usdaed

Five and three-tenths percent. A number that settles in the mind like the weight of a well-built house. Realty Income, a collector of properties, a builder of small, dependable streams of income. Thirty years of annual increases, a rhythm as predictable as the turning of the seasons. Its balance sheet, a fortress against the storms. It is not a swift stream, this income, but a deep, slow river, carved over decades. A monument to patience, perhaps. But monuments, while enduring, do not leap or dance. They simply are.

According to the official paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (a document, I might add, that reads like a particularly dense instruction manual for a Swiss watch), Broad Peak acquired 1.41 million shares of Riot Platforms. This wasn’t a fleeting fancy, either. The stake was valued at $17.86 million as of the quarter’s end, suggesting a degree of conviction that’s often missing in the more frenetic corners of the market. It’s a bit like deciding to learn the bagpipes – you don’t start with a casual toot; you commit.

The filing, dated January 27th, reveals this addition to their portfolio. A modest increase in value, accounted for by the purchase and the inevitable fluctuations. It now represents 1.48% of their reportable assets, a rounding error in the grand scheme, yet a distinct choice nonetheless.

It is a melancholy truth that potential, however dazzling, does not automatically translate into profit. Indeed, the gap between aspiration and achievement is often a vast and desolate plain. And in the case of Rigetti, that plain seems… extensive.

Amazon Web Services doesn’t build castles in the air; it builds server farms on the earth, and those farms demand substance. Copper, in particular. They require it to power the servers, to cool the processors, to maintain the illusion of effortless computation. S&P Global predicts a surge in demand, a fifty percent leap by 2040, driven by the artificial intelligences and the endless preparations for conflict. A shortfall is coming, a constriction in the veins of the digital world. And those who control the copper, control the flow.

The SEC filing, dated January 28th, confirmed it. Eos Management owned zero shares of FirstService as of quarter’s end. Zero. It’s a clean break. I always admire that. My own attempts at decluttering usually involve moving things from one pile to another, labeling it “sentimental,” and then tripping over it for the next decade. But Eos? They just… sold. It’s almost unsettling.

The SEC filing, dated January 28th – a date already fading into the palimpsest of financial history – reveals Paradice’s newfound affection for aggregates, asphalt, and the contracting services that bind them. This isn’t merely a purchase; it’s an assertion. A calculated wager on the enduring need for foundations, for the very stuff upon which civilization rests. One imagines Mr. Paradice, a man of presumably impeccable taste, surveying the company’s operations with a faintly amused detachment, as if observing a particularly well-constructed ant colony.

Two companies seem poised to benefit, at least for a while. Not because they’re particularly good, or virtuous, but because they’re in the right place at the right time. It’s rarely about merit, you see. Mostly just luck. And a lot of silicon.

First upon our stage strides Nvidia, a company whose name has become synonymous with the very engine of this AI revolution. Their ‘chips’, these tiny slivers of silicon, are hailed as the brains behind the modern marvels, and their CEO, Monsieur Huang, appears to believe his company holds the keys to the kingdom. A man of prodigious self-regard, he speaks of markets worth fifty billion, of insatiable demand, and of a future where Nvidia’s dominion is unchallenged. A delightful exaggeration, wouldn’t you agree?

The filing reveals Paradice offloaded all 58,813 shares during the fourth quarter. A clean break, as if sweeping away the dust from a particularly complicated game of chess. The market, it seems, has not reacted with undue alarm, which is either commendable restraint or a disturbing lack of imagination. One suspects the latter.