The world’s largest tech companies further their advantage by building out extensive, global networks to deliver online services to businesses and consumers. This has never been an inexpensive endeavor, but the need for further sophistication and computing power has the bills growing larger each year and there are no signs of a slowdown on the horizon.

Take, for example, the largest three U.S.-based operators of cloud computing services. Amazon.com [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut], Microsoft [stckqut]MSFT[/stckqut], and Alphabet Inc.’s[stckqut]GOOGL[/stckqut] Google had a combined $41.6 billion in capital expenditures and capital lease deals in 2017. That is up 33% from the previous year and represents an acceleration from the 23% growth in spending seen in 2016. Not all of this goes to data-center construction, though all three have identified network expansion as a major area of focus for their capital spending plans.

Source: Cloud Bills Will Get Loftier

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.

BL-TCI-cover

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. $172.43 $133.60 29.07% $178.54 -3.42% $156.41 10.24%
ABMD ABIOMED, Inc. $267.74 $116.57 129.68% $225.89 18.53% $229.38 16.72%
ADBE Adobe Systems Incorporated $201.56 $119.67 68.43% $196.20 2.73% $187.99 7.22%
ADS Alliance Data Systems Corporation $244.68 $232.93 5.05% $255.35 -4.18% $240.11 1.90%
ALGN Align Technology, Inc. $251.50 $101.77 147.13% $270.70 -7.09% $229.37 9.65%
ALXN Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $120.47 $128.82 -6.48% $120.35 0.10% $108.60 10.93%
AMAT Applied Materials, Inc. $55.03 $35.45 55.24% $57.40 -4.13% $48.08 14.46%
AMZN Amazon.com, Inc. $1,448.69 $845.07 71.43% $1,293.32 12.01% $1,339.60 8.14%
ANET Arista Networks Inc $249.49 $119.06 109.55% $265.19 -5.92% $272.55 -8.46%
AYI Acuity Brands, Inc. $151.14 $219.64 -31.19% $161.36 -6.33% $147.05 2.78%
BABA Alibaba Group Holding Ltd $183.68 $100.52 82.73% $184.40 -0.39% $176.67 3.97%
CBPO China Biologic Products Holdings, Inc. $80.85 $110.14 -26.59% $80.51 0.42% $79.10 2.21%
CEVA CEVA, Inc. $35.45 $34.85 1.72% $47.55 -25.45% $36.43 -2.68%
COF Capital One Financial Corp. $99.53 $90.12 10.45% $102.96 -3.33% $92.02 8.16%
CRTO Criteo SA (ADR) $31.00 $44.98 -31.08% $25.37 22.19% $22.44 38.15%
CRUS Cirrus Logic, Inc. $41.77 $55.33 -24.51% $54.80 -23.78% $42.38 -1.44%
CVCO Cavco Industries, Inc. $169.05 $114.50 47.64% $160.75 5.16% $159.40 6.05%
DPZ Domino’s Pizza, Inc. $220.74 $186.13 18.59% $210.91 4.66% $206.09 7.11%
EW Edwards Lifesciences Corp $133.82 $89.74 49.12% $121.72 9.94% $126.27 5.98%
EXR Extra Space Storage, Inc. $82.20 $74.24 10.73% $82.70 -0.60% $80.39 2.25%
FB Facebook Inc $177.36 $133.53 32.82% $179.80 -1.36% $176.11 0.71%
GILD Gilead Sciences, Inc. $80.70 $67.86 18.92% $81.17 -0.58% $79.32 1.74%
GOOGL Alphabet Inc $1,095.50 $846.55 29.41% $1,135.97 -3.56% $1,046.27 4.71%
GTN Gray Television, Inc. $15.00 $12.55 19.52% $17.35 -13.54% $15.00 0.00%
GWR Genesee & Wyoming Inc $73.35 $75.39 -2.71% $81.57 -10.08% $69.59 5.40%
HDSN Hudson Technologies, Inc. $6.13 $7.73 -20.70% $6.20 -1.13% $5.81 5.51%
HSKA Heska Corp $61.05 $83.06 -26.50% $80.04 -23.73% $61.50 -0.73%
HZO MarineMax Inc $21.50 $22.70 -5.29% $19.10 12.57% $21.20 1.42%
IBP Installed Building Products Inc $69.85 $41.40 68.72% $74.00 -5.61% $63.35 10.26%
ILMN Illumina, Inc. $229.20 $163.37 40.30% $241.31 -5.02% $217.19 5.53%
LGIH LGI Homes Inc $65.77 $28.86 127.89% $71.29 -7.74% $59.51 10.52%
LRCX Lam Research Corporation $187.91 $113.53 65.51% $205.45 -8.54% $165.87 13.29%
LULU Lululemon Athletica inc. $81.40 $66.73 21.98% $77.57 4.94% $77.15 5.51%
MCK McKesson Corporation $150.50 $149.03 0.99% $171.78 -12.39% $148.93 1.05%
MEI Methode Electronics Inc. $40.60 $41.82 -2.93% $42.30 -4.02% $38.25 6.14%
MIDD Middleby Corp $135.00 $138.21 -2.32% $134.10 0.67% $131.06 3.01%
MKTX MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $201.40 $191.65 5.09% $207.41 -2.90% $188.75 6.70%
MRK Merck & Co., Inc. $56.29 $63.44 -11.27% $61.13 -7.92% $54.87 2.59%
MU Micron Technology, Inc. $44.21 $23.35 89.34% $43.99 0.50% $40.41 9.40%
NFLX Netflix, Inc. $278.52 $142.22 95.84% $220.33 26.41% $249.47 11.64%
NVDA NVIDIA Corporation $243.84 $106.82 128.28% $224.44 8.64% $232.08 5.07%
PCLN Priceline Group Inc $1,885.00 $1,637.40 15.12% $1,926.71 -2.16% $1,765.00 6.80%
REGN Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc $332.15 $371.18 -10.52% $371.28 -10.54% $336.38 -1.26%
SBUX Starbucks Corporation $56.48 $56.25 0.42% $60.76 -7.04% $54.58 3.48%
SCHW Charles Schwab Corp $52.17 $41.23 26.54% $55.22 -5.52% $50.12 4.09%
STZ Constellation Brands, Inc. $219.45 $159.64 37.46% $216.75 1.25% $210.26 4.37%
SUI Sun Communities Inc $87.24 $78.46 11.19% $87.74 -0.57% $84.70 3.00%
SWKS Skyworks Solutions Inc $104.11 $95.51 9.00% $102.29 1.78% $102.64 1.43%
TGS Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA (ADR) $22.00 $11.32 94.35% $23.60 -6.78% $20.42 7.74%
THRM Gentherm Inc $31.65 $35.70 -11.34% $32.10 -1.40% $30.65 3.26%
TMO Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. $210.61 $158.11 33.21% $212.41 -0.85% $200.18 5.21%
TMUS T-Mobile US Inc $60.06 $63.92 -6.04% $62.88 -4.48% $59.20 1.45%
TNET TriNet Group Inc $41.66 $26.36 58.04% $42.22 -1.33% $39.80 4.67%
ULTA Ulta Beauty Inc $203.15 $275.15 -26.17% $243.15 -16.45% $218.55 -7.05%

Over the last year, my Watch List returned 28.04%
Over the last month, my Watch List returned -0.44%
Over the last week, my Watch List returned 5.51%

 

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
ABMD ABIOMED, Inc. $267.74 $116.57 129.68% $225.89 18.53% $229.38 16.72%
ADBE Adobe Systems Incorporated $201.56 $119.67 68.43% $196.20 2.73% $187.99 7.22%
ALGN Align Technology, Inc. $251.50 $101.77 147.13% $270.70 -7.09% $229.37 9.65%
AMAT Applied Materials, Inc. $55.03 $35.45 55.24% $57.40 -4.13% $48.08 14.46%
AMZN Amazon.com, Inc. $1,448.69 $845.07 71.43% $1,293.32 12.01% $1,339.60 8.14%
ANET Arista Networks Inc $249.49 $119.06 109.55% $265.19 -5.92% $272.55 -8.46%
BABA Alibaba Group Holding Ltd $183.68 $100.52 82.73% $184.40 -0.39% $176.67 3.97%
IBP Installed Building Products Inc $69.85 $41.40 68.72% $74.00 -5.61% $63.35 10.26%
LGIH LGI Homes Inc $65.77 $28.86 127.89% $71.29 -7.74% $59.51 10.52%
LRCX Lam Research Corporation $187.91 $113.53 65.51% $205.45 -8.54% $165.87 13.29%
MU Micron Technology, Inc. $44.21 $23.35 89.34% $43.99 0.50% $40.41 9.40%
NFLX Netflix, Inc. $278.52 $142.22 95.84% $220.33 26.41% $249.47 11.64%
NVDA NVIDIA Corporation $243.84 $106.82 128.28% $224.44 8.64% $232.08 5.07%
TGS Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA (ADR) $22.00 $11.32 94.35% $23.60 -6.78% $20.42 7.74%
TNET TriNet Group Inc $41.66 $26.36 58.04% $42.22 -1.33% $39.80 4.67%

Over the last year, my Short Term Watch List returned 86.93%
Over the last month, my Short Term Watch List returned 6.27%
Over the last week, my Short Term Watch List returned 7.66%

Short Term List returned 87%
High growth stock: Align Technology, Inc. ($ALGN) at 147%
Total Execution Time: 3.5976371765137 Sec