In my early market years (the 90’s) I blew up many a portfolio owning semiconductor stocks and I put them on my ‘do not own’ list. No big deal because the ‘analysts’ called them cyclical stocks anyways and my 8 to 80 portfolio and growth ideas (software and internet) performed very well on their own.

That is not the case in 2021.

Today, there is no doubt that compute has become a growth category and also a store of value . I have not expressed it well in my writings here over the years because I have for too long not owned semiconductors. This has been the first year in a long time my personal stock market portfolio has badly underperformed the S&P and Nasdaq. Not owning enough ‘compute’ has been a huge mistake.

Here is a chart of all the US major indexes the last 3 wonderful market years including the semiconductor index.

What does ‘store of value‘ mean?

Investopedia says – A store of value is an asset, commodity, or currency that maintains its value without depreciating.

The Investopedia definition mentions currencies, US Treasury Bonds and precious metals as examples.

Those old farts!

There is no mention of Bitcoin.

More importantly (possibly), there is no mention of the word ‘compute‘.

I have linked to The Rotation Report before on this blog and I have really enjoyed the short, concise insights the last few months.

This morning I woke to their post ‘The 3 Ply Rally‘ and it really drove home how I might have to look at compute and the semiconductor index as a store of value and growth engine and not just a cyclical boom/bust sector.

Of course the question is ‘better late than never’ or ‘last guy on board’.

Time will tell of course.

The markets continue to humble me.

PS – The Rotation Report comments on Lucid were awesome as well…