Ask HN: What tech companies do you invest in?
55 comments
My boring answer: none directly, though an index fund I invest in has a small share of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook. I already work in tech, both at my main and side jobs, so not being too invested in tech seems wise even if I don't see it blowing up again.
I've felt the same way over the years, though my belief in that maxim is fading for at least two reasons. One, is that if you're going to extend beyond index funds, it's probably best to invest in companies/industries you know best. And secondly, "tech" is a very broad industry, and there's no reason to think it couldn't come to be a larger and larger share of the whole economy. "Tech" is set to continue disrupting industrial, transportation, agricultural, and energy sectors. I think when you look at it that way, it's almost foolish to avoid tech. Oh, and I'll add a third: would you rather invest in something that is growing, or something that is stagnant/dying?
Amen. Not heavily investing in tech while being in the industry is just another form of diversification.
True - If you're working in tech, you're already invested in tech, even if you've never bought stock at all.
Heck - if you have spent any effort or time learning tech skills, you're already invested in tech. A penniless first-year comp sci student is heavily invested in tech.
Heck - if you have spent any effort or time learning tech skills, you're already invested in tech. A penniless first-year comp sci student is heavily invested in tech.
Editas (EDIT), Crispr Therapeautics (CRSP), occasionally Intellia (NTLA). I liked Shopify (SHOP) when they were cheaper and owned them from their IPO, now it's very expensive.
Most of the public traditional tech companies are extremely boring and not doing anything interesting. Whether Netflix, Facebook or Salesforce.com, it's 15-20 year old technology, that has been pushed & evolved to hyper scale (which is impressive of course). The only thing interesting about most public tech companies of consequence now, is the scaling that they do. Apple & the iPhone? A 10 year old leap, pushed to hyper scale to go with regular improvement - about as exciting as the desktop computer circa 2003.
Want to get at blockchain? AI? Robotics? Quantum computing? There aren't very many good, pure-play public companies for that. (I'm not buying Google at $670 billion to get at their quantum tech, which won't dent that market cap in the next decade).
Amazon is one of the few tech companies making bold moves. I'm not paying 200x earnings for 20% sales growth, so that one day 15-20 years out they'll finally justify their present valuation. nVidia is another that is interesting and very expensive accordingly (at a 600%+ valuation increase in two years on the back of ~170% earnings growth, dangerous is an ideal word for their stock).
Most of the public traditional tech companies are extremely boring and not doing anything interesting. Whether Netflix, Facebook or Salesforce.com, it's 15-20 year old technology, that has been pushed & evolved to hyper scale (which is impressive of course). The only thing interesting about most public tech companies of consequence now, is the scaling that they do. Apple & the iPhone? A 10 year old leap, pushed to hyper scale to go with regular improvement - about as exciting as the desktop computer circa 2003.
Want to get at blockchain? AI? Robotics? Quantum computing? There aren't very many good, pure-play public companies for that. (I'm not buying Google at $670 billion to get at their quantum tech, which won't dent that market cap in the next decade).
Amazon is one of the few tech companies making bold moves. I'm not paying 200x earnings for 20% sales growth, so that one day 15-20 years out they'll finally justify their present valuation. nVidia is another that is interesting and very expensive accordingly (at a 600%+ valuation increase in two years on the back of ~170% earnings growth, dangerous is an ideal word for their stock).
EDIT has the best looking chart of the CRISPR stocks. Which one will be the best real world treatment? No clue.
I previously had a modest amount of stock in a handful of midsized and larger tech companies, but I'm in the process of selling it off.
Something that was an eye opening experience for me was watching my own employer go public. All of the sudden the rest of the world is trying to understand and make sense of your business.
From the individual investors talking about our business on twitter or seeking alpha to the analyst reports from the massive investment houses, other people's conjecture about our market and our strategy is often just way, way off base.
This experience made it painfully clear that most investors, even "professionals", are operating in an extreme vacuum of information. They know almost nothing about our future prospects relative to what the employees living in the space every day know.
It's half because they are spreading themselves too thin, and half because they aren't living in our space, talking to our customers every day.
Long story short, I'm realistic that as an individual investor who isn't an insider, I'm at a huge disadvantage. So I hold a lot of employee stock, and I'm moving more and more toward boring old index funds.
Something that was an eye opening experience for me was watching my own employer go public. All of the sudden the rest of the world is trying to understand and make sense of your business.
From the individual investors talking about our business on twitter or seeking alpha to the analyst reports from the massive investment houses, other people's conjecture about our market and our strategy is often just way, way off base.
This experience made it painfully clear that most investors, even "professionals", are operating in an extreme vacuum of information. They know almost nothing about our future prospects relative to what the employees living in the space every day know.
It's half because they are spreading themselves too thin, and half because they aren't living in our space, talking to our customers every day.
Long story short, I'm realistic that as an individual investor who isn't an insider, I'm at a huge disadvantage. So I hold a lot of employee stock, and I'm moving more and more toward boring old index funds.
Biggest tech holdings:
- TSLA - same reasons mentioned below - NVDA - GPUs could eventually replace CPUs, machine learning / autonomous vehicles, data storage, great core business (gaming) - AMD - similar reasons to NVDA, Epyc is making waves and taking market share from INTC - AMZN - $1 of every $2 on the internet is spent here, AWS alone is probably a $100 BN+ business, they have their hands in every imaginable cookie jar - GOOGL - diversified play on ML, internet of things and more, search business is cash cow
Surprised at the index fund answers here. If you had invested in FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) stocks last 5 years, would have made a killing, and for people who regularly post on HN, all of these companies are regularly mentioned / cited as examples of superior engineering.
- TSLA - same reasons mentioned below - NVDA - GPUs could eventually replace CPUs, machine learning / autonomous vehicles, data storage, great core business (gaming) - AMD - similar reasons to NVDA, Epyc is making waves and taking market share from INTC - AMZN - $1 of every $2 on the internet is spent here, AWS alone is probably a $100 BN+ business, they have their hands in every imaginable cookie jar - GOOGL - diversified play on ML, internet of things and more, search business is cash cow
Surprised at the index fund answers here. If you had invested in FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) stocks last 5 years, would have made a killing, and for people who regularly post on HN, all of these companies are regularly mentioned / cited as examples of superior engineering.
> IF you had invested in FAANG
Sounds like a big if, and sounds like you missed that boat yourself. Not to mention over the last 5 years you'd have to avoid investing in Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, VMWare, Intuit, etc.
Sounds like a big if, and sounds like you missed that boat yourself. Not to mention over the last 5 years you'd have to avoid investing in Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, VMWare, Intuit, etc.
MSFT? It has gone from ~$30 per share to ~$70 per share over the past 5 years.
Amazon. E-commerce is still < 10% of retail in the US, so the core business has tons of potential. Then start thinking about opportunities like AWS, etc...
How many shares did you buy, if you don't mind me asking?
How is that relevant ?
Agree, I'm ok listing companies I own (see above), but how many shares and how much value is nobody's business.
It might not be anyones business, but it also shows the faith or future you see in the company.
Higher the amount of shares then the more you see their upside. The lower the number, the more they have downside.
Not asking to see how many shares OP owns, but can see it's relevance.
Higher the amount of shares then the more you see their upside. The lower the number, the more they have downside.
Not asking to see how many shares OP owns, but can see it's relevance.
The amount of shares and value is all relative and has no bearing on "the faith or future you see in the company". Somebody investing $1,000 in Apple who only has $1,000 to invest is the same as somebody investing 10M who has 10M to invest.
I believe the real question you're looking for, is what percent of your portfolio is each of your companies.
I believe the real question you're looking for, is what percent of your portfolio is each of your companies.
> Somebody investing $1,000 in Apple who only has $1,000 to invest is the same as somebody investing 10M who has 10M to invest.
It's really not. You can't really meaningfully diversify with a portfolio of $1k, but you sure can with $10M.
It makes more sense for the $1k investor to pick one stock they feel good about it and hope to get 10-20% or more return on that, rather than for that $1k investor to try to find ten funds / stocks that balance his exposure.
For the $10M investor, it's financially irresponsible to allocate your entire portfolio to tech. _It very probably will pay off very well_, but there's a significant chance you'll lose several million.
It's really not. You can't really meaningfully diversify with a portfolio of $1k, but you sure can with $10M.
It makes more sense for the $1k investor to pick one stock they feel good about it and hope to get 10-20% or more return on that, rather than for that $1k investor to try to find ten funds / stocks that balance his exposure.
For the $10M investor, it's financially irresponsible to allocate your entire portfolio to tech. _It very probably will pay off very well_, but there's a significant chance you'll lose several million.
> It makes more sense for the $1k investor to pick one stock they feel good about it and hope to get 10-20% or more return on that
If you're going to invest $1k, does it even make sense to do it at all even for that 10-20%? I recently for the first time bought some stocks (about 5k), and I don't like that I'm refreshing my etrade account all the time. In the end it would have been better I feel to spend it on something else. If you're gonna invest, I say invest in the liberal 5-digits, if you don't have means to do that, don't invest in stocks. (that's the reason why I asked the original question... I'm curious if others who are earning "engineering salaries" are investing in stocks only by small amounts or going all in)
If you're going to invest $1k, does it even make sense to do it at all even for that 10-20%? I recently for the first time bought some stocks (about 5k), and I don't like that I'm refreshing my etrade account all the time. In the end it would have been better I feel to spend it on something else. If you're gonna invest, I say invest in the liberal 5-digits, if you don't have means to do that, don't invest in stocks. (that's the reason why I asked the original question... I'm curious if others who are earning "engineering salaries" are investing in stocks only by small amounts or going all in)
It doesn't have to be so black and white - you don't need to invest small or go all in. I setup an automatic transfer which happens the day after I get my paycheck. Over time it's added up to be quite a lot of money.
AAPL, they earn all of the profits for the most important device of the 21st century. I will own them until that is no longer the case.
what do you mean by all the profits?
He is making a generalization. Apple makes about 80% of the market's profits with their phones. They sell a ton and bank on it. The other companies either don't sell a lot, or like Samsung, they sell a ton but barely make a profit.
Depends on the quarter. Last year there was a quarter where Apple ended up with over 100% profit share because, in aggregate, everyone else lost money.
http://fortune.com/2016/11/04/apple-smartphone-profits/
http://fortune.com/2016/11/04/apple-smartphone-profits/
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Apple takes about ~90% of the profits in mobile despite it having a market share that's quite low compared to various Android flavors.
I used to not pick tech stocks because of the diversification argument. However, I stopped that and now invest a good bit.
Why? People in tech are going to be better at predicting the future than the equity research analysts at investment banks. Have confidence in yourself and make some picks.
I'd actually suggest that the typical software engineer and typical equity analyst are equally bad at forecasting the market. I wouldn't expect either of them to be more than one standard deviation from the broader population (and probably not even that much).
Tesla. It is clear that world is going towards renewables. It is also clear that electric vehicle is here to stay. Even if there is an alternative out there that meets the renewable energy needs, it will take more than a decade for it to fully commercialize so Tesla has its place. I think that the giga factories and solar city can be huge businesses. Tesla's truck with its auto-pilot (even if it is good enough to drive on freeways) can be a huge cost saver for transportation companies.
Datacenter REITs have been a great moneymaker for me: EQIX, DLR, DFT (being acquired by DLR), and a few others like COR, INXN, and CONE.
Buy it, hold it, wait for it to double, sell half, then let the rest ride for free and reinvest the original stake. Great way to never worry about timing when to take gains in high flying stocks.
REITs also throw off a lot of income and dividends which makes them nice to hold long term.
Buy it, hold it, wait for it to double, sell half, then let the rest ride for free and reinvest the original stake. Great way to never worry about timing when to take gains in high flying stocks.
REITs also throw off a lot of income and dividends which makes them nice to hold long term.
FB, They have access to great consumer information that will continue to make them a valuable advertising company for a long time AND they've continued to expand into other markets (VR) while making smart defensive acquisitions to protect their core.
AMD, lots of juicy server market share available.
How? They got bought by SoftBank?
Those are tech companies I have more than one share of: NVIDIA, AMD, IBM, Intel.
And those are companies I just have one share of (because why not?): Tesla, Google (Alphabet A & C), Amazon, Texas Instruments
I wish I had bought more of Amazon :(
And those are companies I just have one share of (because why not?): Tesla, Google (Alphabet A & C), Amazon, Texas Instruments
I wish I had bought more of Amazon :(
Well publically in the market... Apple, AMD, Google, index fund. I like me some tech. Yes I am well aware I not diversified, but I am somewhat young, and looking for growth.
Tesla, of course! But it might be too late now...
ALB: Lithium would be better, it just had a stock drop. But the numbers are good. They did grow 15% or more this year. Recently dropped from 116 to 105 or so. The future would bring a Lithium shortage, so I'm waiting till then :p bought at 92
AMD: it had a year to profit from their release. The bet just recently paid off. Still HLD though. Bought at 11,xx
For some stocks I have notifications when they drop 5%. Mostly when I think they are too high right now
AMD: it had a year to profit from their release. The bet just recently paid off. Still HLD though. Bought at 11,xx
For some stocks I have notifications when they drop 5%. Mostly when I think they are too high right now
Bought me some $AMD at $10.20 (got lucky). Let's see what happens.
I think there is time till October, not sure what will happen next.
I truly hope AMD is back to stay
I truly hope AMD is back to stay
I think there is still time. They haven't released the Model 3 yet.
Depends on how you view the market, but most things would indicate that is already priced in.
Everyone knows the Model 3 is coming, so the price of the stock already incorporates whatever the expectations for the Model 3's sales currently are. If Model 3 sales fall short of those expectations, the stock price will drop.
The stock market is incredibly agile and nearly instantly prices in news and future expectations.
Looking for some good names in the anti-malware / anti-ransomware / firewall / intrusion prevention industry. Anybody have any good ideas?
FAANG -> needs no explanation
NVDA -> same
RHT -> solid financials, great growth q over q and y over y
MSFT -> Nadella has made some massive improvements that reap great benefits
MU -> great value for money and great returns
NVDA -> same
RHT -> solid financials, great growth q over q and y over y
MSFT -> Nadella has made some massive improvements that reap great benefits
MU -> great value for money and great returns
Indirectly through my super all the main players like Apple, Google, FB.
Directly, Amazon & Tesla + a bunch of cryptos (Do they count?)
Directly, Amazon & Tesla + a bunch of cryptos (Do they count?)
I am short on investment money, but if I was buying equities I would go long on ARM. I think they are Qualcomm of 2006 with IoT and massive parallelism driving big growth.
Armh was the stock. They were bought by SoftBank though it was a good ride....
I invest in real estate.
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www.iota.org as it is trying to solve internet of things problem using mesh network