matt thalman Archives - Page 34 of 44

The Only Way I Would Play The IPO Market

Posted on April 8, 2017April 7, 2017 by Matt Thalman

With the recently highly hyped Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) initial public offering, I was once again reminded why I don’t attempt to buy into IPO's.

While big name company's first offer their stock to the general public, its call an initial public offering, or an IPO. While there are a number of issue's with buying stocks the first day they start trading, the biggest one is the hype!

The hype surrounding a big name IPO, such as Snap, Facebook, or Twitter to name a few, is that the demand for shares outweighs the supply on the first day of trading. Millions of people want shares and most fear if they don’t get them early, they will miss a big move higher. This hype and fear frenzy often causes shares to skyrocket in the first minutes to hours of trading. Snap for example rose 45% on day one.

But, after the hype fades, so will the stock price. The demand declines to the point that those looking to sell have to be willing to part ways with their precious shares for much less than they sold for on day one. Snap fell 27% on its second day of trading. Continue reading "The Only Way I Would Play The IPO Market" →

Will You Buy A Marijuana ETF?

Posted on April 5, 2017April 4, 2017 by Matt Thalman

The Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ) will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today, April 5th 2017. This will be the first ETF that will have exposure to companies listed in North America that operate in the medical marijuana bioengineering and production fields.

Many investors have been interested in the industry for a number of years, but haven't had the opportunity to invest in it through a diversified manner. This ETF solves that big hurdle.

While it is unknown how many stocks the fund will hold, or who exactly will be in it, investors can be assured this ETF boasts some very serious growth predictions. Sales in the marijuana industry grew by 30% in 2016 and according to Arcview Market Research; the industry will triple in the next four years. Continue reading "Will You Buy A Marijuana ETF?" →

Bitcoin ETF Rejected

Posted on March 11, 2017March 10, 2017 by Matt Thalman

Late Friday afternoon the Securities and Exchange Commission released their ruling on the proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, what would have been the first Bitcoin ETF. Bitcoin's had traded as high as $1,300 per coin on Friday prior to the announcement from the SEC, but following the ruling, the price had fallen more than 20% at one point, leveling off down 10%.

What Happened?

The Security and Exchange Commission released their ruling denying the proposed Bitcoin ETF and within the ruling, the SEC's reasoning for denying the application follows below.

"As discussed further below, the Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest. The Commission believes that, in order to meet this standard, an exchange that lists and trades shares of commodity-trust exchange-traded products (“ETPs”) must, in addition to other applicable requirements, satisfy two requirements that are dispositive in this matter. First, the exchange must have surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading the underlying commodity or derivatives on that commodity. And second, those markets must be regulated."

In plain English the SEC is saying the Bitcoin ETF was rejected because the underlying commodity, in this case Bitcoin, needs to be regulated, which that’s the whole purpose of Bitcoin, it's not regulated. Bitcoin was designed to be unregulated, with no ties to banking institutions or governments. With relationships with either of those entities, the currency therefore is an unregulated form of investment. The reason this matters is because at the end of the day, the SEC is required to do its best at protecting the general investing public from fraudulent and easily manipulated investments. And because Bitcoin is unregulated in some terms, the SEC can't allow the ETF. Continue reading "Bitcoin ETF Rejected" →

Are Long-Shot Investments Worth Your Time Or Money?

Posted on February 21, 2017February 17, 2017 by Matt Thalman

We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare and the conclusion that slow and steady wins the race. But regardless of us knowing the story and how it turns out, we still get caught up in the idea, or dream if you will, that we can get rich quick though the means of chasing long-shot investment opportunities.

We have all seen and heard of new investment opportunities that will make you rich; penny stock ideas that will show 1,000% returns, "the next big Initial Public Offering" that you have to own, or perhaps a friend, family member or colleague tells you about a great idea. We all wonder whether or not we should go ahead and pull the trigger on these "once in a lifetime opportunities" and if we made a huge mistake when we don’t.

Well let's look at some numbers, which will hopefully help make your decisions on whether or your time and money are best served chasing these dreams. Continue reading "Are Long-Shot Investments Worth Your Time Or Money?" →

Niche ETFs You May Want To Look Into: Part 2

Posted on February 6, 2017March 24, 2021 by Matt Thalman

I recently noted a few niche Exchange Traded Funds that I have come across during my time researching the wide world of ETFs. In that piece I noted three niche ETFs that I could actually see myself buying. Today, I would like to shares a few more niche ETFs, some of which I would consider owning and others that I wouldn't touch.

The first two that I would like to point out are PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK) and the First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR). HACK was the first ETF that focused solely on cybersecurity, which is why I lean towards owning it instead of CIBR, which was started due to the interest and success of HACK. HACK goes after both the hardware and software side of cybersecurity and the service aspect. It splits the two segments of the business and weights them by market cap. HACK has an inception date of November 2014 and since then is up a little more than 10%.

While that is certainly not very impressive performance, it is hard to argue that we will see less of a need for cybersecurity in the future. With the ever-increasing demand for more cybersecurity, investors who get in on this market today will likely see big upside in the future.

Or maybe long-term buy and hold isn't your thing! Continue reading "Niche ETFs You May Want To Look Into: Part 2" →

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