Juggling With Knives: Profits, protection and planning for volatility in stocks, bonds, real estate, and real life.
Jubak’s Picks
Stocks for a
12-18 Month Horizon
Performance
2019
+10.2%
2018
+10.2%
2017
+13.2%
Since Inception
+584%
Top 50 Stocks
50 Best Stocks in the World
Performance
2019
+21.19%
2018
-8.22%
2017
+28.1%
2016
+21.5%
Dividend Income
Stocks That Pay You
Performance
2021
+18.59%
2020
+15.71%
2019
+4.90%
2018
-15.52%
2017
+6.48%
2016
+26.8%
Volatility
Exploiting Temporary Market Trends
Performance 2017:
+53.06%
Perfect 5 ETFs
Active/Passive Portfolio
Performance since
October 2017
+23.46%
This website is based on my book, Juggling with Knives. Both the book and website are about volatility in everything from stocks and bonds to real estate, and real life topics such as jobs and education.
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Post of the Month
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Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Trend of the Week Seasonal Trends in Energy
Today I posted my one-hundred-ninety-sixth YouTube video: Trend of the Week Seasonal Trends in Energy. This week’s Trend of the Week: Seasonal Trends in Energy. There’s a predictable pattern in oil and natural gas prices. In late fall, October to November, you can expect a deep dive to begin and carry on through the winter, with a sharp rise in March and early spring. You can see this trend looking at previous years in the United States Oil Fund (NYSEARCA: USO) and the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (NYSEARCA: UNG). Right now, we’re heading into that dip in energy prices but you should not sell – in fact, you should be adding to these positions. This seasonal fall in energy prices will allow you to get ahead of the spring bounce. Europe’s energy supply is enough to get through the upcoming winter but, in March, as they look toward next year’s supply, they’ll need to start rebuilding inventories in a market strained by the war in Ukraine, cuts in production, and a hostile OPEC. Stateside, the US Energy Information Administration is projecting record production from the Permian Basin of Texas and Oklahoma, as well as record production of natural gas this year. Even though we’re not seeing a whole lot of capital expenditure, they’re uncapping wells and pumping them harder. Look at USO and UNG as ETF oil and natural gas buys For individual stocks I’d look at Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), and EQUINOR (NYSE: EQNR)–all of which I own in portfolios and have no intention of selling anytime soon.
Selling Tesla tomorrow out of the Volatility Portfolio on China slowdown and trade war uncertainties.
Even before the Biden administration launched a new U.S./China trade war by imposing restrictions on U.S. exports of advanced chip technology, Tesla (TSLA) was facing a sales slowdown in China. Now, with what I regard as the near certainty that Tesla will be one of the choice targets in any Chinese retaliation, I think it’s time to sell Tesla and get out of the way of what looks like a truly nasty tit-for-tat war of sanctions and restrictions. Tomorrow, October 12, I’m selling Tesla out of my Volatility Portfolio with a loss of 63.74% since I added it to the portfolio on November 10, 2021, near what would turn out to be the high before the onset of today’s Bear Market for technology stocks.
Please Watch My YouTube Video: Quick Pick JO
Today’s Quick Pick: JO (NYSEARCA: JO) otherwise known as Barclays iPath Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN Series B. As I’ve shown you in the video, I’m growing my own coffee plant to head off the coffee shortages we’re seeing now (first beans projected in 2028; enough for a cup? 2032), and will likely continue to see long-term. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee but its inventory is projected to drop to about 7 million bags by March, (well below the comfort level of about 9-12 million bags.) A long-lasting drought is to blame for the shortages–and that dicey weather is likely to be with us for quite a while. Meanwhile, global coffee consumption is going up by 1.5% projected this year (2% last year). While JO is volatile since it trades on the commodity price, what interests me about it at the moment is that it’s NOT correlated to anything else like interest rates or inflation (though it definitely contributes to inflation as coffee drinkers well know.) This ETN will continue to go up, even if the market goes down. (JO is a member of my Volatility Portfolio on my subscription JubakAM.com site.)
Biden announces release of $900 million in funding for electric vehicle charging build out
Wednesday, September 14, President Joe Biden used a visit to the Detroit Auto Show to announce the release of the first $900 million in funding for the buildout of a national network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The funding, part of $7.5 billion in the Infrastructure bill to build out a network of 500,000 charging stations, would go to 35 stations to build charging networks along 53,000 miles of highways. Today, the sector is moving up rapidly with ChargePoint up 8.60% and EVgo up 12.16% as of 2:30 p.m. New York time.
It doesn’t look good in America’s corn fields
Acres that U.S. farmers were unable to plant have more than tripled from the same period last year as extreme weather wreaks havoc on fields, according to the August report from the Farm Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prevented planting acres–or the acres of insured crops that can’t be planted because of disasters including flooding and drought–stood at 6.4 million. That’s up from 2.1 million in 2021. Prevented planting acres of corn jumped to more than 3 million acres, from 639,000 acres in 2021, according to the USDA. Wheat shot up to more than 1 million acres from nearly 300,000 acres last year. Not surprisingly grain prices have climbed–and so have the prices of commodity funds. The Teucrium Corn Fund ETF (CORN) is up 4.01% today, August 23, as of noon New York time. The ETF is a member of my Volatility Portfolio where it’s down 8.45% since I added it on June 17, 2022. The Teucrium Wheat Fund ETF (WEAT) is up 2.58% as of noon today. That ETF is a member of my Jubak Picks Portfolio. It’s down 27.26% since I added the position on May 25, 2022.
I got these two key China trends wrong: Selling BABA and TCEHY
When I added Alibaba (BABA) to my Jubak’s Picks Portfolio on April 29, 2022, and Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) to my Volatility Portfolio on January 3, 2022, I thought two things were about to happen in China. First, I thought that the People’s Bank would unleash enough stimulus to more than compensate for the slowdown in China’s economy. And, second, I thought that we’d seen the end of the regulatory crackdown on China’s big entrepreneurial technology companies. I got both trends wrong.
Buy/sell/hold: Tesla’s near-term pivot points
The long-term case for buying Tesla (TSLA) is easy to make (or easy to argue.) The company has created electric vehicle technology that delivers faster speeds, longer range, and greater efficiency than any of its emerging competitors. The company has done a superlative job of building out its global supply chain so that it has suffered less disruption due to raw material glitches or chip shortages than any of its competitors. The big long-term questions for Tesla are Can it drive costs out of its production system? and How long will it take for competitors to catch up with Tesla’s technology advantage? (Just for the record I come down on the “buy” Tesla side on these questions.) In the short term the buy/sell/hold case for Tesla is more complicated.
Tesla finally announces date of 3/1 stock split
Finally, on Friday, August 5, in documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission Tesla put dates to the split its 3/1 split
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Quick Pick First Majestic Silver
My one-hundred-and-sixty-first YouTube video “Quick Pick First Majestic Silver” went up today. This hasn’t been a great year for precious metals hedges. However, allow me to make the case for First Majestic Silver (AG), given the coming recession and my expectations for the Fed’s schedule of rate increases. A hedge for 2023? At the current price, it’s an attractive bit of insurance against a big surge in risk.
Natural gas, corn, and wheat lead commodities higher today
At the close today, July 26, the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) was up 2.55% and the Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT) was ahead 4.11%. Both of those commodity plays outgained the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG) with its 1.38% move higher. But for consistent gains–and the potential for more–I’d have to say that natural gas is my favorite commodity