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The broad market, as represented by the S&P 500 and the relentlessly optimistic Nasdaq-100, has enjoyed a rather vulgar display of prosperity these past six months, gaining 9.8% and 10.6% respectively. ServiceTitan, however, has slumped by 23.6%, while BigBear.ai has merely withered by 21.4%. One begins to suspect that the market has lost its grip on reality, mistaking novelty for value.

The current dividend yield of 9.2% naturally draws investor attention. However, a high yield, in isolation, provides limited insight. A more comprehensive evaluation necessitates a review of the company’s ability to consistently fund these distributions. Ares Capital has maintained or increased its dividend for 65 consecutive quarters, exceeding 16 years. This track record, while notable, does not preclude future adjustments contingent upon macroeconomic factors or shifts in credit quality.

I present to you two such cases, two companies adrift in the currents of investor indifference, yet possessing, I believe, the fortitude to weather the storm. Observe them not as mere ticker symbols, but as entities burdened with their own internal contradictions, their fates intertwined with the irrationality of the multitude.

The Adobe share price, it seems, has been feeling a bit under the weather, what with all this talk of artificial intelligence. One gathers the thought is, why bother with fancy photo-editing when a machine can do the trick? A perfectly reasonable question, one supposes, for the less-informed investor. However, Adobe’s results tell a rather different tale. Not only are they weathering the AI storm with aplomb, but they’re positively thriving, thanks to a bit of cleverness of their own. And with the stock down 14% to start the year, it strikes one as a particularly opportune moment to get involved.

So, when I read that Apple is essentially outsourcing its artificial intelligence ambitions to Google – to Alphabet, if we’re being precise – I felt a strange sense of…relief. Not for myself, necessarily, but for the poor engineers at Apple who’ve been tasked with making Siri less embarrassing. It’s a humbling admission, isn’t it? The company that brought us the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch – a company that once seemed capable of anything – is now relying on Google to power its voice assistant. It’s like watching a master carpenter ask a teenager to hold the nail.

Because here’s the thing about hype, darling. It’s a fickle beast. And this particular beast has a history. A rather dramatic history. Remember 2021? When ICP hit $750? Good times. Briefly. Now? Let’s just say you could buy a small island for the same price as a lukewarm coffee. A 99.5% drop. It’s not a decline, it’s a freefall. A spectacular, slightly terrifying freefall.

The year 2026 dawns upon a market richly valued, perhaps excessively so, according to the Shiller Price-to-Earnings Ratio, which places it among the most expensive epochs in a history stretching back a century and a half. In such times, the discerning investor must adopt a posture of restraint, seeking out those enterprises overlooked or unjustly punished by the prevailing sentiment. I, myself, have lately found more occasion to relinquish holdings than to acquire them, a practice born not of pessimism, but of a sober assessment of value.

The company’s initial success, founded upon the provision of durable, if extravagant, cooling devices, is well documented. Anglers, hunters, and those who seek to impose order upon the chaotic warmth of nature, found in these containers a symbolic extension of their own desires. More recently, however, the focus has shifted to the tumblers – ubiquitous vessels, reflections of our transient thirst. The proliferation of these objects, a mirrored surface to our consumer habits, is a phenomenon worthy of extended contemplation. The question, as always, is not what is contained, but what is reflected.