I blogged about teaching kids about the stock market when my middle daughter expressed interest in trading stocks in 5th grade. This led to a second post Stock Market Basics for her using the stock that I purchased for her when her grandmother opened a stock market account for her.
I haven’t traded stocks myself since hiring a financial planner but I decided to devote more attention to this as part of my pursuit of Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Some of my readers asked me to post on the stocks that I am tracking so I thought I would do that today.
Industries That I’m Tracking
I started by identifying areas where I think there is seismic growth potential and coincide with industries that I also have an interest in. These are:
- artificial intelligence
- virtual reality/augmented reality
- sustainable energy
- 3D printing applications
- analytics software
Companies That I’m Tracking
Next, I researched companies that seem to be at the forefront of these areas. I came up with
Xylem (XYL)
Xylem Inc. is a large American water technology provider, enabling customers worldwide to transport, treat, test and efficiently use water in public utility, residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial settings. The company does business in more than 150 countries.
Next Era Energy (NEE)
NextEra Energy, Inc. is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $17.5 billion. NextEra Energy, Inc. is a Fortune 200 energy company with about 45,900 megawatts of generating capacity, revenues of over $17 billion in 2017, and about 14,000 employees throughout the United States and Canada. It is the largest electric utility holding company by market capitalization.
Waste Management (WM)
Waste Management provides industry leading disposal and recycling solutions for your business or residence. Waste Management, Inc. is an American waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the First City Tower in Houston, Texas.
Nvidia (NVDA)
NVIDIA, inventor of the GPU, which creates interactive graphics on laptops, workstations, mobile devices, notebooks, PCs, and more. Nvidia Corporation, more commonly referred to as Nvidia, is an American technology company incorporated in Delaware and based in Santa Clara, California. It designs graphics processing units for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units for the mobile computing and automotive market
LivePerson (LPSN)
LivePerson is a publicly held, global technology company that develops conversational commerce and AI software. The company’s mission is to “make life easier by transforming how people communicate with brands.”
Sunrun (RUN)
Sunrun Inc. is a United States-based provider of residential solar electricity, headquartered in San Francisco, California. Sunrun is leading the charge to create a planet run by the sun. We are building a more sustainable world, through making solar simple for our customers.
Teradata (TDC)
We Deliver Rapid, Actionable Guidance to Help You Identify & Seize Valuable Opportunities. 35+ Years of Innovation. Raising the Value of Data. Leader in Pervasive Data. 5000+ Industry Experts. Teradata Corporation is a provider of database and analytics-related software, products, and services. The company was formed in 1979 in Brentwood, California, as a collaboration between researchers at Caltech and Citibank’s advanced technology group.
Buy Low: Setting Limit Prices
The next step is to read up on these companies and look at price to earning ratios versus growth rate in order to determine if this is a good time to buy. Based on this research, I get a spidey sense of what I want to buy. I then set up stock orders with limit prices to try to buy on a stock market dip. The companies that I picked were:
Xylem (XYL) at limit price of $68
LivePerson (LPSN) at limit price of $24
Sun Run (RUN) at limit price of $10
Teradata (TDC) at limit price of $36
The stock market has been choppy recently so it’s a great time to lie in wait for dips in the market. I ended up buying Teradata before my stock orders expired. It’s impossible to time the market so the stock that I purchase may not be at the bottom of the dip. This creates a buying opportunity to continue to purchase as the stock price decreases which I sometimes do if I have the nerve.
But this is also a waiting game. I wait for stock prices to drop and then, looking at a long investment horizon, wait for my purchases to hopefully rise in value over years if not decades. Patience is the key. As is research.
It’s time to do a little more research and put in stock orders again. I’m also interested in Celgene, Stamps.com, Cognizant Technology, and Blackstone Group. I’ll keep you posted.
How about you? Are you active in the stock market? What stocks or mutual funds do you like?
As a caveat, I am not a stock analyst or investment professional. You should do your own research when purchasing stocks. I also highly recommend getting the advice of an investment professional.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Children’s Book Activities on Pinterest.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award longlist
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
