A Noob's Guide to Investing in the Stock Market - My Story Part III

If you missed the first installment of my story - here is the link to it:
A Noobs Guide to Blockchain, Bitcoin, and Cryptocurrency - My Story Part 1
And the second installment
A Noobs Guide to Alt-Coins and Cryptocurrency Speculation - My Story Part 2

I've mentioned that back in 2003 I passed my Series 7 and Series 63 exams to be a stockbroker. There's always a backstory and here is that one. I'd had a brief affair with a beautiful flight attendant. The magic of Hawaii had made us both feel something special in the air. She was from Portland and didn't regularly fly to Hawaii and I was like an addict chasing a high, I wanted as much time with her as I could get. I mentioned that I might move to Portland to be able to spend more time with her. She liked the idea. Me, being me, I quit my job and moved to Portland. She, being a somewhat normal type of girl was like "Whoa, island boy, what are you doing? I didn't know you were serious."

I determined to prove to her that I was worthy so I answered an ad on Craigslist and interviewed to be a stock broker. I passed the interview and then passed the exams in record time. I loved the markets. I loved the data tracking. I loved the way finance worked. I didn't love the high pressure telephone tactics I used for the first six hours of every day. I didn't love the twisting of old people's arms to buy Krispy Kreme or Phizer or JP Morgan. And, most importantly, I didn't love the fact that while protestors were outside our building protesting the coming invasion of Iraq - I was in a room full of Bros high fiving because war is good for the markets. And - perhaps most importantly, the girl I'd followed to Portland hadn't been entirely truthful with me - she was in a long term relationship with a pilot - I was her side fling - but only when I was in Hawaii. Also, pretty importantly - I hated the weather. So I quit and went back to Hawaii.

For a brief amount of tiime, I invested a thousand dollars or so using an online broker called BuyandHold.com - which has since disappeared. I bought stocks that I thought would make the world a better place - hydrogen stocks. 2003 was too early and they didn't do much. Krispy Kreme, JP Morgan and Phizer though - they did very well in that time period. I didn't own any stocks that did well and I sold for a loss.

I went back to being a tour guide and got a degree in anthropology. When I graduated in 2008- the economy was shot. Tourism wasn't as fun as it had been. I took my degree and my laptop and created a travel blog and online magazine. From 2008 to 2017 I traveled the world, wrote about tourism, and started a family. I also started buying and selling antiques, collectibles, and rare books. Finally in 2017, I made it back to Hawaii where I realized that buying and selling heavy things isn't such a good business in today's world and that being a tour guide is still fun.

In Part 1, I told you about how I started buying bitcoin and cryptocurrency. In Part 2 I explained how I borrowed money and split my investment 50/50 between cryptocurrency and the stock market. Now that you know my background, I will be happy to share what I have invested in and what I have learned. I am not giving investment advice - do your own due diligence and understand that past results do not guarantee future returns.

Using the Robinhood App, I first picked up where I had left off by buying the hydrogen companies I'd sold in 2003 and some Hawaii based stocks. I was also buying crypto-stocks and planned on doing some day trading. I made $80 on my first daytrade. I made $30 on my second and then I got a notice that daytrading is actually not allowed unless you have $25k in assets being managed. As a person with far less than that - I am allowed 2 day trades in any five day rolling period and then on the 3rd one I am marked as a pattern day trader and my account will be limited. Only the rich get to play the fast and furious game of buy and sell on the markets. And by rich, I mean people who have $25k that they can afford to lose.

So I had to adjust. I pretty quickly realized that without the ability to buy and sell on a whim, the volatility of the crypto stocks was too much. I would simply lose because I would be unable to act. I also realized that while it's nice to hold stocks of local businesses in Hawaii, by doing so, I was pretty much guaranteeing minimal to moderate returns 99% of the time. So I adjusted.

I looked at the sectors that have large intraday swings and I began bargain hunting. In my opinion, a bargain is a stock that is being driven down by news that will be forgotten in a few days to a week. I managed to buy some Microsoft on a downtick and that stock has been rewarding me ever since, I've sold all but one share at this point. I bought a share of Amazon because Amazon owns the entire world, I plan to buy more and expect that single share of stock to make more money than the rest of my portfolio. I bought 10 shares of Oracle because Larry Ellison is a genius and even though people don't know it, Oracle actually powers the world. I bought 15 shares of Facebook because I think Mark Zuckerburg is going to start his own cryptocurrency, or even better might start to implement one that I own (Litecoin or Stellar would be my guess), I bought Mitsubishi Bank of Japan because they are the first bank looking seriously into creating their own cryptocurrency and they are the 8th largest bank in the world. I bought Tesla because I love Elon Musk and sold it because there is a very good liklihood that the stock is dramatically overpriced. I bought one share each of Ali Baba and Baidu because as a traveler and a philosopher and a student of history, I can't see any scenario where China does not eventually own the entire world (unless Jeff Bezos owns it first which I consider unlikely because he is not Chinese). I bought a share of Starbucks because I liked Howard Schultz' quip about crypto.

Here are the stocks I am watching and hoping to get into - Of course I want some Google. GOOG is $12 less per share than GOOGL because it carries voting rights. I don't really need voting rights but the $12 premium will probably grow larger because of that percieved value. I like both Overstock and Tesla but want some serious price correction before I get into either. I like a company called Thermo Fischer Scientific (TMO) because they hold the patent for a gene therapy which holds the potential for genetically engineering disease out of human DNA. I like Baker Hughes (BHGE) which is one of the largest oilfield product and servicing companies in the world - they are being dragged down by General Electric (GE) which owns them but which I suspect will not own them by the end of 2018. I also like Albermarle (ALB) a company that provides chemicals for electronics, the oil industry, and manufacturing.

I try to stay away from companies that don't fit with making the world a better place so in general I don't want any of the old Krispy Kreme, junkfood, big banks, mortgage and payday loans, Walmart, or pharmaceutical companies. I want to make profits and I want to own companies that have at least the illusion of a conscience which is probably why I won't invest in BHGE or ALB - oil and chemicals. Of course, that may change. The markets may change. One thing I'm pretty sure of - Amazon and Facebook are perhaps the two most important stocks on the market - unless they are supplanted by Baidu and Ali Baba.

Captain Vapoor (that's me) publishes some compelling and sometimes downright weird shit. If you dig it - please
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In addition the following may be helpful to both of us:

Robinhood Crypto Trading Platform
If you want to buy or sell cryptocurrency you will need a couple of accounts:
Binance: https://www.binance.com/?ref=13319173 (I get a little bit from your transaction fees if you use this link - thanks)
Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/52d742c6c60a61f2a6000033 (Use this link and we both get $10 in BTC)

And for trading stocks on your iPhone (and soon Crypto):
RobinHood: https://share.robinhood.com/christd2392 (use this link and we both get a free stock like Ford or Apple)