Chief Investment Strategist, The Freeport Society
Every July and August, the parts of Lima inhabited by the jet set empties out. It’s winter here. The skies are gray. And it’s damp. So utterly, miserably damp…
Streets that are busy with activity most days of the year suddenly go quiet. Your neighbors disappear.
Meanwhile, your Facebook and Instagram feeds turn into a highlight reel of beaches, mountaintop cabins, and European cafes. It’s as predictable as the tides.
And every year – just as predictably – investors make the same mistake.
August is often the start of a seasonally weak period for stocks. Trading volumes thin out, Wall Street’s biggest players go on vacation, and volatility tends to pick up.
It’s a set of conditions that make it far too easy to make the single biggest mistake investors can make.
The investing pros know that this threat exists. So, not only do they deliberately avoid making it, but they also know how to profit from it as retail investors set themselves up for failure.
Today, I’ll explain how to avoid this mistake and give you an example of a stock that is still a good buy today.
The Mistake Holding Back Your Returns
It’s not unusual to second-guess your investing approach. Investing can be psychologically draining, and no one wants to see their portfolio go down.
That’s why summertime market volatility can create so much anxiety.
But volatility like we see starting in August often spurs investors to do exactly the wrong thing – panic sell.
Here’s the truth: No great fortune was ever made by panic-selling in August.
When it comes to building wealth, not much compares with finding a small company that scales into a large one.
Think of the early investors in Microsoft. After stock splits, a modest $5,000 investment in Microsoft (MSFT) in 1995 would be worth millions today.
Of course, not every stock is Microsoft, but holding high quality stocks through market gyrations can certainly lead to bigger gains.
That’s the essence of our Rich Man’s Supercurrency model portfolio in Freeport Investor, and my fellow co-founder of the Freeport Society, Louis Navellier, has proven this many times over.
Even this year, while market volatility led some people to sell, he held on.
A recent example is Celestica (CLS).
CLS started by building computer hardware, but expanded into aerospace, healthcare, and renewable energy technology. Today, it plays a key role in manufacturing complex electronics, including components for electric vehicles, cloud computing, and AI-driven technology.
Here is why Louis picked this small firm as a future player in the AI Revolution.
Celestica plays a key role in the AI Boom by helping companies design, manufacture and optimize the hardware that powers AI systems like data centers.
The company builds high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, as well as products like switches, data storage products, processors and more.
The company also created Photonic Fabric, an optical compute and memory fabric solution that can help boost AI infrastructure. It has the ability to create, scale and sustain future AI models.
Louis picked the stock in July 2024 – and immediately it was victimized by the summer drawdown, as you can see below. The stock dropped more than 20%.
But Louis didn’t panic sell a quality stock.
Fast forward about a year, and you can see that, like many other stocks, CLS was a victim of the spring market uncertainty associated with Trump’s Liberation Day press conference. CLS gave up most of its gains.
Louis stayed the course. And now he is sitting on an open gain of almost 250%.
What’s more, the position is still below Louis’ buy limit price, so he expects more upside coming.
Holding on to Physical AI Stocks
Some of the richest investors in the world got that way not by timing the market, but by holding the right stocks through the rough patches – especially in emerging industries with massive long-term potential.
One of those industries is robotics. Industrial automation is one of our core themes in the Freeport Society and part of what I call the rebuilding of America’s industrial empire. .
Several headlines last week emphasized the still-unrealized power of this megatrend. Here are a few samples…
Venture capital firms are pouring billions into startups focused on robotics technologies.
After securing $6 billion globally so far this year, the industry is on pace to surpass the $8.5 billion raised in all of 2024 according to data from Crunchbase News.
According to the American College of Surgeons, Texas doctors used a robotic platform to remove and implant a donor heart through small, precise incisions, avoiding the need for an invasive open procedure that would break the sternum.
This robotic approach preserved the chest wall’s integrity, which reduced blood loss and the need for transfusions. It also reduced the risk of developing antibodies against the transplanted heart. That’s a game changer for the thousands of Americans undergoing transplants every year.
Fresh, frozen and processed berries are a multi-billion-dollar business. In Arkansas alone, fresh-market blackberries contribute $24.3 million each year to the state’s economy, according to the university.
But blackberries sold at supermarkets must be picked by hand.That’s a problem given our labor shortage… and given that farm workers are being targeted aggressively for deportation. Robots are the only viable solution.
Those may not be investable opportunities for us today, but the robotics race is accelerating.
Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), John Deere (DE), and a new class of robotics innovators are already laying the groundwork for a new economic era.
Missing this wave of Physical AI could be like ignoring Microsoft in 1995, or Nvidia in 2016.
That’s why Louis and InvestorPlace Senior Analysts Luke Lango and Eric Fry see a “ChatGPT moment” coming for robotics.
A “Day Zero” that marks the time when everything changes.
From fully automated “dark factories” in China that churn out a smartphone every second to U.S. warehouses running 24/7 with minimal human oversight… this is the first wave of a global transformation. The companies enabling this shift stand to see explosive demand.
To that end, Louis, Luke and Eric have just created a seven-stock portfolio consisting of the best Physical AI and robotics stocks to own today as this new era begins.
They call it the Day Zero Portfolio.
They recently met to film a special free broadcast to talk all about it. You can get all the details about the Day Zero Portfolio here… and get one of their seven stocks as a free pick.
For anyone trying to grasp the next phase of AI, this is a must-watch.
If you’re concerned about volatility, hedge. Keep a little extra cash on hand. I certainly am.
But don’t let the summer’s seasonal volatility shake your faith in this inevitable trend. The AI revolution is just getting started.
To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth.