The Market Is Down Again

The market has had several days of losses. It has started high and then nosedived or just started down and never goes positive. This will scare many people from the market and could get people to stop investing or pul money out. This is the wrong strategy. Money should be going into stocks. They are still a great buy and certainly have room to go up even higher. Not only do third year terms for presidents always outperform the average but companies are still profitable.

Companies have changed their outlooks and some companies earnings have missed. Many companies are still strong though and will do really well once the oil is more stabilized and consumers have money to spend from saving at the fuel pump.

At this time I am still strongly a bull and believe the market will shake off these early year jitters. In full disclosure, the Christmas season was not as strong as I expected. It did not have the increase in December spending but a decrease. I cannot always be right but it does seem that consumers had money. The consumers did not spend their extra cash. I think they will spend it and some were probably waiting for the deals after Christmas.

Happy Investing in 2015 may it be profitable.

Is Telsa Now a Buy

Telsa looks like a good company. It has good, healthy growing sales. It makes batteries that last and make people want to drive a Tesla. It probably has plans to make more cars that are more accessible and different ideas to expand the idea. Elon Musk is a extraordinary CEO. He pushes new ideas and wants to change the world. He will change the world if the company continues letting him push ideas.

With the recent collapse in oil prices the stock has taken a hit in price but recovered slightly. I think it will continue to fluctuate with the price of oil for awhile but even with cheap oil as long as they design awesome cars people will buy them. this will create huge profits for the company and for the investors.

It is always a risk to invest in a company but Tesla is a good risk. It has a way to change the market and offers a super product that will bring value to everyone in the world. Investors might want to look at it to also receive some of the wealth that will be created.

Big News for Square

I have a square. It was convenient in college if I sold a book to someone else and they did not have cash. Easily accepts every card and then deposits the next day into your bank account of choice. It has done wonders for small merchants that go to trade shows or sell at antique malls. They do not need a full service terminal and can use their smartphone. A much smaller investment. It takes a percentage like any merchant service but it is not exorbitant. It is probably much less than some services. This accessibility and ease of use have made Square grow large and fast. They are competing with the large banks and doing a good job. They just announced that their merchants did $100 million in sales in one day you can read more about that here. This makes it a force to be reckoned with in the field. If only they went public I would invest. They shake up the banks and regular merchants. The only downside to Square and one that I tell the clients at the bank is that Square is not as secure as a regular merchant. With the new EMV chips in cards it will make Square even more vulnerable. They might be able to still compete and maybe even one day able to use the EMV chip.

Square has challenges ahead but they will reinvent and overcome. They will still be very popular for small merchants that do not have the volume for a larger merchant.

Lending Club: Changing the Loan Game

I have been interested in Lending Club since 2010. I heard about it and at first dismissed it as just a blimp because the banks will come back and start lending again. It has stayed and has grown more than 100% in outstanding loans in the past year. That is huge for any lender to double the amount of loans on the books. It has done this with the appeal to investors looking for healthy returns and a good supply of worthy debtors. It requires both to succeed and it has them in droves. It makes it easy to get a loan and pay a reasonable rate. They will change the way people look to take out loans. I also see this as a way for millennial to invest more and expect healthier returns. Younger investors are hesitant to invest in the stock market but helping out a neighbor while earning a good return appeals immensely to my generation.

This is why I am going to say that The Lending Club is something that is worthy of investment. It has lots of room to grow and it will change the market for loans. As more hear about it more people will want to take advantage of these loans and the terms. They can feel better about the loans because most of the interest paid goes to an individual investor instead of a bank. People will be less likely to default knowing the disappointment that will come from default. There will always be defaulters but I  think fewer will default using this model and others might start using it too.

I am going to invest in Lending Club too. If the price is good tomorrow I will be there.

Cyber Monday Sales

Online shopping is continuing to be the new medium for people  to purchase Christmas gifts. It is a good deal. Shoppers can purchase items in the comfort of their home, sometimes cheaper than ion store and have it shipped to the doorstep. There are no crowds and the purchasing process is easy and secure. No wonder cyber Monday was even bigger. Black Friday sales in-store were not as good as last year but online sales were certainly made up for anything else. I see plenty of people still shopping and buying items this year. Get in the market before it goes up even more. Retail sales are going to be strong and the consumer is back.

Oil's Collapse and Bad Calls

The recent 10% drop in oil prices now trading about $65 a barrel it means that all the big oil companies took a hit in stock price. Exxon itself took a 4% hit on Friday. This would be bad in the short-term for anyone who followed my advice to buy Exxon a few weeks back. I still think Exxon will recover and might even make more money on cheaper oil. It just hurts to look and see that drop in stock price in a day. This is why we as investors need a well-diversified portfolio. The drop would be bad but it would not hurt the entire portfolio. Just a small drop on a small percentage. Bad but not catastrophic. We try to avoid those when handling money. Also, another reason to diversify in industry and across the globe.

Exxon could still easily recover and I think they will buy back more shares at this cheaper price. They might make more too because consumers are used to high gas prices so there would be less downward pressure to lower gas prices as much as the drop in oil prices. Exxon will also make plenty of money from its large holding of natural gas. Those prices are up and it looks to be a cold winter which will be good for Exxon. It might be several years or it could be in a few months when it recovers. Still la great long term-play.

OPEC is trying to hurt the United States Oil production that is competing with it. I think some of the OPEC members though will not be able to handle this squeeze and will lower production to raise prices. They depend on that money and have gotten used to the high price. It must be maintained in the long run.

Housing Next Year

Home sales in October were so great. It looks to be that the economy has done really well and is still recovering nicely. Home sales of 5.26 million the most since last year in September and October is not normally a great time for home sales. It shows the huge strength in the consumer and that people feel more comfortable in moving and making large purchases. Next year I think it will continue to improve and that rental property will have its bubble burst. People will want to own homes again and they will have more money and more secure jobs allowing them to buy houses.

Not sure if they will want to buy new houses though or will want to buy the glutted amount of existing homes for sale. We will see and I am going to invest accordingly that the home sales will continue to increase.