Top Performer - ASML

Ticker ASML, which I initially got by accident, happens to be my top performing stock at the moment. 
Around £11 of the stock was gifted to me from the brokerage platform Trading212 when I signed up.

I didn't think much of it, didn't investigate the company further, but I did top up my holdings with a couple of pounds here and there.

To see that this stock has gone up a great deal compared to my other stocks, I am now curious about this company.

A guy said, "a good company is likely to be a good company for a long time" or words to that effect. So why is it about this company that is allowing it's stock price to soar?

It appears to have extreme dominance in the semiconductor space with it's EUV lithography machines.

I don't know exactly what that is but I do realise a lot of tech companies rely on ASML's products and services in the tech space.

I then wonder who ASML's closest competitors are. It seems like there are a few who have tried but none have come close. This gives ASML a monopoly and huge dominance.

Canon has tried to compete with EUV but failed. So they reinvented the wheel and created a similar machine that works differently. However, this new creation of theirs will require infrastructure changes for existing EUV clients because the new tech is not compatible.

Again, I don't know what this all means in truth. The question is, why would a company shift to the new tech at its own expense and what are the actual benefits of doing so?

And the fact Canon's tech requires physical contact which introduces embedded contamination risk and parks wearing out, even if the process is overall cheaper and cost saving, in the long run, if the reject rate of the produced product increased and end user satisfaction decreases, then what is the actual point for the switch?

I have a feeling ASML will continue to dominate their niche, and even if canon gets a large order of its new product, it'll be a long time before it really takes off and really rivals ASML. And but then, ASML will probably develop a new line of product to rival whatever Canon is creating anyway.

Here are ASML's competition. Their charts are almost the same.

It would be interesting to realise if Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron simply trail behind ASML and the others and they are also heating towards a new ATH in the next two years. There is not a fat lot of difference in their charts and recognising that those two companies simply lag behind would be a great indicator to go all in, or at the very least DCA a small amount each week. This demands a bit of research to confirm what these two companies are doing and how their balance sheet stacks up against ASML's.

Honestly, Canon's chart doesn't get a feature as it appears to be flat lining for the most part and it doesn't scream hope. However, if something amazing happens and their approach to lithography takes over then it has huge upside potential. But, I just can't see it happening at the moment. Its worth keeping an ear open though.

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