Investing Before Or After A Natural Disaster

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


Similar to investing in "Sin Stocks," i.e., alcohol, tobacco, casino, weapons companies, investing with the mindset of making money before or after a natural disaster, such as a hurricane like Harvey that hit Texas a few weeks ago is often a touchy subject.

But, if you are someone who is alright with investing in this 'morally gray' area, or just want to learn about how others pursue it, together we can take a look at how it is accomplished and a few things to be aware of before deploying capital.

First, while every natural disaster can be incredibly devastating, hurricanes typically seem to account for the bulk of the damage here in the US. In most cases, they are the only real disasters which you can invest around because of their predictability, which gives investors a chance to make investments both before and after the disaster occurs.

Since hurricanes occur along the coast, and more often in the gulf coast region, the one industry they seem to affect is the oil industry. This is because a significant amount of oil is drilled for in the Gulf of Mexico and because a large number of the US's oil refineries and oil shipping ports are found in this region. Continue reading "Investing Before Or After A Natural Disaster"

Tech Stocks On a Run; ETFs To Buy 'IF' you Think It Will Soon Come to An End

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


The Bears have been referring to the current situation with technology stocks as the building up of the next dot com collapse. Price to earnings ratios are high, earnings expectation may be overinflated, and the unknown that surrounds all aspects of the current political landscape and how that could affect businesses are all reasons to be doubtful that technology stocks can continue on their massive run.

One analyst believes you should buy any of the technology stocks that garner a large portion of their revenue from advertisements. The analysts noted that companies like Facebook (NYSE:FB) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) are likely to experience a revenue slowdown in the future because, at the end of the day, there is only so much money that can be thrown at web-based advertising.

Others think Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) may be getting too big and trying to do too much, and it could end up destroying itself. Sounds similar to what the bears say about Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).

At the end of the day, a negative case can be made about every single technology stock. If you agree with those cases and you want to start looking for some opportunities to make money when technology stocks start falling, then let's take a look at some or your options I have outlined below. Continue reading "Tech Stocks On a Run; ETFs To Buy 'IF' you Think It Will Soon Come to An End"