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It appears, however, that a small cloud has drifted across the otherwise sunny landscape. A warning sign, as the chaps are calling it. How terribly dramatic.

The company in question? Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, a name that, admittedly, doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue with the ease of, say, a perfectly mixed gin and tonic. But don’t let that put you off. It’s a smallish affair, currently valued at a modest $6.8 billion, though it was even more diminutive at the start of 2025. It’s not chasing after ailments that plague the masses, you see. Instead, it’s focusing on the rather specialized field of rare genetic obesity. A niche, perhaps, but a surprisingly lucrative one, as we shall see.

Let us recap, shall we, and then consider what other opportunities this enterprising REIT might unearth. After all, a clever man always has a second, and a third, scheme brewing.

The current valuation – $1.84, a number that feels both arbitrary and profoundly significant – invites inquiry. A bargain, perhaps? Or merely the price at which a forgotten system component is finally discarded? One is compelled to examine the mechanisms that have led to this state, though the examination itself feels like a pointless exercise in documenting decay.

Individual establishments fared…variously. Sweetgreen, purveyors of remarkably expensive leaves, experienced a decline best described as ‘agricultural’ – an 80% collapse. Cava Group, offering bowls of… well, things, lost half its value. Even the mighty Chipotle, a fortress of predictable burritos, stumbled a 30% step backwards.¹ It appears the public, having indulged in a period of inflation-fueled extravagance, began to exhibit signs of… fiscal responsibility. A curious phenomenon, that.

The SEC filings, those bureaucratic scrolls detailing the comings and goings of capital, reveal that Strong Tower offloaded 342,799 shares during the last quarter. A tidy sum, vanished into the ether of the market. One wonders if they mistook the ETF for a particularly dull relative, finally severing ties. The fund’s value, at quarter’s end, felt the loss acutely.

Basically, Capital Planning dipped its toe into the AKRE pool on January 22nd. A $7.45 million splash. It’s not exactly changing the world, but it’s enough to make you raise an eyebrow. Especially when you consider what else they’re holding. I’ve been looking at their 13F filings – a truly thrilling way to spend an evening, honestly – and it’s mostly the usual suspects. Index funds, growth ETFs… safe bets. Which makes this AKRE move… a bit of a rogue choice, doesn’t it?

While Nvidia, with its graphics processing units, gets a good deal of the spotlight – a perfectly understandable situation, as blinking lights always attract attention – a strong argument can be made that Palantir, specializing in the rather mysterious art of data mining, is actually the top dog in this particular arena. The company’s shares, since the beginning of 2023, have performed a most energetic jig, leaping upwards by a staggering 2,300% – a performance that would make even a seasoned acrobat blush. Investors, you see, have latched onto what they perceive as a sustainable advantage and eye-popping growth, and who can blame them?

The promise, of course, is grand. To bridge the gap between human interaction and the cold logic of machines. A worthy ambition, certainly. They’ve had some success, linking audio recognition to generative AI, finding niches in places like restaurant drive-thrus and the increasingly complex dashboards of automobiles. It’s a start, though one wonders if the true test lies not in the technology itself, but in the willingness of people to converse with a disembodied voice when a simple human connection would suffice.