All-Time Highs for Nasdaq 100, Poison Pays and The ReBirth of Active Investing

Longer post today…

I am sitting at my endodontist’s office this afternoon as I bang out this blog post. My new teeth are really a miracle of technology. My grinding destroyed my teeth. I did so much damage over the years that I have also had two implants (picture a dude standing on your face for leverage and winding two screws into your jaw so that crowns can be fastened later).

The most amazing thing about this photo may be that my endodontist is using Apple displays. I thought all medical offices still ran on DOS. I ask a lot of questions from the chair. I am fascinated by the spread between actual pain and perceived pain of these procedures. The answers lie in technology of course.

Speaking of technology, the tech industry ETF and Nasdaq 100 hit all-time highs today:

Historic Day: 17 years after the March 2000 peak, the Tech sector hits a new all-time high (total return). $XLK

— Charlie Bilello, CMT (@charliebilello) Apr. 24 at 06:58 AM

Before I get into how smart we all have been riding this technology bull market and boom, let’s take a look at cigarettes.

Despite massive anti-tobacco legislation, class actions, vapes, e-cigarettes and now weed, tobacco has crushed the S&P the last 17 years:

The lesson…Poison pays!

I have missed this tobacco bull market, but a lot of the stocks in my portfolio are at or near all-time highs. I have covered all my entries and exits over the years here as I have bought and sold them. If not in detail here on the blog, on Stocktwits streams.

Here are the stocks in my personal portfolio today that are at or near all-time highs at the close today:

iRobot, Amazon, Google, Apple, Match.com, $GRID, Schwab, $MMYT, Autodesk, Tencent, Zendesk, MercadoLibre, Visa, Paypal, Shopify, $MZOR, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I own a few losers at the moment (UnderArmor, Lulu, Nike, Akamai, Palo Alto Networks)

My biggest positions are Apple, Amazon, $GRID, Tencent, Google and iRobot.

Amazing stat of the day on Apple is it’s market cap has risen $110 billion the last 90 days which is equal to TWO Tesla’s.

I am light stocks (40 percent cash in my stock accounts) because I have been selling my winners down it seems endlessly the last few years and not replacing them with new names as I already own too many individual stocks.

I also have so much exposure to start-ups and my funds (Social Leverage), that long ago I decided to hold more cash than I did when I started Wallstrip 11 years ago and began angel investing seriously.

Finally, I was chatting with my friend Charlie Bilello today about the markets and he mentioned that the S&P is up for the 9th year in a row (2017 is only 1/3 done). This is only the second time that the S&P has been up NINE years in a row, the last time was 1991-1999 (remember what followed). The death of active investing is one of the most popular financial discussions, but 8 years into this bull market, and at a time when Vanguard is growing faster than ever, I am really excited about the rebirth of active investing opportunities.

At the same time that active investing could start coming back into vogue in public markets, Fred Wilson is blogging about the harder times likely ahead for the startup ecosystem.

Markets really are connected…and fascinating.