Zoom Recommendations

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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Since we are well past the 30-day limit for blabbing about MF recommendations, I thought I’d fill you in on the fact that Tom Gardner recommended Zoom way back in June 2019, and recommended it a second time in October 2019, and then David Gardner, saying that while he doesn’t usually recommend the same stock as his brother, this opportunity was too good to miss, recommended Zoom in March of this year and recommended it again in April of this year.

If you’ve been undecided about whether to subscribe to MF Stock Advisor and MF Rule Breakers, you might give that a thought. The profit you might have made buying Zoom back then would have paid for many, many years of subscriptions, with then plenty of cash left over!

Best,

Saul

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Thanks Saul for this information. This is the kind of information I was looking for. e.g. Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers are likely some good starting points for companies to consider as “recommended”, which is your first criterion for evaluating a company. I was looking for as insight on which subscriptions are good for someone new to The Motley Fool. Thanks so much for your insight!

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Just saw on PBS News Hour that AA is using Zoom to have meetings with those that can’t meet face to face and greatly need the support of others.

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Since, you are recommending the newsletters, I feel it is fair to ask about them. If you put an equal amount into each recommendation, what would your returns be like?

How many stocks are on their list? I ask this, because I once subscribed to the The Prudent Speculator, which has beaten all other newsletters. The problem was that they had 200 stocks on their list, and it is not practical to own that many. The ones I ended up buying did not do very well.

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Since, you are recommending the newsletters, I feel it is fair to ask about them. If you put an equal amount into each recommendation, what would your returns be like?

As with any newsletters and/or recommendations, best to view them as a starting point and, from there, do your own due diligence and decide which stocks are for you. Not necessarily wise to buy every recommendation; you’ll end up with more stocks than you can count and more stocks than you can follow.

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ZM first came to my attention due to the Stock Advisor recommendation, but reading about it on this board was an important reason I decided to buy it.

I’ve benefited greatly from Stock Advisor, and it’s been a bargain. Now, thanks to this board, I have also bought companies only to see them show up as S.A. recs shortly thereafter.

For those who asked about S.A., especially How many stocks are on their list?

You get a new recommendation every two weeks on Thursdays. David and Tom alternate. The week after the new recommendation, you get a list of 5 Best Buys Now which are companies that have been recommended in the past. Again David and Tom alternate.

There is a list of Starter Stocks which are recommended for those just starting a portfolio.

In recent years, I learned about and invested in OKTA, SHOP, TTD, TWLO, ZS, SQ, and PAYC thanks to Stock Advisor before I became aware of this board.

There is an analysis of the returns for investing in just the starter stocks here:
https://discussion.fool.com/1081/starter-stocks-historical-analy…

If you combine the information from Stock Advisor and combine it with what you can learn from this board, you should do even better.

To add to Saul’s endorsement, I joined Stock Advisor in early 2008 at age 49 after years of passive investing in funds. I began buying stocks regularly for months just in time to see my portfolio take a big wallop the last few months of 2008. I stuck with it and learned and my investments beat the returns of the funds, most of which were in 403(b) accounts.

Back then, I ran a number of scenarios though retirement calculators that showed my portfolio growth for a number of market returns. Yesterday, my portfolio reached a level that based on those projections, I didn’t expect to reach for 5 – 8 years from now. A lot of that is due to what I learned from Stock Advisor.

I started reading this board in early 2019, and even then, I didn’t expect to reach yesterday’s level until late 2021 or even 2022 at the earliest. However, by selling some poor to average performing companies and replacing them with companies I’ve learned about on this board in addition to new Stock Advisor recs, I reached that goal yesterday. Of course, today, it dropped below that level just a bit, but my portfolio was still down less than the S&P.

I made a few small sales early this week to close out the last of my JNJ and UL holdings and added a few shares of DDOG, OKTA, CRWD, DOCU, and ZM. The return just this week of the ZM shares more than pays for my S.A. subscription.

And I’m very appreciative of the outstanding knowledge shared on this board.

All the best,

Raymond

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If you put an equal amount into each recommendation, what would your returns be like?

Fairly quick reply, since I know this is OT, but maybe this will entice some to look into a subscription.

Based on Saul’s strong suggestion, earlier this year I purchased a Stock Advisor subscription. I’ve been following the returns of the picks since then. Very short time frame obviously, but so far so good.

Returns are through today of stocks ‘held’ at least 2 months:

SA picks of 1/16 and 1/23 = 16% avg return (S&P 500: -9%)
SA picks of 2/6 and 2/13 = 26% avg (S&P 500: -10%)
SA picks of 2/20 and 2/27 = 25% avg (S&P 500: 0%)
SA picks of 3/5 and 3/12 = 15% avg (S&P 500: 18%)
SA picks of 3/19 and 3/26 = 33% avg (S&P 500: 17%)
SA picks of 4/2 and 4/9 = 59% avg (S&P 500: 10%)

So, not Saul-type returns this year, but clearly better than the S&P 500!

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I began buying stocks regularly for months just in time to see my portfolio take a big wallop

This is what I fear right now.

This is a market timing discussion and is Off-Topic. It will be deleted.
Saul

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I can confirm that all 12 steps meetings, such as AA, Overeaters Anonymous, Al Anon, Narcotics Anonymous, are on the Zoom. I have seen a few meetings listed on uberconference.com and global.gotomeeting.com.

LD

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