What we’re reading (9/28)
“This Week Is A Big Test For The IPO Market” (CNN Business). “Investors have shown rabid enthusiasm for new stocks this September. That's forced some strategists to wonder: Is this a repeat of the frenzy that led up to the dot-com crash at the turn of the millennium?”
“One Woman’s Journey From New York Bond Trader To Orthodontist” (Wall Street Journal). “In five years as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs, Chris Bonebreak knew that competitive suspicions often accompanied a departure: Was the person leaving to join a rival firm or a client? For what salary? Or to get an M.B.A.? If so, where? She wasn’t sure how her colleagues would react to her move from New York’s high-stakes world of high-yield debt to go to dental school.”
“The Pandemic Plutocrats: How Covid Is Creating New Fintech Bilionaires” (Forbes). “In 2015, Nick Molnar was living with his parents in Sydney, Australia, and selling jewelry from a desktop computer in his childhood bedroom…[t]hat same year, he teamed up with Anthony Eisen, a former investment banker who was 19 years his senior and lived across the street. They cofounded Afterpay, an online service that allows shoppers from the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada to pay for small-ticket items like shoes and shirts in four interest-free payments over six weeks…[f]ive years later, Molnar and Eisen, who each own roughly 7% of the company, have become billionaires—during a pandemic.”
“The Stock Market's Next 20 years Will Be Defined By Technological Innovation — And The Most Likely Scenario Is 7% Annual Growth, DataTrek Says” (Business Insider). Pretty back-of-the-envelope, but, according to DataTrek, investors should expect equities to return 7 percent on average annually over the next 20 years. “First, investors can ‘safely’ eliminate the prospect of negative returns over the next 20 years because historical returns have never delivered a negative real return over a 20-year time period...[s]econd, historically high average annual returns of 14% have happened only 22% of the time, and happened during unusual periods when equity valuations start very low (the Great Depression) and include a powerful positive catalyst (post-World War II)…[t]herefore, investors can settle on a 0% to 14% range of average annual returns for the next 20 years, with a midpoint estimate of 7% the likely result.”
“Evidence For And Level Of Herd Immunity Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection: The Ten-Community Study” (MedRxiv). “Based on an extended range of epidemiological measures, active infection is rare in these [Qatari] communities with limited if any sustainable infection transmission for clusters to occur. At least some CMW communities in Qatar have reached or nearly reached herd immunity for SARS-CoV-2 infection at a proportion of ever infection of 65-70%.”
