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PepsiCo, bless its heart, tries so very hard. It’s a bit like a slightly over-enthusiastic apprentice wizard attempting to summon a decent profit margin. It offers a dividend yield that, on the surface, looks a bit more generous than Coca-Cola’s. A shiny bauble to distract you from the fact that it’s been raising those payouts faster simply because it started from a lower base. Like building a tower on quicksand; you might get it higher faster, but you’re still building on quicksand.

Now, some folks get rattled by that. A 16% drop. Like the world is ending. It isn’t. It’s just money rearranging itself. Shopify, they did pretty well last year. Crushed it, they said. But past performance, as the lawyers are so fond of pointing out, is no guarantee of future results. A comforting thought, actually.

A most peculiar reversal, wouldn’t you agree? Gartner, it appears, presented a financial accounting most pleasing to the eye—a triumph, one might say. And yet, the pronouncements regarding future prospects proved a most unwelcome draught. The shares opened with a decline of over thirty percent, a precipitous drop that, by afternoon, had moderated to a mere twenty-one. A slight recovery, to be sure, but hardly a cause for celebration.

They dig for rare earths and lithium, mostly in Greenland. And the Department of the Interior announced they’re expanding something called “Project Vault.” It’s a stockpile, you see. For national defense. And, apparently, to keep American businesses from panicking if the supply of shiny things gets cut off. A sensible idea, I suppose. Though history suggests sensible ideas rarely win.

The thing is, it’s not like the whole crypto thing has just disappeared. It’s just… having a moment. A slightly prolonged moment. From 2020 to 2024, Coinbase’s revenue went up more than five times – a truly impressive number, until you remember the “crypto winter” of 2022-2023, which rather dampened the celebrations. Analysts are now predicting revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth of around 12% and 6% respectively between 2024 and 2027. It’s… cautiously optimistic, isn’t it? Like ordering a salad when you really want pizza.

I confess, I incline toward the latter, though not without a degree of caution. Microsoft, despite the recent tremors, remains, in my estimation, a solid harbour for the discerning investor, a vessel built for the long voyage.

The focus, naturally, will be on those GPU sales. And, of course, on what Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang – a man who appears to have made a pact with the silicon gods – has to say about the future of AI. (A future that, depending on who you ask, will either solve all our problems or result in a polite but firm takeover by sentient toasters.)

The filing reveals a pattern of cautious optimism, or perhaps a lack of more compelling alternatives. Vawter, it appears, is not so much embracing risk as attempting to mitigate it. Further additions were made to Vanguard funds—Small-Cap Growth, International Bond, Short-Term Bond, and the predictably safe Small-Cap—suggesting a general retreat to established, if uninspired, positions. The market, one imagines, will scarcely notice.

Let us consider, then, three such holdings – financial institutions, each with its own character and claim upon the future – which, in my estimation, offer a compelling prospect for the discerning investor. They are not the flashy newcomers, vying for attention with extravagant promises, but rather the established families, content to let their performance speak for itself.