AI Stocks: Still Worth It (Probably)

Nvidia popped a respectable 39% in 2025. Good job, Nvidia. Meta managed 13%. Which, in a normal year, would be fine. But last year, the S&P 500 decided to have a rave and climbed over 16%. So, Meta was… lagging. Still, I’m sticking with my picks. Think of it as a long-term commitment. Like a bad marriage, but with potentially better returns.

Ephemeral Bonds: A Study in Limited Duration

The scholar Alistair Finch, in his apocryphal treatise, “The Geometry of Loss,” posited that all investment is merely a deferral of inevitable entropy. These ETFs, therefore, are not exceptions, but rather sophisticated algorithms for managing that decay. VCSH, favoring the credit of corporations, attempts to extract value from the temporal realm of enterprise. SMB, conversely, seeks refuge in the tax-exempt obligations of municipalities – a curious attempt to evade the universal laws of fiscal gravity. Both, however, are bound by the principle of limited duration, a constraint that introduces a fascinating element of fragility.

A Modest Reappraisal: VTWO & The Market

It delivered a return of 13%— perfectly respectable, of course—but didn’t quite manage to outshine the S&P 500, which, fuelled by this relentless enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, bounded ahead with an 18% gain. One can’t win them all, though frankly, one rarely bothers to keep score. It’s the principle of the thing, don’t you know?

Rocket Dreams & Fool’s Gold

The idea, as I understand it, is to hand the government’s checkbook over to these private ventures and let ’em handle the heavy liftin’. Instead of ownin’ satellites, they’ll just pay for the data. Instead of buildin’ reactors, they’ll pay for the power. It’s a right clever scheme, really. Predictable income for the companies, and a whole lot of paperwork for the taxpayers. They call it innovation; I call it a shift in where the money disappears to. But hey, who am I to judge? I’ve seen enough schemes to fill a library.

XRP’s Supercycle: A Comedy of Bands and Bullish Blunders!

Bollinger Band Chart

This “lifeline,” a mere 0.00001985 BTC for one XRP, has played its part since mid-2024, thwarting breakdowns in August, October, and now January. Oh, the drama! The supercycle, it seems, is a stubborn thespian, refusing to exit the stage. Yet, one must wonder: is this a masterpiece or a mere melodrama?

Dust and Stone: A Fund’s Retreat from Knife River

The fund divested its entire holding – 63,636 shares – a quiet withdrawal from a company that, for all its sturdy name, has been weathering a storm. The price, as these things are measured, was just under $68.59 a share as of late January. But the number itself feels thin, a brittle accounting of a deeper trouble. It’s a reckoning, of sorts, for a company that builds with stone and asphalt, but finds its foundations shaken by forces beyond its control.

Cornerstone’s Quiet Accumulation

This increase, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, elevates the fund’s position within Cornerstone’s portfolio to 6.73% of their 13F reportable AUM. It is a weight, subtly applied, a deliberate choice in a world where many decisions are made with the haste of a summer storm. The total value of the GPIX position, factoring in both the new acquisitions and the market’s own capricious fluctuations, rose by $10.96 million. One observes, with a certain melancholy, that even the most carefully laid plans are subject to the whims of fate.

UPS and the Mechanical Marvel

They’re shrinkin’ their operation, see? Downsizing, they call it. Closin’ up old facilities, the kind with leaky roofs and maintenance bills that’d make a banker weep. Smart move, that. Get rid of the things that cost you money, and you’ve got a bit more left over for… well, for more important things. Like robots. Seems they’re bettin’ big on automation, and a body might wonder why anyone’d trust a machine to handle a package when a good, honest man could do it. But times change, don’t they?

LendingClub: A Dip for the Discerning

The company reported earnings of $0.35 per share, on revenue approaching $267 million – figures demonstrably superior to those of the previous year, and, indeed, exceeding the expectations of those who bother to formulate them. Some $2.6 billion in loans were extended, a healthy sum, though one wonders if the recipients fully appreciate the gravity of their obligations. Still, one can scarcely fault the company for its success, even if it does involve encouraging indebtedness.