It is too early to look at my account....but....the ticker is telling me that EVERY one of my ten stocks is in the green today. A good way to start the day and the week.
Some earnings. McDONALD'S REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR 2024 RESULTS (MCD) onsemi Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results (ON)
Well the Eagles won the Super Bowl. So i guess the markets are now screwed. Could an Eagles Super Bowl victory tank the stock market? History says yes, but logic says no https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/08/could-an-eagles-super-bowl-victory-tank-the-stock-market.html
Here is the very nice markets today. Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq bounce back as Trump tariff move buoys steelmakers https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live...-tariff-move-buoys-steelmakers-143055763.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "US stocks rose on Monday, eyeing a bounce back from sharp losses as steelmakers rallied after President Donald Trump said he will impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.2%, after the blue-chip index on Friday booked its worst loss in nearly four weeks. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose roughly 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popped 0.9%. Investors are weighing Trump's pledge on Sunday to introduce additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum from all countries, with the official announcement expected on Monday. The new metals tariffs are likely to benefit US steel companies, whose stock jumped. Shares in Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) surged over 14%, while Nucor (NUE) rose nearly 7%, US Steel (X) put on 3%, as questions remain about a proposed Nippon Steel buyout. Aluminum producer Alcoa's (AA) stock also gained. The move marks another escalation in Trump's fast-moving policy overhaul and in the odds of a trade war. Major US suppliers Canada and Mexico — already threatened with tariff hikes, currently on pause — face significant impact. Markets were already bracing for reciprocal tariffs, which Trump said will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday, with immediate effect. The tariffs will apply to all trading partners and will match the duties levied on US products by each country. But the gains for US stocks on Monday suggests that investors are getting used to Trump's trade salvos. Many now see the announcements as a negotiation tactic only, some on Wall Street say. That said, markets are concerned the growing list of tariff hikes could drive up inflation, likely to stall interest-rate cuts. The January consumer price index reading due on Wednesday will be closely watched for clues, alongside the week's updates on retail sales. On the corporate front, 78 S&P 500 companies are set to report earnings this week. McDonald's (MCD) shares rose after same-store sales grew, beating expectations. Coca-Cola (KO), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), and Airbnb (ABNB) are set to follow this week. MY COMMENT A good open today. Reminds me of a normal market in the....old days.
I like this little article. Palantir: A Pivotal Quarter That Changes The Whole Outlook https://seekingalpha.com/article/4756513-palantir-a-pivotal-quarter-that-changes-the-whole-outlook (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Summary While being the most expensive SaaS business in the market, there's a plausible narrative that Palantir may be fairly valued at a mere 30% revenue CAGR. Q4 2024 results give confidence to prior concerns of lacking customer count growth, which is a core driver of the scalability of the business. The launch and proper monetization of Palantir’s AIP product, along with its bootcamp strategy, have driven accelerated revenue growth and customer scalability. Record low customer acquisition costs and improved sales efficiency have fueled strong U.S. commercial segment growth and promising future revenue, as indicated by robust contract metrics. Palantir's growth is of extremely high quality, showcasing not only accelerating growth but also doing so while delivering margin expansion. Since initiating coverage on Seeking Alpha for Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) with a buy rating, the rating has returned 532% against the 23% of the S&P 500. Now, about a year later, Palantir is a much more solid company with a brand-new outlook, and the pastures are green. The one gripe investors have with Palantir is no longer associated so much with the business itself, but rather the stock quote. At the time of writing, the pricing of the quote is 601 times price-to-earnings and 98 times price-to-sales. On the valuation side, many investors would be hard-pressed to tell a narrative where the current quote of $111 per share makes sense. The quote is implying 45% compounded annual growth rates (CAGR) through 2034 at 35% free cash flow to firm margins in a reverse discounted cash flow (DCF) model. In this article, I will highlight why Palantir is turning into a robust fortress of a business and also tell a narrative where trading at ~$100 is not as outrageous as investors might initially think. Scaling the business and resolving past concerns In my previous article, I highlighted market-vesting stock appreciation rights (SARs) that would hit net income and operating income, something that wasn't accounted for in Wall Street estimates at the time (EPS of $0.05 per share), potentially creating negative headlines in case of an EPS miss. Instead, we got last-minute downward revisions of GAAP EPS ($0.03 per share), and Palantir barely met the estimates, and rather than selling off, the stock rallied 24% post-earnings. Type-F Capital, Company filings The reason for the 24% rally might not be as simple as beating on revenue, guidance, and meeting EPS. We have seen aggressive upward revisions of Wall Street estimates post-Q4 earnings, and I believe this quarter was pivotal in highlighting the scalability of the business. As I have covered in previous articles, the magical property of Palantir's go-to-market strategy and how its core business operates is that it truly benefits from scale. Typically, it is difficult to find a high-quality business that can accelerate growth aggressively but also increasingly get more efficient during the same period. Palantir's AIP product allows just that, and while initially, there was no pricing strategy for the product per CEO Alex Karp, we have now hit a phase where AIP is definitely being monetized properly. AIP launched around Q1/Q2 of 2023, and close to every charted metric of Palantir's business will showcase an inflection point post that date. By that, I mean that most downward trends bottomed out around that period and have since then aggressively pivoted to the upside. One of the most obvious ways to gauge how AIP is being monetized is to look at how much of the growth comes from new versus existing clients, where existing clients are made up of any client that's been with Palantir for more than 12 months. Type-F Capital, Company filings Since Q1 of 2024, existing clients have contributed a majority of the growth every quarter. This means that the customer base that has been with Palantir for more than 12 months increasingly spends more with Palantir, showcasing both stickiness, the value of the services, and also the potential for scaling. AIP is currently priced per usage for most customers, unless they have a separate agreement with Palantir. This means that if AIP is used for a single use case within an organization, the invoice from Palantir may not increase by a lot for the customer. However, if AIP is integrated throughout the whole business, or even powers it altogether, the invoice could double or triple compared to only using Palantir's Foundry product. What is even more impressive is that since the low of Q2 in 2023, just as AIP launched, Palantir's growth is actually more explosive than net revenues show. Total revenues include a drag on a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis due to past strategic investment contracts, where they would buy equity in businesses, and in return, the investee had to pay for Palantir's software at two to three times the rate of the then-average contract value. In historical periods, the contribution from these strategic investments was higher and has since then dropped for each passing quarter, creating a drag on revenues while initially providing a boom. If we exclude revenue attributed to the strategic investments, Palantir almost grew at a 40% rate Y/Y, and has grown at 30% for three quarters in a row already. Type-F Capital, Company filings Growth looks even more impressive when looking at the main beneficiary of the AIP bootcamp go-to-market strategy, namely the US commercial segment. The comparison period for Q4 grew 95% Y/Y, and 2024 Q4 still came in at 84% Y/Y against a tough comparison period. Type-F Capital, Company Filings The growth rates that Palantir is showcasing are accelerating, and while impressive, it gets even better. The true beauty of Palantir's scaling mechanism is in part the impressive, accelerating growth, but also how efficient sales become. Seldomly will investors find a business that is accelerating their growth at such a rapid pace while also increasingly becoming more profitable and improving their margins. The impressive quarter came with record low customer acquisition costs and record low payback time for the cost. The formula for how this is calculated can be found in one of my previous articles, as Palantir does not report this metric themselves. Type-F Capital, Company filings With this past quarter as an exception due to the SARs expenses, operationally Palantir has increasingly become more and more efficient. This has resulted in the impressive margin expansion that we have seen over the past couple of quarters, and the trajectory speaks of further margin expansion to come in the future. In essence, Palantir is very capital light, and its scaling mechanism is very sales efficient, meaning they can grow a lot without having to expense a lot of capital. Type-F Capital, Company filings However, while I have identified the reaccelerating business segments and margin expansion as a result of AIP and bootcamps in my previous articles, there were still various points of worry within the business. As of the latest reported period, most of those worries have significantly decreased. One of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) for Palantir is their customer count and how quickly the customer count is growing. Historically, Palantir was solely focused on larger enterprises, as smaller businesses were not able to afford the grand suite of products Palantir was offering. With the modularization of Foundry and the launch of AIP, that has changed. With bootcamps, Palantir could host hundreds and even thousands of bootcamps per quarter, where an average of 6 potential customers would attend. This is a lot more efficient than CEO Alex Karp personally being in talks with businesses and selling, one by one, as Palantir has done historically. While 2021 and 2022 have inflated results due to the strategic partnerships, Palantir was on a downward trajectory in terms of customer growth. After bottoming in Q2 of 2023 as AIP and bootcamps started to take off, we saw a reacceleration of customer count growth from the US commercial side, going from 4% Q/Q to a high of 22%, then it started to decline into 2024. For three quarters in a row, growth was decelerating, which did not make much sense as the number of boot camps Palantir was exponentially increasing. Then finally, in Q4, Palantir showed us a massive jump in growth. Type-F Capital, Company filings This can also be observed on a net total customer basis, with an all-time high increase of 82 customers for the quarter. Type-F Capital, Company Filings Another growing concern of mine was that while the US business was growing at an impressive rate, the non-US segment was flat or even declining. I searched through every Palantir earnings transcript since they went public, and in about 80% of the transcripts, management has been complaining about Europe not wanting to participate in the AI revolution, dating back to the very first public earnings call. This was once again reiterated in the Q4 earnings call, as CEO Alex Karp comments: as I personally care about the broader West, including Continental Europe, despite our best efforts and working on every day, it's anemic. We're growing around 4% on 13% of our company. We don't have a way to break out Europe specifically, and non-US can only be broken out as of Q1 2022, but the trend was obvious; it was going nowhere. Q1 through Q3 of 2024 all had negative growth on a Q/Q basis. Finally, as of Q4 2024, there are signs of hope for this segment with an acceleration. This KPI, in comparison to the customer growth, I am more cautious about, as Palantir management does not inspire confidence in the ability of Europe to grow yet, and I will continue to monitor it closely. Type-F Capital, Company Filings The growth is set to keep accelerating Palantir discloses metrics relating to outstanding contract balances, and by analyzing them, we can get a sense of future revenue growth. All of the related metrics point to Palantir being able to keep up with the accelerating growth. First, there are two metrics that are largely tied together. Total contract value measures the total amount of deal value that Palantir closed in the reported period. That total contract value can then be broken out into deal sizes to get a better grasp of which size of contract has the most activity. Palantir hit an all-time high of total contract value (TCV) this past quarter of $1.8 billion, growing 57% Y/Y. Type-F Capital, Company filings When breaking out the total contract value into deals and sizes, we can see an all-time high across net new deals, deals of $1-5 million, deals of $5-10 million, and deals of over $10 million. Type-F Capital, Company filings While TCV shows us the contract activity for the quarter, it doesn't tell us how much outstanding revenue there is for Palantir to go and collect through delivery of services. For that, we can look at remaining deal value (RDV), which is the total amount of outstanding value associated with signed contracts. However, RDV includes contract options that are not guaranteed, meaning Palantir may not recognize the total outstanding RDV. Type-F Capital, Company filings Palantir has an outstanding balance of $5.43 billion RDV, another all-time high, meaning there is plenty of revenue in future periods already contracted. However, to see actually guaranteed future revenue, investors can turn to remaining performance obligations (RPO), which is split into current and non-current. Current is within 12 months, and non-current is a point in time beyond that. Of note is that not all types of contracts qualify to be included in RPO, namely many of the government contracts. Due to the many variables and nature of various government contracts, such as indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts, they can't be reported within RPO. As such, RPO serves best as a proxy for the commercial side of the business and what guaranteed revenue recognition Palantir can expect in future periods. Type-F Capital, Company filings High-quality business As mentioned previously, the most remarkable property of Palantir to me is its growth or margin expansion, but rather the combination of both. There are various common ways to measure the quality of growth, but for a software-as-a-service business, the rule of 40 is the most common measure. The rule of 40 measures this by summing growth and profitability, with the consensus that if these two equate to 40%, then the growth is considered high quality. A business can grow at 60%, but if their profit margins are eroding as a result at -30%, they do not meet the 40 score barrier. As it's not an accounting standard, the rule of 40 can be formulated loosely and adjusted to suit a specific business. The two components making up the formula are growth rate + profitability margin, but it's up to an individual to assign metrics to represent the growth and profitability. Palantir's own reported formula is as follows: Y/Y revenue growth + operating margin (adjusted for stock-based compensation (SBC) expenses) = The rule of 40 (company reported) However, I prefer to substitute these for Palantir to get a better sense of the sustained growth and cash-generating capabilities of the business. I smoothen out performance by looking at trailing twelve-month figures, and I use free cash flow to the firm margins instead of adjusted EBITDA: TTM free cash flow to the firm margin + Y/Y trailing twelve-month revenue growth = The rule of 40 (Type-F Capital) However, whichever method you choose to calculate the rule of 40, the results are impressive. Type-F Capital, Company filings As noted in every chart, there is a clear inflection point relating to the launch of AIP and the bootcamp go-to-market strategy here as well. Because I use a trailing twelve-month basis for my calculation, it's not as meteoric of a rise as the way Palantir reports it, where they only compare one period to one period. Impressively, since the bottom of Q2 2023, the rule of 40 score has only risen each subsequent period with no drops, the way Palantir reports it. The impressive part is that none of the results show that the score of 81 for Q4 is a one-off; rather, most data points towards another all-time high into the next quarter. CEO Alex Karp had the following remarks relating to the rule of 40 during the Q4 earnings call: Rule of 81 -- they may have to redo the rule because when you're doing twice the rule, of course, maybe the rule isn't fair to other companies, we may have to have a different rule, the rule of 70 or something, but we blew through that over twice the Rule of 40. Valuation At the time of writing, Palantir is expensive; I don't believe anyone can argue that. By expensive, I am referring to pricing: 98x price-to-sales, 601x price-to-earnings, and 267x price-to-free cash flow. However, expensive does not always mean overvalued, as I outlined in my previous article. Professor Aswath Damodaran always speaks of the 3 P's when it comes to valuation: Is it possible, is it plausible, and is it probable? Before valuing the business in earnest as I do in every article, let's first have a look at what the stock price is implying by doing a reverse DCF. A reverse DCF serves the purpose of gauging what the current quote is implying, with as few subjective variables as possible. I use the following assumptions: The discount rate is composed of the equity risk premium for the month of February (calculated by Aswath Damodaran), as well as the current risk-free rate. I will add no subjective business-specific risk to the discount rate and instead only account for the market's equity expectations. I use the risk-free rate as a proxy for terminal growth rate to capture market-implied economic growth. I prefer this approach to using historical economic growth averages because it not only captures the current market-implied expectations but also because economists famously can't predict the next quarter's growth, let alone terminal periods. Prior to this quarter, I feel that a 35% free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) margin would typically not be seen as overly negative or positive for Palantir. With these assumptions in place, Palantir would have to compound growth at 38.3% for the next 10 periods (until 2034) in order to justify a quote of 111. That implies $73.35bn of revenue in 2034 and $25.67bn of free cash flow. The revenue is 84.12% above the current Wall Street consensus for the period (albeit only 1 analyst has projections that far out at the time of writing). Type-F Capital, Seeking Alpha I would say that these assumptions only pass the first P, meaning it is a possibility. I wouldn't say, given the information I have available to me, that this is a plausible or probable scenario due to the extreme revenue expectations at the time of writing. Palantir has surprised investors in the past, so it is possible that in a few quarters from now, this scenario is a lot more likely. So instead, let's account for Q4 of 2024 and make a new assumption. Palantir has reported two straight quarters of more than 60% of adjusted FCF margins. On an FCFF basis, this has been 49% and 58%, but close to 60%. The business is showing operational efficiencies with scale, expanding margins even with explosive revenue growth, which makes it hard to rule out consistent ~60% margins of FCFF. It may seem high, but at the same time, what are the reasons Palantir would not be able to keep 60% FCFF margins over a longer time span given the outlook? Substituting the 35% FCFF margin assumption with 60%, Palantir only needs to grow at 30% to justify a quote of more than $100 per share. This assumption passes the second P in the 3 P analysis, making it a probable scenario. At the time of writing, I find it very reasonable that Palantir will be able to compound revenue growth at 30% given how well positioned they are to benefit from the AI boom, serving as an operational layer without much, if any, competition. 30% compounded translates to $39.5 billion in revenue in 2034, which is less than the Wall Street consensus for the period. Type-F Capital, Seeking Alpha Suddenly, the surge in stock price does not seem as outrageous as the pricing metrics would suggest. However, a valuation is a lot more than a mere Excel exercise. If one is not able to tell a narrative through numbers, then it is not worth much as a valuation. In my actual valuation, it is not quite as rosy yet for Palantir. I have detailed the revenue build for my Palantir valuation in detail, but in summary: The government side has a revenue growth narrative tied primarily to the Department of Defense (DoD) budget and its spending towards AI, of which Palantir has an assumed ~25% market share historically. For the commercial side, I tie growth to the AI software market projections and similarly assign a market share of the overall AI software market based on current growth outlooks and historical market share. The adjustments since my previous article are slightly accelerated DoD AI spending given Donald Trump's position on transforming the USA into an industry leader, as well as a slightly higher AI market share relative to the overall AI software market given Palantir's accelerated and sustainable growth. I have also increased the operating margin assumptions, given the sheer scalability and quality of growth Palantir has been exhibiting. Finally, I have lowered the business-specific risk assumption that is a component of the discount rate. This is based on Palantir executing on many of the fears I had going into Q4, namely the international growth and customer count growth slowdown, which has been reversed. This gives me a fair intrinsic value output of $66.57, or about -40% downside to where the quote is currently trading. Type-F Capital, Statista, Precedence Research Summary Palantir has outperformed my, and by the looks of it, most of the market's expectations yet again with their Q4 earnings results. It is truly impressive how they not only grow aggressively, but also do so while expanding margins and becoming increasingly more profitable. The business is well positioned to capture large parts of the enterprise software market, given that the solutions are not industry-specific, making the total addressable market as large as one can imagine. Many of the concerns I had for the business have been meaningfully de-risked as of the quarter, primarily relating to the customer count growth, which serves as a core pillar for the scalability into future periods. There is still a dark cloud over the international segment, more specifically Europe, but the area has time to come around as the US contribution looks to be sustainable for a long period. The pricing of the stock is expensive; there's no way around that, as is typically the case for companies with most of their value beyond forecasting periods. On a valuation basis, there is a plausible scenario where Palantir deserves to trade at ~$100, assuming 30% compounded growth with margins in line with the last two reported periods. However, on an intrinsic value basis, my fair value per share is ~$67, meaning the current quote is overvalued by quite a margin. However, as has been the case with Palantir, there is a risk in underestimating the operations of the business in the estimates, as well as a plausible scenario for fair value at the current quote. As such, I keep a hold rating for Palantir as investors eagerly wait for new earnings reports to further develop the story." MY COMMENT A nice comprehensive view of PLTR above. There is much to like here....but....you have to keep in mind the RISK with this very young, up-and-coming, company. AND.....when I post stuff like this it is for my own purposes.....I AM NOT...trying to recommend or push this stock on others. SO......PLEASE.....do not run out and buy this stock just because I own it and it is talked about on here. In fact MY ENTIRE PORTFOLIO....is way more aggressive than is probably proper for most people.
We are seeing a VERY BROAD market rally today. I am still sitting on a big gain with ALL ten stocks in the green. I have not looked at my account yet but...... I would not be surprised to see a new all time high. Where we are today is AMAZING considering what was going on in the markets over the past 2-3 weeks with all the skittishness and fear. It is also amazing considering that the BIG TECH companies have been disrespected over that time and earnings generally ignored in favor of doom and gloom over guidance. In other words.....I see a lot of pressure building up under the surface of the markets for a good old fashioned......EXPLOSIVE.....move up in the short term markets. There is a lot of good news, and good earnings that have potential to push a big rally when things finally break free of the negativity. Perhaps the coming NVDA earnings will be a catalyst that sets off this EXPLOSION. Or it could be some news item....who knows. That is now the markets work......periods of up and down action,.......back-filling....consolidation.....and than suddenly BOOM....a big move up. it is never a steady move up....it has always...... for as long as I have been investing......happened in SPURTS that often seem to come out of nowhere.
The markets are......SHOWING ME THE MONEY.....BIG TIME....today. I LIKE IT. Once in a while....short term.....the GOOD GUYS win. By good guys I mean....the little guy....retail investors. COURAGE......ENDURE.....PATIENCE......ENJOY.....CELEBRATE.....that is how I like to do it over the long term. YES.....I will CELEBRATE early today....even if it fades later or even if it is a one day flash-in-the-pan rally. I can always hide out later.
PLTR is on a CRAZY run-up. If you own this stock all you can do is hang on for dear life. The numbers below are.....CRAZY.....but FUN. No......you can not count on this sort of move to last.....it is just way too ABNORMAL. BUT...it is fun while it is happening. 5 Day.......+38% 1 Month.....+69% 3 Month.....+97% 6 Month.....+283% To compare the same with NVDA.....which reflects the total disrespect and skittishness of the general markets toward the big tech darlings. 5 Day.....+15% 1 Month.....(-4.24%) 3 Month.....(-9.12%) 6 Month.....+28% As to PLTR.....we all know the old saying......"dont try to catch a falling knife".....in this case I am not sure it is a good thing to try to....."catch a rocket traveling just below the speed of light".
As to the above.....the "speed of light"....in Miles Per Hour.....approximately 670,616,629 mph. https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2024/02/07/why-is-the-speed-of-light-a-random-finite-number/ You never know what you will learn on this thread. If you want to know in seconds......In miles per second 186,282 mi/s.
Nice data! A little of consolidation at current level, giving oportunity to new shareholder to step in, would do no harm. BTW in my other account, not so long-long term aproach, but also with investing purposes, I opened a new position last Friday at TDOC after viewing their numbers and study a bit their business. I got half position for now, considering to add more above 30$ (if she gets there). A great week to all members!
Imagine how many Pennies are out there siting in jars. Even with no production I think we will see them in circulation for a very long time. Plus....who uses cash anymore? What the end of the penny means for the economy, your piggy bank, and the way America prices items https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/10/wha...s-for-the-economy-piggy-banks-and-prices.html
LOL after I typed the above I actually looked at the article. Here is what it says: "There are currently 114 billion pennies in circulation, or $1.14 billion, or 0.006% of U.S. money, and economists say the impact should be minimal, and it could take decades for the currency to truly disappear, but it’s not wholly without potential inflationary and pricing changes."
Very true.....a good vehicle for retirement savings. A Roth IRA offers a ‘longer runway for tax-free investing,’ advisor says. Here’s how to use it https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/10/roth-ira-tax-free-investing.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points Since 2023, most retirees must take required minimum distributions, or RMDs, from pretax retirement accounts at age 73. However, RMDs don’t apply to Roth individual retirement accounts while the owner or surviving spouse is alive. That can provide more time for tax-free growth over the owner’s lifetime or for heirs, experts say. When saving for retirement, more time in the market can be beneficial depending on your goals and risk tolerance. Generally, the longer your investing timeline, the greater the opportunity to save and the bigger risk you can afford to take. But your investing timeline can be shortened due to required minimum distributions, or RMDs, which apply to pretax 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts starting at age 73. However, RMDs aren’t required for Roth IRAs during the original owner’s lifetime. Surviving spouses can also avoid RMDs if they roll the funds into their own Roth IRAs. Therefore, a Roth IRA provides a “much longer runway for tax-free investing,” said certified financial planner Thomas Scanlon at Raymond James in Manchester, Connecticut. Roth IRA contributions are made with after-tax dollars — meaning that you pay taxes on the contributions upfront — and any future withdrawals you make in retirement aren’t taxed as income. For 2025, the Roth IRA contribution limit is $7,000, or $8,000 if you’re 50 and older, which is unchanged from the previous year. However, you or your spouse must have at least as much “earned income,” such as wages or self-employed earnings, as the amount of your contribution. While there are income limits for direct Roth IRA contributions, there are ways to bypass the earnings thresholds, including Roth conversions, which move pretax or nondeductible IRA funds to a Roth IRA. Anyone with a pretax IRA should “strongly consider” a yearly partial Roth conversion, said Scanlon, who is also a certified public accountant. But it’s important to run tax projections before completing a Roth conversion to avoid unexpected consequences, experts say. Without RMDs during the owner’s lifetime, there can be more “tax-free compounding” — or growth on growth — for heirs who eventually inherit the account, according to CFP Edward Jastrem, chief planning officer at Heritage Financial Services in Westwood, Massachusetts. Since 2020, certain inherited accounts are subject to the “10-year rule,” meaning heirs must deplete inherited IRAs by the 10th year after the original account owner’s death. However, heirs won’t owe taxes on withdrawals. If the adult child leaves the inherited funds in the account for the full 10 years post-death, that’s “another decade of tax-free growth,” Jastrem said. “That’s a big gift to the heir,” he added." MY COMMENT YES....no income taxes and inside the account no Capital Gains tax on stock or other trades. A very nice retirement vehicle for many people. I like to post articles like this. I like to AVOID the assumption that everyone is financially astute. In fact I suspect that a large percentage...perhaps as large as 40-50% of people do not have much financial or investing knowledge. Thus....posts like this one. If you are just starting your financial journey to acquire knowledge....dont worry....we all started just like YOU. It is a life long process of learning.
Still hanging in there with a nice BIG FAT gain today. All ten stocks green with 15 minutes to go. I dont assume anything....I have seen days in the past where there were big moves either direction in the last 15 minutes. BUT.....I have a really good felling about this week and the markets. i am looking for a BIG GAIN week.
I was PERFECT all day today. Ten stocks in the GREEN all day long. I did notice a small drop off in my total gain in the last 15 minutes.....but no matter still a BIG day. PLUS.....I got another big beat on the SP500 today by.....1.42%. As to tomorrow....BRING IT ON.
Looks like....yet another....all time closing high for PLTR. This is getting a little boring. What an EPIC run.
A soft open today. But....the losses so far are mild........and it is a long day. Stocks Fall as Powell Signals Wait-and-See Mode https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asian-stocks-set-gain-us-222249169.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "(Bloomberg) -- Stocks fell and bond yields rose, with traders keeping a close eye on Jerome Powell’s testimony before Congress after he reiterated the Federal Reserve is in no rush to cut rates. “With our policy stance now significantly less restrictive than it had been and the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” Powell said in remarks prepared for testimony Tuesday before the Senate Banking committee. Equities pushed lower as weakness in most big techs weighed on trading. Meta Platforms Inc. lost traction after notching a 16-day winning streak. Coca-Cola Co. rallied as profit beat expectations. Long-maturity Treasury yields rose more than the rest of the US curve, with those on the 10-year bonds hovering around 4.5%. A gauge of the dollar held steady after two days of gains. Just a day ahead of a key reading on inflation, the Fed chair will face a tough set of hearings on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers likely to prod him on President Donald Trump’s proposals on trade, taxation, immigration and regulation. Powell will appear before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday at 10 a.m., and before the House Financial Services Committee at the same time on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%. The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.53%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed." MY COMMENT NOTHING new above. a continuation of where we have been for months. The losses today are mild and not very significant. The day is not lost....yet.
Thats for sure. Optimism Among Gamblers & Investors? https://ritholtz.com/2025/02/investors-gamblers/ (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "You might have been bored by the not-so-Superbowl last night (at least the better team won this year). Several non-football fans I know chose to go see the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary instead (they raved). But neither the game nor Zep’s origin story was the biggest story last night. Rather, the most intriguing aspect of last night was the gambling. Sports betting on Super Bowl LIX (2025) was estimated at more than $1.5 billion — a 15% increase compared to 2024. This football season saw projections for betting by Americans at $35 billion with legal sportsbooks. Overall, sports gambling is now worth about $150 billion per year. Why do sports fan and gambling junkies keep coming back to throw good money at games? A fascinating new study suggests the answer. The Wall Street Journal discussed this;1 BusinessWeek went into the social aspects of gambling. But the key academic takeaway is this: Sports bettors typically expect to break even on future wagers even when they have consistently lost money in the past. The average gambler predicts they will break even, but in fact lose 7.5 cents for every dollar wagered. Despite evidence from their recent track records, gamblers retain a misplaced sense of optimism. They ignore many of the mathematical truths about wagering and maintain numerous false expectations. Generally, the participating gamblers: -Believe they have an edge, despite their P&L showing they do not; -Deny (at least to themselves) the profound advantage held by the house; -Claim to be doing this for entertainment purposes. This is more than mere over-optimism; it also reflects an industry that has grown incredibly adept at taking advantage of the psychological makeups of human beings. Investors share many of the same foibles: over-confidence in their own abilities despite obvious evidence to the contrary, ignoring the advantages of simply being the house (indexing) instead of trying to beat the house (alpha). Having fun with their “real” money, rather than just their “play” money. It is an old but true story. We assume we are investing when what we are so often actually doing is speculating… A few years ago (2015ish?), I was on a panel at the SALT conference in Las Vegas. It was held at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino. I will never forget my experience upon checking in. They had famously purchased numerous priceless works of art, held in a gallery on grounds. But that’s not flashy enough for Vegas, so they made a big deal about displaying two of Monet’s works on the wall in the lobby. They set up velvet ropes and encouraged a line to form to view the works, recently priced at about $40 million each. After checking in, I wandered over to the work to see it. I’ll never forget the exchange between a married couple in front of me; these tourists were intrigued by the works. “C’mon, honey,” the husband drawled to the wife, “Let’s go win us a Monet.” At the time, I thought he was making a pun about the similarity between the artist’s name and the common word for cash. In hindsight, I was incorrect — I now realize that he was dead serious… “What odds do we misunderstand entirely, to our own great detriment?” It’s worthwhile to ask ourselves about the various probabilities surrounding money—risk capital, gambling stakes, speculation, etc…" MY COMMENT Not really my concern.....if people want to LOSE. BUT...yes.....this stuff is rampant in the investing world.
