Investing Mistakes 101: Too Much Focus on The Short Term

All investment eyes were on exactly one data point this week: the consumer price index (inflation) number in the United States. Next, everyone will shift to corporate earnings reports. Sure, these are important when looking at the market, but one economic number — or one quarter of earnings — should not form the basis of your entire investment portfolio. 

We know many investors who will sell a company after one bad quarter. But the best companies play the long game: focusing on long-term gains, even spending more money in the short term to get there.

If you own a stock, you should strive for at least a five-year holding period: you want that compounding to work for you. Looking so closely and reacting to a 90-day period out of 1,825 days (not counting leap years) is likely doing your portfolio a huge disservice.
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The CEO is open to M&A activity with $113 billion worth of cash while their $100 billion share buyback has been in autopilot the last few years. Investors like the idea of Apple potentially buying a company to lead in the AI race. The earnings and revenue growth, sales in China and services sales were all good. The big story is the M&A potential.

Is down today along with the US dollar. $120 should be sticky, but could fall to $105. It could build to the next leg higher.

The tariffs don't change the long-term strategy of owning Apple. Its valuation is smack in the middle of its range of recent years, neither cheap nor expensive. You can start building a position now and take your time adding more.

Good place to get some income. Nice spectrum of companies with higher yields, lower yields, higher growth, and less growth. He wants to have a mixture, but also a core position. He's tilted more towards natural gas than oil, because fundamentals for nat gas in Canada look pretty good relative to the oil fundamentals (sideways market barring some sort of crisis).

Still thinks both the Canadian natural gas and oil stories are positive. CAD below 70 cents makes us more competitive as well. US shale production may or may not last at current levels -- both in terms of capital required and lifespan of reservoirs. 

Don't divest. Instead, hunker down in a few core names. See his Top Picks.