The more popular an investment theme becomes, the more likely retail investors get burned. Hype around any particular thesis is often driven by niche pundits who spout every bullish point they can dream up in newsletters that double as promotion platforms. That’s why we only invest in a thesis after heavily scrutinizing the space, and […]
Oftentimes we’ll come across an investment thesis that crosses multiple disruptive trends. One example would be LiDAR, a technology used in robotics, industrial machinery, smart infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles. Another example is machine vision which is used for a similar swath of use cases. Then we have the indoor growing thesis which lends itself to […]
If we had to pick the most complex investment themes we cover, synthetic biology and gene editing would be at the top. So would cannabis. Legalizing marijuana for adult use in various states while keeping things illegal at the federal level has created a very complex environment to navigate. As with any thesis, our goal […]
For a drug that’s illegal at the federal level, cannabis sure has built a strong brand for itself. Nearly half of all Americans polled by Gallup said they’ve tried cannabis. That’s up from 38% in 2013. One wonders if the uptake is more attributable to changing attitudes towards something Americans declared war on in the […]
If you think you’ll day trade your way into a better zip code, think again. Thousands of hedge funds across the globe employ millions of sneaky little AI algorithms that monitor the world’s big data. All that data exhaust being generated by alternative data providers is ingested to provide signals for trading strategies that generate […]
The Johari Window model is a psychological framework used to help people better understand how other people perceive them. You may think you know yourself, but you probably don’t. That’s your true self, and most people don’t really know their true selves. Maybe other people see that true self, or maybe you put on a […]
We don’t just cover cannabis because we consume loads of the stuff in all forms. Our first piece on the topic – No to Marijuana Stocks, Yes to Weed Investing – was published in 2016 to warn investors about all the over-the-counter (OTC) junk stocks attaching themselves to the cannabis thesis like leeches. Our attempt […]
Dabbling in drugs when you travel is playing with fire unless you can properly read the room. Take Barbados as an example, an island country with 250,000 people that we recently visited to cover the country’s independence sneak into the press box to drink Mount Gay and ogle Rhianna. Walking the main beach in town […]
Once upon a time, cannabis was part of the counterculture and not a target of venture capitalists. Cheech and Chong, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and High Times represented the extent of its media reach through the 1960s and into the 1980s. Today, Cheech is one of a number of ganjapreneurs, while the Freak Brothers […]
Thematic investing always involves a key decision – stock pick, hold an ETF, or do both. Sometimes, there aren’t enough quality pure-play companies to build an ETF with, like the space theme. Sometimes there are far too many good companies to choose from, as is the case with the cybersecurity theme. And sometimes you have […]