Porter Was Right – Again
Porter was right – again... New highs are back... It's not too late to buy Porter's 'forever' stocks... Remembering D-Day... Boys who came home as men... 'My grandfather's truancy likely saved his life'... In praise of the 'Greatest Generation'...
If you watched Porter's 'Forever Portfolio' video event in March, you might remember the call...
We wrote about it that day, in the March 26 Digest. Porter told viewers...
I wouldn't be surprised to see stocks at new highs by the end of this year.
Mind you, Porter made this bold call when fear in the markets was the only thing at all-time highs...
The coronavirus was spreading everywhere, it seemed... The three major U.S. stock indexes were down roughly 30% in about a month... and the most common thing you heard investors and market observers say about the crisis was how much they didn't know.
But Porter, our company's founder, had conviction about what was going on... and what would happen next. He anticipated a rebound in the major U.S. stock indexes – and quickly – ahead of an inevitable economic recovery once the worst passed...
It might take 60 days to get everything back to normal, but the market's going to look past that and the market's going to see, oh, there is no permanent change to the U.S. economy.
There is no permanent change to the world economy. This is all going to go away. As soon as that becomes really clear, and a timetable for that going away can be plotted, stocks will rebound.
Porter said the COVID-19 crash would be "like hitting the pause button" on what had been the longest bull market run of all time.
Porter was so convinced, he told viewers what he was doing with $1 million of his own money...
Porter said he was buying high-quality, capital-efficient stocks – the kind that we love here at Stansberry Research – that you could hold in your portfolio for 10 years or more...
He encouraged subscribers to do the same and announced the launch of his new Forever Portfolio. In a lot of ways, this portfolio was the culmination of his life's work.
He shared the opportunity to read his list of 40 "forever" stocks – like coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX) and credit-card company American Express (AXP) – that you could own to grow your wealth with low risk through any market environment.
This was an opportunity you couldn't miss, according to Porter...
This is a rare opportunity like the Great Depression, like 2008 or 2009 [in the financial crisis]. This is the opportunity that you've been waiting for.
I never thought ever in my career that I would get a chance to buy these stocks at the kind of prices we saw in '08 and '09. I thought that was gone forever.
Not only that, he put a time frame on when the rally in stocks would begin...
As Porter said on March 26...
I think the market will bottom within 10 days of today. My most likely day for the market to bottom is actually this coming Monday.
I think this coming Monday, you will begin to see signs that the virus is under control in the United States, and the market will bottom when that happens...
A little more than two months later, we know Porter was spot-on, nearly to the day...
As we reported yesterday, the Nasdaq Composite Index has been flirting with new highs... And it hit them today, powered by a positive jobs report (2.5 million gained in May) that shocked Wall Street.
Meantime, the benchmark S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are both up 40% since March 23, which proved to be the most recent low.
Fourteen of the stocks in Porter's Forever Portfolio – which includes his "Greatest of All Time" picks ("GOATs"), and the "Greatest No One Has Heard Of" – are up by 20% or more... and a handful have already gained at least 40%.
Remember, this is a select list of some of the highest-quality, lowest-risk companies you will ever find... And even after the huge rally over the past two months, it's not too late to buy shares.
These are stocks you can own forever, after all.
Click here for more information on how to get access to Porter's favorite stocks today... how much to allocate to each of them... and much more research from our team right now.
And kudos to Porter, and subscribers who followed his advice, on another great call.
Switching gears, we want to end this week with a heartfelt essay...
Around this time last year, Stansberry NewsWire editor C. Scott Garliss shared a thoughtful and personal tribute to the soldiers who fought in – and won – World War II.
And as he reminded us again recently, tomorrow is a sacred day in American history.
On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces famously stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. Their victory on D-Day turned the tide of World War II and led to the Allies' eventual victory.
We're republishing a version of Scott's essay today... We hope you enjoy it. Scott takes it from here...
In remembrance of D-Day...
The United States is nearing the end of an era...
The "Greatest Generation" in America is slowly, sadly becoming a memory. What members of that generation did on the beaches of Omaha and Utah during the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on D-Day is nothing short of incredible.
I feel compelled to remember and honor them here.
Tomorrow, 76 years ago, thousands of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old men stormed those beaches. They were weighed down by a hundred pounds of gear and the expectations of everyone back at home. And they followed orders, took charge, fought, and never gave up.
The enemy had every advantage. On the Allied side, friends were gone, nerves frayed, hopes dashed, and yet our soldiers kept bringing the fight.
There was no quitting...
The courage required by the individuals involved to accept the task at hand and persevere, despite unbelievable odds, is nothing short of astounding. Trying to get in the heads of people like this is part of why I'm a history buff – especially war history.
Besides trying to understand what made these people tick, I also enjoy reading about the strategy involved and what the individual leaders were thinking when they devised plans for combat.
Some decisions pay off in spectacular victory, while others have spectacular defeats. The one constant throughout is chance... Seemingly minor events that couldn't be anticipated always crop up and wind up being the deciding factor in the eventual outcome.
As fascinating as strategy is, though...
For me (C. Scott Garliss), the real power in war stories like this always comes from when you think about the people involved in the battles themselves...
The brave men who landed on Omaha and Utah beaches on the northern coast of France on the morning of June 6, 1944, performed astounding feats. The U.S. Department of War, knowing the first wave would likely be decimated by German pillboxes mounted on the seaside cliffs, loaded up those soldiers with the bulk of the necessary equipment.
They knew it would ease the load off the subsequent waves of soldiers, who would pick up the equipment from their dead and wounded comrades to complete the task at hand.
In that initial onslaught, small towns lost entire generations of young men...
It would lead the U.S. military to rethink their strategy and no longer put individuals from the same town in the same units going forward. But despite all the carnage, those who survived the landing picked themselves up and pushed forward.
These young men had two choices... Die on that beach at the hands of the enemy or overcome the obstacle in front of them.
They chose the latter. They scaled the cliffs in front of them to neutralize the pillboxes (dug-in guard posts) and create a beachhead that would allow the Allied invasion force to land and change history.
It is said that these soldiers who were "young boys" at the outset of the war would go home as grown men.
My grandfather was one of those boys who came home a man...
Though he didn't storm the beaches on D-Day, he served as part of the 94th bomb group, 410th squadron, flying out of Bury St. Edmunds, England.
His name was Joseph Allen Garliss, and he was the bombardier on a B-17 called "Tuff Teddie."
He and his mates flew 34 missions over France and Germany, including 13 over Berlin. In the picture of the flight crew below, he is the gentleman/badass standing on the far left...
My grandfather had been a Golden Gloves boxer and played minor league baseball for an affiliate of the Washington Senators for five seasons before the war. He came home and played two more seasons for the AAA affiliate of Cleveland.
Throughout my life, my grandfather never talked about his experiences in World War II. Reading the stories of the sons and daughters of those men, this distance was a common occurrence, particularly among those who saw combat.
The more fighting they saw, the less they talked about it. These soldiers felt that the brave people were those who sacrificed their lives for their cause.
I remember the one time my grandfather and I ever discussed the subject...
I was quite young and inquisitive, much like my son is now. I was spending time with "Pop-pop" and had decided to go into the closet in his office.
In the back of the closet, I found a box stashed away and pulled it out. After taking off the lid, I removed a picture from the war and took it over to him and asked him what it was.
He kindly took it from me. "It's nothing," he said, and he put it away. While it's not much of what you'd call a discussion, it was the only time I ever heard him utter a word about his experience. Even then, I knew it was something different.
Later, after Pop-pop had passed on from this world, my grandmother recounted a story I'll never forget.
As my grandfather was training to head over to Europe, he and my grandmother had fallen deeply in love. Not wanting to be away from her, he went AWOL to go home and see her.
This did not go well with my grandfather's superiors. He was thrown off the plane he was training on and placed on another.
My grandfather's truancy likely saved his life...
The plane he was thrown off of and its crew would later perish in Europe.
A short while later, Pop-pop was once again homesick. This time, instead of just coming home to see my grandmother, he also married her. Once again, this did not fly with his commanders. Just like before, he was tossed off of the plane he was assigned to and became part of a new crew.
And once more, the plane and its crew my grandfather was removed from would go on without him to perish in Europe.
After my Pop-pop's second time going AWOL, the brass got serious... If he did not remain with his new plane and crew for the remainder of his training, he would find himself staring at desertion charges.
From then on, he walked the straight and narrow, and the rest was history.
Below is a picture of "Tuff Teddie" after it crashed in a field on the way back from its final mission...
It blows my mind how wild stories like my grandfather's are commonplace for the time...
Every American family was affected in one way or another...
Everyone with a relative who served in that war has a story like Pop-pop's. Having never served, let alone fought in war, I can't begin to imagine the incredible courage it took those young men and their families to answer that call and make the sacrifices that would result in those stories.
"Thank you!" can never be said enough. But many of them would tell you that they were simply doing their duty for the good of all.
As I grow older, my respect grows deeper. I can only be in awe and so thankful for my family's chance to live in peace. We celebrate all who gave up so much that day – and all of the days leading up to V-E day.
Truly... they are the Greatest Generation.
New 52-week highs (as of 6/4/20): Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) and Flutter Entertainment (PDYPY).
A quiet mailbag today... Do you have feedback on Porter's call or a similar story about D-Day to share? Please e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com, and we'll publish your responses next week.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin and C. Scott Garliss
Baltimore, Maryland
June 5, 2020