So like most retail investors my portfolio has been seriously gut checked over the past month and the last 3 months of 2018. My stock portfolio kind of looks like Michael B. Jordan looked halfway through Creed II. No one likes losing money and even more so no one likes not knowing how long this will last. As it stands this may continue for a while.

CREED II - MGM

Personally, when I'm in doubt I try to seek some clarity in a murky market. When there is a sell off the first thing I like to do is see which stocks are either up or not selling off as much. A stock that doesn't sell off in a down market is the equivalent of a winner in an up market. These stocks can provide shelter in a market under fire and should be the first ones to rebound when the market is done selling off. To that affect I have compiled a list of the best performing stocks over the last 1 and 3 months of 2018 at a time this market sell off began accelerating. The lists are separated by two of the major stock indices the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. This data is as of 12/20/18.




Top 20 Dow Industrial Average Stocks over the Past Month (Dow 1-month return: -6.6%)




Top 20 Dow Industrial Average Stocks over the Past 3-Month (Dow 3-month return: -14.5%)



Top 20 S&P 500 Stocks over the Past Month (Dow 1-month return: -8.5%)


Top 20 S&P 500 Stocks over the Past 3-Month (Dow 3-month return: -17.3%)

Stockpile.com

Stockpile.com

By now you have probably heard that the general mantra of the stock market is to "buy low and sell high", or sell higher at least. Before Stash, Investors had to factor in the cost of trading fees when determining wether or not to buy or sell a stock.

At one point these fees were as high as $10. So to buy and sell a stock would take $20 out of your money. And if you invested as little a $100 this translated into a 20% loss just from fees if the stock did nothing. You would need your investment to return 20% just to make up those fees at that cost structure.

This means that if you invested $100 in the market then you would need a return of 20% just to get back the money you're giving away on fees. The stock market appreciates on average about 7-10% per year. By that math it would take you over 2 years just to get enough of a return just to pay off the fees. This is why investing was always see as a rich persons game.

Today we have stash and for a low $1 a month fee you can buy and sell as many Stocks and ETFs as you desire. The Stash Guy is a long term investor. So when I put my money into a stock I am looking to hold it at least 6 months but realistically I invest with a 5 year horizon.

So before I pick a stock  ask myself, how do I see this company performing over the next 5 years. That may sound ridiculous. But when you find a good company it is pretty easy not to worry about the money you have invested while it appreciates over that time.



Over the past 5 years Amazon, Netflix and Google have all returned +529%, +710%, and +139% respectively. That means you would have 2x - 7x your money over that time frame with these stocks.  Now obviously those awesome great stock returns and you might argue that you as a beginner investor may not pick stocks that get that as good of a return.

If you chose the ‘Match The Market’ Stash ETF your return would have been +72%. That’s an ~14.5% return each year. There is not a savings account that could have given you as good a return over that time frame.

There is another way to get even more bang for your buck. If you invested an initial $100 in the ‘Match the Market’ STASH ETF and added $25 to it every month your return over 5 years would be $2,980.46.  Over that same time stash would have cost you about $60 in fees. That’s a pretty good return.

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Now we get to the important part, How do we know when to sell a stock?

As a long term investor there are usually only 2 reasons that I typically sell a stock.


I no longer believe in the company

In my post about how to choose a stock/ETF to invest in we recommend coming up with a thesis on why you want to own this stock.

Example: You may haven chosen to buy Facebook because you use Facebook or Instagram everyday and you trust the company with your data so you wanted to invest in what you know. Then the scandal about Facebook leaking customer data drops and you decide that you can no longer invest with Facebook over the next five years with good conscience. This is a moral reason to sell the stock and thats is your choice as an investor.

A technical reason that you may want to sell shares may be that you don’t see the company growing as much as you did previously. A good example of this is airplane manufacturer Boeing. They had been having a stellar performance over the past several years while you were invested in them. You now realize that a lot of their future orders for planes are set to come from China. You soon realize that with the stalled trade talks between The United States and China will cause their numbers to decrease over the next several years and they will make less money off of their planes. Therefore, you choose to sell the stock and develop a new 5 year plan for another stock. It is important to do an analysis of the stocks/ETFs you own twice a yer and determine whether you still want to own this stock for the next 5 years.

2. The stock or index has become too large a position of my portfolio.

This often becomes the number one reason I sell any of my stocks or ETFs. In our guide on how to chose which stocks to invest in we recommend having a diversified portfolio. Consisting of a mix of at least 5-10 stocks and/or ETFs. Less than 5 and your portfolio will have erratic swings. More than five and your resources will be spread too thin. Now if you decide to own 5 stocks, then that means each stock is roughly worth 20% of your portfolio. Stash shows you this data on the investment page. If a stock has a great run then you may look to sell some of it to bring that percentage down closer to the average.

Example: My Stash portfolio is currently set up to compete with my wife in the Stash Couple’s Challenge. I recently had a great run in my Corporate Cannabis ETF. It became 25% of my portfolio after appreciating +27%. I own 8 stocks in my portfolio which gives an ideal weighting of about 12.5%. So I chose to sell approximately half of my Corporate Cannabis an reinvest in other long term bets with a lower weighting like Twitter. This moves assures that you sell higher and buy lower. Although Corporate Cannabis has had a stellar run there is a possibility that something could happen and it drops significantly. Also if it does keep running I still have skin in the game to reap some of those rewards as opposed to selling all of it.

Overtime you will develop your own feel for stocks especially if you take a long term view. After owning a stock for a couple years it starts to feel like one of your kids except that this one actually makes you money instead of taking all of it. Using these rules helps to take your emotions out of the game as much as possible.

This post is designed for individuals who either invest using the Stash app or are looking to invest. You may observe differences when applied to other investing platforms.

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Choosing the right stock for your portfolio can be a nerve-racking decision. There is no full proof way to pick the perfect stock that will double over the next 12 months, but there are certain rules that you should follow to make sure you are comfortable about your investment. These rules are totally different from the reason that cause you to choose one stock over another but reflects due diligence that should go into any investment you decide to pull the trigger on.

When you do decide to pick a stock as an investment you should understand how it fits into your portfolio. Does it provide diversity? Is it redundant to other stocks you own? Are you in it for the long term? Diversification is an essential component to any investment portfolio. This prevents you from loading up on too much of one kind of stock and in a worst case scenario if something happens and the entire sector goes down you won’t be totally screwed.

Does an investment fit your risk profile? If you live in constant fear of losing money in the stock market then that means you have a low risk stock profile. There is nothing wrong with that but the type of investments you pick should reflect your risk appetite. If your stock goes down 5% in one day will that make you want to sell? If that is the case then you should stick to less risky investments.

The following rules are designed for you to use once you have decided about your portfolio's diversification and personal risk profile. The next step is to do your due diligence on the company’s stock you want to purchase. The simplest rule to follow when you are just getting started in the stock market is to buy what you know. There are tens of thousands of stocks in the stock market and some of them you will never have heard of, but you already know some of the major ones like Netflix, Apple, Facebook and Google. You use the products of some of these companies every day so to that end you should be invested in them.

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1. Create a thesis on why you want to own this particular stock

A thesis is really just a fancy word for, a plan. What is your plan for your investment? Using the world’s biggest public company Apple as an example; You may be an avid Apple user and you realize that they have the largest market share of smartphones in the world. You also have realized that you have owned every iPhone that has ever been made and to that end Apple makes for a good investment in your eyes. Or, you just realized that Facebook owns Instagram and you are basically an Instagram addict. Knowing that you love Instagram, you figure that the rest of the world will probably love it too making it a good investment in your eyes.

Although we preach that investing in what you know is a great place to start it does not always translate into a good investment. You may be a Coke (Coca-Cola) addict, but as an investment Coca Cola the company has languished over the past five years (+16%) compared to its closest competitor Pepsi which is up over twice as much (+36%). Now you may not have lost money if you invested with Coca-Cola over the past five years but you would have been better off invested in other stocks. So knowing the company and the product is only a part of the story.

2. Determine how long you want to own the stock for

This is one of the most important parts of planning your investment portfolio. If you are investing for retirement then you can wait over the long term 15, 20 or even 30 years. So what happens over the next couple weeks or months is totally inconsequential. But if you are investing in the short term, then your strategy may be totally different. Case in point, My wife and I are currently involved in the STASH Couple’s Challenge. That involves having a narrow focus over which stocks are best suited to invest in over a 12 month time frame. If you are using STASH then you want to have at least a 6-month investment time frame for any investment. This is because STASH is not a normal brokerage account, and you are less capable of controlling your buy-in price compared to some of the other brokerages. You are less capable of easily exiting a trade on a particular stock in STASH compared to other brokerages. If you are more interesting in trading stocks you should be using an app like Robinhood instead.

3. Determine what will make the stock go up

Buying a stock and expecting it to go up just because it has in the past is the equivalent of throwing money into a wising well. We live in the technological age where almost anything you want to find out is at your fingertips. To that end you should have a pretty good idea as to what will cause your stock to go higher. In the case of Apple, will it be that they need to sell more iPhones? For Home Depot, are lower interests rates the catalyst that leads to more home remodels? With Disney, is the release of another Avengers movie the catalyst to drive the stock higher? A great place to start is listening to the latest earnings call or reading the transcript for that earnings call for the company that you are interested in purchasing. You can usually tell what the money making moves for any company are by looking at their earnings. It’s basically the report card for any company and if you want to invest in any company you should check their report card.

4. What will make the stock go down

I know we live in a world where most people like to think positively. However in the stock market that can be a dangerous way to lose money. In fact its better to know your companies weaknesses. That way you can possibly plan an exit before the stock starts tanking. Is the iPhone not as big of a hit as apple expected? Has Facebook’s security issues caused people to stop using the service thus limiting its value? As investors these are rightful questions that you want to ask, but you will also need to weigh it against your thesis for why the stock is going up.

5. Who is the company’s biggest competitor

Almost ever company has a major competitor/nemesis. We already discussed Coke and Pepsi. In regards to smartphones, Samsung appears to be Apple’s biggest competitor. For Microsoft, PlayStation is their biggest gaming console competitor but Google and Amazon are their cloud computing competitors. The bigger the company, the wider the diversity of their business the more potential for more than one competitor. Knowing the company’s competitor and keeping tabs on them will help you better understand your own investment.

6. Know what product(s) the company sells

Every company in the stock market is selling a product. For some companies that product is a physical entity, for another it’s a service, or software. It is important to understand how that product portfolio affects the bottom line of any company. Amazon is a great example of a company with millions of individual products, but in reality their number one product is a service, their website and the accompanying Prime membership status. To understand Amazon is to understand how the company’s strategy is centered around becoming a global e-commerce leader.

7. Look at the earnings report for the last year (4 quarters)

A year (12 months) in the life of a public company means that they have documented how well their business is doing at least 4 times (every 3 months). In the world of wall street analysts are assigned to cover specific stocks. These analysts also come up with expectations/estimates for what they think the earnings will be for each company. The companies that typically beat earnings estimates usually see their stock go higher as a result. Reviewing a company’s earnings will also give you a better idea about what your investment is being used for. Would you want to invest in a company that reports making less money every time they report earnings? Probably not, but a company that has demonstrated an ability to keep growing their earnings potential makes them a good investment. You can go to any number of financial websites to uncover this information. Two of my favorite places to look are on Yahoo Finance and Market Watch. Most of everything you need should be at your fingertips.

8. Go to the company website

I created this rule myself after talking with people who were invested in companies that had never even visited the company’s website much less know what the company does or sells. On the company’s website is where you can find a lot of research about the company including press releases. You can also get a better idea about the executive team that runs the company, your investment. I have a simple rule, if you can’t tell what a company is selling from their website then you shouldn’t be investing in them.


Think of these rules as a homework assignment. You are were willing to do homework to get good grades once. Well in the real world this homework leads to something better than a grade, it can actually make you some money. Now I know that you value the money you have saved and you are nervous about losing it all in the stock market. I won’t say that a stock you pick will never go down, but if you do your homework and stay committed there is a very good chance that you will end up on the positive side of the equation more often than not. Besides, aren’t you tired of everyone else making money and unlocking all the secrets to becoming financially wealthy? Now is your time to take a risk, you just might thank me for it later.

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ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)

What is an ETF?
An ETF is an investment that you can buy and sell like stocks. It tracks either an index, commodity, bonds or baskets of assets like an index fund. The price of an ETF changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold. On STASH, non-stocks (Delicious dividends, On Cloud Nine and Blue Chips) are the STASH names given to real ETFs that trade on the Stock Market.

The top 5 performing ETFs for the week:

Raw Earth  +2.23%

Up & Coming +1.93%

Robots Rising +1.78%

Clean & Green +1.68%

Money Machines +1.56%


The Worst Performing ETFs for the week are:

Social Media Mania -5.74%

Modern Meds -5.15%

Home Sweet Home -4.46%

Data Defenders -3.07%

On Cloud Nine -2.89%

Stocks

The top 5 performing Stocks for the week:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc +14.79%

Chiptole Mexican Grill +5.06%

Alphabet  +4.59%

Johnson & Johnson +4.53%

JP Morgan Chase & Co +4.27%


The Worst 5 Performing Stocks for the week are:

Twitter -21.42%

Facebook -16.7%

Electronic Arts Inc -9.27%

Northrop Grumman Corp -6.88%

Ford Motor Company -5.96%

Are you looking to invest in the stock market but have no idea where to start? Everything is better when you do it with a friend or loved one. This challenge came about in my household when I wanted to convince my wife to start investing. We decided that the STASH app was the best option for a beginning investor. So we thought that we would perform an experiment to see how does a newbie investor compare to someone who has been investing on their own with various brokerages for years. The rules were simple and I will lay them out to you below. Now I had been investing with STASH for over a year before my wife so I did have to sell my investments to start this challenge with equal footing with my wife.

The primary goal was to see who is able to achieve the greatest return (%  change) over one year. The winner of the challenge decides what we get to do with the money in both accounts but it has to be used on the both of us. So if she wins she cannot spend it on a spa day for herself. She can choose to have a spa day for the both of us or sped it on a vacation. I am more of the long term investor so my version of winning will probably mean add more to the portfolio. Although, I have been meaning to make it to a Super Bowl so you never know.


Here are the rules:-

1. Invest $25 dollars every week into the stock market.

This investment has to be split over at least 5 investments and at least 2 of those investments have to be ETFs. So every week we invest 25 dollars into our stash account and I invest 5 dollars into 5 different investments. This becomes easier when you use Auto Stash.

2. There can be no withdrawals out of any of the accounts over the next year.

This is very important to the challenge. If at any point you begin withdrawing from your STASH portfolio this will fundamentally change the parameters of the challenge. If at any point you decide to withdraw money from the account you forfeit the challenge.

3. It is fair to turn on smart save and use those funds as you see fit?

Money invested by smart save is separate from the weekly investment amount. This aspect of STASH may also allow you to make better returns depending on how much you smart save. I use my smart save funds to invest in the stocks that have underperformed. This ensures that I buy low and sell high. Most importantly, BUY LOW. My wife has used her smart save funds to explore new positions not originally apart of her 5 investments.

4. You can change investments at any point in time.

If you have an investment that you feel is underperforming you can sell that investment and take up a new positions since this does not cost extra with the STASH app. However, you must maintain at least 5 investments at all times. Also again at least half of those investments must be ETFs.

Now here is the kicker. I will restate, I have been investing for over 15 years in the stock market. My wife on the other hand is just starting out. We have been performing this challenge for 5 months now and we invest every week into our various investments.

As it stands Mrs. STASH is winning the challenge easily!

My STASH portfolio is up +2.47% with a total value of $748.59. Mrs. STASH portfolio on the other hand is up 8.17% with a total value of $511.57.

There you have it, the Newbie is winning big! Don’t get too excited ladies we have traded places over the past couple months. I recently hit a downturn with my Corporate Cannabis & Colossal China severely underperforming. Just last month I was up over 6%. On the other hand Mrs. STASH’s biggest investments Amazon and Social Media Mania have done very well. I have been able to save more which is mostly because I turned on my Smart Save and have kept investing the proceeds. We are five months into the challenge. Will Mrs. Stash demolish me in this competition? It’s kind of looking that way but stay tuned.

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Mr. Stash Investments

Corporate Cannabis -5.91%

Colossal China -6.15%

NVIDIA +5.51%

Modern Meds +11.20%

Square +6.79%

Alibaba -3.80%

Gamers FTW! -3.85%

Internet Titans +13.53%

Boeing +3.96%


Mrs. Stash Investments

Amazon +17.13%

Social Media Mania +3.56%

Data Defenders +6.38%

American Innovators 6.80%

Corporate Cannabis -3.39%

Netflix +13.69%

Apple +6.92%

Square +10.55%

Alphabet +12.33%

Walt Disney +8.85%

The STASH app is a great investment vehicle for anyone looking to build wealth. It has allowed many to slowly build positions in the stock market which, over time, has shown to provide better returns than the average savings account. For a long time now the stock market has been the primary vehicle of the wealthy to both build and maintain wealth. With the STASH app that luxury is afforded to anyone willing to work toward a brighter future. Here are my rules for those starting out in the stock market with the STASH app.

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1. Be Cautious

Don’t confuse being cautious with being safe. If you are young you should be choosing risky investments for your portfolio. Realize, Netflix is a risky investment, only because tomorrow the stock might drop 20% just because. Tesla is a risky investment, mainly because their stock value is so much higher than their competitors, meaning they are outperforming the sector. If you had invested in either of these companies when they first came out you got a pretty good return (>100%) that doesn’t make them any less risky. When I say be cautious I mean do not put all your eggs in one basket. If you are investing in the stock market, you should also have an emergency fund and a savings account because in the blink of an eye, we may have a market crash. That’s the facts.You don't ride in a roller coaster without a seat bet do you? Okay, think of the stock market as the ultimate roller coaster. In order to get great returns in the stock market you are risking losing something, but don’t use money that you may need in the near future to invest in the stock market. If something happens and you need the money then you may be forced to sell at a loss which is not our goal.

2. Invest in what you know

If you are starting out there is a high chance you have never heard about this small biotech company looking to cure HIV with their latest wonder drug. But there is a chance that you have a Netflix subscription, or own an Apple iPhone or use Facebook on a daily basis. For anyone starting out I recommend to invest in the companies that you know and that you personally use. There is a reason why you bought an apple iPhone, or spend 3 hours a day on Facebook. It is because you enjoy those products. So if you enjoy that product there is a high chance that others enjoy that product as well. Also, when you invest in a company that you personally use you know that your investment is going toward your own use. That’s just smart.

3. Be consistent

My second rule of investing wants you to be consistent. In my early days of investing I had to save up $500 dollars before I could buy a single stock just because the math didn’t make sense otherwise. With STASH you don’t have that limitation. But whether you want to start small or start big I am a fan of building a position overtime. So buy the stocks that you like and add to it either every week or every month. To this end you should also turn on Auto-Stash. A feature of STASH that makes your investing automatic. This allows you to keep investing whether your investment goes up or goes down. So even If you only have $20 to invest in the stock market each week, over the course of a year you would have invested over $1000 and with appreciation that investment could be worth over $1200 by the end of the year. Versus waiting until you have saved $1000 to start investing and you will need it to all go up from there.

4. Diversify

Normally diversification means buying stocks in companies that are in different sectors of the stock market. So owning Netflix and Google is not diversified. Owning Netflix and JP Morgan that is diversification. Those two stocks are not in the same business and have nothing to do with each other. But when I say, be diversified, I want you to be equally invested in ETFs and stocks. My rule is that for every stock I own I should own 1 ETF. So if I own 4 stocks then I should also own 4 ETFs. This helps to keep me from going overboard with individual stocks.


Here’s why the Stash app is great for beginning investors
5. Start Small

Winning in the stock market is a marathon and in reality the stock market has been here before most of us were born and it will be here after we die. Sounds grim I know but it’s the truth. Now if Stash is the first time you are investing in the stock market don’t think you are about to be the next Warren Buffet on your first try. And if you don’t know who Warren Buffet is then that is even more of a reason for you to start small (also look him up, he is awesome). So even if you have $500 a month to invest in the stock market, just invest $100 a month for the first three months. One of the tried and true aspects of the stock market is that, what you think you know is not what you know. Make sure you like your investments and increase it over time. Even if you like something there is a good chance that it will go down. Before Amazon’s massive run to $1800 it had hit a high of $1400 before pulling back to the low $800s. Since then it has run up to $1800 over the past year and a half. The point that I am making is that even the best stocks will go down at some point. So there is no need to rush in, by spreading out your investments over time you reduce your risk.


6. Buy Low, Sell Higher

If you stick to the plan I layed out ☝️ by being consistent then buying low this won’t matter. If you decide to invest in a specific group of stocks each week or month you are going to end up buying when they go low anyway. However if you are using STASH like a brokerage and want to put $500 in one stock and watch its return until you sell then this message is for you. There is a high likelihood that whatever price you buy your stock at will not be the lowest price. Towards that end, always be looking to buy more. In fact when I first buy a stock/ETF I want it to go down for two reasons. Firstly, if it goes down then I get to lower my cost of buying that stock. This means that once the stock starts going up my return will be even better. Secondly, when a stock goes down I look at it like a sale. You know that pair of Jordan’s (guys) or that Coach handbag (ladies) that you have had your eye on, when you see it go on sale what do you do? You buy it! That’s how you need to condition your brain to look at these stocks. You should say wow google is down 10% from its high, that is a 10% discount compared to if I bought it when it was up there.

7. Know your stocks

The most important rule of investing is to educate yourself. I do not care who you are, the fact is that you are not going to fall ass backwards into a 100% gain. You need to know where you are putting your money. If I told you to give me $100 dollars would you want to know what I am going to do with that money? That is what is happening with the stock market. When you give Apple $100 of your money you are loaning them your money so that they can improve their company. By that right you should know what they are going to do with your money. Make sure you listen to the latest news. Listen to earning calls. Find out what is their 10 year plan and do you support it. What is their competition doing. If this sounds like too much work for you then stick to ETFs or the moderate risk fund. The easiest way I find to do this is I track my stocks on the Yahoo Finance App.


8. Be realistic

The biggest problem I see with STASH investors is unrealistic expectations. The stock market has returned an average of about 10% for the past 100 years. On the plus side this means you can just put your money in an ETF that tracks the stock market and you could double your money in about every 7 years, thanks to compounding interest. On the negative side most people actually return less for their own portfolio 😔. If this is your first time investing be realistic. Stick to the plan we have laid out ahead but also understand that you are not a market wiz or a computer genius but that is okay. By sticking to the plan you can still become wealthy. Don’t let FOMO fl🤬ck your portfolio up. You may see on FB that someone has gotten a 20% return. Ok cool. But just as easily that 20% return can turn into 3% over the next week. Don’t believe me ask GE investors how they feel.

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Bonus Rule: Turn on Smart Save

This is not a hard and fast rule but I think it is one that can help you maximize your returns. Stash allows you to turn on Smart Save. A feature that will add extra funds to our Stash account. It may be only a couple of dollars every so often but I have used this as an opportunity to reaffirm rule 5. Buy low sell high. When my smart save returns go into my account I invest them into the stocks that have underperformed. This ensures that I am buying low and selling high.

There you have it, these are my rules to get you started STASHing. I know you weren’t expecting homework but I know you can do it. Let’s build a portfolio for you to give others FOMO. You are investing in your future, so this should be one of the most important things you do. You can do this, no scratch that we can do this together. Let’s make this money honey!

Hey what’s really good?! If you are reading this it’s too late! (Drake Shout Out) Just kidding, but in all seriousness if you are reading this you either want to invest in the stock market or have started investing with the STASH app. Most people are nervous and have no idea what you are doing when they first start out, that is an understandable feeling. You are already light years ahead of most because you realize that you should be invested in order to build wealth. Kuddos to you and let’s be real that money wasn’t doing anything in your bank account anyway. Savings rates are terrible.

Best Performing Stash Stocks Week ending 7.13.18

This post is a bit of an intro into who I am  and how I started investing but also a little bit informative about why you made a great choice to start investing now. So for all intents and purposes I’m The Stash Guy, and I just want you to be the best investor you can be. That may sound corny but it’s true. I will tell you up front I don’t have all the answers but I think together we can figure this thing out and get you where you need to be.

Ok let’s start from the beginning. We all know that the stock market is a pathway to wealth for the rich. It is also how the rich maintain their wealth. That’s a tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, beauty and….sorry I got a little carried away.

What most people do not realize is that the stock market can be a path to building wealth for the not wealthy. Some of my favorite stories are about the Janitor who built a million dollar portfolio over decades while mopping and sweeping floors every day. Or the administrative assistant who passed away leaving millions to her loved ones because she took the advice of her boss who was a financial planner. These are real people who slowly but surely built wealth from a low to middle class salary. I am a firm believer that the proof is in the pudding, and these people are my personal heroes. Yeah I know Kylie Jenner is a “self-made” (almost) billionaire but let’s be real neither you nor me have her head start but with discipline and investing we can all be wealthy.


We are in the technology age, where most of what you want is at your fingertips. With these technological advancements we have STASH. I am an amateur investor who has been investing in the stock market for over 15 years for myself. For the record I do not promote myself as a financial planner of investment advisor, just someone willing to see you succeed in the stock market. When I started investing I was terrified, mainly because you watch TV/movies and you hear about people losing everything in the stock market. So when I started investing I wanted to learn the lingo, hear the talk. So I watched CNBC for an entire year before I ever invested a single dollar. My first reason for doing this was that I was terrified. What if I put money in the stock market and the stock goes down? How do I know these are good investments? Am I in over my head? In truth I didn’t have a lot of money. I was a college student and I just wanted to invest my spare change, but to me $300 was a lot of money. It would have taken me a long time to save another $300.

Back then there was another trick to the stock market. In order to buy a single stock you had to pay a trading fee of anywhere from $7-$12 (depending on your broker) to buy and sell stocks. Now if you know anything about the stock market you know that realistically speaking the stock market returns around 10% per year. That means if I spend $100 in the stock market at $7 per trade ($14) it would take me over a year just to make the money back from buying and selling the stock. So this taught me that you can’t invest in small amounts. My minimum investment for a stock became $500.

Now do you see why I love STASH. STASH has erased that hurdle because you can buy as many shares of as many stocks that you like for $1 per month. Do you know how crazy that is compared to when I first started?! Also back then you could not buy pieces of a stock, you had to buy a full share. So for you ers that own $5, $20, $50 of Amazon count your blessings. One share of Amazon actually cost $1813.03. That means that originally you needed $1800 to own any shares of Amazon. Do you know how long it would have taken me to save $1800. Then when I finally save it you want me to put it all on one stock. That’s the equivalent of going all in on 32 at the roulette table. My heart couldn’t take it. In fact outside of STASH most other brokerage firm still require you to buy a full share of Amazon in order to own it. STASH is one of the few places where you can buy great companies despite the institutional limitations.

Again now you can see why I love STASH so much. For one, it’s like a utopia from where I originally came from when I started investing. Secondly, the ease and utility that you are afforded with the STASH app is unparalleled.  The fact that you can do everything from your phone is unbelievable. My STASH is always with me. That provides an extra piece of mind as someone who generally distrusts people with my money. If you have my money I should know where it is at all times! No joke.



I have seen people complain about the limited number of stocks on the STASH app. As a long time STASHer I am actually happy with the availability of stocks on the app presently. When I started there were NO STOCKS in the STASH app, only ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds).

For those of you who do not not an ETF is a fund that you can purchase like a stock, but it actually represents a group of Stocks. For example Internet Titans is invested in 43 different stocks including Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Google and Facebook. So depending how all 43 stocks do determines whether your ETF goes up or down. This reduces your risk of just one individual stock having a bad day or week and affecting your investment. 

Since then STASH has added over 60+ individual stocks, and at first I was concerned about this because I know people will see that individual stocks allow for the greatest return. This means that they also have the opportunity for the greatest loss. There are over 400 stocks on the New York Stock exchange. No human being can know all those investments inside and out. STASH has kept your selection low for a reason. They are presenting you with tried and true companies. None of the stocks in the stock market are in danger of going under anytime soon. Well, all except GE maybe. That also means that you can do your due diligence on those 60 stocks and not be distracted by the noise of the market. I’m going to help with that.

You still need to be wary of the stocks on the STASH app. All stocks are not created equal case in point, GE (General Electric). This company has been going through a challenging couple of years, however the industry that they are in has not felt the same negative pressures. Over the past 1 year GE is down over 13% but if you had owned an ETF that included GE you would not have been as effected by GE’s downturn. One example is The Blue Chips ETF, which owns General Electric as a part of its portfolio but was actually up over 16% over the past year while GE was down. I appreciate what STASH has done by allowing people to invest in individual stocks. It is allowing them an opportunity to build wealth at a faster rate.

One of the greatest examples of this is Netflix. CNBC recently reported that if you had invested $1000 with Netflix 10 years ago it would be worth $51,966. That report was dated December 4th 2017. Do you know that since that story was reported over 6 months ago, that same $1000 would actually be worth close to $74,000 IN TEN YEARS!!! That’s crazy. That is partly due to Netflix being up over 100% year to date. So on that note I respect STASH, but I want to temper your expectations. Those returns are not typical, they are entirely possible but not typical. Keep your expectations along the lines of 10% per year, and hopefully you get lucky and invest in a Netflix. The old saying is especially true when it comes to the stock market. It is better to be lucky than good.

I am not a fan of long posts, because I know the human attention span is limited and it has gotten even worse in the age of twitter and Instagram. So I will wrap it up. The point of this post is to let you know that If you have started investing in STASH you’re on the right track. The hardest part of any journey is that first step. Don’t get discouraged, you will have a down day a down month or even couple of months. But if you invest in good companies things will eventually turn around.

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A lot of people remember the 2007 market crash and it was enough to keep some people out of the stock market forever. They lost everything. Here is what you don’t usually hear, they lost everything only because they sold. If you did absolutely nothing and kept the same stocks, you would be up today. In fact the stock market is up 33% from the high before the 2007 market crash. That’s great you literally had to do nothing and would still be up. Even more awesome, if you actually bought as the market went down you would have made even more money. The stock market is up over 200% from the low it hit in March of 2009. So if you were patient you are in the green. If you were smart, and saw the downturn as a buying opportunity you would have quadrupled your money.

I know guys this post is entirely too long, but I only do it because I love you. Let’s keep each other going  and build this wealth together.

KEEP STASHing!

So I have been investing in stash for a while, I love the app but most importantly I love the opportunities it provides for people to start investing. At the end of the day the investing game is pretty simple. If you are a fan of the Warren Buffet principles you know that you want to buy the stocks of good companies and just hold them. In my opinion that is all you need to do. Where we as humans get a little side tracked is by trying to time the market.

Reality Check: Hey your stocks will have a bad day or a bad week or a bad month. Thats when you are suppose to buy more. The truth is that the stock market itself averages about a 10% return per year, that means some years it will be more some years it will be less. There is not a human being alive who has been able to provide a better return than the stock market over an extended period of time. That's just facts! So you shouldn't be thinking that you are the next stock wizard, if you sell whenever your stocks go down NEWSFLASH you are only ever going to be selling at a loss. And I totally understand, you may get a case of FOMO when you see your portfolio hasn't done anything and someone else is up 10-20%. Don't do that, that how you end up shooting yourself in the foot. Buy good companies and hold them. An even better way to automate your return is to find stocks you like and add to them every week wether they are up or down. You can do this with STASH at no extra cost, something that you cant do with most other investment tools.

This list of performing stocks and ETFs seemed to be a pretty helpful tool last week and the responses I got from other STASHers was appreciated. On that note I decided to keep this going as a weekly/month update about how all of the STASH stocks and ETFs are doing. I will try to keep you guys updated on the regular basis about some of the bigger names. It was a pretty good week overall. Some notables, Netflix which is usually crushing it was down -3.05% this week. That's probably just a little investor nervousness they report earnings on Monday and expectations are very high. Lockheed Martin and Amazon were killing it this week. We know everyone is waiting for Prime Day next week so that explains why Amazon is up so much. Here is the full list of Stocks and ETFs below.

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ETFs

The top 5 performing ETFs for the week:

Defending America  +3.31%

Internet Titans +2.6%

Data Defenders +2.26%

American Innovators +2.11%

On Cloud Nine +2.02%


The Worst Performing ETFs for the week are:

Real Estate Tycoon -0.92%

Retail Therapy -1.22%

All That Glitters -1.26%

High Voltage -1.29%

Corporate Cannabis -3.19%

Colossal China -1.05%

Stocks

The top 5 performing Stocks for the week:

Lockheed Martin Corp +6.41%

Amazon.com Inc +5.99%

Activision Blizzard Inc +5.58%

Starbucks Corp +5.39%

Walt Disney Co +4.98%


The Worst Performing Stocks for the week are:

Cisco Systems Inc -2.18%

Union Pacific Corp -2.18%

JD.com Inc ADR -3.02%

Netflix Inc -3.05%

Twitter Inc -4.63%

If you are like me you love STASHing! As one of the best apps fo beginning investors STASH offers a simple way for you to invest for your future, with a simple user friendly interface designed to make investing easy. However this simpler approach to investing tends to leave out some of the important details that can help you choose the best investments for your portfolio. As a do it yourself investor, I have taught myself to understand the stock markets while learning how to properly assess various investments long before I came across stash. I won't kid you, I do not pretend to be an expert. I am just a regular guy seeking to invest for myself and my family using the stock market. To that end I have created a simple table that track all of the stocks and ETFs on stash to provide a better understanding for you to use. I hope this information helps!

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It was a relatively quiet week for stocks with the markets closed on Wednesday for the July 4th holiday. For the week we saw Tesla and Nike down big while Square and Twitter continued their stellar run for the year with both stocks up over 90% YTD.

ETFs

The top 5 performing ETFs for the week :

Modern Meds +5.32%
On Cloud Nine +3.31%
Social Media Mania +3.09%
Live Long & Prosper +3.06%
Wireless Wonders 2.89%

The Worst Performing ETFs for the week are:

Colossal China -1.05%
Pacific Powerhouses -1.03%
Raw Earth -0.26%
All that Glitters -0.11%
Rate Hike Refuge +0.01%

Stocks

The top 5 performing Stocks for the week:

AMD +9.14%
SQ +7.79%
TWTR +6.82%
GILD +6.17%
ABBV +4.61%

The Worst Performing Stocks for the week are:

TSLA -9.93%
NKE -4.02%
CVX -1.81%
WMT -1.33%
GM -0.61%

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