I see many beginners posting that theyโre new to investing and donโt know where to start. ๐ค As someone who was in a similar situation just a few months ago and learned, here are the 4 ETF types (& ETFs) that are popular among long term investors ๐ : 1) S&P 500: US: $VOO / $SPY / $SPLG Canadian: $VFV / $ZSP / $TPU 2) GROWTH / TECH: US: $QQQ / $VUG / $VGT / $SCHG Canadian: $QQC / $HXQ / $TEC / $ZUQ 3) DIVIDENDS: US: $SCHD / $VYM / $DGRO Canadian: $VDY / $XEI 4) ALL IN ONE / BASKET / Global Exposure: US: $VT / $AVGE Canadian: $ZEQT / $XEQT / $TGRO / $VEQT / $ZGQ I noticed many people following this type of a basic / uncomplicated portfolio and are doing really well for themselves ๐ฅ For % allocation, you can divide evenly among the ETF categories or allocate a higher % based on your preferences. Just DCA regularly and you should be good. ๐ Some people even just put it all into an all in one etf like $XEQT. This is also a good approach - it is much simpler and it works. Ultimately, it comes to whatever you prefer ๐ Oh and yea, there are overlaps, but I donโt think there is anything wrong in that though - it would just count as doubling down on good things. ๐ฏ Iโm sharing with you all what helped me, but donโt forget to do your own research too! ๐๐ผ read more
This might be one of my favorite $SOFI charts. Total products have climbed from roughly 8.5M in Q1 2023 to 24.4M today. And the growth is actually accelerating. Q2: - Record 2.2M new products - Total products +42% YoY - 51% of new products came from EXISTING members - 87% of all products are now non-lending That last part matters a lot. SoFi isnโt just acquiring more members. Existing members are increasingly using more of the ecosystem across Money, Invest, Relay, Credit Card, Crypto and other products. That is exactly what the Financial Services Productivity Loop is supposed to do. Acquire the member once, then deepen the relationship over time. The bigger $SOFI gets, the more powerful this ecosystem can become. read more
Lovely people of blossom the moment (some of) you have been waiting for has finally arrived, thank you for waiting patiently for the mother of all research projects to drop. First Iโll give some context for the folks who are seeing this for the first time, Iโm running an extensive research to go through the 13F filings of 11 small-cap, growth and biotech specialist hedge funds to track all new positions theyโve started, accumulated or exited in Q2, then Iโm cross checking all names to find CLUSTERS of smart money behind specific companies, and finally Iโm running a fundamentals analysis and catalyst dive to confirm positions Iโm highly interested in following my self. Itโs a massive research project that covered 754 companies in Q2 and you can get a little context on the project here: https://link.blossomsocial.com/7uYa/zhg3udgo Now letโs get to the juicy stuff youโve all been waiting for The Clusters we found: 5-fund cluster โ> 5 companies 4-fund cluster โ> 17 companies 3-fund cluster โ> 56 companies 2-fund cluster โ> 154 companies For this specific post Iโll be focusing on the 5-fund cluster you can see the full list in the image and here is how to read the excel table. ๐ข NEW - dark green ๐ข ACC++ - major accumulation (>20%) ๐ข ACC - accumulated ๐ต HOLD - held unchanged ๐ RED - reduced ๐ด REDโ - major reduction ๐ด EXIT - fully exited Now this first wave of companies is obviously signaling VERY strong conviction from hedge funds during Q2, but the total funds invested are significantly smaller than those behind the companies in the 4-fund clusters. Without further Ado: $AXON Axon builds the entire technology ecosystem that police departments, security agencies, and increasingly private enterprises use to do their jobs. Most people know them as โthe TASER companyโ - Q2 2026 revenue of $904M (+35% YoY) - 10th consecutive quarter > 30% growth. - Raised full-year 2026 revenue growth guidance to 32-34% - $15B in backlog bookings - Dedrone counter-drone surpassed $100M in quarterly revenue for the first time MAJOR Catalyst POV: - Counter-drone is exploding From near-zero to $100M+ quarterly. Drones are the new threat for airports, stadiums, military bases, and critical infrastructure. Axon is the market leader through Dedrone. - AI is a revenue accelerator, not a cost their Draft One tools saves officers 30-45 minutes per report. Departments pay extra for it. AI Era Plan revenue +700% proves the willingness to pay. Fundamentals: PASS โโ $KRMN Karman makes the critical components that go INSIDE missiles, rockets, and defense systems, they are a major supplier to 80 of the defense primes including Lockheed and Northrop. - Q2 2026 revenue of $182M, up 58% YoY. - - Record backlog of $1.3B with nearly $500M in quarterly bookings - Expanding into European defense via Walker Precision acquisition - CEO confirmed the company is tracking 20-25% annual organic growth โfor the foreseeable future,โ stating โrevenue could double in 3 to 4 years with potential inorganic growth accelerating that timeline.โ MAJOR Catalyst POV: - Massive Backlog conversion potential through 2027+. Theyโre positioned as a critical subcomponent supplier across the entire US defense supply chain from missiles, hypersonics, submarines, to space launch, and UAS. - 200,000 sq ft Salt Lake City factory being fitted up with production capability online before end of 2026. Fundamentals: PASS โโ $NAMS NewAmsterdam is developing obicetrapib, a once-daily oral pill that lowers LDL cholesterol (the โbadโ kind) by an additional ~45-50% on top of whatever a patient is already taking. This one I considered a development stage company as it is still building up operating approval and generating little to no revenue. - Posted Net loss $(64.1)M - Strong runway of $678.3M cash + marketable securities MAJOR Catalysts: - I personally think this is the one theyโre betting on: PREVAIL cardiovascular outcomes trial interim analysis. This is a 9,500+ patient study asking the ultimate question: does obicetrapib actually prevent heart attacks and strokes and if results are positive it would be breakthrough for the entire cardiovascular field. - European regulatory decision expected H2 2026. - US NDA filing, likely after PREVAIL data confirms outcomes benefit. Fundamentals: DID NOT PASS This is a bet on the probability of them getting obicetrapib approved after trials succeed (Think of it as the Cholesterol Pill That Could Prevent Heart Attacks!), which would deliver estimated sales of $3B-$5B, if it fails stock probably gets cut in half. โโโ $RGEN Repligen sells the tools, systems, and consumables that pharmaceutical companies need to manufacture biological drugs at scale. - Q2 revenue of $204M, up 13% organic. - Proteins franchise surged 50%. - Raised full-year organic revenue growth guidance to 10.5%-13.5% and adjusted EPS to $2.03-$2.09. MAJOR Catalysts POV: - Cycle reversal: After the COVID vaccine boom, pharma companies had built up massive inventories of bioprocessing supplies. They stopped ordering, and Repligenโs growth collapsed. That cycle has now reversed. Proteins franchise surged 50% in Q2. Process Analytics grew over 30%. Emerging biotech revenue has grown high-teens for five straight quarters. The industry is restocking and expanding capacity again. - BioLife acquisition expected to close Q4 2026, expanding cell-therapy portfolio with at least $20M in first-year synergies. Fundamentals: NARROW PASS๏ฟผ โโ $MIRM Mirum develops and sells medicines for rare liver diseases, primarily in children and increasingly in adults who would previously have no medical alternative for some very tough symptoms. - LIVMARLI their approved medication generated $114M in Q1 net sales, up 55% YoY. - Full-year guidance raised to $680-700M. - Net loss $(67.2)M, EPS $(1.06) widening due to heavy R&D investments - ~87% product gross margin - negative FCF and high dilution to fund expansion This one has MANY catalysts stacked: Catalyst #1: Zilurgisertib PDUFA - Sep. 2026 FDA decision expected September 2026 for zilurgisertib in fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), an ultra-rare condition where soft tissue progressively turns into bone. If approved, Mirum plans a year-end 2026 US launch adding an entirely new disease and revenue stream. Catalyst #2: EXPAND Phase 3 - Q4 2026 The Phase 3 EXPAND study of LIVMARLI in additional rare cholestatic conditions is on track for top-line data in Q4 2026. This would expand LIVMARLIโs label beyond ALGS and PFIC into other cholestatic diseases. This opens up a new market approx. $1B in sales. Catalyst #3: AZURE-4 Data โ Q4 2026 Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) data expected Q4 2026, on track for a potential BLA submission in H1 2027. HDV is a serious viral liver disease with no approved treatment. And many more catalysts on new rare medications in the pipeline, this one has massive potential in my view and could be the next ETON. (If you know me well enough you know what that means ๐๐๐) Fundamentals: DID NOT PASS โโโ Now where are you going to invest you own dollars Moe? Well, I picked 2 names from this round $KRMN and $MIRM price is right, entry point makes sense and both have an amazing array of catalyst that would most likely re-rate in the next 12-18 months. Iโm also putting in $NAMS leap options as a lottery ticket if they do indeed approve a cure for heart attacks. That wraps up our first part of the Hedge Fund Hunt series folks! Hope you enjoyed it and are now even more excited to see the next even stronger, more investment allocated and much more diverse 4-fund cluster ๐๐๐ If this doesnโt get a 100 likes at least after all the work I put in, Iโm not sharing the rest! Iโm kidding Iโll just settle for 50 likes ๐ ๐ Please follow my account if you are interested to see the rest of the list and full research. Have a lovely weekend everyone! Not financial advice, do your own research.read more
Cathie Wood's ARK disclosed a $765 million position in SpaceX, bringing the private space company to nearly 5% of the portfolio. This comes as Wood cuts Teradyne by 48%, banking a 347% gain on the semiconductor testing stock. Visit Wood's profile to see her full portfolio and recent trades this last quarter from her 13F filing.
The other day @paulsantori commented on a post of mine talking about taxes and it got me thinking....How many times do we actually get taxed on the same money? I earn income โ pay income tax. I buy a house โ pay property tax every year. I buy something โ pay sales tax. I take my family out for a meal -> more taxes I invest โ potentially pay tax on dividends, interest or capital gains. I drive โ pay taxes built into fuel. Buy a new car = taxed, buy a luxury car = taxed even more. It feels like the same dollar gets taxed over and over as it moves through the economy. Obviously, taxes pay for the services and infrastructure we all use. Iโm not arguing that taxes shouldnโt exist. But itโs still pretty crazy when you stop and think about just how much of your income never actually makes it into your pocket or stays there.... Earn it. Taxed. Own it. Taxed. Spend it. Taxed. And then we wonder why building wealth takes so long. Rip to all those Etfs that I could've bought instead lol read more
Crazy year in the markets so farโฆโฆ Weโve seen some massive moves in semiconductors, AI, data centers, space, oil, and a bunch of other areas. Thereโs also been a recent run in $BTC, while metals have mostly consolidated and now look like theyโre starting to move up again fast. $XAU$XAG Iโm bullish on metals going forward. Demand keeps growing while supply is tight for a lot of metals, which could keep pushing prices higher. Got me thinking though - what sectors do you guys think could be next? What are you watching right now ? read more
I am currently 47 years old. Unfortunately in that time frame I have lost a lot of family members. Some (most) were accidents, some to age, some to cancer, and one to suicide. Thatโs 11 deaths total. Only 1 person out of 11 had a will. When you are grieving the last thing you want to do is close an estate up. Itโs even harder if nothing has been prepared in advance. After the initial shock of the death settles (the phase where everyone is usually nice), greed comes through in a most alarming manner. Iโve watched people turn into monsters. Make sure you have a will!!!! or people will fight. ๏ฟผ I know most people hate thinking about their death or their spouses death but honestly itโs just a fact of life. Iโve personally been the executor of 2 estates now. This is my advice: 1. If your young get life insurance. If youโre retired itโs not worth it. 2. Make sure you have a will. 3. Make sure you have a personal directive. 4. Make sure you have a power of attorney set up. 5. If your married make your spouse the beneficiary of your TFSA and RRSP(has to be done through the account not the will), they will roll into the spouses account without taxation. 6. If youโre married, and you own a house, make sure both names are on the title, joint tenant, NOT tenant in common. This activates right of survivorship on property and doesnโt have to go through the estate. 7. If youโre married, both people should have their name on all the vehicles, joint, otherwise itโs a headache after death. 8. Buy a file folding system. I have a plastic one that has a clasp and handle. 9. Put EVERYTHING in this file folder that would be needed if you died tomorrow. a) all land titles B) information on house insurance so it can either be eventually canceled or name changed over. C) your ๏ฟผwill (or the location of your will), ๏ฟผ power of attorney, and personal directive D) the information for your car, car insurance, and registration on vehicles. E) information on life insurance. F) all current year papers needed for filing your taxes. Because the survivor will have to do it and will need that information. G) where your household bills are. ALL OF THEM, electricity, gas, Netflix, magazine, subscriptions everything you can think of that is in their name. Because you are going to have to cancel them. H) their credit card information where to contact to cancel the cards I) birth certificate, SIN numbers, marriage, license, etc. J) information on all your investments accounts, bank accounts, etc. K) anything else you can think of for your situation If youโre married, Iโd have one box per person. When you die, the funeral home will issue many death certificates. And your lawyer will give you copies of the will. These will be needed to change over any accounts. Everything else goes through the estate which is taxed and the lawyers take their fees so Iโd avoid this as much as possible especially if youโre married. This is why having property in both peopleโs names is so important because it doesnโt have to go through probate. I am widowed now and I have my black file folder and my two remaining children know if something happens to me, all they have to do is grab the folder. Everything they need to take care of my estate will be located in this folder. At the beginning of every year, I open this file up and go through everything to make sure itโs up-to-date. If you are young and do not own much or canโt afford a will, you can draft one up but it must be handwritten to be classified as a legal document. You cannot type it out!! If youโre not worth much, everything will most likely be sold to pay your bills and cover your funeral expenses. But you can state who your executor will be in your handwritten will. ๏ฟผ Disclaimer Iโm not a lawyer or an accountant and this is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer and talk to an accountant. Make sure everything is set up for you and your situation. These are situations that I personally ran into. Good luck Also Iโll add in. IF you have a lot of assets make an appointment with your accountant first. They will tell you how to properly set things up. Then take that information to your lawyer. read more
Want to respond to @ronan's feedback yesterday (and the feedback in the comments) with my own post so my response doesn't get lost in the thread Will start my saying I hear the concerns and am taking them very seriously and this is something I take personal responsibility to fix. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to write out their thoughts and see a ton of passion from everyone in solving these issues. As @ronan mentioned, Blossom has always had a spark and uniqueness and it's our job to make sure that spark doesn't go away as we grow. Here's my summary of the top problems I'm hearing and my plans to fix them: ๐ค 1. The rise in AI slop posts crowding quality content - This was the #1 problem raised across the comments and is one we're actively working on. We're following @jacobb's suggestion of an 'AI detection' feature with the ability to see less posts like this. This is set to go live in 3-4 weeks, will see if we can accelerate this ๐ข 2. Us vs them mentality, hostility especially to new creators - This one is a bit tricky as we don't want to overly police what people say. But there's one example someone gave of a new user being called a loser that are blatantly against our community guidelines of respecting one another. I think the same way we've built in spam/scam detection, we need to do the same for these kinds of comments so we can uphold these guidelines better ๐ 3. Too many milestone posts crowding out quality content - I think there is an important place on Blossom for this kind of content as the milestones are encouraging to other investors in their journey (including myself). I think the issue more so is the volume of them. Curious for folks feeling this issue whether they've tried clicking 'see less posts like this' as that should fix this issue. If not I'll investigate and perhaps not a lot of people know about this feature. I think #1 and #3 stem both stem from the feeling that quality content isn't being rewarded... let me think deeper about how to solve this problem more broadly as I definitely see this too and I don't think fixing AI slop will fully solve this. One commitment I have is to spend much more time connecting with and chatting with Blossom's creators, I want to solve this problem as much as you guys do. One good news is we recently hired our first product manager (who is a Blossom shareholder and creator) who will be fully dedicated to helping me solve this and together we'll have much more time to chat with your all and think about how to solve these problems. ๐ Let's get Blossom back to the glory days of this community!read more
There's still TIME! ๐ You just have to know how to read and listen to it. ๐ค๐ง If you are still looking for a place to lay your head, you may want to try here. Link in Bio. Natural selection is alive and well. ๐ This is the Way! ๐โโ๏ธ๐
Bitcoin ETFs attracted nearly $2 billion in new money, with BlackRockโs $IBIT accounting for almost 70% of the total. Ethereum ETFs also saw nearly $700M in inflows. Why the move? The U.S. Treasury announced larger long-term bond buybacks, initially pushing bond yields and the dollar lower. A weaker dollar can make assets like Bitcoin and gold more attractive to investors. Money is flowing back into crypto. Is this the start of another major Bitcoin move?read more
Heyo! So I been receiving a few DMs from followers asking my opinions and/or thesis on the stocks I talk about here the most like Nvidia, Palantir, Rocket Lab, AST SpaceMobile and Ondas. So I figured I'd covered all 5 of them here in one fell swoop. Mind you, it'll be long AF but I'll try to summarize as much as I can. Hope is of great value for you as it is for me typing it. Let's start with my favorite one... $NVDA - I think this one goes without saying, sitting at 22% of my portfolio is definitely my highest conviction player driven by its dominant position at the center of the AI infrastructure movement. Why is it so well positioned you ask? Well simple, it has an overwhelming market leadership and deep moat. It holds roughly 75% to 90% of the AI accelerator market by revenue. Their CUDA software ecosystem is the real player here as developers, and companies who own the software, have built years of tools, libraries, and optimized code around it. Switching costs would be extremely high. Not to mention their Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin chips and also their high-speed data connection tools, NVLink and InfiniBand. The demand is explosive and their Q1 results showed ~85% YoY revenue growth and a ~92% data center growth, their gross margin held at a whopping 75%. FCF generation is ridiculously enormous. Hyperscalers are spending hundreds of billions in CAPEX, a large portion of which flows to NVIDIA. $PLTR - Another big favorite of mine also at a 22% and for good reason as it's one of the purest large scale plays on operational AI becoming a mission-critical infrastructure system rather than just another meh productivity tool. Palantir basically create a central software system for large organizations. It connects all their separate databases and AI programs into one secure place, turning disorganized information into clear insights they can actually use such as: ~ Foundry - For Commercial Use ~ Gotham - For Government/Defense Use Their massive moat lies in Ontology, which is basically a living digital model of the organization, objects, relationships, rules, security, and allowed actions of a company. Their numbers were, in the words of CEO Alex Karp: "otherworldly," "staggering," and "bombastic", with a total revenue of $1.935 Billion (93% YoY), yes, with a B. The full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $8.15 billion (82% growth) and U.S. commercial guidance to at least $3.42 billion (134% growth). They currently have around 1,049 customers worldwide between commercial and government and they all want to run AI on their own data in controlled environments and Palantirโs ability to work with open models, including Nvidia's Nemotron, inside air-gapped or classified settings is a definitive structural advantage. Now, the stock isn't cheap but I'm betting on a target of a $1 trillion market cap by the early 2030s so it's definitely a long-term play for me. Next up, the future of satellite communications, $ASTS. For those who don't know, AST SpaceMobile is building the first space-based cellular broadband network that works with ordinary, unmodified smartphones. Highly ambitious but very simple (in theory). Basically utilize large low-Earth-orbit satellites with massive phased-array antennas the size of a football field to deliver real 4G/5G-like broadband (voice, data, video) directly to smartphones, filling the gaps that cell towers cannot reach. These satellites act as a complementary layer that mobile network operators (MNOs) can use to extend their existing networks, hence the over 60 MNO partnerships that collectively cover more than 3 billion subscribers worldwide; that's a massive TAM or total addressable market!! As of today, there's already 13 BlueBird satellites in orbit, with production scaling to around six per month and a target of 45 satellites for continuous coverage in key markets like U.S., Europe and Japan by early 2027. Many people talk about SpaceX's Starlink competing against ASTS but that can't be any more further from the truth. While they have scale and launch advantages and its own direct-to-cell efforts, AST is primarily an enabler and an extension for carriers rather than a pure over-the-top competitor in many markets. In other words, Starlink wants to become another MNO while ASTS will be complementing the already established MNOs, so who's getting that immediate revenue of billions of already established subscribers? ASTS of course! While all of this is exciting, it certainly carries risks. Execution has to be on point, and achieving continuous coverage is paramount. There's competition and there's regulatory hurdles to overcome, but if they do this, and deliver continuous broadband service via major carriers, this could turn into one of the more asymmetric public market bets in connectivity and space infrastructure. Now it's time for the rockets! No, not SpaceX, RKLB! It sits as one of the strongest pure-play public bets on the commercial + defense space economy. This company has 2 segments: launch services and space systems. ~ Launch Service is pretty self explanatory.. They just launch rockets with their proven small-lift rocket, Electron. HASTE is their suborbital/hypersonic test vehicle popular with the U.S. military and Neutron is their medium-lift rocket similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9. ~ Space Systems is basically spacey stuff like satellite manufacturing, components, spacecraft, and related hardware. This is where the money's at. Their Q2 2026 results showed a record revenue of $234 million (62% YoY), with Space Systems contributing the to the majority ($189.5 million). They even have a massive backlog of $2.36 billion (+137% YoY) which is absurd! Their latest acquisition, Iridium, is a game changer. Rocket Lab now owns a profitable satellite communications company that includes 66+ satellite LEO constellation, global L-band spectrum and around 2.5+ million subscribers with roughly a $880โ$900 million in annual revenue just on this alone. ๐ณ When this deal closes sometime in 2027, Rocket Lab will officially become vertically stacked: they'll design/build satellites, launch them on its own rockets, and operate constellations while selling recurring high-margin services. As of the writing of this, Rocket Lab has completed a total of 93 launches across its Electron and HASTE programs and still has many more down the pipeline. To me, they're a pure-play company with a massive backlog, capable of standing toe-to-toe with SpaceX, and if Neutron flies and the Iridium deal closes nicely, we're looking at a meaningfully larger and higher-quality business over the next 2โ4 years. Now let's get drony with the drone company that's revolutionizing this new sector, $ONDS. Simply put, Ondas Inc is a high growth defense and autonomous systems company that has scaled into a multi domain โsystem-of-systemsโ platform focused on drones, countrdrones, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), precision strike, unmanned ground systems, and other software. It operates via their defense division, Ondas Sentinel and they serve defense, homeland security, public safety, and critical infrastructure to customers. They have had an explosive revenue with a record of $83.8 million, which is roughly 13x YoY. Their full-year 2026 guidance was raised to $525โ550 million which was more than 10x 2025 results of roughly $51 million. Of course, as a defense stock, it'll benefit the most during war times like the ones we're going through in the Middle East and Ukraine and have accelerated demand for affordable, unmanned systems, layered counter-drone defenses, persistent ISR, and loitering munitions aka suicide drones. Within the Ondas arsenal you'll find: ~ Counter-UAS Solutions - Sentrycs CoRF cyber/RF takeover and the Iron Drone Raider interceptor. ~ Long-endurance and stratospheric ISR - DZYNE ULTRA-type systems and World View Stratollites. ~ Autonomous ground robotics and industrial inspection. ~ Precision strike / kamikaze munitions. Their partnerships with Lockheed Martin, Palantir, the US Army and the Israeli Ministry of Defense make them even stronger. Not to mention the crazy amount of acquisitions they've made lately such as: ~ Sentrycs for $224.6โ225 million ~ DZYNE Technologies for $875.8โ879 million ~ Cyberhawk for $125 million ~ World View for $145โ150 million ~ Mistral for $175โ180 million ~ Omnisys for $197โ212 million ~ Roboteam for $81.7 million ~ Aran Defense for $33 Million ~ Bird Aerosystems for $128 million This is a high risk, high reward story, not a faint for the heart investment. There's still chances of dilution (which we've seen many times now), operation risks while absorbing so many companies, cash burn and any geopolitical issues. Overall to me, Ondas is delivering the next generation of automation for commercial and defense systems, they have strong numbers, great guidance, and assemble a multi-domain portfolio of companies at a pace few others can. Told ya it was gonna be long but super informative. I hope you liked it and hope it helps whoever's interested in these companies like me. :) read more
Jeff Bezos's Amazon made a massive new $1.2 billion bet on XE, an outsized move that instantly became more than a quarter of the entire portfolio. Visit Bezos's profile to see his full portfolio and recent trades this last quarter from his 13F filing.
You have $10,000 to invest today. You can only buy 3 stocks/ETFs and you have to hold them for 10 YEARS. What are you buying? ๐ I'd go $VOO, $QQQM, & $AMZN Letโs build a list of the best long-term investments on Blossom. ๐
I donโt trust any investing strategy I havenโt tested against my own panic. ๐ Turns out thereโs science behind that instinct. Kahneman and Tversky found that losses hit us roughly twice as hard as equivalent gains feel good. So when the market drops and you feel like itโs the end of the world? Thatโs not drama, thatโs your nervous system doing exactly what itโs wired to do. Hereโs the part nobody tells you: the โperfectโ portfolio on paper is worthless if you canโt actually hold it. Iโve watched people build beautifully optimized portfolios, then sell everything the second things got scary, locking in losses right before the recovery. The math was right. The human wasnโt ready. So now I ask a different question before investing in anything: not โwhatโs the highest return?โ but โcan I actually sleep at night holding this?โ Your body answers that faster than any risk questionnaire. Tight chest, checking your phone every 20 minutes, thatโs not weakness, thatโs information. ๐ซ
Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks after suspending trade negotiations Mark Carney says Canada is walking away from a deal that asked too much and offered too little. He highlighted that Americans sold nearly $600 billion in goods and services to Canadians last year โ about $1.6 billion per day. At the same time, the U.S. claims a merchandise trade deficit with Canada, driven largely by energy imports. Canada supplies roughly 99% of U.S. natural gas imports, 85% of electricity imports, and 60% of crude oil imports. Canada will now match new U.S. tariffs dollar-for-dollar, while supporting affected Canadian workers and businesses and accelerating trade diversification beyond the United States. The broader strategy: invest in energy, infrastructure, defence, aerospace, shipbuilding, critical minerals, and Canadian manufacturing. Canada would rather walk away from a bad deal than compromise its sovereignty, strategic industries, or freedom to trade with the world. ๐จ๐ฆ ::: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTax-P4D1w&t=2584sread more
Since so many people ask how to invest in this sector, or this country, or this asset, Iโve decided to make a comprehensive guide on how you can invest in specific areas. This is NOT portfolio advice, simply information about tickers that you can research yourself. Save this for later so you have a list of ETFs to come back to! Canada: $XIU$XIC$ZCN All expose you to the TSX in Canada. These ETFs consist of all top Canadian companies and access to our national stock exchange. $VCB$VGV$VLB$VAB$VSB$VSC$XBB$XCB Expose you to Canadian bonds; whether it be long-term, short-term, corporate, government, etc. $VDY$XEI$CDZ Expose you to Canadian dividend companies $XRE$ZRE$VRE Give access to Canadian REITs $ZEB$XFN$RBNK Lets you buy the Canadian banks USA: $VFV$ZSP$XSP$XUS$HXS Lets you buy the S&P 500 (learn about hedged vs. unhedged in my other post) $XQQ$HXQ$ZQQ All give you access to the NASDAQ 100 $IWR$VO$VOE$VOT$IJH$SCHM Lets you buy US Midcaps $IJR$IWM$VB$VBR$VBK$SCHA Lets you buy US Smallcaps $DIV$SPYD$RDIV$DHS$VIG$SCHD$VYM$DGRO$SDY Give access from small to high dividend US companies $VTI$ITOT Lets you buy the whole US market $TLT$IEF$VGIT$GOVT$SHY$VGLT Give access to US bonds $XLC$XLY$XLP$XLE$XLF$XLV$XLI$XLB$XLRE$XLK$XLU All give you access to each sector in the S&P such as financials, energy, healthcare, etc. International: $XEQT$FEQT$VEQT$ZEQT Give you an all-in-one exposure to Canada, US, emerging and global markets. $VEA$IEFA$SCHF$SPDW$EFV$EFA Give access to general international exposure $EWJ$EWU$EWC Gives direct access to developed international countries $INDA$MCHI$EWT$EWY$EWZ$EWW$EIDO$EWM Gives direct access to emerging international countries Assets: $KILO$PHYS$CGL Letโs you buy gold directly through ETFs $SVR$HUZ Let you buy silver through ETFs Savings/Interest: $CASH$HISA$PSA$HSAV Access to Canadian savings and interest payments $HSUV-U $PSU-U $HISU-U Access to US savings and interest payments Thereโs so many ETFs I didnโt go into with dozens of categories, but this should give you some basic starting point to look into your ETF investments. This is simply the starting point, when choosing your investments always research the ETFs, what they provide to you, their fees, your goals, your risk, and what youโre looking to get out of investing. As always do your research and happy investing! Subscribe to the newsletter: relatablefinance.substack.com read more
Distribution yield tells you how much cash the fund is paying you. It does not tell you how much money the fund actually earned. Income investing is not a new way of investing, and while today's covered-call ETFs are relatively new products, the financial engineering behind many of them is not. Leverage, derivatives, managed distributions and return of capital have been used by investment funds to enhance or maintain distributions for decades. Going back to the late 1990s, when I first entered the investment space, there were already funds paying double-digit distribution yields. And the same argument people have today about high yield distribution they were having then. Though they were far less vocal as it wasnโt as easy to converse with as many people all at once. The fascinating part is that most people understand this concept perfectly when you remove the investment fund from the equation. If you ask someone whether they can spend more money than they earn without eventually depleting their savings or taking on debt they understand that. Like if your household earns $80,000 a year but spends $120,000 every year, that extra $40,000 has to come from somewhere. You can sell stuff, withdraw savings or borrow money, but none of those things magically turn an $80,000 income into $120,000 of sustainable income. Yet put that exact same concept inside an investment fund and suddenly people seem to struggle with it. A fund can absolutely pay out more cash than it earns. What it cannot do is create economic return out of thin air. @karyungtom had a well written article on this point I encourage people read it. https://www.blossomsocial.com/posts/High-Yield__POST-1787186691972-RSs7aPx2_t00uBlccemcq8jzT?commentId=COMMENT-1787188693133-kl9V1UcW-45z9lALx4jh3jnD8_POST-1787186691972-RSs7aPx2_t00uBlccemcq8jzT&parentId=POST-1787186691972-RSs7aPx2_t00uBlccemcq8jzT&parentType=POST read more
Congrats, $SCHD, on reaching another new all-time high today! What an amazing ETF. Even more amazing that the ETF gave us SO MANY months of opportunity to buy at discounted levels, and I feel thankful for those months when I aggressively accumulated at low prices. (Disc: I'm long $SCHD. Not investment advice.)
