Good news everyone, Jay Hoag gave us the simple 5 point playbook for finding Magical Companies in consumer technology.

1. product offers combo of value, convenience, selection
2. there's tremendous engagement
3. a virtuous cycle
4. tremendous execution
5. kinda crazy leader

There’s rumour about confidential negotiations btn the Biden admin and the German gov. Their goal: to find a way out of the mess in which the whole transatlantic community finds itself because of Merkel’s support for Putin’s pipeline—Nord Stream 2

2/ The preferred solution for the Biden team would be to deny Putin the ability to exercise energy blackmail against Central Europe and Ukraine, while at the same time foregoing sanctions against Germany.

3/ Early in his career, Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony @SecBlinken had analyzed the decision of the Reagan administration not to levy sanctions against West Europeans for building the Siberian pipeline with the Soviets.

4/ See for example:

5/ Reagan decided to take a step back, calculating that the unity of the West was more important than the gas pipeline. Not even Lady Thatcher supported Reagan’s policy.

SAGA MEGATHREAD

SPRING & ALPHA SPC CO LIMITED 19 Jun 2007 - 18 Sep 2007
SPRING & ALPHA TOPCO LIMITED 19 Jun 2007 - 18 Sep 2007
SPRING & ALPHA MIDCO LIMITED 13 Jun 2007 - 18 Sep 2007
SPRING & ALPHA BIDCO LIMITED 13 Jun 2007 - 18 Sep 2007
ST&H LIMITED

ST&H GROUP LIMITED
ST&H TRANSPORT LIMITED
ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHTH SHELF TRADING COMPANYLIMITED 17 Mar 1983 - 15 Sep 1983
INTER-CHURCH TRAVEL LIMITED 05 Apr 1962 - 05 Feb 2009
INTER-CHURCH TRAVEL LIMITED
SIDECONTACT LIMITED 06 Oct 1987 - 25 Feb 1988

LINERFLAME LIMITED 18 May 2007 - 19 Jun 2007
LINERBROOK LIMITED 18 May 2007 - 13 Jun 2007
TITAN TRANSPORT LIMITED 25 Sep 2009 - 05 Aug 2019
SAGA HOLIDAYS LIMITED 01 May 1988 - 05 Feb 2009
SAGA FINANCIAL LIMITED 25 Feb 1988 - 01 May 1988

SAGA HEALTHCARE TRUST LIMITED
SAGA INVESTMENT DIRECT LIMITED 08 Aug 1995 - 20 Dec 2006
SAGA PERSONAL FINANCE LIMITED 20 Dec 2006 - 24 May 2011
SAGA PERSONAL FINANCE LIMITED 24 May 2011 - 02 Feb 2018
SAGA SHIPPING COMPANY LIMITED
SAGA CRUISES LIMITED 24 October 1996

THREAD: The story of the week in finance is how a group of retail traders at @wallstreetbets, with assists from @ElonMusk and @Chamath, took down the establishment short sellers at GameStop.

A thread on the underlying mechanics of the $GME saga...

1/ First, for those unfamiliar with the business, GameStop is a videogame and merchandise retailer.

It has >5,000 stores, primarily in malls, across North America, Europe, and Australia.

The business has struggled to modernize, hurting its financial and stock performance.

2/ For a variety of business reasons, a bull (i.e. optimistic) case regarding its future performance has formed.

It really came to the forefront after RC Ventures, an entity managed by Chewy founder @ryancohen, disclosed a large position and assumed three board seats.

3/ @ryancohen summarized his case, stating:

"We are excited to bring our customer-obsessed mindset and technology experience to GameStop and its strategic assets...expanding the ways in which it delights customers and by becoming the ultimate destination for gamers."

4/ At the time of that statement on January 11, $GME stock was trading at about ~$20 per share.

Since then, the stock has surged to ~$200 per share and captured the public imagination.

But how did it happen?

There are two dynamics at play: a short squeeze and a gamma squeeze.

@ReformedTrader That is a long post, but well written. Real estate is a claim on the future prosperity or ruin of a geographical location. Real estate intrinsic values is its ability to generate cash or similar costs to rent in that area. Intrinsic value is above zero in most cases.

Ironically enough, the location that benefits most from property ownership are places where rising living costs expand faster than rising middle income wages. Deflationary areas are hostile to property ownership as price is falling make collateral and borrowing difficult.

Homes are bought using leverage with agencies loan subsidies by the governments. As long as you have fixed rates, the costs of living expenses for your housing is set for 30 or 15 years which allow family to budget. Wealth can be accumulate over time as asset and income risen.

Time passed, real estate become detach from intrinsic values. Monthly mortgage rocket pass incomes and growth in the area. Quick money into real estate turn into a landmine. The 2007 fiasco could have been better or worst, but the free market is effectively dead as an ideology.

At the time, investors attack the institutional that vulnerable to the MBS and structured derivatives linked to real estate bubble risks. Since many financial institution owned the agencies MBS, defaulting on these security means downward spiral for M1 and M2 in developed nations