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    Wednesday, March 3, 2021

    Daily General Discussion and spitballin thread Investing

    Daily General Discussion and spitballin thread Investing


    Daily General Discussion and spitballin thread

    Posted: 03 Mar 2021 02:01 AM PST

    Have a general question? Want to offer some commentary on markets? Maybe you would just like to throw out a neat fact that doesn't warrant a self post? Feel free to post here!

    This thread is for:

    • General questions
    • Your personal commentary on markets
    • Opinion gathering on a given stock
    • Non advice beginner questions

    Keep in mind that this subreddit, and this thread, is not an appropriate venue for questions that should be directed towards your broker's customer support or google.

    If you would like to ask a question about your personal situation or if you are asking for advice please keep these posts in the daily advice thread as that thread is more well suited for those questions.

    Any posts that should be comments in this thread will likely be removed.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Daily Advice Thread - All basic help or advice questions must be posted here.

    Posted: 03 Mar 2021 02:00 AM PST

    If your question is "I have $10,000, what do I do?" or other "advice for my personal situation" questions, you should include relevant information, such as the following:

    • How old are you? What country do you live in?
    • Are you employed/making income? How much?
    • What are your objectives with this money? (Buy a house? Retirement savings?)
    • What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs?
    • What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know its 100% safe?)
    • What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Any other assets?)
    • Any big debts (include interest rate) or expenses?
    • And any other relevant financial information will be useful to give you a proper answer.

    Please consider consulting our FAQ first - https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/faq And our side bar also has useful resources.

    Be aware that these answers are just opinions of Redditors and should be used as a starting point for your research. You should strongly consider seeing a registered financial rep before making any financial decisions!

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Spotify removes hundreds of K-pop songs globally, unable to reach an agreement with Kakao M

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 06:01 AM PST

    Original article:

    https://www.nme.com/news/music/hundreds-k-pop-releases-removed-spotify-worldwide-2890528

    Spotify launched in South Korea on February 1, 2021, but did so without music from artists with licensing deals under Kakao M, including IU, Zico and more.

    Now, releases distributed by the Korean label have been removed from Spotify around the world. Kakao M distributes a large share of Korean popular music, with 37.5 percent of the songs featured on the 2020 Top 400 Yearly Song Chart from Gaon Music Chart under the company.

    Also on BBC.

    Kakao M claiming it was Spotify removing it:

    https://www.soompi.com/article/1456887wpp/kakao-m-releases-statement-explaining-that-spotify-was-the-one-to-end-their-licensing-agreement

    [...] later that same morning, Kakao M countered with its own statement, in which it claimed that Spotify had been the one who chose not to renew their agreement, even after a request on Kakao M's part.

    While this is clearly over compensation, Spotify needs to rectify this asap. From their own news release, K-pop is a huge part of why people use their service:

    Between January 2014 and January 2020, K-pop's share of listening on Spotify increased by more than 1,800%.

    Since Spotify released its first K-Pop flagship playlist, K-Pop Daebak, in 2014 (and then a massive hub dedicated to the genre in 2015), there have been more than 41 billion K-Pop streams on Spotify. From rising artists to international collaborations, there's something for both new and old K-Pop lovers on the platform.

    Top-streamed K-Pop artists on Spotify include BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, TWICE, and Red Velvet. In 2019, BTS was the first group from Asia to surpass 5 billion streams on Spotify. And, as of February 2020, the boy band reached a new milestone: more than 8 billion streams (8 billion streams!) on the platform.

    If a resolution can't be reached I think Spotify will be in trouble long-term as whatever service picks it up will siphon a significant chunk of users.

    submitted by /u/suckfail
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    MMED/MMEDF - long term 10+ bagger

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 09:41 PM PST

    Hello everyone. Not sure how many people are familiar with the psychedelic space, but I'm here to tell you guys a bit about mindmed and the space as a whole.

    The basic investment thesis is this: current available mental health treatments such as adderall, Xanax, suboxone, etc simply dull out, or put a temporary bandaid on the issue. After looking at the efficacy rates for issues such as smoking cessation, PTSD, treatment resistant depression, etc, it is clear that psychedelics could turn into a massive industry that disrupts the way we treat mental health. This could lead mind medicine and other similar companies to multi billion dollar buyouts from big pharma companies.

    There are plenty of fantastic companies in the space, but mindmed is by far my favourite. For full disclosure I'm currently long ~100k warrants, already up bigly.

    Mindmed has a diverse pipeline for a multitude of issues, plenty of cash for future R&D, and plenty of fantastic partnerships in academia/pharma. Additionally, this stock cannot be traded yet by anyone on robinhood due to it being on the OTC market. A nasdaq uplist (expected) would open the floodgates to a ton of new retail buyers. There is also EXTREMELY low institutional ownership, basically 0%.

    At a market cap of 1.5 billion Canadian dollars, this can easily be a 10 bagger once there is more media attention surrounding it, and more progress is made regarding clinical trials. People are not talking about the psychedelic space yet.

    Last thing before I start seeing this in the comments, this does NOT at all compare to the weed industry. There are far more barriers to entry, addresses a totally different market (recreational vs medicinal), and has the added advantage of interest from big pharma.

    I'm aware this isn't very detailed or anything, I don't have the patience to put together a full DD post. I'm simply encouraging everyone in this group to do consider what this company has going for it.

    submitted by /u/JR_Rahn_ismyfather
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    Rocket Lab is going public on a SPAC at a $4.1 billion valuation and unveils a new rocket

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 12:07 PM PST

    Rocket Lab, a developer of launch vehicles and smallsats, will merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to support development of a larger launch vehicle, part of the latest wave of deals to take space companies public.

    The SPAC deal values Rocket Lab at $4.1 billion and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. Once the merger is done, Vector Acquisition Corporation, the SPAC Rocket Lab is merging with, will change its name to Rocket Lab USA, Inc, and the Nasdaq ticker symbol will be RKLB.

    The merger will provide Rocket Lab with up to $320 million from Vector Acquisition's account. In addition, a concurrent private investment in public equity (PIPE) round, led by Vector Capital, BlackRock and Neuberger Berman, will provide $470 million.

    The company will have $750 million in cash when the deal closes, fueling development of the company's next rocket dubbed Neutron, a fully reusable launch vehicle capable of lifting eight tons to orbit. The rocket is "tailored for mega constellations, deep space missions and human spaceflight," the company said in a statement.

    https://digesttime.com/2021/03/02/rocket-lab-is-going-public-on-a-spac-at-a-4-1-billion-valuation-and-unveils-a-new-rocket/

    submitted by /u/thefoodboylover
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    KMPH Got FDA Approval tonight!

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 09:37 PM PST

    Yes!!! I've been in this since .19 a share. Closed at 9.91 today and finally got FDA approval.

    The stock ripped all the Band-Aids off before getting approval. It has zero debt, cash in hand, low cash burn, 50 million dollar milestone payment hitting with labeling. Short squeeze coming from all the shorts that bet wrong.

    "KemPharm may be eligible for up to $468 million in regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as tiered royalty payments, on a product-by-product basis for net sales, with potential percentages up to the mid-twenties for U.S. net sales, and up to the mid-single digits of net sales in each country outside of the U.S."

    kempharm FDA Approval

    submitted by /u/Coboblack
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    Wall Street ends lower as Apple and Tesla retreat

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 02:12 PM PST

    (Reuters) - Wall Street ended lower on Tuesday, pulled down by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), while materials stocks climbed as investors waited for the U.S. Congress to approve another stimulus package.

    Following strong gains in the prior session, technology shares dipped in the resumption of a rotation by investors out of stocks that outperformed due to the coronavirus pandemic and into others viewed as likely to do well as the economy recovers. The S&P 500 materials and consumer staples sector indexes rose.

    Read more

    submitted by /u/abdirahaman
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    Warren Buffett Says Berkshire's Apple Investment Shows The 'Power Of Repurchases'

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 06:58 AM PST

    Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett over the weekend wrote his annual letter to shareholders and highlighted the "power of repurchases" using Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) as an example.

    What Happened: Buffett said that Berkshire began buying shares of the iPhone maker in late 2016 and by early June 2018 owned more than one billion shares (adjusted for splits).

    "Saying that, I'm referencing the investment held in Berkshire's general account and am excluding a very small and separately-managed holding of Apple shares that was subsequently sold. When we finished our purchases in mid-2018, Berkshire's general account owned 5.2% of Apple," wrote the veteran investor.

    The cost for acquiring that stake was $36 billion and since then Berkshire has enjoyed regular dividends averaging about $775 million annually and has pocketed an extra $11 billion in 2020 by selling a small part of its holdings.

    The continuous repurchase of shares by Apple and the consequent shrinking number of shares outstanding has meant that Berkshire now owns 5.4% of the Tim Cook-led company. "That increase was costless to us," wrote Buffett.

    Why It Matters: Berkshire's third-quarter operating profits declined 32% to $5.48 billion from $8.07 billion a year ago. The company repurchased .3 billion worth of stock in the period.

    Since Berkshire also repurchased its own shares during the past two and a half years, its shareholders now own a full 10% more of Apple's assets and future earnings than they did in July 2018, wrote Buffett.

    "This agreeable dynamic continues. Berkshire has repurchased more shares since yearend and is likely to further reduce its share count in the future," revealed the Oracle of Omaha.

    Buffett also pointed to Apple's publicly stated intention to repurchase shares and thus Berkshire shareholders would find "their indirect ownership of Apple increasing as well."

    This year the Buffet-led company cut its position in Apple by 6% to 887 million shares in the latest quarter but upped stakes in AbbVie Inc (NYSE: ABBV), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY), and Merck & Co, Inc (NYSE: MRK).

    Apple still remains the single largest investment in Berkshire's portfolio.

    Price Action: Berkshire Class A shares closed nearly 0.9% lower at $364,580 on Friday. On the same day, the company's Class B shares closed 1.3% lower at $240.51. Apple shares closed almost 0.2% higher at $121.26 and fell 0.41% in the after-hours session.

    Shivdeep Dhaliwal

    Mon, March 1, 2021, 1:28 AM·2 min read

    submitted by /u/folkwoodswest
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    Commas after Commodity Futures Quotes

    Posted: 03 Mar 2021 03:36 AM PST

    I'm working on a project that involves taking commodity futures quotes from the CME website, but I stumbled upon a weird thing. Some commodities are quoted using ' as a decimal separator. For example, May 21 Corn futures are currently 538'6 on the CME website (link). The number after the apostrophe is always a 0, 2, 4 or 6.

    I have never seen this format before, and even though I searched in many places, I can't find an explanation. Does anyone know how I can "translate" quotes like 1410'4 to USD? I'm pretty sure I can't just swap the ' for a comma.

    If you want to, you can access the specific report that I'm working with using this link

    Thanks for the help.

    submitted by /u/pfariasg
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    Fastly (FSLY) Full Due Diligence Post - Promising Company at Relatively Fair Valuation

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 08:21 AM PST

    Hello! Below is some diligence on Fastly, one of the innovators of the CDN / edge computing space. TDLR and resources used at the bottom.

    What are CDNs and Edge Computing?

    • Before I get into Fastly, I first need to set the stage by defining CDNs and Edge Computing (or else the rest of the post is confusing)
    • CDNs are defined as a group of servers that help deliver Internet content, so even this Reddit post you're reading right now is delivered to you through a CDN
      • To put it simply, all else being equal, a good CDN will help something like a web page load really fast while a bad CDN will be slow and cause noticeable lag
    • Edge Computing is a relatively new term born out of CDNs and is a field in which Fastly is one of the primary innovators
      • For the average person, it may seem like digital data can be transmitted instantaneously, but in actuality, the farther away servers are to a user, the more time it takes for digital data to travel, compute, and be stored
      • Edge computing brings computation and data storage as close to the user as possible through small, distributed data centers placed all over the world
        • It also allows for a lot of the data processing to happen on edge devices, like smartphones
      • To really hammer this home, imagine having to travel to Texas every time your car needed gas instead of just traveling to your nearest gas station
        • That's the difference between how data used to be processed (traveling to Texas = data traveling to a few, faraway data centers) to what edge computing now provides (nearest gas station = closest edge server or devise)
      • Here's a visual representation I find helpful

    The History of Fastly

    • Fastly was founded by Artur Bergman in 2011. He was previously the CTO at Wikia. Artur became frustrated with the capabilities of CDNs around 2010 due to the long wait times it took for updates and the constant reliance on slow technical support.
      • Artur believed he could create a better solution and thus founded Fastly and the company branded itself around CDNs until about 2017, when references to CDNs were replaced with moving computing to the edge
    • What's important to know is that from its early beginnings, Fastly's team had a fundamentally different mindset and a custom-built approach that know gave the company an edge
    • Here are 3 notable differentiators:
      • 1) Silverton - Fastly's customized distributed routing agent
        • In its beginnings, the Fastly team first examined approaches to handling networking traffic into and out of their Points of Presence, or POPs, which are a collection of devices that store data that CDNs can pull from to quickly deliver content
        • Instead of using standard, off-the-shelf equipment, Fastly purchased Arista switches that allowed them to run their own software aka Silverton which gave Fastly more control over traffic routing and thus leading to better content delivery
        • This also saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars for each POP deployed
        • But more importantly, software can be changed while hardware cannot, which means that over time, Silverton becomes better and a stronger competitive edge
      • 2) Less but more powerful POPs
        • Most legacy CDN companies like Akamai have invested into hundreds or thousands of small POPs across the world and continue to tout this as a strength, but the problem with smaller POPs is that the amount of content that can be stored is limited
        • This means that if a data request is sent to a small POP that's full, the request will have to travel all the way to an origin server, which could increase the time by a factor of 10x or more
      • Legacy CDNs (like Akamai) built their architectures based on the old Internet backbone aka dial-up which required these smaller POPs that are now nearly impossible to upgrade
      • Fastly examined all this and took a different approach
        • If legacy POPs are local convenience stores in which you have to visit multiple to buy all your groceries, Fastly's POPs are Costco-style supermarkets where you can buy everything at once
        • Fastly's POPs have much more storage space which significant reduces the need for requests to go back to origin servers
        • In addition to that, Fastly utilized SSDs to store cached data which is more expensive but offer much faster retrieval times (in a blog post, Fastly compares this to "having all of your items waiting for you at the supermarket checkout stand instead of having to walk around the supermarket with a huge cart hunting for each item on your list"). The SSDs Fastly uses are orders of magnitudes faster than standard hard drives
        • The punchline is just that Fastly created a super modern internet architecture through powerful POPs that result in much faster average content delivery times for their customers
      • 3) Developer customization
        • Fastly's founder Artur was frustrated by the lack of control from the CDNs he worked with and as a result, Fastly since its early days has been focused on serving developers and engineers
        • While legacy providers required technical support to roll out changes, Fastly added programmability to content control through Varnish, an open-source web accelerator
        • Varnish allows for powerful features, such as instant purge of content, reverse proxies, and real-time data monitoring and management
        • Perhaps most importantly, Varnish allows developers to adjust caching policies based on their unique needs, giving developers much more flexibility and control and resulting in happier customers
    • So to sum up, from the very start, Fastly took a different approach to its content delivery and customized nearly every step of the process which is ultimately what helped the company disrupt the legacy CDN industry

    Fastly's Products

    • I won't cover too much of Fastly's CDN products because I've basically mentioned what Fastly does there (deliver content to users real fast)
      • One thing to note, however, is that even with Fastly's unique positioning, the overall sentiment is that CDN is a commoditized industry and so there will be significant competition on pricing moving forward
    • That's why Fastly's future areas of growth is not in CDN but in its Edge Compute Technology and Cloud Security
    • Compute@Edge
      • Starting with Edge Compute Technology, in November 2019, Fastly announced the launch of the beta testing for Compute@Edge
      • Compute@Edge is a platform that allows developers to build applications at the edge rather than in centralized data centers, and this provides the benefits of better security, performance, and scalability in a severless compute environment. This goes MUCH MORE beyond a traditional CDN.
      • Traditionally, cloud-based applications centralize logic in a data center (imagine a really big office space full of servers) that eventually hops over to a user's device regardless of where that user is geographically located
        • The problem with this is that computation costs money and it becomes more expensive the further out from the origin that you get
      • Lucet
        • In response to the 4 aforementioned requirements, just like in its early days when it was developing its CDN, Fastly took on a customized approach by building Lucet
      • In the latest Q4 2020 earnings call, management highlighted that Compute@Edge has seen considerable progress, naming multiple use cases in the gaming, machine learning, language, and ad-tech industries
      • With all this said, while Fastly is a pioneer in the edge compute space and Compute@Edge could be a source for a lot of growth, it's also likely that other competitors will quickly copy the company's approach and there are no guarantees in the eventual size of the market
      • As a result, this product is something investors need to keep a close eye on in 2021 to see how the product develops and how competitors react
    • Secure@Edge
      • The second product to highlight is Fastly's Cloud Security services, which is known as Secure@Edge
      • While Fastly's previous security offerings were comparable to its competitors, Fastly notably bolstered its competitive position with its acquisition of Signal Sciences in August 2020
      • To give a bit of background, Signal Sciences was founded by 3 former Etsy employees who were frustrated by the limits of existing security solutions to protect web apps
        • Just like Fastly, these founders designed a new Web Application Firewall or WAF that was both modern and developer friendly (similar to Fastly's story)
        • From these beginning, the team built a WAF with 3 key advantages including higher accuracy, increased automation, and flexibility
      • And since then, Signal Sciences became one of the world's hottest startups and was selected by Forbes in May 2020 as one of the top 25 fastest growing startups likely to reach a $1BN valuation
        • In February 2020, Gartner compiled reviews from customers of WAF products and Signal Sciences was the most highly rated amongst all competition with a 4.9 out of 5 rating
      • Through the combined company, Fastly is offering what's known as Secure@Edge and is arguably a leader in the web app security space
      • Secure@Edge will be built on top of the Compute@Edge platform, which means cloud applications won't require a separate security layer in front of them which is a gamechanger and results in lower costs and higher effectiveness
      • Perhaps most importantly, what this does is help accelerate edge computing adoption, which again is the big bet Fastly is making on its future growth
      • The last thing I want to highlight are just a few of the metrics of the deal
        • Signal Sciences was acquired for $775 million of which $575 million was Fastly stock, which is good because that means the Signal Science's team are Fastly shareholders and incentivized to help the company succeed
        • Signal Sciences also about 42 additional enterprise customers to Fastly which the company can now more easily cross-sell other products to
        • The company generated annual recurring revenue of $28 million as of June 2020 and was growing at 62% vs. Fastly which typically grows in the 30s and 40s
        • Gross margins are above 85%, which is much higher than Fastly's which is usually in the 50s
        • And lastly, gross retention of 96% shows that the stickiness of Signal Science's product which is a great sign
    • To recap, hopefully by now you see that Fastly is much more than a CDN company. Through Compute@Edge and Secure@Edge, Fastly is building the next generation's edge computing platform

    Competitive Positioning

    • Fastly markets itself well as a company with a developer-first mentality, which is a very modern marketing approach versus in the past where legacy CDN companies used to target C-suite executives
      • The 3 key strengths Fastly touts are lower costs, more control, and better security - all 3 of which are things we covered
    • The key competitor names in edge computing that you should know are Amazon's Lambda@Edge, Microsoft's Intelligent Edge, Akamai's Intelligent Edge Platform, and Cloudflare's Workers platform
      • I'm not going to go into Fastly's competitors too much because I'll be making another post later about Cloudflare which is Fastly's main competition
    • When looking at all these competitors, Fastly boasts the fastest cold start time at 35 microseconds, which far beats out any of the legacy competitors and its biggest competitor Cloudflare
    • The last important thing I want to mention in regards to Fastly's competitive positioning is its management team
      • Fastly has assembled a world-class team both organically and through acquisitions and this is one of those intangible strengths that's hard to measure but very important for a company that's trying to disrupt an industry
      • This blog has a really great description of the company's management team (search the term "brain trust" and you can read a bunch of management bios there

    Customers

    • Fastly focuses on large enterprise customers, which the company defines as a customer that spends more than $100K annually
      • This is a primary distinguishing factor from Cloudflare, which is another leading CDN company that focuses on small businesses
    • According to their Q4 2020 earnings report, Fastly has a total number of customers of 2084, of which 324 are enterprise customers
    • Fastly serves some of the most highly innovative digital companies in the world who which really validates the company's services (Microsoft, Slack, Shopify, etc.)

    Financial Overview

    • Highlights from Q4 2020 results:
      • 2019-2020 full-year revenue growth of 45% (a bit inflated due to Signal Sciences acquisition, but nevertheless, very solid)
      • Non-GAAP gross margin of 60.9% (up from 56.6% and this should trend upwards due to Signal Science's high gross margin
    • The key revenue-related metrics (besides growth rate) you need to keep track of each quarter (which are also provided in the quarterly earnings report) are the following:
      • DBNER - 143% this past quarter which is really high, and means that if a customer was spending $100 last year, they spend $143 today (but declined slightly from 147% from Q3 2020)
      • Net retention rate - 115% which is also high but declined from 122% from Q3 2020
        • DBNER excludes customer churn while the net retention rate does take into account customer churn (i.e. customers lost)
      • Annual revenue retention rate - 99%, meaning Fastly lost just 1% of customers (obviously very good)
    • In its latest quarter, Fastly's DBNER and NRRs showed to be on a slight decline due to the company's own incredibly high standards, but still this is a bit worrisome to investors
    • Valuation
      • At its share price around $73-$74, Fastly is currently trading at a ~23X 2022 sales multiple, which at a ~40% growth rate is very attractive given the current environment
      • Company has been hit hard recently because of potential loss of TikTok as a customer (this is something still looming over the company's head and in the latest call, management didn't really confirm or deny anything) and relatively soft guidance of $375mm-$385mm for 2021, which represents a 30% growth rate ($291mm for 2020 revenue)
        • In my view, I think management is doing a good job being conservative and in the long-run, investors will be pleasantly surprised with Fastly's growth as long as the company can execute on its Compute@Edge and Secure@Edge products

    Resources Used

    TLDR: Fastly is a leader in the CDN and edge computing space with 2 innovative products (Compute@Edge and Secure@Edge) that could be strong growth drivers for years to come (given strong execution). The company is boasting strong growth and has been a victim of its own success but is trading at relatively reasonably multiples for a leading software company.

    submitted by /u/rareliquid
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    Mining for car batteries . Study in link

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 12:36 PM PST

    These are the mining stocks in Lithium + copper + nickel + cobalt + manganese + rare earth + silver. I have REEMF + REZZF + ABML + AMYZYF + ALYI + TLOFF + ILHMF + SXOOF + UAMY + FCSMF + MLLOF + HNCKF + COCBF + BMIX

    A new study did a deep dive into the emissions from the full life cycles, from petroleum extraction to mining, of both electric cars and fossil fuel-powered cars. The result is unsurprising but needed to dispel misinformation.

    One of the oil industry's favorite ways to try to attack electric cars was to say that they are just as polluting as gas-powered vehicles because they were powered by an electric grid that burns coal and natural gas. That has already been disproved by several studies, and the advantage for electric vehicles is growing as the grid is becoming cleaner with a higher mix of solar, wind, and hydropower in most markets. Now the oil industry is using another argument to discredit electric vehicles: mining resources to build batteries is just as bad as the environment as burning petrol. Like the argument about the grid, we thought that it was flawed due to battery recycling and now a study confirms it. Transport and Environment (T&E), an NGO that looks into the impact of transport on the environment, has released a new study that looks to compare emissions from raw materials to produce electric cars versus gas-powered vehicles:

    vehicles:

    "T&E's study assesses the amount of raw materials needed to make electric vehicle batteries today and in the future – taking into account changes in manufacturing processes and recycling. It compares this with the raw materials needed to run a fossil fuel car to show that electric car batteries need significantly less raw materials."

    The study focuses on some of the aspects that are often missed in emissions from full life cycles of gas versus electric. For the electric vehicles, it's the fact that you don't just burn a battery pack like you burn gas. T&E found that only about 30 kilograms of metals would be lost after recycling in an electric car battery pack. In comparison, an average gas-powered car will burn 300 to 400 times that weight in gas over its lifetime. The study also highlights that petrol extraction and refining are also extremely energy extensive parts of the oil industry that often relies on the same grid as electric vehicles do for charging. Here are the key findings from the study:

    Electric vehicles consume far less raw material (metals) than fossil fueled cars

    When taking into account the recycling of the battery cell materials and that the majority of the metal content is recovered, T&E calculates how much is 'consumed' or 'lost' during the lifetime of an EV. Under the EU's current recycling recovery rate target, around 30 kilograms of metals would be lost (i.e. not recovered). In contrast, the study shows that the weight of petrol or diesel that is burned during the average lifetime of a vehicle is around 300-400 times more than the total quantity of battery cells metals 'lost'. Over its lifetime, an average ICE car burns close to 17,000 liters of petrol, which would be equivalent to a stack of oil barrels 90m high.

    Less raw material will be needed for batteries over time

    Technological advancements will drive down the amount of lithium required to make an EV battery by half over the next decade. The amount of cobalt required will drop by more than three-quarters and nickel by around a fifth.

    Europe will need to import less raw material because of recycling

    In 2035 over a fifth of the lithium and nickel, and 65% of the cobalt, needed to make a new battery could come from recycling.

    Europe will likely produce enough batteries to supply its own EV market as early as 2021

    T&E calculates that there will be 460 GWh (in 2025) and 700 GWh (2030) of battery production in Europe – enough to meet the demand of electric cars.

    Here's the study in full:

    https://electrek.co/2021/03/01/mining-electric-car-batteries-hundreds-of-times-better-than-petrol-car-emission-cycles/

    submitted by /u/NPRjunkieDC
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    $BUZZ ETF - Barstool’s Dave Portnoy promotes new fund

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 11:05 AM PST

    On Thursday March 4th, $BUZZ, an ETF that tracks the top 75 large-cap stocks with social media attention, will launch on the NYSE.

    The algorithm that $BUZZ uses has been around for 5 years and claims to have outperformed the S&P 500 last year by 40%. The algorithm is based off of stocks with the most "buzz" and conversation on social media (not sure exactly which platforms) that also meet the criteria of being a large-cap stock.

    Dave Portnoy's involvement, despite his controversies, ultimately leads to more buzz for $BUZZ itself, thanks to $PENN, DDTG, and his many public appearances on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, etc. He may be used mainly as a promotion tool.

    submitted by /u/GoochJuiceJr
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    China is sounding the alarm about a global market bubble

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 07:55 AM PST

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/investing/china-banking-financial-bubble-intl-hnk/index.html

    One of China's most powerful financial officials is sounding the alarm over a bubble in global markets.

    Guo Shuqing, the Communist Party boss at the People's Bank of China, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that confidence in Chinese markets could be hit by volatility around the world.

    "We are really afraid the bubble for foreign financial assets will burst someday," said Guo, who is also chairman of China's Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission

    ...

    submitted by /u/InterestingRadio
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    High Times IPO - A Dying Brand —> From Selling Mags to Selling Bags

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 09:09 PM PST

    High Times is a - beloved - American monthly magazine and cannabis brand with offices in Los Angeles and New York City. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forçade and the publication advocates the legalization of cannabis. The magazine has been involved in the marijuana-using counterculture since its inception.

    On Jan 29th, 2020, ditched dreams of NASDAQ Listing

    Hightimes Holding Corp., parent of High Times, revealed that it has abandoned its efforts to list on the NASDAQ, a goal it had been pursuing for since mid-2017. The company launched an offering two years ago at $11 per share through the Reg A+ process, and it reported that it would extend its Reg A+ capital raise until 4.545 million shares had been sold or until March 31st. It disclosed in an SEC filing that it recently sold 363,636 shares at $5.50 in a private placement to Ontario-based Rayray Investments (Raymond Leach, an original investor in MedReleaf), a 50% discount to where it has been selling shares.

    High Times securities lawyers, Stephen Weiss and Megan Penick of L.A. based Michelman Robinson LLP, confirmed in an email interview that the company can not accept sales until they get their annual report filed and publicly available for investors.

    High Times IPO - Sorry, No Refunds - Teri Buhl of Cannabis Law Reports Talks Reg A

    Harvest Acquisitions

    It was in March that Harvest Health announced an $80 million buyout of that entire company. Then, literally two months later, we see a letter of intent filed by Hightimes now and Harvest saying,

    "Okay well, we're actually going to buy the California assets of Have a Heart."

    Why that was contradictory is that Harvest had just been on an investor call telling people, when an analyst asked,

    "Why are you doing this deal?" They said, "Well, we want a stronger footprint in California."

    It didn't make sense that two months later they're getting rid of everything they just bought in California.

    Additionally, in the last month there have beenmultiple news reports questioning if Harvest even has ownership or control of the cannabis licenses to sell to High Times.

    Very little cash actually changes hands in the deals crafted by High Times; instead it has announced millions of stock (which isn't publicly traded yet) will pay for the asset purchases. With the Harvest acquisition, High Times attorney Stephen Weiss confirmed for CLR that $1.5 million was paid to Harvest but at signing only $500k was given. The asset purchase agreement filed with the SEC said High Times would pay Harvest $1 million on signing.

    This is just a complete lack of transparency, and it's completely unfair for the Main Street investor trying to get into cannabis.

    Done before starting

    The Securities and Exchange Commission has told a U.S. operated cannabis media and dispensary company, High Times Holdings, that they must halt accepting investments in their mini-IPO because they have failed to meet an extended deadline to file their audited annual report.

    The last date the company was allowed to take investments was the middle of June.

    High Times used a reporting extension the SEC created because of the Covid-19 pandemic to get a 45 day extension to file the annual report and said in recent SEC disclosure filings, called Form 1-U, that they promised investors to get them current revenue, cash flows, debt levels and asset values by June 12, 2020 via the annual report; but CLR has learnt that this never happened.

    Adam Levin's company has spent over two years trying to get main street to invest up to $US50 million without a successful close date that could lead to publicly traded stock on the OTC Markets under the ticker $HITM.

    On June 30th, 2020 the company made an SEC filing announcing once again their mini-ipo would be extended for yet another three months but left out the important fact that they couldn't actually accept sales.

    When asked if it is normal practice for a Reg A issuer to continue to solicit investments when it can't accept sales; securities attorney Sara Hanks said:

    "The SEC may have softened up in the Covid crisis but previously, both sales and offers were supposed to stop during such time as the issuer was delinquent in its filings, because there is no exemption under Reg A for "offers" (advertising etc) while a company is delinquent."

    High Times still has their investment offering page live

    Since then investors have seen a rapid pace of public announcements about asset purchases, via signed letter of intents, hyping the potential growth of High Times followed up with quiet SEC filings announcing the deals had either fallen apart or been watered down.

    I have personally fallen for this sham (F), as I invested in 5000 units in 2018. They stopped responding to my inquires, in fact, there was a random charge on my credit card (from an airport in LA) the same day they charged my card for the IPO.. they stated that it would be refunded - never was. I can still log on and see the shares I have "invested" but they obviosuly don't represent anything. Lesson learned..

    Recent Financials

    The company filed apost-qualification amendment to its Form 1-A with the SEC that suggests the financial condition has become even more precarious. In the first quarter of 2018, sales plunged 64.9% to just $1.481 million:

    Most of the decline can be attributed to the events business, which fell almost 83%, but publishing revenue declined over 16% as well. The company indicated that its Cannabis Cup events will take place later in the year compared to the prior year, with one in Las Vegas and in Los Angeles taking place in the first quarter of 2017 and none in the first quarter of 2018. The $554K in sales were generated by smaller events, and the company expects the number of Cannabis Cups and small events to increase for the full year. It blamed the publishing decline on lower sales at the newsstands and through subscription and lower print advertising revenue, with digital partially offsetting these factors.

    The company provided information about its cost of revenue, which was $503K, as well as its operating expenses, which declined substantially to $2.391 million, producing an operating loss of $1.413 million compared to an operating loss in the first quarter of 2017 of $6.54 million. Much of the year-ago operating expenses were due to a one-time non-cash charge of $6.689 million for equity compensation charges for consulting.

    The last time the company filed official annual earnings was June 2019. High Times had told investors it would get updated financial information on June 12, but that did not happen. The company has extended the offering of shares for two years, initially telling investors that it would list its shares on the NASDAQ. Then it lowered those expectations to the Over-The-Counter Marketplace.

    Still, it hasn't happened.

    I am not a Financial Advisor, so please do your own DD

    submitted by /u/seebz69
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    The Case for $RILY: A Financial Sector Sleeper DD

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 01:44 PM PST

    This is my first attempt at a DD, so bear with me as I go through this.

     

    BACKGROUND  

    The company I'm looking at today is B Riley Financial (Nasdaq:$RILY). The company is a broad financial services provider which started as an investment bank and currently includes segments in capital markets, auction and liquidation, valuation and appraisal, and principal investments.

     

    The capital markets segment provides an array of investment banking, corporate finance, research, wealth management, sales and trading services to corporate, institutional and high net worth clients.

     

    The auction and liquidation segment utilizes a network of independent contractors and industry-specific advisors to tailor its services to the needs of a multitude of clients, logistical challenges and distressed circumstances.

     

    The valuation and appraisal segment provides valuation and appraisal services to financial institutions, lenders, private equity firms and other providers of capital.

     

    The principal investments consists of businesses which have been acquired primarily for attractive investment return characteristics.

     

    FINANCIALS  

    RILY recenly released their Q4 2020 and FY2020 results last week of which the following are highlghts:

     

    Fourth Quarter 2020 Financial Highlights

    • Record quarterly total revenues of $410.2 million vs. $165.2 million for Q4 2019
    • Record investment banking results driven by increased activity and larger transactions
    • Net income of $170.1 million vs. $16.9 million, EPS of $6.55 vs. $0.59 per diluted share
    • Operating revenues of $270.0 million vs. $130.5 million, Operating EBITDA of $126.8 million vs. $16.4 million
    • Q4 total adjusted EBITDA of $260.5 million vs. $50.3 million

     

    Full Year 2020 Financial Highlights

    • Record annual total revenues of $902.7 million vs. $652.1 million for FY 2019
    • Net income of $200.4 million vs. $81.3 million, EPS of $7.56 vs. $2.95 per diluted share
    • Operating revenues of $798.7 million vs. $545.6 million, Operating EBITDA of $311.7 million vs. $113.6 million
    • Annual investment gains of approximately $104 million
    • Annual total adjusted EBITDA of $406.8 million vs. $207.9 million

     

    Additionally, with the earnings release, they announced an increase to their quarterly dividend from $0.35 per share to $0.50 per share as well as a special dividend of $3.00 per share for a total dividend to stockholders of record on or around March 24th of $3.50 per share. This would bring the dividend to about a roughly 5.4% rate which is a very strong return (looking at you $RKT folks)

     

    OUTSIDE RESEARCH AND HISTORY  

    So how has the company done over time you ask? Since 2016 revenue has grown from $190 million in to an estimated $798 million in 2020, a ~42% CAGR. EBITDA has grown from $48.9 million to approximately $406 million or a ~65% CAGR, and the regular dividend has grown from $0.32 to $1.50. Additionally, they recently completed the acquisition of National Holdings Corporation, another wealth management firm, with asset management of approximately $20 billion to add to the already existing $12 billion management portfolio. Since this is a recent acquisition income and revenue from this acquisition won't hit the financials until the Q1 earnings are released at the earliest.

     

    Additionally, just yesterday they announced the full redemption of 7.5% Senior Notes due in 2027 showing another strong financial indicator. Also, the largeest shareholder in the company, CEO Bryant Riley, has continued to be bullish in his own company with continued stock buy backs through out the last few years, with the most recent being a $4.6 MM purchase in January at $46 a share. A lot of conviction in the long term growth in the company from the C-Suite folks.

     

    Lastly, I'll leave this bit of research from hype machine Seeking Alpha, which notes that RILY is trading at a deep discount in relation to it's peers is the financial sector. It currently trades roughly around 3x to 4x EBITDA, while other firms in the sector are trading around 14x. Now, this isn't to say that RILY will be at that 14x rate, but it does lend some credence to where it could go. Seeking Alpha goes on to note that even at a 40% discount from it's 14x EBITDA would put the price per share around $111, which would represent a 71% increase in value from the current stock price.

     

    CONCLUSION  

    I feel as those this might be a hidden gem in the financial sector as it has a very diversified set of offerings that can benefit from both up and down markets. Additionally, leadership has show strong conviction in the company and analyst feel as those the long term gains are there. I don't know if $111 or $150 a share is on the horizon, but I'll be very interested to find out and see where this one goes.

    submitted by /u/guyatwork37
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    investing in non-registered assets

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 10:03 PM PST

    Does anyone have any experience (good or bad or other) investing in non traditional, non-registered assets?

    Aside from physical gold and silver and a few graded dual lands (expensive trading cards) I haven't really gotten into the space. I obviously would not have a large percentage of my portfolio in this kind of thing since it's a pain to liquidate, but I do like the idea of having fun investments and parking money in some weird assets - especially if inflation rates skyrocket down the road.

    I've taken a look at prices of high end collectibles, wines, cigars, art, etc and they all seem to beat the S&P over time. Any thoughts?

    submitted by /u/gourmet_hot_dog
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    $EBON - Crypto Miner, Mining Equipment Seller, ASIC maker and EBONEX Crypto Exchange

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 03:51 AM PST

    I'm going to try to keep this DD short and to the point.

    • EBON - otherwise known as Ebang International Holdings on the NYSE, is a blockchain company that focuses on designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), mainly for use in mining machines. They also sell these rigs directly on their website.

    • They hold a patent for hold the patent on AsicBoost (which makes mining rigs roughly ~20% more effective).

    • Recently launched their own Crypto Exchange on iOS and Android called EBONEX check out some screenshots, the UI is pretty nice. Haven't tried using it yet though.

    • They also mine Bitcoin themselves and recently said they would start mining LTC and DOGE (yeah, lol) also.

    • They are tapped into the massive Chinese market

    Comparisons in the same sector

    MARA and RIOT have ~$3.7B market cap at the time of this post. All they do is mine and if you know anything about mining you know they're struggling to turn a profit with the coin price explosion in the last year. They price action of these stocks directly rivals the coins and has become a substitute for playing the coin itself for those who are too lazy to actually buy on an exchange.

    CAN is a mining equipment supplier with a market cap of $3.5B and yes, all they do is sell the mining rigs, but unlike MARA and RIOT they're actually making money right now.

    These companies have already exploded and may continue moving alongside the price of BTC, but what if you missed that boat early on and want the next multi-bagger?

    This is where EBON comes in. They sell ASICs. They sell mining rigs. They mine. They have their own exchange.

    Their market cap is only $1.16B at the time of this post.

    My short term price target is $27 which brings their market cap to the $3B range and rivals other these other unidimensional crypto plays.

    TL;DR Quadruple threat play. Multi-bagger potential. Undervalued compared to peers. Actually making money. Chinese audience.

    Positions: 1,500 Shares and will continue to add dips as the price action consolidates.

    As always, do your own DD. I'm not a financial advisor. Please share any knowledge that I may have missed in the comments. Thanks for reading.

    submitted by /u/Chewie_Defense
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    Electric Jet-Ski and Snowmobile maker Taiga Motors to go public in merger via Canaccord SPAC CGGZ

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 08:40 AM PST

    Bloomberg reported first about Taiga and CGGZ getting together.

    The company had their special meeting of shareholders yesterday to approve the transaction and it was approved. Not sure when the actual transaction happens, but it shou ld be relatively soon as there's a big cash infusion coming from CGGZ PIPE.

    See Bloomberg link for the story: Electric Snowmobile Maker Taiga To Go Public Via Canaccord SPAC

    submitted by /u/fishtar
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    Silver DD Article - Potential rise to $50

    Posted: 02 Mar 2021 01:58 PM PST

    I recently read this article on Seeking Alpha in regards to the global shortage of silver and historical trends predicting a significant rise in price this year. What is everyone's thoughts?

    It stands up well to my own further DD and I agree with all the points. I see some potential downside but a lot of upside. Of course this is one of those areas where you need to be weary that a fast rise could be followed by a quick drop.

    A timeframe for this bullish trend is difficult to gauge I would put it within a month or so. The TA on silver at the moment appears medium term bullish if perhaps slightly more consolidation could be expected.

    Will you be investing in silver? Paper or physical?

    Article Here

    submitted by /u/Sidemen-Ultimate-Fan
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