Better Have My Money: learning 'bout stocks so we all become rich
Hey friends!
I've gotten a bunch of extra subscribers in the last three days and I suspect it's because you're all doing the same thing I'm doing, which is googling "why the hell are my stocks collapsing, why are weed stocks down 30%, even Netflix has dropped, god dammit, my money is gone, what is happening" and clicking on anything that might offer answers.
Alas, I have none, just some sad looking bank accounts. But I will talk through a little bit about why stocks are garbage right now, and also that Spotify (SPOT) is floating on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow, cause I'm genuinely pretty excited about it.
So why do my stocks look like this:
(OK you may have noticed ((don't worry, I don't think you actually have)) that I sold my UPS shares and have two extra Netflix (NFLX) ones. I lost $20 on UPS shares when I sold them, but Netflix had dropped to like $290 per share and I figured I'd get it while it was cheap and get rid of those damn UPS shares that were boring me. Yes, then Netflix dropped again. Yes, look "technically" I am down $150ish overall, but instead I am ignoring my weed stocks and focus only on my Ally Invest stocks being up 2% overall, cause I need some positivity, thank you for your support during this time.)
There's a few different factors at play that's making the market rubbish rn. One, Donald Trump is starting trade wars, and imposing tariffs on China. China then retaliated with its own extra duties on imports from the United States. And the market is freaking out at all the uncertainty. Most of the 128 US items hit with new tariffs are agricultural items — such as fruit, wine and pork — so farmers are likely to be affected.
Second, thanks in large part to Facebook being trash at handling its data and giving it all over to Cambridge Analytica to help destroy democracy, tech stocks are struggling.
Facebook (FB) has dropped around 20% in the last month. Trump has slammed Amazon (AMZN) three times on Twitter this week alone, and its stock price slide 5% Monday. Snapchat (SNAP) announced layoffs last week and stocks dropped 8% Monday. Google aka Alphabet (GOGL) (that name change was so damn stupid) is down 16%since January highs. Tesla (TSLA) is down 19% this year, after an investigation into a fatal accident involving a driverless car. It seems particularly that internet and tech companies that track and store lots of personal data — Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Google — are strugggggling right now.
And yes I did buy more Netflix while all this is happening. There's a lot of "is Netflix overvalued" chatter going on amongst financial types and it may very well be! It has jumped an insane amount on money in a very short period of time. People also love to mention Apple and Disney will soon launch rival streaming companies, another risk for Netflix. But I just finished season three of Love and am watching Grace and Frankie, One Day at a Time and The Crown, so I'm also feeling pretty satisfied with Netflix stock right now.
Third, weed stocks are reacting like a stoned person with no snacks. VERY BADLY. And Cronos Group (CRON), which are the stocks I own, is apparently overvalued, so therefore the market is correcting itself, aka my stocks are down nearly 30%. This seems to be happening across the whole sector.
Fourth, there's a lot of IS THE BULL MARKET OVER?! Aka, will the market just go down now. Maybe it's just time for everyone to lose money for a while?
My plan is just to wait it all out.
So, considering how messy the markets are right now particularly for data-driven tech companies, the founders of Spotify (SPOT) must be a little nervy that the stock is floating Tuesday. Except, apparently they are already billionaires, so maybe they are fine.
Now, I don't use Spotify much (well, I don't pay for it and their damn ads kill my vibe). I pay for Tidal, as one of surely five people who does that, because I want early access to Kanye and Beyoncé. But soooo many people I know use and love and pay for Spotify, and it dominates music streaming. It says it has 160 million active users, and estimates of paying subscribers is around 70 million.Spotify isn't doing a standard initial public offering (IPO), which is how most companies float on the stock market. In an IPO, a big investment bank usually helps the company, institutional investors (aka banks, hedge funds etc, not just normal people) normally buy in first at a lower price and there's a set opening share price for us everyday fools. Instead, Spotify is doing a direct listing, letting its employees and investors sell the shares they have to the public. Meaning, it's unknown WHAT PRICE shares will start at. So it'll probably be super volatile at first, but I am going to keep a close eye on it. I did think this article on why Spotify ISN'T a new Netflix was pretty interesting though (cause yes obviously I am hoping it is the new Netflix), which is mainly due to music royalties.
Any questions, queries, complaints, etc, please tell your mother and if she can't answer, feel free to reply to this, I really love getting emails from BHMM readers. And please forward this to a friend or tweet about it or insta story it or whatever to your mates, if it's something you think others might enjoy.
This week, since we're low on funds, I suggest donating blood. I did it today for #BleedinForAmina, a blood drive run by Call Your Girlfriend in honor of co-host Aminatou Sow. I failed the first iron count, but passed the second (and then nearly passed out post donating) but damn it felt good to do a concrete thing for the world.
Even better than money!