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2017 was an insanely magnificent year!

12/24/2017

This time last year, we were all bracing for a stock market crash... two years ago, we were all fearing the worst market meltdown of the century... This time three years ago,... you guessed it right: we were preparing for the bubbles to burst...

At the beginning of the year, we tried to make sense of it all by asking ourselves 'what does Warren Buffett say and do? Surely, the market's insanity should and will come to an end.' As we went through the year, one all-time high got followed by another. We waited for 'the tides to go down to expose those who were swimming naked.' And the tide has not pulled back yet. To add insult to injury: Bitcoin happened!

Even if Bitcoin gets crushed back to a few puny cents a piece, it doesn't change the facts that someone sold his stash before the crash and pocketed thousands of percentage growth in less than a year. Meanwhile, we were carefully researching and hand-selecting portfolio stocks. Of course, our portfolio outperformed the stock market. However, what we were hoping to achieve in a few years, our neighbors claim to have attained in 9 months. It was an insane year to be an intelligent investor! Or, was it?

No one can predict the market! Accept it!
Times like this, when the trends, market cycles, and patterns cannot explain the reality, are a testament to the fact that no one can predict the market. It was inconceivable to any of us (even for the Winklevoss twins) that a few cents per Bitcoin price tag would ever grow to such all-time high. Understanding that no one can predict the markets and no amount of historical data can be used to predict the future with uncertainty is crucial to be an intelligent investor. It's easy to say it when markets are just following the historical trends, but with times such as 2017, our intelligent investing powers are put to the test. So thank you 2017 for reminding us how unpredictable the markets are despite everything that the historical trends say.

Stock market investing pays off!
The second reason that 2017 was an insanely magnificent year to be an intelligent investor is that all great companies were rewarded for their performance. Look at Nvidia and Juno for example. These are the companies that are shaping the future. The future of work, the future of health, the future period... It is a widespread belief that the stock market cannot generate massive returns. People run away from the stock market, take massive amounts of risk, invest in other things with almost zero amount of data and information and try to gamble their way into financial success. Meanwhile, we sit down at our desks, use technology to pull, aggregate and review hundreds of data points and invest in companies that are shaping the future, collecting magnificent returns such as what we achieved in 2017. So, thank you 2017 and our top 4 outperforming stocks (see below), for your wonderful returns!

And thank you to all of you, early adopters of Stock Card! As we look at our usage dashboard and see more log-ins, more of you send Stock Card requests, join the intelligent investing on our Facebook group and even more of you have started to create a portfolio, monitor your watchlist and truly measure your progress against the market, we are getting energized and excited for the next year. You have made it possible for us to celebrate 2017 and look forward to an amazing 2018.

That's it for this last edition of Stock Card Weekly in 2017. Visit our website to see the newly published Stock Cards. The next newsletter will be in your inbox on Sunday, January 7th. Expect a few new features and surprises. From all of us here at Stock Card HQ, thank you and Happy Holidays! May 2018 be a year of financial happiness and wealth for you and your family!

Whoa! A high-performing technology company, gliding under the radar!

12/17/2017

We are almost wrapping up 2017! What a year it has been! The technology sector drove the overall stock market to new all-time high levels and no one we know had seen it coming. As such, it is almost impossible to put your finger on any technology company and not get price-shocked! Every well-performing technology company is outrageously expensive... just not today's featured Stock Card! We have been on the lookout for companies that are gliding under the radar, despite performing as well as some of those better-known entities. We have been on the mission to outsmart the financial pros.

The members of the @OutSmartThePros investment theme have been an unlikely bunch. From Control4 that is upgrading our houses to become interconnected organisms to Five Below which is a debt-free, rapidly growing retailer; indeed in the past few weeks, we have come across some odd ducks. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that today's odd duckling stock is a technology company gliding under the radar of the pros. What an unlikely combination... at least based on 2017 standards! Say hello to Kulicke and Soffa industries! I know! The name is as odd as the stock itself...

Kulicke & Soffa Industries packs and assembles LEDs and semiconductors for the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers. If you've been in your stock market investment journey for more than a few months, you sure have heard of the big global semiconductor manufacturers. However, chances are you haven't heard of Kulicke and Soffa Industries. The company is growing and profitable. It has been debt-free and has a lot of cash on hand to build, grow and even pay back shareholders. Despite all that, it is being traded at a much lower price level compared to other semiconductor stocks and the overall market. Take a look at the company's Stock Card and get to know this under the radar player that fuels the growth of many other big and buzz stocks.

What's been on our radar?
As usual, we got positively surprised by what's been on the radar of the Stock Card community. Some of the Stock Card requests came through our rapidly growing Facebook Group. Others came through our website. The most interesting of all was bluebird bio. Regardless of whether you would want to invest in BLUE or not, we are sure once you get to know the company, you will join us to root for its success. It is one of the key innovators in the gene therapy market that works closely with Celgene to treat some of the deadliest diseases millions of people are struggling with. This week, thanks to Stock Card request, we had a chance to dig deep into BLUE. We also revisited the eCommerce sweetheart - Shopify and said hello to the inventor of the internet radio - Pandora Media.

What's been happening on our neck of the woods?
This week, we added a news section to the 'All Stock Cards' tab. You can now access the current and all the previous editions of the Stock Card Weekly directly from the All Stock Cards' tab. Take a look and let us know what you think...

That's it for this edition of Stock Card Weekly. If you haven't taken advantage of your three Stock Card requests per month yet, send them now and let Stock Card do the research, validate the data and give you the insights you need to make a good investment decision without hours of googling or complex financial models. Go ahead, we are looking forward to the last few Stock Card requests of 2017.

You think all retailers are doomed? Think again!

12/10/2017

If you've been with us since last week, we started a search to find under the radar companies and stocks in order to outsmart financial analysts aka #OutsmartThePros. These are commonly smaller companies that are operating as strong as the big and buzz but are ignored by institutional investors due to their small size (commonly between $1 to $5 billion). We went on a hunt... We started from the twenty-one thousand and so stocks we have at our disposal to invest in. We then removed all companies that have signs of operational weakness and sorted out the results by the number of professional and institutional investors. We picked the companies with the lowest number of institutional owners. The results were nineteen companies ... nineteen stocks that professional money managers had missed... want the list of the nineteen, don't ya? This week, we pick up from where we left off. Here is the second company from the #OutsmartThePro theme. Say hello to ...

Five Below focuses on the teenager and pre-teen market and offers a carefully selected line-up of trending fashion, entertainment, and leisure merchandises at a low price. The company has around 500 retail stores in the Western United States and plans to expand to 2000 stores. This means there is a lot of room for the company to grow. It is a retailer with a unique niche, no debt (which is very rare among retailers), and has solid and profitable operations. Also, Five Below is a company that has been so under the radar off institutional investors, gauged by the relative number of institutional investments compared to other retailers, which means there is an opportunity to snatch some shares before large funds pour in and push up the share price. Check out its Stock Card to get to know this powerhouse retailer a bit better.

What's been going on in our Facebook Group:
We have about 200 members in our Intelligent Investing Facebook Group. Everyday, several data-driven, and detailed conversations are happening. Members ask questions and share their research, thoughts, and ideas. If you haven't joined yet, do it now. Here are some of the Stock Cards we discussed this past week:

What's happening in our neck of the woods?
A lot is happening! This week we published the 100th Stock Card on our platform. See them with the 'All Stock Cards' tab? Use the filters on our 'All Stock Cards' tab to find companies that are operating in a growing market. Or want to find those that are undervalued? C'mon, give it a try!

That's it for this edition of Stock Card Weekly. Talk to you soon!

Do you want to outsmart financial analyst?

12/3/2017

It was one of those days at Stock Card HQ! One of those heated conversations, banging on the table, leaving the room, going for a walk to calm down type of days... What were we talking about?

To answer the question, I have to take you back to a few months ago when Lauren Templeton and Scott Phillips from Templeton and Phillips Capital Management published their quarterly letter. Often, their letters exude pessimism about the market and as such make it for a fun and entertaining read. Call us investment nerds, but that's how we spend our weekends. Anyhow, in the latest edition of Lauren and Scott's letter, they argued how institutional investors and fund managers are getting overexcited about a few hundred stocks so much so that a company such as Apple has made its way into 155 ETFs including six value ETFs, five momentum ETFs, and ten growth ETFs. These two masters of stock market criticism argue that while "a growth company like Apple can fall out of favor and become a value, the contrast between value and momentum is too stark." How could Apple be a value, growth, and momentum stock all at once?!

We picked up the letter from where Scott and Lauren left off, and concluded, if institutional and professional fund managers are overexcited about the big and buzz companies, they must be missing some great companies. And, that's where the heated conversations started... who are they? how do we find them?
...
We went on a hunt... We started from the twenty-one thousand and so stocks we have at our disposal to invest in. We then removed all companies that have signs of operational weakness. After all, we never invest in companies that do not operate as well as the big and buzz. But then we took one step further and sorted out the results by the number of professional and institutional investors. The results were ... drum roll ...

Nineteen companies ... nineteen stocks that professional money managers had missed...

Say hello to the #OutSmartThePros investment theme:

Control4 is the first of nineteen. The company's operations tick like a well-oiled clock. Its software rules every device in your home that connects to the internet. From entertaining to lighting to security, Control4 rules them all. The company operates in the smart home market which is expected to grow by 27% per year in the years to come, and this is one the few that has already started to get a headstart in particular sector. Check out its Stock Card to get to learn how Control4 can help you outsmart the pros.

Just like that, December is annotated as the month to outsmart professional money managers. For every Stock Card Weekly, you will have a few of those nineteens waiting for you in your mailbox. Don't forget to Send us an email or submit a Stock Card request to add other under the radar stocks that you believe will outsmart the pros.

What has been happening in our neck of the woods?
There is a secret way the team at Stock Card HQ uses its own internal database and we just made it available to you too. When you are looking for any Stock Card, just write the ticker symbol after our website's URL (stockcard.io/ticker) and it will take you directly to that Stock Card. No search is needed, just fast track to validate your thoughts... It's our favorite way of using StockCard.io and now, you know it too...

What has been on your radar?
As always, our community has been busy exploring new companies and stocks. Here is what has been on our radar in the past week. Click on the logo to go to the company's Stock Card:

That's it for this edition of Stock Card Weekly. Don't forget to join our Intelligent Investing Facebook Group for daily investing conversations and research.

2017 was an insanely magnificent year!

Whoa! A high-performing technology company, gliding under the radar!

You think all retailers are doomed? Think again!

Do you want to outsmart financial analyst?

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