The 7investing Podcast

2021 was an interesting year for investors. Overall, the S&P 500 composite index increased 26.89% during the year. But digging in deeper, those top-line return numbers are perhaps a bit deceiving. More than 20% of the S&P 50's market-cap weighted index is consolidated in its five largest constituents. Those would be Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), in that respective order. Several of those stocks had an incredible year, which caused the overall performance of the overall index to similarly look incredible. But if you take out just a few of those high-flying names -- such as Alphabet's 65% gain or Tesla's 50% gain -- the total return suddenly becomes significantly less impressive. As such, the recent volatility of the broader market leaves investors in a conundrum. With the looming threats of rising interest rates or inflation, should we continue to flock to the relative safety of the market's largest companies? Or conversely, is the recent market selloff actually presenting an opportunity to buy into several smaller companies at a relative bargain? To help us answer those questions, we've brought in two of our favorite investors. Ryan Henderson and Brett Schafer together host the investing podcast Chit Chat Money and are also the general partners of Arch Capital. We thought the recent volatility presented an excellent opportunity to hear their perspectives on the status quo of the stock market. In this exclusive interview, Ryan and Brett spoke with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson and 7investing lead advisor Steve Symington about a variety of topics. They first discussed how investors should think about volatility and the process they follow for their investing methodology. They also describe three of Arch Capital's largest holdings -- Sprout's Farmers Market, Spotify, and Nelnet -- and provide a thorough recap of why they like each of these positions. And to have a little fun in the outro, Ryan, Brett, Simon, and Steve each share one stock that was on their Christmas List for 2021. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Boston Omaha, Callaway, Costco, Latch, MongoDB, Nelnet, Rocket Lab, Spotify, Sprout's Farmers Market, and Walmart. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Today marks an extremely exciting episode of the 7investing Podcast!   While we don't publicly reveal our recommendations, a 3 time recommendation, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals $DRNA, was recently acquired.  We're making the most recent report & video pitch publicly available in its entirety to give you a peek at our team's research process. Dicerna $DRNA was rec'd tomembers 3 times: Nov 2020 ($21.15), Apr 2021 ($25.76), and Oct 2021 ($20.26).  Today it was officially acquired by Novo Nordisk for $38.25/share.  Watch Maxx Chatsko make his case to the team for the Oct 2021 rec: https://7investing.com/articles/dicerna-pharmaceuticals-deep-dive-october-2021-2/ You can also read the entire 25-page research report from Oct 2021. This is our actual report: https://7investing.com/company-update/buy-dicerna-pharmaceuticals-from-october-2021/  Members receive 7 reports each month of our best stock market ideas, spread across every industry.  Today's closing of the acquisition means there's no more gains available for investors.  We thought that made for a perfect opportunity to share our previous report & Deep Dive team call, and showcase what 7investing's official research really looks like.  http://7investing.com/research If you would like to see all *seven* of our research reports and Deep Dives every month, sign up for 7investing today!  Using promo code "holiday" at checkout will even save you $100 off your annual order for as long as your membership is active. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Investors hear a lot about emerging markets. The term is used to describe countries with a greater growth trajectory than established economies such as the United States. Emerging markets collectively harbor an estimated 85% of the global population and half of global gross domestic product (GDP), but companies in such markets account for less than 15% of the value of global stock exchanges. It seems like an obvious opportunity, but investors might have a lot of questions. Developing countries don't always have favorable demographics, rights to property, laws protecting businesses, or other freedoms investors take for granted when it comes to American companies. How do investors sift through a noisy internet to determine what emerging markets are worth having exposure to? Perth Tolle has developed a framework for doing exactly that. She manages the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (the ticker is $FRDM) that only invests in companies from developing countries that rank highly on an objective, independent measure of economic and personal freedoms. Countries are ranked relative to peers, not on their potential for improvement, and investments are weighted based on the country rankings. For example, Taiwan and Chile are included, but China and Russia are not. The exclusion of Chinese companies is noteworthy considering many emerging market funds are heavily weighted to the country. However, as 7investing Lead Advisor Matthew Cochrane points out, investing in Chinese stocks has led to more disappointment than wealth-building returns in recent decades. From 1994 to present, China's GDP has grown 2,750% while the average value of China's stock market has grown just 98%. How is that possible? There's a strong argument to be made that the inability of Chinese stock exchanges to capture economic growth is directly related to a lack of economic and personal freedoms. Unfortunately, the country has been recently backsliding in the relative rankings relied on by Perth and the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF. If you've ever been curious about responsibly investing in emerging markets but didn't know where to start, then this podcast is for you. Publicly-traded companies mentioned or alluded to in this podcast include Alphabet, Apple, Didi, Meta Platforms (Facebook), Microsoft, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and Tesla. 7investing Lead Advisor Matt Cochrane owns shares in Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. 7investing Lead Advisor Maxx Chatsko has no position in any companies mentioned on this podcast. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

One of 7investing's core principles is that "time is on your side." After all, it takes quite a bit of time for great companies to actually pull off their battle plans. It takes years -- not weeks or months -- in order for them to grow into new markets and develop valuable new products. Patience is certainly a virtue for visionary and committed leaders. And for investors, it similarly pays to have a buy-and-hold mentality. The power of compounding allows for annual returns to build upon each other every single year. Great investments that are held for long periods of time will geometrically multiply your initial capital. That could turn even a modest initial investment that is left alone for decades into a future dream home or an early retirement. There's a good reason why Albert Einstein described compounding as the eighth wonder of the world. As such, compounding is even more beneficial for those who start investing at a very young age. They are the ones who will have the maximum amount of time in the market and have decades to amplify their returns. But is investing early easier said than done? Aren't there a million other things in your late teens or early twenties that are also distracting your mind and your money? Are high-school and collegiate students somewhat intimidated by the stock market, especially after hearing scary stories about the volatility of stocks like GameStop and AMC? Is it possible to capture the awesome benefits of investing at a young age...but without stepping on any landmines or making huge mistakes along the way? To help us answer those questions, we've brought in two incredible investors. Maya and Soren Peterson are nineteen and seventeen years old investors (respectively) who have embraced the opportunity to start investing as early as possible! They recently wrote and published a book called Early Bird: The Power of Investing Young, as a way to help other young investors maximize their potential gains in the stock market. In this exclusive interview, Maya and Soren spoke with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson about why it's so important to get started investing as soon as possible. They describe their reasons for writing the book and explained what they look for when searching for companies. They also were candid about some of the mistakes they've made along the way, and why investing shouldn't be intimidating -- no matter what your age is. Maya first met Simon in 2012 at an investing event (she was in middle school at the time) and Soren met 7investing advisor Steve Symington at the Boston Omaha shareholders' meeting earlier this year ("Steve's much taller in real life than on video!"). This was a fantastic conversation that is truly empowering to others. We look forward to featuring Maya and Soren's perspective several more times in future conversations. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Boston Omaha, Chewy, and Trupanion. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com

It's been a long and winding road for synthetic biology. The first wave of publicly-traded companies emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Many were founded on the promise of engineering microbes to produce renewable fuels, which could ease supply constraints and price volatility. It's easy to forget now, but before fracking came along the world was legitimately worried about Peak Oil. Unfortunately, all efforts to manufacture cost-competitive microbial fuels crashed and burned. The technical obstacles were too great. The economics simply weren't there. Although a few companies pivoted, many closed their doors for good. But that was hardly the end of synthetic biology. Advances in the last decade have set the stage for a second wave of companies to launch onto the public markets. Better funded, more specialized, and equipped with a deeper understanding of biology, many of these companies appear better positioned to navigate the road ahead. For example, DNA synthesis leader Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST) went public a few years ago, whereas the vertically-integrated industrial biotech Zymergen (NASDAQ: ZY) went public months ago. Ginkgo Bioworks, seeking to become the Amazon Web Services of biology, is expected to go public in the coming months through a record-setting SPAC. The company will grab $2.5 billion in cash, a $15 billion valuation, and the highly-coveted stock ticker $DNA -- last wielded by Genentech -- in the process. Investors shouldn't expect a smooth ride ahead. Similar obstacles that stunted the first wave, namely economics and manufacturing scale-up, remain unresolved. It appears many Wall Street analysts have absolutely no idea how to think about this emerging space. Then again, many investors are probably wondering, what the heck is synthetic biology anyway? Considering synthetic biology will slowly creep into industries not typically associated with biology -- from digital data storage using DNA to manufacturing metallic nanoparticles for next-generation batteries -- investors will need new frameworks to understand the challenges and opportunities ahead. To introduce investors to the space and discuss some of the leading publicly-traded companies in it, 7investing Lead Advisor Maxx Chatsko nerded out with one of the godfathers of synthetic biology, Stanford University bioengineering professor Drew Endy. Professor Endy's goals are to enable civilization-scale flourishing and a renewal of liberal democracy. He helped launch new undergraduate majors in bioengineering at both MIT and Stanford, and also the iGEM competition, a global genetic-engineering “Olympics” enabling thousands of students annually. His past students now lead companies like Ginkgo Bioworks and Octant. He is married to Christina Smolke, CEO of Antheia, the essential medicine company. Endy served on the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the Committee on Science, Technology, & Law (CSTL), and the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board (DIB). He currently serves on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Smallpox Advisory Committee and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Synthetic Biology Task Force. Esquire magazine recognized Drew as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com

The digital ad industry is one that moves pretty damn fast. In just a decade's time, we've seen direct advertisement sales transition to real-time online bidding auctions. We've seen ads served on desktops transition to ads served on mobile devices. We've seen linear television ad budgets shift to internet-connected TVs. We've seen walled gardens built up to massive heights...and then consumer privacy concerns threaten to topple them back down. To compete in this pedal-to-the-metal industry, you'd better be an innovative company who's willing to drive fast. Yet several of these changes are likely here to stay, and they are beginning to impact even the largest companies of the world's $370 billion digital ad market. Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and the company formerly known as Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) are getting pushback for the ways they have tracked or mined user behavior and information. Consumer privacy is a topic that's instigating some rather heated debates, prompting Apple (Nasdaq: APPL) to transition away from its Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) and allow its users to opt out of seeing personalized ads on its iPhone devices. We're also seeing some changing consumer behaviors. Cord-cutting becomes more pronounced every year, and content creators are hustling to create new over-the-top streaming channels. The advertisements placed on these channels can target individuals rather than broader audiences, meaning the conversion effectiveness and pricing can be significantly higher. The video ad rates associated with reaching this captive TV audience can be 50 times greater than the display ads placed on websites accessed by desktop computers. So how should investors make sense of these important developments in this fast-changing industry? Are the walled gardens like Alphabet and Facebook now toast? What impact will privacy actually have on AdTech companies? And will Connected TV eventually disrupt this entire industry? To help us answer those questions, we've brought in an expert opinion. Rajeev Goel is the co-founder and CEO of PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM). PubMatic is a publicly-traded company who serves as a sell-side platform for programmatic advertising. It helps publishers -- who create websites, podcasts, mobile apps, or streaming TV stations -- to monetize their content by placing targeted advertisements. Rajeev has been at the helm of PubMatic for 15 years, and he is very excited about the digital ad industry's upcoming changes. In this exclusive interview, Rajeev spoke with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson about what's in store for the digital ad industry's future. He describes the potential approaches that might replace the third-party cookie as a way of identifying users and placing ads, and also what Apple's iOS 14.5 important update means for the industry. Rajeev also describes what was driving his company's (rather incredible) third quarter results and how PubMatic has been able to achieve 157% a net dollar-based retention rate with its existing customers. He also shares his thoughts about upcoming industry consolidation, how he is approaching the Connected TV opportunity, and a few things investors should specifically be keeping a closer eye on. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com

As individual investors, there are several things we tend to focus our time on. We're familiar with identifying competitive advantages. We know how to recognize visionary leadership. And we're getting pretty good at doing fundamental analysis based upon a company's sales, earnings, or cash flows. But there's another aspect to investing that we don't discuss quite as often, and that is technical analysis. The stock market is a giant online auction, and the buying and selling is done by human beings. There are behavioral patterns that people tend to follow, and the institutional funds they work for have tens of billions of dollars at their discretion. Understanding how these larger institutions think about investing can be a huge advantage to us as individuals. So how exactly do those institutional firms operate? Do they think differently than retail investors, or look for specific things when buying a stock? And speaking of technical analysis...what the heck is going on this year with Tesla?! To help us answer those questions, we've brought in a technical analysis expert. Irusha Peiris is a Chartered Market Technician and a portfolio manager at O'Neil Global Advisors. He's spent his professional career in the investing industry, covering the buy-side, sell-side, and directly representing retail investors. As a portfolio manager at O'Neil, he helps institutional clients determine when is the right time to buy or sell a position. In this exclusive interview, Irusha spoke with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson about how institutional investors use technical analysis to help inform their portfolio decisions. Irusha reveals specific metrics that institutions look to identify -- such as patterns of accumulation or relative strength index -- and the frameworks they tend to look for. Irusha and Simon also refer to Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) throughout the conversation. Tesla's stock price has been a rollercoaster this year, hitting lows of less than $600 and highs of more than $1,200. Irusha describes what makes Tesla so appealing to institutions, as well as what he thinks about its current stock price and valuation. He also shares three other companies that he believes are "perfect waves" of opportunity for investors today. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Investing in general can be complicated. Investing in an industry one doesn’t understand well, and doing so successfully can be close to impossible. The biotech industry is like that for many people. The science in general can be confusing, and with scientific discovery, there are many unknowns. This makes investing in the industry even more challenging. 7investing Lead Advisor Dana Abramovitz talks about investing in biotechs with Agile Therapeutics CEO Al Altomari. Agile Therapeutics is a commercialization stage biotech focused on women’s health. Listening to women and targeting unmet needs, the company is developing contraceptives using its patch technology. It is focusing on commercialization of products rather than drug research and development, utilizing its core competencies to work with OB/GYNs and their patients to get women the therapeutics they need and want. Altomari discusses the importance of listening to users to meet the needs of the market and surrounding himself with a diverse team and board. Describing the biotech industry, Altomari sees many partnerships and lots of collaboration. He suggests that everyone can learn from each other and share their knowledge with others. This follows the mindset of the scientific community, which publishes and reports at conferences, pushing scientific knowledge forward. Altomari points out that investing in biotech companies is comparable to long term investing. Many biotech companies are still in the early stages of business development and it takes a long time to get to market and then for drugs to be prescribed by physicians. He also points out that there are not many milestones or catalysts to report on that might move the market in any one direction, especially for a small biotech company like Agile Therapeutics. As the CEO of a company in a volatile market, Altomari has to be comfortable with what his company is doing and how they are doing it and can’t let the swings of the market influence him. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Shares of the connected fitness company dropped by roughly a third last week after the company reported a larger-than-expected loss as well as issuing disappointing future guidance. The question for the company going forward, however, isn’t whether it can get through a bad quarter (or even a few). Instead, there’s a real question as to whether a large enough market exists for its products to make Peloton a good investment. And, even if the potential exists, can the company claim enough market share to be more than a niche player given how many competitors (including Apple after a fashion) compete for those same customers. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

A few weeks ago Zillow suspended its iBuying program because it had too much inventory on hand. That was actually a precursor to the company fully exiting the space which is a massive change for its business. Steve Symington joins 7investing Now to talk about what happened, what it means for Zillow, and what it may mean for the concept of iBuying in general. And, later in the show, CryptoEQ’s Spencer Randall comes on talk about the Metaverse, starting with telling us what it is. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing