You still have time to protect your retirement. Not much.

January is closer than it looks.

So instead of waiting to see how it plays out, we went looking for companies that don't need Washington to cooperate.

One is a gold royalty company with no debt, built for a weaker dollar. Another is a defense contractor whose backlog is already paid for by government budgets. There's a household-name staple people keep buying no matter what Washington does, and a regulated utility that has kept paying through every kind of market.

There's also a hospital operator positioned to gain if expanded health coverage comes back, plus two more names we're keeping inside the report.

All 7, with the full name, ticker and reasoning for each, are in The Blue Wave Playbook. It's normally $19.99. Today it's yours free.

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🎮 Is Take-Two Stock Worth The Hype?

Let’s be honest about one thing up front. Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be a monster. It launches Thursday, November 19, the studio says the game is finished, and the last version sold over 200 million copies. The game is not the question. The question is whether buying Take-Two $TTWO stock right now is actually a smart move, or whether you’re showing up to the party after the good stuff is gone.

Start with a number that should make any excited buyer pause. Over the past five years, Take-Two stock is up just 21%. The broad market more than doubled over a similar stretch. So the company behind the most anticipated game on Earth has been a dud of an investment for half a decade. That’s not a knock on the game. It’s a reminder that a great product and a great stock are two very different things.

Here’s where it gets tricky. You can’t really judge Take-Two on its regular price-to-earnings ratio, the usual tool for seeing how pricey a stock is, because the company is losing money right now. There are no real earnings to divide by. Instead, investors lean on the forward P/E, which uses expected future profits, and that sits around 23 to 30. For comparison, other game and media companies trade closer to 12 to 16. In plain terms, you’re paying a premium price purely on the promise of what GTA VI will earn, not on what the company makes now.

And the most recent quarter was ugly. Take-Two reported after the close on November 9, and revenue fell 15.6% to about $1.50 billion. Net bookings, which is the total value of games and in-game content sold, dropped 18% to about $1.60 billion. The whole bull case rests on management’s guide of $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion in bookings for the year that includes the launch. CEO Strauss Zelnick said pre-orders are running far in excess of expectations, though the company hasn’t shared an actual number.

• 🎯 Analysts still love it. Wall Street’s consensus rating on Take-Two is a Strong Buy, with an average price target around $290, well above where it trades now.

• 💵 The sequel’s shoes are huge. The last game, GTA V, has sold over 200 million copies in its lifetime, setting a bar the new one has to clear to justify the stock.

• 📉 The stock already had a wild year. Take-Two hit a 52-week low of $183.86 and a high of $265.94, a reminder of how much this thing swings on launch nerves.

• 🗓️ The real proof comes later. GTA VI’s sales won’t fully show up until Take-Two’s next earnings report in the new year, so investors are buying on faith until then.

• 👀 Free Indicator: Get the free indicator (from T3Live)

The Munch Take: My wife asked if we should buy Take-Two stock since I won’t stop talking about this game, and I had to explain that loving the game and loving the stock are not the same thing. GTA VI will almost certainly be a hit, but the stock has already bounced, the valuation is rich, and the five-year track record is frankly lousy. When a stock is priced for a blockbuster, a blockbuster is exactly what it needs just to stay flat, and anything short of perfection can disappoint. So is it a buy here? We’re not convinced at this price. We’d rather watch how the launch actually lands and see if the hype turns into real, lasting sales before chasing it. Sometimes the smartest move is to enjoy the game and skip the stock.

From Good Morning Alerts: This is the #1 Energy Stock for the end of 2026

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