Russian threat of invading Ukraine The action of the last few days is pricing in the Russian conflict against Ukraine. Volatility remains and is making is difficult for traders. For investors, they will be okay looking out 12 months. 70% of the S&P has now reported, with many record profit margins. The Russian conflict is pricing out the bullishness not only in oil, but many commodities like aluminum. But it's also a knee-jerk reaction, though it impacts inflation overall.
IWM small-caps, healthcare, banks and real estate. He's moving into small-caps for the next 12 months, doing less trading and more long-term investing.
Russian threats of invading Ukraine The real threat is interest rates. It's a long-term (1-3 years perhaps) consideration/challenge for investors and impacts how an investor values a company and makes investment decisions. Keep an eye on CPI data. What's going on with Russia-Ukraine is terrible from a humanity standpoint, but it doesn't impact her investing decisions; it's short-term.
You can't just buy "tech" now. You must work to find companies with logical valuations that offer earnings growth. Some tech stocks have that, some don't. The strategy playback that worked the last 5 years won't work in the coming 5 years.
She trusts management in buying Splunk. If she doesn't already own Splunk, then she wouldn't want Cisco to own it--but she trusts Cisco's CEO. When they report earnings, she expects a solid quarter, no negative surprises. This is exactly the company to own in this environment. Trades at 15x earnings, with expected 6-8% earnings growth for the next few years. It's do-able. As people work from home and the office, demands for networking will be higher and higher.