Five Star Trader Survives October Sell Off

I just returned from Las Vegas where I spoke for the first time at the national AAII convention. AAII stands for the American Association of Individual Investors. I’ve spoken at local chapters across the country over the years.

I encountered in the exhibit hall a group promoting a sophisticated new technical trading system. Based on its “artificial intelligence” technology, they turned negative on the market in early October. “It’s still not over,” one of the salesman said.

We shall see. Wall Street is up today. Hopefully the traditional holiday rally will start soon.

Our Five Star Trader survived almost completely intact during October. We were forced to sell only one position: Viper Energy Partners (Nasdaq: VNOM). But four out of the five are still “buys” in today’s market:

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), the nation’s largest bank, is expected to see earnings rise 27% when it reports its fourth quarter earnings in January, and a year-over-year increase of 35% to $9.28 per share and revenues of $110 billion.

Popular (Nasdaq: BPOP) beat Street forecasts last week, with an quarterly earnings of $1.38 per share for this Puerto Rican bank. This compares to earnings of $0.19 per share a year ago. It has now beat estimates four quarters in a row, and is up today.

Energy prices are still under pressure. We still have NextEra Energy Partners (NYSE: NEP), which reported much better-than-expected earnings last week — 58 cents per share, compared to only 1 cent per share a year ago! NEP has beatened Street expectations three out of the last four quarters. Despite lower oil prices, NextEra Energy is up sharply today. Keep buying.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMY), the Palo Alto, California-based tech company that specializes in cloud communications and data storage, will report a month from now. As a tech stock, it has been hardest hit. Activist investor Carl Icahn owns over 8% of Vmware and is fighting its merger with Dell.

I am reviewing potential Five Star candidates and will make a new recommendation as soon as the market stabilizes.

Personal Note: My interview on the popular Tom Woods Show is now posted on https://tomwoods.com/. Tom and I talked mainly about controversies with my bestselling book, “The Making of Modern Economics.” Its the #1 history of economic philosophy with Adam Smith and his invisible hand of liberty as the heroic figure. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, has read it three times! And Steve Forbes says, “Mark is unique with his fascination with history, with flesh and blood individuals. Read his concise and incisive sketches of numerous economists in ‘The Making of Modern Economics.’ He brings history to life. People are interested in people. He recognizes that stories are highly instructive.”

If you don’t have time to listen to Tom Woods’ podcast, you can read Mark’s story by clicking here.

A quality paperback third edition of “The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers,” published by Routledge, is now available at a substantial discount. The retail price at the publisher and Amazon is $45.99, but you pay only $35 postpaid if you order through Ensign Publishing. Call Harold toll-free at 1-866-254-2057.

This week, I will be speaking at the New Orleans Investment Conference, and I hope to see many of you there. I then fly to Los Angeles to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of Reason magazine.

One more note: A beautiful four-color brochure now is available to learn details about my Cuban cruise November 8-16, 2019. Go to http://pdf.moneyshow.com/CRUISES/FFCU19/BROCHURE-FFCU19-LOW.PDF. The rest of the ship is completely sold out, but we still have a few remaining cabins. We must return all unsold cabins to the Oceania cruise line in December, so now is the time to sign up.