Markets Reverie

In late March, a completely out of left field event occurred, Archegos, a large family-run hedge fund collapsed. To be more precise, Archegos began liquidating large positions in blue-chip companies that it had invested in like Viacom CBS, which Archegos owned $20bn worth of shares or an astonishing 30% of the company’s total value. The founder of Archegos, Bill Hwang saw his nearly $20bn fortune go up in smoke, due to this.  What started initially as a fund mainly centered around tech stocks, Bill Hwang started to move towards a more eclectic array of companies like media conglomerates ViacomCBS and Discovery, Inc which became huge parts of Archegos’ portfolio and Chinese stocks like GSX, Techedu, Baidu, Iqiyi, and Vipshop.   It is required by US law to prevent individual investors from buying securities with more than 50% of the money borrowed on margin. No such rule applies for hedge funds and family offices. As a result of this, Hwang was allowed to exercise as much r...

  I first heard about NFTs when watching a YouTube video by on of my favorite creators JxmyHighroller, where he discussed the company called Top Shot. Much akin to basketball cards of the past, Top Shot sells cards, but instead of individual players, they sell NBA highlights. Essentially, Top Shot sells highlights, either as individual moments or packs. Each highlight comes in a set and some sets come in a circulation count with a counter of how many sets are in motion. Some sets are limited edition with a fixed amount minted. All the highlights in a particular set have a serial number, the serial number represents the sequential order in which something was minted. The earlier something is minted, usually the rarer it is, thus the more expensive it is. It should also be noted that there is a tier system for the sets. The whole concept of Top Shot is still quite disorientating to me. What is the difference between a highlight from Top Shot and just the same highlight that can most ...

Cathie Wood of Ark Investment Management has emerged as one of the most prominent figures in the asset management space. In 2020, her $16.4 billion Ark Innovation ETF has returned 152% in 2020. Three of her other ETFs have more than doubled. However, the superb performances of ETFs like ARKK (Ark Innovation ETF), is not the sole reason for why she has received some much adulation and support as of late. I think breaking down why Cathie Wood has so much support is important because it digs into the deeper issue of the extreme alienation that most retail investors feel with Wall-Street as a whole, especially incidents like GameStop’s short squeeze. Before breaking down why Wood is as loved as she is, it is pertinent to talk not only about her history but the history of Ark. Prior to founding Ark in 2014, Wood worked at Jennison during the 1980s. At Jennison, she proved herself as a capable researcher and strongly distinguished herself with one of her most characteristic traits, her chari...