Best of Caller Questions

This is a special Invest Talk, best of color questions compilation program.

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888-99-Shart, 888-99-CH-ART. They will be played and answered on an upcoming Invest Talk podcast.

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Before we get to the next segment, we'll answer a caller question that came in via that YouTube channel in the comment from ULOM.

Spiral says,

Thanks. I'm enjoying this weekend video a lot.

Do you have any views on residential real estate in the Bay Area? I'm looking to buy a house, but I'm worried there's a correction coming soon.

The simple answer is, yes, I would be worried about a potential drop in Bay Area real estate.

It's very correlated to tech, and it was rolling pretty hard for kind of 2023, 2024, and then the AI kind of resurgence that started near the end of last year into this year.

And I think that kind of held the Bay Area economy together.

But if you start to see some sort of reduction in interest around big tech, and obviously I've discussed how the business of big tech is suddenly becoming very capital intensive.

Does that mean less room for stock options for employees, et cetera?

I think that could be a big factor here, and that would feed into residential real estate, especially in Silicon Valley.

So I would, and I think in general, you just have overvaluation across most markets in the United States.

And you're entering probably 2026.

So it'll be a year where prices broadly will come down.

Now, it's going to be dramatic. It's going to be, oh, wait, crash in housing. No, no, it's just a multi year correction.

And I think it's already started, and it's just going to be a slow slog, a lot of transactions and modest declines for a number of years in most markets, including the Bay Area.

Let's pivot back to and invest talk voice mail question right now.

Hey, Justin and Luke, these Frank from all of Angeles. I have a question about portfolio management.

I'm having a hard time figuring out the right allocation across equity, treasuries and corporate bonds, especially given the current micro environment.

I was thinking about allocating 50% to treasury bond ETFs and the rest to just value stocks, but I'm starting to think that I should probably allocate also something to corporate bonds, especially given how sticky inflation is.

I'm 35 years old, and I consider myself a value oriented investor, especially in this environment.

I don't think it makes sense to take much risk.

Given this, what will be the ideal split across asset classes for somebody my age?

Thank you very much, and I'll be listening on the show.

Well, the fact that you're in your 30s, that's a far too conservative portfolio, 50% in bonds, maybe in more incorporates.

For the number one, for cash like holdings, I'm okay with treasuries.

Short term treasuries, we use that as a cash alternative, but as a longer term investment, no, you don't want to be in treasuries, especially any long duration treasuries, 10 years, 30 years, etc.

So your bond main bond exposure should be incorporates.

Now, it shouldn't be a large percentage of your portfolio, especially if you're an aggressive investor.

You'd probably sub 20% of your overall portfolio, the rest should be equities, and I would lean on the value side of the market.

And you're starting to see that side start to outperform once again.

So hopefully that gave you a little perspective and feel free to schedule a portfolio review with me.

Most tackle, another YouTube comment question.

Lexus Dude, 59 says regarding Bitcoin as the canary in the coal mine, your thoughts.

You know, if you look at the correlation of Bitcoin and what it tends to correlate to, it's mainly a liquidity proxy, along with a proxy for text docs.

And this is very simple.

It's viewed as kind of a fringe asset to the traditional financial system.

And it's furthest away from your consumer staples, dividend paying, safe stocks, or bonds, for example.

It doesn't pay a dividend, and its use cases are very minimal outside of mainly speculation.

So when liquidity starts to dry up, well, these are the places where capital is pulled out from first.

And so that's why it tends to languish and tend to be correlated with liquidity.

And then there's a lot of retail investors that their portfolios are filled with the names we just talked about, right?

Drone companies and profitless tech names or, you know, very expensive, highly shorted names by hedge funds, etc.

And when things are going well, well, they can handle a little leverage.

They probably own some Bitcoin as well. Those are the Bitcoin holders.

They get excited and invest in the sexy things.

And so when the NASNet goes down, well, they also have to many of us are forced to deliver their portfolios,

de-risk their portfolios and Bitcoin often takes it from there as well.

So once again, it's mostly about liquidity.

And the fact that this is struggling right around this level, around what are we at now?

Currently, Bitcoin's at $106,000.

And frankly, it's right at that support level that we saw was at mid-October.

And if we break 100,000, those are the June lows and psychological level of breaking 100,000 is, I think, a death-neil to Bitcoin overall.

At least in the cycle, I think we're headed for a rough 2027.

It's probably the by-point at some point where you get a capitulation of negative sentiment.

But I certainly think there's a good chance we've topped in this Bitcoin cycle.

And the charts are certainly lining up for that.

So that's why I say it's a canary in the coal mine to broader financial assets in general.

And it's one of the pieces of evidence that I talked about on my YouTube video over the weekend.

That tells me this market is running on fumes.

Typically, Bitcoin peaks first, and it looks like it did back the beginning of October.

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I was just reaching out to see if I could get your thoughts and opinions on the three bucket strategy and retirement,

what you think about it and how it relate to market downturns and sequence of return risk and to see if it's a good strategy when you are approaching that time in your life.

I'll be listening, thanks.

Now, the three bucket strategy is a way to smooth withdrawals.

So you take your assets and you segregate them into three different buckets.

What is your short-term needs, your cash, your money market, your tea bills, your short-term bonds?

Then it helps fund your living expenses.

It helps you avoid selling your investments during your downturn.

Second bucket is your medium term income, your intermediate bonds, your dividend stocks, your CDs,

and it's designed to replenish bucket one and provide stability as well as regular income.

Then there's bucket three, your long-term growth, 10 years plus, your equities, your reads, your alternatives.

It's a big growth engine to help you outpace inflation and refill buckets one and two over time.

Now, like I said, this helps to smooth withdrawals, it helps to reduce a lot of sequencing risk,

and it helps to give some psychological comfort. It matches your investment horizons to your spending needs.

I think this is a great way to go about constructing your financial life.

It is one of many tools that can be very helpful, and certainly, for a lot of people, I would recommend it.

Thanks for the call.

Hey Justin Oluk, love your show.

I have a question for you guys about where you think CD rates are headed over the next four years.

I need to lock some money up, and I'm wondering if I should lock it up at the current four-year rate,

or if I should go shorter, and then renew down the line. Any help with this would be great. Thank you.

Well, remember, the market prices in, including the CD market, it prices in fed rate cuts and where, what yield you're going to get.

So it's less about, is the fed going to cut?

And it's more about what the market is priced in for a fed cut, and whether that's real or not.

For example, if you go out, I'll go out to October of 2027.

The median outcome here is somewhere between, right about 3%, we'll call it 3%, is where the market is expecting fed fund rates to go.

Now, the current effect of funds rate is 3.88%.

So we're going to call it four rate cuts between now and in 2027.

Now, is that going to be true?

And then there has to stay there, because that's where it's expected to end at that rate.

You could see, I'm cutting rates, and then raising rates, then dropping rates again, or whatever.

But over four years, or in this case, to 2027, nearly, it's called two years, out, I would expect rates to fall and then go back up.

I expect a rate hiking cycle at some time between now and the end of 2027.

So it's really going to be about the yields curve and how it moves.

Would I go four years? Probably not.

I would probably go somewhere in the year to 18 month level, so that you're able to refinance or reinvest, shall we say, in great get liquidity.

You're not missing out on a whole lot.

You're not going to pick up a lot more yield.

I don't think from a four year CD versus a 18 month CD or a two year CD.

And that's the way I would be thinking about it is, how much are you willing to give up for that liquidity?

I'd be willing to give up a decent amount of yield to get that.

Yeah, I'd really want to know what that rate is before I would truly commit, but I would probably only lock it up for 18 months or two.

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Is this company's falling like a rock? It's down 52%.

Invest talk.

It's a person both to each fee.

Everybody wants to secure a financial future.

Richard, do you have a question about TOL?

But getting there takes strategy, discipline, and the right information.

What are what you think of the price of it?

Go to Chris in Maine looking at I-E-X.

Hey Justin, I own it. Just to see what you thought of it.

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Hi Justin and Luke, this is Matt and Miami.

I'm just calling in regards to a question about taxes.

I recently realized this past year that I overpaid my taxes considerably

and have recently changed my holding from the W-4 to be exempt.

So stop taking out taxes.

But it's made me realize that in the past, maybe I've been given the government an interest-free loan

by getting a tax refund every year.

So I was thinking about changing my future tax allocation to the next year to be exempt

and just keeping that money in a high yield savings account.

I'm a pretty disciplined investor, so I wouldn't be worried about spending it

or not having enough money to pay off my taxes at the end of the year.

I'm married, but I file separately from my wife and I don't have any kids.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the podcast.

If there's any pros or cons to this, thank you.

I think a lot of people have thought about over the years.

And I think the answer is there's a balance here.

I think you're trying to go completely the other way.

You paid too much and you gave the government an interest-free loan and you don't want to do that.

But you also don't want to pay nothing and they get penalized because the IRS will penalize you

if you're not paying a reasonable amount towards what you probably owe.

So I think a CPA, I'm not a CPA, but I do know that.

And it's something that you should probably speak to a tax advisor about and to make a final decision.

But I always try to make it so it's, I don't have a huge refund or owe a lot.

Because when you owe a lot, once again, I've been penalized where I underpaid and do my quarterly things like that.

And I was penalized because paid my taxes just like paid them kind of at the end and the IRS doesn't like that.

So make sure that you find a balance.

I wouldn't go exempt. I'd probably still claim one or two.

And get it to a point where you're not giving them an interest-free loan as well as you're not getting penalized.

Thanks for the call.

You are listening to an Invest Talk best of caller questions compilation program.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

You are listening to an Invest Talk best of caller questions compilation program.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Call anytime.

88899CHRT.

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Your comments and questions are always welcome.

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88899CHRT.

That's 88899CHRT.

Those who think alive call it Jeric from Halifax, Canada.

Let's talk about oil field service companies.

Justin, thanks for taking my call.

Yeah, I'd like to talk about oil field services with everything that's going on in Venezuela on Monday at Market Open.

I took some small positions in Caliburton, SLB, Baker Hughes and Weatherford.

I'm just wondering if any of those names like a standout for you.

Or if it's kind of too early to say whether these companies would see some tailwinds for kind of rebuilding the oil infrastructure in Latin America.

I think it's far too soon to really tell.

And frankly, I think the assumption that this is going to AGO smoothly.

And B that these companies are going to willingly put in billions of dollars to improve extraction volumes in Venezuela.

I think both of those are assumed way too much.

How much will there be unrest in Venezuela over time because of this history of our regime change operations globally usually creates problems in that country.

And then there's a reason why these big, big oil names have not invested heavily because of obviously policies there.

But certainly a big part of it too is the instability and the fact that these are kind of like oil sands.

They're very similar to Canadian oil, where it's very heavy.

And it's also very expensive to get out of the ground.

And so the break even rates for a lot of these projects aren't low.

You know, what was a lot of these oil companies really love are your traditional oil wells, not your oil sands, not your shale oil.

They would love to just these easy ones that bring crude easily to the surface.

You don't have to crack rock, you don't have to do a bunch of things.

And the break even levels are a lot lower on those type of projects.

These are very expensive and you add on that once again, the geopolitical risk to say that they're going to start spending billions on extraction.

I think is way, way overblown. So I think the move in these names is not correct.

I would not be trying to chase these names, especially after this move.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks for the call.

Let's keep things moving.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Collin and other listener questions from eight to eight, nine, nine, nine chart.

Hey, I'm this talk.

This is Kevin calling from Southern California.

Today I have kind of a strange retirement question.

It's theoretical.

If you had like a $10 million IRA and you wanted to do a full account Roth conversion.

Are there any states where it would be worth moving to for a year and making that your your primary residence.

save enough on taxes, state taxes where this might be worth it, just always have retirement

thoughts on my mind.

I appreciate your input.

Thank you.

Great question.

And the simple answer is, yeah, there are many states, I believe there's seven or eight

states that are completely tax-free that you have to establish residency.

If you're coming from California, they scrutinize you pretty good to make sure that you really

are moving.

You're not kind of skirting the rules.

Now, if you're a lower income earner, they're probably not going to chase you, but if

you're high income earner, they probably will.

So you have to be careful with that.

Also, remember, if you convert your entire account, that's going to hit your adjusted

growth income on the federal level, no matter where you live.

And so most likely, and for most people, very few people, especially they have a large

IRA, they're not going to do it a conversion all in one year.

Remember, you don't have to do that.

It's not like you have to convert every dollar from an IRA to a Roth, if you're going

to do a Roth conversion.

You can just do a little bit each year.

And frankly, for the vast majority of people, there's a certain amount that keeps them

below the next tax bracket for them to do that conversion each year.

And slowly over time, they convert most, if not all, if they're IRA to a Roth.

And if it gets a goal, everybody should have.

And creating a plan is very important, whether you do that, whether you talk to an advisor

like me to help with that, whatever it is, everyone should have an idea of when they're

going to convert their IRA to a Roth IRA or 401K to a Roth IRA, et cetera.

So I like what you're thinking of, but this is more, this would have to be more of a longer

term plan.

Hey, I'm going to move to Nevada, state tax free.

I'm going to live there for five years, I'm going to break it up over five years, and

I'm going to lock in a lower tax rate, both on a state level and a federal level, et cetera.

And then maybe you can move on from there.

But make sure that you can solve with a tax, a license tax, the attorney or CPA before

you do something like this, and make sure you build a bigger picture plan.

So many people are myopic and they just focus on one particular aspect of financial planning

without looking at the big picture for us.

Our clients, we use Orion.

There are a lot of different options out there from E-Money to other planning softwares.

I think everybody should run through that to understand from a tax perspective, a strategy

perspective, model out the cash flows, both income and expenses, and assets and liabilities.

All of this should be modeled out, not just a snapshot of today, but going out into the

future decades.

And that is when you can make informed decisions about when you should do things like Rothkin

Versions.

So hopefully that gave you some perspective on how to think and once again, make sure you

aren't myopic and just saying, I want to focus on just Rothkin Versions, that was part

of the big picture.

This is an Invest Talk, best of caller questions compilation program.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Until any time, 888-99 chart, that's 888-99-CHAR-T.

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Please call with questions 888-99-SHART.

Hi, Duncan from New York, thank you for all that you do.

I'm trying to do the best I can to learn a little bit on how to short a stock.

I'm looking at stock ticker Vera, V-E-R-A, Vera Therapeutics, the way that I'm looking

to learn how to short a stock is the following.

I am using three sources of research, FinViz, the stock screener, Fidelity.com to actually

look at the specifics of the stock, and I'm also using Gemini that actually helps me

explain certain terminology.

But for the stock screener, I'm looking just for a mid cap, short float, over 10%, a relative

volume, over 1.

I'm also looking for fundamentals of a PS ratio of over 5, return on equity negative

a debt to equity over 0.1, and return on invested capital negative 1.

And in terms of just the technical analysis, I'm looking for a relative strength index

of like very high over bought.

Just looking to see what you guys think and what are some other fundamentals or technical

signs that I should be basically looking for for a float.

I hope I did, you know, the right research or use the right resources.

So thank you very much and have a good night.

Bye.

I'm glad you're utilizing a lot of resources that are out there.

The problem is understanding how to apply some of these concepts.

So I'll give you the two biggest flaws in the way you are looking for a short candidate.

Number one is you're looking for a company that has a high short interest.

And while that can give you a sense of how many other people are also betting against

it, it also, at least in the short term, creates a lot of risk of a short squeeze because

you're not the only one out there that you're going to be forced to buy it if it continues

to rally.

And so having a high short interest is fuel for a short squeeze.

And a lot of times people can't handle that volatility.

When you're short and it goes up, that's volatility.

That's effectively like a stock going down if you own it, right?

So actually want low short interest.

You want to find names that other people aren't really paying attention to.

Now I like the fact that you're looking at a biotech name, you're looking at a name

with negative return equity, return assets, burning capital, et cetera, trading a high

price of sales, meaning it's overvalued.

But in the biotech space, it's all about a story and whether a story is gaining momentum

or not.

And so I'm not sure about this particular technology that they utilize or not, but I wouldn't

be jumping on this, especially when that last part, which is, you talked about relative

strength, very high and very high relative strength can mean it's overbought.

But that doesn't mean you want to short it.

Overbought just means that it probably needs to be cool off a little bit.

It needs to consolidate before that next leg higher.

It tells you nothing about whether it's going to go down and roll over anytime soon.

Docs at overbought tend to stay overbought tend to be in an uptrend and stay in an uptrend.

The trend is your friend, which you want to do actually is wait until the stock is in

a downtrend.

That's a much better stock to short.

Why?

Because the market is recognizing the problems with their business.

And whether a stock goes from 100 to zero or $10 to zero, if you short the same dollar

amount, you're making the same amount of money.

It's irrelevant what the stock is trading for as long as it continues to go down.

But in your case, you're looking at the stock that's going up and this is fair of therapeutic

strength is 94.

It's in an uptrend.

It's right near 52 be caught.

I don't want to be jumping in front of this, even though you're right, it's a story

stock.

I don't like those names.

I don't want to invest in those names, but momentum is momentum and you have to respect

that.

There's a saying in shorting industry, shall we say, which is don't try to wrestle the

jaguar out of the tree.

Wait till it's out of the tree.

You're not going to wrestle it out of the tree.

So wait for this to roll over.

You want to be looking at names that have terrible relative strength and that people are

losing faith in the business all together.

And then it's headed for a zero.

So that's ultimately what you want when you're shorting a stock.

So look for names with high debt more than anything.

I would want to short name with high debt versus high price of sales, high valuation,

et cetera.

I want a lot of debt.

I want a crappy business.

I want to do the downtrend.

Those are the names that you want short.

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I'm hoping you'll give me your take on or matte technologies, ORA.

Is it a good idea to sell your losses in a Roth IRA and just use whatever you have left

to reinvest with a better stock?

Don't forget to call Invest Talk, 888-99-Shart.

Hi, my name is Joe from Greenfield, South Carolina.

I have a question that's a little bit more macro.

Just as our currency of the country has gotten into this fiat currency with no real backing,

it seems like the Fed and the government, when they don't feel like they can raise taxes,

just print the money, which is ultimately devaluing our currency over time and there

doesn't seem to be any indication that they're going to stop doing that.

They are likely going to do that more and more into the future.

What do you think a good safe haven for that would be in the long term?

I'm in my 30s and just, I guess, somewhat worried about a somewhat bigger collapse of

the system, just the value of the dollar in general, is stocks a good place to be in

the event of something like that happening is gold and silver, a good place to be in

the event of something like that happening is land, a good thing to be in in the event

of something like that happening.

I'm just trying to wonder, trying to figure out a plan, I guess, for something like that

were to happen, because it seems like our currency is just devalued year after year and

I just don't see any change in that coming.

Thanks so much for your answer on the podcast.

This is the winner of the best question of 2025, because if this is the framing every

single investor out there should be thinking about, not, oh, I'm just going to index,

that's not the new world, the new world is this, what this college has just asked about.

Yes, absolutely, the politicians on both sides of the aisle and you can see it right

now, right?

Trump ran on Doge and cutting spending.

He cut like $7 billion, $9 billion, nothing, it was, you know, so nothing stops this

train.

You're right.

So you have to think about it differently.

Now is gold and silver part of it?

Yes, absolutely, everybody, everybody I've been saying this for years now, because I've

seen this.

You can talk about, oh, how you want the world to be and I talk about it all the time.

You have to invest how you want the world to be, you have to invest based on how the

world is and you're identifying it that this is a train that does not stop and will not

stop.

And so you have to adjust your portfolio accordingly.

So number one, yes, gold and silver.

Number two, harder assets are stocks a good place, they tend to be a good place to invest.

Now harder assets tend to do better in inflationary environments and those are, can be companies

that hold and own harder assets.

They tend to not be growthier type of businesses either.

They tend to be more value-oriented, that's how it tends to work.

Now, it depends on the year and it's not a straight line, but this is the new era that

you are operating in.

You typically don't want to be in treasuries, super low risk investments.

You know, most people are still scarred by 08.

Everyone fights the last or remember the general's fight the last war.

Most people are fighting 08 because that's the real big war.

Yeah, we had COVID and all that, but still that's freshening a lot of people's mind, even

though it's nearly two decades ago.

It shows you that the risk in this market is not deflation, that's what 08 was, the deflationary

impulse.

We are seeing that the risk is to the upside, which is inflation and inflationary impulse.

And remember, markets are not priced in real terms, meaning subtracting inflation, they're

priced nominally.

So if it goes from 1962 to 1982, actually markets are up, but in real terms, your return

was zero because you've checked out inflation and you kept up with purchasing power.

And so I think there's probably a period of the next 20, 30 years, an extended period

where you're going to see that, where if you're just investing in the S&P, your real

return is going to be zero, maybe even negative.

So yes, you have to rethink your portfolio strategy.

That's what we do for our clients at KVP.

And that's what we really speak about and adjust our portfolios accordingly.

Hope that helps.

There's a lot more.

I can go in depth probably hours for this.

Let's move back to the best stock voice bank for a call that came in earlier from Maine.

Hi, this is Andrew from Maine.

And I had a question for Justin.

He often talks about the importance of liquidity in the macroeconomic view when it comes

to short to medium term broad market performance, particularly on risk assets.

And I'm wondering what measures or metrics you look at to monitor liquidity in the macroe

view.

Well, listen for your answer on the podcast.

Thank you.

Great question.

And if you watch my video, I pretty much do every single weekend on our YouTube channel.

I answer these questions.

What's going on with liquidity?

What's going on with the markers of a healthy or not healthy market?

So there are some that are kind of liquidity proxies.

Bitcoin is a good example of that.

That tends to be the outskirts of the financial system.

And when that tends to weaken, well, that means liquidity is generally getting tighter to

work.

Money kind of flows out of to plug the holes, let's say we say, in the in tradify, right?

And then that industry.

So certainly Bitcoin is one aspect there.

Another which is underappreciated is commercial bank lending.

And this is right now probably the best indicator of decent liquidity.

A lot of others are actually looking worse, and I'll talk about those in a second.

But if you look at the growth in bank credit, it was consolidating at about four and a

half percent year-over-year for most of the summer and into the fall.

And now it's accelerated now to 5.36% year-over-year.

So remember, when banks are lending, they're creating dollars.

Commercial banks are the ones that create the most dollars in the system.

Hands down, far-knut, it's not the Fed, it's not the Treasury, it's commercial banks.

But they're lending more, it's more dollars in the system.

That's more liquidity.

When they're lending less, opposite happens.

So that's number one, and that is the best sign to risk assets right now.

Then you look at things like the Treasury General Account.

And this has been rising pretty rapidly recently, and this has been a big draw on liquidity

really since August, where the Treasury General Account went from about 300 billion

to a high recently around 957 billion.

And the target by year end is 850 billion.

So they could draw that down, but when this rises, that is money being pulled out of the

system.

Those are dollars being pulled out of the financial system and onto the Treasury's balance sheet.

Those are a few examples.

Now I can go on and on, talk about a lot on my Saturday video, I encourage you to tune

in there.

But those are a few examples of things that I follow to see if liquidity good, is it bad,

is it getting better, is it getting worse?

On the margins, it's getting a little bit worse.

Once again, see that in Bitcoin.

Now is it dire, no, there's shade, everything shades of gray, a lot of people, that's probably

the hardest thing for the average person to get their head around, is that the world

is not black and white, especially when you look at, you know, look at our politics, right?

You're left to your right.

Well, the reality is, most people are kind of in the middle.

And the reality is that in the markets, there's shades of gray.

Sometimes it gets a little better, sometimes it gets a little worse.

Sometimes yes, things are really bad, but those are few and far between.

Nice things are really good, few and far between.

There's nuance here.

And so, following the data helps give you that nuance, we've just given you the nuance,

and that's what I tend to pack a week ends, it helps that helps.

It's keep things rolling and answer another color question now.

Hi, I'm calling from San Bernardino, California, I'm wondering what it means to monetize

the debt.

Is that something I can use?

Thank you.

Okidok, what does monetizing the debt mean?

Because I think that's something that we have mentioned on this show often, right?

Government monetizes its debt when it finances it by having its central bank essentially

create money to buy government bonds effectively turning debt into newly created money.

What it can do over time is it can keep interest rates lower, it can make funding a bit easier,

but overuse risks two things, inflation as well as currency weakness.

Now, can you monetize your debt well?

If you are issuing debt and printing money, then you're probably breaking the law, you're

definitely breaking the law.

So the answer is no.

Only governments with a central bank like the US Treasury, Federal Reserve can monetize

their debt.

So if you find yourself in a position where debt is becoming a burden, think less about

monetization, which you can't do, and think more about managing it smartly, which you should.

Invest talk is ready 24-7 for your finance and investment questions.

My five-year-old son and I listen to your podcast every night, so thank you very much for

putting it on.

Justin Klein is here and ready to tackle your questions.

Is it a good idea to sell your losses in a Roth IRA and just use whatever you have left

to reinvest into better stocks?

I'm wondering what you thought about this rate, if it would be a good time to get in.

I wanted to figure out what Apple, what do you think about their earnings cost?

Is this a good time to add to my position?

Don't forget to call Invest Talk, 888-99-SHART.

Let's go back to David in New Hampshire while he's talking about international exposure.

I'm going to add some more international exposure to my portfolio.

I have some emerging markets already, so I'm looking at developed markets.

My question is, should I purchase an ETF that includes Canada?

Or is that essentially like, are those companies going to track very closely what's going

on in the United States?

No, I think that there's no reason to exclude Canada.

Businesses are very different.

Just think of what are the large domestic corporations you're talking about?

Versus Canada is going to be more oil, utilities, industrials, banks, telecom, companies

like that.

I'm just thinking of the regular Canadian companies that I encounter.

Mining companies, you'll get exposure to those as well, natural resource names.

Some of those sectors I really like, like natural resources, as I was talking about earlier,

natural gas.

I was not so much.

You're definitely getting more diversity.

You're getting access to some very quality names, especially golden silver, things like

that.

So I see no reason to exclude Canada because it's definitely going to give you different

exposure that you're going to get domestic thanks for the call.

You are listening to an Invest Talk, Vest of Caller Questions compilation program.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Call anytime, 88899 chart, that's 88899 CHART.

This is an Invest Talk, Vest of Caller Questions compilation program.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Call anytime, 88899 chart, that's 88899 CHART.

Good evening, Invest Talk.

When writing options, I've found a few companies that have been successful for me a month after

month, at least for the past year or nine.

My question is about capital gains, if I choose to roll those options into the next month

and then after that then in the next for over a year and then finally close out of those

positions, what does be considered long-term or short-term capital gains since I've rolled

them for over a year?

All of us on the podcast and thanks as always, take care, bye.

They would be short-term capital gains, doesn't matter if you're rolling it.

Each option technically is its own trade, even though it might be in the same position,

but the features of those options, expiration, strike price, et cetera, they're all different.

That means each one has its own q-sip, has its own code that makes them different.

You're not holding something for over a year, so it's definitely going to be short-term

capital gains.

That's one of the drawbacks there of selling options, that's why I like to sell options

in tax deferred accounts, and that helps bring in income to the portfolio without the tax

implications because it's all about when you take that money out, then you pay tax.

But in the meantime, that's why we like to cover call strategies, especially in IRAs,

Roth IRAs, it tends to be a good place for a covered call strategy.

So good question, but remember, those are all separate positions.

Good afternoon, gentlemen.

This is Mark calling from Santa Cruz.

First of all, thank you for the daily addiction of Invest Talk.

I've been totally hooked for years.

I have a question.

If you could explain, please, a little bit about what covered call ETFs are, how they work,

are they cyclical?

Would you recommend them for retirees to help out with additional income?

Again, thank you guys very much for all that you do, and I'm looking forward to your answer.

Thank you.

This is a great question.

It's because this is a hot space, and most of the time, when the retail investor gets excited

about new products that's pitched by Wall Street, they're duped in many ways.

Not to say they're duped in that they're going to lose money, but they really don't understand

what they're buying because these fun companies in Wall Street, they're good at spinning

the narrative, spinning the story.

I think the SEC needs to change the way that these are really classified, and the way

that the marketing is done, unfortunately, the SEC, they've been asleep at the wheel for

a long time now.

But the simple answer is, it's fool's gold.

You're not getting the yield that it says you're getting.

Because what's happening here is they're running cover call strategy, and a lot of time

are doing that in index, and that's a simple process.

We run a cover call strategy, and I don't have anything against a covered call strategy

in general.

What I do have a problem with is that is anyone saying a covered call strategy is giving

huge yields.

Now we talked to our clients, and we say it's bringing in income, but it's countered

with giving up potential upside.

That's what most investors are not understanding here.

Is that yes, you're bringing in extra income, and in down markets, it definitely hedges

against the downside in Ho-Hum markets.

You can do much better than the broader indices, because you're bringing in income in those

that are buying the call options, are losing out.

You're gaining.

But when things are doing really well, it can hold back returns.

It's really more of a, what I call a fall dampener.

It lowers the volatility of the underlying investment, and the underlying investment is

whatever that is.

The NASDAQ 100, the S&P, could be a mix of stocks, whatever that is.

What you don't want to do is think that, oh, it says it's getting some big yield.

For example, one that we benchmark a lot of our strategy too is the JEPI, the JP market

equity premium income fund, and it will say that the SEC yield is seven and a quarter,

treading to a month yield is eight percent, and the reality is that's not really true.

If you go look at the total return, that's what you want to do with these names.

Do not pay any attention at all to what the quote-unquote yield is.

It is functionally irrelevant for these names.

What you want to focus on is the performance.

What is the total return that you are getting from these names?

And JEPI, this year, is up seven and a quarter percent.

So effectively, its year-to-date return is somewhere around what it's quote-to-quote SEC

yield is.

Maybe slightly higher if you're curious.

So you're getting that yield, but you're also subject to the downside of the markets as

well.

It's a conhege, but that's about it.

It's a fall dampener.

That's it.

So when you're looking at these ever-call ETFs, whatever that is, there's a lot of them

out there.

I don't want to dig into each one.

Understand.

Ignore the yield.

Focus on the total return.

If you're comfortable with the total return, you're comfortable with that lower volatility

that you have a little bit less in the upside as well as maybe potentially a lot less

on the downside, then it might be right for you.

But don't think of it as this sure-fire yield producer.

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