America’s Biggest Problems
My Recent Track Record
One Great Stock
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According to the latest Gallup poll, these are the problems Americans consider most pressing.
1 Our Economy
2 Our Government
3 Unemployment
4 Healthcare
5 Immigration
6 Federal Debt
7 Moral Decline
8 Ebola
9 ISIS
10 Education
11 Lack of Money
12 Foreign Aid
13 Hunger/Homelessness
14 Terrorism
15 Race Relations
16 Crime
I’d rank education much higher-because I believe education can solve so many other problems-and I’d rank Ebola much lower; a year from now, I doubt it will be on the list.
Also, I’d add obesity to the list, because it is at the root of so many other health problems (like diabetes). Just last week, McKinsey reported that obesity costs the global economy about $2 trillion per year.
And, I’d add unfunded retirements to the list.
Now, obviously, retirement investing is a big part of my business, so I’m not a disinterested observer. And maybe this only deserves to be #17 on the list. Still, when you see some numbers, it makes you think.
According to Bankrate.com:
14% of people aged 65 and older have no retirement savings
26% of people aged 50 to 64 have no retirement savings
33% or people aged 30 to 49 have no retirement savings
For some of these people, lack of money today (#11 above) is the reason they haven’t saved for the future. But for many others, I believe the problem is that they simply haven’t tried to save. For one reason or another, our noisy commercial consumer culture has triumphed over the please of the quieter, more sober saving-and-investing culture.
For evidence, just look around you. It’s almost impossible to escape the “buy this now” torrent of advertising that tells you your life will be better if you buy what they’re selling-even though science tells us the pleasure is seldom as great or long-lasting as expected.
And as if the commercials themselves aren’t incentive enough, the message of the advertising is reinforced by news stories telling us how well (or poorly) the holiday shopping season is going.
By linking it to our country’s economic health, they make shopping seem patriotic!
Well, sorry if I sound like an old-timer, but when I was a kid, the patriotic activity was saving.
No, I’m not talking about war bonds; I’m too young for that.
But I do remember a program, backed by the Salem public school system, that encouraged kids to save by handing out little booklets with slots that would hold coins. When the slots were full, the booklet was taken to the bank to be deposited, and over time, I not only watched my savings grow but watched interest accumulate, too!
Nowadays, such a partnership between a public school and a private bank would probably be illegal. But it was one factor (out of many) that taught me the value of saving. And I wouldn’t mind seeing something similar for today’s kids.
In any event, I do want to say that if you’ve already ensured a secure retirement for yourself, congratulations. (Now you can feel free to tackle some of those problems higher on the list.)
If you’re halfway to a secure retirement, good. Properly used, our services will help you complete the job.
And if you’re one of those people who has nothing saved, it’s time to get started. Get more details on Cabot Stock of the Month here.
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My Recent Track Record
Over the past four Mondays, I’ve recommended four different stocks here.
To be precise, in each case, I’ve presented the company’s story and concluded with some variation of the signature line, “So, you could simply buy XYZ here, but even better would be to subscribe to the advisory of the analyst who did the original research and stay apprised of everything he/she has to say about that stock and others like it, every week.”
If you did “simply buy” on my recommendations, congratulations. You’re looking at profits in three of those four; and that’s no surprise-the broad market has been pretty strong over the past month.
But if you are sitting on those profits, how will you know when to sell? For that, I still recommend listening to the original analyst. Otherwise, you’re flying blind, and that might not end well at all.
Alibaba (BABA +10% since 11/3) and Vipshop (VIPS -0.1% since 11/17) were recommended in Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report. You can find more details here.
Praxair (PX +3% since 11/10) and United Technologies (UTX +5% since 10/27) were recommended in Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Investor. For more details, click here.
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One Great Investment
Last, but not least, one great investment!
As I tell my readers frequently, there are many successful investing systems; your first job is to find the one that’s right for you.
Most people start with systems that are at least partially based on fundamentals: what a company does, how its revenue and earnings trends are doing, what its prospects for growth are, etc.
And many people never move beyond that.
But a subset of investors discovers technical analysis, or chart reading, and finds that it offers a whole other valuable layer of information. I’m one of them.
So with that preamble, I want to say that the number one attraction for today’s recommendation, CyberArk Software (CYBR), is the chart.
The stock came public on September 24, just two months ago, at 16. Two days later it closed at 31-signaling that big investors were interested. That was followed by a normal period of consolidation, even during the October market wipeout-which was the second clue that the big boys were picking up shares. And then two weeks ago, following a superb third quarter earnings report, the stock vaulted out to new highs on big volume.
Now, some people will look at this chart and say, “Are you nuts? That stock is an accident waiting to happen.” Furthermore, they might look at the stock’s PE ratio and note that it’s a stratospheric 122.
This stock is not for them.
But people who are attracted by this chart will say, “If the big boys are buying, I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
Mike Cintolo was one of them, and he liked what he found so much that he put CYBR in last week’s Cabot Top Ten Trader.
Here’s an excerpt.
“The entire network security industry is booming, and CyberArk is a small, newly public company that looks to be the leading player in an important niche. CyberArk focuses on attacks that steal the credentials of high-level employees (so-called privileged accounts) to get inside a firm’s IT networks and navigate it, giving them a better understanding of the security architecture (and thus allowing larger-scale breaches in the future). CyberArk’s software aims to identify and eliminate these hackers by analyzing and protecting the privileged accounts; it has more than 1,600 customers and revenues have been growing from zero in 2010 to north of $90 million this year, including a huge 66% jump in the just-reported third quarter...Consider it an interesting speculation.”
So (as I always say), you could just buy CYBR here. Good luck.
But a smarter move would be to check on Mike’s latest advice on the stock, as well as other stocks that pass his technical hurdles, and get his wisdom every week by subscribing to Cabot Top Ten Trader.
Yours in pursuit of wisdom and wealth,
Timothy Lutts
Chief Analyst, Cabot Stock of the Month
Publisher, Cabot Wealth Advisory
