Purple Chip Stock

John Schwinghamer wrote yet another investor guide in 2012 (there are only 13,782 of these kinds of books in existence...and yes, other than a small handful, most say the same things). This book contributed one memorable nugget to the Stone Soup of collective investing: a Purple Chip.

Purple. As in royalty (purple exists still today as the color of Royals; in 1723, it was very hard to get dyes in that tone, so it was...special). When you've cultivated the Kingliest or Queenliest of Blue Chip Stocks (maybe there are 50? 75?), you then get a royal set of maybe five that offer the best risk-reward dynamics.

But, of course, just as in all things investing, a Purple Chip is only purple for so long. Investing is, in large part, about aligning with a contemporaneous environment. And in this case, the modern era is all about the FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google). If you own them, your portfolio is rockin'. If you don't, you've likely underperformed the market.

Anyone betting FANG witll still be the the "It Girl" in 15 years? Yeah, not so much. Off with their heads.