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On January 23rd, the SEC filing documented Lunate’s entry into Navan’s equity. A fractional holding, representing 1.29% of their reportable assets under management as of December 31st. One might ask: a probe, a tentative extension into troubled waters, or a mere rounding error in the grand accounting of capital flows? The answer, I suspect, is a blend of all three, seasoned with a healthy dose of pragmatic caution.

They had a quarter, apparently. “Solid growth,” they call it. What does that even mean? 325 million subscribers. Okay, fine. A lot of people watching things. But is anyone actually enjoying what they’re watching? That’s the real question. And this Stranger Things thing… 120 million viewers. All staring at screens. It’s a little unsettling, if you ask me. Like a mass hypnosis event. And the ad revenue is up, 2.5 times. Great. More commercials. Exactly what we needed. They’re making money off our misery. It’s brilliant, really. In a deeply cynical way.

Last year? Forget it. Down 60%. Lifetime high? Don’t even ask. 98% drop. It’s enough to make one reconsider the entire concept of aspiration. Still, the optimists are out there. Whispering about a “rebound.” A rebound. As if this were some sort of romantic comedy.

The disparity in expense ratios is immediately apparent. While ACWX presents a potentially attractive dividend yield, the higher ongoing costs warrant careful consideration, particularly for long-term holdings. The substantial difference in Assets Under Management (AUM) also represents a factor, potentially impacting liquidity and trading efficiency.

One might ask, what prompted this divestment? Was it a judgment upon the company’s inherent worth, a declaration of dwindling faith in its future prospects? Or was it, as is so often the case in these matters, a simple calculation of advantage, a shifting of resources towards more promising fields? The answer, as with most things in life, is likely a complex tapestry woven from both conviction and expediency.

The fourth quarter, you see, is a fickle beast for a company like this. It demands cold, it thrives on snow. This past season, the earth held onto its warmth a little too long. The stores didn’t feel the usual demand for heavy coats and sturdy boots. But a good farmer doesn’t curse the sun; he plans for the next planting. And there’s a promise in the air, a sense that something more substantial is taking root, something beyond the whims of the weather.

USA Rare Earth, a name that rings with a desperate optimism, proposes itself as a deliverance. A vertically integrated supply chain, they declare, as if mere organization could conquer the inherent chaos of the market. A noble aspiration, certainly, but one fraught with the usual human failings: ambition, overreach, and the persistent delusion that one can truly control the forces that govern us. They seek to weave a ‘mine-to-magnet’ tapestry, a fragile bulwark against the tides of global commerce. But is this construction born of genuine need, or merely a symptom of our collective restlessness, a frantic attempt to do something in the face of an intractable problem?

To speak of reasons to “buy” is to reduce the matter to a crude transaction. It is as if one were to quantify the turning of the seasons. Still, the currents flow, and one must acknowledge their direction. Let us consider, then, not reasons for acquisition, but observations of a certain… solidity, a certain momentum within this enterprise.

They’ve acquired a respectable 137,768 shares, which, when one adds it all up, represents a touch under two percent of Palisades’ rather handsome portfolio. Not a vast sum, perhaps, but enough to suggest they aren’t simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The shares were, at the quarter’s end, worth the same five and a quarter million, a rather pleasing coincidence, what!