Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

As we say Adios to 2016 and welcome new year 2017, it's time to take stock of 2016 recommendations done in first blog-post of 2016 and come up with new recommendations for 2017. So here is report card of 2016 recommendations. In all, I recommended 16 stocks at start of 2016 with very clear indication that these are not for normal investors since they reflect my aggressive style of investing (after all blog is called "seeking alpha"). In all out of 16 recommendations, 6 were negative and 10 were positive. Losses range from 100% for LNCO, 94% for SUNE to 35% for FOLD. Gains range from 160% for VEDL, 144% for CHK-PD to 14% for OIL. In all assuming approx equal amount was invested in all 16 recommendations, the portfolio would have returned 28% not counting any dividends etc. This beats S&P by approx 18% which seems to be overall good performance. Of course it came with extreme volatility especially during months of Feb and Jun (around Brexit time). So as I have mention...

Two weeks back I predicted that DOW would reach 20K in first quarter of 2017. Looks like it may touch even before end of 2016. I am sure many folks who are investing in stocks are happy with that and must be thanking Trump for that (even though he is not even President yet). Last week Trump met bigwigs from Technology world for the first time. Given than all except one were against him, it must have been an interesting meeting. Conpiciously other than Palantir and Uber, none of the so called Unicorns were present. Most of the presence was by big companies with market caps over $100 Billion. Talking about Unicorns, "Trump's Presidential bid" must be the ultimate unicorn of all time and majority of folks missed seeing this unicorn which was in front of us for last 18 months. Only few folks from technology - Peter Thiel being one of them (no wonder Peter made big money in Paypal, Palantir and Facebook). So let's look at "Trump's campaign" as startup and...

Now that I have started writing blog again, I have decided to get into habit of writing blogs every couple of weeks. Somehow I let complete election season go without writing much and expressing my views. Anyway, based on various bets I lost (4 to be exact), my friends (and family know) whom I was supporting in elections. I really wanted to see first Madam President. But alas, that did not happen due to some campaigning mistakes (and little bit of arrogance to ignore Michigan and Wisconsin).  Now that Trump is going to be our President, I am fully on board in supporting Donald Trump as President of USA starting in Jan. What surprised me was the margin of his election victory and how markets took U-turn (for better) after hearing his acceptance speech. No-one would have thought that DOW would cross 19K if Trump wins. But here we are - all three indexes at all time high. Oil is back in action heading towards $60. What is Trumponomics: Big tax cuts - hoping that trickle down eff...

Have you ever wondered how to save more (beyond $18K IRS limits) and also convert to Roth IRA? And how about having flexibility of using those funds for big-expenses like kids college? Well – thanks to recent tax-law changes, there may be an answer. However as always, it’s hidden in complex US tax code. Thanks to some excellent research by my colleagues Anand  and Venkaiah , here is simplified version. All of us know what 401K means and how it works. The standard limit on 401K contributions is $18K per year ($24K if you are 50 or older). However you can still contribute after-tax money to 401K. Limit for total contributions from all sources and to all retirement accounts is $53K per year ($59K per year if you are 50 or older). This includes 401k, ROTH 401K, after tax 401K and any employer matching contributions. e.g. For an individual under 50, let’s assume following: ·       Employee contributes $18K per year ·       L...

New Hampshire gave a notice to USA - be a ready to be Trumped and Berned! Get months back no one would have thought that it would come to this. Everyone was thinking that it would be 1991 again where Bush and Clinton would cruise to win their party's nomination and eventually Hillary Clinton would become first Madame President. In my opinion, that would still be the case (Hillary becoming president) but the path looks much more curved than straight line. Of course that makes this election season very interesting. Anytime I put on CNN, they are only talking about primary elections - as if nothing else is happening in world (and CNN calls itself as world news headquarters!) Similar to elections, markets are also becoming very unpredictable with hundred points move on DOW becoming norm. Banks, energy, new high-tech (like LinkedIn, Yelp, Twitter and so on), commodities, Chinese markets all of these are predictably going down. Currencies are doing exact opposite of what central banks...

Welcome to Bay Area for Super Bowl 50. This much awaited yearly show is in town and just 3 miles from where I work (@Cisco). In fact it is so near of Cisco's campus that Cisco's parking lots could be used to park cars and walk. It's great to have such a major event in heart of Silicon Valley. Last week we went to SFO to enjoy the excitement. Tomorrow we would enjoy the show at one of our friends place (tickets are not available and affordable with lowest ticket price of $3000 if you could get it). By some estimates, Super Bowl would boost Bay Area economy by nearly $800 Million. Nice sum of change when tech industry seems to be losing some ground (especially when high-fliers like LNKD and DATA crash by over 45% in one day). Given it's February and longest political show on earth is about to get into high-hear,  it's time for some predictions Carolina Panthers would win Super Bowl 50 (even thoughjwin by Denver Broncos would capstone Peyton Manning's illustra...

It has been few days since new year started. It's time to take stock of performance of 2015 recommendations and come up with some new recommendations for 2016. As I mentioned in my previous blog, 2015 has been bad - really bad. Overall portfolio performance was minus 10%. Only 3 winners and 12 losers. Best winner was SRPT (up by 240%) and worst was LNCO (down by 88%). Nothing to be proud of except the fact that my inspiration in this field Mr Buffet was also down by 10-11%. Time to forget 2015 and look forward to 2016. Even 2016 started with turbulence in markets with first two days markets being down significantly due to various factors - main being China. However IMO, this provides great opportunity for taking some positions. So here are my 16 recommendations for 2016 - most of them are concentrated again in Solar, Energy and Biotech. Biotech: BLUE ($62), CMRX ($9), CLVS ($32), FOLD ($9), PTCT ($29) Solar: SUNE ($5.5), TERP ($11.50) Energy: OIL ($6.10), CHK-PD ($19), LNCO (...