Making Cents Sense

Every time Microsoft goes on another tear, I see the exact same debate play out like clockwork. One crowd is convinced they've missed the opportunity forever. They stare at the chart like someone who arrived at the airport just in time to watch their plane disappear into the clouds. "Well, that's it," they sigh. "I guess I'll wait for the next bear market." The other crowd suddenly discovers a level of confidence normally reserved for lottery winners and declares Microsoft will apparently compound at 25% annually until the sun burns out. Neither side seems particularly interested in living in reality. I've learned that one of the most expensive habits investors develop is believing that stocks have feelings. If a company goes up a lot, people assume it's somehow "too high." If it falls 40%, they automatically assume it's "cheap." The market, meanwhile, couldn't care less about your emotional attachment to round numbers...

If there's one thing the stock market has taught me over the years, it's that yesterday's winners don't automatically become tomorrow's champions. Technology changes too quickly. Consumer preferences evolve overnight. Companies that dominate one decade often spend the next explaining to investors why things didn't go according to plan. That's why I always approach high-flying technology stocks with equal parts optimism and skepticism. Broadcom is one of those companies. It isn't flashy. Its CEO isn't constantly making headlines with outrageous predictions. It doesn't rely on trendy consumer gadgets to drive revenue. Instead, Broadcom quietly powers much of the digital infrastructure that most people never think about. Ironically, that's exactly what makes me interested. While everyone argues over which artificial intelligence chatbot is winning the popularity contest, Broadcom is busy selling the picks and shovels. History has shown that the ...

There are companies that quietly make the modern world work, and then there are companies that become the reason Wall Street suddenly remembers an entire industry exists. Arista Networks falls squarely into the second category. For years, networking wasn't exactly the glamorous corner of technology. Everyone wanted to talk about smartphones, cloud software, social media, or whatever new gadget promised to revolutionize life for approximately six months before being replaced by another gadget promising to revolutionize life even harder. Networking equipment? That was the equivalent of talking about plumbing. Nobody brags about plumbing until the pipes burst. Then suddenly everyone becomes an expert. Artificial intelligence has done something remarkable. It has turned networking infrastructure into one of the hottest topics in technology. Everyone is busy talking about graphics processors, gigantic data centers, trillion-parameter language models, and enough electricity consumption t...

Whenever I analyze Alphabet, I have to remind myself not to treat it like just another technology company. That's the easiest mistake investors make. People see Google Search, YouTube, Android, Gmail, Google Cloud, Waymo, and now artificial intelligence, and they assume they're looking at a collection of separate businesses. I see something very different. I see an ecosystem that quietly became the infrastructure behind much of the internet. That distinction matters because infrastructure businesses tend to have staying power. People can switch brands. It's much harder to replace habits. For years, Alphabet's biggest advantage was that it became the default answer to almost every question people had. Need directions? Google. Looking for a restaurant? Google. Researching a new car? Google. Trying to remember the actor from that movie you watched ten years ago? Google. Search became so dominant that its name turned into a verb, and that's a level of brand recognition ...

If you've owned Nvidia over the last few years, congratulations—you've basically been standing in front of a money printer wearing a leather jacket. Every time Wall Street started whispering that the run was over, Nvidia responded by showing up with another earnings report that made analysts look like they'd been trying to predict a hurricane with a Magic 8 Ball. At this point, betting against Nvidia has become one of the market's most reliable ways to discover new and exciting forms of financial disappointment. The obvious question now is whether this ridiculous streak can actually continue. Surely, there has to be a limit, right? Companies don't just keep smashing expectations forever. Gravity exists. Competition exists. Economic slowdowns exist. Yet every time investors prepare for reality to catch up with Nvidia, artificial intelligence finds another excuse to consume billions of dollars' worth of GPUs. It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell whethe...

Whenever someone asks me where to start with dividend investing, one fund seems to appear in almost every conversation: SCHD. At this point, it has become the index fund equivalent of that dependable friend who always shows up on time, never borrows money, and somehow still manages to look good after years of doing the same thing. It isn't flashy. It isn't trying to become the next artificial intelligence darling or ride the latest market craze. Instead, it quietly focuses on owning profitable businesses that have a history of rewarding shareholders. The real question is whether that strategy still deserves a place in today's market, or if SCHD has become a victim of its own popularity. I've owned dividend investments for years, and one lesson I've learned is that investors often mistake excitement for performance. The companies making headlines every day aren't always the ones quietly building long-term wealth. Sometimes the businesses that spend the least amou...