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The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.54%), a rather important index, added 0.54% to finish Monday at 6,976, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.56%) put on 0.56%, closing at 23,592. Among the financial institutions, Charles Schwab (SCHW +1.20%) closed at $105.17 (+1.20%) and Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR +0.52%) finished at $75.27 (+0.52%), both performing rather better than poor Robinhood’s slight downturn. A dash more fortitude, perhaps, or simply a bit of luck in avoiding the cryptocurrency chill.

To expect a repetition of past performance is, naturally, unreasonable. A hundredfold return, the kind that transforms modest savings into a small fortune, would require Nvidia to become… well, impossibly large. The entire market, one understands, has a certain limit. It’s a comforting thought, in a way, that even the most promising companies are bound by the laws of arithmetic. Millionaire-making stocks are rare, and perhaps best regarded as anecdotes, rather than reliable strategies.

The company’s reported revenues, rising five percent to $26 billion in the last quarter, offer a surface of prosperity, yet beneath it lies a troubling current. Adjusted earnings per share have fallen, a seven percent diminution that speaks not of failure, but of a shifting landscape. It is a lesson in the vanity of expectation, that growth in gross figures does not necessarily equate to true enrichment. The costs of maintaining this elaborate spectacle, of feeding the insatiable appetite of the modern audience, are proving increasingly burdensome.

This Caterpillar, you see, isn’t building just diggers and bulldozers, oh no. They’re involved in something rather modern and mysterious – these “data centers.” Imagine enormous sheds, crammed with blinking, whirring boxes. These boxes, they say, are the brains of the future, and they need a lot of power. And who provides the power? Our Caterpillar, naturally. They make these giant, rumbling generators, and even clever battery contraptions, to keep the boxes buzzing. A most peculiar business, if you ask me.

So, Stanich, bless their little accounting hearts, decided 235,868 shares of SUSC weren’t tickling their fancy anymore. Gone! Poof! Like a magician’s assistant. That translates to $5.56 million, calculated with the precision of a Swiss watch… or maybe a slightly dented abacus. The fund itself took a $5.56 million hit. Trading and price effects, the whole shebang. It’s like watching a perfectly good pastrami on rye get dropped face-down in a bowl of borscht. A tragedy, I tell you, a tragedy!

Let us not mistake this movement for simple volatility. It is a symptom, a grim reflection of the shifting sands beneath our feet. The narratives surrounding Bitcoin – the escape from fiat currency, the hedge against inflation, the future of finance – they ring hollow when faced with the cold reality of market forces. It’s a complicated dance, this one, and the music seems to favor those with the deepest pockets.

The company possesses the capacity, it is stated, to sustain this… generosity. Ample fuel, they claim, for continued augmentation. This phrase, “ample fuel,” is particularly unsettling. It suggests a limitless reservoir, an inexhaustible source, yet implies a perpetual need for replenishment. A circular logic, endlessly repeating itself. The proposition is presented as advantageous for those seeking income, but one wonders if the income isn’t merely a diversion, a small payment to maintain one’s position within the larger, incomprehensible mechanism.

Rocket Lab, you see, is in the business of rockets. Not the sort one associates with roaring bonfires and a general air of explosive drama, but rather reusable orbital rockets. A far more sensible arrangement, don’t you think? They’ve already managed to launch their flagship, the Electron rocket, a remarkably reliable contraption, some 81 times, depositing over 248 satellites into the rather spacious expanse of low Earth orbit. Quite a record, and they’ve been steadily increasing the frequency – 6 launches in 2021, 9 in 2022, 10 in 2023, a brisk 16 in 2024, and a positively energetic 21 planned for 2025. The fellows are clearly getting the hang of it.

The exchange-traded fund, that curious instrument of modern finance, offers a semblance of control, a fragile shield against the chaos. A paltry expense ratio, less than the cost of a decent cup of coffee, in exchange for a piece of this grand, speculative dance. It is a bargain, perhaps, or merely a subtle form of self-deception. But the lure is strong, and for those with a thousand dollars to spare, the temptation to participate is… understandable.