Stock Market Sale Bin: Which Investments are Discounted Right Now?

What's cheap right now?  Some Apple alternatives...
(see my previous post on why now's not the time to buy Apple Company stock)


A strong blue-chip stock that's on sale right now is the 3M Company (MMM).  A nice dip in recent months in the price of this strong dividend-paying stock has made this a good time to buy MMM.

10-year performance of the 3M Company's stock

Some strong and varied mutual funds are on sale right now...here are some Fidelity funds since they're the ones I know the best.  You can probably find similar funds by your favorite brokerage.


Fidelity Value (FDVLX) -includes energy, banking, insurance, and--fittingly--some of Buffet's own company, Berkshire Hathaway.  This fund has come back in a strong way since the recession three years ago.  Priced around $60 after recently being at $75 earlier this year and beating $90 before the recession.  This is a nice discount.

10-year performance of the Fidelity Value mutual fund

And I'll mention two strong international funds for some diversity:


Fidelity Nordic (FNORX) --invests in companies linked to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.  It has a strong growth history, has bounced back well from the recession and is at a nice discount now (though the way it's bouncing back, it may not be on sale for long.)

and Fidelity Canada (FICDX)

10-year performance of Fidelity Canada mutual fund

The performance records of the Canada and Nordic funds speak for themselves.  But if you happen to be investing for the long term (>10 years), also keep in mind what areas of the world might be doing pretty well, comparatively speaking, as global climate keep changing.  Higher latitudes might just be a good bet.

Be a Buffeteer: Is Now a Good Time to Buy Apple Stock?

Just like with any any purchase you make, a good time to buy stocks, mutual funds, and other investments is when they're generously discounted.

That's Warren Buffet main investing principle, and he's the most successful investor that ever was.  But also follow Thomas Jefferson's advice never to buy something just because it's on sale. Combine the guiding principles of these two greats, and you have yourself a solid investing mantra:

Buy Quality Investments When They're Super Cheap.

So is it the time to buy stock in Apple (APPL)?  I would definitely call Apple a quality investment, but take a look at its stock price these last 10 years and it's not exactly what I would call discounted.  If you want to be a Buffeteer, now's not the time to buy Apple, especially when there are other great deals on the market.

Mortgaging My Morning Walk Talk

If I'm going to have a good day, it's got to start with a morning walk.  And with this brutally hot weather hitting near triple digits, my walks have to be in the morning so it's only 100% humidity and 80 degrees.  Bleh, my brain stops functioning above that temperature and I turn into a summer vegetable.  Luckily, once my morning walk is done for the day, I can tuck safely into my air conditioned apartment and stay functional.

Financial Theory

I usually listen to an audio lecture on my walks.  The last two Morning Walk Talks have been from a Yale University Financial Theory course by Professor John Geanakoplos, specifically about the mortgage market and the subprime mortgage crisis.  I learned...

1. the mortgage market was about as big as the stock market, in $
2. until it collapsed in Oct 2007, it wasn't given much attention by economists compared with the stock market
3. trying to make subprime (risky) loans into AAA (safe) bonds involved a lot of Titanic-esque reasoning ("Oh, the absolute worst case iceberg crash imaginable we might gash open two of the ship's compartments, but we can afford to rip open up to four compartments.  And it's totally unrealistic that would ever happen...")
4. the economy is super cyclic as we over and underestimate the value of goods and services
5. humans don't learn their lessons very well and each time we get to a new cycle, we relax, forget everything we've learned, and act like the next blowup is a big surprise.