Wednesday, February 16, 2022
1. Have you heard of the latest and greatest tech craze that’s taken over the world?!?! If not, get in the know so you aren’t left behind. Well, it’s not very sexy. Basically a poor man’s crossword…..Wordle! (It’s a website, not an app so just google it and you can get there easily) It’s actually great. I’m addicted. Along with over 500million others from the human race. If you’re clueless and not in the know, let me bring you up to speed. Wordle is a game that was apparently created by some dude for his girlfriend who was bored during COVID. He made it late summer of 2021 and it gained huge momentum in November/December of 2021. Then the New York Times just bought it a few weeks ago from him for low seven figures (I estimate around $2-3M). It’s a daily word game where the whole world is guessing the same word, once a day. Each word is made up of 5 letters. You’re not provided any hints or suggestions. You just have to guess a word to start. Each letter in the word you guessed receives a color code which then acts as your first clue. You either receive a color of grey (meaning: the letter is not in the word), yellow (meaning: the letter is in the word but currently in the wrong spot) or green (meaning: right letter and in the right spot). You get 6 tries to get the word right. It’s addicting. And can provide some fun banter between you and your special someone or with your mates across the pond.
- Especially when your wife is a brainiac at these types of games and you get competitive AF to take her down….so you start to get aggressive by laying down some serious vulgar trash talking…..only to be embarrassed and humbled. But then tomorrow you forget about yesterday and you double down again and again and again until the one day you finally overcome that mountain. I’ll let you know what it feels like once I’m there.
- Given you get six tries to get the word right I really like communicating my score in golf terms. Where Par is getting it correct in 4 tries (birdie for getting it right in 3, bogie for getting it right in 5, etc….)
- Unlike golf, I’ve actually been on the Par train for several days now, hoping one day to be able to crack that!
- Today’s score: Par
2. Words and games…..damnit, it’s all just words and games!!! No, I’m not talking about Wordle still. I’m speaking about Russia again. As alluded to yesterday, saying they are withdrawing troops from the Ukrainian border…. and building up troops at the Ukrainian border are the opposite thing…..literally. Well that’s where we stand today. NATO has communicated that Russia is in fact increasing troop count at the border a day after Moscow claimed it had begun to withdraw those same troops. Some of you have suggested that yesterday’s “smack down” comment and other recent comments made about mother Russia could be behind these actions. Perhaps Vladdie Daddy has had enough and is ready to flex his guns (pun intended….hopefully just a pun). But seriously, calm down Vlad….they were just words and games we’ve been playing! Similar to what you are now doing on the Ukrainian border.
3. Today, Moderna’s CEO stated it was “reasonable” the pandemic may be in its final stages. Specifically stating, “I think there’s an 80% chance that as omicron evolves or SarsCov-2 virus evolves, we are going to see less and less virulent viruses.” He also said “there’s another 20% scenario where we see a next mutation, which is more virulent than omicron.” Not sure how to interpret that fully, however, I will say I’m happy to see that come from a main player who currently benefits from the pandemic. I look forward to the days where this chapter in our lives is but a memory……who knows if that will ever really be possible or not. This morning as I saw I school bus drive by I couldn’t help but think about the “normal” things today’s youth are missing out on. Even the little things like school field trips, routine assemblies and participating in other large gatherings that aren’t virtual. Moderna’s CEO gave me a glimpse of hope today maybe that’s possible one day in the not too distant future. But as all things….time will tell!
4. I like em hot, the ones that don’t tell me to stop…..ok, I’ll stop there before I get into any trouble. No, I’m not referring to the Hot Boyz album here….I’m talking about AirBNB people! Hot Boyz, more like Hot Damn this company is awesome! (give me an A for effort there?) They have created something that is literally changing the way people experience travel. They reported today a banging earnings reports with the stock up around 5.25% as of writing this. So what are some interesting take aways for me?
- First, the following quote that the company had in their shareholder letter pumps me up…. “Nearly two years into the pandemic, it’s now clear that we are undergoing the biggest change to travel since the advent of Commerical flying.” YES, YES, YES!!! This is amazing. And so are their results.
- COVID has changed the way people think about having to ‘work from home’…allowing people to spread out across the nation (and the world) “staying for weeks, months and even seasons at a time!” Amazing.
- Fun Facts:
- Long term stays (staying for 28 days or more) accounted for 22% of gross nights booked in the 4th Qtr.
- Average trip length increased +15% over the past two years
- Nearly half of all nights booked were for 7 days or longer.
- All while the most popular hotel chains are still trying to inch back to pre-pandemic levels. (Insert Jim Carey LA-HOO-SA-HER meme)
- Currently analysts seem relatively bullish on AirBNB…..and though I saw a wide range of price targets, they were mostly all on the upside (Anywhere from 13%-25% up by end of year.)
- What’s more interesting to me here is how AirBNB has completely revolutionized a new market for both investors and consumers. I mean think about what they have created here for options within the Short Term Rental (STR) space?!?! And if you aren’t keeping up in that space…..let me tell you, it’s on complete fire right now! How long will it last, who TF knows. But the cash on cash returns I’ve seen are very healthy!!
- So what am I really saying here? If you’re interested in joining my investment fund let’s talk!! By joining you can help to lower your risk exposure and get exposed to some action. If you’re not interested, no biggie…..we’ll just stick to the current routine by not talking as is.
Peace out my people.