Trading Ideas

(Bloomberg) — Juul Labs Inc., the largest maker of nicotine vaporizers in the U.S., said it will stop lobbying for a ballot measure to overturn San Francisco’s ban on the sale of e-cigarette products.The measure, called Proposition C, will still appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, but the loss of the biggest financial supporter of the effort comes at a crucial time, in the final weeks when voters are weighing the issue. Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, is funding a campaign to defeat the measure. Ads from both sides have blanketed the city in recent …read more […]

OPEC Chief Mohamed Barkindo has cordially invited every oil producing nation in the world to join the OPEC+ coalition in an attempt to balance oil markets …read more […]

The weed patch has become overrun with thorns.
After a devastating six-month bear market, the marijuana indexes are deep in the red for the year.
And the “Negative Nellies” have had plenty of headlines to pull from.
But there is one group of cannabis companies showing strength.
That’s why this week we’re looking at the top 10 cannabis companies with the highest adjusted operating incomes.
Roadblocks at Every Turn
Let’s not kid ourselves… it’s been a frustrating six months for pot stock investors.
First, Canadian and U.S. licensed producers suffered large losses as they built out their operations.
Then there was CannTrust Holdings’ (NYSE: CTST) illegal grow room …read more […]

The recent downfall of tech darling WeWork is a lot more common than it may seem.
Today, Nicholas Vardy explains what went wrong and why WeWork’s stunning failure may be a harbinger of doom for other unicorns.

WeWork founder Adam Neumann is a product of his era.
Neumann’s long, flowing hair, insouciant self-confidence and commitment to “elevate the world’s consciousness” convinced investors that WeWork was not just an office rental company with a dodgy business model.
Instead, WeWork was a tech company that shifted the paradigm, redefining how we all work.
Neumann’s salesmanship convinced SoftBank to invest in the company at a valuation of $47 …read more […]

Readers and friends often say to me, “I don’t know anything about investing. How do I get started?”
It’s a great question to ask because the important thing is to, in fact, get started.
We know that markets go up over the long term, and we know that the longer you invest, the more money you will have. So waiting even a few years until you have more knowledge could have a profoundly negative impact on your net worth down the road.
Below are my suggestions, in the order that you should read them, for some resources that will help you understand the …read more […]

For the last few months, investing in Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) has been like playing chess with a pigeon.
In other words, say you’re on one side of the chessboard – and you move your pawn up one spot.
On the other side of the board, your opponent – the pigeon – picks up their queen, jumps it eight spaces ahead, walks onto the board, pecks your king, flips the entire board over, sends the pieces everywhere and then declares they’ve won the game.
Sound like a frustrating game to play?
Well, frustrated is exactly how Tesla shareholders are feeling lately.
For starters, you have the …read more […]

The stock market has been on a historic run for the last decade. Real estate is worth more now than ever before. Even mutual funds have seen higher returns. But there’s one type of investment that’s getting a lot more attention and one group largely responsible for driving its popularity: Millennials and cryptocurrency.
The return of the S&P 500 over the last five years is about 50%. That’s a fantastic return on investment. But it pales in comparison to Bitcoin’s return. In the last five years, Bitcoin has returned over 2,500%. On top of mind-boggling returns, Bitcoin is a new investment …read more […]

It was a landmark week for U.S. cannabis!
Back in March, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act made history by passing the House Financial Services Committee. It was the first cannabis reform legislation to ever do so!
And, as I wrote last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told legislators to prepare for a floor vote on the cannabis banking reform bill. That made it the first piece of marijuana reform legislation to earn that distinction.
More importantly, though, the SAFE Banking Act got the two-thirds majority it needed to pass in the House!
There were 321 “ayes” to a mere …read more […]

Many people shy away from investing because they don’t understand how the stock market works and are afraid of its volatility.
Today, Alexander Green shares why owning stocks is the single best way to build wealth and how asset allocation reduces your risk – and fears.

Over the last few columns, I’ve discussed the many advantages of equity ownership.
Not only are stocks easy to buy and inexpensive to trade, but no other asset class – not cash, bonds, real estate or gold – has generated long-term returns that come close.
So why do fewer Americans own stocks now than before the Great Recession?
One …read more […]

Wall Street is pessimistic on Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL), by and large. And there are good reasons to be fearful about the tech stock giant.
One, of course, is the signature trade war with China instituted by President Trump. But this is hardly a problem unique to Apple.
Many companies, some listed on the Dow Jones, and many components of the S&P 500, are affected by the much-criticized American economic policy.

Apple Stock (Nasdaq AAPL) – Not So Shiny
Meanwhile, the average selling price of the iPhone, Apple Inc.’s signature product, may very well see a decline in fiscal year 2020. That’s because …read more […]

Q: Do you think venture capitalists will learn anything from the WeWork debacle?
A: Great question. When you see billions of dollars in expected gains go up in smoke, it should leave a strong impression, as in…
I’ll never do that again.
But what exactly is “that” referring to?

Investing in a company losing money hand over fist? That would mean dropping 90% of the companies venture capital (VC) firms invest in.
Encouraging hypergrowth? That would be an extremely hard habit for VC firms to break. Pre-IPO, it’s all about growing fast (and breaking things).
Investing in companies headed by founders who are self-entitled pricks? Not …read more […]

$225 million and $2.4 billion.
Those two numbers are dominating headlines ahead of the Postmates IPO. The private food delivery company just raised $225 million from the private equity firm GPI Capital. This recent round of funding came at the eleventh hour and pushed Postmates’ valuation to $2.4 billion.
After confidentially filing to go public in February, Postmates is being patient with its public offering. The feeling now, however, is that a Postmates IPO is just around the corner.
What is Postmates?
For those unfamiliar, Postmates is a goods and food delivery service. All you have to do is open the app on …read more […]

Earlier this week, the Fix actually said out loud, “Bitcoin has been pretty boring lately.” One day later, bitcoin fell 15% and traded below $8,000 for the first time since June. Oops.
In the Fix’s defense, bitcoin had spent most of the month trading between $10,000 and $11,000. And volatility had reached its lowest point since April.
After the crash, our Adam Sharp wrote a terrific piece for our First Stage Investor members explaining why the price of bitcoin fell – and what you should do about it.
Bitcoin’s fall wasn’t the only big news story this week. In fact, this was the …read more […]

My grandfather was born in 1904. He died 29 years ago, and he was my hero.
His life was the quintessential American Dream. The son of immigrants, he was very poor as a child.
He started working when he was 6 years old, selling newspapers on the corner (although the age always got younger every time he told the story). He went to high school, college and grad school at night so he could help support his family during the day.
My grandmother would tell us how he would come home from night school exhausted, eat a bowl of cornflakes for a late …read more […]

In yesterday’s Trade of the Day, I wrote to you about the AbbVie (NSYE: ABBV) trade in The War Room. I recommended members enter a Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS) option trade that expires in 2021.
It was supposed to be a longer-term hold… but the market was very kind to us. I put out a sell alert for AbbVie yesterday, presenting nice overnight gains of up to 20%!
But it gets even better than that…
If you recall, my original plan was to recommend a spread trade. That’s when you buy or own one position and sell an option against that position. …read more […]