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Pinterest IPO: Is The Social Site Worth $12 Billion?

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Pinterest IPO

Pinterest will debut on the public market this spring and is seeking a valuation of $9 billion. When it goes live, investors will be able to buy shares for $15 to $17 a pop. Here’s what you need to know about Pinterest IPO (PINS) and whether or not you should consider investing.

About Pinterest IPO

As mentioned above, Pinterest is currently seeking a valuation of $9 billion. The company’s valuation was said to be $12 billion when it completed its last round of funding a little more than two years ago.

There will be 75 million Class A shares sold at $15 to $17 per share on the New York Stock Exchange. Pinterest plans to use a dual-class structure that will allow major stakeholders voting power within the company (Class B). This will include co-founders Benjamin Silbermann and Evan Sharp. Other major shareholders include Andreessen Horowitz and FirstMark.

The Year of IPOs

Just last week, Lyft IPO debuted on the public market. Pinterest is joining a large wave of highly-anticipated tech-based IPOs to hit the NYSE this year. Uber and Slack are two more big names expected to debut on the market as well.

Should You Invest?

IPOs can be iffy when it comes to returns. If you’re considering investing in the Pinterest IPO, talk to a financial advisor and get a feel for your risk tolerance. See if there is a better way to invest your money before you throw it into a new company on the market.

You may also consider Warren Buffett’s advice when it comes to IPO investments. The seasoned investor recommends staying away from IPOs altogether. Buffett compares investing in IPOs with playing the lottery. Sure, people win sometimes but they are more likely to lose. But, as with most things, the same strategy won’t work for everyone.

Readers, are you interested in seeing how the Pinterest IPO performs? 

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Is the Stock Market Open on New Year’s Day 2019?

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Is the stock market open on New Years day?
Active traders always need to know when the stock market is open and closed. However, even inactive traders should be aware of the market schedule at the beginning of a new year, especially if part of your tax plan involves making crucial trades before year-end. Is the stock market open on New Year’s Day? Here’s what you should know.

Is the Stock Market Open on New Year’s Day?

The term “stock markets” refers to both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ. Like banks, stock markets observe most federal holidays, but not all. The NYSE and NASDAQ follow the same schedule when observing federal holidays. The bond market, also referred to as SIFMA, does not follow the same schedule as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. You should note that SIMFA recommends bond market closings but does not enforce them.

The NYSE will be closed on New Year’s Day. You will not be able to make trades or follow the change in the value of your stocks and the New York Stock Exchange index on January 1, 2019.

Will NASDAQ be Open on New Year’s Day?

NASDAQ will be closed on January 1, 2019. If you trade within the NASDAQ market, you can make trades and monitor changes in the value of your stocks on December 31, but you won’t be able to touch them again until January 2.

Will the Bond Market be Open on New Year’s Day?

The bond market will be closed on New Year’s Day. The bond market (SIMFA) will not be open on New Year’s Day. If you follow bonds, it is important to keep track of the dates that the bond market may be closed.

What Days Do the Stock Markets Close?

The stock markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) close each year in observance of the following federal holidays:

  • New Year’s Day
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • Washington’s Birthday
  • Good Friday
  • Memorial Day
  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day
  • Thanksgiving
  • Christmas Day

The stock markets also close the day before Independence Day.

The stock markets normally close at 5:00 PM EST, but there are two days during the year that the stock markets close early. On Black Friday and Christmas Eve, the markets are only open until 1:00 PM EST.

If you are an active trader or planning on making trades before the end of 2018, make sure you keep track of the stock market holiday schedule so you know when the stock market is open and closed. If you do have an urgent trade to make before the holiday, make sure you place your trade order far enough in advance of markets closing, to ensure enough time for execution before the markets close.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor Review – This Is How You Get High Returns

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Motley Fool Stock Advisor Review
If you’re interested in personal finance, you may have run across the Motley Fool – the brainchild of brothers Tom and David Gardner. The Gardners are stock pickers. Some consumers refer to them as “visionaries” whose stock picks have returned over 300%. Others wonder if they can really deliver superior stock performance. Let’s jump into this Motley Fool Stock Advisor review and find out how you can get the highest returns for your money.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor: Join now for 50% Off!

Motley Fool Stock Advisor Review

First, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor is the premier stock picking service offered by The Motley Fool, LLC. The Motley Fool is a financial services multimedia. They provide financial solutions for investors through various stock, investing, and personal finance products.

It was founded in 1993 by Tom and David Gardner, along with partners David Berger and Erik Rydholm.

motley fool stock advisor review

Why this Newsletter? Co-Founder Recommendations

As a part of our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review, we look at who is recommending the various stocks. The co-founders of Motley Fool, Tom and David, both give their top recommendations for stock once a month. They use a team of top rated analysts to make their selections, dubbed “Team Tom” and “Team David.”

Each pick their top five stocks, and explain why they’re choosing them for the month’s recommendation. If they choose a stock they’ve chosen before, they’ll include a few extra reasons as to why the stock is such a great choice.

5 Years From Now, You’ll Probably Wish You Grabbed These Stocks

Team Tom recommends their picks on the second Thursday of every month, and Team David releases their top picks on the fourth Thursday of every month. There are always fresh picks for you to choose from.

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Principles

What you might find the most interesting, are the principles used for the Motley Fool Stock Advisor. Here are a few of the principles:

  • Don’t buy stocks, buy businesses. Understand how businesses generate revenue and profits. Know their products, not just their symbols.
  • Invest for the long haul. Life time investors win in the end. They stay aware of the news, earnings statements and the industries themselves.
  • They don’t follow the crowd, they make stock decisions based on sound research.

“Team Tom” uses a modified value investing perspective, while “Team David” draws on a hybrid growth investing strategy.

Getting Started With The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Newsletter

motley fool stock advisor review

When you first purchase the newsletter, you’ll see a home screen with the “top picks.” for the current day. You can also see the stocks that have made significant jumps (either positive or negative).

You even set up your own watchlist so you can see everything quickly when you first log in. Once you’ve scrolled down, you can read about your stock losers and winners for the day, along with a quick recap on whether it’s time to sell, or buy more of, the stocks you currently have.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor: Join now for 50% Off!

Add Stocks To Your Watchlist

Navigation is easy with The Stock Advisor. For example, if you are watching a specific stock or multiple stocks, you can add them to your watchlist. These stocks are updated daily, so you can check it at any time to see if the stocks you’ve been watching are a good or bad idea to purchase.

<img src=" motleyfoolrwatchlist.jpg" alt”motleyfoolwatchlist">

Can You Trust Their Picks?

While recommendations are great, can you really trust Tom and David’s stock picks?

The best part of Stock Advisor is that they’ve done the research for you. In fact, you can even see how well Tom and David’s stock picks are doing right on the home page. As part of our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review, we’ve displayed the return data below. While you may not get 300%, the return figures are healthy.
Motley Fool Stock Advisor Review

Whenever a new or better stock option is arising, the Motley Fool team publishes a report to detail the potential. They will also recommend the stock while giving detailed sources and explanations.

Further, you’ll receive regular updates on any of the recommended stocks, and quarterly wrap-ups to view all earnings on the recommendations. If, for any reason, the team feels a stock is no longer worth recommending, they inform you of that, too.

It’s easy to sweep poor investment decisions under the rug, but the fact that The Motley Fool makes the results transparent means the quality of their advice is also transparent. In fact, all Motley Fool employees, including the Gardner brothers, must disclose 100% of their stock holdings.

Investment Resources For Newbies

With the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, the newbie investor doesn’t have to worry about not knowing where to start. They offer “starter stocks” that are less risky and suited to an investor looking to dip their toes into the game of investing. They also offer resources to help you start investing without the hassle.

An Engaged Community

To top all of the other positives, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor also offers a broad and engaged community for investors who purchase the newsletter. This is one of the main features that sets Motley Fool apart from other stock advisors. Tom and David aren’t the only two engaged in your investing future. Your subscription comes with access to the broader Motley Fool community, including their team of knowledgeable analysts and community members.

The community has tons of different forums, including a meet and greet and a helpful discussion board. There are even discussion boards dedicated to those who want to master investing.  These boards also work for those who would rather play it safe. Everyone in the Motley Fool community is paying to be there, so you know they’re motivated and engaged.

Is the Motley Fool Stock Advisor Worth It?

At the end of the day, is the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter worth the annual $199 price tag? I’m going to say clearly, yes.

The price is less than a dollar a day for access to a first rate stock picking service and online community. There really isn’t any other option that charges so little for investment knowledge and discussion.

<img src=" motleyfoolstockgrowth.jpg" alt”motleyfoolgrowthcharts">
Based on our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review, we believe it is a great option for any investor interested in making smarter (and more profitable) stock choices. And with personalized recommendations and the research to back them up, the $199 price tag is more than worth it. In fact, you can try it free for 30 days via the link below.

Motley Fool Stock Advisor: Stock Picks Up 371%!

If you’re still thinking about it, here is a handy video showing some of the platform’s main features.

What do you think about our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Material Connection Disclosure: The links in this article are called “affiliate links.” If you click on the link and purchase a subscription to the Motley Fool, savingadvice.com will receive an affiliate commission – which will help keep the site going. I only recommend products I think will add value to savingadvice.com readers. I am disclosing this in compliance with Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Image Sources: Fool.com

Is It Time to Cash Out of Your Investments?

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<img src=" how to decide when to cash out of your investments.jpg" alt”manshandgoingacroshisfinancials">

People invest as a means of securing their financial future, providing them with a source of money at the right time.

Outside of retirement accounts, you typically have a lot of power when it comes to choosing to cash out your investments. But how do you choose the right time to cash out of your investments?

Determining when to cash out your investments is a personal decision. You have to examine your current circumstances and goals to figure out what is right for you. However, there are some situations where cashing out may be a smart move.

Buy Low, Sell High

When it comes to managing a stock portfolio, you always want to focus on buying low and selling high. Typically, if a disaster strikes a company, their stock values will fall. At times, this triggers a sizeable sell-off, driving prices down for hours, days, weeks, or longer.

If this happens, it can be tempting to jump ship as well. However, you also need to avoid panic-based decision-making if you want to come out ahead.

For example, after the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal, Facebook’s stock value plummeted, losing around $134 billion in value at the low on March 26, 2018.

However, by early May, all of those losses were recovered. If you cashed out your investment near the low, you’d likely be regretting that decision. Now if you’d bought instead of sold when that price hit the low point, you’d be golden.

Before You Cash Out of Your Investments

Before you cash out, you need to determine whether a negative incident relating to a company recoverable. While this can be hard to predict for certain, it is important that you think logically about the situation.

In some cases, you can determine whether a company may survive a downturn based on the nature of the scandal. Incidents that bring about criminal charges for corruption, money laundering, or similar activities can spell doom for a business. If that occurs, you might want to pull your money out quickly. Otherwise, there might not be much left.

However, downturns that are the result of a shift in public sentiment, such as when United Airlines lost $1.4 billion in value after forcibly removing a passenger from a flight, aren’t irrecoverable. If anything, that downturn is the time when you get to buy more stock at a lower price.

Sell If You Need to Make a Big Purchase

If your investments aren’t earmarked for a specific purpose, like retirement, then cashing out to make a big purchase can be smart. For example, buying a home or paying for a child’s college education could be a good use of the money, depending on a few factors.

Generally, you only want to cash out your investments to pay for a substantial purchase if they are earning less than you would spend in interest if you financed the expense with a loan or put it on a credit card.

For example, if your investment account is only making 5 percent and the interest on a loan would be 6 percent, then cashing out can help you save money. If the interest rate on the loan or credit card is lower than the growth rate on the investment, then you may be better off financing the purchase.

Compare Loan Interest Rate to Portfolio Yield

For example, the average fixed-rate mortgage is below 5 percent as of June 2018. If your portfolio is earning 7 percent, then cashing out means you suffer a potential net loss.

However, making a purchase with cash from an investment does provide peace of mind. You won’t have a debt hanging over your head, and your monthly expenses are lower. If you prefer that feeling of financial security, taking a loss can still be a good choice.

Additionally, using your investments to cover your child’s college expenses may also be beneficial. Many parents want to help their kids start off as adults on solid financial footing.

Student loan debt can be particularly cumbersome, especially since the average student loan debt for 2016 graduates was $37,172. Helping them avoid that level of debt may provide intrinsic and financial benefits, so cashing out your investments is a reasonable option.

Capture a Gain When an Investment Peaks

In comparison to other investment vehicles, the cryptocurrency market is incredibly volatile. For example, in December 2017, Bitcoin was worth $19,140.70. As of June 13, 2018, according to Coinbase, it was only worth $6,286.21. That’s more than a 67 percent loss.

Those who got into Bitcoin early and cashed out their investment near the peak were rejoicing. Everyone else may feel like they missed out.

If you invest in cryptocurrencies, you need to pay close attention to the markets. While determining when a peak will occur is a challenge, with some research, you can increase your knowledge. For example, look for details about pending regulations or major companies supporting a particular cryptocurrency.

Taking Retirement Distributions

Once you reach retirement age, a significant portion of your income will need to come from savings. If you’ve been a diligent investor, your accounts likely have some value that can make your retirement more comfortable.

When you look to cash out your investments, focus on replacing funds in your spending account instead of pulling everything out of the market. Essentially, you want to whittle away at your portfolio, not empty it from the beginning.

Speaking of whittling, that’s the size of the withdrawal you want to make from a retirement account once you start taking annual distributions. You are required to start doing this by the time you reach 70.5 years so that you can pay income taxes on the proceeds; to learn more about how much this is, click here.

Reducing Risk and Generating Income

Typically, when you retire, you want to focus on income-generating investments — in fact, many experts suggest you begin ratcheting down the risk level in your portfolio once you’re within a decade of retirement.

Aim to move from equities to fixed income incrementally — each year, move another 10 percent of the portfolio from equity toward a fixed income investment.

You don’t want to cash out entirely to support your retirement because you may live another 20, 30, or even 40 years.

If You’re Uncertain, You Don’t Have to Cash Out

If you aren’t sure when you really intend to retire, consider placing just five years of living expenses in a fixed-income account and leave the rest in the market — if the markets are still trending upward, you might as well, assuming the news continues to be favorable.

However, if a downturn is likely, you might want to cash out, especially if the reason for the shift isn’t expected to improve.

Ultimately, deciding when to cash out of your investments is a personal choice. When in doubt, seek advice on the matter.

Readers, what are your opinions about when to cash out of your investments?

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Looking for more great investment articles? Give these a try:

If you enjoy reading our blog posts and would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

Is the Stock Market Open Memorial Day? No.

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Is the stock market open memorial day no it is not open memorial day
Is the stock market open Memorial Day? No. Stock and commodities exchanges based in the U.S. observe federal holidays and Memorial Day is one of them.

So on Monday, May 28, every U.S.-based venue for trading securities will be closed.

They’ll also be closed on the two days before the holiday because they fall on a Saturday and Sunday, when the markets are closed.

However, U.S.-based capital markets will be open as usual on the preceding Friday, May 26 along with the day after Memorial Day, Tuesday, May 30. On both of these days, these venues will be open their regular hours.

Is the Stock Market Open Memorial Day?

This schedule includes the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, U.S. bond markets, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

However, even on the days that U.S. capital markets are closed, you’ll still be able to place trades through brokerages’ websites and mobile apps. However, the transactions won’t begin to process until the next business day.

Most likely you won’t feel motivated to place a trade on the holiday and thus won’t find the closures of the capital markets any inconvenience.

Readers, what sort of plans are you making for Memorial Day weekend?

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How To Invest When It’s Late in the Bull Market Cycle

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Late bull market cycle -- what do you do?
Although the economy is nowhere near a recession today, there could be one soon in the next few years because this economic expansion is already so stretched. That said, here are several ways to invest when it’s late into the bull market cycle.

Remember first that you don’t always have to be fully invested. Many long-term investors believe that Warren Buffett remains invested in stocks throughout a bear market.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Buffett raises cash and shrinks his position sizes when he thinks that valuations are expensive.

Wait to Buy

He does this because he doesn’t see a lot of good investment opportunities during the late stage of a bull market. Buffett invests heavily when he thinks that valuations are cheap and opportunities are plentiful.

Blindly holding onto stocks throughout a recession can lead to your portfolio being underwater for more than half a decade.

So remember: if there are no good investment opportunities, stay in cash. Don’t force yourself to take investment opportunities when there are few good ones available.

Wait a Little Before Buying Long-Term Bonds

Right now we are in a unique situation in which:

  1. A bear market might be two to three years in the future.
  2. A bear market is not imminent either.
  3. The current bull market still has one to two years left.

This means that it’s not a good time to invest in long-term Treasury bonds yet. Interest rates are extremely low right now, and with the Fed on track to hike rates another two times in 2018, interest rates will rise throughout this year. That means bond market investors will probably lose money over the next year.

Investing in long-term bonds will become a good idea when the next bear market begins. Rates don’t usually rise during bear markets because central banks are lowering interest rates, unless there is hyperinflation.

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities

Historically, inflation always rises during the last legs of an economic expansion — and that’s what we’re in right now.

Investing in the stock market to protect yourself from inflation in the short run is not a good idea because it can be very volatile. The simplest way to protect yourself from inflation is to buy Treasury Inflation Protected Securities: Their value rises and falls with inflation, effectively giving you protection from rising inflation.

Dividend Stocks

Some people still feel that they have to invest in stocks. If you are one of those people, at least recognize the danger of a bear market and try to minimize your losses. Investing in dividend stocks is better than investing in growth stocks during a bear market. Here’s why:

  1. Growth stocks s (like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) fall faster than average during bear markets.
  2. Growth stock rise faster than average during bull markets.

Dividend stocks are exactly the opposite; they tend to be slow-moving companies with low volatility (for instance, utilities). In a bear market, they typically fall less than the rest of the market.

Plus you also get dividend yield even during the bear market — but keep in mind that dividends tend to get reduced during bear markets.

Prepare for the Next Bear Market

 

If you own all stocks right now, you might consider moving entirely to cash when you think the next bear market is just around the corner — then either stay entirely in cash or shift to short-term Treasury bonds.

The Fed tends to lower interest rates during bear markets, which means that short-term bondholders may be rewarded.

Troy Bombardia is a professional trader who shares his thoughts on the markets at Bull Markets.

If you would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

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