Investors have collectively forgotten... cash is king. Think back to the boom of the dot-com mania.

Editor's note: Amid today's hype-fueled market environment, many investors often forget something important... Cash matters for a business. And how the business is producing that cash is a big deal... To that point, today we're sharing a classic essay from Joe Austin on the subject. Longtime readers might recognize this essay. It first appeared in the June 20, 2025 edition of the Chaikin PowerFeed. But Joe's message is just as important today as ever... Cash Is Still King By Joe Austin, senior analyst, Chaikin Analytics Investors have collectively forgotten... cash is king. Think back to the boom of the dot-com mania. You probably remember the chaos of that era. Waiters were quitting their jobs to trade stocks. I was a tech analyst at the time. And people were accosting me at cocktail parties to pitch ideas. Back then, I had a front-row seat of the bubble. I was working on a team that managed more than $14 billion for institutional clients and some of New York's wealthiest families. And I had an unusual assignment. I needed to find tech stocks with enormous long-term potential... and spot the bad companies that had no business being listed on the market. In other words, I had to find the likes of Google and Amazon – the real winners. But I also had to avoid companies that would lose everything. Pets.com is one of the most famous examples of the latter... The online pet-supply retailer never turned a profit. But when it went public, it raised a staggering $82.5 million. And it went out of business nine months later. So, I followed my assignment. It all came down to looking at one thing – cash... Recommended Links: Log In to Marc Chaikin's New $5,000 Earnings Detector It's a website that shows you which AI stocks could still rise 100% by spotting the biggest potential earnings beats before they occur. Last year alone, back tests show that you could have doubled your money seven times. Until February 17, get FREE access here (no purchase required). Wall Street Insider's AI Flags Surprising Stock Whitney Tilson, the hedge-fund veteran that 60 Minutes called during the 2008 crash, just unveiled a new AI strategy that ranks 6,000-plus stocks. One unexpected name just got a near-perfect score, and he's revealing the ticker for today's wild market. Click here to learn more. 'Real Cash' Matters Now companies often "hide" their real numbers. They use "financial engineering" to mislead the public. When you look at a company's quarterly earnings report, it can be 100 pages long. And it's full of accounting gibberish... So it can be confusing. But it turns out that you only need to know one thing – how much real cash the company produces. For every dollar the company takes in, how much pure cash does it generate after paying off all its expenses? Sometimes a big infusion of cash can come from a one-off event – like if Apple (AAPL) suddenly sold its entire iPad business, for example. But that kind of cash flow isn't "repeatable." It gets included in earnings, but it's not going to happen again. What you want is consistency. You want a company converting almost 100% of its earnings into cash – what I call "cash conversion" – quarter after quarter. You want that no matter what the company is selling – whether it's AI, gold, oil, medicine, clothing, and so on. I'll also note that using this kind of metric made me very unpopular with certain company-management teams back in the '90s... If I attended the lavish dinners they threw for wealthy investors, they would signal their bankers or PR folks to escort me out to the street – and close the door in my face. Companies wanted to woo institutional investors like me because we had a lot of money to invest. But in my case, I asked a lot of uncomfortable questions. You see, I had developed a way to tell which of the high-flying stocks in a boom or a breakthrough sector had the potential to return hundreds of percent... survive the busts and all the subsequent bear markets... and become household names. Meanwhile, I could also tell which stocks were doomed to crash and disappear. And it was all based on that core concept – cash is king. It was true in the '90s. And it's still true today. Good investing, Joe Austin   Editor's note: On Tuesday, February 17, Joe is joining our founder Marc Chaikin for a special event... During the event, they'll discuss an important indicator that relates to this "cash is king" concept. And they'll explain how it's all connected to a massive moneymaking opportunity ahead... In short, it can help point to which AI and other breakthrough stocks still have true potential to soar this year. Get more details and register to attend this free event here. Market View Major Indexes and Notable Sectors     # Hld:     Bullish     Neutral     Bearish Dow 30 -0.11% 9 17 4 S&P 500 -0.02% 123 292 82 Nasdaq +0.27% 24 52 24 Small Caps -0.45% 639 938 309 Bonds -0.53% Energy +2.61% 9 13 0 — According to the Chaikin Power Bar, Small Cap stocks and Large Cap stocks are Bullish. Major indexes are mixed. *  *  *  * Sector Tracker Sector movement over the last 5 days Energy +4.07% Information Technology +3.51% Utilities +3.51% Materials +3.33% Real Estate +3.23% Industrials +3.22% Consumer Staples +1.62% Health Care +0.14% Communication -0.05% Consumer Discretionary -1.95% Financial -2.26% *  *  *  * Industry Focus Software & Services 7 77 53 Over the past 6 months, the Software & Services subsector (XSW) has underperformed the S&P 500 by -22.67%. Its Power Bar ratio, which measures future potential, is Very Weak, with more Bearish than Bullish stocks. It is currently ranked #21 of 21 subsectors. Indicative Stocks ABTC American Bitcoin Cor AGYS Agilysys, Inc. ZS Zscaler, Inc. *  *  *  * Top Movers Gainers GNRC +17.93% SNDK +10.65% MU +9.94% SW +9.9% UHS +8.71% Losers CBRE -12.24% LDOS -11.15% HOOD -8.91% AIZ -8.65% CRL -8.42% *  *  *  * Earnings Report Earnings Surprises SW Smurfit Westrock Plc Q4 $0.28 Missed by $-0.22 TMUS T-Mobile US, Inc. Q4 $2.41 Beat by $0.41 GFS GlobalFoundries Inc. Q4 $0.55 Beat by $0.08 THC Tenet Healthcare Corporation Q4 $4.70 Beat by $0.63 EQIX Equinix, Inc. Q4 $3.37 Missed by $-0.51 *  *  *  * You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to PowerFeed. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from PowerFeed, click here. You're receiving this e-mail at indra21poetra@gmail.com. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, call +1 (877) 697-6783 (U.S.), 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Eastern time or e-mail info@chaikinanalytics.com. Please note: The law prohibits us from giving personalized financial advice. © 2026 Chaikin Analytics, LLC. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Chaikin Analytics, LLC. 201 King Of Prussia Rd., Suite 650, Radnor, PA 19087. www.chaikinanalytics.com. Any brokers mentioned constitute a partial list of available brokers and is for your information only. Chaikin Analytics, LLC, does not recommend or endorse any brokers, dealers, or investment advisors. Chaikin Analytics forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security they recommend to our subscribers. All employees of Chaikin Analytics, LLC (and affiliated companies) must wait 24 hours after an investment recommendation is published online – or 72 hours after a direct mail publication is sent – before acting on that recommendation. This work is based on SEC filings, current events, interviews, corporate press releases, and what we've learned as financial journalists. It may contain errors, and you shouldn't make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. It's your money and your responsibility.