Money or Mud?
Markets are on a wild ride these days. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), which measures market’s expectation for volatility in the coming 30 days, has been on its own wild ride. But volatility is not always bad. There are opportunities to invest and make money.
Here’s my strategy for stock purchase in my portfolio:
- Stick with the winners (buy big names with solid balance sheets, those that can survive a recession) and leave the rest to the others.
- Be patient and buy the dip (watch your watchlist).
- Dollar cost average your way into the dip (buy some stocks every time the market goes down).
Today (April 15, 2020), Jim Cramer on Mad Money made a case to the investors to choose individual stocks versus buying ETFs or index funds. “Rule No. 1 for the new abnormal is that you stick with the winners and you leave the raggedy rest to the others,” he said. Cramer recommended his 18 “stay at home” stocks (some of them are in my list below with a ‘(C)’ after them).
Below, I am going to list some of my favorites and their closing price as of April 15, 2020 and then I will revisit this blog post in approximately one year and list the prices and % gain/loses at that time. (Full disclosure – I own some of these stocks, denoted by *, and the rest are on my watchlist to buy during the next dip, if there is another dip and if the price is right).
| Name | Ticker | Industry | Stock Price as of April 15, 2020 | Stock Price as of April 15, 2021 | % Gain/ (Loss) |
| Facebook* | FB | Social Media | $176.97 | ||
| Amazon*(C) | AMZN | Online retailer | $2,307.68 | ||
| Apple* | AAPL | Tech | $284.43 | ||
| Netflix (C) | NFLX | Entertainment | $426.75 | ||
| Alphabet* | GOOGL | Search Engine | $1,257.30 | ||
| Shopify | SHOP | Ecommerce | $497.17 | ||
| Activision Blizzard (C) | ATVI | Gaming | $65.71 | ||
| Take Two Interactive (C) | TTWO | Gaming | $123.50 | ||
| Nvidia (C) | NVDA | Tech | $280.84 | ||
| Advanced Micro Devices (C) | AMD | Tech | $54.99 | ||
| PepsiCo (C) | PEP | Food | $135.03 | ||
| Domino’s Pizza (C) | DPZ | Food | $354.62 | ||
| Costco*(C) | COST | Groceries | $310.27 | ||
| Campbell Soup (C) | CPB | Food | $50.50 | ||
| Zoom video (C) | ZM | Tech | $151.56 | ||
| Constellation Brands (C) | STZ | Food | $162.36 | ||
| Walmart (C) | WMT | Retail | $128.76 | ||
| Roku (C) | ROKU | Entertainment | $113.00 | ||
| Alibaba (C) | BABA | Chinese Amazon | $208.17 | ||
| Tesla (C) | TSLA | Car | $729.83 | ||
| Visa | V | Finance | $165.96 | ||
| Mastercard | MA | Finance | $257.14 | ||
| Microsoft | MSFT | Tech | $171.88 | ||
| Exxon Mobil* | XOM | Oil/gas | $40.48 | ||
| Philips 66 | PSX | Refinery | $56.47 | ||
| Marathon | MPC | Refinery | $23.98 | ||
| Enbridge* | ENB.TO | Pipeline | $40.01 | ||
| Pembina* | PPL.TO | Pipeline | $27.03 | ||
| CNRL* | CNQ.TO | Oil/Gas | $17.23 | ||
| Suncor* | SU.TO | Oil/Gas | $21.39 | ||
| TD Bank* | TD.TO | Finance | $56.66 | ||
| Brookfield* | BIP.UN | Diversified | $52.64 | ||
| Berkshire Hathaway* | BRK.B | Diversified | $188.57 |
This list turned out to be longer that I expected. Let’s see how this model portfolio does in one year compared to today. Will it be money or will it be mud?
