In my first post I offer a brief description of the scope of this blog and what to expect. Not very exciting, I admit, but a baby step back into the markets and into this blog.
The scope of this blog is defined largely by the title: Stock Ideas to Money. I will focus primarily on individual stocks that I expect will offer investors opportunities to make money. I may touch on overall market dynamics, debt and currency markets, and other factors as they pertain to potential movements in stock prices.
The analysis will be a work in progress as I re-enter the information flow. Generally, I prefer to perform a fairly deep analysis of a stock, including detailed cash flow projections and a full understanding of the structure of the business. On some names I may reach this point with detailed published models and reports. Initially, however, and for a large number of ideas in the future I expect a more focused opinion about a stock, likely offering three bullet points on why it may move materially. In the past I have found many of my best ideas have been based on incredibly simple data points, like seeing an advertisement for McDonald's new salads on the side of a bus back in early 2003 when the stock was in the teens and thinking "the business has changed for the better."
Readers should expect to find stock ideas with at least the basics of why it is interesting. Investors may not agree with the ideas, and may even think I've missed the boat, however, I am always interested in constructive debates about topics and thus encourage feedback.
My strengths lay in financial analysis, particularly in software, IT services, government services, and restaurants. In each of these industries I have spent considerable time. For now my personal investments are in cash, a move made in October 2007 when I felt things were going south. While happy I side-stepped the market collapse, I missed the recent upswing largely due to attention spent away from the markets. So I only got it half right.
For right now I see no urgency to jump back into the markets with the recent volatility that may foreshadow a violent downward movement. That said, I love these times of market uncertainty since I believe it is when money can be made and the best lessons are often taught. For now my strategy is to stockpile ideas for openings in the market likely during June and July.
With that, the market is up strongly today and I wish everyone the best.
