Weekly Post #1
I'm still thinking of a good title for these!
So bear with me here; I’m still relatively new to this platform and am getting to grips with how it works and how to publish content. Although I am well aware that I am right now writing for the grand total of zero subscribers (1 if you include me!), as they say, if you want to succeed at anything, you need to start somewhere… So here we are.
If you read my about page, you will see that I have committed to a weekly schedule in which I will present a stock of the week that has caught my eye, along with my reasoning for it (which I may elaborate on further in the Stock Deep Dives section), a helpful quote or tip for your day, and something interesting that I have found, which may or may not be relevant to you but that I will include nonetheless. So, without further ado, let’s jump into things.
Stock Of The Week
So what have I found during my relatively frequent research digging into securities that look attractive? Well, for those of you who already have some investing nous, you’re really going to hate me for such an obvious choice, particularly for the very first outing of this newsletter, but here goes:
Google (GOOGL/GOOG)
Yes, the one and only, and the company that almost everyone on planet earth has heard of, uses, loves, or hates on a daily basis. Google, or rather its parent company Alphabet (which uses the same ticker as it did when it first listed), at first glance appears to be on somewhat of a downward trend. There are varying reasons for this, including
Regulatory scrutiny.
The possibility of being forcibly split up due to concerns about it being a monopoly.
The hard and fast advent of AI.
The very visible decline of its search offering, which is absolutely its bread and butter.
I wrote a comment on someone’s post over at the r/ValueInvesting subreddit the other day, which is what actually spurred me on to add them to one of these posts. So, for brevity, I’ll simply copy and paste that comment here, of which I still have full conviction that what I said was correct:
While I do think that things are changing towards AI in the long term, I believe Google still has some room to run for a long time for two reasons:
I used to make money using Google AdWords (admittedly a while ago) and whenever I would mention this to my peers, they would always exclaim that nobody clicks on internet ads or Google search ads. But from personal experience and the very fact that they still make tons of money from ads, what you might believe is the case or not doesn't always align with what is actually happening.
As an enormous company, they will likely find ways to monetize their AI answers somehow. Moreover, while a lot of AI searches tend to stay in the AI application for informal queries, lots of people still might need to dig deeper and click on one of the links that AI has used as a source, meaning they will land on sites that are monetized with ads.
The main caveats of my argument are possibly that as with all companies, nothing lasts forever, as well as the fact that plenty of people use adblockers and the like (myself included). However Google may still be a worthwhile investment for their other offerings if they scale them up and begin to push out more subscription offerings that brings in regular income (nobody thought that YouTube would end up having a paid subscription model but plenty of folks pay for it regardless nowadays)
Basically, nothing is static but it still makes loads of money, has plenty of options to scale up and is very capable of manoeuvring into and out of places it believes will make money.
I don't hold a position personally because I'm already a bit too tech-heavy in my portfolio, but happy to wait and see if it drops to truly low prices.
As you can see, I don't currently have a position in them, but that's only because my portfolio is already heavily skewed towards tech. As all savvy investors understand, it's important to diversify your investments. However, I am fairly certain that if I were more diversified, I would possibly open a position with them and sit on it for a long time.
I mean, with metrics like these that are green across the board, it’s almost flabbergasting that they currently have the lowest P/E ratio of the Magnificent 7 at around 20-ish (and even lower than some pretty lousy companies):
You can find out about my portfolio over at the following post:
Quote Of The Week
I have chosen a quote from an author you may not be familiar with but will certainly know as the author of the brilliant book (and equally impressive film) Fight Club.
Chuck Palahniuk is a writer who often explores the darker aspects of life, leading to the development of a cult following. The quote I’m using today is one that has hit me pretty hard in recent times and is part of the reason I chose to even begin writing on Substack in the first place:
"It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything."
This quote has intrigued me for years, but only recently has it meant something to me. Without going into too much detail because we’re all suffering from the same problems with modern life, I lost a pretty decent, well-paying gig and have been somewhat at odds with my life.
However, since I lost the gig, it feels as though new opportunities have opened up. While I still lament the loss of income, which, although it wasn’t amazing, did pay the bills. But the problem was that it was kind of all-encompassing, leaving me with little time to explore new things.
I would also be remiss if I left out the fact that, although I lost an income stream, I am still financially secure and am blessed to have the chance to start again in relative comfort. This might not be possible for everyone depending on circumstances, but not every loss has to be immense or intensely meaningful to spur you into action toward a new and exciting life.
Nevertheless, there is something freeing about having something valuable. Without experiencing some form of loss in life, we can never fully appreciate the exciting new opportunities that may come our way.
Something Interesting Of The Week
I had what is colloquially known as a “shower thought” the other day that goes as follows:
If you are a proponent of the many universe theory, or multiverse, where there are infinite universes that contain another version of yourself, then it stands to reason that any thought you’ve ever had, be it beautiful, bizzare, deranged, nasty, perverse or downright vile, it has probaly happend to another you in real life but in a differnt universe.
Now, I may very well be getting the wrong end of the stick when it comes to the multiverse theory, but it was a thought that popped up in my mind the other day, and I thought it interesting.
The fact that if infinite “yous” exist in differnt universes, there will be more “yous” than the number of thoughts you could ever have in your entire lifetime…scary, no?
Fin
So I think that’s enough for now, and seeing as nobody will read this, I think it’s a good time to clock off and bid the expanse of nothingness, adieu!