In the Dark
Los Angeles declared a power emergency last month when temperatures in the area averaged 90 degrees, six degrees higher than the historic average for the area. Repeating for emphasis, a six degree difference in temperature caused a power crisis. That sort of thing is not supposed to happen in a region where 15% power reserve […]
Dinner at Your Doorstep
Meal delivery services have been around for a long time. Most consumers have ordered pizza or Chinese food and had that food delivered. What appears to be new in recent months is that consumers are beginning to show a preference for having all types of restaurant food delivered as opposed to either picking it up […]
Change is Coming
Imagine a world where tools for payments were not necessary. Paper checks are already on the way out, and within a decade they might not exist at all. Airlines and now some restaurants are no longer accepting cash. Credit cards are expensive, and they are cumbersome to use online, where consumers have to re-enter and […]
Surprise! It Still Works!
What is better than a surprise birthday party? Answer: Your equity investments reporting unexpected profits. Stocks frequently appreciate following unexpected good news. Recognizing this phenomenon, investment industry databases have created variables designed to identify earnings surprises, measure the degree of surprise, and keep track of a series of surprises. Due to the relationship between positive […]
Here Comes the Boom
The Millennial generation (born between 1982 and 1996) comprises the second largest population in the United States. Only the Baby Boomers are a larger cohort. Large groups of similarly aged people tend to have commonalities in their consumption patterns, and as a result, a good investment strategy over the years has been to follow populations […]
Strike Down the Band
Shaun White just won his third gold medal in the halfpipe. The sport has advanced a lot in the 12 years since his first Olympic medal. The 2006 winning run contained a front-side 1080, a McTwist, and a 900. By 2018, this collection of moves would not even qualify for the Olympics. The winning run […]
Debt and Growth Don’t Mix
Companies that can sustain their own growth through positive free cash flow have long been prized on Wall Street. However, early stage companies and companies growing rapidly may not always be capable of realizing their growth opportunities without external financing. Finance professionals are trained to be indifferent between equity and debt as long as the […]
Passive Activism. What the What?
Social investing is fraught with actual and potential challenges. Socially-responsible investors sometimes find that their social goals conflict with their targeted investment performance or portfolio diversification guidelines. Investors often rely upon biased social metric scores provided by third-party firms. All of this being the case, we think the rise of passive social investment vehicles could […]
Meet Rosie Jetson
The robots are coming! The robots are coming! Adapting Paul Revere’s call to arms, we are told that robots are coming and that they will take our jobs. The capabilities of automation advance daily; however, the significance of the technical challenge looks to be underestimated. Established Robotics Applications Are Growing Significant Technical Challenges Remain Technical […]
At The Ends Of The Days
Ecommerce enables consumers to shop for what they want when they want. Likewise, streaming video services empower consumers to view what they want when they want. Use patterns of these technologies illustrate that consumers are active on different days of the week and different hours of the day than previously imagined. Patterns suggest a broad […]