Paul Kasaija

1/28/2021

10:45 PM

 

I’m tired of hearing all about the GameStop stock valuation drama. As I’ve said in yesterday’s journal, throughout the whole short squeeze fiasco, I support the freedom of traders to buy stocks regardless if it is a trend or not. I also don’t believe that companies like Robinhood should be able to close off those traders, under the guise of meeting SEC standards. However, there is not going to be a “revolution” or some sort of public uprising against the hedge funds, as popular media sites are suggesting, nor was that the original intent of all of the Redditors who bought the stock.

 

Much of the backlash and angry talk arose only because Robinhood attracted Redditor’s ire after blocking anyone, including them, from buying or borrowing the GME stock. The backlash of “injustice” from billionaires influencing TV networks with false claims (“they closed the short”), the issues arising from Robinhood preventing GME stock from being bought, and the bandwagoning of celebrities in the Twittersphere like Elon Musk, only served to produce tons of trendy news articles that pile on. It’s like an alternating pendulum of opinion: good, bad, good, bad, and so on. With all of these takes, it is frankly tiring to see such a jocular trend as the Reddit post initially intended to become a festival of outrage. It’s obvious to see that now there are other factors involved with the malfeasance of various companies like Robinhood, but all of that spiraled from a nothing-burger that should have stayed a joke on Reddit. Just saying.

 

How about shifting the focus to talking about stocks that are actually good, in comparison to those that involve outrage, malfeasance, and social bandwagoning?

 

For example: E-commerce platforms. Shopify. OfferUp. These are some of the most promising platforms that cover a wide range of different sectors and markets. Shopify is an online business marketplace that provides a platform for them to reach many more customers to sell their products from the convenience of their phone. Additionally, it has fulfillment networks for delivery and Amazon platform support, among other defining features. OfferUp is a customer-to-customer secondhand marketplace that is on the rise after acquiring LetGo last year, with a wide selection of used goods ranging from cars, housing, electronics, gears and tools, househould appliances and more —  that’s a bandwagon I would want to be on. Not only is it a top app on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, but it is backed by funding from many prominent investors like Andressen Horowitz (a16z), and has risen above $1 billion in net worth without even going public.

 

I would suggest reading my article on the site about the outlook of the e-commerce industry relating to these two gems, one polished (Shopify) and one a diamond-in-the-rough (OfferUp). These two companies are the crème de la crop, and provide more than a distraction from what is going on—  they are the future of what will come to be.