Monthly Stock Pick May 2018
I’ve decided to start a new monthly series here on Medium where I share what investments I’m making and my thoughts around them. Though I did work a Wall Street job for a brief period of time, I’m not an investment professional - so don’t take this as advice and follow along at your own risk. If nothing else, this public journal will be interesting to read back on in ten, twenty years.
I’ll preface this new series by saying I’ve never gone all-in on a consistent investment plan for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that I graduated from the University of Connecticut with about $45,000 in student loan debt in 2009. I had always felt that I’d rather take the conservative route and pay down the student loans before investing in securities; little did I know what kind of a mistake that was as we’ve experienced an incredible bull market since 2009.
And who’s to say that starting to make monthly securities purchases now is even good timing. A correction will come eventually, but you can’t time the market. My horizon is far enough out that it shouldn’t matter anyway. Like they say, time in the market is more important that timing the market.
Back to the story. I became serious about paying off my student debt in 2014 once my second business became viable as a source of income. I paid off two loans in 2014, one in 2015, four in 2016, one in 2017, and two in 2018. Now that they’re gone forever, my appetite for risk has changed.
In 2015 I started a YouTube channel based around BMW repair and tutorials. This has been generating income each month, monetized through Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliate links. I was using this income to pay down the student loans, and now that they’re gone, every penny goes into my investment accounts.
Using my YouTube income, my first purchase for May 2018 was 100 shares of Snap Chat (Snap Inc) stock right after it’s disastrous earnings report. Most times these huge drops are an overreaction by the market, and I felt it was way oversold. Just as prices started to rebound from the bottom, I purchased 100 shares with a cost basis of $11.29 for a total of $1,129.45.
Despite the negative press and report around the future of Snap Inc, my feeling is: worst case scenario is they could be acquired in the next few years — maybe living under the umbrella of Facebook. Best case scenario is they continue to innovate and figure out their ad product against the 191 million daily average users.
I’m also a huge fan of their hardware product, Spectacles. I ordered a pair right after confirming the trade. You can watch my unofficial review here. Growing up in the 90’s I had always dreamt of experiencing technological inventions such as the iPhone, Apple watch, Snap spectacles and the internet. Now that they’re real and available I want to be a part of all of it!
Stay tuned for the June 2018 stock selection
Cost basis: $11.29
Quantity: 100 shares
Total: $1,129.45
