The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals a reduction of their stake to 2.59% of reportable assets. A significant sum, certainly, but a fraction of the whole. One imagines the portfolio managers, not celebrating a grand victory nor lamenting a defeat, but simply… accounting. The position, at quarter’s end, stood at $5.92 million, a decline of $3.23 million from the previous report. The ebb and flow. It’s always the ebb and flow.
Nasdaq, ever the eager suitor, has beseeched the SEC to loosen the reins on Bitcoin ETF options. “Let us play with larger stakes!” they cry, as if the market were a grand ball and they, the most ardent of dancers. Data, that cold and impartial observer, reveals a steady waltz of volume and open interest in these BTC-tied investments. Yet, like a chaperone at a Victorian soiree, strict caps curb the ardor of traders, leaving Nasdaq to lament the stifled romance of the crypto-linked options markets.
The raw figures, as always, are misleading. Despite this lavish expenditure, these live broadcasts constitute a relatively insignificant portion of total viewing hours. A mere 340 million hours consumed amidst 96 billion. One begins to suspect a purpose beyond simple entertainment. The management, predictably, insists there is one.
This foray into the realm of workers’ compensation, disclosed on January 22nd, represents a new position for Azarias. A mere 1.31% of their reportable assets, to be precise. A trifling sum, one might think, were it not for the sheer audacity of investing in a sector generally regarded as…stable. One must admire their contrarian spirit, even if one questions their judgment. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a fund in possession of good sense must view insurance with a degree of skepticism.
There exist, by the latest count, a mere handful of these regal dividend payers. A select club, indeed, and one that demonstrates a rare commitment to rewarding investors – or perhaps, merely a shrewd understanding of human nature.
Over the past five years, a mere blink in the geological timescale of commerce, Costco shares have generated a total return of 182%. A perfectly respectable number. Not quite enough to fund a private space program, but certainly enough to acquire a truly impressive collection of novelty socks. The question, naturally, is whether this trajectory will continue. Will Costco remain a haven for bargain hunters and bulk buyers, or will it succumb to the inevitable entropy that affects all things? Let’s investigate, shall we?
Micron (MU +2.18%). They make memory chips. Sounds dull? Trust me, it’s not. Think of them as the pick-and-shovel merchants of the AI gold rush. Everyone’s obsessed with the shiny new AI tools, but someone needs to supply the basic building blocks. Micron provides the memory chips that let those fancy AI accelerators actually, you know, do something. It’s not glamorous, but it’s essential. And, as it happens, the stock has already jumped nearly 28% this year. I’m not saying it’s a sure thing – nothing ever is – but it feels…promising. Let’s unpack why, shall we?
On the twenty-second of January, this Clear Creek – a firm presumably adept at navigating the currents of commerce – saw fit to add one hundred and thirty-two thousand and twenty-five shares of this Treasury Bill ETF to its holdings. A transaction, we are told, amounting to a respectable nine million, nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars. A considerable sum, to be sure, though hardly enough to purchase a principality. One wonders, however, if it is wisdom or merely… a surfeit of prudence that guides their hand.
The novice, adrift in a sea of ticker symbols and pronouncements, often seeks a guiding star, a vessel sturdy enough to weather the storms. The answer, surprisingly, is not to chase the ephemeral brilliance of individual stocks, but to gather a constellation of them, bundled together in the form of exchange-traded funds – those quiet, unassuming galleons that navigate the currents with a measured grace. These funds, in their essence, are a collective memory, a distillation of countless hopes and anxieties, and they offer a path, however winding, toward a semblance of stability.
Which brings us to IonQ. It’s a company operating in a field called quantum computing, which, if you’re anything like me, sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. And, truthfully, it kind of is. Traditional computers, the ones we use every day, store information as bits – ones and zeros. Quantum computers, however, use something called qubits. Now, a qubit isn’t just a one or a zero; it’s a one and a zero, simultaneously. It’s a bit like being both awake and asleep at the same time. A dizzying thought, and one that allows these machines to perform calculations that would take even the most powerful supercomputer centuries, if not millennia.