Some things and ideas: January 2023
Some random thoughts on articles that caught my attention in the last month. Note that I try to write notes on articles immediately after reading them, so there can be a little overlap in themes if an article grabs my attention early in the month and is similar to an article that I like later in the month.
My monthly overview (Monthly recurring piece)
I consider YAVB my “empire” with four core pieces: this blog / substack (the free side), the premium side of this blog, my podcast (also on Spotify, iTunes, or YouTube), and my twitter account. You can see my 2022 vision and goals for the empire here. If you like the blog / free site, I'd encourage you to check out the pod, follow me on twitter, and maybe even subscribe to the premium site!
I try to be as helpful as humanly possible to anyone whose research / writing I enjoy. In almost every post I do, you'll notice I link to other subscription services or investors who I like. I don't get referral fees or anything for that; these are almost always organic links and highlights that I do not because I was asked to but because one of my goals with the (very small) platform I have is to shine light on other people who are doing good work and make sure they have a platform big enough to encourage them to keep doing good work!
If you're launching a subscription service, or a new blog, or you're an investor who has done some really good research and wants to get some more eyeballs on it, please drop me a line and let me know. If the quality is there, I would love to link to your blog post or subscription service or research (and if the quality isn't there, I'm happy to provide feedback! I have done so with several services and I think my advice is good / appreciated / helpful!), and I'd love to have you on the podcast to talk about all of it. I can't promise anything, but most podcast guests / people I've linked to have been very happy about the reception / feedback they've gotten (I've even been called the king of the sub bumps / almost as good as Twitter / a big sub bump, and I've generally heard from investors with LPs who come on the podcast that they're delighted by the response). My DMs are always open, so feel free to slide into them if I can be helpful!
A bonus note: I get asked from lots of people about how to break into the finance industry. I detailed it more here, but my top advice would be to go out and start a substack (substack recently gave me a referral code if you start one; if you use that, awesome! But I’ve been recommending starting a substack long before they offered referrals!)
State of the markets (Monthly recurring piece)
It’s been quite the month in markets. Stocks have ripped higher; the S&P is up ~5%, the Russell is up >7%, and the Nasdaq is up >9%. Plus, somehow, meme stocks are back! ARKK is up ~23% so far this year, and we’re seeing random face ripping rallys and short squeezes across a variety of meme stocks and shitcos.
Honestly, the rally has left me a little conflicted. On the one hand, despite the rally stocks are still down a decent bit from their highs back in November 2021. Generally, that’s still a good time to buy stocks!
On the other hand, the world still seems a mess. A land war in Europe, a looming debt ceiling fight, soft landing versus recession fears, etc. They say every bull market climbs a wall of worry, and the world is perpetually a scary place…. but it just seems a little scarier than normal, and the market is starting to price it like things are rosy again. Earlier this month the VIX dropped under 20 for the first time in basically a year, and it’s hung around the 20 level and under. It just seems like too little fear given the risks out there. And, moving away from macro, last year I thought there were just tons of cheap stocks out there. I was right on some and wrong on others, but every day I’d look at a new company and at least think it was cheap enough to do a little more work on / investigate. Today, I no longer feel that; most companies I’m looking at seem fairly or even slightly overvalued. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m anchoring to the lower prices of 3-6 months ago or if things are actually fairly valued, but that’s how I’m feeling! Just a little stressful / tough.
FinTwit board game night (Monthly recurring piece)
I am an absolute board game nut, and I’m guessing some of my readers are as well, so I’ve started hosting a FinTwit board game night. We’ve done two so far, and both have been a blast!
Note that you don’t need to be a crazy active person with 500k followers on TWTR to be invited. Anyone who’s interested in investing (so pretty much anyone reading this email!) and board games is welcome to come.
General idea is simple: we’ll meet up at my office (it’s in the Nomad area) around 6, play some board games, and have a good time. I’ll likely order a few pizzas for the crew, and everyone is welcome to bring some drinks if they’d like to!
The third board game night is happening next week, so please drop me a line if you’d like to join!
Anyway, if you’re interested in joining, feel free to send me an email or slide into my DMs and drop me your email there. I’ll send an email out to everyone who’s interested later this week or early next week to plan a game in the middle of the month.
If all goes well, I plan on turning it into a monthly thing, so no worried if you can’t make this one!
Nerd Corner (Monthly recurring piece)
There’s no hiding it; I’m a massive nerd. I read 3-4 fantasy books a month, my favorite pastime is playing board games with my wife and friends, and I religiously watch every new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and listen to fantasy show recaps on Binge Mode (so much so that I even did a Twitter Space talking about the MCU!). Plus, I was an eager supporter of the Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter (yes, I splurged and went for the hardcover books).
Anyway, I figured a few of you are nerds like me, so I’m starting this segment to give recs of what I’m nerding out over currently, with the hope that you’ll either try it and enjoy it or recommend me similarly nerdy things that I’ll enjoy. This month’s recs:
This month has been all Sanderson; I finished reread-ing the whole Wax and Wayne Series (which consists of Mistborn 4, Mistborn 5, and Mistborn 6), and I’m just finishing up Mistborn book 7 / Wax and Wayne book 4. Concurrently with Mistborn, I’ve been reading Arcanum Unbounded. Just so good.
PS- outside of my monthly recs, I constantly get asked what my favorite fantasy books are. So I’m just going to throw this list out monthly:
Anything Brandon Sanderson writes; he’s by far the best fantasy author out there. I’d probably start with Mistborn.
Kingkiller is probably the best series I’ve ever read; waiting for the third is agony.
Gentleman Bastards is right up there with Kingkiller; the mix of fun and world building is outstanding.
Red Rising series is more sci-fi, but my god is it good. I would literally stay up all night to read every book the day they came out (note: I’ve only read the first trilogy; I’m going to read the second when the last book comes out later this year).
If you’re looking for something a little more under the radar (most of the books above are widely regarded as some of the best fantasy books / series ever), the Licanius Trilogy was fantastic.
First Law trilogy is excellent. It can get a little brutal though; there are a bunch of sequels and spins, but I’ve never been able to finish them because one of them got so brutal I just put the book down and never picked it up again. But the first trilogy is really, really great.
The Cradle series probably isn’t as “good” as the books above, but I binged them and every fantasy fan I’ve recommended them to has said something along the line of “I read all ten books in two months after I opened the first one.”
Other things I liked (Monthly Recurring Piece)
Paper on expert network calls (they seem to help!)
A tour of the Casio G-Shock factory in Japan
Pretty cool; did not realize watches were made in clean rooms!
Iger tells employees to return to office 4x/week
Along the lines of the “recession return to office” I talked about here
Andrew, since you like fantasy you might enjoy Babel by RF Kuang. I recently read it and it’s terrific