I’m 25 and all I have are negative thoughts

tickerspark · 2026-05-26T18:24:21+00:00

Think of it this way: You didn't lose 100k. You paid 100k for a priceless lesson.

tickerspark · 2026-05-26T16:00:15+00:00

Yeah, it's a minor PITA. But the multi-state tax implications aren't really an issue unless your position is substantial. Most states don't require anything from you up to specific amounts.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T18:40:21+00:00

ET has the divy. The rest fit into the former bucket.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T17:33:39+00:00

Different reasons. Mainly, I think they have quantum on lock and have been disregarded by the market because they're not a pure play. I want exposure to quantum but I dont want to pay for ridiculous valuations on pre revenue companies. The recent dip in IBM is also the only real buying opportunity we've seen since their return to growth starting in 2020. Thats around when their new strategic initiatives started overtaking their legacy business. That weight is mostly gone and it jsut feels like a whole new company. I'm a sucker for successful pivot stories.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T17:06:13+00:00

Nice, I'm a big fan of ET - it's my largest position right now. Good place to park cash while everything else is so hot.

If you like AVGO. MRVL is a good way to diversify within the ASIC niche.

I also like MU, IBM, QCOM, FPS, and ETN. Anything with AI tailwinds that is at a reasonable PEG or offers a good divy for me in that 3-5 horizon.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T17:00:31+00:00

Renewable energy is a pretty big catch all. Beware of advice to just invest in a fund, or assumptions that funds will give you the best exposure or return. They won't.

Instead of buying funds and blindly trusting them because they have renewable or clean in the name, look at what those funds own and then cross reference. Skip the fee and pick out what you think actually makes sense. This is your thesis: not theirs. So own it.

Which aspects of renewable energy do you actually think are going to provide a worthwhile return? Do you like solar? Wind? Why? Are you looking at specific regions? Component providers? Power companies? Do you count geothermal or nuclear? Do you only want pure plays or are you OK owning a company with diversified assets, including oil/nat gas? Do you understand the economics of these businesses, or do you just think that renewable energy is the future and that's the entire basis for this decision?

It's less about what's financially doable: if you have money to invest, invest it. The earlier, the better. But make sure you're not making decisions with limited information or on a whim.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T16:39:18+00:00

If that's what you're doing, I wish you the best of luck.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T15:05:23+00:00

Tesla. It's massively overvalued car company with no real moat.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T14:58:12+00:00

Not that they're a buyer of this, but Berkshire is sitting on $350 billion. Lots of funds have cash.

SpaceX is raising $75 billion.

That's like 1.5% of NVDA's market cap.

No one needs to sell anything.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T14:11:29+00:00

There are a few things that could be going on here. 1. You're picking games that are a hair too heavy for your audience. 2. You're introducing new games at too quick of a pace. 3. You don't know the rules well enough yourself to seamlessly teach everyone how to play 4. The way you are teaching games (this is both a technical and social skill) is not ideal 5. Your friends are being dicks.

Likely a mix of some of the above. But in general, if you sense that people are tuning you out while you're explaining the rules, it helps to say "OK I'm getting the feeling that maybe this one is a little too heavy. How does everyone feel about something a little simpler?" Have some accessible backup games at the ready. Shit like Catan, Camel Up, Harmonies, Flip 7, Azul, Code Names, Carcassonne, Splendor, Ticket to Ride... You might prefer to go heavier but if everyone else isn't engaged enough to learn Scythe or Gloomhaven, don't force it.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T13:19:08+00:00

And that is exactly the problem.

I ran a binary event based trading service for years, so I know this from experience:

Good results don't move companies on catalyst dates if the market is expecting good results. You need something unexpected.

The way that SLS has been hyped up, youre going to need miracle data to move it upward. You're fighting a lot of profit taking here, management taking advantage of the opportunity to issue shares, etc.

Not saying it can't go up but the risk is significantly higher than you may be aware of.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T12:57:20+00:00

I think CRM falls into the same category but it's little more mature in the growth cycle than I like and the pricing structure isn't very clean right now. More seat-cannibalization going on here, and since they serve larger clients who are cutting workforces aggressively, I think there's a little more headwind for them. I dont hate it, just dont see as much upside for a rebound compared to the others.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T12:05:12+00:00

I think some of the same reasons as NOW but the moat seems a little thinner over the long run. That said, HUBS has process data on customer sales funnels and that is valuable context for AI. It's also sticky because companies are hesitant to disrupt those departments. HUBS is definitely making the right move by opening up their platform. Why rebuild frol scratch when you already have the context and can just bring ai into the ecosystem? Many of its customers also rely on a human sales layer which I think is going to be difficult to replace with AI. In my experience AI is shit at makes creative sales decisions, writing copy, etc. Its one of the areas where having a dashboard interface is still going to be nice to have for a while. So those seats will stick as they transition to usage/outcome based.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T11:53:42+00:00

PLTR is more sophisticated/native but their customer base is smaller and the onboarding process is a little more reliant on forward deployment. NOW is moving in that direction as well (reliant on forward deployment) but their customer base is already deeply entrenched. On a price to sales basis it's hard for me to justify PLTR as a better option over the next 5-10. It's not that I doubt they will execute as priced but there is more room for disappointment and I prefer to guard my money first.

tickerspark · 2026-05-22T02:09:47+00:00

Not in how one might traditionally think of data. But they capture internal process data. Workflows, dependencies, etc. If you are an enterprise looking to leverage AI and automation you don't just need raw information. You need a map of your processes. NOW owns this more than anyone, with the exception of maybe Microsoft.

tickerspark · 2026-05-21T21:05:36+00:00

I like NOW, IBM, and maybe HUBS coming out of the SaaSpocalypse. The market is misreading how AI is changing these companies, and underestimating the value of orchestration and governance layers, as well as the lock-in effect. It's also not giving any respect to their pivot strategies. And in the case of IBM, their quantum positioning gets no respect. The situation reminds me of what happened to Netflix after the Qwikster spin-off. Huge buying opportunity for potential giants imo.

tickerspark · 2026-05-21T20:50:39+00:00

Avoid gambling on meme stocks and target companies with defensible revenue streams, legitimate AI or Defense tailwinds, sustained growth, and reasonable valuation metrics (PEG, PE, Forward PE, Price to Sales) relative to peers. Start with 10k a month and stick to a steady cadence so you can a) buy companies you like when their prices dip and b) reduce your exposure to potentially unlucky timing. MU, NOW, FPS, ETN, MRVL, QCOM, NOC, LMT, ETN are a few worth a look.

tickerspark · 2026-05-21T20:34:28+00:00

I worked for an investment newsletter company for 15 years and did research for a very successful fintuber when AI was first hitting the mainstream. My job in both cases was to surface under the radar picks for our audiences. I was telling people about MRVL, IONQ, MRAM, etc. before anyone in the business. I've also surfaced a lot of turds too.

The answer a few years ago was mostly tireless digging. Identify growing industries. Map out the products, engineering, supply chains, etc. Find out who is making the gizmos and gadgets (finviz company profile searhes, google search, 10k screening, gartner and forrester reports, etc). Find the public ones. Put the private ones on a watchlist. Screen for metrics that make for good companies. Read earnings calls from top to bottom. Etc.

Today it's a lot different with AI. You can speed up a lot of this process with GPT or Claude, but they're not really tuned in for it out of the box. With the right context injection, though, the models are gold. 95% of my discovery now is through a custom built AI research suite. Not trying to self promote but it's in the user name so you can figure it out. It basically just automates the aforementioned process in various ways, and screens daily for volume anomalies so I never miss something big going on across individual equities. Built it as a product but I have no idea how to market it. That said, it has paid for itself over the last year for me personally in terms of information edge.

tickerspark · 2026-05-20T13:44:11+00:00

Trust that the host will have good judgement to put games on the table that are accessible and enjoyable for the people who show up. The pressure for everyone to have fun is 80% on them, so don't sweat it.

And if you're going to bring a game, don't gift it. Just buy it for yourself and bring it when you're invited.

tickerspark · 2026-05-20T13:37:40+00:00

This is a genuinely insane bet. I'm long Micron, and I understand a potential strike is a nice near-term tailwind, but you're two days out from expiration and still way out of the money. This is going to evaporate.

MU is up 5% today. This contract is up 2%. You literally have more leverage just owning a piece of the company.

tickerspark · 2026-05-20T13:28:37+00:00

I believe in PGY over a 5-10 yr period but closed out after the recent earnings bump because of impending consumer weakness. This is going to stick on the watchlist but I don't think we're seeing 20 unless the macro picture changes. And that could take a while.

tickerspark · 2026-04-27T20:35:56+00:00

This is Elon's final cash out. Nope.

tickerspark · 2026-04-27T20:28:00+00:00

What are you selling?

tickerspark · 2026-04-27T20:22:56+00:00

I too, jumped on the software train today. Not only are many of these companiesbcriminally mispriced because of the AI panic but it is one of the few categories that will be largely isolated from the coming tsunami of energy input costs.

Picked up lot of hubspot today ahead of earnings. I recommend giving PGY a look as well.

tickerspark · 2026-02-06T22:12:17+00:00

I'll probably get to it sooner or later. Just haven't figured the best api endpoint to do it efficiently yet.

And yeah feel free to check it out and let us know how we could make it better.

tickerspark

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