The Long Term Investor

It was wonderful W. We had a slow smoked turkey and ham. All the trimmings….potato’s, stuffing, sweet corn on the cob, hot rolls, some homemade mac/cheese. The deserts included pecan pie, pumpkin pie, homemade chocolate chip cookies, fruit tray, coconut crème pie, and some ice cream.

After having a bit of everything, I got out today to work some of that off. Christmas decorations and the tree is now fully in place. I also managed to gather some firewood on the property to have a nice crackling fire to sit by tonight and warm my tired bones.

I always look forward to this time of year. The holidays and a nice fire.

I hope everyone here had a good holiday as well.

 

Obviously, due to the above, I missed anything market wise today. Looks like I had a green day. Good enough.

Our last month is upon us. Who knows what awaits us, but the good thing is we can share it together whatever it may be.

 

I see what you are saying, but keep in mind that the largest parts of our federal budget are socialist programs:
- Social Security
- Medicare
- Infrastructure
- Public Education
- The military industrial complex
- "Too Big To Fail"

People like Trump on the right and Zohran Mamdani on the left are an example of the public's raging dissatisfaction with the status quo. The gutting of the middle class, the gig economy, decades of outsourcing, corporatocracy, and the phrase "You'll own nothing and be happy" are coming to a head. Now add in the massive disruption that AI will have with associated layoffs. Those with massive resources simply do not care about average Americans, and their grip on politics is firm. You say it yourself that things are getting dire for many in this country and you are glad that you will not live to see it get worse.

Lazy and extreme lunatics aside, reasonable people are looking for a safety net that will keep them from being pushed to the streets if the rug is pulled from them. As an investor, I am loving my account doing well, but as an open-eyed American, I am positive I will not be looking to Wall Street for a solution to what is going on in this country. Every form of government has its failings, but for more and more Americans, this form of "democracy" is less and less dependable.

 

New week ahead.....I joined some "leftovers" from several accounts I own plus some savings I made last months. Tomorow I will reinforce my main acount (only USA positions). I want to add 2 lots:
-hypothesis A: split money in two, equal lots from MSFT+NVDA; already have both companies, forward earnings from NVDA bellow 25, great quarter (again), but seems loosing some steam....and we know there will the day that huge MOAT will simply vanish; also I already significant position there; MSFT stock still is not cheap, but it now trades below 30 times forward earnings, historically decent entry point
-hypothesis A: pick one of the previous two + adding new position, META (I know W loves this company ); META is trading around 22times forward earnings, so basically it is cheap now; I never had META in my life, but that is not my point, biggest isue truly is their capex projections, in 2025 they spent 60 billions; point is will they see the return from such hyperbolic numbers? Mark Zuckerberg is no dumb and had been more right than wrong...

Well I will think about it today and let you know what I will do.

BTW on other account, international account, I will sell HIMS (a bit of a speculative play) and add a few shares to already VISA existing postion; I wont go rich with VISA but they had been growing around 14% per year so a decent number.

Great Sunday to you all!

Tomorow, December 1 holiday here in Portugal, sort of Independence Day (July 4) for us.

December 1st is a national holiday in Portugal called the Restoration of Independence Day (Restauração da Independência), commemorating the end of 60 years of Spanish rule in 1640. On this day, Portuguese nobles staged a coup, killed the Spanish representative Miguel de Vasconcelos, and acclaimed D. João IV as the new king, restoring Portugal's sovereignty.

A bit of history...

Portugal was born as free nation almost 1000 years ago. In 2043 we will have our 1000 aniversary. Portugal was founded in 1143 with the recognition of its independence by the Treaty of Zamora, marking the beginning of the Kingdom of Portugal under the command of Afonso Henriques. Although the kingdom was founded in 1143, Pope Alexander III only formally confirmed Portugal as an independent and sovereign kingdom in 1179, through the Bull Manifestis Probatum.

 

Seeing the post made me think of my usual annual plan/portfolio review coming up this month. Looks like you are also kind of giving things a look over as well. Not a bad thing to do and see if there are any changes or new ideas to explore.

Have a nice holiday as well. History is always interesting. Looking back and thinking sometimes how improbable things came to be and how it set the course all those years ago is fascinating when you think about it.

 

I was wondering when/if some of these articles were going to start attaching the "AI" phrase to the shopping narrative. It is the "catch phrase" for just about anything now. It has infiltrated almost all of the topics it would appear. I think a bit of it is "fluff" for attention getting. We seem drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

The on-line shopping has been a big deal since it came along. Who wouldn't want to avoid the madness when you can. It is easy and efficient to do. Although, I still like to get out in the season and support some of the local businesses. You can find some unique gifts browsing around sometimes in the local shops.