It happened to my family so you should be aware of it. I got an informative email from $NA / $NTIOF with great breakdown on spotting investment fraud red flags. With so much noise online, it’s worth keeping a sharp eye out for the classic warning signs: • "Guaranteed" high returns: If there's zero risk, there's no market. Period. • High-pressure tactics: If they’re rushing you to wire cash right now before an opportunity passes, walk away. • Vague or secret strategies: If they can't explain how it actually makes money in plain English, it's a red flag. • Unregistered sellers: Always double-check that a platform or promoter is actually regulated in Canada or USA. Real long-term investing is supposed to be boring, steady DCA into broad indexes beats chasing sketchy hype every single time. Protect your capital first.read more
One of the best parts about the Blossom community is how open everyone is sharing knowledge and experiences. To make things easier for anyone just starting their investing journey, here’s a simple glossary to help understand and simplify various terms. Common Terms: Dividend: A share of a company’s profits paid to shareholders, usually quarterly. Ex-Dividend Date: The cutoff date by which you must own a stock to receive its next dividend. ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A fund that holds multiple stocks or bonds, traded like a single stock. Covered Call ETF: An ETF that owns stocks and sells call options to generate extra income (higher yield, limited / capped upside). Earnings Report: A company’s quarterly financial performance summary. EPS (Earnings Per Share): A company’s profit divided by its number of shares. Market Cap: A company’s total value (share price × number of shares). ACB: The total amount you’ve paid for an investment, including the purchase price plus any fees or commissions. Book Value: The value of a company according to its financial statements (assets minus liabilities). Yield: Annual dividend as a percentage of the stock/ETF price. Liquidity: How easily an asset can be bought or sold without impacting its price. Volatility: The degree of price fluctuations in a stock or market. Index: A benchmark of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX). Bull Market: A period of rising stock prices and optimism. Bear Market: A period of declining stock prices and pessimism. False Breakout: When a stock’s price moves above (or below) a key level, making it look like a new trend is starting, but then quickly reverses back. P/E Ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio (stock price ÷ EPS), used to assess valuation. Blue Chip: Well-established, financially strong companies with a track record of stability. Diversification: Spreading investments across assets to reduce risk. Broker: A platform or firm that facilitates buying and selling investments. Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a specific price or better. Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock immediately at the current market price. Bid/Ask Spread: The difference between the highest price buyers offer and the lowest price sellers accept. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Investing a fixed amount regularly to reduce the impact of market swings. Capital Gain/Loss: Profit or loss from selling an investment for more/less than its purchase price. IPO: When a company first sells shares to the public. Index Fund: A fund designed to mirror the performance of a market index. Short Selling: Selling borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back cheaper. Margin: Borrowing money from a broker to buy investments, which amplifies gains and losses. Margin Requirement: The minimum amount of your own money (equity) you must maintain in a margin account to open or keep a leveraged investment position. Margin Call: A demand from your broker to deposit more funds or sell assets because your account equity has fallen below the required margin level. Time Horizon: The length of time you plan to hold an investment before needing the money. Short horizons = more risk-sensitive, long horizons = more room to ride out volatility. Stock Split / Reverse Split: A split increases the number of shares (e.g., 2-for-1) while lowering the price per share. A reverse split reduces the number of shares (e.g., 1-for-10) while raising the price per share. Your overall value doesn’t change just the math. Long (Being Long): Buying a stock or asset because you expect the price to go up. Short (Being Short): Selling a stock you don’t own because you expect the price to go down, so you can buy it back cheaper later. TER: The total yearly cost of owning a fund, including the management fee plus other costs like administration, audits, and legal fees. MER: The annual cost that a fund charges for management (includes any leverage costs if used). Management Fee: A portion of the MER that goes directly to the fund managers for running the fund. Withholding Tax: A tax deducted on dividends/distributions from foreign investments (e.g., U.S. dividends to Canadian investors face a 15% withholding in TFSA/Non-Registered accounts). Total Returns: The full picture of an investment’s performance, including both price gains and dividends/distributions. CAGR: The average yearly growth of an investment over time. NAV: The price of one share of a fund (stock or etf) NAV Depreciation: When the fund’s share price goes down over time. Mutual Fund: A pool of money from many investors used to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets. Bond: A loan you give to a company or government, and they pay you back with interest. Asset: Anything valuable you own that can generate money. Portfolio: Your collection of investments. Option: A contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a set price. Future: A contract to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date. REIT: A company that owns real estate and pays investors income from rent. Alpha: A measure of how much better (or worse) an investment did compared to the market. Beta: A measure of how much an investment moves compared to the market. Sharpe Ratio: A way to see if returns are worth the risk taken. Hedging: Protecting your investments from risk. Rebalancing: Adjusting your portfolio back to your target mix of assets. FCF: Free Cash Flow Understanding these terms makes investing far less intimidating. If anyone feels other terms should be included, please share in the comments. I’ll update this post so we can build a complete beginner-friendly resource together! *Sorry tagged a few etfs for reach 🫣read more
Just a recap this week . I spent additional 1800 CAD purchased some $HHIS$HONE$MSTE shares for my TFSA account . What about you what are your buys this week? #followmenow
For context: $ZETA represents 17% of my portfolio at a $16.56 cost basis, up ~100%, and I haven't sold a single share. Tomorrow I'm publishing my complete $ZETA investment case, and here's a preview of what's inside: - Why ROAS sits at the center of the entire pitch - The data moat no competitor can replicate - Athena plus the OpenAI, Palantir, Snowflake, and AWS partnerships - My DCF and bear/base/bull scenarios running to 2031 I think $ZETA emains undervalued at $32.63, and this is a 3-5 year compounder rather than a 3-5 week trade, so stay tuned. It drops on my Substack tomorrow, subscribe so you don't miss it 👇 https://substack.com/@summitcapitalcoread more
"Selloff," "correction," "bear market" — these words show up in every red-day headline, but they mean different things. A pullback is a dip of less than 10%: the market catching its breath after a rally. A correction is a 10% drop from a recent peak — uncomfortable, but most years have one. A bear market is a 20% or deeper fall over months, signaling something structurally wrong. Thursday's AI slide — Oracle ($ORCL) down about 5%, chipmakers off 3% — was only a mild pullback for the S&P 500. Knowing the labels keeps one bad day in perspective. Not financial advice.
As I'm sure many of you know, Blossom added a new AI detector. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on AI and how I use it to help me create my Blossom posts and other content. If you haven't noticed already, the vast majority of my posts are written using AI. If that bothers you, no worries, you don't need to read my content. Here's how I use AI to help me create my posts: When I find a topic in my QAFP studies or have an idea I think is worth sharing, I talk through it into Wispr Flow for a few minutes. It always starts with an idea or an opinion that I have, and then I talk through that opinion or the new concept that I just learned. After that, I usually get an LLM to make my thoughts more understandable and clear while still trying to preserve all of the ideas and opinions that I have. I have no issue using AI this way because the topic, perspective and responsibility are still mine. It helps me turn a few minutes of rambling into something easier to read. I do see an issue with a large number of AI posts on Blossom and other social media platforms. For example, whenever I see em dashes and glaring AI-isms, I automatically discount the content that I read in those posts. The posts I discount are the ones where it feels like the person contributed almost nothing. The repeated phrases and perfectly balanced sentences are easy to spot, but the bigger problem is that the person did not bring a point of view of their own. AI can make a weak idea sound polished without making it worth reading. I am responsible for every claim I publish, whether AI helped arrange the words or not, and that responsibility matters far more to me than a detector score. How do you feel about AI-assisted posts?read more
I like to keep my TFSA simple. Core and satellite. Nothing fancy. The core is Amazon at 35% and Google at 25%. That's 60% of the account in two companies I have the highest conviction in. Amazon wins on four fronts: AWS, retail, advertising, and now AI efficiency across all of it. Few companies in history have had this many levers to pull. Google owns search, owns YouTube, and is quietly one of the strongest AI players in the world. The market keeps underestimating both of them, and that works in my favor. These are my compounders. I don't touch them. I don't trade around them. I let them work. The satellites are Bloom Energy and Nebius at 15% each. Both are AI infrastructure plays, both with real upside, and both are earlier in their stories than the core names. Bloom is powering the data centers that AI runs on. Every megawatt of AI compute needs electricity, and Bloom sits right in the middle of that demand. Nebius is building the GPU cloud underneath it all, and they're growing revenue at a pace you rarely see. These are the positions where I accept more volatility in exchange for real upside. That's the job of a satellite position. If one of them breaks out and grows beyond 15%, I'll trim it back and let the core absorb the profits. Discipline matters more than conviction when the position gets big. The last 10% sits in SPMO. That's where I park cash and trim profits. It's a momentum ETF, so it keeps the money working instead of sitting idle, and when the market gives me an opportunity to redeploy, I have dry powder ready to go. I'm not trying to be fully invested at all times. Having capital available when everyone else is panicking is a strategy in itself. The way I think about it is simple. Core for compounding. Satellites for upside. Cash for opportunity. The core does the heavy lifting over years. The satellites give me exposure to the highest growth stories in AI infrastructure. The cash lets me act when the market overreacts. I don't rebalance on a schedule. I rebalance on opportunity. If a satellite doubles, I trim. If the market sells off something I want, I buy. The structure stays the same, the weights move with the market, and I stay patient in between. That's the whole thesis, and strategy that has allowed me to accumulate wealth over the past 20 years. I’m interested to hear about the thesis behind the investments of others. Why do you invest in the companies you hold? How is your portfolio structured and what is your strategy? read more
Originally published on Blossom on April 19th, 2024 Please find retrospective commentary at the end. Without a doubt, the most important step to evaluating the direction and magnitude of a company’s stock price over an investor TIME period is fundamental analysis. Sorry, technical analysts and order flow analysts. That’s not to say those approaches don’t have incredibly valuable insight.....even over the long-term and investor TIME periods. But, fundamental analysis requires a deep dive into the balance sheet for an understanding of leverage ratios (debt levels), growth rates in revenue, gross and net profit margins, free cash flows, share issuance, executive compensation, revenue per employee, price to sales, price to book, capital expenditure plans, on and on, etc. Now once we have all these indicators, we need to analyze the company trend in these indicators over TIME, relative to competitors, relative to other industries, or not relative to anything if a company doesn’t have a long enough history. NOW...we also have to keep in mind these ratios are constantly changing.....so we need to monitor these as well. @bradleytalksmoney on Blossom made an insightful observation the other day when doing a fundamental exercise on investing in Blossom and arriving at the conclusion that it’s just too early to be able to fundamentally handicap the company AND THAT YOU ARE REALLY MAKING A BET ON THE LEADERSHIP TEAM TO EXECUTE. And of course, we ALL want Max and the Blossom team to knock it out of the park! Congratulations again to their amazing work! This observation is so true. For all companies and their corresponding stock prices, a longer term INVESTOR (as defined by KTS #11) is really just buying into the capabilities, the vision, and the talent of the leadership team. If they’re not good, the company will suffer setbacks or even fail, and the stock price will follow. Conversely, a management team that can execute on plans to grow the company will see its stock price rise. And @stocksonthego2.0 is exactly right in always making sure you know what you own from a fundamental perspective. Oh geez..fundamental analysis is exhausting and sounds like A LOT OF WORK! It is. And there’s no escaping this. You really need to put the TIME in to understand companies – especially once you own them! You can’t do as Old Charlie used to say, “Buy a few great companies and just sit on your ass!” without staying on top of the fundamentals. After all, Ole Charlie/Warren frequently reversed course on huge investments they’ve made based on an initial fundamental analysis only to not sit on their ass and quickly scale down in a big way or just plain exit when the fundamentals change (e.g. Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, BYD, on and on). BUT – I have a Cliff Notes version for you that gets you close and takes into account a lot of it. Or for younger generations that don’t know what Cliff Notes even are, I have a Chegg or probably now, a ChatGPT easy button (pronounced today with a valley girl dialect “butt-in”). OK, OK, I couldn’t resist. RISING ANNUAL EARNINGS ESTIMATES FOR INVESTORS. There it is. Wall Street wants you to think the financial world is so complicated with endless computer screens and complex algorithms, jargon terms that make them sound like guru experts, premiums, durations, volatility, flows, accreditation, derivatives, risk tolerance, 60:40 models, allocation levels, etc. They want you to think it is overly complicated..... because it’s not. Think about that. They want you in the ocean, but without any life preserver so they can use their predatory behaviors like sharks. The reality is that there are a lot of dummies dominating that industry (not to disparage the several brilliant ones that I have learned to follow and read with the privilege to ride along – like a kid chasing an autograph). But there’s a lot of wealthy people tied to Wall Street that fell into dumb luck and consider themselves experts. Don’t buy it. If you really believe them to be authorities, then you are just taking the bait. That’s the mysterious world they want you to think it is. So recommended exercise for over this weekend: jot down the tickers for each of your holdings (spreadsheet is nice for electronic archival). Then, look back at the TREND IN ANNUAL earnings estimates over the past 3 years – PROVE TO YOURSELF that THE TREND IN EARNINGS ESTIMATES is HIGHLY CORRELATED to stock price movements. What you will see is that companies whose earnings per share rises, their stock price rises. If the earnings estimate trend is flat, then so is the stock price. If the earnings estimates are falling, so is the stock price. WOW! Really? Yes, really. In the end, it all is quite rational (despite periods of irrational markets or unloved/overloved stocks). You will see this correlation in virtually all your stocks and in virtually all stocks in the entire universe. So for INVESTORS, always know the direction of the change in ANNUAL earnings estimates. More coming on the trends in earnings estimates. Retrospective commentary - October 9th 2026 Beskar Capital giving Bradley a shoutout when he says something that makes sense! 🤣 We recently built a fundamental report card for our members – a new tool to assess the overall fundamental strength of their holdings. Anyone who mentions “Report Card” in the comments will receive a private message with instructions to receive a special discount on our website membership. 👍💸 Fundamental analysis has been relegated to the minor leagues in terms of consideration and importance in the investing social space. Exactly what we would expect during the meltup phase of the real estate/banking crisis cycle. Multi-year periods of easy credit will do that. But fundamental analysis is slowly beginning to come back into vogue as the credit tightens. As we said in the original publication of this KTS: there’s no escaping it. The cracks are starting to show. You can feel it. The environment isn’t as rosy as it used to be, and you’re starting to feel like you need more than a few posts from popular finfluencers to build conviction and buy a stock. You need something more solid. And you know it. KTS #65 is a mandatory re-read if you want to build a rocksolid foundation. Most of these finfluencers have no real idea how to assess a company’s fundamentals. I even came across a popular account on this platform that claimed $VST was a natural gas company. 🤣 You wonder if they ever do their own research! 😂 Anybody can make an AI text to hype you up on tech stocks with a story that sounds bullish and completely convincing……without any earnings. This is the meltup. A TIME when you may be better off LEARNING THE FUTURE 😉., which can save you a lot of money…🤑💸 Even when there are specific TIMES when minimizing the role of fundamental analysis is warranted and frankly a good idea, fundamentals must remain at the core of every successful long-term investor’s strategy. Knowing the type of market you are in with respect to the real estate/banking crisis cycle is key to understanding what comes next. I always give you my Best! 🏆 This is the Way! 🏄🌊 read more
I have been thinking about how to make this easy and actionable for anyone interested to learn about options trading and I thought there is no better way to start than by demonstrating what an option would look like if written out like a real contract between two people. In the following posts of this series I’ll cover the more technical stuff in detail, but for now I’ll keep this post fun, simple and without too much jargon… Strip it down and an option is basically a deal between a buyer (buying a right) and a seller (selling an obligation). So let's write a hypothetical options contract out. Take your time to read it, because all the terms you’ll need are sitting inside the contract. (strike, premium, expiration, underlying) ———— Draft CALL Contract Theoretical (this is just for illustrative purposes to help you understand the concept): I, Moe the buyer of this call option contract, reserve the right, but not the obligation to buy 100 shares of ABCD (underlying) for $50 per share (Strike Price) valid until 21st January 2027. In exchange for this right I agree to pay a premium of $1.50 per share. I, Mr. Market the seller of this option contract am obligated to sell 100 shares of ABCD for a set price of $50 until 21st January 2027 if the buyer chooses to execute the terms of this contract. For this I will receive $1.50 per share in premium. End of contract. ———— Now some quick context and basics to help land this for you guys: 1. We have two types of options contracts CALLS (option to buy when price goes up) and PUTS (option to sell when a price goes down) 2. All options contracts for stocks and ETFs are for 100 shares (you don’t pay price of share you only pay for the premium per share in the example above that would be 100*$1.5 to own the right to purchase the stock at $50) 3. Every contract has a strike price at which the buyer can exercise the contract to buy or sell the shares 4. Every contract has an expiration date after which if the holder doesn’t exercise it expires worthless and the seller keeps the premium. This is post one in a six post series, feel free to drop questions or feedback in the comments below and I’ll answer everything. Hope this was easy to follow for anyone looking to explore options and there is a real option contract example in the image attached.read more
📈 THE BD INVESTING ANNUAL SUMMIT — OCTOBER 24 ( IN 2 WEEKS) We’re bringing the BD Investing community together LIVE in Toronto for 5 hours of investing education, market discussion, networking, food & more! 📍 Toronto 🗓️ Saturday, October 24 ⏰ 4–9 PM EST | Doors open 3:40 PM 🅿️ FREE Parking 🎤 SPEAKER LINEUP - Panels (fireside chats) Bilaal Dhalech — BD Investing AI Infrastructure • Is AI a Bubble? • BD Portfolio deepdive • 2027 Market Outlook & Predictions • Hot Sector Themes • The Road from $0 → $1M Azia Mery @aziamery & BD Financial Wellness for Beginners • Building Your First Portfolio • ETFs • Investing Do’s & Don’ts Shraddha Shah & Nathalie Valenzula Investing 101 • Dividends • Long-Term Wealth Building • Options trading 101 • Market Psychology & Controlling Emotions Adrian Bar — Canadian in a T-Shirt x BD @canadiantshirt Fireside Chat with BD • Current Investing Landscape • Taxes 🇨🇦 • Market Trends • Personal Investing Journeys • LIVE Q&A 🎟️ YOUR TICKET INCLUDES 🍽️ Free food & beverages 👕 BD Investing T-Shirt 🎁 Exclusive swag (Blossom , BMO , Wealthsimple) 🤝 Networking with investors & the BD community 🔥 FEW TICKETS LEFT — grab yours before we sell out! GET YOUR TICKETS — https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/bd-investing-annual-summit-tickets-1998125442988read more
🚨 A DECADE of dividend investing 👨💼 My portfolio is now worth ~$2M 💰 And it pays me roughly $10,500 in dividends EVERY MONTH 💵 8 HIGH INCOME ETFs with ZERO PRICE DECAY that I own or plan on buying!📈🔥 $SCHD 🏆 Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF ~3.0% yield ~531% total return Pays quarterly Launched Oct 2011 $QDVO 🏆 Amplify CWP Growth & Income ETF ~11.2% yield ~52% total return Pays monthly Launched Aug 2024 $OVL 🏆 Overlay Shares Large Cap Equity ETF ~10.5% yield ~208% total return Pays monthly Launched Sep 2019 $SEPI 🏆 Shelton Equity Premium Income ETF ~7.9% yield ~27% total return Pays monthly Launched Sep 2025 $IDVO 🏆 Amplify CWP International Enhanced Dividend Income ETF ~6.1% yield ~114% total return Pays monthly Launched Sep 2022 $GPIQ🏆 Goldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETF ~9.9% yield ~105% total return Pays monthly Launched Oct 2023 $XQQI 🏆 NEOS Boosted Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF ~20.2% yield ~21% total return Pays monthly Launched Jan 2026 $HAKY 🏆 Amplify HACK Cybersecurity Covered Call ETF ~15.0% yield ~48% total return Pays monthly Launched Jan 2026 *Bookmark this one* 🔖👇 read more
💼 68,000 jobs lost nationwide 📊 Unemployment rises to 6.5% 👥 Youth employment drops by 48,000 🍁 Quebec loses 49,000 jobs ⚠️ These losses wiped out Canada’s employment gains for 2026. 📉 A worrying sign for workers and the Canadian economy. 👇 Is Canada’s job market getting worse? What do you think? read more
Real estate companies are plummeting. Headlines everywhere scream of the effects of this high inflation, high interest rate, macro environment, and real estate companies. These headwinds, however, hold little to no actual substance and neglect the very fundamentals of these businesses. To begin, we must understand how these businesses operate, we have to understand how REITs grow their AFFO(this is their version of free cash flow). AFFO growth rate= +Same store rent growth +AFFO retention%• acquisition cap rate•(100%-corporate overhead-maintenance expenses) +AFFO retention%•Debt to equity ratio•(acquisition cap rate-cost of debt)•(100%-corporate overhead-maintenance expenses) Let’s use an example: Realty Income($O) +1.2%=1.2% +1.8%=26%•7.3%•(100%-4%-1.5%) +.2%=26%•.79•(7.3%-6.2%)•(100%-4%-1.5%) note: 6.2% cost of debt is conservative relative to their historical 5.3% Only roughly 6% of this company’s growth is dependent on debt. This is the magic of a real estate company with a high cash retention rate. Realty income, and many other nnn REITs with high AFFO retention, like $VICI and $ADC, can operate in these environments with little to no effect on their growth, in fact for companies with high AFFO retention rates, these higher debt costs can actually allow them to get properties for a cheaper price when they pay cash which boosts their acquisition cap rate or initial return on investment. Furthermore, if we use a discounted AFFO model to value Realty income and we ignore debt entirely, then we can comfortably assume a 3% growth over the next 10 years and then 2% after that. With these very conservative assumptions, paired with a 10% cost of equity, I came to a fair value of about $62 per share. That means that buying at this price you are getting a forward return of 11% on what is arguably one of the most defensive companies on earth.(I might do a deeper dive on this one soon). Additionally, last quarter alone, the average institution increased their share count in real estate companies 6.8 times more than their 2 year average, increasing their share count by 4.5% in one quarter. Also, over the last two years, institutions deployed an average of about 1.9% of their cash into real estate versus last quarters nearly 3.5%, almost doubling their historical allocation. This transfer from historical underweight to aggressive allocation shows strong conviction from sovereign, wealth funds, as well as asset managers. So high-quality, inflation resistant companies are trading at a structural discount and institutions have clearly taken note. Could this be a generation buying opportunity? What are your thoughts on real estate right now?read more
⚠️ Warning: This post was vetted through AI. You may want to look away now. 😂 After experiencing the uninformed and unwelcome opinions of people shaming the use of AI, and, even more frustratingly, misrepresenting my financial situation, I decided to reread The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck*. It reminded me of something I already knew: Not every opinion deserves my attention. Fundamentally, I don’t participate in negativity, harassment or hate. I don’t need to convince everyone that my choices are right, and I certainly don’t need the approval of people who have decided they know my financial situation better than I do. But I did feel that the developing culture of AI shaming deserved my attention, not because I want to argue with the naysayers, but because I think there’s an opportunity to have a more positive, productive and inclusive conversation about it. I genuinely enjoy sharing my financial growth, milestones, lessons and journey here on Blossom. It’s one of the fun parts of this app for me. I’m excited about what I’m building, and I enjoy sharing the process with people who are interested in learning, growing and having conversations about money. And just to be clear: I don’t use AI because I’m illiterate, incapable or unintelligent. I was a professor in a dental department at a post-secondary institution. I know how to think, research, question information and form my own conclusions. Using AI doesn’t equal incompetence. It’s a tool. A tool that helps me organize my thoughts, be more productive, communicate ideas and accomplish my goals. And I actually think there’s something beautiful about that. Technology can make participation more accessible. It can help someone find the words they struggle to find, organize thoughts that feel overwhelming, communicate in a language they’re still learning, or simply make it possible to participate when life is busy. That feels more inclusive to me, not less. Of course, AI isn’t perfect. It can be wrong. It can misunderstand context. It can produce information that needs to be checked. That’s why I believe in using it responsibly: question it, fact-check it, protect your privacy and ultimately take responsibility for what you choose to publish. That isn’t giving up your intelligence. That’s using your intelligence to use a tool well. AI is here. It’s ubiquitous. And honestly, it has barely begun. We don’t shame calculators because people used to do long division. We don’t shame spreadsheets because people once balanced books by hand. So why are we suddenly treating the use of a new tool as a character flaw? Telling someone to stop using AI because it’s “not real” is about as logical as trading your laptop for a pen and paper, your smartphone for a corded home phone, and your GPS for a paper map. Technology changes. We adapt. And perhaps the most important part of all of this: The people who have reached out privately, with thoughtful messages, encouragement, curiosity and kindness, far outweigh the toxic noise. Those are the people I choose to give my energy to. AI isn’t going away. Neither am I. And I’m not going to spend my time arguing with people who are determined to misunderstand me. I’d rather keep learning, keep questioning, keep investing and keep moving forward. You don’t have to use AI. You don’t have to like AI. But you also don’t get to decide what tools someone else is allowed to use to build their life. And yes…AI helped me write this. 😉 I’m okay with that.read more
Give me: - $AMD for compute and AI - $SOFI for the financial ecosystem - $AMZN for AWS, ads and commerce - $NOW for enterprise software - $UBER for mobility + delivery - $NFLX for global entertainment - $BN for long-term compounding - $ZETA for higher-growth upside - $OSCR for the turnaround potential - $SNAP for ads, subscriptions and Specs optionality Very different businesses, very different setups. But I understand why I own every one of them, and I’m comfortable building around that. read more
there is some secret to getting wealthy. You can literally just: 1. Buy ETFs or index funds 2. Avoid credit card debt 3. Spend less than you make 4. Build a 3-6 month emergency fund 5. Repeat for years And become insanely rich.read more
Here are 🚩3 big flags🚩that signal a company might not be a good investment, and I'll walk you through how to check for each one. (Free Stock Checklist at the end) --- 1️⃣ Declining Revenue or Earnings📉 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:A company with falling revenue or earnings may be losing market share, dealing rising costs, or the overall industry is shrinking. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Look at the Income Statement📊 - Find the company’s total revenue and net income in its latest financial report. Top-line & bottom-line, respectively. - Compare revenue and net income across multiple quarters/years. 3 years or 12 quarters is more than enough to indicate a trend - If both are consistently declining, it’s a warning sign. B) Check Earnings Reports🗂️ - Look at the company’s quarterly earnings reports to see if they’ve missed expectations multiple times. C) Compare to Competitors🔍 - Is the entire industry struggling, or just this company? 📚Website for financial reports: https://www.marketwatch.com/ --- 2️⃣ High Debt Levels 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:Companies with a capital structure heavily debt-reliant are more vulnerable in economic downturns and might struggle to repay obligations. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Find the Debt-to-Equity Ratio (D/E)📊 - Go to the company’s Balance Sheetin its latest report. - Find Total Debt and Total Equityand calculate: Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Debt ÷ Total Equity** - A D/E ratio above 2.0 (varies by industry) is usually risky. B) Check Interest Coverage Ratio🔍 - Look at the Income Statement for EBIT (Earnings Before Interest & Taxes). - Find Interest Expense and calculate:Interest Coverage Ratio = EBIT ÷ Interest Expense - If this ratio is below 1.5, the company may struggle to pay interest. 📚 Resources: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debtratio.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways&text=A%20company's%20debt%20ratio%20can,has%20more%20assets%20than%20debt --- 3️⃣ Poor Cash Flow 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:A company can be profitable on paper but still run out of cash to fund operations. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Find the Cash Flow Statement📜 - Look at Operating Cash FlowOCF). - If OCF is negative for multiple quarters, the company may be in trouble. B) Check Free Cash Flow (FCF)💰 - Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flow - Capital Expenditures - A company with negative FCF can’t reinvest in growth without taking on debt. 📚 Read more about Cash flow: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/07/easycashflow.asp ___________________________________________ Thanks for reading, I am open to engage in friendly conversations so I encourage you to leave a comment!💬 Access my free stock checklist at the link below⬇️ https://investingwithcole.gumroad.com/l/stockchecklist read more
My top 3 largest positions $AMD, $NVDA, and $PLTR alone are now worth a combined $25,000. I had plans to sell in the next 4 years but now, I want to ride this out for as long as I can. There's no telling where these will be in 10 years. 💰
SCHD holders brag about the dividend. VOO holders brag about the growth. 10 years, dividends reinvested: $VOO : 316.5% $SCHD : 244.5% That's a 72 point gap. On $300K that's about $216K left on the table. SCHD's answer: a 3.2% yield vs about 1% for VOO. Cash in hand every quarter. In a rough year, that dividend check feels GOOD. My stance: I'm a growth guy. I want the compounding, not the coupon. Long-term buy & hold for me, I'll take the extra 72 points. But dividends aren't nothing. A payout that shows up rain or shine is real money. Which side are you on? The 3.2% yield now or 72 points of growth over 10 years? Where do you stand? 👀read more
Sept was Tesla's BEST China month of the year. 95,000+ wholesale cars. Up 5%. Fine print: exports did all the work. China domestic sales FELL 9%. Meanwhile Elon wants a $100B chip plant in Texas with SpaceX. 100 million sq ft. Not cars, CHIPS. Goldman just said Tesla's stock now moves on AI & robotics, not earnings. So pick your Tesla: car company, or AI company. You can't have it both ways. I'm a believer. Chips, robots, robotaxis. Staying long $TSLA. The whole AI trade runs on $NVDA too. Same bet, different ticker. Believer or skeptic? 👀read more
