Welcome Friends, 

Here’s an assortment of posts shared this week on Trends with Friends. Let’s dive in…

THE RECESSION PROOF ECONOMY OF FINANCIAL DATA

Howard Lindzon is fascinated by the markets and the world of financial data. This week, he shares his thoughts as to why organizing and selling financial data is “so darn lucrative.”

Here’s the money quote, 

One thing about financial data companies and really all fintech companies, is they tend to take much longer to get footing because building trust as it relates to money and markets takes time. BUT, once they get a strong footing they become cash machines

Read Lindzon’s latest here.

THIS WEEK IN AI

Michael Parekh’s AI Summary reviews OpenAI’s simplified product roadmap, YouTube’s AI ambitions, Apple and Alibaba’s Chinese AI quest and more. 

It’s a must read.

FUEL FOR THE FIRE

Larry Thompson likes how the S&P is setting up. He writes,

That’s what I like about this setup, we have plenty of wood stacked, ready to burn.

This is what I’d call a “sweet spot” where investors should like adding capital.

A long-term uptrend with plenty of fuel on the sidelines to drive new highs.

Admittedly, we haven’t seen them yet, and no one truly knows the future… but that’s where I believe we’re headed.

MONTHLY CRYPTO UPDATE

Joe McCann provides great coverage on the crypto industry in his monthly update. McCann comments on $TRUMP, Executive Order 14178, consumer crypto apps, USD and more. 

Here’s a snippet, 

With the repeal of SAB-121, banks can now functionally custody crypto on their balance sheets. This will have a 100x bigger impact than the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Read his full post here.

STATE OF THE MARKETS

Charlie Bilello shared his monthly State of the Markets. Here are 3 great charts,

2025 thus far looks a lot like 2024. Which is to say the US equity market continues to hit new all-time highs with the S&P 500 up 4% year-to-date and 25% over the past year.

Within Technology, Semiconductors had been the strongest industry group, outperforming everything by a wide margin. But that too has flipped, with Semiconductor relative strength peaking last June. Semis have actually underperformed the S&P 500 over the past year, a fact that would likely surprise many.

And home prices in the US are up over 50% in the last 5 years, more than double the increase in wages. The widening gap between prices and incomes has created an affordability crisis.

Review Charlie’s full update here.

THE GODSPEED WEEKLY

Technology is accelerating at Godspeed. Riley Rosebee recently launched a new weekly publication focused on the confluence of technologies within AI, Space, Energy, Robots, Mobility, Automation and Digital Infrastructure. 

This week, Rosebee reviews Nvidia’s 13F updates, robot makers raising money, Anduril’s strategic partnership, Meta’s subsea connectivity ambitions, EHang’s relative strength and more.

Subscribe to Godspeed with one-click.

GUERILLA MARKETING 101

Ted Merz is a guerilla marketing advocate. This week, he shared a guerilla campaign targeting the municipal bond industry. Merz writes,

Guerilla marketing 101.

Munichain is a fintech startup that’s using innovative technology to disrupt the market for municipal bond sales.

Last week they brought some of that same enterprising spirit to their marketing by drafting off the attention created by a big industry conference in New York.

The event was put on by the Bond Buyer, a century-old newspaper that covers the muni market. The company also puts on the industry’s biggest and best conferences.

Munichain was founded three years ago. It operates lean and doesn’t have much cash for advertising. (Full disclosure, I’m an investor in the company.)

It does, however, have hustle.

For a fraction of the price of being a sponsor, Munichain rented a mobile billboard truck and parked it in front of the conference.

The attendees couldn’t help noticing the company, which is a platform that muni advisors use to coordinate sales. The system gives stakeholders access to documents they need and lets them track the process.

It’s a reminder that even being outside, it’s possible to get in front of a client.

PODCAST LINKS

Tadas Viskanta curated podcasts links to manage your emotions. Here’s a sneak peek… 

TRENDS WITH NO FRIENDS

Trends With No Friends sifts through the noise and discovers stocks above $1B market cap with high relative strength and low social following.

The publication shares 52-Week Highs and Lows sorted by followers on Stocktwits. 

Why is high relative strength and low social following important?

Stocks that are outperforming tend to continue to outperform. Stocks that have a low social following are, by definition, undiscovered by the crowd. Stocks that have both Relative Strength and Low Social Following can really outperform as more investors discover them.

This week, Trends with No Friends featured… 

GRAIL ($GRAL), Pony AI ($PONY), PowerFleet ($AIOT), Phibro Animal Health ($PAHC), ESCO Technologies ($ESE) and more.

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE

And in case you missed it… Howard Lindzon, Michael Parekh and Phil Pearlman are joined by Jimmy Hoselton, co-founder of Grass Clippings to discuss the massive shift in Golf on the latest episode of Trends with Friends. 

Tune in today.

GET IN TOUCH

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