Excellent Article on Retirement Accounts

Best quote Ive read this year

"Worrying is a waste of time. Good and bad things happen in life, you just have to keep living and not stress over what you can't control" 

Stocks I like from midterm to long term

My favorite stocks as of now:

TSLA
AMZN
FB
AAPL
COP

Reasoning:

AMZN and FB have solid financials and high growth potential due to innovation and market share

AAPL are the leading tech innovators, great dividends and solid financials

COP is correlated with oil prices and oil will increase in price over time due to demand. It was at a very low point in the past two years. COP was in 70s at the highs

TSLA has a very high capital expenditure which is causing negative cashflows and negative earnings but the big picture is that they are spending heavily on great engineering and with this risk comes the reward. In addition, people may start switching more to electric cars due to low maintenance expenses and during periods of high oil prices. So far, TSLA is the highest quality, fastest  electric car out there, and it will keep leading in quality due to the high capital expenditures they are putting into this engineering ...which is a good reason why Im buying a car from them myself. 

My guidelines for investing in stocks

1) P/E less than 10
2) Negative Earnings only due to project expenditures... know what the projects are and what they will produce in revenue and bottom line
3) Good dividends if it is not a growth stock with P/E less than 10
4) Solid cashflows and Price/cashlow less than the industry
5) Net Present value based on dividends or casfhlows using the weighted average cost of capital as the discount rate ( WACC is depended on return of dividend ( if any), return on equity and debt cost)
6) Product itself and the market for it
7) Sales volumes
8) Inventory levels and how fast the inventory is selling
9) Economic Influence like the fed, move of dollar, GDP...etc
10) Variable and Fixed costs
11) The CEO himself and his vision
12) I avoid companies that cut costs to meet quotas,  like Banks
13) Innovation like Tesla and Apple
14) Insider Trading of execs ( I look at their activities on the stock)
15) Technical Analysis
16) Momentum

Is the Market heading to bear territory ?

Well? This is to continue my big fat market post.  The bear likes high interest rates because it grows with little leverage and no liquidity to feed growth. So the fed has the power to feed that bear or starve it. The other factor is unemployment.... Do you really know the real numbers behind that 5.5% ....does an engineer who works in a grocery store now counts as employed? ... That's another factor to consider. In addition, you got Japan, and Europe going into negative interest rates territory to battle slow growth , and their slow growth affects trades between us and them, our exports decrease affecting the GDP negatively, exports minus imports is part of the GDP equation. Last but not least, the elections, this puts pressure on stocks due to uncertainties and regime changes. So the negatives outweigh the positives but the good news is consumer confidence , which is the big part of the GDP equation, is not declining much. As I said in the last blog, all you need to do is hold your horses and concentrate on long term investments, undervalued stocks and Real Estate. 

Yen Devaluation

Since the infamous Japanese Fed went into negative interest rate territory, the easing will help devalue the currency. The currency will resume declines as further easing in  Japan is likely to push the yen to its weakest levels since at least 2008 . Luckily, I am currently looking into an ETF that can short the yen. Its ticker is "YCS". It has a low expense ratio and it has a double edge sword that moves against the yen.  Happy Investing :)

Muscle Building

Want to lift? here are the benefits:
"

• Not only does strength training increase your physical work capacity, it also improves your ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL's).  You will be able to work harder and longer with the proper weight training activities.
• It improves bone density.  One of the best ways you can control bone loss as you age is to add strength training into your workout plan.
• It promotes fat-free body mass with decreasing sarcopenia.  The lean muscle mass that we all work so hard for decreases with age.  If we don't add strength training to our routine then it will turn into fat. 
• It Increases the strength of connective tissue, muscles, and tendons. This leads to improved motor performance and decreased injury risk.
• It improves your quality of life as you gaining body confidence.  Strength training will not only make you strong, but will also help with managing your weight." (http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/5-benefits-of-weight-training)
• It is also good for your heart

Want to do Cardio?Here are the benefits:

Cardio benefits

Conclusion: Why not do both for maximum results?