Then things got…complicated. Uncertainties piled up, like dirty dishes. The market started to wobble. This happens. It always happens. People started asking if they should still buy stocks. A perfectly reasonable question, considering the whole enterprise is based on hoping tomorrow will be slightly better than today.
The Vanguard funds, VXUS and VYMI, offer a means to participate in this distant game. VXUS, the broader of the two, has enjoyed a recent ascent, outperforming the familiar indices. VYMI, focused on dividends, has fared even better. These gains, of course, are merely numbers on a screen, fleeting indicators of a reality far more complex. Still, one can’t help but notice.
The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that this isn’t simply a matter of shedding stock. The total value of 14B’s StoneCo position decreased by a more substantial $8.60 million, a figure that suggests the market, like a mischievous imp, has been playing games with valuations. One can almost hear the brokers whispering, “Buy low, sell…slightly less high.”
What distinguishes Alphabet is not merely participation in the AI endeavor, but a troubling degree of control. A self-sufficiency, bordering on the monastic. They do not seek the components, they forge them. The planned capital expenditures – a staggering $175 to $185 billion by 2026 – are not merely investments, but the construction of an independent ecosystem. The Tensor Processing Units, these bespoke ‘TPUs’ – a term that feels unsettlingly precise – have been cultivated since 2015, a slow, deliberate accumulation of proprietary power. And then, there is Gemini, their generative model, distributed not through the open market, but through the pre-existing arteries of Google’s vast infrastructure. This ‘full-stack’ approach, as it is termed, is not innovation so much as consolidation – a tightening of control that should give any discerning observer pause.
This 14B outfit, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission – a place where truth goes to hide, if you ask me – divulged they’d trimmed their Cogent holdings during the last quarter of 2025. Eight and a quarter million dollars worth of shares found new homes. And the remaining stake, well, it shrank in value by a further $13.58 million. A bit like trying to hold water in a sieve, wouldn’t you say? Trading and price changes, they call it. I call it the market having a bit of a wobble.
This, naturally, has trickled down to the gasoline pump. The national average is now hovering around $3.54 a gallon, a jump of $0.62 in a month. Twenty-one percent. It’s a figure that feels… significant. (Although, when you consider the sheer, unquantifiable improbability of existence, even a 21% increase in the price of fuel feels rather… modest.)
This investment makes Mattel the fourth-largest holding in Serenity’s portfolio, which is noteworthy. It suggests they see something that the rest of us, apparently, are missing. Or, perhaps, they’re simply rather braver than the rest of us. It’s a bit like deciding to invest heavily in Betamax in 1985 – you could be a genius, or you could be left explaining yourself to the board.
A most energetic trading session saw 134.6 million shares changing hands, a figure some 43% above the three-month average. One notes with a flicker of amusement that since its debut in 2020, the stock has enjoyed a growth spurt of 74%, which is, if one may say so, not entirely unpleasant.
Look, I’m an investor. I like returns. I don’t need a performance review of my portfolio. But these funds… they’re presenting options. Options imply thoughtful construction. And what I see is… well, let’s just say it’s not exactly a streamlined operation. They both target U.S. stocks with dividends, fine. But their approaches? Worlds apart. Which, of course, means more work for me. More due diligence. It’s just inconsiderate.
The addition of 1,144,617 shares – a seemingly precise number, yet representing countless individual transactions, each driven by hope and fear – now constitutes 1.01% of their reported assets. A small fraction, perhaps, yet a significant weighting nonetheless. One wonders if those responsible truly comprehend the weight of such a commitment, the responsibility for the livelihoods entwined within these properties. It is a curious thing, this modern world, where fortunes are built upon the mundane necessities of others.