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Recent Articles
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The Role of Luck in Investing and How To Think About It
Sep 18, 2023
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Image: EpicTop10.com.
For every Amazon that made it, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, from the dot-com era that didn't. Very few remember Pets.com or etoys.com, both of which went belly up during the dot-com meltdown. For every Tesla, there is a DeLorean Motor Co. We might have completely forgotten about DeLorean were it not for the blockbuster movie, Back To The Future, that immortalized its futuristic sports car. For every streaming enterprise like Netflix, there is a Napster that failed. Most of us probably don't even remember the original Napster, which encountered legal troubles before closing shop shortly after the dot-com bust. For every Alphabet, there's an AltaVista or Netscape. For every Apple, there is a Palm or Blackberry. Who remembers how popular the Palm Pilot and Blackberry were? How about the Motorola Razr? For every Facebook and Instagram, there is a Myspace or Friendster. As investors, we underestimate the role of luck in a company's long-term success. In February 2000, a month before the dot-com market crash, a fledgling Amazon raised $672 million in convertible notes to European investors. If the company hadn't done so, there'd likely be no Amazon today, and one of the wealthiest men in the world, Jeff Bezos, might have just been a mere footnote in stock market history. Amazon would have been insolvent in 2001-2002 just like many of its other dot-com peers.
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Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of September 15
Sep 15, 2023
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Let's take a look at firms raising/lowering their dividends this week.
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Apple’s Big “Wonderlust” Event Is Business as Usual
Sep 13, 2023
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Image Source: Apple.
Apple Inc. hosted its widely-anticipated “Wonderlust” event. The market was anticipating several new products, and Apple delivered. The firm’s iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will go a long way to retaining share in smartphones and wearable devices, but the company opted to leave prices unchanged. Many had been expecting a price increase, but we’re not reading too much into Apple’s decision to leave them unchanged, given economic uncertainty in the U.S., Huawei’s release of its latest phone (the Mate 60 Pro), and rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China.
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ESG Issues Plague Discover
Sep 12, 2023
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Image: Discover’s shares have faced pressure due to a card misclassification issue and the resignation of CEO Roger Hochschild.
Discover Financial’s shares have faced a difficult 52-week stretch as corporate news hasn’t been great. The company’s equity is down nearly 14%, while the S&P 500 is up more than 8% over the same time stretch. Though Discover has the potential to bounce back from the troubles it has encountered, the firm has certainly been in hot water since it disclosed a card product misclassification.
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