Research

Level Set – Ten Investment Views for the Next Ten Years

This note is intentionally written to be brief on each of the ten investment views. Each topic could probably be addressed with dozens of charts, arguments, and counter arguments. We did our best to channel Mark Twain – and took the time to write the short letter. We would be thrilled to discuss any of

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Technology Strategy: Uncorrelated Alpha

Early in 2024 we wrote that many of the most idiosyncratic Technology stocks were “Old” Technology, and many of the most macro stocks were “New” Technology.  We also observed that both of these cohorts seemed to have generated alpha in the last year and did not have particularly high correlation to each other.  Low correlation

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The Biggest Opportunities In Consumer

There is not much debate about the US consumer – it is slowing.   Whether it’s last week’s retail sales, rising 90-day credit card delinquencies, or a slowdown in auto demand, there’s ample evidence that the consumer is beginning to retrench.  Our proprietary gauge of consumer activity shows a marked slowdown.  However, we (and evidently COF

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Level Set – AI Exposure and the NVDA “God” Trade

No one wants to manage a portfolio of US equities for the next several years and not have exposure to AI. A decade from now, they do not want to say, “I missed the theme because I could never make the valuation work,” or “there were so many fake-AI companies I wanted to avoid” or

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Technology Strategy: Finding Short Ideas

Several investors have recently mentioned to us that they are increasingly nervous about the strong price momentum in software and semiconductors.  Software with below average revenue growth that is accelerating, as well as AI-related semiconductors have strongly appreciated since the beginning of 2023.  This strong performance has occurred with average volatility vs. history and with

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Level Set – Our Top Investment Ideas

The subject matter in our recent research has been diverse – from risks that could introduce volatility into earnings and available alpha, to the case for gross margin expansion for the average stock. We have also focused on management decision making- earlier this week we published a note on “mergers of equals” (Mergers of Equals

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