One of the biggest challenges in investing in the stock market is picking the best stocks. In my book, “The Confident Investor” I teach my readers how to pick Good Companies. This page is designed to show the raw performance of these companies. It is not designed to show my personal portfolio, which may or may not exceed the performance stated here. Since I use the trading system described in my book, you can assume that I beat the performance recorded here.

I must caution you, I do not actually propose that you “buy and hold” any given stock, but rather you should “buy to hold” the stock. My investing technique teaches you to efficiently move your money to the stocks that are currently increasing in value the most. I use my Watch List for this work, these are Good Companies that I wait for great buying opportunities. This strategy is well described in my book, “The Confident Investor” and tends to be a very safe strategy in bear markets while typically still providing above market returns in a bull or flat market.

My Short Term Watch List are 15 companies that are hot right now. I select this list every quarter. I evenly divide a portion of my portfolio among these 15 companies. The next quarter, I add or delete companies as necessary and then re-balance the portfolio. This tends to be a more risky strategy because I don’t bail out on bad stock movement (at least until the end of the quarter). In a bull market or a flat market, these very well-run and high-performing companies tend to beat the general market by a significant margin.

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You can purchase my book wherever books are sold such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million. It is available in paperback as well as e-book formats for Nook, Kindle, and iPad.

WATCH LIST STOCK RESULTS

 

Stock
Ticker
Company
name
Current
price
Year
ago
Year ago
change
Month
ago
Month ago
change
Week
ago
Week ago
change
AAPL Apple Inc. $169.37 $112.14 51.04% $174.67 -3.03% $171.05 -0.98%
ABMD ABIOMED, Inc. $191.36 $116.92 63.67% $195.21 -1.97% $194.60 -1.66%
ADS Alliance Data Systems Corporation $233.05 $230.12 1.27% $224.93 3.61% $234.03 -0.42%
ALGN Align Technology, Inc. $238.43 $98.62 141.77% $249.46 -4.42% $254.07 -6.16%
ALXN Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $114.46 $132.07 -13.33% $115.17 -0.62% $108.96 5.05%
AMAT Applied Materials, Inc. $51.43 $32.06 60.42% $56.26 -8.59% $51.91 -0.92%
AMZN Amazon $1,162.00 $768.66 51.17% $1,125.35 3.26% $1,162.35 -0.03%
AYI Acuity Brands, Inc. $171.65 $248.13 -30.82% $160.18 7.16% $167.01 2.78%
BABA Alibaba Group Holding Ltd $177.62 $93.28 90.42% $186.41 -4.72% $174.61 1.72%
BWLD Buffalo Wild Wings $156.30 $174.90 -10.63% $118.85 31.51% $155.50 0.51%
CBPO China Biologic Products Inc $78.80 $116.33 -32.26% $87.31 -9.75% $80.93 -2.63%
COF Capital One Financial Corp. $95.79 $88.77 7.91% $87.15 9.91% $92.72 3.31%
CRUS Cirrus Logic, Inc. $49.98 $57.36 -12.87% $56.69 -11.84% $53.16 -5.98%
CVCO Cavco Industries, Inc. $146.35 $102.80 42.36% $145.35 0.69% $153.20 -4.47%
DPZ Domino’s Pizza, Inc. $183.91 $162.04 13.50% $173.33 6.10% $184.62 -0.38%
EW Edwards Lifesciences Corp $118.03 $90.37 30.61% $103.85 13.65% $116.41 1.39%
EXR Extra Space Storage, Inc. $86.28 $71.96 19.90% $86.00 0.33% $85.20 1.27%
FB Facebook Inc $179.00 $119.68 49.57% $178.46 0.30% $175.10 2.23%
GOOGL Alphabet Inc $1,049.38 $809.45 29.64% $1,044.15 0.50% $1,025.07 2.37%
GTN Gray Television, Inc. $14.65 $10.90 34.40% $15.40 -4.87% $14.50 1.03%
GWR Genesee & Wyoming Inc $78.57 $80.01 -1.80% $74.04 6.12% $78.30 0.34%
HDSN Hudson Technologies, Inc. $5.61 $7.39 -24.09% $6.12 -8.33% $5.66 -0.88%
HOG Harley-Davidson Inc $51.19 $59.21 -13.54% $47.30 8.22% $50.03 2.32%
HSKA Heska Corp $79.00 $68.24 15.77% $85.17 -7.24% $86.32 -8.47%
HZO MarineMax Inc $21.70 $21.60 0.46% $20.30 6.90% $21.40 1.40%
IDXX IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. $160.57 $118.24 35.80% $147.68 8.73% $155.00 3.59%
LNCE Snyder’s-Lance Inc $38.44 $38.33 0.28% $35.32 8.82% $38.49 -0.13%
LULU Lululemon Athletica inc. $73.77 $69.30 6.45% $64.87 13.72% $67.22 9.74%
MCK McKesson Corporation $152.57 $145.06 5.17% $137.29 11.13% $146.39 4.22%
MEI Methode Electronics Inc. $42.20 $42.24 -0.09% $46.50 -9.25% $46.70 -9.64%
MET Metlife Inc $53.76 $44.28 21.41% $52.20 2.99% $53.61 0.28%
MIDD Middleby Corp $125.61 $142.20 -11.67% $109.84 14.36% $126.59 -0.77%
MNST Monster Beverage Corporation $63.22 $44.04 43.55% $61.16 3.37% $62.92 0.48%
MRK Merck & Co., Inc. $55.57 $59.46 -6.54% $55.48 0.16% $55.87 -0.54%
NFLX Netflix, Inc. $188.54 $122.88 53.43% $192.02 -1.81% $186.82 0.92%
NVDA NVIDIA Corporation $191.49 $91.47 109.35% $215.99 -11.34% $197.68 -3.13%
PCLN Priceline Group Inc $1,719.84 $1,557.98 10.39% $1,697.25 1.33% $1,735.30 -0.89%
REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc $380.78 $372.83 2.13% $404.54 -5.87% $373.47 1.96%
SAM Boston Beer Company Inc $194.00 $173.55 11.78% $176.40 9.98% $182.25 6.45%
SBUX Starbucks Corporation $58.61 $57.68 1.62% $56.74 3.30% $57.32 2.25%
STZ Constellation Brands, Inc. $217.98 $151.21 44.16% $218.67 -0.32% $218.60 -0.28%
SUI Sun Communities Inc $95.60 $71.67 33.39% $92.54 3.31% $93.73 2.00%
SWKS Skyworks Solutions Inc $96.28 $76.03 26.64% $110.09 -12.54% $102.23 -5.82%
THRM Gentherm Inc $33.40 $33.80 -1.18% $34.28 -2.57% $35.50 -5.92%
TMO Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. $187.96 $144.89 29.73% $186.18 0.96% $192.20 -2.21%
TRN Trinity Industries Inc $35.95 $27.87 29.00% $32.58 10.34% $35.44 1.44%
UA Under Armour Inc $12.19 $28.81 -57.69% $11.37 7.21% $11.73 3.92%
ULTA Ulta Beauty Inc $224.54 $251.14 -10.59% $200.76 11.84% $212.58 5.63%

Over the last year, my Watch List returned 20.27%
Over the last month, my Watch List returned 1.64%
Over the last week, my Watch List returned 0.24%

SHORT TERM WATCH LIST STOCK RESULTS

 

Stock
Ticker
Company
name
Current
price
Year
ago
Year ago
change
Month
ago
Month ago
change
Week
ago
Week ago
change
AAPL Apple Inc. $169.37 $112.14 51.04% $174.67 -3.03% $171.05 -0.98%
ABMD ABIOMED, Inc. $191.36 $116.92 63.67% $195.21 -1.97% $194.60 -1.66%
ALGN Align Technology, Inc. $238.43 $98.62 141.77% $249.46 -4.42% $254.07 -6.16%
AMAT Applied Materials, Inc. $51.43 $32.06 60.42% $56.26 -8.59% $51.91 -0.92%
BABA Alibaba Group Holding Ltd $177.62 $93.28 90.42% $186.41 -4.72% $174.61 1.72%
CVCO Cavco Industries, Inc. $146.35 $102.80 42.36% $145.35 0.69% $153.20 -4.47%
DPZ Domino’s Pizza, Inc. $183.91 $162.04 13.50% $173.33 6.10% $184.62 -0.38%
FB Facebook Inc $179.00 $119.68 49.57% $178.46 0.30% $175.10 2.23%
GTN Gray Television, Inc. $14.65 $10.90 34.40% $15.40 -4.87% $14.50 1.03%
HSKA Heska Corp $79.00 $68.24 15.77% $85.17 -7.24% $86.32 -8.47%
NFLX Netflix, Inc. $188.54 $122.88 53.43% $192.02 -1.81% $186.82 0.92%
NVDA NVIDIA Corporation $191.49 $91.47 109.35% $215.99 -11.34% $197.68 -3.13%
PCLN Priceline Group Inc $1,719.84 $1,557.98 10.39% $1,697.25 1.33% $1,735.30 -0.89%
STZ Constellation Brands, Inc. $217.98 $151.21 44.16% $218.67 -0.32% $218.60 -0.28%
TRN Trinity Industries Inc $35.95 $27.87 29.00% $32.58 10.34% $35.44 1.44%

Over the last year, my Short Term Watch List returned 31.97%
Over the last month, my Short Term Watch List returned -0.82%
Over the last week, my Short Term Watch List returned -1.28%

Short Term List returned 32%
High growth stock: Align Technology, Inc. ($ALGN) at 142%
Total Execution Time: 3.1599969863892 Sec

The environment still looks more friendly for stocks than bonds. Global growth is broad and momentum appears good. Earnings have recovered and are forecast to rise further around the world in 2018.

And the environment still looks more friendly for stocks than bonds. Global growth is broad and momentum appears good. Earnings have recovered and are forecast to rise further around the world in 2018. U.S. stocks may look stretched based on rising earnings multiples, a red flag in investors’ minds, but in Europe, for instance, it is earnings that are doing the heavy lifting. Many emerging-market economies are much earlier in the cycle too. Investors might need to look further afield for returns.

Importantly, equities remain a place where investors still get paid for taking risk. The MSCI World equity risk premium has fallen, but still stands at 3.8%, above its postcrisis lows and its 2007 level of 3.3%, according to Citigroup.

By contrast, low bond yields and tight corporate-credit spreads offer little room for error. That means a scenario that is worrying bond investors—a more challenging 2018 in which inflation picks up, eroding already-skinny returns and potentially spurring further central-bank tightening—may pose less of a threat to equities. The risk premium offers some room to absorb higher yields.

Source: Actually, Here’s Why Stocks Can Keep Going Up