The Market’s Up This Year. Do You Feel Like You Are Winning?

In this podcast, Motley Fool analysts Bill Mann and Jason Moser and host Dylan Lewis discuss:

• Why it doesn’t feel like the market is up 18% YTD and their slices of humble pie this Thanksgiving.
• The reasons they’re thankful for Cadence Design Systems, CRISPR, and our podcast listeners around the globe.
• The no-go topics at this year’s dinner table: crypto and weight-loss drugs.
• Two stocks worth watching: Samsara and Domino’s.

James Zahn, editor-in-chief at The Toy Book, shares the toys and brands to watch this holiday season.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on Nov. 24, 2023.

Dylan Lewis: We’re serving up seasonal dishes and sharing our thanks. Motley Fool Money starts now.

It’s the Motley Fool Money radio show. I’m Dylan Lewis. Joining me in the studio, Motley Fool Senior Analysts, Bill Mann and Jason Moser. Gentlemen, great to have you both here.

Bill Mann: Hey, hey, glad to be here.

Dylan Lewis: If I’m not mistaken, we might be joined by a special holiday guest as well, is that right? Yes. The holiday gobbler of our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd and the Thanksgiving Peanut gallery joining us. We’ve got our annual holiday cornucopia today, a look back at the year that’s been, some things that we’ve gotten right, some things we haven’t, and some tips for toys this holiday season. We’re going to start with a dose of humble pie here. I think it’s important to lay expectations down and low here. Bill, the S&P 500 is up 18% year to date. The Nasdaq is up 37% year to date. I don’t know about you, but I still feel like it’s a year of humility for a lot of investors.

Bill Mann: If you go to look at the mean return of the average company in the Russell 2000, it’s down more than 30% in some ways, and you can’t really do it this way. This is what I’m about to say is unfair and indefensible, but it’s still a brutal bear market. For a lot of people out there, they look at the returns of the big indices, and then they look at their own portfolios. We’re like, what in the world am I doing wrong? It is simply a function of not being invested in the S&P 7. That’s it.

Dylan Lewis: Yeah. I would say like there’s the return side of that. I think there’s just a general atmosphere side of it too, Jason. With all of the macro stuff that’s been going on, I think it’s been hard for people to get a grip on exactly what’s happening.

Jason Moser: It just feels like it’s not been as good of a year as mathematically it has been. It’s confounding, no question.

Dylan Lewis: Why don’t we dig into some of the specific slices of humble pie here. Bill, what do you got?

Bill Mann: Man. I still have a Hall of Famer from last year which was, no, Russia’s not going to invade Ukraine. That was me. That was a quote from Bill Mann. I don’t have as much this year that was quite that bad, although that one was historical. But I think that maybe my worst was not really worrying about Silicon Valley Bank collapsing, because I really had a belief, and this belief is backed by history, that rising interest rates would be pretty good for banks in terms of their capacity to generate returns. But what I didn’t really count on was that banks that are mostly branchless have very little customer stickiness relative to branched banks. Silicon Valley Bank imploding was a surprise to me.

Dylan Lewis: I got beat by the turkey there. If it makes you feel any better, I feel like a lot of people could look at the year in review, and these come out all the time around this time of year. There’s the high lights or the low lights of what happened over the course of the year and be reminded that there was a banking failure because so many other things have happened that it almost felt like a non event in the grand scheme of everything we’ve been processing.

Bill Mann: That’s right. It is funny, because after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, everyone started looking at the next bank, and the next bank, and the overall system. But there were two basically somewhat crazily structured banks that collapsed. That was it.

Dylan Lewis: That was it. We put an end to it. We were expecting more.

Bill Mann: We put an end to it. I like that.

Dylan Lewis: It makes me feel like I had saying it. Jason, what about you? What’s the humble pie this year?

Jason Moser: Well, January second, at the beginning of this year, I did say on our local Fox affiliate here, FOX 5 DC, that I quote, “We will probably witness a recession in 2023,” and lo and behold, to this point, we have not witnessed a recession.[laughs] I have just a big fat turkey and I hang my head in shame. It’s really a bit confusing too. It’s been a year full of a lot of things. Clearly Ukraine and Russia not resolved. No one really could have predicted what’s been going on over in Israel of course. Bank failures along the way. It really feels like the economy should have gone through some type of protracted contraction there. You look at the prior year, we did see two consecutive quarters of economic contractions. I think, you had that rolling recession term bandied about a little bit. Who knows? The consumer has been a bit more resilient than I think a lot of us expected. I also wonder if maybe we’re not going to see the impacts of these rate hikes in the student loan repayments start to flow through the financials a little bit more in early 2024. Will there be a recession in 2024? I’m not going to get out here and make that call.

Bill Mann: Leave it alone.

Jason Moser: No. I was just going to say, are you doing the, I wasn’t wrong, it was just the timing?

Bill Mann: Lessons learned. Well, if we want to get really big picture. There’s going to be a recession at some point here. Whether it’s ’24, ’25, there will be another recession. Who knows when? We might see a situation here in the near term or what’s bad for the economy is ultimately good for markets. We’ll have to put a pin on that and revisit the first half of ’24.

Dylan Lewis: I feel like this has been the recession that has been coming for what feels like 18 months hasn’t quite materialized. I don’t have a specific item of humble pie. I think broadly, my feeling is just it didn’t matter what the topic was, whether it was bank failures, whether it was geopolitical stuff, whether it was the recession materializing or not. You could have given me data points. You could have told me what was going to happen three weeks ahead of time, and I probably would have gotten the market reaction wrong. I probably would have gotten the long term trajectory of the market wrong without fail across the board. I’m curious for you guys, having looked back at some of these decisions, did those decisions impact the investing decisions you made at all this year or anything you would do differently based on this retrospective?

Jason Moser: Personally, no. I will say, we talked about this last week with Buffett and that net buyer versus net seller thing, Buffett being a net seller this year. I’ve been a net buyer all year. I think if anything, it probably limited my buying activity because I thought there might be a few more obvious opportunities that just never really came across. But it ultimately didn’t affect me, no. Bill, what about you?

Bill Mann: Not really either. But you do remind me of one of my least favorite phrases in finance, which is the easy money has already been made. Have you ever heard anyone say the easy money is about to be made? No, you never know. No, you never know. For me, I think one of the things that I completely underestimated was just how excited people would get about AI. Not so much with the AI companies themselves, but flowing through particularly a company like Nvidia, which has had such an unbelievable year in the market. I always have assumed, and I still do assume, that it’s coming, that the learning part of this cycle is upcoming. The easy money has already been made.

Dylan Lewis: You mentioned Nvidia there. I think a lot of people probably pretty thankful for the Magnificent Seven in the S&P 500, talking about this year to date returns. They better be responsible for a very large portion of them while some other companies struggled. I’m curious what are some stocks that you guys are thankful for this year, Jason?

Jason Moser: I’m thankful for Cadence Design Systems. Particular, there’s CDNS and Cadence offers what they call the building blocks of intelligent electronic product design. But ultimately, Cadence, they’re the behind the scenes company that helps all of these other chip companies like Qualcomm, Nvidia, Samsung, AMD, Marvel, even companies like Microsoft and beyond. They help these companies build their superior technology through their software, their hardware, and their IP. They generate revenue in a number of different ways, licensing its software, selling or leasing its hardware. It’s ultimately 85-90% recurring revenues. Very attractive from that perspective. Again, you mentioned those big customers like Nvidia, Microsoft, Qualcomm and whatnot. You can see they’ve established a very important position in the value chain and they benefit from all of these tail ones that we’re seeing play out in things like IoT, Internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, all of that stuff. These are tail ones for Cadence’s business. It’s worked out very well for the company. They’ve grown revenue over the past five years, 13.4% compound annual growth rate there. Earnings per share growth of 33.4% over those five years. Generated $1.1 billion in free cash flow over the trailing 12 months. Best of all, Dylan, this is a two time recommendation in my services. It’s a market beater for both and the stock is up better than 60% this year. Our members are winning along the way. I’m very thankful for that.

Dylan Lewis: I’m not a shareholder, I don’t have it in my portfolio, but I always love a business that reminds you, you do not necessarily need to be investing in the company that makes the end product. You can invest in the companies along the way in the supply chain and do just fine on a trend. I love it. Bill, what about you? What’s a business you’re thankful for?

Bill Mann: I’m actually, thankful for CRISPR Therapeutics which has not had a stock year in the way that Jason has described, although it is at an all-time high and it is up a cool 70% this month on the back of the authorization in the UK of its sickle cell anemia treatment called Casgevy, which is the first approved of the CRISPR therapy. CRISPR has the prospect of really changing how healthcare is given and medicines and pharmaceuticals are designed based on a genetic editing capability. I don’t know if you know this, but your genes are different from my genes, are different from Jason’s genes. Even different from, what are we calling the turkey, the gobbler?

Dylan Lewis: I think that’s a stand in though. I’m open to suggestions and it seems like the turkey is as well. Listeners, if you have suggestions podcast, fool.com. You know what you we’re saying?

Bill Mann: I’m going far break. No, I’m sorry. There is such a power to having drugs that are based on your own genetic code and it’s been coming forever. Seeing this first drug and seeing this first therapy get approval to me just is the portend of really, really great things in healthcare upcoming.

Dylan Lewis: We’ve got more stock talk coming, including the topics we are desperately trying to avoid this Thanksgiving. Of course, some love for you our listeners. Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money.

Dylan Lewis: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I’m Dylan Lewis joined in studio by Bill Mann and Jason Moser. [laughs] I’m too quick on the draw. I’m not using Mr. Gobbler in the studio. I’m sorry I should have said I’m joined again by Mr. Gobbler too.

Bill Mann: Wait, wait are we assuming it’s a mister?

Dylan Lewis: I don’t know. It would stand so I just assumed. I don’t know. We know about as much here as we do about CRISPR it turns out. We’ve been grateful and now we are switching gears, and we are putting up some boundaries. Thanksgiving Is a feast and it’s a lot of time around the table. Jason, what topic are you trying to avoid?

Jason Moser: Well, I’m using CRISPR. I like my turkey CRISPR. There you go. Not at the table. Can we just take it back and not here on the Ozempic and GLP on analog talk? I’m not anti Ozempic. Don’t get me wrong. There appears to be some real potential benefits to these drugs. They can lower A1C to help folks manage their diabetes. That’s great. Perhaps can lower risk of major cardiovascular events. Huge win. May help you lose some weight. I think we’re all on board with this stuff. But can we just admit there’s simply a lot about these drugs that we just don’t know yet. We don’t know how these are going to ultimately impact humanity. We were talking before production here. Bill made the great point when you’re talking about weight loss implications, you’re talking about chronic use of these drugs. We don’t know how these drugs are going to impact folks after chronic use. The only way we know that is for lots of time to elapse. When I start seeing investing theses being drawn out to it, I think someone hit us on Twitter where it was talk of like investing in airlines because people are going to lose weight therefore, planes are carrying a lighter load. [laughs] Let’s just bring it back. Let me focus on the real inflation here of getting my belly as big as I possibly can at this Thanksgiving table, and then let’s just give these things a little bit of a breather and learn more about them.

Dylan Lewis: You want to enjoy the meal and not be reminded of the other stuff.

Jason Moser: Absolutely.

Dylan Lewis: Bill, what about you?

Bill Mann: For me, it still has to be crypto. Simply because all of the arguments have been made. Generally speaking, you’re talking about, whenever you talk about an investing case, that is based on something that is close to like a religious fervor. To me, there’s just no win in having that discussion. Was that an agreement to have or.

Dylan Lewis: Just enthusiasm. I’m amazed that didn’t warn a Gobbler my gosh. Are you sleeping back there?

Bill Mann: You’re just not going to convince someone on either side of the argument of whether cryptocurrencies are going to change the world or not at this point. The dinner table where you can’t escape because as Jason has just noted, you’ve eaten way too much. It’s just not the place to do it.

Dylan Lewis: You’re putting crypto in the same bucket as politics. We’re like no one’s changing their minds so why do we even bother talking about it?

Bill Mann: In that forum, I think the answer is absolutely yes. I do not want to talk about crypto with Uncle Pete who knows everything. A trip to fine has gotten him. He’s maybe had one beer, too many. Not the time, not the place. I just want to watch my football.

Dylan Lewis: I’m with you. I’m right there with you on the couch. Of course, we are thankful for many things this holiday season. We’re especially thankful for our listeners. We get to do the show because you guys are out there listening to it on radio stations and in your podcast feeds. As we wrap this segment, wanted to talk a little bit just about some listener and some member love. I have a couple notes here, one from listener Ken who recently wrote to us on X, formerly Twitter, saying, we keep him company while he’s out on his long runs. Ken, we appreciate you stay hydrated, keep those knees high. I also want to give a shout out to our listener, Matthew, who wrote in after the holidays last year and said, I hope the email finds you well. Was listening to the podcast, how much does Santa Way and the host said they have one listener in Ireland. I wanted to say hi. I believe I’m the listener.

I’ve been on my investing journey for a little over a year and found your podcast early on to hear the Christmas Eve episode. As I waited for my wife to finish getting ready that I might have gotten a shout out. Absolutely, made my day surprisingly exciting. Thank you for all the content you do and the calming word you bring. Look forward to many more years of listening your Irish listeners. I’ll say I wanted to read this story even though it’s a little bit an older one because one of the most gratifying parts of the job to me is realizing the reach of the show. How many different people, how many different places it goes, and where we fit into people’s lives. Hearing that people are running and listening to the show, hearing that we’re reaching. People in Ireland did a quick count. We’re in over 100 countries in terms of our downloads, it’s absolutely incredible and something that I always have to remember as we sit here in the studio, just the three of us, and Dan and Mr. Gobbler in the background. We are deeply appreciative and I think Mr. Gobbler is as well, in his own way. Jason, what’s song it sticks out to you as a member moment when.

Jason Moser: Well, I love all the stuff he brought up in regard to listeners and it’s always a good reminder that people are actually listening. It’s always a really good feeling and it’s humbling and we really do appreciate it. I’m going to go one step further. We recently had a member event in New York City. First member event we’ve had a while and they’ve been very few and far between. I can’t even pinpoint one conversation or one interaction because this was a quick 2-3 day event. But it was chock-full, was so much good stuff. We had the kickoff reception at the Nasdaq market site location. We had three tremendous speakers. Ron Shake, whom you interviewed, did a great job Dylan. Melissa Schilling with Michael Lewis there, which was very timely. A terrific reception, all of our members down there talking in the word I kept coming back to with our members and all of the Fools there. It was reinvigorating. It was something I think a lot of us really needed. I think we all felt that and coming away from it. If there’s a way to recharge your batteries, that was a surefire way to do it for me.

Dylan Lewis: Bill, what about you?

Bill Mann: I recently got a shout out from a longtime Fool member named Randy Williamson. I want to give Randy a lifetime achievement award because every once in a while I’ll just look in my inbox and there’s a note from Randy and he just said, I had interviewed Howard Mark, she’s like that was just such a great interview and I really appreciate it. I learned so much. Again, just to your point, sometimes you forget that there’s something out there. We sit here and talk with each other through a microphone, but not that long ago. I am the quizmaster at a pub on Wednesday nights and not that long ago I went in and I was wearing a piece of Fool Swag and this woman who comes in every week said, wait a minute, I know who you are. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where I knew that voice from and it was from the show. She didn’t say whether she was approved or not.

Dylan Lewis: It wasn’t glowing or damning.

Bill Mann: That’s right. But it was appreciation. It was noted, I guess.

Dylan Lewis: I think that’s all to say, listeners, we love hearing from you podcast at fool.com is where you can reach us. Up next we’ve got tips for holiday shopping and gift giving. Stay right here you’re listening to Motley Fool Money.

Dylan Lewis: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I’m Dylan Lewis. Thanksgiving means a lot of things, including the ramp-up to the winter holidays and gift-giving. We wanted to find out what the hot toys for kids were this year, so we spoke with James Zahn, Editor-in-Chief at The Toy Book and Senior Editor at the Toy Insider to talk through the toy industry and maybe save us from putting cash in envelopes this holiday season. Let’s start with the headline, what are the IT Toys for 2023?

James Zahn: It’s always interesting to think about the IT Toys because this has evolved over the decades where there’s no longer that singular must-have it toy that every kid on the planet needs. On the consumer side of our business, on the Toy Insider, we put together a hot 20 list every year, because there’s ideas there. We’re hoping to inspire people. But a few of the big hits this year, some of my favorites, there’s a toy called Beast Lab from Moose Toys where kids are going to make their own action figure and there’s this bio mist that comes out of this thing and it’s very visual. There’s lights and sounds. It’s a lot of fun. Kind of old school, new school jazz wars has the Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron AT-AT. This is the imperial walker from the Empire Strikes Back, but micro style, and it’s really interesting because their vehicles in that line are to scale. Which if you’ve ever been a kid and it’s like, OK, you’ve got the Millennium Falcon, but somehow the toy is the same size as the X-wing, that doesn’t really work. With this new Micro Galaxy Squadron, they did them to scale, so that your snow speeder is properly small next to the AT-AT. So got that updated Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage and Barbie Dreamhouse from Mattel Hot, Bitzee from Spin Master, which is a virtual digital pet that kids can actually interact with physically, which is a unique spin. There’s a new line of micro collectibles from MGA Entertainment that combine crafts with collecting. It’s called Miniverse, Make It Mini. Droid is a company that’s big in the EV like the electric mobility space. They have a trike called The Romper, that’s like an old-school ’70s big wheel, but it’s an EV. Pretty sweet ride for kids, and then up and coming company called PMI Kids World, they have a property called Pinata Smash Lings that merges physical toys, all kinds of action figures, vehicles, play sets, but then they’ve also got a Roblox game. There’s all kinds of stuff it interacts, and those are just a few ideas to get us started.

Dylan Lewis: You mentioned Roblox there and that’s a name that’s familiar to a lot of our listeners. It’s a company that comes up a lot. We have a mix there, it sounds like of the conventional, get your hands on it kind of toy and also some digital toys. Do you see strength in both of those categories?

James Zahn: I do, and I see it in new ways, because when you think of digital toys, even a few years ago, there was this huge movement of every toy needed an app, or somehow needed to be connected to a screen, and that’s a prime example of an actual fad. Now, the companies are putting a lot more effort into tying this stuff together where it’s very synergistic between them, where it’s like, OK, we’ve got this property and we want to put it where the kids are, which might be Roblox, it could be YouTube, but we want to get it back into the physical world. The nice thing is being able to use these toys without that connected entertainment. That was the big problem a couple years ago. I always equate it to like Teddy Ruxpin. It’s like that was a toy from the ’80s, but now, 40 years later, if I were to find one and put fresh batteries in it and pop in a cassette, it works. But if somebody made a toy like that that was using, say, an iPhone for its face with an app, you don’t know if that’s going to be supported two months from now. They’ve gotten better and there are some ways where it all intersects in a way that will hopefully make these things timeless.

Dylan Lewis: You might have just answered this a little bit, but do you see any categories or approaches to toys in play that are fading a little bit?

James Zahn: Yeah, and actually, I would go right back to that. Screens are fading a bit, which is a welcome change. There are really strong tech toys that are screen-free, while there are some great products that are incorporating those screens in a complimentary fashion, and I think one of the companies that’s probably best at doing this right now, they’re called Abacus Brands. They make these VR and AR kits, and they’re doing a lot in the license space. They have a Penn and Teller magic lab VR kit, this here that teaches the kids magic, and it’s interesting because it goes beyond that, it’s not just teaching magic or illusion. It falls into this toy trend that we call MESH, which is mental, emotional, and social health. To perform magic, to be an illusionist, you need confidence. You need public speaking ability. You need to be able to work the crowd. That’s a lot of like coming from within the child, and by learning this in a way that pairs physical magic tools, it comes with a whole magic kit. But then with an app and a book in which Penn and Teller are teaching you how to do this, it can open these kids up, crack them out of their shells. That’s a good space where it’s like using the tech in a way that’s actually beneficial and it’s doing something. I think another area that might be dipping a little bit is some of the blind bag collectibles or the mystery collectibles that were big a couple years ago, and that’s, I would say, solely due to cost increases. Used to be the whole magic of that is you had a pocket money toy that was 3-5 bucks. Well, now is they’re slowly creeping into $7-10 toys. Well, for $10 maybe the parent could get the kid something more meaningful. Then also this year it felt like traditional baby dolls, with a few exceptions, started to drop off a little bit following the pandemic boom. That had a lot of comfort with playing with dolls. Then the only other slide I can think of is maybe some of the Marvel Toys outside of preschool. Preschool, they have Spidey and his amazing friends and it’s doing great. But think about the way Marvel and Disney, like their trajectory this year, cinematically, that declined so the demand for those products declines along with.

Dylan Lewis: Yeah, let’s talk a little bit about some of these media brands that have really big intellectual property libraries. You read my mind there with Marvel because we’ve seen interest in some of those movies, Wayne. On the flip side, we saw a huge blockbuster movie with Barbie. Are we seeing the hits that come out on the pop culture side start to drive interest in sales, especially for some of these brands that have been around for a while?

James Zahn: Yeah, we’re going back to that a little bit. Entertainment really used to be such a key driver in getting interest into the toy sales, which you look at the industry as a whole, you backtrack it to like the ’50, ’60, ’70s, where TV started to explode and there was a lot of licensing interest, and then of course, late ’70s, Star Wars totally changed the game and basically wrote the playbook. A playbook that in large part is still in use today. But the pandemic really just threw a wrench and everything where the toys and the movies or the content, because now we have streaming and all of this, they were out of sync. You had movies in theaters with no toys, you had toys on shelves. This was the kicker for the industry. You had toys on shelves for movies no one had ever seen, so no one cared that those toys were out there. I mean, there were Top Gun, Maverick toys on shelves almost two years before Paramount put that movie out. You had this weird thing happening, but now it’s back together. I think, the first big hits of this year was from Paramount. They had a double whammy of success with Transformers, Rise of the Beast, which had toys from Hasbro, of course, that’s a Hasbro brand. Transformers is actually doing really well for Hasbro in general. Then you had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Those toys came out from Playmates toys. They won a toy of the year award, just really good. Those brought some attention to the action aisle. Then over in the doll aisle, Barbie the movie comes out and it was box office behemoth, as we all know. It came out, basically in the first weeks of the third quarter. A lot of the products that shipped for that right out of the gate were firmly geared toward adults or this market as people are calling it.

But now that the movie has come home, it’s available on digital. Now more kids are starting to see it. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, that is driving some foot traffic back into the theaters. But I think the biggest surprise is five nights at Freddy’s this fall, which we’ve been eyeing this in the world of the toy book for years as basically a sleeper hit, that is nine years old that has tremendous brand recognition with kids that it started as an independent video game. It’s also a very interesting story because that property, that IP is still owned by one guy, so he didn’t give it out. He’s got a licensing firm called Stryker that’s marketing this for him. But he got his movie deal with Blumhouse which is through universal, and they have these toys that are out there. This movie was Number 1 at the Box Office, I think two weeks in a row, and Funko was one of the early players that got in on that action. Not just through the pop vinyls that they do, they had all products. They got in on it early, they got him out there, and then you’ve got these other emerging companies like Youtooz, and Just Toys, and Heck that are making this product. Now it’s got this big retail presence like I was just in an FYE a couple of weeks ago. It’s just a night explosion. Go into hot topic. You know all the kids, mine included, they call it FNaF, five nights of Freddy’s acronym. FNaF all over the front of hot topic. You’ve got this property that went games, toys, now movie, and they have a book line from scholastic that’s already moved, like 10 million units.

Dylan Lewis: James, you have kids, I don’t have kids, but I do have kids on my shopping list. Help me out a little bit, what should I be doing or what are some tips for me as I’m thinking about the kids on my list this year.

James Zahn: The biggest thing to remember is that every kid is different, their families are different. You need to take into consideration their parents, try to find out what those kids are into. You want to make a thoughtful purchase. I used to say that there used to be a joke, and it still surfaces once in a while that like the wacky aunt or uncle comes in, they buy the kids the loud, obnoxious thing, like the drum set. Still people talk about that, like he brought the drum set over so that the kids could bang on it and ruin the house and all this stuff. Sometimes that totally works and people are into it, other times they’re like, I don’t like it when that guy comes around with a gift. It’s better to be that cool gift giver where you’ve got something that’s really awesome that has some thought that was put into it. A great way to make this happen is to think outside the big box. We love Target, Walmart, Amazon. But think about your local independent toy stores, your specialty stores, hobby stores, gift shops. Those stores are staffed by people that legitimately know the products that they sell. They know what interests they tap into. They know some of those other things, like I mentioned me earlier with the mental, emotional, social health or stem, the science, technology, engineering math. They can tie into those interests and really suggest something to you that might be totally off the radar. But the kids and their families end up loving.

Dylan Lewis: Listeners, you can catch more from James on over at the toy book and toy insider. Coming up after the break Bill Mann and Jason Moser return and they weigh in on one of James’s recommendations for family game play and give some stocks on their radar. Stay right here, you’re listening to Motley Fool Money.

Dylan Lewis: As always, people on the program may have interests in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don’t buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. I’m Dylan Lewis joined again by Bill Mann and Jason Moser. If I’m not mistaken yeah, there he is, one more guest, Mr. Gobbler. Our last interview segment was with James Zahn, who is a toy industry expert. After we finished our recording, I asked him what he would recommend for family gameplay during the holidays. You get a bunch of different people together from the family, different ages, what would you do? He said two main options. He said large format monopoly, which apparently is new or large format connect four the old classic. Jason, which one of those two are you going with for a family to get together?

Jason Moser: I love Connect Four. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like for a family to get together, a monopoly is a bit more suitable because it’s a game that’s going to last a little bit longer. Hey capitalism, it’s just a fun one. I’d probably out for Monopoly. I think it is a matter of an attention span thing, Bill. I think that’s what it comes down to. If you feel like you can grip the attention of the family for more than a couple minutes, maybe monopolies to play, but Connect 4 is really for people that don’t have the longevity. But also Monopoly is the worst game in America. Let’s go Connect 4 if we can introduce gambling to the affair as well. We start betting, because those games go pretty quick.

Dylan Lewis: You want to play a lot of hand.

Jason Moser: Let’s throw some money.

Dylan Lewis: You’re saying.

Bill Mann: I need to know what you mean by large size. I mean, is it like the size of a billboard and you’ve got these manhole covers. Because that’s pretty fun.

Dylan Lewis: Yeah. We’re all the ring at like drones carrying your piece. I think you are capable of lifting and moving the piece. It comes with one of those little back up shots.

Jason Moser: I see.

Bill Mann: To me, I would play that for a very long time.

Dylan Lewis: As I understand it, the monopoly piece is about the size of your hands. Does that shape anything for you?

Bill Mann: No.

Dylan Lewis: They need to be bigger. It’s not big enough. We’re going to get over to radar stocks in a second. But first I’m curious fellows. You guys both have Thanksgiving dinners. What are you excited to have on the table?

Jason Moser: I did it last year and it worked out so well. I’m doing it again. I’m going to spatchcock that turkey and throw it on the Traeger with some Dizzy Pig Mad Max Turkey Seasoning.

Dylan Lewis: Wow. How are you going to follow that up?

Bill Mann: You hear that sound right now? That’s the sound of the pastrami that I’m curing. I pulled my family earlier this year and they’re like, let’s not do a turkey this year. I’ve got the Prague salt. I’ve got the spices. It is curing right now. That’s what’s happening at the man household. Again, on the smoker, astronomy is so good.

Dylan Lewis: Do you have an extra seat at the table? It’s just out of curiosity. [laughs]

Bill Mann: It is possible that some of it will find. We’ve got 14 pounds of it. Some of it may find its way into the office because there are just five of us.

Dylan Lewis: I think a lot of people would appreciate that Bill. Let’s get over to stocks on our radar. Our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd, is going to hit you with a question. Jason, you’re up first. What are you looking at this week?

Jason Moser: Just keep an eye on Sam Sarah Ticker as IoT got earnings coming out on November 30 after the market closes. This company has recommended in our Next-Gen Supercycle service, it’s done very well thus far. Sam Sarah is the pioneer, the connected operations Cloud. This ultimately allows businesses that depend on physical operations to harness that Internet of Things, magic and data to develop actionable insights and improve the operations ultimately. Video-based safety is the company’s largest and fastest growing application. Today ultimately serves as a good springboard from which to grow those customer relationships. The nice thing is that contracts with their customers are typically 3-5 years long, which means two things really. Customers usually take the leap with a longer timeline in mind. Then it also gives the company a longer road of revenue generation with the opportunity to really to hammer home the benefit and the value of those services.

Dylan Lewis: Dan love a ticker that has some fun in it. This one’s IoT. What’s your question or comment about Sam Sarah?

Dan Boyd: Very appropriate. I guess that’s all we got for that one. Bill, what’s on your radar this week?

Bill Mann: I’m going to try and top Sam Sarah with Domino’s Pizza. How are we doing so far?

Dylan Lewis: Pizza is always best.

Bill Mann: Domino’s Australian franchise is rolling out new electric bikes that have an oven built onto the back of them. This is a trial in certain markets in Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, so that your pizza shows up fast and really honestly, freshly coming out of the oven. Who is against that?

Dylan Lewis: You don’t want to have the situation where it’s warm and then it cools down in transit. That’s the worst-case scenario.

Bill Mann: That’s physics. You take it out of the oven and it’s starting. But what if you don’t have to take it out of the oven until the moment you put it into the hand.

Dylan Lewis: But we’re talking about an actual oven here. You’re not talking about like one of those cozies.

Bill Mann: Not a warmer, not a cozy, an oven like it is cooking on the way. The last thing that happens is you get delivered a piping, hot Domino’s Pizza.

Dylan Lewis: Dan and Mr. Gobbler, a question about Domino’s pizza and these magical e-bikes.

Dan Boyd: This is the wildest thing I’ve ever seen. Our listeners, because this is an audio medium, can’t see these things. But you all deserve to look up the pictures of these things. They look like they’re from a movie. They’re amazing. It’s so cool, and I want one and if I ever see one, I’m stealing one.

Dylan Lewis: At the risk of asking a question, I know the answer to. Dan, which company is going on your watch list this week?

Dan Boyd: I don’t even remember what Jason said. We’re going to go with Domino’s.

Dylan Lewis: Yeah. I think that figures it’s really hard to beat looking bikes. We’ll put a link to the Domino’s article in the description. That’s going to do it for this week’s Motley Fool Money radio show. We appreciate you listening and we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We’ll be back with a new episode on Monday.