Apology
I just wanted to start off by saying I’m sorry to the companies whose stock I bought yesterday. Just after I bought them, they all dropped in price. I assure you, I did not do that on purpose! It seems that whenever I buy a stock, somehow, the price goes down by at least a percentage point. Yesterday was no different. I have been doing some buying lately, mostly adding to stocks that I already have a position in, but I got at least one new one. They all immediately dropped! Even the ETF’s that I make a regular habit of adding a bit of money to, dropped as well.
I broke my own rule
I usually avoid making any purchases on Mondays. But there I was making purchases on a Monday, wondering what the heck I was doing! Mondays can be so crazy that I usually wait for things to hammer out before buying on Tuesdays or even Wednesdays. I need to get control of myself.
The problem is that I review and review over the weekend and look for things to do, and plan for where I will be buying next and sometimes it gets the best of me and I jump in on Monday to follow the plan. But lately it seems that the planning is good, but the action is bad.
It’s going to be OK
I keep telling myself, that there was a reason that I bought them, and it will all work out. It just didn’t happen today. Things have been really bad of late, especially with that crazy SpaceX stock. I didn’t buy them yet, because I thought something like this would happen. The IPO happened and people jumped in driving the stock up. Recently however it made a sudden drop well below the IPO price. That one wasn’t my fault!
But even with it’s sudden drop and the losses in the Nasdaq Index funds and ETFs (Like QQQ and QQQM), there is hope that things will turn around. Elon is a smart man, and I really think he can pull it off. When this last launch didn’t go off as planned, the stock dropped and a lot of people dumped out of it, but of course the Indexes couldn’t do that, so they absorbed some losses. That’s what happens with Indexes.
Looking at the whole picture
I look at a group of ETFs by State Street. I don’t own them but I track them. There is one for each sector and if gives you an overview of the economy and state of the stock market. I have considered buying some of each to watch them within my portfolio, but even at just 100 dollars each, it would take 1100 dollars to buy them all. The 11 sectors are each represented by one ETF which is helpful to see how things are going.
Recently there has been a reasonably consistent drop in every sector except energy. Yesterday that was very pronounced. Energy (XLE) was the only ETF that had a gain. I guess that’s because of the war and the oil problems that it is causing. Maybe it’s the demand for energy from data centers. Or a combination of both. Demand is greater and supply is lower. That causes prices to go up, and then stocks go up. Unfortunately, it means that we pay more for our energy.
How the war is going
It’s getting harder to understand what is going on over there. I guess some ships are getting out of the Strait of Hormuz, but not enough to make a real difference. It seems that no matter what the president does, it just isn’t helping. Right now, there are daily reports of them hitting us and us hitting them, but I don’t know what kind of progress is being made on either side. I’m just glad that I’m not the president!
But the gasoline average is up to 4 dollars again, and that’s going to affect our groceries and everything else. Our lawn care company adds a gasoline adjustment to our bill to mow the lawn. Besides the effect on travelers who want to go someplace fun for the summer, the gas price will put a strain on every budget. I’m really glad that I have solar panels on my house. It helps out a lot in the summer. If only we could get longer daylight hours in the winter!
But if the war continues, and it doesn’t look like there is any reason that it shouldn’t, this is going to get really sticky. I’ve had to dip into savings recently to just get by. I’m going to become a hermit soon, just so I don’t have to spend so much money.
