The Best One Yet - BONUS: “Year in Review” 🥂 The 3 biggest themes of 2021

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Our 2nd BONUS pod we’re dropping for the holidays… The 3 biggest themes (or is it trends? No, it’s themes) of 2021:1. “Major Meme Mania” — The stock market changed more in 1 year than in the previous 502. “The Me-Conomy” — Your money shifted into 1 giant treat-yo-self3. “Infinity Industries” — Brand new industries were created whose market are infiniteAfter this TBOY, our next pod back will be Monday, January 3rd with our usual digestible Takeaways. See ya then, Snackers.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is whatever day it is because this is our second bonus pod. It doesn't even matter. I hope you're leisurely listening to this pod over some hopefully time off. I mean, Jack, last week we stuffed people's stockings with a bonus pod, not too shabby. This week, we're filling your glass with another bonus pod.

And Snackers, this bonus pod, it is the three top themes of the past year. Is it the top themes or the top trends? Do we decide on that? I think we were going to throw a dart at a board and just like that. let that pick it for us. Well, either way, if you missed all of last year's Snacks Daily's, this one podcast will bring you up to speak. And because this is our last pod of 2021, ipso facto today's pod is the best one yet. TBOI for our first theme of 2021, it was major meme mania. Snackers, the stock market, it changed more in one year than in the

previous 50. Our second theme of 2021 is what we're calling the me economy. The me economy. spending, working, living, and all shifted money into one giant treat yourself. For our third and final theme of the year, we're calling this the infinity industries. Infinity industries, new term, it's brand new industries that are literally and figuratively infinite. But snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix, honestly, Jack, I loved whipping this up with you over the holidays. Eggnog is like the assaye bowl of Christmas. Me too. I also love 2021 though, because it was in so many ways a better year. It totally was.

We weren't eating in restaurants a year ago. Remember that. We didn't have vaccines a year ago. 2020 was like the worst year ever, but we're looking at some big trends that happened this past year. And it was hard to pick just three things. I mean, Jack, I'm looking at the whiteboard right now. There were so many other options.

For example, another trend was pandemic stock winners are now pandemic stock losers. We've talked about the Zoom, Peloton, Zillow. They were up. They were down more recently. Yeah, Zoom, Pelotan Zillow. Thank you for the all-time high memories. It was great. There was also the hoarder's Almanac.

We kept on running out of things because of the pandemic, even in 2021. Totally. Supply chain issues, inflation, worker shortage, yada, yada, yada, yada. We ran out of clowns one week. We ran out of cheese another week. The cream cheese still. It's a problem. Also in 2021, some millennial IPOs finally came of age.

Exactly. Some millennial brands got out of their parents' basements and got full-time Wall Street jobs. The companies of a generation, Sweet Green, Allbirds, Oatley, Warby Parker, Bumble, they all IPOed in the past year. But Jack, can we talk about the food fights? Because there were some serious fast food food fights this year. Tuna asterisk over at subway. Jack, how about McFurraygate? Over at McDonald's. We should also mention the Zuckings. Oh, the Zuckings, Jack. Oh, so many Zuckings. So many. Snackers, if your tech company didn't copy Clubhouse this year? Were you even scaling? Those were some big themes of the past year,

but we're about to hit three huger themes of 2021. Jack, let's hit our three huge theme stores. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. It's snacks about the hair ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale about security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first theme of the year of the last part of the year, major meme mania.

Let it roll out. In 2020, tons of money went into meme investments. But it was way less money than you might think, actually. It feels like we're about to spring a little context on this, Jack. We're going to sprinkle some context on meme stocks. Snackers, retail investors, you, us, the regular people with a brokerage account, we got involved in 2021. Put me in coach. I'm ready to moon.

Now, this all began back in January. I remember because it was like the day after my birthday jack and it was intense. People stuck it to short sellers by piling into GameStop and a bunch of other stocks. If you missed this story, remember the GameStop pop, the GameStop pop drop, the GameStop stock pop. Reddit became Wall Street's. Water Cool. Then he had frenzied investing crossing over from stocks into crypto. That crescendoed with Doge Day, which was 420. I believe it was 420, 1969, Jack. It was 2021, but yes, I see what you're kidding. It was. It was. Never forget, Doge Day 2021. Meme investing became a thing and it stayed a thing,

not just in January, not just on 420. It was all year. I mean, Jack, what is AMC stock doing right now? A year later. It's up over a thousand. percent 2021. Jack, what is Dogecoin's value doing right now? A year later. It was created as a joke, but it's up 4,000 percent this year. That's no joke. But Snackers, here's what Jack and I find fascinating about me investing. It's revealed a fundamental difference. Meme investing, it ignores the traditional methods of pricing a stock. What should a stock's price be? Existential question. It's hard to figure out. And the answer is not just higher or lower. Like, should it be 30 or should it be 40. What is the right price? Your first day of analyst training, your first day of business

school, the thing they're going to tell you is this, it's a multiple of earnings. That's how you get the stock price. You look at the company's profit per share and then multiply it by like 30. And that's the fair share price. But for meme investments, price isn't determined by some finance formula. It's determined by virality. With meme investing, it's an online popularity contest. Totally. Memes get created and memes trigger people to invest. So it's not the number of profits, it's the number of posts. And meme investors have been vocal. They are trying hard to convert new believers on social media to whatever it is they're investing.

If you're calling yourself an ape on social media, then you're being pretty vocal. Some apes are genuine believers. They're joining a community of investors who want to support AMC theaters's rebirth post-pandemic. And hey, you got AMC. to start like giving out popcorn to shareholders. Not too shabby. But other meme investors, they saw their buddies making a ton of money and wanted to make money too. Classic FOMO investment. Classic FOMO investing. So Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over in major meme mania? Mem stocks got billions of dollars this year, but top stocks were getting trillions. Snackers,

Jack and I jumped in snack style. Major meme stocks this year, they're actually kind of tiny. Look at GameStop, AMC, and Doge. Their market caps are $12 billion, $15 billion, and $22 billion range. Okay, so respectable valuations. It's about a lift. Yeah, each is worth about a lift. Meme stock investors, they've put billions of cash into these companies to get them to that point. But to sprinkle some context on the amount of dollars meme stocks got, tech companies got trillions of dollars of investments in the same period in 2021.

In just the past year, Jack, Facebook and Navidia, they're flirting. with one trillion dollar valuation. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, they're in the $2 trillion ballpark. They're worth over 200 times GameStop and AMC. Oh, and Jack, don't call it a hat trick, but Apple, it's on the brink of three trillion, three trilly, baby. Meme investing became a thing and stayed a thing all throughout 2021. But major meme stocks, they got billions.

Big Tech got trillions. For our second, major theme of 2021, here it is. The me economy. Self care, treat yourself, and people putting themselves first in 2021. And it all begins, Snackers, with anxiety and depression that spiked during the pandemic. Let's talk about it. Mental health awareness, fortunately, that spike too. Honestly, Jack, you know what a great like Wednesday is? It's when we finished recording the pod and then I call you up later in the evening to tell you a takeaway from my therapy session. And then you share a takeaway from your therapy session. I'm like, oh, wait, that's more helpful for me than

is for you. I was a first timer this year. Snackers, Ted Lassow, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, they were like your figures of 2021. Fun fact, you don't need a leather couch to attend therapy. Add it all up. Mental wellness was never more in the conversation. So we ended up actually with a shortage of trained therapist this year. We did. Because people were flocking to that leather couch. And voila, app-based therapy had their best year ever with a whole bunch of venture capital bucks. But Snackers, here's the interesting thing. That self-focused, that evolved from your head to your office. It's been largely dubbed the Great Resignation.

The Great Resignation. Although, Jack, we really got to come up with a better term for that. Great hesitation. How about effort? I quit. Like, I'm done with this job. Jack, our 2022 New Year's resolution is to come up with a better term than great resignation. In August, we had a record 4.3 million people quitting their job in America.

Okay, so Jack and I thought that was crazy. And then get this. In November, we set a new record. 4.4 million people quit their jobs in America. People moved on to better jobs or they demanded more from their current jobs. Don't Lina Duncan's like, if I don't get this promotion, I'm heading over to Krispy Kreme. If people have felt overworked or underpaid for a number of years, they're like, this is the year I finally quit.

I'm finally launching my startup. There you go. I'm going to do it. Plantways foie gras. It's happening. Even college athletes are demanding more. You got sophomore snagging sneaker deals. Jack and I are looking at this and we're like, you know what?

you could argue that the nationwide quitting to focus on yourself, that's what led to the creator economy. The creator economy started years ago, but this was the year that Margo quit her accounting job and now she has two million followers on TikTok. She's teaching a DIY and how to complete that 1040 form in under 10 minutes. And of course, this was also the year Starbucks baristas unionized because they want to get more. And because you're asking for too much in that for Appuccino. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the me economy? Follow the money. and it leads to the MECON. Yeah, Staggers, after you focused on your mind and then changed your job,

you treated yourself and you did it more than ever. Glossier hit a $1.8 billion valuation this year because people splurged on skin care products. Classic treat yourself. We also had the rise of the pin dude as guys were up in their fashion and style game. To treat ourselves. Super delivery spiked this year with tons of venture capital money because you want that ice cream.

Yow! Late night, treat yourself. I just said, yeah, I meant now. And accelerators are paying match groups dating apps, like an extra 10 bucks to increase the chances of finding someone ASAP. Treat yourselves. And how many times have you seen headlines this year about buy now, pay later?

It's everywhere. Buy not pay later. BNPL. That's the dominant spending theme of 2021. And it's the ultimate treat yourself because you're getting that thing right now and you're not paying for it. You're literally not even paying for it. Mental health awareness, the great resignation, and treat yourself.

If you follow that money, it leaves one place. The me economy. For our third and final big theme of 2021 in our last story of the year, here it is. Infinity Industries. New companies in new industries with infinite space and infinite potential. Jack, like these aren't just themes and like these aren't just trends. This feels like something more. This final theme is something that didn't exist until this year.

really didn't say words like this until this year. First Snackers, the first infinity industry, it's the space industry. It went from like a blueprint to become a real world thing this year. We had 54 commercial space launches this year. There were none. The prior, you got Virgin Galactic, you got Blue Origin. They're playing the red carpet tourism game over there. Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson. They brought the first billionaires to space. You got three commas on your net worth and like enjoy being on the Forbes list. Thanks. Send us a picture from outer space. Possibly the shocker of the year is that Elon didn't take a SpaceX rocket to outer space. Really felt like the kind of thing he could do. A lot of marketing potential in this.

But Elon did snag a $2.9 billion contract with NASA to do a whole bunch of stuff with SpaceX. And Snackers, the most valuable startup in the United States, it's not some like fintech, social media, B2C platform, techified thing. It's space exploration company. SpaceX, a space company. The second infinite industry that was created. created this year was the Metaverse. We literally never used to say the word Metaverse.

Now we got this virtual world where you do things from the real world, but just with more pixels. We're going to start having tan lines on our face from those goggles, apparently. In just the last few months, Snackers, Google searches for the word Metaverse grew by over 25X. Which may be why someone just spent $2.4 million on a virtual house or someone else just spent $650,000 on a virtual yacht. It's why Nike has filed a patent for digital,

shoes so that you can look real fly on your virtual yacht in the Metaverse. Because you're going to be hanging out next to the virtual DJ booth on set yacht. And then you got Roblox. They've been here for years making virtual video games and virtual worlds. They went public and their stock is up 50% since the IPO. Facebook's looking at all this and Facebook's like, you know what? We don't really want people to think about Facebook. So let's roll with this Metaverse thing.

New name. Dibs on meta. Meta. It's cleaner. And Zuck is also. spending $10 billion this year and like a whole new campus in California to work on the Metaverse. But our third infinity industry is kind of a shocker. Psychedelics. Psychedelics are an infinity

industry. It was the year of the IPO, the initial psychedelics offering on stock markets. Yeah. For example, MindMed, they use micro doses of LSD to help you with sleep and stress. MindMed is now publicly traded company. A tie. They use compounds in magic mushrooms, in real magic mushrooms to treat depression. also a publicly traded company. And Nick, your uncle may have taken hallucinages back in 1971 at that Doors concert. Well, now those hallucinogens are cutting edge healthcare therapy. Psychedelics is a moonshot industry that could combat some major healthcare challenges we've had for decades. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for all of our brand new infinity industries?

We call these infinity industries because the total addressable market is literally and figuratively infinite. Yeah. Snackers, for example, look at Spain. It's physically an infinite space. Jack, how about the Metaverse? It's digitally infinite. And how about psychedelics? It's mentally infinite. Snackers, we entered the fourth dimensions of markets this year with infinity industries.

Their total addressable market is literally and figuratively infinite. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the final time in 2021? Theme number one of this year was that markets change forever with meme mania. But major meme investment, it got billions. while top stocks got trillions. Theme number two was the me economy. People took care of themselves. You took care of your head, your office, at home.

That was the me economy. Treat yourself. And the third theme of the year was infinity industries. Space, the metaverse, psychedelics. Three words we like never were saying before this year, new industries and they're infinite. And snackers, to go into New Year's, a snack fact from a legendary snacker, Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida. years ease. As the clock strikes midnight, we're all going to sing to the same song global.

This should all acquaintance be forgot. You know the song. You sing it every year. Old Lang's eye, it's a song that goes back to the 1780s when it was published by Scottish poet Robert Burns. But here's the funny thing, Snackers. In Japan, like in modern day Japan, stores, like the stores you buy stuff from, they use that song every single day. It's the song that a store plays when they're closing and like get out of my store we're closing like the song we're all used to singing when like the year is closing but at macy's over in Tokyo they use it every day at like six o'clock or whatever to tell you like hey get out of the store we're shutting down I want to get home snackers you looked fantastic every single day this year jack turtle neck or not we're looking

sharp theme number four we love the snackers man by the way jack um you're still going to be in florida winter for New Year's Eve. Mm-hmm. Okay, so, you know, we were going to be in Italy, but we just decided that it may be a little too hard to get to Italy right now. Are you going to Florida? We're going to Florida, baby. No!

I'll see you in Florida. You want to do like a pot from there? Golf Cust? Yeah. I figured I'd wait and tell you right on the pod. It'd be more fun. Naples? Yeah, we're going to be in Naples.

You're kidding, man. I'm not kidding. We got to get a pizza, though, because we were supposed to meet Italy. So if you'll join me for a pizza, that's how we should kick things out. This is incredibly exciting. I'll just be a more fun way to tell you. Snackers, look out for a couple of New Year's post between Nick and me. There we go. We got to start prepping.

I'll pack your turtle neck for you. I'll need sweat wicking if we're going to be down there. Snackers, we will see you next year. Have a fantastic new year. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Roblox. Nick own stock of Apple. Robin Hood Snacks, newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC

and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robintoe Markets Inc., Robinto Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principle and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.