It’s not your imagination. The stock market is very difficult to trade right now. What to do with your money?
It’s a small consolation but if you got rekt, at least you’re not alone. This is a bit old now but the first 44 days of the year was the second worst start of the year in more than 100 years. Oof.
On top of that, professional money managers themselves are split on what’s going on. For example, half of Bank of America fund managers think inflation is permanent and half think it’s “transitory”.
That’s part of the reason I haven’t been writing as much recently. There’s just not a lot to say as we chop, painfully, sideways. We’ll probably keep doing that for a while.
That said, here are a few items that caught my eye in the past month or so.
Cybersecurity pays
One constant & increasing force are digital attacks on business & government. Seems like Crowdstrike $CRWD is continuing to benefit from this trend. I don’t own any yet but probably should.
Crowdstrike selling services to the Department of Defense
After posting a strong quarterly result
I’m holding my SE
SEA limited ($SE) had a wild past couple of years but they have started to settle down, down, down, as of late. It seems like many retail traders have soured on them but I expect them to return to growth so just holding on.
SE’s Shopee shutting down India operations
I sold my Vimeo
I originally thought that Vimeo $VMEO had a good space in the market of professional, private hosted video for businesses but after some really toxic behavior towards their customers, I’ve decided to leave them behind. They won’t be successful with a corporate culture that allows this kind of customer treatment. For example, good luck canceling your Vimeo subscription.
And they are kicking creators out (just as creators are gaining more economic power in web3).
Social media is falling in love with NFTs
The most popular visual & status-based app will add visual status flex jpegs. Instagram will allow users to mint NFTs
Spotify will add NFTs & collectibles
I had been a bit negative on Spotify $SPOT recently. I still use the product but I was starting to get skeptical since they had been quiet about their crypto ambitions. But it seems like they are at least starting to move in that direction.
The rest of the newsletter is all crypto news, grouped into a few themed sections. You’re… welcome?
Crypto mainstreaming
A mostly symbolic / marketing tactic but it keeps pushing awareness out of tech into mainstream.
Tennessee Titans football team starts accepting Bitcoin ($BTC)
Block ($SQ) via their Cash app will continue onboarding millions to Bitcoin ($BTC). Here are 3 new products they announced at Bitcoin 2022.
Bitcoin payment rails Strike integrates with Shopify & point of sales.
Crypto corporatizing
Microsoft is hiring for some big crypto roles & projects
Crypto legalizing
US policymakers are working to make crypto more open to institutional investors
A candidate for the Senate running on a bitcoin as legal tender platform
Crypto professionalizing
Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, is investing in a crypto fund. He’s got a couple of fun YouTube explainers as well that are worth watching if you haven’t them. How the Economy works & more recently, Changing world order.
I own some shares in Galaxy Digital $GLXY-CA because they have a ton of crypto exposure as well as a huge portfolio of early coin / company investments. They are traded on the Canadian stock exchange but can easily buy via Fidelity for example. They are also partnering with some big institutions apparently.
Goldman Sachs will offer crypto OTC trading with Galaxy Digital
Crypto mining
Block ($SQ) will start mining bitcoin in Texas with Tesla solar panels
Mara ($MARA) beats projections, predicts a year of consolidation
Exxon mobile using excess natural gas to mine Bitcoin ($BTC)
Crypto tenderizing
A senator from Mexico will propose to make $BTC legal tender.
The Portuguese island of Madeira adopts $BTC as legal tender.
A special economic zone in Honduras adopts bitcoin as legal tender.
Hang in there. Stop reading social media. Keep investing.
-B
Disclaimer
Photo by Eastman Childs on Unsplash