The Mylie Cyrus of Investing

Miley Ray Cyrus (who was christened Destiny Hope Cyrus when she was born November 23, 1992) is 20-year-old a marketing genius. 

She is the daughter of another marketing genius, Billy Ray Cyrus. He took a catchy tune called “Achy Breaky Heart” – previously recorded and released by The Marcy Brothers in 1991 – and re-recorded and released it in 1992, propelling him to international fame. 

And yes, I also sang along to Achy Breaky Heart, tapping my thumbs on the steering wheel while driving in my car, as a 30-year-old, in 1992.

There are two lessons embedded in the three paragraphs above.  You may agree that Myley is perhaps not the greatest dancer, prettiest female superstar, or even the most talented singer.  Yet, last night she hosted Saturday Night Live, and we didn’t. She’s arguably a far more accomplished marketer, than singer/dancer (and newly-crowned queen of “twerking”).

The second is the value embedded in copying, rather than always innovating (or trying to, anyway).  In Isaacson’s book “Steve Jobs,” he references a quote from Jobs: “Picasso had a saying – ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”

While copying and stealing is common in business – think of anything from pens to toothbrushes to cellphones to cars – it’s most often the marketing that separates the winners from the losers.

This blog is about investing and most of the time I don’t copy or imitate.  Sometimes, I take heed of someone suggesting a particular stock is a good buy, or that it may be time to sell.  However, I don’t follow other investors’ advice and most often act counter-intuitively to experts and pundits, who are often readily dishing out advice.

I don’t twerk, will probably never host Saturday Night Live, I no longer perform publicly and it’s highly unlikely that I will ever have a country-hit song like Achy Breaky Heart. 

But, my investment returns are quite stellar, and I have managed to beat ‘the market’ consistently.  You can copy many of my methodologies by reading my other blog postings, especially the ones related to trailing stops, like “Boeing, Boeing, Gone…”

At the most basic level, I research many equities.  It takes time and I view this as one of my part time jobs (I have several).  I look to buy dips, like last week when Friday morning represented an eleventh day of tracking, that included nine days of market losses, and a correction of -5% (lower than the Dow’s high point, achieved in September). 

The market had largely shrugged off the shutdown, and no one seriously believes that the Government of the U.S.A. will default on its debt (re. the pending debt-ceiling battle/debate).

Then, on Friday morning, from a previously-researched list of stocks on my watch list, I triggered 11 equity calls – i.e. I went long, buying early Friday morning, with a mix of limit- and market orders, including ABBV, AMTD, BLK, C, CLB, CRM, FB, HD, PFE, QCOM and V.

Worst performer was HD -0.13%.  Best FB +3.78%.

You can look these up if you feel energetic – I’m not making recommendations, nor advising anyone for a fee, only providing information so that you’d be better positioned to manage your own investments. 

Or interrogate your financial advisor, or both!

My average gain for the day exceeded 1%.  At the end of the day, before the closing bell, I plugged in trailing stops to prevent losses.  If the market ‘tanks’ on Monday, I have little downside risk.  If the market achieves more gains, I ride the gains until there’s a pull-back, causing my trailing stops to become market orders, selling my equities on my behalf… usually cashing/banking my gains, for reinvestment.

Genius? No. 

Simple? Yes.

Copy that.

Twerking not required.  Best of success!

Other major long holdings include BP, GE, MCD and WFC