{"id":6093,"date":"2021-05-29T11:09:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T23:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.local\/?p=6093"},"modified":"2021-05-29T11:09:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T23:09:08","slug":"been-a-long-time-between-drinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.local\/been-a-long-time-between-drinks\/","title":{"rendered":"Been a long time between drinks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Such a cheesy saying that. I thought I’d update on a few things have been tinkering with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rally Road
<\/strong>Rally Road is an app which lets you buy shares in collectible assets, like a Michael Jordan basketball card or a Aston Martin or a Rolex watch. Rally holds the assets in secure storage. Then every few months they open up trading windows so you can sell your shares or purchase others. There’s some chat around how art and other collectibles outperform the S&P – but I’m more doing it for fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NBATopShot
<\/strong>This is basically digital basketball cards, with ownership validated on the blockchain. TopShot creates new ‘moments’ and drops them via regular pack drops. You can open your pack, or even leave it closed. Again, this has just been fun. I haven’t had any major scores (yet!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RobinHood $1 Shares<\/strong>
Or rather just buying $1 in a stock. Robinhood gives you a fraction of the stock. So one weekend I hurt my thumbs to go and buy $1 in each of the S&P 500. An easier thing would have been to spend $500 on SPY. It would have given me a proportional weighting. SPY weights on market cap, whereas I’ve just weighted on 1\/500 in the index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means, I get a bunch of notifications like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$0.01 dividend has been reinvested. I like this – as its a reminder that your stocks are always working for you. What if SPY or other ETFS gave you an activity feed of all their adjustments, dividend reinvestments. That would be neat and remind people of what’s going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is counter to the idea of passive investment (should sleep soundly without worrying about it) but I think it would remind people how hard their funds are working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reading<\/strong>
I re-read The Intelligent Investor<\/a> last year and read Reminiscences of a Stock Market Operator<\/a>. Both are great pairing. The Intelligent Investor is so dense, you could read it 10 times over at varying levels of experience and knowledge and gain a bunch. Reading it a second time was invaluable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was just good to re-ground in the principles of investing but also within the chaotic market environment we’ve had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reminiscences of a Stock Market Operator tells the tale of a stock market operator in the early days. Where people would go to bucket shops, and trade stocks based off the stock ticker coming through. The story is entertaining but also shares a lot of lessons, relevant to investing but more to the mindset and beliefs behind achieving something and the pitfalls on the journey. So its not just for investors its for anyone. I’d mark this as a reread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original James Bond books<\/a> by Ian Fleming, I read all of these at the start of the year, you’ve picked up bits and pieces from the movies but they are really enjoyable on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was paired with Desmond Bagley<\/a>, which is post-WWII adventure type stories, told by a journalist who travelled the world at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d recommend all, its been nice to read a BUNCH of fiction for a stretch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rugby & Parrot<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year I joined the board of Rugby United New York<\/a>, New York’s franchise in Major League Rugby. Which was part of a one year journey of re-discovering the calibre of rugby in the US, mapping out its potential and getting involved. In most of the world, rugby as a sport isn’t growing but here it is. Did you know the US has just as many players as France?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a preview from their recent win agains the previously unbeaten LA Giltinis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nPo5M86GhnU&feature=youtu.be\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And growing a team is very much like a startup or content. So surprisingly key pillars of its success line up with my prior experience. I’m still learning a bunch. A real treat is watching a game beside a pro who catches a million times more detail in the ebbs and flows of the game than a commentator does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also joined the board of Parrot Analytics<\/a>, this is a company I invested in 8 or so years ago. And along the way have helped recruit board members, investors, support to the team and market leads where I can. When I invested I had no idea how their trajectory and my own would line up. I was agency-side then but now am software side. They’ve been making waves in the streaming industry by measuring demand for shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.@observer<\/a>'s @Great_Katzby<\/a> shares the pre-release demand effect from @hbomax<\/a>'s #FriendsReunion<\/a>. The special surged US & worldwide demand for the original sitcom. As of May 24, #Friends<\/a> was the #4 show in the world w\/ 58.1x the demand of the avg show. https:\/\/t.co\/oyLmNKasMZ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/MovO61H8Gu<\/a><\/p>— Parrot Analytics (@ParrotAnalytics) May 27, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>