PUT IN WORK (11/11/2024)

Wow! As we've seen by now, the stock market has had an outstanding week, with indices up all across the board. Some indices, such as the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Nasdaq (QQQ), have posted their best weeks since 2023. The S&P 500 rose a whopping 4.8% last week. The Nasdaq posted similarly impressive numbers, rising an equally impressive 5.5%.

These sudden spikes weren't the result of one single day, either. Stocks rose steadily but sharply throughout the week, with the rally beginning Monday. The results of the most recent United States election are to thank for these sharp moves, even overshadowing the most recent Fed meeting, which some have forgotten about entirely. Unsurprisingly, the Fed cut rates by a quarter percent, bringing them down to 4.5% from 4.75%. Many prominent companies have continued to report over the last couple of weeks, and while some came forth with impressive earnings—Palantir (PLTR), IONQ (IONQ), Illumina (ILMN), and The Trade Desk (TTD), to name a few—some of these very same stocks declined by close on Friday, and others soared.

As we head into this next week, investors are more than curious to see where the market will go. Many agree that the market needs to take a breather in the face of this overwhelmingly positive performance, and that will likely happen sometime over the next week or so. In the meantime, many companies are still set to report amid this historic week and post-election phase, but the most influential reports have passed. Coming up this week are companies such as Shopify (SHOP), Spotify (SPOT), SoundHound (SOUN), Disney (DIS), and others. There are still many trading opportunities ahead, but it's best to be smart and careful at a time like this. We're hopeful of the market's future and curious to see what it has in store for us.

(Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) price from November 2023 - 2024 — each candle is 1 week. Chart provided by tradingview.com.)

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio performed phenomenally, just like the rest of the market at large. Two of our stocks crossed gains of over 200%, and we took half profits on said stocks: SoundHound (SOUN) and Rocket Lab (RKLB). Read more about the specifics of these transactions here. We plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.