So, the question is, can this… unloved stock beat the market this year? Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we? It’s like inspecting a clown car – you never know what you’re going to find. And trust me, there’s a lot of honking going on.
Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, has announced plans to undergo its first full independent financial audit by a Big Four accounting firm. The move marks a major step for a company that has long faced scrutiny over its reserves and transparency.
Anyway, the cruise lines – Royal Caribbean (RCL 1.66%), Carnival (CCL 0.12%), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH 1.99%), and Viking Holdings (VIK +1.21%) – took a bit of a battering this month. Something to do with…geopolitics. Apparently, if things are blowing up in one part of the world, people get nervous about floating pleasure palaces. Who knew? They were down 15%, 24%, 24%, and 13% respectively, before a little bounce. A bounce. As if a 6% lift is going to solve everything. It’s like applying lipstick to a sinking ship, really.
Too often, one observes a peculiar failing amongst these seekers after wealth – a tendency towards panic, a surrender to the immediate spectacle of falling numbers. They sell, not upon reasoned judgment, but upon the whispers of fear, ignoring the fundamental truths that underpin the value of enduring enterprises. It is as if a man, observing a temporary darkening of the sun, were to declare that day itself had ceased to exist. Such haste is born not of wisdom, but of a lack of it.
My current mood, measured on a scale of ‘optimistic investor’ to ‘actively considering a remote cabin and a goat’: firmly in the goat territory.
Both possess attributes that, in a more rational age, might warrant consideration. But reason, alas, is rarely a factor when fortunes are being made—or, more frequently, imagined.
Remember post-2008? Everyone panicked and decided banks needed so much capital they’d resemble Fort Knox. It worked, sort of. We didn’t have another Lehman Brothers moment. Though, if you swap out complex derivatives for…well, TikTok videos and interest rate hikes, the 2023 regional bank mini-crisis felt suspiciously familiar. Silicon Valley Bank proved that even a lot of capital can’t save you from being a bad risk manager. It’s like giving a toddler a fire extinguisher – good idea in theory, disastrous in practice.
In what can only be described as a bold leap into the unpredictable abyss, our friends at Crypto Exchange Gate have decided to play fortune teller. That’s right, folks! They’ve rolled out their shiny new prediction market feature in public beta, proudly claiming the title of the first centralized exchange to offer such a whimsical platform. Now, users can place their bets-Yes or No-on events that could make or break a day. It’s like flipping a coin, but with a lot more digital drama involved.
Transaction value based on the SEC Form 4 reported price of $10.78. Which, incidentally, is about the price of a decent used bicycle, give or take a few gears.
They still hold 784,540 shares, valued at $11.4 million. A considerable weight, still the largest holding in their portfolio, comprising nearly 12% of their assets. It’s not a collapse of faith, but a calculation. The fund managers, like men tending a fire, are adjusting the fuel to maintain a steady burn.