What is Genevieve doing with Bitcoin?

1. Genevieve’s Corner

WHAT IS GENEVIEVE DOING WITH BITCOIN?

Hi Everyone! 👋 Great week!! 💪

Recap time: 👇

- Microsoft overtakes Apple to become the world’s most valuable public company by market cap

- U.S Financials kickoff Q4 earnings– many miss earnings because of FDIC charges related to the 2023 regional banking crisis

- FDIC fines: JPMorgan charged $2.9B, Bank of America charged $2.1B, Wells Fargo charged $1.9B and Citigroup charged $1.7B

- JPMorgan's annual net income hits record $49.6 billion (the highest ever for a US bank) 

-JPMorgan stock hits all-time high 

-Bank of America earnings miss expectations, down 59% from a year ago 

-Wells Fargo earnings miss expectations, up slightly from a year ago

-Citigroup earnings miss expectations, down from a year ago

-Blackrock beats earnings expectations, up from a year ago

-Citigroup cutting 10% of the workforce (20,000 employees)

-Taiwan elects William Lai president in historic election, angering China

-SEC initially tweets approval for Bitcoin spot ETFs, announces account was "compromised," and then officially approves all spot Bitcoin ETFs the next da 

-Bitcoin Spot ETF trading volume surpasses $7.6 billion in its first 2 days

-BlackRock CEO says Bitcoin is “digital gold” and “bigger than any government”

-Vanguard bans all bitcoin ETFs from the platform

-Jim Cramer says "MAJOR” top in Bitcoin 

-Stablecoin (USDC) issuer Circle files for IPO 

-NVIDIA stocks hit new record high

-Magnificent Seven's weighting in the S&P 500 grew from 20% to 28% at the end of 2023 (largest share for any 7 companies in the index on record) 

-Former President Trump promises to make the US energy independent from drilling oil & says gas prices will be under $2 per gallon if elected

-Hertz to sell 1/3 of EVs due to low demand and higher costs

-Bill Ackman's Pershing Square returned +26.7% in 2023

-American CEOs quit in record numbers in 2023

- Discord laying off 17% of employees

-Google cuts hundreds of jobs across engineering, hardware teams

-US December CPI comes in hotter than expected +3.4% vs +3.2%

-Fitch no longer forecasts a U.S. recession this year due to several signs of strength in the economy

-Goldman Sachs: “We continue to expect the first rate cut in March and 5 cuts total in 2024”

-FED’s Mester says March is probably too early for a rate cut

-March rate cut probability is now 78%, up from 67% before the CPI print

Let's keep the good times rolling!

JOIN ME THURSDAY *LIVE* in CALGARY FOR THE CFA 47th Annual Forecast Dinner!

The new year is upon us - and with a new year comes fresh perspectives and insights! We'll dive into the future of business, finance, and our economy!

Award-winning hosts Dave Kelly and Matthew Andrade, CFA, and COO at Richmond Equity Management, will kick off the night by recapping pivotal 2023 events shaping 2024. Following that, our impressive panel of speakers, including Frédéric P. Lebel, CFA, Martin Pelletier, CFA, and Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA, will delve into a profound discussion on local, national, and global expectations for the future of finance in 2024.

Seating is limited, and tickets are going fast! Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights from industry leaders.

Secure your spot now, and let's navigate the road ahead together: https://lnkd.in/gJaZH25g

🎯 GENEVIEVE’S TAKE: To find out what I am doing with Bitcoin – upgrade to PREMIUM subscription now!

Genevieve Roch-Decter

2. Matt Allen’s Corner

RICH DAD, POOR DAD

Full disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of Robert Kiyosaki anymore. That being said, his book had a massive impact on my life, and everyone should add this to their book list to read each year. 

In my opinion, Rich Dad, Poor Dad should be mandatory read in high school. It is a book that the Wall Street establishment does not want us to read.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad does a fantastic job of giving you the proper mindset to be financially free and wealthy.

1. Make Money Work For You

Broke people stay broke by spending all their money. Middle-class people stay middle-class by saving all their money. Rich people get/stay rich by investing their money and making it work for themselves.

One of the most common misconceptions is that you need tons of money to start investing or to build a side hustle.

This is completely false. You can start with $50 or $50,000; you need to start.

Do you need a cushy emergency savings that makes you feel comfortable? Absolutely!

However, once you get more than three months a year in savings for emergency expenses, you are not being smart if you aren’t investing your money or building a side hustle.

One thing that we pride ourselves on at Grit is giving investors the resources to learn how to invest. On top of that, we send out a monthly deep-dive of our favorite stock pick.

2. The Wealthy Own Assets

The wealthy build their wealth by acquiring income-producing assets. They invest in assets like rental properties, businesses, stocks, or crypto.

In 2024, you can add side hustles that include cash cow YouTube accounts, blogs, Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify stores that can allow you to generate an extra $1,000 a month.

One of my favorite analogies from the book is this:

Let's say you have $100K in cash and want a new car. Most people would go out and spend the cash on this car, so they have no debt. The wealthy would laugh. When you re-sell, the car's value will decrease significantly in 5 years.

The wealthy will buy a rental property with this $100K cash, generating around $800 monthly income.

They will use this money to pay their monthly car payment. Once the car is paid off, they will still have money coming in.

The rental property will go up in value as well as produce income.

Even if you don’t have a lump sum of money lying around, I firmly believe in side hustles, and anyone can have them.

3. Control Your Emotions

All humans have similar emotions like panic, greed, fear, laziness, arrogance, and desire.

In stocks, emotions are the hardest thing to control.

Investors become irrational thinkers when they lose or make a lot of money. In the 1970s, two psychologists proved, once and for all, that humans are not rational creatures. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered “cognitive biases,” showing that humans systematically make choices that defy clear logic, especially during stress or chaos. The great thing about humans is that we have the ability to control our irrational thinking.

How does this affect investing? What do you do when the stock market starts to crash, or your individual stock starts to take a hit? You start to panic, and you think about selling. If it keeps rising, you will feel euphoric that you are rich. Why? Your thought process turns irrational.

Matt Allen’s TAKE 🚀 : Our most important asset is time. The wealthy understand this and… Upgrade to VIP to read Matt’s full take!

Have a great weekend!

Matt Allen

3. Comin’ Up

EARNINGS AND ECONOMIC DATA

💰 Earnings:

Monday: N/A

Tuesday: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, PNC, Interactive Brokers

Wednesday: Charles Schwab, US Bancorp

Thursday: Truist

Friday: State Street

📈 Major Economic Events:

Monday: MLK Holiday, Market Closed

Tuesday: Fed Gov. Waller speaks

Wednesday: U.S. retail sales

Thursday: Initial jobless claims

Friday: Existing home sales

The author of this newsletter owns ETF’s (exchange traded funds) that may hold ownership interests in the companies discussed in this newsletter as of the published date of this newsletter.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter contains content sponsored by This Is Not Financial Advice Film for Grit Capital Corporation (“Grit”). GRIT was hired for the making of this movie which may put Grit in a conflict of interest with the reader.