My current investment picks from stocks to crypto and why!

I wrote this up a few months ago but it is still valid today:

Low Risk - Yield Plays

• McDonald’s (MCD) – Every year since 1976 they have increased their dividend. They are
ahead of schedule for re-franchising 3,000 corporate stores. Committed to returning capital to
the investor in the form of dividend increases. Stock price goes up but is not the reason to
invest. McDonald’s is also one of the largest REIT’s in disguise. They make money leasing the
land to their franchisees who then pay them a royalty.
• Ford (F) – Solid company, 2016 was 2 nd best year as a public company for earnings. Over 5%
yield currently and management very committed. Self driving cars and automating production
facilities in USA. CEO was the person in charge of self driving cars and automation for past 4
years. PE is ~12 while SP500 is ~18. Undervalued yield going into self driving and production
facility automation. Partners with Nvidia for many chips as well (see NVIDIA below).
• Boeing (BA) – Increase yield almost every year. Very low debt. Cut production force needed to
produce new planes. Makes Air Force 1, many defense planes/missiles/drones and has huge
outlets for commercial and private. Huge backlog of orders they are about to start filling which
will translate to solid earnings over the next 4 years. Invest in defense with a trump admin and it
is hard to loose.
• Waste Management (WM) – Very solid fundamentals. Go anywhere and see their dumpsters.
EPA cuts helps them immensely and they are a leader in recycling and reclaiming waste for
profit. With an increase in population and a move to “grab and go” “single serving” packages
more and more need for their services.
• Home Depot (HD) – Great dividend growth with overall sales crushing competitors. Under
current economics and reinvestment into home renovation projects both residential and
commercial. Over 80% of products sold are made in USA and margins are increasing. Over all a
stable company for the time being but slightly more at risk to a turn in the housing market.
Benefits are the housing market is moving toward renting for residential which diversifies the
risk we saw in 2007-2009 where flipping was the trend.

Medium Risk - Growth Plays

• Nvidia (NVDA) – The #1 chip producer for artificial intelligence research. EVERY major tech
company you can think of uses them. They do not actually make the chips but rather earn a
license from the companies that build and sell them under the specifications Nvidia creates.
Moving into a “cloud” based datacenter that will allow researchers, large corporations, and
anyone interested to access immense computing power through renting computer power in their
“cloud”. Nvidia is partners with all the major autos to provide the chips that make self driving
possible. They also pay a tiny yield which is nice on top of their insane growth the past few
years (over 300% return last year) and what they will be doing in the next decade. Little
competition, majors are Intel and AMD.
• MGP – A spin off from MGM that holds many of the properties of which MGM pays a lease to.
They are basically a REIT for MGM allowing us to access a more consistent growth as the shift
from buying things to experiences is taking place. People (especially younger) want to go on
luxury vacations vs buy a new car or home. It is not to say those markets are dead far from it,
just more money each year is being spent on vacationing. MGP directly controls most of the
property for MGM.
• VAIL – Like MGP they control some of the most prestigious vacation resorts for winter time
travel. Currently finishing their new ritz in vail, co they are set to make more and more each
year as spending increases on vacations and expansion projects complete and new are started.

High Risk – Speculation

• Navios Maritime Aquisitions (NNA) – Solid company worth more broken up than trading
market cap. Over 12% yield I have personally owned them since December 2015 and they
never missed a payment. Take the yield do not re-invest it as we wait for the stock to potentially
recover. A recovery in their market would rebound their stock over 300%. Ships volatile
chemicals over seas. They own a fleet of ships and have a track record for getting them leased
out for shipments at a very profitable rate. Undervalued but speculative.
• Bitcoin (BTC) – The world’s first cybercurrency. A revolution in the ability to transfer wealth
and empower the people of the world to control their currency without a central government or
authority. Bitcoin is the largest and most established of all the cybercurrencies and will continue
to grow as the world adapts it more. As a store of wealth, bitcoin has been called “digital gold”.
There are only 21mln coins that will ever exist which means if even 1bln people wanted Bitcoin
each could only own a fraction of one. Bitcoin is already programmed to accept 8 places after
the decimal. For example 0.00000001 BTC is valid and is also called 1 Satoshi (the smallest
denomination in Bitcoin). If trends continue as they have Bitcoin will have to be worth more
than $100,000 per coin to be able to handle billions of people using it.
• Ethereum (ETH) – Like Bitcoin Ethereum is a cybercurrency. It unlike Bitcoin however is far
more likely to be accepted by large banks and corporations due to the technical applications as
well as developers. Bitcoin is NOT going to change something just because the government or
corporations want it. This is where the negative news surrounding Bitcoin comes in as the
“hacker” “dark web” currency, which is true but only to a small extent. That is like blaming
cash for the black market. Ethereum however is more in line with the ideals of corporations and
governments and has a potential to get as big or possibly even bigger than Bitcoin.