Welcome to the weekly mailbag edition of The Daily Cut.
Coming up… world-renowned crypto investor Teeka Tiwari delivers his verdict on the big news that online payment processor PayPal has adopted bitcoin.
And our “billion-dollar trader,” Jason Bodner, shows how a weaker dollar is actually good news for stocks.
First, we’re shining the spotlight on Legacy’s go-to tech expert, Jeff Brown.
A reader has a question for Jeff about CRISPR gene editing – which Jeff calls the “God Key” because of its power to heal us and make us live longer.
Reader question: Dear Jeff, I subscribe to your publications. I also enjoy my daily reading of The Bleeding Edge. I’m not looking for personal advice but for education on the issue of gene editing.
I have all the CRISPR companies you recommended in my portfolio, as I’m fascinated with genetic editing as a therapy. But one main technical issue is still very ambiguous to me…
DNA is present in cells all over our bodies. This means that editing the DNA locally by CRISPR (inside or outside the body) and reintroducing it to the body should alter the DNA in all our cells. How is the local fix altering the DNA all over?
– Joseph K.
Jeff’s answer: Hi, Joseph. Thanks for your email. I share your fascination with genetic editing. This is one of the most exciting technological developments I track. As I’ve been banging the drum on, breakthroughs in genetic editing have put us on the verge of a complete transformation in medical care.
CRISPR has provided us with an incredible new tool. It’s a platform that allows us to “edit” our genetic code as though it were software. It allows us to correct “typos” – or mutations – in our DNA that cause diseases.
CRISPR has created so much excitement among investors because it’s faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than previous methods of genetic editing.
Now, to answer your question about how it works on us, it depends on the therapy and the disease we’re trying to cure.
With in vivo therapy, we inject the CRISPR solution directly into one part of your body or an organ. With this method, we intend to edit the cells only in that particular area of the body.
The eye is a good example. Editing the cells in the eye can create the desired therapeutic outcome of curing a genetic eye disease.
Ex vivo therapeutic approaches are similar. Scientists extract a large number of cells from one area, edit them, and inject them back into that area.
But we can also make edits when there’s only one cell – before a child is born. This involves something called germline editing. It’s highly controversial.
When we edit the genomes of early embryos, or sex cells, those edits affect every cell in the body of any resulting child… as well as any of that child’s descendants. This is different from the types of edits that affect only the person receiving the treatment.
These risks haven’t stopped scientists in China and Russia from experimenting with germline editing. But the international scientific community has been strongly critical of these experiments. And the Chinese government even jailed a Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, involved in creating genetically altered babies.
It’s irresponsible to perform germline editing without extensive clinical trials to see whether there will be any side effects or harm to the children.
So it’s important to understand the exact way this revolutionary technology is being used. There are key differences.
I’ve been writing about CRISPR technology since 2015… And it’s now hitting an inflection point… the point at which we’re beginning to see positive results from human trials. The opportunity here is so massive, it’s hard to wrap your head around.
On Wednesday, Jeff hosted a masterclass in biotech investing that 32,491 of your fellow readers joined. And judging from the feedback we got, it was a huge success.
Jeff has identified one biotech company on the verge of curing one of mankind’s most devastating diseases. If it’s successful, he says its stock could soar up to 1,000% – in a single day.
Don’t worry if you missed the event. As a Daily Cut reader, you can catch the replay of Jeff’s biotech masterclass here.
Switching gears, a question about our favorite cryptocurrency, bitcoin…
Whether you’re bullish on crypto or still a skeptic, you most likely know that bitcoin has been on a rampage in 2020.
This year, the world’s first cryptocurrency is up 150%.
That crushes the returns you’d have made on the tech-heavy Nasdaq… gold… or silver.
As I’ve been showing you, bitcoin is following the market “script” colleague and crypto expert Teeka Tiwari laid out for his readers.
As he’s been insisting for years, prices for bitcoin and other cryptos will shoot higher as they go from a contrarian idea to a consensus one.
An investment in bitcoin when Big T first officially added it to the model portfolios at our Palm Beach Letter and Palm Beach Confidential advisories in April 2016 is up 4,116% so far. That’s enough to turn every $1,000 grubstake into $42,161.
And bitcoin’s journey to mainstream adoption sped up even faster in 2020.
In October, online payments processor PayPal (PYPL) said it would allow its 346 million customers to hold bitcoin and other cryptos in a new online wallet.
PayPal will also allow them to shop using crypto – as easily as they can with U.S. dollars, euros, or yen – at the 26 million merchants in its network.
One reader wrote us to ask what Teeka makes of PayPal’s plans…
Reader question: Enjoying the service and about to get started on my crypto portfolio. I am curious about the crypto team’s assessment of the new PayPal platform for buying and trading cryptos. Any insights would be great.
– Gregg C.
Teeka’s answer: Hi Gregg. PayPal can be a great way to get your feet wet in crypto. Right now, you can use PayPal only to buy or sell cryptocurrencies and spend them with merchants. You can’t send cryptocurrencies to other digital wallets like you can with a regular wallet.
In reality, PayPal is acting as the custodian for your cryptocurrency. You don’t own it yourself with your own private key. So it’s not a great solution for cryptocurrencies yet. I recommend my readers store their cryptos on a hardware wallet such as Ledger.
It’s like storing them in a secure vault that you have in your possession or have secured somewhere. This makes you the custodian of your cryptos.
We wrap up today with a question for Jason Bodner over at our Palm Beach Trader advisory.
Jason was one of the few guys on Wall Street authorized to make trades worth $1 billion… and up. He now helps his subscribers profit in the stock market using a strategy he developed after he quit his job on Wall Street.
Below, he responds to a question from a subscriber about the effect of dollar debasement on U.S. stocks…
Reader question: Jason, I am delighted to tell you this is the first newsletter – and I’ve tried many – that has checked off all the boxes for me. I cannot thank you enough for the stellar performance and financial guidance you have brought me. I look forward to reading everything you put out.
I have a question. With all the emergency money that’s been pumped into circulation since last March – not to mention the trillions in national debt – isn’t it possible we are due for a great devaluation of the currency?
If that happens, we can kiss all our profits goodbye and get in the soup lines like everybody else. What would you consider a prudent move to protect a portion of one’s paper assets?
– Jack H.
Jason’s answer: Jack, I can’t tell you how happy it made me to read your words. It’s satisfying to know I can help make a difference in the lives of others. That’s my mission with Palm Beach Trader, as you know.
As to your question… I’m not a macro like some of my colleagues at Legacy. I’m focused on finding outlier stocks that big-money buyers are piling into. And my track record shows this strategy works…
The top five open recommendations in the model portfolio are up 114%… 183%… 299%… 372%… and 925% – with the longest holding time being 28 months.
The average gain for the model portfolio this year is 36%. That’s nearly triple the gain for the S&P 500 this year.
But I do have some interesting data to share with you that throws some light on your question.
The exchange value of the U.S. dollar changes over time relative to other currencies.
These changes are cyclical.
And as you can see in the chart below, there’s an inverse relationship between the exchange value of the dollar and the performance of U.S. stocks.
Notice how, when the dollar surges in strength versus the currencies of its trading partners, it tends to line up with weaker U.S. stock market prices.
For example, in 2001, 2008, and 2010.
It’s not a hard and fast rule. But generally speaking, a weaker dollar aligns with higher stock prices. That’s partly because U.S. stocks become cheaper for foreign buyers. So they pile in.
The dollar will rise, and it will fall. And stocks will react accordingly. But I’m not worried about a collapse in the dollar. I have faith in America. Long-term, there’s no better place to be invested.
That’s all for this week.
If you’d like to put a question to the Legacy experts, be sure to get in touch at [email protected].
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
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Chris Lowe
December 11, 2020
Bray, Ireland