A Cautionary Tale of GameStop and Tesla

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A Cautionary Tale of GameStop and Tesla

Matt Benjamin, Senior Markets Expert, The Oxford Club

The tech sector has been on quite a roller coaster over the past week.

On Monday, the NYSE FANG+ Index, which tracks 10 mega-tech companies, was in correction territory and nearly all the Big Tech stocks were in the red.

Then on Tuesday, the FANG+ index rose 6.8%, while the broader Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector Index jumped 5.5%.

By Wednesday afternoon, Big Tech had resumed its downward trajectory but was back up on Thursday.

But going back to Tuesday, much of the rise in the FANG+ stocks was due to Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), the electric vehicle maker with unpredictable co-founder and CEO Elon Musk.

On Tuesday, Tesla stock was up... wait for it... a whopping 19.6%.

Let's just take a moment to put that figure into perspective. Tesla's market capitalization increased by about $106 billion on Tuesday. That one-day increase alone is larger than the market cap of 367 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500.

That's absolutely insane.

I'll just refer to what Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green says about Tesla: "It's a fine company with a great leader that makes an excellent product, but the valuation doesn't make any sense to me." (For more on why Alex is bearish on Tesla, click here.)

And if you want a picture of stock market insanity, take a look at the year-to-date stock chart of GameStop (NYSE: GME).

Chart - Insane Gamestop Share Price
 

GameStop, of course, is the now-famous brick-and-mortar video game retailer attempting to make the jump to online sales. But as you may know, it wasn't the company's business plan that sent the stock into the stratosphere in January and brought it crashing back to Earth in February. No, that meteoric rise and dramatic fall all had to do with retail investors with an apparent affinity for video games - many of whom came from the subreddit WallStreetBets - who were seeking revenge against hedge funds that shorted the stock.

GameStop rose 27.5% on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it was up 624% from February 18, the day that Keith Gill - aka Roaring Kitty - testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services and told it that he likes the stock.

Enough said.

GameStop is just one of several "meme stocks" that, according to Alex, are almost guaranteed to fall.

So what's the moral of this story?

When stock market valuations reach absurd levels and mountains of dispensable income are sloshing around the economy (with more to come from the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill about to be enacted), you can be sure that anything can happen.

And while tech stocks rebounded, their path in recent months has been one of "two steps down, one step back up." The sector's longer-term trend is clearly downward, as investors continue to rotate out of mega-tech stocks and into value and small cap stocks.

The Short Term Could Be Crazy

All that said, things could certainly become even crazier in the short term. According to a recent survey by Deutsche Bank Research, half of Americans age 25 to 34 plan to put 50% of their stimulus checks directly into stocks.

When they purchase stocks, will these investors diversify into different sectors and market caps? Will they consider that tech stocks are at all-time high valuations and have been falling in recent months as the market rotates into value stocks and small caps? Are they aware that there are other markets - in addition to the stock market - to diversify into? Do they know how dividend stocks have outperformed the broader market for years?

I don't know the answers to all those questions. But I'm far from confident that these investors - many of whom are very new to the market - will make wise decisions with their money.

Fortunately, here at The Oxford Club, we have all the resources you need to help you diversify your portfolio for the long term. You can use these resources to ensure that your financial success won't depend on the whims of investors obsessed with Tesla, GameStop or any other single investment.

However, no matter how crazy markets become, solid companies are still going to pay dividends. And that's something you can depend on when everything else is uncertain.

Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld has assembled his Ultimate Dividend Package, an exclusive collection of reports and videos that will give you everything you need to set up your own "profit gushing" portfolio. Check out all the details here.

Enjoy your weekend and stay safe,

Matt

 

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