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The Memory Maker (And Potential Bargain)

Back in 2016, all these digital whatsits weren’t worth a handful of peanuts – less than 8 billion dollars, if you must know. But fast forward a bit, and now – well, now they’re worth a staggering 2.38 trillion dollars! It’s enough to make a grown man spill his tea. Two of the biggest, Bitcoin and XRP, have zoomed up by 18,500% and 17,450% respectively. A most peculiar spectacle.

They’re chasing the blockchain dragon now, of course. Everyone is. Relaxed regulations? Oh, that’s just inviting the wolves to the feast. Crypto trading’s back on the app, because that’s what the people DEMAND, right? And a global remittance service? Sending money to Europe? Sounds… ambitious. Like trying to herd cats during a hurricane. They’re talking about becoming a “global financial services giant.” GIANT. The sheer AUDACITY. It’s almost… beautiful. They’ve got a stablecoin now, a digital fig leaf to cover the inevitable chaos. One dollar in, one digital token out. A perfect system. Until it isn’t.

Many investors, eager to anticipate future gains, perceive a buying opportunity. But opportunity requires discernment. Which, of these two, offers the more rational prospect for recovery?

Last year, PLUG had a moment. A little surge from around $2 to over $4. It’s currently back down, which, in the stock market, is less “regression to the mean” and more “gravity reminding us of its existence.” Can it double again by 2026? Possibly. But let’s be real, it’s going to take a miracle, a government bailout, or a sudden, inexplicable global obsession with hydrogen-powered blenders.

Now, as we move into this year, a certain hum rises from the Chevron fields. It’s not a roar, not yet, but a quiet confidence, a belief that they might just outpace the others. A slow burn, perhaps, but a burn nonetheless.

Investors, ever the hopeful pilgrims, cast their gaze upon the smaller shrines, seeking the next miracle. And so they turn to ServiceNow, a company promising transformation, a veritable alchemist of the digital age. Its CEO, a man named Bill McDermott, has declared his firm a trillion-dollar enterprise in the making. A bold pronouncement, indeed. One might even say… optimistic. As if merely declaring a value alters the immutable laws of finance.

He is not a man given to scattering his resources. Like a seasoned gardener, he concentrates his efforts, nurturing a select few. His fund, Pershing Square, holds a portfolio that speaks not of diversification, but of conviction. Nearly half – a substantial yield from a carefully tended plot – is now devoted to three companies at the forefront of this new intelligence. It is a wager, of course. All planting is a wager against the unpredictable nature of the seasons. But a considered wager, born of observation and a certain… understanding.

The late John Bogle, a chap of considerable financial acumen, had a solution, and a rather sensible one at that. He advocated “buying the haystack,” as he put it, rather than wasting one’s time attempting to locate the elusive needle. A thoroughly sound principle, really. This Mr. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, was a firm believer in simplicity and diversification – a bit like a well-chosen outfit, really. It just works.

There’s a touch of macroeconomic turbulence, naturally – the air itself seems charged with volatility these days – but within that tremor lies opportunity, a subtle shimmer for those with the patience to discern it. Consider this, then, not as a breathless endorsement, but as a quietly considered observation.