Weekly Notes — August 15, 2026
Not that Weekly Notes is meant to be long but I have to keep this short this week. I have been in Baton Rouge moving my daughter into LSU, and I needed to savor every remaining moment I had with…
investing basics
The Headline Is Not the Story: Three Companies, One Week
Last week I published a post on how to read an earnings release. It focused on United Airlines (Ticker UAL) and Johnson & Johnson (Ticker JNJ). This week the market provided a few more earnings releases that helped solidify some…
How to Read an Earnings Release
Four times a year, every public company you own puts out an earnings release. Most casual investors do not really dig into the detail when this happens. They quickly see if the company beat expectations and look to see how…
Weekly Notes — July 4, 2026
Happy Fourth of July weekend. Some quick housekeeping before we get started. The U.S. stock market was closed Friday for the Fourth of July holiday, so this week’s official close is Thursday July 2. On to the notes. I will…
Weekly Notes — June 27, 2026
Quick note before we get started. This was a very tough week personally. Some hard news on the medical front along with some other challenges. It will never compare to the bad week, weeks, months and years when Isabella passed…
Weekly Notes — June 20, 2026
Quick housekeeping note before we get started. The U.S. stock market was closed Friday for Juneteenth, so this week’s closing prices are Thursday’s. The week was four trading days long. That actually fits the story it tells. Let’s get into…
Weekly Notes — June 13, 2026
This was a wild week. The market swung in both directions on news that mostly was not about the companies whose stocks were moving. Alphabet’s record stock issuance from last week kept teaching its lesson. And on Friday, the largest…
Weekly Notes — June 6, 2026
This week the AI rally finally took a real punch to the gut which it does from time to time. The priced-in lesson we have discussed on this site scaled all the way up from individual stocks to the whole…
Weekly Notes — May 30, 2026
This week the AI rally got bigger, the rules from last week kept proving themselves, and the Cerebras story I started telling last Saturday continued in a way worth watching. Three items, all connected. Let’s get into it. 1. The…
When to Sell a Stock
In How Many Stocks Should You Actually Own?, we covered how to build a portfolio of individual stocks. Now comes the question that experienced investors often say is harder than buying — when should you sell? Selling is one of…
Weekly Notes — May 23, 2026
Welcome to Weekly Notes. This is the first one, so a quick word on what it is. Once a week — Saturdays — I’ll pull together a couple of things that caught my eye in money and markets, and try…
What Researching One Stock Actually Looks Like: A Walkthrough Using Johnson & Johnson
In a recent post, How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It, I walked through the framework — what to look for, what matters, and why. This post is meant to accompany that one with a real stock research…
How Many Stocks Should You Actually Own?
In How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It, we covered the basics of figuring out whether a company is worth owning. Once you start putting that knowledge to work, the next question is — how many stocks should…
How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It
In my last post, ETFs and Index Funds vs Individual Stocks, we talked about when it makes sense to start adding individual stocks to your portfolio. If you have decided you are ready to take that step, the natural next…
ETFs and Index Funds vs Individual Stocks: Which Is Right for You?
If you have read What Is an ETF? and Index Funds vs ETFs, you understand how to get into the stock market with one simple investment that instantly diversifies your money across companies and/or technologies. The next question almost every…
Index Funds vs ETFs: What’s the Difference (and What Actually Matters)
If you have learned what an ETF is, you have probably come across the term: index funds. In What Is an ETF?, we discussed the confusion of where to put your money once you have started saving it. Stocks, bonds,…
What Is An ETF? A Simple Beginner’s Guide
If you have started saving money — or are starting to think about it — or are sitting on money you have been afraid to invest — the next question is simple: What do you actually do with that money?…