Zoom video

Tilray. Pinduoduo. Huya. Uber. Pinterest. I've witnessed quite a plethora of new stocks that IPO'ed (had their initial public offering) in the last 2+ years since I really started paying a lot of attention, and the lesson I've taken away is to view them with a grain of salt: you can make quite a lot of money if you pick the right one (Facebook was a great IPO with a great business plan that I was skeptical on way back then), but most of them are "pump and dump," with prices that get bid up by insiders who have a piece before the rest of the public does and make a profit off of the initial excitement and are long gone before it cools off. And you can even lose your whole investment: recently Luckin' Coffee, based in China (avoid Chinese IPO's, it's like a double whammy of smoke and mirrors) went from $45 to $4, the culmination being a 90% drop in price in April due to the discovery of accounting fraud and contrived number of sales. I lost functionally my entire investment in LK (luckily for me, I didn't have that much Luckin') but definitely makes me prefer more established names with solid earnings and balance sheets in the future. All companies started out as IPO's, of course, but most companies have had a lifetime of earnings reports and passing regulatory checks to get to where they are today.

One IPO that has an interesting concept (because everyone I know is using it) is ZOOM video. It runs pretty smoothly, you just need one person from a group of 10-20 people to set up an account and send out invites, and poof, everybody appears on screen and has ability to see each other/ hear each other. The ultimate Covid-19 stock, it's outgrown its Bcorporate usefulness to being a full-time feature in everyone's social group, to connect instead of meeting at parties/ other social gatherings. However, the interaction isn't quite as good as a party: when there's 10 people on a Zoom call, there is quite a lot of wasted time for the 8 other people who are not the ones talking to each other at the time. There needs to be Zoom etiquette, like how to avoid having 7 people speak up at the same time right after the speaker ends her statement. Or the speaker wasn't done; it was a fakeout. At a normal party in a group of 10 a few people would break off and have their own conversation, but on Zoom, everyone's locked into the same conversation. Super important for there to be an organizer to make sure everyone's engaged and also for everyone present to contribute by making some are not just monopolizing the conversation.

Beyond Meat! The other current IPO out there that is grabbing headlines. With Shake Shack reporting that beef prices have risen 2% due to meat production facilities closing due to Covid-19, it may be plant-based burgers' time to shine. MJ and I have every few days as part of our vegan pandemic season (I only started 2 weeks ago, but I've definitely made the adjustment to not crave meat). At first my body felt weird after a day of vegan dining, begging the question "where's the meat?" but slowly it's begun to realize how dedicated I am (or at least how dedicated MJ is to making sure I'm dedicated) to reducing meat out of my diet. Beyond Meat is not like a cure-all panacea as it is pretty high in fat and can get a little redundant in taste (we stocked up a bunch in our fridge), but it does a good job of not making me crave meat as much. And Wall Street seems to like it after its partnerships with some major food chains (McDonald's, Starbucks). Count me as a fan!

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan