.

They are proclaiming a new high in the market on CNBC, so I think it is time to take my profit on my 10 stocks, wait for them to drop 5 points or more, and repurchase picking stocks in my lane, the tech industry. While our President is in China, our market rose. I sold.

It’s Friday, and as expected investors are taking their profits, so stocks have dropped. I say buy the dip.

Watch it go down, compare the prices to your sale price, is it down 5 or more points? Time to buy the dip. Many people will wait until Monday to buy the dip not wanting to be in the market over the weekend.

This time it worked perfectly. That does not always happen, but often enough to be good for us retail investors. More next time.

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I’m back, sorry it took so long. I’ve had a little bout of illness brought on by my allergies and enhanced be nature as she would want to do. Massive quantities of steroids and antibiotics and I am back to my computer typing away. So here goes; my 3^rd installment of my experience making money in the stock market as a retiree.

To recap:

· You have now set up an account in either Interactive Brokers or RobinHood, both apps are investor centric with less fees than the bigger firms.

· You have made an investment or two to familiarize yourself to the way things work on the app.

· You have begun a watch list of stocks you are interested in.

· You are watching your list carefully and may decide to purchase a stock after it has gone up and down once or twice but is clearly on an upward trend.

· You have invested a minimum of $2,000 for your trial run. Then added more stock to bring the value of your investment to a minimum of $25,000. You can now consider buying on margin.

Buying on Margin

A margin account allows you as an investor to borrow money on your account using your existing cash and securities as collateral. It increases purchasing power and acts as a high-risk credit line. For example if you have invested $25,000 in stock, you may borrower using that $25,000 in stock as collateral for as much as an additional $23,000 (remember that $2,000 difference must be maintained.)

The secret to maintaining a margin account and avoiding a margin call, is to always keep your collateral position a minimum of $2,000 under your margin (borrowed amount). If the value of your collateral drops below the $2,000 threshold, the brokerage can call your account and sell some or all of your stock without your permission. This is called a Margin Call.

Buying stock on margin is a wonderful way to maximize your profits, but keep in mind it also magnifies your losses if you sell at a loss or are forced to sell at a loss due to a margin call.

Margin loan interest calculations occur daily, though brokerages typically process the payment by withdrawing funds from accounts monthly. This recurring expense can create a persistent drag on investment performance, diminishing returns over time, particularly when markets trade within narrow ranges or exhibit minimal directional movement.

I tell you all of this as a warning. You must manage a margin account very carefully to avoid margin calls, and to maximize your return on your investment. In theory by using borrowed money for 80% of your investment you increase your potential return by an additional 80%.

In very simple terms here is an example of buying stock on margin: You buy 100 shares of one stock maybe NVDA at $180/share or $18,000. That is $9,000 of your cash, and $9,000 on margin. The stock goes up $6/share. Your 100 shares are now worth $24,000. You decide to take your profit. You sell the stock at $24,000, less the amount you borrowed of $9,000, leaves a profit of $6,000, (not including interest paid on the account or the margin). In other words you have doubled your return.

I call myself, a day trader, but what I do does not meet that definition. I do not normally buy and sell on the same day. My goal is to buy a dip, hold for the rise, and sell at a profit. This generally does not happen in a day. If you are watching the market daily you will note that in general the market as a whole all goes up on a day or all goes down depending on market motivators like the news of an ongoing war, rising prices, particularly oil prices, consumer expectations, interest rates, taxes, and so on. The goal is to catch this wave. Buy when it all goes down and sell when it all goes up. If you miss a wave don’t panic, just hold for the next one. I do this on an individual stock basis as well as my whole portfolio basis. Sometimes I can only take advantage of the wave with one or two stocks, sometimes all 10 of them.

This requires careful managing. You have to be paying attention. That means, for me, if I have a busy day away from my computer, it is probably a day I do nothing. If it is a big day in the market, my loss. Bottom line, I generally try to be at my computer by 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon when the market is open.

I have also noticed, and this is a generality, which is not always true, but the market usually goes down on Mondays and Fridays. Another generality is that the market may go up gradually until it reaches a high, then it drops quickly as everyone takes their profits. So up slow, down fast. You want to take your profit just before you think everyone else will take theirs, or just before the fall. As soon as you see the prices reversing jump in if you have made a profit. Do not sell if it means a loss.

Every day the market goes up and down. Every day every stock goes up and down. Some more than others. I try to buy the most volatile. The ones that show the most movement. Ones I don’t need a special computer program to tell me when to sell or when to buy.

Always remember the market is not static and it is tied to our economy. By participating in the market you are buying into our economy. Our economy is strong, and so is our market. Make it work for you.

Watch for my 4th installment; Growing Retirement Capital in Today’s Market

If you do put your foot in the water, that is buy a stock or two, tell me about your experience. Let’s start a conversation about investing.

Now that you have put together a watchlist, you can begin actually watching your selected stocks. What you are looking for is volatility. A stock that goes up, then goes down, then up again, in some kind of noticeable pattern. This is the stock with which you can make money in the short term.

Over the years I have found stocks that do this. There was a time when Amazon was that kind of stock. I made some money buying and selling and buying again, and so on. I made money on Nvidia before it split. Currently GE Verona is that kind of stock. I bought it, made some money, sold it, and am waiting for the dip to buy it again.

There are others, particularly stocks in the AI world. This is today’s hot issue and is reflected in stock volatility. Do the research and discover what’s happening, and which stocks are moving. Some suggestions are Bloom Energy, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Crowdsource, Palo Alto, Cadence Design, Salesforce, Vertiv Holdings, and of course the magnificent 7. There will be new stocks coming on the scene. I will discuss buying IPO’s in a subsequent installment. In the meantime, you might keep an eye out for ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s IPO.

I keep it simple; I only buy and sell stock. I do not buy options or futures; I don’t do puts and calls. I just buy and sell stock. Sometimes I set a buy limit or a sell limit and sometimes I buy at market price or sell at market price. It is best to set a limit if you can. If the stock you are watching has some volatility, you can set a limit of whatever dollar amount seems like it might dip to. Sometimes you are wrong, and it never gets that low. Don’t give up, try a little higher number. Do it until you start to understand the stock’s highs and lows. Once you buy it and you see it is going up, set a limit to sell. Again, it might not get that high. Don’t be discourage, wait and try again the next time it goes up. Sometimes a stock will surprise you and start shooting up. It is okay to sell and take your profit even if it keeps going up after you sell.

When you get good with a couple of stock think about adding to your portfolio. When I first started out, I kept the number of stocks I held at any one time small in number so that I could watch each one. As I have gotten better at this, I have added to my portfolio. I now hold 7 or 8 different stocks, sometimes as many as 10.

I know people who hold large stock portfolios. They do not buy and sell but hold for the long term. Warren Buffett recommends this as the ideal way to invest. This method is successful as the markets trajectory over the long term is up. This is true since the big depression. At that time, guardrails were put in place to keep what happened to cause that depression from happening again. Now we call down periods, recessions. It is always best if you hold stock and do nothing during one of these occurrences. They come to an end, and then you can start trading again. It is wise not to panic and sell when stocks remain low over a period of time. The companies are still as strong as they were a month ago, so just wait it out. As I keep saying patience is the key to everything.

Kamer Davis asks about the difference between holding for the long term and short-term investing. The difference comes down to your personal goals. If you are still working and really do not have time to watch the market daily, it is a good idea to put together a portfolio of stock that will grow over a period of time. Maybe until you retire.

Some retirees have sufficient capital and are situated so that their dividends are enough to augment their pension or other income. Others of us, did not have that much capital, and therefore we have to figure out a way to make the capital we do have grow. As an example, when I started investing on my own through Ameritrade, I had $75,000 in capital. Over time I was able to add another $125,000. Since I have retired, I have consistently taken out as profit enough to maintain my very nice lifestyle. Some years I have earned less, some more. All dependent upon the markets up and down moves.

In my next installment I will discuss margin accounts.

I found it. The U. S. stock market is the greatest source of income growth ever devised. You just have to figure out how to make it work for you.

There are tons of folks telling you how to invest, and touting their favorite stocks, you can listen to them, you might even learn a thing or two. But I found the best teacher was in the doing.

This is what I did.

First, set up an account on a platform that doesn’t charge per transaction or charges something very minimal. Currently there are two sites that are good for a retail investor; Robinhood and Interactive Brokers (IBRK). I am currently on IBRK, but I have been doing this since Ameritrade first came on the scene about 30+ years ago. When individual investors first had the ability to manage their own accounts and did not have to use a broker. Prior to that you had to pay a lot in commissions to buy and sell stock.

To set up your account just follow the prompts and do attach it to your checking account. You will need that link to transfer funds to your stock account. You will also need the link to transfer funds (hopefully, profits) from your stock account to your checking account.

Okay, you have set up your account. You decide on investing some amount, say $10,000 to start. It could be less. My granddaughter set up her account with a first investment amount of $2,000, her entire savings.

What are you going to invest in? In the early days, a broker friend of mine suggested that one should always invest in companies you know and use. Today, for me, that would be Apple (appl). Everyone I know owns an Apple product of some kind. Apple has been in my portfolio since I started. I like tech stocks. Luckily there are many tech stocks that are good solid companies. You don’t have to just invest in tech, there are other industry stocks that are also worthy of your investment. Tech just happens to be what I know.

After making the first investment, your account is fully in play.

Next set up your watch list. That would be a list of company stocks that are interesting to you, and those you want to follow. Select companies you have heard of, those who have a good balance sheet, are profitable, and do not have a lot of debt, but instead hold cash. If I were putting a new watch list together today, I would start with the magnificent 7, that is Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet (goog, and googl), Nvidia, and Apple makes 7. Then add other interesting companies. I would consider Costco, Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor, GE Verona, Nubius, Crowdsource, Netflix, and there are many others. Pick the ones that interest you.

It is important to listen to a financial program like CNBC and read financial news. My reading online list includes Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg, as well as the NYTimes, and WSJ. Your selected platform will also give you the days business news. I often find good information and suggestions from IBRK’s site. As an example, my granddaughter discovered Nubius on her Robinhood platform. We both invested and made some money with it.

There are certain companies that even if they do go up a lot, I never invest in. They include banks, biotech, medical like Ely Lilly and energy like Chevron. There are great stocks in these categories; I just never go there. If these are areas where you have some knowledge, you could definitely include them in your watch list. See how they do.

I do not invest in any of the alternate currency companies like crypto. I don’t think there is any there there since currency value is based on a country’s production output. I invest in companies that actually make something like Apple or provide a necessary service such as Amazon.

There are many truisms that people who invest often knowingly repeat. Like, “Always buy the dip,” and “Buy low and sell high.” Both work, it is the timing that makes it hard. You really have to follow the market daily to see the patterns as they develop and take advantage of a stock that is about to go up, or you see keeps going up. It takes patience, and it’s definitely worth being disciplined when you buy and when you sell. Another truism, “It is never wrong to take a profit,” If you bought a stock, and it goes up a nice amount, it is okay to sell and take your profit. You can always buy it again. If it continues to go up, don’t kick yourself for not waiting. Just wait for the dip and buy it again. That is the not-so-secret technique I use to make money in the market.

You will unlikely sell at the highest price, and you are also unlikely to buy at the lowest, you just want to grab the wave and ride it up for a profit. This happens when the market is going up in general. When the market is declining maybe you just hold. If you can’t make money, you wait for the time when you can. Remember, everything that goes up will come down before it goes up again. That is true! It you didn’t get in on it in the beginning it is okay to catch the next wave.

There are certain events that are market movers. For example, the market always goes down after the first of the year as people are selling to have money to pay taxes. The market generally goes up after tax day, April 15. Another mover; interest rates. When rates go down, stock prices go up, and when rates go up, markets generally go down. An anticipated interest rate decrease by the Fed will send stocks up. On the other hand, if the rates are anticipated to go up, stocks will go down. Interest rates are manipulated by the Fed in an attempt to manage our currency. The Fed reports quarterly. So stay tuned.

Political events definitely affect the market. Be aware of what is happening in the world. Another truism, “Buy on the rumor, sell on the event.”

Generally speaking a stock goes up just before they report earnings and goes down after. There are exceptions to this particularly when their report “knocks it out of the park,” like GE Verona with their 4/2026 financial report that sent the stock soaring.

A stock whose share price might be $1,000 or more is ripe for splitting. The rule for splits is that the stock goes up before the split, with profit taking after the split.

That’s all for now. Tune in next time for more insights into making money in the stock market.