Jim Thompson, CEO
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 5:31 pm
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In 2025, with my little "play" account (less than $100K) in the stock market, I beat all the standard indices (DJIA, NASDAQ, S & P 500, Russell 2000) with my performance. I hope I can do it again this year.
I don't own any forest products industry* stocks or REITS; I think it would be unethical at least, insider trading at its extremes. I just have too much information.
Of the stocks I do own, I never short, I think that is gaming the system--I just don't want to bet against companies, they do enough harm to themselves on their own.
Having said all the above, I will say this about the forest products industries in 2026. I believe there are plenty of opportunities to handsomely profit in the stock market with forest products stocks in 2026. What do you need to do to do this? Do your own thinking. I believe the industry did many things last year to clean up past mistakes and legacy laziness. The industry is poised to move forward in many directions in 2026. It is just a matter of making rational stock purchasing decisions.
I am not a chart guy or a technical stock watcher. I just buy what the world has come to need in the way of products.
One can be too overarching as well as too granular. I think getting this right is the most important perspective.
For instance, newsprint is dead. Toilet paper is directly tied to the size and growth of the population. Coarse packaging probably correlates pretty well with miles driven by Amazon, UPS and FedEx trucks. Fine packaging may correlate with advertising expenditure.
One thing that is a complete disconnect with the health of the forest products industry is employment. The employment per ton or per M Board Feet has been going down for forty years or more. It will continue to go down and has nothing to do with the health of the industry except to make it more profitable.
This will be my 56th year in the industry. I wish it the very best--I love it so.
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*pulp and paper; dimensional lumber; anything made from wood-based cellulose.
Jim Thompson is CEO of Paperitalo Publications.