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Is This Secretive Arizona Company The Next Tesla?

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There is a lot of buzz surrounded the electric vehicle market right now. Tesla’s third-quarter numbers went past expectations, catapulting Tesla to a new record. With a market cap over $1 trillion, it is now the fifth-most-valuable stock on any U.S. exchange. Also, high Ford Lightning reservations have pushed Ford to a fresh 52-week high.

Then there is up-and-coming electric vehicle company Lucid Group, which revealed its first cars last weekend after starting production in Sept.. With a market cap of more than $55 billion, Lucid might look ridiculously overpriced for a firm that has barely started making cars. But if it has a shot at being the next Tesla, then its share price is very cheap. Let’s look at where Lucid is today and where it could be headed to see if it could become the next Tesla.

Why Lucid is showing itself as a great company

Lucid is following in Tesla’s path by releasing its own high-margin vehicles in low production before then expanding to greater production amounts and cheaper vehicles. It’s also copying Tesla’s strategy of limiting its advertising, focusing instead on creating a network of service centers and showrooms and allowing its customers to build its brand at a low cost.

Unlike Tesla, Lucid is not investing in its very own fast-charging network, thinking it will save a lot of money by leaning on the trend of third-party charging stations. But this is around the only thing Lucid is not doing. Executives have made it certain that it is very protective of its IP, which is why Lucid decided to manufacture its vehicles in-house at its Arizona plant.

Lucid’s competitive edge is the technology it owns the rights to. The company went beyond Tesla in the electric vehicle range wars by getting an EPA-rated range of 520 miles for its Lucid Air Dream Edition vehicles, which is the top rating ever recorded by an EV.

Aside from this impressive range, horsepower, and fast charging time, Lucid should get credit for meeting expectations over and over again. In its younger days, Tesla was known for not delivering on its high promises. Its share price reflected the frustration that investors had with the company that tried to micromanage its processes and expand new ideas before getting ahold of the Model 3 production. In this situation, investor sentiment was right. Once Tesla fixed its Model 3 problems, the rest was history.

It’s early right now as a publicly traded company, but Lucid is already showing consistency. That could all change next year if it fails to deliver on its expected 20,000 Lucid Air sedan deliveries. But so far, the company has done a great job of delivering on its promises, something even Tesla couldn’t do when it was young.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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2 Stocks That Could 10x Your Investment

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Major secular trends are the perfect starting point when searching for new investment ideas. Innovations such as cloud computing and financial services only getting more momentum. Of course, not every stock in a certain industry will beat the market over a long time frame, so the next thing I search for is a competitive advantage in the company. What separates a company from its competitors?

With this in mind, SoFi Technologies and DigitalOcean Holdings have recently caught my eye, and I believe both of these can grow tenfold over the next decade. Here is why.

DigitalOcean

Cloud computing has fundamentally altered the way businesses use tech resources. This ability allows companies to access services such as storage and compute through the internet, eliminating the complexity of managing the hardware on-site. However, the products given by legacy cloud vendors are usually aimed at larger enterprises, meaning they are often too complex for individuals, start-ups, and small or medium-sized businesses.

For this reason, DigitalOcean is simplifying cloud computing. Just like legacy vendors, its cloud gives a range of platform and infrastructure services, but these services have a more intuitive click-and-go user interface, and transparent consumption-based pricing. DigitalOcean also gives live support 24×7 to every customer, regardless of their price point.

Going forward, the firm is well stationed to keep its momentum. Global spending on tech infrastructure and platform services will reach $116 billion by the year 2024, as reported by the Intl. Data Corp. And DigitalOcean believes there are now 100 million SMBs and 19 million developers across the globe, meaning its current base of customers comprises a small fraction of its real potential.

SoFi Technologies

SoFi is a one-stop-shop for banking services. The breadth of its platform goes beyond that of most banks and other fintech companies, giving customers access to lending products such as student loans, personal loans, home mortgages, investing tools, cash-back credit cards, and insurance from third-party partners.

More crucially, SoFi gives this through a single mobile-first platform, which has aided it in gaining traction with its consumers. In fact, the amount of SoFi members has gone up for the past eight consecutive quarters, and the amount of products used by these members has grown even faster. As a result, SoFi is bringing in revenue at a fast pace.

In Oct. 2020, SoFi got preliminary, conditional approval for its U.S. bank charter, a key part of its future growth strategy. And previously this year, the company unveiled its intention to buy Golden Pacific Bancorp, a community bank based in the state of California. Once SoFi has brought its banking charter and completed this acquisition, management sees greater upside.

Specifically, SoFi will give deposit accounts to its customers using its money management product ( called SoFi Money). And the cash inside those accounts can then fund SoFi’s lending products, lowering its costs to originate loans. Because of this, SoFi will now be able to give lower interest rates to borrowers and give higher interest to SoFi Money account customers.

Management currently puts its overall opportunity at $2 trillion, giving the firm plenty of room to grow its profits.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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Can You Fund Your Retirement With Bitcoin?

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The Houston Firefighters’ Retirement Fund made news when it recently announced it was putting $25 million into bitcoin and ether, marking what was thought to be the first time a United States pension fund had put crypto directly onto its balance sheet.

Of course, $25 million will only be a drop in the bucket compared to the $5.5 billion in overall assets kept by the fund – more precisely, it is around 0.5% of its portfolio. But it still was notable as a first step for the historically conservative fund. And if other pensions and American retirement funds follow this trend, it might open up a huge source of greater demand for cryptocurrencies, with the funds now collectively controlling trillions of dollars in assets and with that number only going up over time.

In Sept., news broke that other pension funds, which manage a total of $7.2 billion in assets, were planning to invest $50 million into Parataxis Capital Management’s main fund, which purchases digital tokens and crypto derivatives. The investment has since been accepted by the funds’ board.

Asked if the funds were now considering further cryptocurrency investments and if direct investments were being discussed, Katherine Molnar, the chief investment officer for the fund, said her group is “considering more investments into the digital assets space.”

“We have not made the final decision about what form that could take. We remain constructive about the expected growth in this area,” Molnar said to CoinDesk in an email.

Growing investment trend?

Last week, Bank of America spoke about pension investments in cryptos in their digital assets-centered research message.

“Our discussions point toward many pension funds still in the exploratory stage. State funds in the United States are significantly underfunded with ~$1.25 [trillion] in unfunded liabilities at the end of fiscal year 2019, which has caused many to try to make up this shortfall through investments. Pension funds globally have $35 trillion in assets under management at the close of 2020, showing the possible tailwinds for cryptocurrencies if additional pension funds start to add exposure,” said analysts Andrew Moss and Alkesh Shah.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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2 Popular Stocks To Sell Right Now

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I have been picking stocks to avoid each week, finding names that I think could be challenged in the upcoming days. My two stocks to avoid recently were moving fast — down 28%, down 23%.

The S&P 500 increased 1.3% last week, so I was a winner with my bearish predictions. This week I see Digital World Acquisition Corp and Activision Blizzard as vulnerable investments in the close term. Here is why I believe these are two stocks to avoid during the current trading week.

Digital World Acquisition

My best call in the previous week was for the company Digital World Acquisition to be hit after good performance the week before. The SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) soared after partnering with the Trump Media & Technology Group for the start of the Truth Social platform.

It was not a political call. I have seen a lot of SPAC deals go up after announcing a big-name partner, only to then slide after reality kicks in. As with most SPACs, Digital World Acquisition has under $10 per share in cash, and hot acquisitions often need additional dilutive financing for SPAC investors.

The stock went down by 28% last week. I do not tend to repeat my bearish picks after such a big tumble, but Digital World Acquisition is still going for over four times its cash with terms of the possible pairing still not known.

Activision Blizzard

One would think the huge video games industry is booming in the pandemic. If we are spending more time at home streaming, are we not also playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty? Activision Blizzard is not living up to its part of the bargain. The stock is now trading closer to its 52-week low than to its 52-week high, and it is going to be a tricky quarterly report this Tuesday afternoon.

Activision Blizzard’s October offered more tricks than treats. It fired almost two dozen employees after harassment allegations, canceled next year’s BlizzCon online event, and rolled out anti-cheat mechanisms to deal with Call of Duty problems.

Activision Blizzard is having a bad year. Analysts see revenue going up shy of 5% in 2021, and it has posted double-digit top-line growth only once over the previous five years.

Author:: Scott Dowdy

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Amazon Sends Crypto Investors Into a Frenzy With This Announcement

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Amazon’s AWS section is searching for a crypto and digital asset specialist, another sign that the e-commerce giant is pushing ahead with the idea of offering more cryptocurrency services.

Amazon.com’s cloud computing unit is now looking for a specialist to support transaction processing, digital asset underwriting and custody on the cloud – another sign that the e-commerce giant is pushing ahead with giving more digital services for companies.

According to a fresh job post, AWS wants hire a ‘Financial Services Specialist’ to “…transform how the company transacts digital assets (for example cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stable coins, security-supported tokens, asset-supported tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from price discovery all the way to settlement and custody.”

“Working with our sales teams, architects, ISVs and systems integrators you will deliver the solutions that help customers move towards complete digital asset underwriting, handling transactions, and custody within the cloud,” the AWS job ad says.

Amazon has been quiet about its efforts to build out a team of experts to increase its offerings in the blockchain space and digital currency. The company back in July posted a position for the digital currency and blockchain product job on its site, hinting at a possible crypto integration in the near future.

Both Amazon stock and the price of bitcoin surged in late July after the rumors that the internet giant would start accepting bitcoin as a method of payment by the end of the year, and also would create and launch its own digital cryptocurrency next year.

Other companies including IBM are also looking to create their infrastructure offerings to offerings like cryptocurrency transaction custody and processing.

At last check, Amazon were oddly down by 1.14% at $3,34.07. Ytd the stock is higher by 4.63%

This comes at a time when there is stiff competition between Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS for the cloud computing market, with more companies seeing the convenience of the cloud compared to on-site computing centers. With Amazon having hinted at moving into cryptocurrency, it is only a matter of time before Microsoft returns fire with their own digital services offering.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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2 Stocks To Double Your Money By 2026

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For well over one century, stocks have been the best bet to create life-changing wealth. Even though the stock market will not outperform gold, housing, or bonds each year, it is delivered the greatest average yearly return over the previous century.

However, the leadership of stocks has been tested in a huge way recently by the emergence of cryptocurrencies. Many of the top digital tokens have beaten the S&P 500 many times over. Arguably taking the charge of late is the meme coin called Shiba Inu. But the many deficiencies of Shiba Inu means that its longer-term prospects are very poor.

Instead of investing your funds into this dangerous crypto, why not invest in the upcoming two supercharged stocks, both of which can beat Shiba Inu crypto over the incoming five years.

Airbnb

One company with supercharged growth possibilities that can leave Shiba Inu eating the dust is short term rental platform Airbnb.

What makes Airbnb so special is its efforts to totally upend the traditional travel and hotel industries. Bookings for stays climbed over 400% in the three year time frame that ended on Dec. 31, 2019, and it now has over 4 million homeowners giving their properties for stays. In general, Airbnb offers cheaper, more convenient, and more privacy than normal hotels.

Interestingly, the company’s fastest-increasing segment is long-term stays, which are said to be as rental periods longer than 28 days. As workforces get more mobile in the wake of the pandemic, these high-margin long-stay people could become Airbnb’s crucial growth driver.

Ping Identity Holdings

Another supercharged and growing stock that has the possibility to beat Shiba Inu over the upcoming five years is Ping Identity.

Ping Identity is a cybersecurity stock centered on identity verification solutions. The company’s cloud-based platform uses artificial intelligence to grow better at identifying and replying to possible threats over time. It works along with on-premises security products to give more thorough monitoring after users have gained access to the sensitive data.

The great thing about cybersecurity is that it has evolved into a basic-need service. No matter how well or badly the United States economy is performing, robots and hackers do not take one day off. This means double-digit growth can be expected for Ping going forward.

Author: Scott Dowdy

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New Study Finds The “Achilles Heel” Of Cryptocurrencies

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Following the Altair upgrade of the Ethereum network, the protocol’s native crypto went to a new all-time record high. Altair is the next step for Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) move. However, a newly submitted white paper says that a group of Stanford University scientists along with the Ethereum Foundation think there are three vectors of attack “against a proof-of-stake Ethereum” blockchain.

The Ethereum network now has a PoW (proof-of-work) mechanism and in time, the protocol wants to completely move into a PoS network. New upgrades such as Berlin, Altair, and London have been applied to help the move to PoS. Just recently, after Altair was finished, the price for ether skyrocketed to new all-time highs at $4,467 each.

At this same time, network transfer fees have also went up significantly as much as $50 for the average ether transaction this Saturday morning. Furthermore, this Saturday morning in the United States vertical trends from Twitter showed the term “ETH 2.0” started going up. Some of the people discussing the ethereum 2.0 upgrade have published a new white paper written by scientists from Stanford and the Ethereum Foundation.

The BTC supporter Tuur Demeester shared this paper over the weekend and two quotes from the paper that say how an adversary might attack the chain. The paper said to be “Three Attacks on Proof-of-Stake Ethereum” was written on October 19.

The white paper was done by Joachim Neu, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Barnabé Monnot, Ertem Nusret Tas, Aditya Asgaonkar, and David Tse. The white paper says that two Ethereum network attacks were possible in recent times and the paper’s writers refined these techniques.

In addition to their refinement of the first two attacks which theoretically form a “short-range reorganization” and one “adversarial network delay,” the Stanford scientists also had a third attack.

“Combining techniques from these refined attacks, we made a third attack which allows a person with a very small stake and no propagation control to cause an even long-range consensus chain reorganization,” the paper’s authors said.

Meanwhile, critics of the Ethereum network used this paper to showcase the potential vulnerabilities connected with these attacks when the network moves to a complete PoS system. The creator of the Chia project and Bittorrent, Bram Cohen, also mentioned the new study this Saturday.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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Have You Checked Your Mailbox? The Next Stimulus Check Could Be There

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Almost two years after the covid pandemic started, some of the worst-hit workers inside essential industries are still hurting financially. Many people were forced to go into their savings to pay for important essentials, including equipment needed for work and child care.

To help people with those expenses, the federal government has created a new $700 million relief check — essentially a new kind of stimulus. These payments will be given to only eligible applicants.

Those who qualify could have their household expenses paid for or pay down their debt — and there is still time to apply.

Funding for essential food workers

Meatpacking and farm workers will get money through a new Food and Farm Workers Relief grant program, which was recently announced.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says grocery employees also can apply to get some of this cash.

The Americans who will qualify for the payments who work within food-related sectors, where sheltering in place or working remotely was not possible.

These new stimulus is being given out by state agencies and nonprofits, who will apply for the funds, then give the money out to the workers.

So far, the USDA has not said when eligible people can apply for their money, but earlier this month officials said to Monterey Herald in the state of California that employees would learn more this incoming fall.

Stimulus check amount

Meatpackers and farm workers are now entitled for up to $600 for pandemic related health and safety costs, including any protective equipment or child care expenses connected to quarantining or testing, the USDA says.

Around $20 million of the total $700 million will be used for grocery store workers. However, the total for individuals in that line of work is not yet public.

“Our meatpacking, farm and grocery workers fought against unprecedented hard times and took on huge personal risks to guarantee Americans could sustain and feed their families through the pandemic,” says Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack, in a media release.

“They deserve to be recognized for their work and financial support for their sacrifices to meet personal and family needs while also providing essential services to America,” Vilsack says.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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3 Habits To Prevent Financial Ruin During Retirement

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Retirement is a great time for freedom for most Americans since you no longer have to spend your days earning a living.

But while you are free to indulge in your hobbies and decide how to spend your days, you still have to be smart about your financial decisions and guarantee that you use good habits.

To help guard your financial security during your retirement years, here are three habits to stick to before leaving your job.

1. Living within a budget

Careful budgeting is very important for retirees to guarantee they can meet their core expenses. That is especially true since most seniors get a fixed monthly income and have high costs for their medical services.

A budget allows retirees to use their dollars on stuff that matters the most, while also ensuring they do not run low and end up going into debt or withdrawing too much money out of their retirement accounts.

Budgeting also allows them to spend better so they can enjoy their new freedom. For some retirees, having the funds to travel or spoil the grandchildren is very crucial. A budget allows them to find cuts they can make to free up funds for this reason.

2. Living within your means

Retirees usually get a set amount of money from Social Security and the rest comes from savings.

To preserve this nest egg, seniors should ensure they get a safe withdrawal rate and do not take too much from their investment accounts too fast. One way is to follow the 4% rule and only take out 4% of their retirement account balance this first year, adjusting upwards for incoming inflation in the coming years.

Retirees need to ensure they are not spending more than they can afford while keeping a safe withdrawal rate. That means living inside their means.

3. Rebalancing your investment portfolio every year

Finally, seniors should also get into the habit of routinely looking over their investment portfolios to guarantee they have a good mix of assets.

Over time, your portfolio might become too heavily linked to one particular kind of asset or in a specific sector. When this happens, you might be exposed to too much risk. This could be dangerous for any one investor, but especially for those getting close to retirement who might not have the time to recover from these losses or wait for the stock market to come back after a crash.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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The #1 Pharma Stock Is Dirt Cheap Right Now

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Which company today can stand the test of time? There are plenty of them that have a good chance and this list includes some big drugmakers. These companies can invest billions of dollars into the research and development needed to stay relevant over a long time frame.

But after asking many experts which is best, we think we have one pharma stock that you can dependably buy and keep forever.

Bristol Myers Squibb

Finding companies that can stand difficult times is a hard task. An excellent way to do this is to look at the companies that were around for some time. Pharma company Bristol Myers Squibb fits this bill. This drugmaker’s past dates back to more than 100 years, putting it into a very exclusive group. But the past is not the present, and it is not always proof of what will happen next.

Fortunately, there are plenty of reasons to think Bristol Myers still has a lot of lucrative years ahead of it. Consider the firm’s lineup of drugs, which has no less than eight hit products. That is impressive, and most of these products are still boosting their revenue by as much as double-digit percentages. The firm’s top three products, anticoagulant Eliquis, multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid along with cancer drug Opdivo, boosted their sales by 29%, 11%, and 16% y/y, respectively, during Q2.

It is also worth looking into Bristol Myers’ future pipeline, which has over 50 clinical compounds currently in development along with dozens of continuing clinical trials. Regulatory successes are usually routine for this pharma company. Thanks to their expansions and fresh approvals, it can replenish its drug lineup as patent protection goes away on its older products.

This dynamic guarantees that Bristol Myers will keep growing its earnings and revenues at a good rate. That is great news for its stock, and it will help maintain its healthy dividend record. The firm currently gives a yield of 3.39% — a lot higher than the S&P 500’s yield of 1.38%. Bristol Myers has raised its dividends by 19.5% in the previous three years, and with a well-selected payout ratio around 36.3%, it can afford big dividend increases.

Bristol Myers’ shares are now dirt cheap, trading at only 7.8 times forward earnings, which is better than the average forward p/e ratio of 13.3 for its industry. At these numbers, Bristol Myers looks like the perfect buy. And while there are undoubtedly going to be problems along the way, investors who stick with it and keep the stock for some time will be glad they did.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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