Pumping and dumping a stock is illegal. Perhaps the most entertaining – and extremely accurate – portrayal of stock promotion was the movie Boiler Room in which a bunch of BSDs fleece the middle class before finally getting taken down by the SEC. Today, pumping seems to be the cool thing to do. Meme stocks […]
One thing you learn in risk management class is that risk can be defined as the volatility of returns. It’s a way of not thinking about up or down, but rather the stability of a stock price. From that you can infer that stable stock prices are more desirable. So, when volatility gets introduced to […]
If you decide to bare your investing decisions for the world to see, you better do so with conviction. Unless your thesis changes, you should never sell a stock. When additional information becomes available that threatens your thesis, you ought to examine it objectively and act accordingly. That’s why when activist short-seller Scorpion Capital released […]
There’s a popular saying that goes something like this: Some people eat to live and others live to eat. Our globe-trotting MBAs definitely fall into the latter category, which is one reason why we’ve been so tepid on the whole greentech push towards plant-based foods and alternative protein markets. More objectively, we’re skeptical that these […]
We’ll often see people leave comments on our articles like “I’m up +420% on stock X.” Without a timeframe and a benchmark, it’s impossible to know if that’s good or bad, but most people don’t recognize that paper returns mean nothing unless you sell and take profits. Plenty of investors watch their stocks rack up […]
Fake it until you make it applies to the startup world as well. Oftentimes, a company will set out doing “business plan A” and end up finalizing on “business plan E.” That’s fine when you’re growing a new business, but not so good when you’re a publicly traded stock (cough, Organovo, cough). Sometimes you’ll have […]
We’re often asked why we write about companies that aren’t publicly traded. That’s because in the world of emerging technologies, the most exciting stuff is still in the process of emerging. When a company gets traction – what we define as meaningful revenue growth – they often decide to have an initial public offering (IPO). […]
We always say you shouldn’t invest in stories, but sometimes it’s so darn hard not to. That’s because deep down inside, we all like to have a punt now and then. It isn’t often we’re compelled to invest in teams with dreams, but Ginkgo Bioworks tempts our risk-averse nature like few others have. Since we […]
Some interesting things happen when you start telling people what stocks you’re invested in. They’ll start making assumptions. For example, one reader commented that we were “bearish on Palantir” when we opted to invest in C3 (AI) instead. That made us think. Maybe we ought to do a proper comparison between these two companies so […]
The 1997 film “Gattaca” promised a future where humans would be free of disease and babies born on demand with the latest upgrades, including enhanced speed, intelligence, and beauty. Much like a new Tesla Roadster. However, despite the technological predictions offered by Hollywood moviemakers, we’re still living in a time when synthetic biology is working […]