I’ve been watching these currents for a while now. The easy gains, the broad lift? Those days are likely numbered. A sorting will come. Some will flourish, yes, but many more will find themselves stranded when the tide goes out. Still, there’s work to be done, and a few stones worth turning over, if you know where to look. These aren’t recommendations to chase a frenzy, but observations for those who prefer to build a foundation, not a sandcastle.
They had a decent run last year, 77% up. Not bad for a company trying to navigate a battlefield dominated by giants. But that’s just the opening act. The real question is whether they can keep the momentum going.
To facilitate the enrichment of Wall Street, one might assume, is a self-evident proposition. But the true elegance lies in being enriched by Wall Street. This isn’t mere reciprocity; it’s a subtly calibrated dance. Let us, then, trace the choreography of Tradeweb’s financial performance, a performance that, while lacking the bombast of certain tech-driven spectacles, possesses a quiet, almost unsettling, efficiency.
Nu operates, shall we say, a mostly-digital banking platform. It serves those in Latin America who, until recently, were largely ignored by the traditional financial institutions. Think of it as bringing a polite, app-based shop to a place where the only previous offering was a rather gruff, heavily-guarded fortress. The region is, as anyone who’s bothered to look at a map will confirm, teeming with individuals who are either unbanked or, at best, underbanked. A fertile ground, then, for a disruptor. They’re leveraging the ubiquity of mobile phones and the internet – technologies that, in some places, are more common than running water – to reach these customers. A noble endeavor, if one ignores the inevitable data harvesting.
See, the market’s already expecting Uber to chug along, growing at a respectable, mid-teens clip. That’s nice. That’s…predictable. But we dividend hunters? We want explosive growth. We want a stock that’ll let us retire to the Bahamas and hire someone to fan us with palm fronds. So, let’s see what needs to happen to make that happen. It’s a three-ring circus, I tell ya!
Everyone’s talking about trillion-dollar markets by 2031, which, let’s be honest, is a number designed to make you ignore the fact that nobody really knows what’s going to happen. Investing in AI isn’t necessarily a bad move, but it’s less about finding the next Apple and more about avoiding the digital equivalent of Beanie Babies. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to make sense of it all, mostly to formulate a coherent response to Uncle Gary. It’s been… enlightening, if by “enlightening” you mean “slightly terrifying.”
The tale, as it unfolds, concerns a modest investment – a mere nine hundred million, a trifle in the grand accounting of these behemoths – placed in the hands of SpaceX, a company dedicated to the improbable task of hurling metal tubes into the heavens. At the time, it was a gamble, a whimsical fancy, akin to wagering on a particularly ambitious pigeon. Now, however, the pigeon has taken flight, and the prospect of a return has roused the attention of the financial world – and, naturally, the insatiable appetite of Alphabet’s shareholders.
Then you’ve got this BITQ, the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF. Innovators? Really? It’s a fund that invests in companies related to crypto. Related! So, you’re not even getting the actual thing. It’s like wanting a steak and getting a picture of a cow. And the expense ratio? 0.85%! Eighty-five cents on the dollar just to have them pick stocks of companies that might benefit from the whole crypto circus. It’s a racket, I tell you. A perfectly acceptable racket, because everyone’s doing it. Which makes it even more infuriating.
I’m looking at the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT 0.05%). It’s not a miracle cure. It’s a collection of code and silicon, of algorithms and ambition. But it’s a solid base. Safer than betting on the next unicorn. A way to tap into the growth, without the gut punch when the hype fades. They talk about turning $150 a month into a fortune. That’s marketing. But the math… the math holds up. Thirty years. That’s a long time. Most folks won’t stick with it. That’s their loss.
D-Wave emerged, blinking and bewildered, via the now-fashionable route of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company – a SPAC, if you will – in August 2022, debuting at the pedestrian price of $10 per share. It then, predictably, plummeted. A swift descent into the sub-$2 territory. One almost felt sympathy… almost.