September was another challenging month. So many fear October that sellers tend to dominate the month and finding stocks that might make gains is more challenging. The Base stock portfolio beat the NASDAQ and performed nearly as well as the DOW and S & P 500. The best performer was the regional banks (KRE). Shopify (SHOP) was second best, but has since been “short bombed” by a Citron analyst and will need to find a new bottom, probably somewhere below its NAV of about $100 – $104. If it settles around $70 or $80, I’d buy more. In the meantime, I’ll keep it in the Base stock portfolio as it still has long-run growth potential.

September 2017 Base Stock Performance.docx

The Weekly stock picks for September easily beat all three stock indexes once again. One strategy that I use is to find those stocks that are in a growing industry like healthcare or video gaming for which demographics are a long-run demand driver. Then find a stock within these sectors that is growing at a monthly rate of between 4 and 10 percent. These stocks aren’t growing too slow or too fast such that they are subject to high volatility or sudden reversals due to profit taking. Something like TCEHY or ABMD fit the bill nicely. These stocks are like veins of silver or gold that can mined for years and years. Just buy and hold them until something else comes along that replaces them and the vein is nearing depletion. Hope this helps and Good Investing!

September 2017 Weekly Stock Pick Performance