The Long Term Investor

I was GREEN today.....by a small amount......very small. AND.....I had EXACTLY the same return in my account......+0.14%.....as the SP500. I cant remember another day where I had an EXACT tie with thee SP500.

My big winners of the day were Nike +1.42% and Home Depot +1.14%.

The year seems to have lost steam as it LURCHES to the last market day of the year......we are now down to the FINAL TWO days. Unless something very dramatic happens we are all probably pretty much locked in with our return for 2021.

 

At least the DOW seems to be continuing in SANTA RALLY mode. Although that does not help me much.

Dow notches its first record in nearly two months as Santa Claus rally continues

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/29/investing/dow-stock-market-today/index.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

Stocks set new records on Wednesday, as both the Dow (INDU) and the S&P 500 (SPX) finished at all-time highs.
Although the S&P hit a record as recently as Monday, the Dow hasn't reached a new high since early November.

The Dow finished up 91 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P closed 0.1% higher.

The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) finished down 0.1%.

Although the gains were broad-based, travel-related stocks, including American Airlines (AAL) and United Airlines (UAL), didn't fare so well Wednesday, amid sweeping cancellations and worries about the Omicron variant.

The rise of Covid infections due to the highly infectious Omicron variant continues to be a concern as pandemic restrictions returned across various European countries. The new variant could take its toll on the already battered supply chain, which would be bad news for consumers, the recovery and the market as well.

Still, it's a quiet final week of the year for Wall Street with little in the way of economic data and many market participants out of the office. This is helping stocks broadly stay on course.

Stocks rise in the last, thinly traded week of the year so often that there's a name for it: It's known as a Santa Claus rally."

MY COMMENT

I guess I should be happy......the SP500 ALSO set a new all time high......and.....I matched it today. So......any money is good money. I am lingering at about an all time high....so I should be happy with where I am considering everything.

 

For those that are FOLLOWERS of Cathie Wood.....here is her latest pronouncement.

Cathie Wood says inflation will 'unwind pretty quickly' and that stocks will probably be fine — here are 3 of her top picks to keep riding the bull

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cathie-wood-says-inflation-unwind-203800523.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Cathie Wood, superstar stock picker and CEO of investment firm ARK Invest, believes the stock market is in a bull run that will continue putting smiles on the faces of investors — so long as the U.S. can avoid a recession.

Despite the sky-will-fall predictions of investors like Michael Burry, Wood recently told Barron’s that the market is “probably going to be fine,” explaining that value stocks, cyclical stocks and defensive stocks all continue to climb despite what COVID-19 and a disrupted economy have been able to throw at it.

Inflation, she said, will “unwind pretty quickly.”

Despite recent turbulence, Wood’s most well-known ETF, ARK Innovation, is up roughly 118% over the last three years. Let’s look at three companies the fund holds significant positions in that should benefit nicely from a continued bull run.

You might even be able to get a piece of them with some of your extra cash.

Shopify (SHOP)

Wood believes Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify is in a position to challenge the space’s biggest player, Amazon, in the coming years. Thanks to its differentiated service and first-mover advantage, Shopify’s upside remains attractive according to Wood.

“We're trying to figure out how Amazon is going to deal with this notion of individuals seeing something on Instagram or elsewhere on Facebook or on Twitter, or on Snap and just buying there," Wood recently told BNN Bloomberg. "That's a Shopify-enabled commerce opportunity and we think it's going to be big."

Shopify is already pretty big. In Q3, the company raked in over $1.1 billion in revenue and currently boasts a market cap greater than $180 billion.

The company’s stock is up about 22% this year, which is good news for ARKK investors. The fund holds more than 425,000 shares in Shopify.

Block (SQ)

If there’s one thing Cathie Wood’s a fan of, it’s disruption. And Block (formerly known as Square) is positioned to be one of the fintech industry’s biggest disruptors.

Block started out as a digital payment platform, and is still among the space’s leaders, but its expanded slate of products — the ever-evolving Cash App, recent offerings for making crypto investing easier, the recently acquired Afterpay — should allow the company to occupy a growing role in an increasingly cashless global economy.

Block’s Q3 gross profits came in at $1.13 billion, a year over year increase of 43%. But the company’s share price has been all over the place this year. It’s currently down about 25% year to date.

Block still takes up a fair amount of space in ARKK — about 3.3 million shares’ worth, which accounts for 3.3% of the portfolio.

DraftKings (DKNG)

If you’re willing to bet on the stock market, it makes a certain kind of sense to target a company that has gambling at the heart of its business.

Sports betting is booming — particularly online. The industry generated about $131 billion in revenue in 2020, according to Zion Market Research, and is projected to grow to almost $180 billion by 2028.

As one of the leading fantasy sports and online bookies in the space, DraftKings stands to be at the forefront of that growth.

In Q3, it expanded its operations into three additional states and brought in revenue of $213 million, a 60% increase compared to the same period last year.

Wood continues to like what she sees. In addition to ARKK holding more than 12.1 million DraftKings shares, she recently added another 55,400 shares in the company to the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF."

MY COMMENT

I tend to agree with Wood on a lot of issues like inflation, the markets in 2022, etc, etc. I do not follow any of her stock picking. Time will tell if she was a media creation for a short while or if she can pull off great SP500 beating long term returns.

 

HERE is another take on the day today and particularly on Omicron.

US STOCKS-Dow, S&P close at record highs as Omicron worries ease

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-stocks-dow-p-close-215232570.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

The Dow and S&P 500 closed at all-time highs on Wednesday on a boost from retailers including Walgreens and Nike, as investors shrugged off concerns on the spreading Omicron variant.

The Dow has now risen six straight trading days, marking the longest streak of gains since a seven-session run from March 5 to March 15 this year.

Walgreens Boots Alliance and Nike Inc rose 1.59% and 1.42% respectively against the backdrop of recent reports suggesting holiday sales were strong for U.S. retailers.

Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. trade deficit in goods mushroomed to the widest ever in November as imports of consumer goods shot to a record, as the coronavirus pandemic has limited spending by Americans on services.

Some early studies pointing to a reduced risk of hospitalization in Omicron cases have eased some investors concerns over the travel disruptions and powered the S&P 500 to record highs this week.

"The market started to recognize that the Omicron variant was in a strange way good news, because it will burn itself out more rapidly because it's easily transmissible, but it's less likely to overwhelm hospitals," said Jay Hatfield, founder and chief executive of Infrastructure Capital Management in New York. Still, he said Omicron arguably is going to be a headwind for at least the next month.

Meanwhile, the S&P 1500 airlines index dipped. Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group canceled hundreds of flights again on Tuesday as the daily tally of infections in the United States surged.

Three of the 11 major S&P sector indexes declined, the energy index, the consumer services sector .SPLRCL and the financial sector are in the red.

Typically, the final five trading days of the year and the first two of the subsequent year are seasonally strong for U.S. stocks, known as the "Santa Claus Rally." However, market participants warned against reading too much into daily moves as the holiday season tends to record some of the lowest volume turnovers that can cause exaggerated price action.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 90.42 points, or 0.25%, to 36,488.63, the S&P 500 gained 6.71 points, or 0.14%, to 4,793.06 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.51 points, or 0.1%, to 15,766.22.

The S&P 500 dipped on Tuesday in the lowest trading volume session of 2021, snapping a four-day winning streak.

As 2021 draws to a close, the main U.S. stock indexes are on pace for their third straight year of stunning annual returns, boosted by historic fiscal and monetary stimulus. The S&P 500 is looking at its strongest three-year performance since 1999.

The focus next year will shift to the U.S. Federal Reserve's path of interest rate hikes amid a surge in prices caused by supply chain bottlenecks and a strong economic rebound.

Among other stocks, shares of Victoria’s Secret & Co rose more than 12% after the intimate apparel retailer announced a $250 million accelerated share repurchase program. The retailer also said they had strong sales over the holidays.

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk exercised all of his options expiring next year, signaling an end to his stock sales. Its shares dropped 0.21% but were still on course to end about 54% for the year.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.89 billion shares, compared with the 11.15 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.20-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.43-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 76 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 77 new highs and 374 new lows.'

MY COMMENT

Personally I see NO danger to the markets from Omicron....other than.....psychological danger. I believe that the current FRENZY to find a Covid test kit is like the toilet paper FRENZY earlier this year. I see absolutely NO REASON why people are lined up for hours in a frenzy to be tested........or to get a home test kit......other than group psychology.

I do......LOVE....the FACT that the SP500 is on track to capture it's greatest three year gains since 1999. Now....that is the POWER of long term investing.

I heard earlier today that ELON sold a big block of stock yesterday. I thought he was done selling a while back.......but I guess not. I think as of today he is now done.

 

I run my personal financial year based on a calendar year.....but.....I do hold onto my November and December income annuity payments as a lump sum to be deposited into my Schwab bank account on January 1 of the new year. I have a lot of larger expenses in January of each year.......property taxes, 4th quarter income tax estimate, HOA dues, etc, etc. SO...the twelve months of annuity money that I use for each year is the payments for November and December of the prior year.....plus.....the January through October payments of the current year. I have done it this way since the income annuity payments started at age 70.

I am ahead of the game this year. I got my January bills done today.....PLUS.....I have my property tax, 4th quarter estimate, and all my January extraordinary payments.......either in the mail as of today or ready to go in the coming weeks.

The forth quarter estimated tax payment is the ONLY quarterly tax payment that I make in a year. I intentionally SKIP the first, second and third quarter payments. The penalty is usually minimal......and now with my NEW LOW income taxes......it is meaningless.

 

OK....here we go.....second to the last MARKET day of the year. AND....also the second to the last day of the year with tomorrow being New Years Eve.

The USUAL open today with the averages in the green. Seems like a repeat of the past couple of days. Nothing new going on in the world or in the markets......so....we should have a shot at ending the day with some gains in all the averages.

 

Here is the second half of a little.....emotional/psychological......article that I posted yesterday.

Six Investment Resolutions for 2022, Part Two

https://americanconsequences.com/kim-iskyan-six-investment-resolutions-for-2022-part-two/

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"4. Anticipate the Un-Normal

Wait… expect things to revert to the norm (that’s Resolution No. 3) – but also expect the unusual? In a word… yes.

One of our biggest enemies in preparing for the unexpected – whether it relates to markets, our careers, the weather, or what’s for dinner – is the baseline assumption that things will more or less be pretty similar tomorrow… that nothing much will change.

This is called normalcy bias. It’s the tendency for people to think that things in the future will be pretty much the way they have been in the past.


One effect of this is we don’t think much about what could be different… how that might affect us… and how to prepare for that possibility.

And that’s a problem. The answer, though, isn’t to dig a new basement and load it with three years’ worth of baked beans and bottled water as a way to “prepare for the unexpected.”

Instead, try this: Awfulize. That is, consciously and intentionally ponder the worst that can happen. (Dale Carnegie, of How to Win Friends and Influence People fame, counseled this.) Face up to the very worst… rationally understand that it’s very unlikely to happen… and do the obvious things to prepare for something awful. Those are things you should probably be doing anyway.

For example: Stash some cash somewhere safe… buy a walkie-talkie set… get a second passport, diversify your banking exposure, and buy property somewhere far away… And, have a Plan Z. And do it today.

5. Stick to Your Stop-Loss Levels

It sounds easy: Cut your losses. It’s one of the most important parts of investing – because if you don’t have money to invest, you can’t make money in markets. (As Warren Buffett said: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Don’t forget rule No. 1.”)

But it’s not easy at all. Crystalizing a loss – acknowledging you were wrong – is one of the more difficult things you’ll ever do as an investor. The only way to make it work, and to resist the temptation to hold on to a loser in the hope of a turnaround – is to make it foolproof, and (most importantly) emotions-proof.

A stop loss is a pre-determined point at which you sell a stock. It’s a way to cut your losers, and let your winners run. A trailing stop loss – the best kind – “trails” a rising stock because it’s a pre-determined percentage below the stock’s high since you’ve owned it.

For example, let’s say you buy a stock for $10 and put a mental trailing stop loss at 20%. That means if the shares fall 20% to close below $10 (that is, to $8), you’ll sell. (Note that you should use closing prices for your stops – not intraday prices.)

Now, let’s say that shares rise to $12 after you buy. Instead of having your stop at $8, your stop will be 20% below the highest price the stock has reached since you owned it – which is $12. So your stop will be $9.60 (that’s 20% below $12).

Remember, even if the stock falls to $11, your stop will stay at $9.60 because $12 is the highest price the stock reached while you owned it. That means the worst thing that can happen (as long as you monitor the share price… and sell according to your stop loss!) is that you lose 4% of your initial investment. In this way, the stop-loss level helps to preserve your gains.

Where you set your stop loss – whether it’s 10% or 50% or something in between – depends on the volatility of the share price, your time horizon, and your risk appetite.


The key, of course, is to honor your stop-loss levels no matter what. That means that if the shares close below your stop-loss level, you sell – no questions asked.

(One important point: Make sure you don’t put a standing market order in at your trailing stop level. You don’t want to tell your broker when you’re going to sell. It “leaves your hand showing” for other market participants to take advantage of you. Make sure that you make it a mental level or a post-it note on your monitor at home – not one that you tell your broker. And then, watch it yourself.)

6. Prepare for a Difficult 2022

Maybe the latest coronavirus variant will fade into the ether and we’ll never need to learn another obscure letter of the Greek alphabet… shares prices will rise… inflation will fade… and purple unicorns that exhale happy pixie dust and poop gold nuggets will greet us in the new year.

But probably not.

In which case, get ready…

Have cash on hand… No matter what – unless things turn really ugly – cash will get you what you need if your debit or credit cards (or Apple Pay) don’t work. But if your cash is in a bank that’s gone bust, or if the ATMs stop working, money in the bank won’t do you any good. So keep enough cash in a home safe to get you by for a few weeks – or a few months, preferably.

Despite the best efforts of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.S. dollar is still the default global currency. Almost anywhere in the developing world (and in much of the rest of it), a U.S. $20 bill can fix a lot of problems very quickly (and a Ben Franklin can fix the rest of them). Just keep enough of them in a safe place nearby.

Keep cash in your portfolio, too… Cash won’t triple in a year, or yield anything more than pennies. And meanwhile, inflation eats away at it. But cash will always be king. It helps you hedge your portfolio: If every stock you own falls, cash will be worth as much as it was yesterday. Cash represents buying potential… When markets fall, the buying power of cash increases.

Legendary investor Jim Rogers explained his approach to investing this way: “I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime.” That is, when obvious investment opportunities arise, take advantage of them… and to do so, you need cash. Not a lot, but enough.

Buy gold… It’s the ultimate form of insurance. It’s maintained value better than any other asset over time, its value tends to rise during times of crisis, and it’s small and easy to transport. And if the world goes Mad Max on us, you might even be able to buy groceries/transportation/guns with it when that cash you have under the mattress is worth nothing more than the warmth it generates when burned.

Download today what you might need tomorrow… In a world where cyberattacks are as common as snowflakes in Siberia, it’s asking for trouble if you assume that your personal data and records that are online – bank or brokerage statements, for example – will be there when you most need them.

Periodically download personal records and store them someplace safe – whether that’s printouts or your hard drive (with a backup in the cloud, and another on a portable hard drive). The last thing you want to do when chaos hits is be stuck on perma-hold to speak with a faceless customer-service agent who wants to do nothing more than get you off the phone as soon as possible when your financial life is hanging in the balance.

Will it happen? Probably not. But in case it does… it’s better to be prepared. And in the meantime, happy new year.

MY COMMENT

I always......mentally......anticipate worst case and best case in my thinking. A necessary skill that I used in business. Of course it does require a level of realism and reality in thinking. It helps to paychologically weather the various storms that WILL come over years of investing.

I do NOT do stop losses....but many do.......so if they help you to have discipline or to mentally be able to handle investing over the long term......why not.

As to being prepared........yes I was a Boy Scout......so I am prepared to anything that might happen. I do own some gold and silver. I keep various paper records. I DO NOT rely on TECH for everything. I could get by.....easily.....if an EMP wiped out all of the tech tomorrow. I DO have an emergency GO-BAG ready near the back door in a closet with various emergency supplies.....hand crank radio, first aid supplies, masks, fire starter materials, water purifying materials, emergency food supply, etc, etc, etc. Having lived in earthquake country for a good length of time I got into the habit.

I have tried to.......also..... set up my financial life with safeguards and protections against failure. I have no debt, own my home free and clear, have a guaranteed income........to the greatest extent possible although there is always some small degree of risk, etc, etc. I have no need to use any of my stock market funds so I am an investor for LIFE.

 

Here is the economic news of the day....that no one will care about.

Jobless claims: Another 198,000 individuals filed new claims last week

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-unemployment-claims-week-ended-dec-25-2021-194905705.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"First-time unemployment filings fell by 8,000 claims from the previous week’s reading, marking the second lowest print during the pandemic and signaling continued recovery in the labor market as high demand for workers pours into the new year.

The Labor Department released its latest report on initial and continuing claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

• Initial jobless claims, week ended Dec. 25: 198,000 vs. 206,000 expected and upwardly revised to 206,000 during prior week
  
• Continuing claims, week ended Dec. 18: 1.716 million vs. 1.875 million expected and downwardly revised to 1.856 million during prior week
  

The newest print brings the four-week moving average to 199,300 in the week ending Dec. 25, Bloomberg data reflected. Continuing claims dropped to a fresh pandemic low of 1.716 million. Forecast for this week's jobless claims release ranged from 190,000-225,000 from 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

First-time filings for unemployment remained below the 2019 average of 218,000, when the unemployment rate was at a half-century low of 3.5%, according to Bloomberg. The current unemployment rate is also expected to edge down to 4.1% in December as the labor market continues to tighten.

At 205,000, last week’s initial unemployment claims were on par with economist forecasts and below pre-pandemic levels yet again. Earlier in December, jobless claims fell sharply to 188,000, the lowest level since 1969. The prints serve an early indication of the relative strength expected to show in December’s jobs report, though the economic impact of the virus remains unclear.

“Fortunately, there’s no evidence in this data of a new wave of fresh job loss,” Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said, commenting on last week’s figures. “New claims are only slightly above the lowest point in decades notched a couple of weeks ago.”

“With so much uncertainty now and the high level of concern about the Omicron variant, we’ll take stability when we can get it,” Hamrick added.

Earlier this month, JPMorgan chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli predicted the unemployment rate could fall to around 3%.

“It's stunning to see how much the rate has fallen in the last five months,” he told Yahoo Finance Live. “We expect that pace of decline to slow, but it doesn't take much to get below 4%, even with a tick up in the labor participation rate, which has been depressed over the last year and a half."

Record cases of COVID-19 may discourage workers from looking for work as U.S. households continue to cite fear of COVID or virus-related caretaking needs as reasons for staying out of the job market.

“The pandemic’s resurgence is affecting the economy,” Hamrick said in a note last week. “The question is for how long and how much, and it is too early to know the answers.”"

MY COMMENT

Good numbers......but the employment data and situation is so screwed up it is impossible to know what is real and what is not. Labor participation can SEVERELY distort the numbers above.

BUT.....all in all.....we continue to recover from the pandemic. We will see this continue over the next 12 months. We have come a long way but we still have a lng way to go to get back to normal. That translates into a long way to go for business and stocks. In other words.....there is a lot of UPSIDE POTENTIAL for stocks and funds over the next 12 months. I will be fully invested over that entire time as usual in order to capture every bit of that upside.

 

Lots of investors have "stuff" that they do at year end. Data they collect and store, reevaluation of their holdings, re-balancing of their portfolio, etc, etc, etc.

I dont do much. I dont re-balance.....I dont keep any great volume of data.....or anything else. The only record I ever keep is the latest statement for each account.....which I replace with the new one when it comes in the mail.

After tomorrow....I will record the annual result of each of my two funds. I will calculate my total return for the year. I will look at the total return data for each stock for the past one, three, and five year time periods. I will look at some of the performance data that I can pull up on Schwab for my accounts and for my holdings.

At this point there is NO DOUBT that I will meet BOTH of my lifelong investing goals:

1. Generate a long term return of at least 10% annually.

2. TRY to beat the SP500 each year. (this is a passive goal, I dont make moves to try to meet this goal)

 

As I type this I see that ALL the averages are in the GREEN so far today. Of course we have not hit the typical mid-morning SLUMP time of the day or the .....dreaded.....East coast lunch hour. The.....FORCE.....in the markets today does seem strong....so I am mentally anticipating a GREEN close today.

Stock market news live updates: Stocks push higher as investors weigh fresh jobs data; Dow jumps 100 points

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-december-30-2021-234405035.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)
"U.S. stocks edged higher Thursday morning after the S&P 500 and Dow each extended a rally to close at all-time highs amid a thinly-traded last week of 2021 on Wall Street.

The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq all looked to build on earlier gains.

Economic and earnings calendars remain light for the final two trading days of the year, though investors turned their attention Thursday morning to fresh data out of Washington on weekly jobless claims.

The Labor Department released its latest report on initial and continuing jobless claims. First-time unemployment filings fell further from last week’s reading, coming in at 198,000 — below the expected 206,000. Earlier in December, jobless claims fell to 188,000 — its lowest level since 1969.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, Samsung BioLogics denied earlier reports that Samsung Group was in talks to acquire U.S. drugmaker Biogen Inc. (BIIB), which was in the spotlight on Wednesday after shares of the drugmaker surged during intraday trading following a report by the Korea Economic Daily, which cited investment banking sources. The report said Biogen approached Samsung to buy its shares in a deal that could be valued at more than $42 billion.

Biogen’s stock closed up 9.46% to $258.31 per share.

Despite a good week for markets, airline stocks continued to falter amid further flight disruptions caused by rising COVID-19 cases and winter weather. Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported cancellations of an additional 250 flights on Wednesday after thousands of halted and delayed flights by major airlines reported during the Christmas weekend.

Delta ended Wednesday's trading session -1.19% down to $39.16 and American Airlines (AAL) closed down 2.64% to $18.05 per share. United Airlines (UAL) saw the session end 1.86% lower at $44.3,

“It’s a controlled meltdown, put it that way,” Boyd Group International president Mike Boyd told Yahoo Finance. Airlines “know where they’re going to be short pretty much ahead of time, and then they have to adjust for it.”

Markets continue to weight rising COVID-19 case, which hit a global record earlier this week. Infections from the highly-transmissible Omicron variant — found to spread 70 times faster than previous strains — comprised much of the newly tracked positive tests, though studies indicate illness caused by the strain is less likely to be severe or lead to hospitalizations.

December was a volatile month for investors who weighed the strain’s impact on the economy, but recent developments that indicate Omicron may cause milder disease helped markets shake off earlier concerns.

“Perversely, bad news around Omicron might be good news for the markets because it gives the Fed the impetus to continue with these very loose monetary policies,” Opimas LLC Chief Executive Officer Octavio Marenzi told Yahoo Finance Live. “Too much good news for the real economy might actually be quite bad for the markets.”

8:50 a.m. ET: Tesla issues recalls on Model 3 and Model S cars
Tesla Inc (TSLA) has recalled more than 475,000 Model 3 and Model S electric cars, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The recall was attributed to two safety-related concerns, including trunk issues with the vehicles and for Model 3s, rearview cameras mounted on these units that might malfunction.

Shares of Tesla fell as much as 2.2% during Wednesday trading after CEO Elon Musk sold another $1 billion of company stock."

MY COMMENT

LOOKING GOOD today. Lets make some money today and tomorrow to ring in the NEW YEAR.

I am NOT big on backward analysis.....so I will be ignoring all the articles that are already starting to pop up on the year 2021 in review. I dont care what happened to the markets in the PAST.....even the recent past. ALL that matters is the present and the future.

SO.....after the next couple of days....the gains of 2021 will be LOCKED IN. Next Monday we will all start at a year to date return or 0.00%.

I have NO CLUE what the new year will bring......although I do think it will be another good year in the neighborhood of +15-20% total returns for long term oriented investors.. One thing is sure.......there will be MANY surprises over the year. ALL I can and will do is stick with my lifelong investing MANTRA......

I (will) continue to be invested for the long term as usual.