qfx

Vistra provides the juice. The electrons. The stuff that makes the little glowing rectangles work. More formally, it’s a power generation and retail electricity provider. They’ve got a portfolio of everything – natural gas, nuclear, coal (though they’re attempting to wean themselves off that, a sensible move given the current dragon situation¹), solar, and battery storage. Combined, that’s around 44,000 megawatts. Enough to power roughly 22 million homes. Or, you know, a moderately sized magical kingdom.

As of this late morning hour, Sigma Lithium shares are trading some twelve and nine-tenths percent lower, a circumstance which, while regrettable for those holding stock, does offer a certain quiet satisfaction to those who prefer a more measured approach.

That’s where a company like Procter & Gamble comes in. It ain’t glamorous, mind you. No whizz-bang gadgets or promises of world domination. Just soap, diapers, and things folks need, day in and day out. A fella can set his watch by the demand for a clean shirt, you see. And that, my friends, is a powerful thing in a world gone mad with speculation.

As of late Friday, the stock sits up twenty-one and a half percent for the week. But a rise like that doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s a question of what’s been planted, what’s taken root, and what might wither under the harsh sun of reality.

The shares, it must be noted, have ascended a considerable 75% in the past year (as of the thirteenth of January, a date of little consequence, yet dutifully recorded). Many a nervous investor whispers of unsustainable growth, of a peak reached, a bubble poised to burst. But I, having examined the entrails of the quarterly reports (and found them surprisingly neat), suspect a continuation of this upward trajectory. Though, one must always account for the whims of the market – a creature as unpredictable as a babushka in a snowstorm.

A smaller vine, one might observe, has greater liberty to climb, to reach for heights denied to the ancient oak. Yet, the field of quantum computation is not a garden of assured yields. The competition is fierce, the obstacles numerous. To speak of millionaire-making potential, however, requires a more sober assessment, a reckoning with probabilities and the cold logic of the market.