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Quote

“The big money is not in the buying or selling, but in the waiting” ― Charlie Munger

You Survived

You can raise your head out of the trench, 2023 is almost over.

Assuming we don’t have world altering news, we are expecting the stock market to cap off a very impressive year.

To pay homage (and to laugh at now because we thought the world was ending) here is a quick list of the biggest investing stories in 2023.

It was a fun one, who is ready to do it again next year?!

FTX Goes Down

Oh the drama was great.

Billions lost, mansion in the Bahamas, private jets, insider hacks, political ties, and romantic relationships all from a “Toyota Corolla Guy.” (who now faces 115 years in prison).

You might think this was a script for the “Wolf of Wall Street” sequel, but it all happened before our eyes.

In the end this was a terrible look for the crypto industry. One of the most loved platforms busted for stealing customer funds…big no no.

People are quick to forget though, and unfortunately this won’t be the last scam we see in the crypto space.

Interest Rates To The Moon

With inflation out of control the last couple years the Fed took matters into their own hands and began hiking interest rates to combat inflation.

These rapid increases saw rates climb to levels not seen since the 2000’s and caused a few bank failures along the way (wrote a piece about the SVB collapse here).

While higher mortgages and loans aren’t fun, these yields allowed for cash to no longer be trash.

Nowadays you can get close to 5% on CDs, TBills, HYSA, and money market funds. If you have cash sitting on the sidelines somewhere, make sure it’s earning more than 0.05%!

Word on the street is that the Fed is going to start cutting rates in 2024. It will be interesting to see how the overall market reacts.

The Magnificent Seven

Since Oct 27th (yes I’m cherry picking a low point) the S&P 500 has increased over 15%.

Expanding this timeline the “Magnificent Seven” lead the majority of this charge into positive territory for the market.

Michael Batnick wrote a great post titled “7 Deadly Stocks” that put this into perspective…this chart is wild.

As stated in Michael’s post, The Magnificent Seven (Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Tesla) did underperform in 2022 so maybe they were due up?

Either way, the rally this year was impressive, and profitable!

Charlie Munger Passes

RIP to a legend.

Warren Buffett’s right hand man unfortunately passed away this year just days short of his 100th birthday.

Mr. Munger was an investing legend and provided years of wisdom to the investing community. He will be missed!

Here is a thread with some of his best insights.

Michael Burry $1.6B Bet

Around August of this year it was revealed that Michael Burry’s (made famous by “The Big Short”) asset management company loaded the wagon with put options.

These put options totaled around $1,600,000,000 and according to the filings this composed over 90% of his portfolio (source).

With such a famous name betting HUGE on a market crash something had to be up right?

Well, the only thing up since his bet is the market. Just another example of how no one actually knows what is coming next.

Bitcoin Makes A Comeback

*Don’t say it Cade…please don’t say it.”

BITCOIN IS BACK. Oh man, you don’t even need to look at a chart to know that Bitcoin’s price has increased this year, just check my “X” replies.

After crypto got wrecked in 2022, Bitcoin saw it’s price drop below $17,000 per coin (a 74% fall from the high).

Now though, everyone’s favorite coin has rallied and now sits comfortably above the $40,000 mark. A lot of this has been on the news that there might be a Bitcoin ETF coming soon.

While I own a bit of Bitcoin (*wink) I still have my doubts. That said, it’s worth keeping an eye on. Click here to watch a video on how high Bitcoin could go in 2024.

Conclusion

As an investor it’s always a good exercise to look back and see what market events took place (and think about how you reacted).

While this year had its share of head scratchers, I have a feeling 2024 is going to be a wild one with arguably one of the biggest elections in history taking place.

Hey, at least we’ll have some hot topics for you to read about!

On a serious note, thank you for being reader. I appreciate your time and plan to keep the content flowing into and throughout 2024!

Hope you have a blessed holiday! ~ Cade

Chump Change Favs

Staying The Course Is Harder Than It Sounds - If you liked this post you will enjoy this tweet breaking down everything investors have had to deal with over the last few years.

The Psychology of Building Generational Wealth - Morgan Housel went on one of my favorite podcasts (My First Million) and the discussion was just as you’d expect…great. Tune in to hear a few sharp minds talk finance.

Best Memes

The “Big Dog” meme might be one of the greatest this year.

We are SO back.

Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. about the email don’t hesitate to send me a reply.