Friday Feedback: The “FAANGs For The Memories” Edition
Welcome to Friday Feedback, Great Ones!
We’ll get to our usual Reader Feedback insanity in a minute. But first…
We need to dive into the literal deluge of data that hit Wall Street in the past 12 hours. I mean, half the FAANG group either reported earnings or had a mid-life crisis last night. Plus, we got an update on the health of the U.S. economy.
It was a wild, wooly and weird evening with Wall Street:
The Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy grew by just 2% in the third quarter. That’s well below the 2.8% growth economists expected and the slowest growth in gross domestic product (GDP) since the second quarter of 2020.
Why is the U.S. economy struggling?
Come on, Great Ones, we’ve talked about this ad nauseum at this point: COVID-19, supply chain issues, the Great Resignation and inflation. AKA, the usual suspects. I’ll let you decide which one is Keyser Söze.
Bet my warnings in The Final Run Up don’t look so crazy now, huh?
Sniff, sniff… Do you smell smoke? Something is burning, and I can’t decide if it’s Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) or the analyst community. AMZN stock dropped sharply today after the world’s largest online retailer reported earnings that didn’t live up to expectations.
Amazon beat its own guidance on both earnings and revenue but whiffed Wall Street’s expectations. Revenue, which rose 15% year over year, was $1.2 billion shy of the mark, while earnings came up a full $2.80 per share short.
What’s more, Amazon forecast fourth-quarter revenue growth of 4% to 12%, or $130 billion to $140 billion … but Wall Street’s target was $2 billion to $12 billion higher.
All in all, Amazon’s fundamentals remain solid, and the company’s growing steadily despite the pandemic and the current economic outlook. This could be an AMZN buying opportunity, as I have no idea what analysts are smoking when it comes to projections.
It’s no secret that I don’t like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). But I don’t like the company because it’s lost its innovative edge, not because it doesn’t hit Wall Street’s elevated earnings and revenue targets. And yet Apple suffered the same fate as Amazon today, dropping like a rock despite solid quarterly financials.
Revenue rose 29% year over year but missed Wall Street’s expectations. iPhone revenue soared 47%. Services revenue was up 25.6%. And Apple even improved its gross margin.
Overall, it was a good quarter for Apple … great, even, if you consider semiconductor supply constraints and a struggling economic recovery. It just wasn’t good enough for Wall Street’s fantasy projections.
Is Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) by any other name just as bad? CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to think so…
Good ol’ Zuck announced that Facebook is rebranding itself as “Meta” to better reflect the company’s focus on the so-called “metaverse.”
All of Facebook’s apps will keep their original names, they’re just now reorganized under the Meta company name.
Now, if you’re not familiar with the metaverse, shame on you for not reading anything from my colleagues here at Banyan Hill. I mean, Ian King has been talking about the metaverse since July, for heaven’s sake. There’s even talk of using blockchain to supercharge the metaverse.
I’d much prefer you follow Ian’s advice on this topic than … say … Zuckerberg’s. You can change your company name, Mark, but you can’t change how poorly people view Facebook right now.
Or can you? It seems to have worked for Google, after all. Investors have such short memories … Wall Street, doubly so.
Editor’s Note: The Final Run Up was a smash hit! Go here now to see it all.
Great Stuff’s first-ever online event — The Final Run Up — was a huge hit. And you can see it all here now.
Yours truly, Mr. Great Stuff, and my special guest — Keith Kaplan, CEO of TradeSmith — revealed how a set of proprietary market tools could let you know the best times to buy a stock … how long to hold it … and exactly when to sell it.
And that’s just a tiny handful of what we covered. If you missed any of this special presentation — don’t worry. For a limited time, we’re reopening the doors to The Final Run Up.
Just go here now and click play — then sit back and take it all in.
Alright, alright, alright … it’s finally Friday Feedback time! Y’all know the routine by now:
You write in to GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com with your questions and rants on the stock market, investing, the price of tea in China … whatever floats your boat … and we write back. It may be something good. It may be something bad. That’s just it. We don’t know…
Either way, Friday Feedback is all about you, Great Ones. So, let’s get right to it then, shall we?
Let The Good Times Roll
This is worded very well and fun to read … thank you for being off the hip with a fun spin…
I’ve been hurt from a work injury and a $!## boss who just didn’t know when to say when or when to get a tractor (cheap ##@##@$#@). But I have [been] super depressed, and I think for the first time in 11 months of being stuck in bed and learning how to trade on RH got me until I figured out what was reality.
This article gave me a smile and a laugh I forgot I had…
Thank you, GREAT STUFF.
👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 Wide open — J
Hey J, how’s your day? Mine’s fine, by the way.
I love emails like this. I’m so glad that Great Stuff was able to brighten things up for you a bit. I know I may seem like a crazy person from time to time — I’m not. My mother had me tested — but there’s a method to my madness.
And if I can lighten up J’s day … hopefully I can lighten up yours as well, Great Ones.
As for Robinhood (Nasdaq: HOOD) … well, if you missed Wednesday’s Great Stuff, click here to see what brought a smile to J’s face … and apparently left his eyes wide open. Perhaps, J, you’re in a state where the devil’s lettuce is legal? Lol.
Thank you again for writing in, J!
Hapless In The Hood
I trade on Robinhood because they don’t charge me so much for margin like the big brokerage houses. I also trade on Robinhood because they’ve educated me on various issues regarding options.
I’m not so sure if what you’re reporting in your article is really true, or you’re just trying to bash the competition.
I guess time will tell 😉 — Ida C.
Welcome, Ida! Thanks for reading!
So, you’re not sure if what I’m reporting is accurate. Hmm…
Did you check the links in the article? That’s what Ida done to verify my reporting.
Typically, if I make a claim involving data or some other tidbit of news, I link to the source — which is typically a major financial publication like MarketWatch or CNBC. Just saying…
Anyway, let me clear something else up here: Neither Banyan Hill nor Great Stuff are brokerage firms. We don’t handle investing capital. Period. The SEC would have a field day if we did. So, in other words, Robinhood isn’t our competition.
In fact, I use Robinhood personally. It’s not my main brokerage account, but I do use it. And, as you said, Robinhood’s tools can be very helpful, and its lack of trading fees very convenient.
That said, Robinhood’s investor sentiment — i.e., how most investors feel about a stock — is in tatters. There’s no denying that.
Even if you aren’t a meme-stock investor, that whole GameStop/AMC debacle back at the beginning of 2021 still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
I know people will eventually forget all about how Robinhood locked people out of their portfolios over GameStop/AMC … but it’s gonna be a while. And during that “while,” HOOD stock is probably gonna suffer — since its whole business model revolves around trust.
Time will tell, indeed. Thanks again, Ida!
TradeSmith & Lesson
Enjoyed the presentation. Interested in how it boosts the return on, let’s say, the Extreme Fortunes portfolio. A few comments in this regard.
Mr. tells us when to buy and sell, so that decision is already included as part of the service. Also, his rules of the game of the service suggest the way to optimize returns by the readers is to invest an equal amount into each investment pick.
Given these two items, how is the return increased by the use of the TradeSmith tools? Thanks, and best regards. — Mike
Hi there, Mike!
First off, thanks for tuning into my Final Run Up event. I appreciate you giving me your time and attention, whether it swayed you to the dark side — erm, the light side — or not.
Now, as a rule of thumb, I always tell my readers that if they’ve paid for a trading service — as I assume you have with Extreme Fortunes — then they should follow the recommendations that came with that service.
In other words, you bought a subscription to Extreme Fortunes because you trust and believe in what Paul has to say — and deservedly so, as he’s one of the best in the business. So, you should follow the advice that you paid for.
However, if you want an additional safety net that you can use in tandem with Paul’s strategy, then TradeSmith’s tools can help when it comes to timing your exits.
Think of it as cross-checking your references for a very important term paper … or, say, wearing shinguards and bracers when riding a motorcycle.
Sure, that helmet might protect your head if you demolish your Harley, but what about the rest of you?
Your portfolio is the motorcycle in this scenario. And those slick, winding roads … they’re Wall Street and the market makers waiting to wreck your ride.
You get the point I’m trying to make here, Mike. A little extra protection never hurt anybody, but in this case, TradeSmith could save you from a serious case of road rash.
For those of you wondering just what the heck we’re talking about … here’s the TradeSmith tool I talked about in my Final Run Up event last week. The doors to this program are closing fast — but you still have until Monday, November 1 at midnight to take advantage of it.
Thanks again for writing in, Mike!
Keep Trollin’, Trollin’, Trolin’ (Come On!)
All of a sudden? Really?
Hi, Gary! You must be new ‘round these parts.
I mean, it’s either that or you have problems with reading and comprehension. Or … and here’s the most likely answer … you’re a troll.
You see, I talk about revenue projections and earnings in every … single … issue of Great Stuff. It’s the biggest reason I don’t advise investing in companies like QuantumScape (Nasdaq: QS) — a pre-revenue electric vehicle battery company — or Nikola (Nasdaq: NKLA), or Lordstown Motors (Nasdaq: RIDE), or … the list goes on and on.
All you had to do to know this is read Great Stuff. I literally talk about revenue and earnings projections all the time.
That said, if you have trouble reading, I’ve got your back there, too. I can’t just leave you dangling in the wind, unable to read! You’d miss out on all this Great Stuff! So, to help you out, here’s the reading website my kids used before they could read good: Reading Rockets!
But I imagine you can read just fine. I also imagine that you know full well that I talk about revenue and earnings projections and how they matter for all investors — whether Wall Street pays attention to those projections or not.
I think you have some very strong personal political beliefs … and that you’re projecting them on to me just because former President Trump is involved with TRUTH Social — which is going public via a SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition (Nasdaq: DWAC).
I’m not here to debate politics. While sometimes relevant to investing for obvious reasons, politics is the literal bane of investing — especially these days when emotions are running high. The absolute last thing you want to do when investing is get all emotional.
Getting emotional is what leads investors to buy stock in a company with no business plan and no mention of revenue or revenue expectations in its SEC filings.
But, hey! You believe what you wanna believe. You back whatever political candidate you wanna back. It’s a free country, and I’m just, like … this guy, you know?
If you wanna buy stock in a company that doesn’t care enough about revenue or earnings to even put projections in its SEC filing to go public … just because Trump told you to … you go right ahead, Gary.
And if I make you laugh as much as your email made me laugh … then it’s all good.
Keep trollin’, Gary, and thank you for reading!
And for all you other Great Ones wanting to chime in for Friday Feedback, make your voices heard: GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com.
We don’t bite … except for that one time.
In the meantime, here’s where you can find our other junk — erm, I mean where you can check out some more Greatness:
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Until next time, stay Great!
Joseph Hargett
Editor, Great Stuff