Become a Better Investor Newsletter – 17 February 2024
Noteworthy this week
- NVIDIA takes 3rd position
- US inflation higher than expected
- EU economy remains challenged
- Bidens skips cognitive test
- Dark Brandon rigged Super Bowl
NVIDIA takes 3rd position: NVIDIA’s market cap surpassed Alphabet’s, and only Microsoft and Apple are larger in the US. Interesting to note that Google’s revenue in the past 12 months was almost 7x of NVIDIA’s.
With a $1.82 trillion market cap, Nvidia passed Google today to become the 3rd largest US company.
Nvidia TTM revenues $NVDA: $45 billion
Google TTM revenues $AMZN: $307 billion pic.twitter.com/NbTDMtqi3A— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) February 14, 2024
US inflation higher than expected: US CPI slowed less than expected in January 2024, which resulted in a big spike in bond yields.
Wondering how a small miss on the US #inflation numbers can result in such a spike in yields on US government #bonds (2- and 10-year below)?
A lot of it has to do with the extent to which #markets had embraced, subject to limited critical thinking, the narrative of a very soft… pic.twitter.com/TLxLxPVUPD
— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) February 13, 2024
EU economy remains challenged: You would have thought that the EU had gotten enough wake-up calls, but it appears not.
‘Hey’ Eurozone, how is that:
– one-size-fits-all central bank policy,
– lack of technology giants,
– failed energy policy,
– failed climate policy,
– part-time job economy
– extreme bureaucracy
working out for you?
The Eurozone economy has NOT grown in the last 5 quarters. pic.twitter.com/nJ3DH324rE— jeroen blokland (@jsblokland) February 14, 2024
Bidens skips cognitive test: No matter if it’s Biden or someone else, I think it makes sense that you ensure the cognitive ability of the person who has the most powerful political position in the world.
BREAKING: White House confirms Biden will not take a cognitive test as part of his upcoming physical exam.
Biden will be first U.S President in history to refuse a cognitive test. pic.twitter.com/q11OkJHxEP
— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) February 13, 2024
Dark Brandon rigged Super Bowl: When I saw it, I thought the account had been hacked. Apparently not. The meme made fun of a rumor that Biden would have rigged the game to get Taylor Swift’s endorsement (Swift dates a guy on the winning team).
Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024
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Podcasts we listened to this week
The Morgan Housel Podcast – Compounding Optimism
“Let me share a little theory I have about optimism, and why progress is so easy to underestimate.”
Readings this week
THE POWER AND CHALLENGES OF COMPOUNDING
“Due to millions of years of evolution, our brains have been wired to think in linear rather than in exponential terms. We therefore have to put some effort into understanding the power of compound interest. But with a little mental exertion, it can be done!”
Book recommendation
Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets by Steven Drobny
“Whereas some still maintain that rationality permeates financial markets, Drobny captures a different dimension, showing how the unquantifiable human forces of emotion and intuition are also at play. Along the way, readers get an inside look at firsthand trading experiences through some of the major world financial crises of the last few decades.”
Get the book on Audible or Kindle.
Audible is great; have you tried it? If not, click here to get 2 books for free.
Memes of the week
— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) February 14, 2024
— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) February 14, 2024
New My Worst Investment Ever episodes
ISMS 38: Larry Swedroe – The Self-healing Mechanism of Risk Assets
In this episode of Investment Strategy Made Simple (ISMS), Andrew gets into part two of his discussion with Larry Swedroe: Ignorance is Bliss. Today, they discuss Larry’s recent piece, The Self-healing Mechanism of Risk Assets.
LEARNING: Don’t engage in resulting because there will be periods when an investment will underperform and others when it outperforms. Resist recency bias. Avoid performance chasing.
Access the episode’s show notes and resources
Ep772: Solomon Thimothy – Give Yourself Permission to Fail
BIO: Solomon Thimothy is an entrepreneur with over 17 years of experience in marketing and sales. As the co-founder and CEO of OneIMS, a leading inbound marketing and sales agency, and Clickx, he has helped businesses double their revenue using the 10X Framework.
STORY: When Solomon started his service business, he built software unique to his business. The problem was it cost thousands of dollars, and he was a broke out-of-collage kid. His model was terrible; nobody would invest in his business.
LEARNING: Every entrepreneur fails, so give yourself permission to fail.
Access the episode’s show notes and resources
Published on Become a Better Investor this week
Who wins when teams and team members compete with each other? In this final episode in the Role of a Manager in Education series, David Langford and Andrew Stotz discuss why cooperation beats competition, particularly in schools.
Listen to Does Competition Create Wins? Role of a Manager in Education (Part 14)
Chengdu Guibao Science & Technology Company Limited (300019 SZ): Profitable Growth rank of 2 was up compared to the prior period’s 3rd rank. This is World Class performance compared to 760 medium Materials companies worldwide.
Read Chengdu Guibao Science & Technology – World Class Benchmarking
Quality Houses Public Company Limited (QH TB): Profitable Growth rank of 2 was up compared to the prior period’s 3rd rank. This is World Class performance compared to 310 medium Real Estate companies worldwide.
Read Quality Houses – World Class Benchmarking
Leeno Industrial Incorporated (058470 KS): Profitable Growth rank of 1 was same compared to the prior period’s 1st rank. This is World Class performance compared to 810 medium Info Tech companies worldwide.
Read Leeno Industrial – World Class Benchmarking
All strategies outperformed; Developed markets performed the best. Performance review of our strategies in January 2024 – All Weather Inflation Guard lost 0.4%, All Weather Strategy gained 2.3%, All Weather Alpha Focus gained 0.6%. Global outlook that guides our asset allocation.
Read A. Stotz All Weather Strategies – January 2024
DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.