Talking Tech Stocks With Joe Albano (Podcast)

Joe Albano of Tech Cache discusses his background in technology and how he came to Seeking Alpha.

Artificial intelligence and 5G technology are taking hold slowly and the true impact will not be known for some time.

In the meantime there are opportunities in semiconductor stocks and even social media.

By Nathaniel E. Baker

Joe Albano rejoins the Marketplace Roundtable Podcast to discuss his investing experience as reflected in his Tech Cache service.

Albano's strategy is a hybrid of fundamental and technical methods. He focuses mostly on technology stocks, an industry he knows well from his life pre-Seeking Alpha. Albano has a university degree in computer and electrical engineering but says he is mostly self-taught when it comes to understanding chips and software.

"That's really my personality in a sense," he says. "I taught myself how to play drums and really haven't taken any lessons," becoming proficient by learning the correct techniques and practicing them repeatedly.

When it comes to investing, he did acquire some background knowledge at a young age. "Instead of getting the typical presents as a kid, I would get stock certificates." This led to a curiosity and interest in the concept of stock markets and eventually in the type of information that moved stocks and markets.

Now, years later he says a key lesson is sticking with one's convictions. "Don't doubt what you've already researched and pulled in," he says. Going back and playing Monday morning quarterback tends to more harm than good. "Don't over analyze it, look at it for what it is, try to make sure you're not missing anything, and then execute on what you've learned."

Sticking to risk profiles and time horizons is key to avoid getting distracted by events in the news. Albano holds stocks for the long term -- three years or more. Events that are transitory lead to short-term volatility and dips, but these can be opportunities to add more to positions.

Playing into this, Albano finds that changes in the latest technology will unfold a little more gradually than in the past. Take two hot button items: artificial intelligence and 5G. "The roll-out of both of those things is rather slow compared to the advancement of hardware and the ability to put transitors on a smaller die." Additionally, the potential of these technologies is still not fully understood by the companies that will put them to use.

"The ability for culture and society to adapt to these rather large changes." AI in its full use "is really something to wield carefully and I think 5G is also going to come along those lines and open up a whole new set of abilities to run your house wirelessly and run your car wirelessly and be able to do things on your smartphone that you weren't able to do consistently under 4G." The coming months should provide some clues on understanding the true impact -- but probably no more than clues for now.

For now, favorite ideas include Nvidia (NVDA) and other semiconductors. "Nobody's really convinced of a recovery as far as chips and memory goes. I kind of see it coming and it's better to be a little early than late on this." Albano also likes Snapchat (SNAP), owing to a recent change in outlook for the stock.

I am/we are long SNAP.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure:

Joe Albano is long NVDA, SWKS, MU, INTC, SNAP.

Nathaniel E. Baker is long SNAP.

Nothing on this podcast should be taken as investment advice.