Fed Actions and The Story of Luna
May 11, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 7 mins to read)
Fed Actions On Monday we sent a note to all clients regarding current markets. Markets in 2022 have fallen fast. If you’re feeling down about your portfolio, you’re not alone. The Venture Capital Index tracking the portfolios of leading VCs is down over 55% in the last six months. The most successful modern hedge fund, Tiger Global, has lost 2/3rds of the gains accumulated over the past two ...
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FTX x SALT and Crypto’s Infrastructure Age
May 4, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 10 mins to read)
A significant crypto conference, Crypto Bahamas, was hosted last week by SALT, the crypto exchange FTX and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The SALT investment conference is an influential annual event for the traditional finance industry. This joint conference marked a big step forward in the ongoing merger between crypto and conventional institutional finance. While crypto is roughly 13 years o...
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Week 16: Lithium, New Collar, Bubbles
Apr 20, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 5 mins to read)
Briefing: Lithium prices have spiked dramatically in the past year. | The presence of New Collar Workers is a positive sign that our work culture is adapting to allow for upward mobility. | Signs of bubbles in venture capital are also a sign that we are hard at work solving complex problems. Lithium Batteries The price of Lithium provides us with a bit of context on the state of our glo...
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Week 15: Better Than It Looks, New Crypto Projects
Apr 13, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 5 mins to read)
Briefing: Declinism is chic, but things are better than they look. | Hivemapper cameras allow drivers to earn Solana-based HONEY token in exchange for providing fresh maps of local streets. It’s Better Than It Looks John shared a great book with the team recently titled “It’s Better Than It Looks” by Gregg Easterbrook (2018). I wholeheartedly agree with Michael Sherman’s WSJ review of the...
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Week 14: AI Progress, Solar Innovation, Axie Crypto Hack
Apr 6, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 5 mins to read)
Briefing: OpenAI completed an impressive next step forward for AI with a tool that generates detailed complex images based on text-only prompts. | Stanford researchers were able to create a solar panel that generates power at night via geothermal effects. | Crypto-related financial crimes are easier for law enforcement to track. | The Fed reloading their tool kit can be interpreted as a positiv...
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Week 13: Narratives, Decentralized Telecom & Valuations
Mar 30, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 4 mins to read)
Briefing: Narratives drive markets. Sometimes the news is so persistently negative that people forget that good news is possible. | The decentralized telecom network Helium raised $200m after growing its network of active routers by 128% over the past six months. | Valuations in US equity markets are at, to slightly below, the 10-year average. Narratives Narratives have a big impact on ...
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Week 12: Real Estate Woes, Uptrends and Building Faster
Mar 23, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 7 mins to read)
Briefing: Investors are buying too many houses while active listings are at record lows. | After a long sell-off markets are likely back in an upward trend. | 50 years ago we were much faster at building physical infrastructure. Real Estate Woes A current story familiar to everyone is the difficulty of purchasing a home in 2022. The numbers behind the trend are staggering. In 2016 there w...
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Week 11: Buy Strike, Automation and Cybersecurity, Nuclear Shipping Containers
Mar 16, 2022 - Max Osbon ( 5 mins to read)
Briefing: The Fed hiked rates by .25% yesterday for the first hike since 2018. | Despite volatile price swings, we're still very much in an innovation boom. | In a big step forward for clean energy, Radiant has secured financing to create portable nuclear fission reactors. The Fed Makes Its First Move Yesterday, the Fed meeting resulted in a .25% hike to the Fed Funds rate, the first rais...
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