Launching a Substack changed my life. After three years:

🙏 ~1,100 paid subscribers
🎉 ~40,000 free subscribers
🤯 ~$500k ARR

For anyone thinking about launching a newsletter, here’s everything I’ve learned 1/ Do something UNIQUE. You want to be the only person who does what you do. Build a personal monopoly. No one wants more email, so you need something unique and differentiated to make it work

There’s been a lot of noise about the banking sector in the last few days. Here are five insightful and qualified bank experts worth your time and attention

A thread 1/@MaxfieldOnBanks, John Maxfield is the former Editor-in-Chief of Bank Director magazine and has spent the last two decades obsessing over the banking industry. No one knows more about banking than John, and I’ve learned a tremendous amount from him

Tomorrow at 10:30am ET I am publishing on a $4 billion company that exemplifies the worst of frothy retail speculation.

This company has no business being public and might be overvalued at one-tenth its current price.

Stay tuned! Full investigation will go out in The Bear Cave newsletter tomorrow. Sign up @BearCaveEmail to get the article in your inbox at 10:30am ET

Here are 12 free resources that will help you be a better investor

A thread: 1/ SEC Full-Text Search — Search through 20 years of SEC filings for specific terms, people, or entities. I use this tool to see every instance where a person’s name was mentioned in an SEC filing

sec.gov/edgar/search

People are frustrated at Wall Street for “making rich people richer”

I’m fine with that, especially if it is being taxed… but that’s not what really is happening

A lot of finance about is extracting fees from money that should belong to everyday people Most of the money at large investment funds is from endowments, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and foundations — often tax advantaged and for the benefit of average working citizens.

But the money is almost never invested in index funds, instead it is generally given

Congratulations to Christopher Lee at Duke for winning our nationwide college stock pitch competition with his write-up on Delta Apparel $DLA

Here's our announcement:
…seystockpitchcompetition.substack.com/p/and-our-winn… Stay tuned for an interview on the Yet Another Value Podcast with details on Chris and his pitch!

In addition, all the winners will get a free year of @TegusHQ

Huge thank you to @AndrewRangeley and Tegus for their generosity❤️

Six months ago, I published an article criticizing The Joint $JYNT, a high-flying chiropractic franchisor that had gone up 25x over the last five years.

Investors were livid. To present a balanced view I hosted a Twitter Spaces with The Joint bulls, and argued that increasing consumer complaints, problems at the franchisee level, board ties to failed penny stocks, and an undisclosed “bank” for struggling franchisees were serious issues for the stock.

A Hedge Fund Analyst Christmas List of 63 great resources for professional investors.

Here’s a thread with my 14 favorites

thebearcave.substack.com/p/a-hedge-fund… 1/ @TegusHQ -- An awesome database that lets you find dozens of expert network calls on any company in seconds. Great for learning about any new company/industry. I am personally obsessed with Tegus and any hedge fund without it is at a major disadvantage. ($$$)

I'm making a list of the best free and paid resources for investors.

Substacks, podcasts, webinars, online courses, software, hardware, websites, anything unique and useful.

Reply with your favorite underused product/service.

Below are my top 11👇 1/ @theTIKR, a super convenient tool for financial data, earnings calls, or stock screener for every public company. Incredibly easy to use. Free/cheap.

A THREAD OF GREAT FINTWIT THREADS A gentleman’s primer on shorting insolvent companies

https://twitter.com/HedgeDirty/status/1254767346784313344

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has $27 billion in investor assets and has returned over 28,000% since its 2015 inception.

But the market seems to be missing some serious problems at Grayscale.

Here are ten things you need to know🧵 1/ Despite being a $27 billion+ trust, Grayscale is audited by Friedman LLP, Tether's old auditor.

Robert Graham, the person responsible for auditing the ~$25 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, has audited three other public companies. All trade below $50 million.

Introducing Sunday’s Idea Brunch, a newsletter interview series where investors share their best ideas!

Published every Sunday at 1pm ET, starting October 3.

Join: ideabrunch.substack.com Shout out to Bill Martin @ragingventures, Yaron Naymark @1MainCapital, Scott Jackson @Price_to_Value, and Kyle Cerminara @kcerminara for agreeing to be some of the early guests!

Below are their bios:

Union Pacific has been linked to cancer deaths across the U.S. and no one is paying attention.

So far, Union Pacific has denied wrongdoing and refused to move families from contaminated sites.

Here is what’s happening Union Pacific uses a tar-like substance called creosote as a preservative in its wood. It makes the wood last longer and gives it a distinct black look.

The chemical can also cause cancer.

Paid email newsletters are dominating traditional financial research.

For $2,187/year you can get access to five incredible independent thinkers.

Here are the five authors who most deserve your attention and $$$👇 #1 @NonGaap focuses on corporate governance and executive option grants. I’ve learned a ton reading Mike’s newsletter and particularly enjoy seeing the “dark arts” of governance and suspicious options grants.

I’m massively long the Twitter revolution. Here’s why half of my portfolio is in Twitter stock. Twitter is becoming a royalty on the growth of the creator economy.

Twitter is the best way for online creators to stay close with their customers, and Twitter is going to start monetizing this relationship with “Super Follows” later this year.

After one year of a free newsletter, and now six months into paid, this thing is for real:

🙏 ~750 paid subscribers
🎉 ~15,000 free subscribers
🤯 ~$300k ARR (before fees)

For anyone thinking about launching a newsletter, some early learnings in the thread below👇 1/ Do something UNIQUE. You want to be the only person who does what you do. Build a personal monopoly.

No one wants more email, so you need something unique and differentiated to make it work.

“I worry more about people thinking like machines than machines thinking like people.”

–Tim Cook “The greatest challenge in life is when to break with conventional wisdom.”

–Tim Cook

The Peloton treadmill is hurting children.

Peloton is breaking the law and lying to the public.

Time from a thread🧵👇 The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of Peloton's treadmill after becoming aware "of 39 [safety] incidents including one death."

Peloton has refused to comply with the recall.

The 2020 Amazon letter to shareholders is simply phenomenal.

Jeff Bezos is a talented writer and a true leader.

I copied his 12 best quotes into the thread below👇 1/ “If you want to be successful in business (in life, actually), you have to create more than you consume... Any business that doesn’t create value for those it touches, even if it appears successful on the surface, isn’t long for this world. It’s on the way out.”

I just had an awesome call with microcap investor @iancassel. I learned a ton and to prepare for our conversation I watched his interview with @APompliano.

Here's what I learned👇

The best performing microcaps tend to be illiquid and the worst performing tends to be the most liquid.

Focus on the illiquid stuff.

Bill Hwang, who ran the fund that below up on Friday, also co-founded the Grace and Mercy Foundation.

His charity *purchased* swap losses and offshore trusts from his fund. The Grace and Mercy Foundation isn't as active on the philanthropic front.

Direct charitable activities? Not applicable.

Program-related investments? Not applicable.