Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives, MBI Deep Dives

MBI Deep Dives

Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives

MBI is the abbreviation for “Mostly Borrowed Ideas”. Why “Mostly Borrowed Ideas?” As a generalist, I do not have a background in any particular sector. I enjoy navigating across industries, businesses, and countries to learn, understand, and connect the dots. In any case, most ideas and innovations are incremental in nature. Very few of us are smart enough to come up with truly original or groundbreaking ideas. I am Abdullah Al-Rezwan. I was born and brought up in Bangladesh. I went to University of Dhaka for my undergrad and majored in Finance. After working three and half years in Equity Research (Sell-side) covering Financial Sector in Bangladesh, I left Bangladesh to pursue my MBA in the US. I graduated within top 10% of the class from Cornell University's two-year MBA program and worked on the buy-side following my graduation. During my time at Cornell, I won two stock pitch competitions and also became finalists in four other competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as a generalist in the US large cap team at Madison Investments and covered a wide range of companies from UnitedHealth to Amazon and Boeing before US immigration reality paused my career in investment management. As my work authorization expired, I moved to Canada in January, 2021. Then in early 2022, I was able to return to the US.

Equity Bottom-Up

Aon PLC is a professional services provider. The Company is comprised of risk and insurance brokerage consulting. Aon's services include helping manage risk for clients, negotiating and placing insurance risk with other carriers, and advising clients related to health and benefits, retirement, compensation, strategic human capital, and human resource outsourcing.

<ul><li>This month's Deep Dive will be on <strong>TSMC </strong>which I'm hoping to publish sometime in the last week of this month.</li><li>Following TSMC, I will spend some time out of semis for a few months and then come back to semis later in the year.</li><li>I also wanted to share some brief notes on why I have started buying Aon today.</li></ul>

This month's Deep Dive will be on TSMC which I'm hoping to publish sometime in the last week of this month.Following TSMC, I will spend some time out of semis for a few months and then come back to semis later in the year.I also wanted to share some brief notes on why I have started buying Aon today.

Amazon.com, Inc. is an online retailer that offers a wide range of products. The Company's products include books, music, videotapes, computers, electronics, home and garden, and numerous other products.  Amazon offers personalized shopping services, Web-based credit card payment, and direct shipping to customers.

<ul><li>Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.</li><li>So, while I will mostly discuss Amazon's earnings in this update, I will briefly touch on some broader themes as well.</li><li>Overall revenue was slightly below the high end of Amazon's guidance.</li></ul>

Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.So, while I will mostly discuss Amazon's earnings in this update, I will briefly touch on some broader themes as well.Overall revenue was slightly below the high end of Amazon's guidance.

Alphabet, Inc. operates as a holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides web-based search, advertisements, maps, software applications, mobile operating systems, consumer content, enterprise solutions, commerce, and hardware products.

<ul><li>Despite following Big Tech closely for the last 5 years, this sentence from today's call still somewhat surprised me!</li><li>The scale and the height of success of Google truly boggles my mind.</li><li>Over the last year or so, Google has had its fair share of skeptics, including yours truly. </li></ul>

Despite following Big Tech closely for the last 5 years, this sentence from today's call still somewhat surprised me!The scale and the height of success of Google truly boggles my mind.Over the last year or so, Google has had its fair share of skeptics, including yours truly. 

Meta Platforms (Facebook) / Equity Bottom-Up

Meta Platforms Inc. operates as a social technology company. The Company builds applications and technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. meta Platform is also involved in advertisements, augmented and virtual reality.

<ul><li>If you have been following Meta for some time, you probably are accustomed with after-hours (AH) volatility by now.</li><li>While Meta was -20% at one point AH today, it does seem a bit overdone.</li><li>Of all the post-earnings drop that I have experienced following Meta since 2018, this one probably made me nervous the least.</li></ul>

If you have been following Meta for some time, you probably are accustomed with after-hours (AH) volatility by now.While Meta was -20% at one point AH today, it does seem a bit overdone.Of all the post-earnings drop that I have experienced following Meta since 2018, this one probably made me nervous the least.

Dollar General Corporation operates a chain of discount retail stores located primarily in the southern, southwestern, midwestern, and eastern United States. The Company offer a broad selection of merchandise, including consumable products such as food, paper and cleaning products, health, beauty, pet supplies, and non-consumables such as seasonal merchandise.

<ul><li>Dollar General (DG)’s stock had an interesting reaction to today’s earnings.</li><li>First it went up by ~6% in pre-market, but then ended the day 5% down.</li><li>Despite the somewhat bizarre stock price reaction throughout the day, I think the worst days are likely behind DG.</li></ul>

Dollar General (DG)’s stock had an interesting reaction to today’s earnings.First it went up by ~6% in pre-market, but then ended the day 5% down.Despite the somewhat bizarre stock price reaction throughout the day, I think the worst days are likely behind DG.

MBI is the abbreviation for “Mostly Borrowed Ideas”. 

Why “Mostly Borrowed Ideas?”

As a generalist, I do not have a background in any particular sector. I enjoy navigating across industries, businesses, and countries to learn, understand, and connect the dots. In any case, most ideas and innovations are incremental in nature. Very few of us are smart enough to come up with truly original or groundbreaking ideas.

I am Abdullah Al-Rezwan. I was born and brought up in Bangladesh. I went to University of Dhaka for my undergrad and majored in Finance. After working three and half years in Equity Research (Sell-side) covering Financial Sector in Bangladesh, I left Bangladesh to pursue my MBA in the US. I graduated within top 10% of the class from Cornell University's two-year MBA program and worked on the buy-side following my graduation. During my time at Cornell, I won two stock pitch competitions and also became finalists in four other competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as a generalist in the US large cap team at Madison Investments and covered a wide range of companies from UnitedHealth to Amazon and Boeing before US immigration reality paused my career in investment management. As my work authorization expired, I moved to Canada in January, 2021. Then in early 2022, I was able to return to the US.