Interesting speaker/content at a company event last week - Prof G (Scott Galloway)

[92redragtop]

Prof G (Scott Galloway) was a keynote speaker at a company event last week and I thought his presentation was interesting. This video is close to what he presented although over a month old so would be interesting to hear an updated perspective on Robinhood after the last few weeks events (noting GME is dropping like a rock and BB is down from over $30 to almost $10).

I hadn't heard of him before but have since subscribed to his podcast which is also quite interesting. Youtube channel has several short videos as well. He's a prof at NY Stern Business School so content will be commensurate with that background (and obviously US centric). I don't think any of the content is really Black Flag Forum oriented as it's more business/economics/marketing and macro trends.

If you have millennial or university level kids the content may be useful/thought provoking for them as well.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-prof-g-show-with-scott-galloway/id1498802610

https://www.section4.com/prof-g-show


This presentation/video itself is long at 1 1/4 hours but there is the main part of 53 minutes, then a short Q&A, and another short 2021 piece to wrap up. Also, included a few shorter videos I was watching to get a flavour for content/style.


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[Gr8Stang]

Interesting dude with some interesting thoughts/predictions. The Apple acquisition of Peloton was intriguing. And many people can relate with his statement "I'm not really sure I understand Bitcoin", but says he's going to put 5-10% of his net worth into it? Guess he can afford to lose it.

As for the wallstreetbets/Roinhood/Reddit "investors", it's been fascinating (and scary) to watch how social media power can be harnessed to create a major move in hedge fund shorted stocks. Some people got rich quick (if they cashed out) while some pretty big wallstreet hedgefunds got royally screwed. Good on the little guy. Not sure what happens next. More SEC regulation perhaps?

Finally, it scares me to see how much money is being printed and the incredible debt being piled up in such a short period of time. When the printing stops, I see an ugly end to the stock market....and who knows what else. The other happy thought is the government deciding they need to raise the interest rates. For those strapped with large amounts of debt....not good again.

[92redragtop]

Yes, I thought his perspectives were interesting as we watch some of what unfolded last year and what's to come. The bull market was propelled from 2011 through 2020 (pre-pandemic) and then back again after the initial hit but it's a handful of names propping everything up (ie. FAANG+) plus the effects of QE over the last decade after the housing crash. There's so much money out there chasing yield/return but it's coming from the top 10% - I'm sure we'll see an overdue crash soon so trying to figure out how to position for that.

The Robinhood thing, fascinating....I did not realize they were valued at the level they are but pretty ingenious (and sneaky) how they actually make money since it's not from trading. A lot of them made money but with the massive pullback you have to wonder who bought at the higher prices nd are now holding the "bag" or options traders who are holding worthless trades, unless they were shorts (another reading of this is that traders from hedge funds who are typically young may have also been on the other side trading with Robinhood as well so it's the few owners who were affected and then bailed out by their buddies). Regulation was likely coming before this (or maybe not as I don't think the government at the time was focused on this stuff) after the high profile Robinhood customer suicide in 2020 (based on their gamification of trading and demographic of young men prone to risk trading).

That said, I have been curious about two areas he's talking about, health-tech and edu-tech, as those industries are ripe for disruption (US and Canada) given what we've seen in fintech and more recently, insure-tech. As for a play on commercial real estate, maybe buy some call options for AirBnB to lock in a price? On Robinhood?...lol.

[92redragtop]

This was an interesting one too as you think about all the subscription offers we receive on a weekly basis.

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[Scrape]

I will definitely check this out. Always good to get different ideas. I do agree it’s time to invest in Bitcoin. I’ve made decent money investing into it.

[Gr8Stang]

I will definitely check this out. Always good to get different ideas. I do agree it’s time to invest in Bitcoin. I’ve made decent money investing into it.

As much as i'd like to jump on the Bitcoin bus, it's a wee bit to speculative for my blood. Good luck!

[Gr8Stang]

This was an interesting one too as you think about all the subscription offers we receive on a weekly basis.

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Seeing this play out in the Hi-Tech industry left, right and center with lots of subscription and pay as you go models coming to market. From a customer perspective, it helps them control the costs of the technology, and reduce the ever burdensome, never ending, upgrades. Win/Win.

[92redragtop]

Seeing this play out in the Hi-Tech industry left, right and center with lots of subscription and pay as you go models coming to market. From a customer perspective, it helps them control the costs of the technology, and reduce the ever burdensome, never ending, upgrades. Win/Win.

The other part of it is that you pay for customer acquisition once then less on retention so dollars go back into making product/service better (ok, maybe not for telecoms...lol) plus consumer behaviour now (not sure if just millennials and Gen Z or everyone) is to subscribe for recurring then forget about these ongoing paid subscriptions.

[92redragtop]

As much as i'd like to jump on the Bitcoin bus, it's a wee bit to speculative for my blood. Good luck!

Same here - thought about it a few times (even with Ethereum) since the dot com boom era then got cold feet (or busy) and missed the boat more than once but at $40K plus now it's too rich for me since it is speculative (although I know you can buy partials and ETFs, etc).

[Gr8Stang]

Same here - thought about it a few times (even with Ethereum) since the dot com boom era then got cold feet (or busy) and missed the boat more than once but at $40K plus now it's too rich for me since it is speculative (although I know you can buy partials and ETFs, etc).

I've missed a few boats over the past handful of years, and like you have gotten cold feet and/or wasn't convinced it would be a good investment. My three biggest no-decisions; Shopify (a motley fool canada recommendation in the low 30's), Chipotle (in the 50's) and Facebook in the high teens. Thankfully I've had some multi-baggers in Magna, Mastercard and Methanex. I've steered clear of Hi-Tech in general having worked in the industry most of my career and being burnt with Nortel and watching the dot.com bubble.

The one thing I am very happy that I did was to become a self directed investor. Got started in late 2010, early 2011, moving previously invested $$ with defined contribution plans (thru my employer at the time) and a small about of RRSPs invested thru a relative, into a Self Directed RRSP. Did some research on companies and put my money to work. Easily provided a better return then the "funds" that my employer offered...and my relative. Haven't looked back since and have saved who knows how much $$ in fees.

[92redragtop]

I've missed a few boats over the past handful of years, and like you have gotten cold feet and/or wasn't convinced it would be a good investment. My three biggest no-decisions; Shopify (a motley fool canada recommendation in the low 30's), Chipotle (in the 50's) and Facebook in the high teens. Thankfully I've had some multi-baggers in Magna, Mastercard and Methanex. I've steered clear of Hi-Tech in general having worked in the industry most of my career and being burnt with Nortel and watching the dot.com bubble.

The one thing I am very happy that I did was to become a self directed investor. Got started in late 2010, early 2011, moving previously invested $$ with defined contribution plans (thru my employer at the time) and a small about of RRSPs invested thru a relative, into a Self Directed RRSP. Did some research on companies and put my money to work. Easily provided a better return then the "funds" that my employer offered...and my relative. Haven't looked back since and have saved who knows how much $$ in fees.

Yeah, looked at all those and didn't pull the trigger to my regret.... even Lightspeed (in the Shopify world). I did pretty good on Real Matters after buying them for 50 cents on the post IPO dollar and also MOGO about 1/3 of their IPO price (I opened a TFSA for my niece when she started university and gave her 100 shares of MOGO which has now tripled and she actually went and bought FIRE.TO on her own, which I also own except I had to school her on lot sizes and transaction fees after she told me). MTY has done well for me in terms of low tech with +2X gain and a nice dividend yield. My focus last couple years has mostly been on good, stable dividend paying stocks, infrastructure stocks, etc, inside my TFSA but had several cap gains bangers in there too with cannabis stocks and the tech ones above. Picked up HITI.VN last week at 66 cents and this week it's 99 cents but question is can they grow their retail footprint to be a multi-banger like some of the others I've had in the past (made about $15K on Canopy in it's previous format when it started as a penny stock).

My infrastructure stocks have done well also - Brookfield Infrastructure, Algonquin Power, and Boralex. Got HEO.VN at under a buck a while back but it didn't move until recent and went 3X. Also have positions in long term care home stocks both before and after pandemic with EXE, Sienna, and Chartwell - wouldn't normally hold all three but the dividend yields are good on all three at the prices I paid and they got beaten up last year so I increased my position (had EXE.TO before but added the other two when the market crashed last year.....along with a few others (Enbridge, Dollarama, more Brookfield Infrastructure, Boralex, and Algonquin). I did buy Laurentian Bank for the dividend but then they dropped but I'm still holding as a long term dividend play (and they should come back eventually once they figure their shit out - they're overhauling leadership team).

I see SNC is divesting of some divisions - I owned them in the past and made a profit when they had bad news from the scandals and associated volatility and I've been looking at them since they were under $20 for jumping in again - think they have their problems behind them now? I think they cleaned up their act but the question is to what degree will they be blacklisted for infrastructure projects/RFPs....they do have the expertise but so does WSP and others in Canada and internationally.

[92redragtop]

Thought this was a funny episode....


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[83 5.0]

Love this, going to subscribe, more entertaining than Kramer.