Investing in U.S. shale producer Occidental Petroleum could be one of Warren Buffetts worst decisions as Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. | Image: AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

Warren Buffett has previously advised that when you find yourself in a hole the best action is to stop digging.

This advice apples to Berkshire Hathaways (NYSE:BRK.A) investment in Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY). Berkshire Hathaway has about a 2% stake in the shale-oil giant.

In 2019, Berkshire helped Occidental finance an acquisition deal for a rival. The equity financing deal has now taken a turn for the worse after the shale giant offered Berkshire discounted stock in place of $200 million in quarterly dividends.

Occidental obtained $10 billion in equity financing from the investing conglomerate. The terms included a dividend yield of 8% on the preferred stock. This amounts to $800 million a year for Buffetts firm.

Under Occidentals current proposal, Berkshire Hathaway stands to gain if OXY stock appreciates.

But what happens if the current trend continues? So far, the signs arent good.

Year-to-date, Occidental Petroleum has plunged from around $45 to $12, a depreciation of about 70%.

The chances of the stock rising with oil prices still depressed are slim, which means Berkshire Hathaway could end up hurting for the foreseeable future.

A fall in oil demand of 20 million barrels per day is expected in April. The depressed demand is expected to continue until normalcy returns to the global economy. Until then, downward pressure on oil prices is going to continue.

Currently, Brent crude futures are trading under $30 despite a historic deal to cut production announced over the weekend. The only hope for OXY to get out of this is more protectionism and government aid.

In the lead-up to the announcement of the oil deal, Brent crude futures reached nearly $35 per barrel. The global benchmark has since fallen to around $28 a barrel.

For prices to rise to a level that Occidental can extract crude profitably, deeper production cuts are required.

The damage record-low oil prices are having on U.S. shale is unsettling. According to Reuters, shale producers have abandoned drilling new wells as they put off maintenance.

Some producers have partially shut production as the measures put in place to fight COVID-19 drastically reduced travel and manufacturing. Storage for the crude is also running out and some producers may be forced to sell well below costs. Refiners are also asking producers to cut their deliveries.

U.S. jobs will also be lost, with Rystad Energy estimating 240,000 oil-related positions to be cut in 2020.

Occidental has already acknowledged that it might not survive without the governments assistance. Last week, CEO Vicki Hollub urged employees in an email to pressure U.S. lawmakers to offer liquidity to the energy industry.

The email also asked employees to seek congressional assistance in accessing the Asian markets. Additionally, they were asked to lobby the government to buy more oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Clearly, OXY has set aside all pretensions that this is a free market economy. Warren Buffett may be an avowed capitalist but his shale oil investment is looking more like a dud. Unless the government steps in to help.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

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Only Protectionism & Government Aid Will Save Warren Buffetts Oil Stock Investment - CCN.com

TheIRS started depositing coronavirus stimulus checksinto some Americans' bank accounts this week.

Individuals will receive up to $1,200, married couples will get up to $2,400 and $500 will be added for every child.

There are income restrictions: If you earn more than $75,000 as an individual or $150,000 as a couple, the total amount you're eligible to receive starts to decrease. If you earn $99,000 or more as an individual or $198,000 as a couple, you aren't eligible to receive a stimulus check.

If you're struggling to make ends meet, this money should first and foremost be used to cover essential bills and any debt obligations you may have. Next, you should use it to build up an emergency fund big enough to cover three to six months' worth of expenses.

But if you're able to cover your necessities and your emergency fund is fully stocked, "save it or invest it for the longer term," says certified financial plannerKelly Crane. "Equities are a bargain now."

Andrew Westlin, acertified financial planner at Betterment,agrees. "This is a great time to be investing money into the stock market, especially if you're younger and have a long time horizon," he says. He advises starting with retirement accounts: Max out your 2019 individual retirement account or Roth IRA, if you haven't already, or get a head start on your 2020 contributions.

The deadline for making 2019 IRA contributions has been extended to July 15th (the date your 2019 income tax returns are now due).

This is a great time to be investing money into the stock market, especially if you're younger and have a long time horizon.

Andrew Westlin

certified financial planner

While periods ofvolatility can be a good time todipyourtoeintothemarket, it's important to remember that investing always comes with risk. Experts recommendcontributing consistently by investing a fixed sum regularly over a long period of time. It's a strategy calleddollar-cost averagingand ensures that you won't sell low and buy high when the market is volatile.

You'll also want abalanced, diversified portfolio, which means having your money invested in different types of assets, like stocks and bonds.

Look into low-costindex funds, whichWarren Buffett recommends. Index funds hold every stock in an index such as the S&P 500, including big-name companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google. Because this type of fund is highly diversified, it stays relatively constant and avoids some of the risk that comes with picking individual stocks.

And remember, you're investing for the long term. Don't plan on touching any money you put into the stock market for many, many years.

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The coronavirus stimulus checks are arrivinghere's who should invest the money, according to experts - CNBC

When it comes to building a solid investment portfolio, diversification is key. When you own many different types of financial assets, you reduce your exposure to the risk and volatility that may befall a particular asset class. Dont take our word for it. Thats Modern Portfolio Theory 101. The only problem is that diversification is a relative term. For a long time, the only assets regular investors actually had access to were publicly traded stocks and bonds. If you really wanted to diversifysay by investing in the private real estate marketyou had to be a billion-dollar institution or a so-called high net worth individual. But luckily, thanks to technological innovations and subsequent changes to SEC regulations, this is finally starting to change. Today, innovative FinTech companies like Fundrise are providing everyday investors with Real Estate investment opportunities that were previously reserved for the wealthy and well connected.

Traditional portfolios are based on something called pooled fund investing. This is when money is collected from a large number of investors and used to create one massive investment portfolio, which is managed by professional money managers. The most common types of pooled funds are mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). All of these investment vehicles allow individual investors to achieve greater growth and stability than they would ever be able to achieve on their own. Thats a good thing. However, by law, these types of pooled funds can only invest in publicly traded securities like stocks and bonds. And because these assets are so closely related, they dont provide adequate diversification.

For a long time, institutional investors and high net worth individuals have solved this diversification problem by adding private market real estate investments to their portfolios. However, this option wasnt available to smaller investors. The technology required to break real estate investments up into smaller pieces did not exist, which meant you had to be able to write some pretty big checks to get in the game.

But now, things have changed. And companies like Fundrise are democratizing private real estate investing.

Fundrise is an online investing platform that lets you diversify your portfolio by investing in the private real estate market. When you invest with Fundrise, its a lot like investing in a traditional ETF, only instead of putting your money in a pool of public stocks and bonds, youre putting it into Real Estate Investment Trusts or eFunds, which are simply portfolios of private real estate assets. These portfolios of real estate assets are handpicked by Fundrises real estate experts for their ability to produce revenue, and they include everything from single family rental houses to multi-building apartment complexes.

In addition to diversifying your investments, a Fundrise portfolio also has the benefit of offering way better returns in exchange for reduced liquidity. When you invest in publicly traded securities, you can sell your assets at any time, but you can expect an annual average return of just 8.2 percent. When you invest in private market real estate with Fundrise, you have to commit to a 3 to 7 year investment horizon, but in exchange you can expect an annual average return of 12.3 percent.

The best thing about Fundrise, however, is that its open to just about anyone. You dont need a credit check. You dont need to meet any net wealth requirements. If you can afford the minimum $500 investment, youre in.

So whether youre just starting out, or youre looking to modernize your existing portfolio, you need to talk to your financial advisor about private market real estate and investing platforms like Fundrise. It could unlock a whole new world of financial possibilities.

Futurism fans: To create this content, a non-editorial team worked with an affiliate partner. We may collect a small commission on items purchased through this page. This post does not necessarily reflect the views or the endorsement of the Futurism.com editorial staff.

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Partnerships Thanks to This Innovative Fintech, Real Estate Investment Is Easier Than Ever - Futurism

Bradley Tusk has carved a unique path in the VC investment landscape: A longtime political and communications operative, he has built a track record for Tusk Ventures by going after highly regulated industries, rather than shying away from them.

Whether it is ride-hailing, sports betting, cannabis or myriad other regulated sectors, Tusk takes the approach that laws are ultimately malleable, and if a service is popular, its users can mobilize to effect change.

Given his unique perspective, it was great to have him join us this week in an Extra Crunch Live call our new initiative here at TechCrunch to bring tech-world thought leaders right to your screens.

In our conversation, Tusk talked about edtech, telemedicine, cannabis, mobile voting, biotech, pandemics and the future of regulated industries in this dastardly economic environment. Weve transcribed a handful of his answers to our and our readers questions and have embedded the entire video below the fold.

Weve edited his written answers for clarity and brevity.

Original post:
Bradley Tusk on starting a company and seed investing in the coronavirus era - TechCrunch

China is rapidly catching up to the United States with regard to blockchain-related investments, according to a recent report put together by New York-based research firm CB Insights.

The researchers found that the East Asian country accounted for 22% of blockchain investments in 2019, compared to 31% for the U.S. This represents a significant improvement for China when compared to 2015, when it had a meager 2% while the U.S. was getting 51% of total funding.

Headlined by the trade dispute of 2019, competition between the U.S. and China has intensified in recent years. Thats unsurprising considering theyre the two largest economies in the world. At best, however, the findings of this CB Insights report only suggest that U.S.China competition is intensifying in the blockchain space as well. It doesnt give a clear picture of which country is ahead in blockchain development.

In addition, given that there is a slew of conflicting blockchain investment reports out there, its difficult to say for sure just what proportion of global blockchain investment goes to either country. For instance, according to CB Insights, 2019 saw a global investment volume of about $2.8 billion, down from $4.2 billion in 2018.

Earlier in this year, Xinhua Chinas state-run financial media firm and financial data platform Rhino Datareported that Chinese investment deals came in at around $3.44 billion (24.4 billion Chinese yuan) across 245 deals in 2019. This represents a 40.8% drop in investment volume when compared to 2018, the report stated.

Experts say that the majority of the investment in China originates locally for now, but they expect more foreign funds in the near future. Kevin Shao of Bitrise Capital Partners told Cointelegraph that:

Currently, the main investors are mainly domestic venture capital institutions and individual investors as early stage investors. However, we believe that with the increasing internationalization of Blockchain technology, the percentage of foreign investment institutions will increase over time.

There arent any readily available reports focused solely on how much blockchain investment happened in the U.S. last year, but again, the figures from CB Insights mostly show that the blockchain scene in China is picking up. Instead of looking at the figures, it might be worth considering the actual events, including the governments stance, talent distribution and enterprise involvement to obtain a feel for how blockchain competition is shaping up between the two countries.

In October 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping publiclysupported blockchain technology by urging the country to take blockchain as an important breakthrough independent innovation of core technologies and to accelerate its development. According to blockchain accelerator Consensys, China has over 500 registered blockchain projects, with most of them led by the government.

As part of its support for blockchain, the People's Bank of China the countrys central bank is working to launch a digital yuan, which will be powered by a centralized blockchain. According to reports, the central bank has completed the essential development of the digital currency and is now in the process of drawing up legislation for its circulation.

The Chinese governments stance, led by President Xis speech, has had two effects on the blockchain development scene in the country. First, it has outlined the future path of the industry. Second, it has made mainstream the status of blockchain and promoted its orderly development, thereby opening more opportunities for new players to enter. Qi Qi, the CEO the of blockchain incubator B-Labs, told Cointelegraph:

On the capital side, domestic traditional funds are more willing to get involved, especially paying attention to the field of industrial blockchain, which is a big breakthrough for traditional funds and the blockchain industry itself.

Simon Li, a founding partner at Chain Capital, also told Cointelegraph that the Chinese government is actively embracing the blockchain and will use it in the government affairs system to create many application scenarios.

The U.S. government has a somewhat more cautious approach to blockchain. While a few government agencies mostly military are exploring the use of blockchain in the country, its still hard to say the government is particularly pro-blockchain, and this might limit the flow of blockchain investment in the country. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Sukhi Jutla, the co-founder of MarketOrders a blockchain platform for the jewelry industry said:

Although the U.S. is still a key leader when it comes to blockchain investments, it cannot compete with China. The US is hindered by regulations that are slow and dont keep pace with the innovations of technology. China is able to move with speed as their governments allow them the space to do what they need to do.

Jutla added, Many companies are bogged down by uncertainty and the threat of being sued as the regulations cannot keep pace with the fast-moving technology. Last year, Congress asked Facebook to stop advancing the cryptocurrency project Libra without proper supervision. The Securities Exchange Commission also continues to block Telegrams plans to launch its TON project. Still, the country has no clear plans for developing its own blockchain-based digital money.

The availability of talent is next to governmental influence as a determinant factor of investment flow, and experts believe the U.S. is ahead of China in the area of technical personnel. Kevin Ren, a founding partner at Consensus Lab, told Cointelegraph that despite the Chinese government being outwardly more supportive of blockchain, the U.S. has the edge thanks to the availability of talent:

Due to the shortage of technical personnel and infrastructure, China's current level of development in the area of blockchain still lags behind that of the United States. For example, the blockchain 3.0 project, such as Polkadot, Cosmos, etc., which currently leads the technological trend of blockchain, is mostly still a U.S. project.

Li also believes the U.S. has superior technical prowess. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, he said that there is still a certain gap between our technical level and that of the United States, but China sees great improvements in recent years, and the gap gets gradually narrowed.

China is famed as one of the countries where the adoption of new technology picks up the fastest. A 2018 report titled Me, My Life, My Wallet published by accounting giant KPMG found that consumers in China tend to be more receptive to new technologies, ahead of other top markets including the U.S., the United Kingdom and others.

This is evident in the area of mobile payment, where China leads the rest of the world in adoption. Ren believes that this readiness to pick up new technologies will give China the edge over the U.S. in the mid- to long-term, saying:

China's population base and netizen base, its ability to accept new things (Internet enterprises have completed user education through mobile payment and online shopping), and the constant supply of talents are the kinetic energy for China's blockchain to make great progress.

Brian Platz, the co-founder of Fluree an American company that builds blockchain-based databases told Cointelegraph that Chinas competitive advantage goes beyond its technology-receptive populace. According to Platz:

China may be leading in terms of adoption of digital and mobile payments, but that's only a piece of the blockchain pie. China is also heavily investing in enterprise blockchain infrastructure noting a clear thesis that blockchain technology can provide value across a variety of contexts. This is a powerful combination of adoption one that the U.S. should take seriously and accelerate plans to compete.

However, citing the opportunity for private enterprises to innovate more rapidly, Platz whose company is backed by Steve Cases venture capital firm Revolution believes that the U.S. can be the leader ahead of China in the blockchain scene, adding:

One clear advantage the US does have over China is the opportunity for private enterprise to freely innovate at a rapid pace. It's time to double down on enterprise blockchain efforts, garner support from the government, and build a competitive blockchain industry here in the US.

It has been widely reported in recent years that the majority of blockchain-related patents are held by Chinese entities. Technology news website The Next Web reported in March 2019 that Chinese entities had published 790 patents, while the U.S. had published 762. These figures represented the total, all-time patent publication by these countries.

However, the publication of patents in China appears to be dominated by a few entities, given that the number of U.S. enterprise players invested in blockchain is significantly more than that of China. The business publication Forbes recentlycompiled a list of the top 50 enterprises that have invested into blockchain, and the list is dominated by American firms across different sectors.

To be on the list, the company had to be generating at least $1 billion in annual revenue or have a valuation of at least $1 billion. American companies took up 58% of the list with 29 entries, while only four Chinese companies were featured.

The answer to who is ahead in blockchain development between China and the U.S. depends on who is asked and how they best see the application of blockchain in reality. The two economic giants are following different development paths, with blockchain advancement in China spearheaded by the government and development in the U.S. spearheaded by corporate enterprises.

According to Shao, blockchain development in the two countries is evolving in different directions, making it difficult to declare a clear leader. He stated:

Compared to the United States, China is taking a different path and we cannot compare which path is better or more advanced at the time. China's blockchain industry is focusing on governance, finance and civil fields. But in the financial-related fields, the Chinese government is more cautious and strict compared to the U.S. government.

James Wo, the CEO of U.S.-based Digital Finance Group, also believes that the two countries are approaching blockchain development differently. He said:

I think they have different directions. U.S. cares more about solving infrastructure-level problems including interoperability, scalability etc. While China cares more about the usage of blockchain.

On the other hand, the CEO of B-Labs believes that both China and the U.S. are at the forefront regarding blockchain technology, but the narrative should be that of cooperation:

All the issues that have happened recently make us realize the meaning of a community of shared future for mankind, and aware that global technological cooperation is an essential element for building such a community, in the way from R&D, patents, talent cultivation and beyond.

Go here to see the original:
Chinese Blockchain Investment on the Rise, but Comparison to US Is Apples to Oranges - Cointelegraph

In 2016, Steve Adcock quit his six-figure job and retired at 35. His wife, Courtney, left her 9-to-5 a year later and joined him in early retirement. They did it by saving up to 70% of their combined income, which ranged from $200,000 to $230,000 a year.

For the past few years, the couple have been living off their investment dividends and capital gains in the market. That is until recently, when the coronavirus pandemic sent the markets into a tailspin.

Now, they're living off of their emergency fund, which has enough money to last them three years, and reinvesting the dividends. Still, their net worth has plummeted: "We're down about $200,000 from our highs," Adcock tells CNBC Make It. Their portfolio was at a high of $1.2 million in February 2020.

The couple, who live in an 800-square-foot solar home in Arizona, isn't panicking. The pandemic hasn't yet affected their long-term plans, says Adcock: "Our goal has always been to maintain a lifestyle where we never run out of money in early retirement through living a sensible and low-cost lifestyle, and that definitely hasn't changed."

In the meantime, though, they've tweaked their budget and investing strategy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to create uncertainty.

Steve and Courtney Adcock retired in their 30s

Courtesy of Steve Adcock

For starters, they're spending a lot less money. "A big part of our budget is discretionary spending, like restaurants, alcohol, home improvement stuff," says Adcock, who estimates that half of their budget in retirement goes toward "fun expenses."

Since March, they've eliminated nearly all of their discretionary spending. "We don't go to restaurants, mainly because they are closed," Adcock says. "We buy less alcohol. We aren't ordering as much stuff on Amazon. We keep our expenses to what we need and save the rest for later, once things get back to normal."

While they would normally spend between $45,000 and $50,000 a year, "our current budget puts us more at $30,000 a year, or $2,500 a month. We anticipate this lower budget going forward until things change for the better."

They've also changed their investing strategy. "We are now automatically reinvesting all of our dividends into buying more stocks," says Adcock. "Before the pandemic, we took our dividends as a part of our living expenses, but not right now."

Because the market is down and stocks are "on sale" right now, he sees it as a good time to invest. Rather than living off the dividends, he's putting that money into the stock market and drawing down from his emergency fund for everyday expenses.

Adcock is optimistic that the market will rebound over the next few months, as are other money experts. If it does bounce back, "we're hoping to have enough stock in the market to enjoy a nice recovery," he says.

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Early retiree's net worth dropped $200,000 due to the pandemichere's how he's changing his budget - CNBC

Stock in The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) first went on sale to the public back on Sept. 21, 2016. The IPO was priced at $18 per share, and the stock closed at $30.10 a share on the first day of trading, up 67% in just a single session. The Trade Desk stock went on to generate massive returns over the next few years and is trading at around $233.40 as of this writing. It had previously touched an all-time high of $323.78 a share before the wider market turmoil of the past few months bumped it down.

So how much would an investor have if they invested $1,000 just after its IPO? An investor could have purchased 33 shares for $993.30, and that position would now be worth $7,702, yielding seven times the original investment, easily outperforming the S&P 500 index. For investors who bought the stock at its IPO price, this gain stands at an even more impressive 1,196% return.

TTD data by YCharts

The Trade Desk is a programmatic advertising company and aims to empower digital ad buyers. Its cloud-based platform helps advertisers create, manage, and optimize data-driven ad campaigns across several channels, in multiple formats including audio, video, in-app, and a range of devices such as mobile, computers, and connected TV (CTV).

The Trade Desk has integrated its platform with large publishers and data partners to help ad buyers with decision-making capabilities. The platform launched in 2011 and targeted the display advertising space. It has now expanded into other ad formats, and in 2019 about "79% of gross spend" was from mobile, video, audio, and social channels.

The Trade Desk provides services primarily to ad agencies. It enters into master service agreements with clients and generates sales by charging them a platform fee, which is calculated as a percentage of their total ad spend. Its open platform also helps advertisers customize and build their own features on top of the company's platform.

In short, The Trade Desk provides advertisers with a robust platform to manage data-driven digital ad campaigns.

There are several industrywide trends that will help The Trade Desk drive revenue growth in the upcoming decade. Media is becoming digital and this change in consumer behavior will continue to shift ad budgets online. While global ad revenue growth was estimated at 5% in 2019, digital ad sales growth is estimated at 14%, according to Magna Advertising. Further, digital ad sales were forecast to touch $304 billion, or 51% of total ad sales in 2019.

While the digital ad spend is on an upward trend, so is the acceleration of audience fragmentation. Currently, target audiences use multiple media channels such as mobile apps, online streaming, and websites, which makes it difficult for advertisers to reach a large audience base. This provides an opportunity for The Trade Desk that can not only consolidate but also simplify media-buying options for clients.

Image source: Getty Images.

The convergence of TV and the internet is probably the largest driver of growth for The Trade Desk. There will be a massive shift in terms of online content consumption all around the world, and this cord-cutting phenomenon holds this company in good stead. The rollout of 5G technology will accelerate this transition, which will bring faster downloading speeds and enhance the user experience. The flexibility of the consumption in online content will increase ad budgets in the CTV segment.

The Trade Desk is banking on its expertise to leverage the power of data and automate the ad-buying process to a certain extent. Programmatic advertising helps clients get real-time feedback, which increases the value of ad impressions. The automation of ad processes will lead to better price discovery, which will also help optimize a client's ad budget.

Programmatic advertising represents a small portion of the total ad market. In the current uncertain environment, marketers need to do more with less. This means ad agencies and related players will have to optimize ad spend across digital channels. This should provide a near-term tailwind to players including The Trade Desk, and offset any weakness arising from a decline in overall ad spending due to a drop in consumer demand and a slowing global economy.

The Trade Desk has been a top growth stock ever since its IPO three-and-a-half years ago. The company has managed to increase sales from $113.83 million in 2015 to $661 million in 2019. The gross spend on The Trade Desk platform has risen from $552 million to $3.12 billion in this period.

As with most growth stocks, profitability is not a major concern for the company. The Trade Desk aims to reinvest retained earnings to improve its technology and expand customer base, which in turn will drive revenue growth. While revenue has grown at an annual rate of 55% in the last four years, technology and development expenses are up 74%, while platform expenses have risen 61.5%.

The Trade Desk has a market cap of $10.64 billion. It has a forward price-to-sales ratio of 13.5and a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 70.3.Yes, the company is trading at an expensive valuation, but growth stocks generally tend to do so. The Trade Desk's expanding addressable market, leadership position, and transparent platform make it one of the safest bets for long-term investors.

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If You Invested $1,000 in The Trade Desk IPO, Here's How Much You'd Have Today - Motley Fool

INVESTMENT diversification is used here to describe the manner in which we invest in different asset classes to make up an investment portfolio, although the phrase may also be used to describe the manner in which we spread our risk within each asset class.

. Property: our house, but also buy-to-let residential and commercial buildings;

. Bonds: debt instruments that, say, governments or companies issue to borrow our money and promise to pay it back later, usually at a specified date and with a periodic coupon* paid on the nominal amount we own;

. Equity: shares in a company that entitle holders to vote at meetings and to dividends*, if paid;

. Gold: shiny bars and coins;

. Cash: cash at our retail bank where we have a credit balance (that is to say that we are creditors of the bank and they owe us the money);

We can invest directly or through a fund* that has the required exposure.

Starting at the end

Investment is based on risk and reward, with our understanding that the more we take of the former, the more that we will, ultimately, expect to receive of the latter* and this is generally and fundamentally the case because of what I like to call, The Grim Reapers Batting Order; a hierarchy that determines which group of creditors* is paid first during an insolvent liquidation of a company.

Those owed money in this scenario are ranked as follows, and each class of creditor must be paid in full before any remaining company funds are allocated to the next:

. Secured creditors with a fixed charge;

. Preferential creditors;

. Secured creditors with a floating charge;

. Unsecured creditors; and

. Shareholders.

So back to the plot

Diversification of investment in bonds and equity therefore allows us to occupy more than one position on the list. Diversification into more than one company, sector or region* allows us to occupy more positions on more lists and that sounds sensible, right?

Concluding, and quickly

Of course, if we knew into which basket to put all our eggs, we would do it tomorrow. We dont and therefore should continue to employ asset allocation which suits our personal circumstances (age, stage, wage and objectives). Under what is known as modern portfolio theory, we can reduce the overall risk of our portfolio, and actually increase our overall returns, by investing in asset combinations that are not correlated: that is to say that they dont tend to move in the same way at the same time. And lets regard 2020, by most metrics, as an extraordinary time.

Investment in property, aside from our home, is normally made with a view that prices will rise and that tenants, if applicable, will pay their rents. This view may have changed, in the short-term, at least, depending on where the property is and who those tenants are.

Gold can provide us with one of the few counterparty-free assets. Investment rationale has always been the same: that the yellow metal tends to perform well in times of geopolitical unrest, during economic slowdown and when global interest rates and bond yields are low or negative and when supply is disrupted. Central banks, one of the major players in the gold market, have been net buyers of gold since 2008, with their greatest investment since 1971 (when the gold standard was effectively abandoned) made in 2018 and 2019 **.

Cash is subject to the risk of the bank and its solvency, and will only thrive in periods of deflation (when prices of goods in the future actually become cheaper). More interesting will be how fiat* currencies react to the unprecedented levels of printing that have been employed and further promised by governments willing to do whatever it takes to end the current potential economic crisis.

Having mentioned 1971 above, It might be worth our noting that gold has outperformed all major currencies over time. Using a World Gold Council relative value scale *** that starts with gold in currency at 100 in the year 1900, by 1971 the US Dollar had devalued to 50.65, but by 2019 was reckoned at 1.48 (that is to say it has lost 98.52% of its relative-to-gold value!) Before you ask, the Great British Pound has fared worse (relative value 25.34 in 1971 and, astonishingly, 0.39 by 2019).

So now you know why most commentators, including this one, usually end their notes with as usual, we would recommend you to stay invested in a diversified portfolio, kindly note that the value of investments and the income derived from them may go down as well as up and you may not receive back all the money which you invested. Any information relating to past performance of an investment service is not a guide to future performance.

All that said, it might be the right time, now, for us to (re)consider that we are still comfortable with all of our holdings. Trusted professionals will tell us, and its a phrase used by Ravenscroft and BullionRock many times, to know what we own and why we own it.

* noting, without exaggeration, that each time an asterisk has been used in this piece, a further 400 words on that specific point could easily be written

** from The World Gold Council: Central bank net purchases in 2019 were remarkable. The annual total of 650.3t is the second highest level of annual purchases for 50 years, highlighting the importance central banks place on having an allocation to gold in their reserve portfolio. The highest level was recorded in 2018 and buying in 2019 was not widely expected to repeat these levels for a second consecutive year. (https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-demand-trends/gold-demand-trends-full-year-2019/central-banks-and-other-institutions)

*** https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/relevance-gold-strategic-asset-uk-edition-2020 [Chart 4]

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Why investment diversification matters: spreading the risk - Guernsey Press

Dear Helaine: I need some financial advice. I am 60 years old and, after working for a U.S. embassy as local staff, I migrated to the United States in 2014. Upon separating from the embassy, I received a six-figure severance. I invested about $40,000 toward the purchase of a home in North Carolina, and I am currently left with $145,000 in savings. This is all the savings I have. My wife is now the main breadwinner, and I earn extra money as a substitute teacher. We have no credit card debt. The major monthly liability is the mortgage of $1,600. We have three children. Two are in college and self-supporting. One is in high school. Please advise me on where I can safely invest my savings so I can get a reasonable rate of return. At this stage of life, my appetite for risk is not that great. -- Trying to Stay Afloat in the United States

Dear Trying to Stay Afloat in the United States: Investing a large sum of money can seem overwhelming. As a result, all too many of us can end up making a risky move we don't view as such: We do nothing. In the period of time you sat on your funds, the S&P 500 -- if you reinvested your dividends -- increased by slightly more than 75 percent. Your risk and loss aversion cost you a tidy sum of money -- but I bet you don't see it that way. So what should you do now? Obviously, you can't go back to 2014 and invest the sum. We can't change our past behavior. We only live moving forward. I would first counsel that you eliminate the idea of a "safe" investment from your vocabulary. It's an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp. Investments offer greater and lesser risks. Experts generally suggest you take the number 100, minus your age from it, and invest the remainder of your funds -- in your case 40 percent -- in the stock market, using a broadly diversified index fund such as a total stock market index fund. That's an all-encompassing fund, representing the entirety of the domestic stock market. The remainder of the sum should go in a long-term bond fund. Should you do this? Probably, but this is the limit of an advice column -- I don't actually know you. I don't know how old your wife is, how much she earns, and what your financial situation will be like when she leaves the full-time workforce. And this is all important stuff, and it would be negligent of me to tell you exactly what to do without knowing all of that. My suggestion? Sit down with a certified financial planner who is paid by the hour and doesn't earn their keep by selling financial investments that they will receive a commission on. Yes, you'll need to pay for the service, but it's money well spent. The Garrett Planning Network, which specializes in working with middle-income people, is a good place to start.

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Where to invest a large sum later in life - The Times and Democrat

It's not too late to buy great stocks at attractive prices. Despite the stock market's bounce last week, there are still plenty of stocks with tremendous growth prospects that are priced at a discount.

But which stocks have the greatest chances of delivering stellar returns? I think that $5,000 invested in each of the three following stocks should make you a fortune over the next 10 years.

Image source: Getty Images.

There's more data being generated than ever before. And that means there's a greater need to analyze data than ever before. The problem is that most of the tools available for data analysis fall short of meeting users' expectations. They're too cumbersome and too complicated.Alteryx (NYSE:AYX) provides the answer to these problems.

Alteryx's data analytics platform doesn't require any programming (although it's compatible with the leading data analysis programming languages). The company's focus on usability is paying off. Its platform won the 2019 GartnerPeer Insights Customer Choice award for data science and machine learning platforms.Over 6,000 customers now use Alteryx's platform, including 719 of the 2,000 biggest companies in the world.

But Alteryx still has a tremendous growth opportunity ahead of it. Market researcher IDC projects that the big data and analytics software market will total $49 billion globally in 2021. Alteryx should capture an increasing share of that market as more customers standardize their data analysis using its platform.

Its shares might look ridiculously expensive with a forward earnings multiple of 123. But keep in mind that Alteryx's valuation is based on expectations of tremendous growth over the next few years. I think that it will deliver on those expectations. Andwith its shares still way off their highs from earlier this year, there's no better time to buy Alteryx than now.

You might not have realized that there's a war going on around you -- the "war on cash." This war encompasses a major trend of consumers switching from using physical currency to electronic forms of payment. Square (NYSE:SQ) ranks as a top general in this war on cash.

Square is best known for its small card readers used by many small and medium-sized businesses. This payment processing service is the foundation of an entire ecosystem that the company offers, with other products and services including customer loyalty, marketing, payroll, and e-commerce applications. Square also provides loans and debit cards to businesses.

In addition to its focus on businesses, Square is a major player in the peer-to-peer payments arena with its Cash App. PayPal'sVenmo has been the leader in this market, but Cash App is catching up quickly. It's generating strong revenue growth for Square and also presents a larger customer base to which the company can market new products and services.

Sure, Square stock has been shellacked by the COVID-19 pandemic as its customers reel from the impact of quarantines and non-essential business shutdowns in many areas. But I think this presents an awesome buying opportunity. The economy will bounce back and so will Square.

There's also another big trend under way that could have escaped your attention. The days of personal negotiations to place advertising spots are numbered as advertising agencies turn to programmatic advertising, which uses software applications to buy ads quickly and cost-effectively.The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) is the clear leader in buy-side programmatic advertising.

The most significant catalyst for The Trade Desk is the rise of connected TV (CTV). CTV includes all of the streaming services that have gained widespread popularity. Not all of them use ad-based models, but quite a few of them do. The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green recently said that "we are in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime consumer shift to connected devices and streaming content." And that consumer shift presents a huge opportunity for his company.

Programmatic advertising still only represents a small part of the total ad market. But with programmatic ad spending growing five times as fast as overall ad spending, it won't take too long before it makes up a big share of the market. The Trade Desk stands to benefit from this growth.

Shares of The Trade Desk plunged as much as 49% during the coronavirus-fueled market sell-off before rebounding somewhat. It's likely that some advertisers could cut their marketing budgets to save costs during this challenging period. But the long-term prospects for The Trade Desk remain very bright. My view is that buying this stock now at a discount should set up investors for terrific returns over the next decade.

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$5,000 Invested in These 3 Stocks Should Make You a Fortune Over the Next 10 Years - The Motley Fool