23 Stocks I’m Watching For 2023: Part 1

Love them, hate them or tired of hearing of them...these are the names I am watching heading into 2023.

(Please read my full disclaimer at the end of this post. This is not a solicitation to buy any stocks, I am not a financial advisor.)

It’s that time again. And by “that time”, I mean several hours hunkering down in a basement chugging red wine while I furiously write about the 23 most interesting stocks I can think of for the upcoming year. And by “again”, I mean only for the second time ever.

But behold, I am now ready to offer up the 23 names that I am most interested in watching for the new year. We did this same type of post last year and 2022’s picks were a wild mix of big wins with some losses. It was tough in the beginning of the year to figure out the inflationary environment we’d be in for over the next 11 months, not to mention 400 bps of rate hikes and Russia invading Ukraine - none of those catalysts were full borne out while I was writing my stocks to watch - though they did serve to help several positions.

There were definitely some winners: for example, my idea to short ARKK for the year would have returned about 66%. Two names saw buyouts: Maxar was bought out at a more than 100% premium to end the year and Activision was taken over by Microsoft, posting a 14% gain for the year. Names like Lockheed Martin finished the year up about 35-40% benefitting from the conflict in Ukraine and Exxon was an absolute steamroller, finishing the year up ~72% and spitting out cash dividends every quarter.

I also beefed several calls: names like Robinhood underperformed or simply didn’t move much at all over the course of the year. Names like Disney, which was down about -44% for the year and the AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF, which was down about -70% for the year, turned out to not go the way I had thought they would. The GDX finished the year -14% and Virtu Financial, stung just in the last few days by new SEC rules about payment for order flow, will finish the year down about -31%.

You can view all my picks from 2022 here: Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here.

Now let’s move on to the 23 stocks I’m watching for the year ahead. First, if I had to guess and try to sum up what 2023’s key macro investing theme would be, here’s what I’d say.