📉 U.S. oil reserve falls to its lowest level since 1983

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dropped to 311.4 million barrels, its lowest level in more than 40 years, after the release of 172 million barrels to help stabilize energy prices during the Iran conflict.

In 2020, Donald Trump proposed spending $3 billion to buy 77 million barrels when oil traded at $20-30 per barrel. The plan was never approved by Congress.
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With oil prices climbing again, the U.S. now has far less room to respond to future supply shocks.

✔️ @venture

❓ Why retail investors keep underperforming

Retail portfolios are down around 12.7% this year as many investors crowded into the same high-growth stocks. When those trades reversed, losses spread across entire portfolios.

The biggest mistake wasn't picking the wrong stock. It was poor risk management. Large positions, no exit plan, and portfolios concentrated in a handful of names amplified the drawdown.
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Simple rules can make a big difference: limit position sizes, rebalance regularly, keep cash for market selloffs, and compare your returns against the S&P 500 instead of chasing the next hot trade.
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Long-term performance is often driven more by risk management than stock picking.

✔️ @venture

🛁 Reformation is pitching its $1 billion IPO from a bubble bath

Most companies use charts and financial forecasts to sell their IPO. Reformation took a different approach. Its executives explained the business in a video featuring a model relaxing in a bubble bath with a glass of champagne, a direct reference to The Big Short. The company calls its business case "sexy math."

Behind the marketing, the numbers are solid. Reformation is targeting a valuation of up to $1 billion, generated more than $500 million in revenue last year, and says nearly 70% of its direct-to-consumer sales come from returning customers.

About 80% of its products sell at full price, while its AI-powered Retail X stores generate an average order value 8.5% higher than traditional locations.
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The IPO story isn't just about fashion. It's about proving that loyal customers, pricing power, and technology can justify a premium valuation even as profits come under pressure.

✔️ @venture

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Today, YouTube generates $1.65 billion of revenue every 13 days.

✔️ @venture

💣Asia's AI trade just lost over $400 billion

More than $400 billion has been wiped from stock markets in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan as the AI chip rally reversed. South Korea's KOSPI briefly opened 3% higher, then plunged more than 15% from its intraday high, triggering a circuit breaker for the second consecutive day, an unprecedented event for the market.

The selloff started with chip stocks. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which together account for more than half of the KOSPI's weight, fell sharply despite strong earnings from SK Hynix. Investors were already worried about AI spending, while growing competition from Chinese memory chip makers added more pressure.
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What made the decline so violent was leverage. South Korean retail investors had piled into leveraged ETFs tied to AI stocks. As prices fell, margin calls triggered forced selling, creating a chain reaction that spread across Japan and Taiwan's technology sector.

✔️ @venture

South Korea’s stock market KOSPI was halted again after plunging nearly 8% and triggering a circuit breaker.

✔️ @venture

“The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.”

— Ray Dalio

✔️ @venture

Jim Simons on his method behind the greatest trading record in history

✔️ @venture

🚀 Elon Musk's principles for building companies and winning

Not every quote from Elon Musk applies to everyone, but these ideas have shaped how he approaches startups, leadership, and execution.

🖱 Take calculated risks

• If nothing is failing, you're probably not pushing hard enough.
• Most people optimize for avoiding mistakes instead of making progress.
• Accept change when the alternative is stagnation.
• Start by believing something is possible. The execution follows.

🖱 Outwork the competition

• Persistence matters more than motivation.
• Put in extraordinary effort when the goal is important.
• Keep going even when the odds are against you.

🖱 Lead from the product

• Great companies are built through engineering and design, not spreadsheets.
• People perform better when they understand the mission.
• No task is beneath a founder or CEO.

🖱 Build a constant feedback loop

• Regularly question what can be improved.
• Seek negative feedback instead of avoiding it.
• Extraordinary results come from deliberate improvement, not talent alone.
• Work on problems you're genuinely passionate about.

🖱 Think like an entrepreneur

• A company is built by the people behind it as much as by the product.
• Building a business is difficult and emotionally demanding.
• Breakthroughs usually come from many small improvements, not one big idea.
• A small team of exceptional people often beats a much larger average team.

Success isn't built on one breakthrough. It's built on taking risks, working consistently, listening to feedback, and surrounding yourself with exceptional people.

✔️ @venture

The single best one-pager on how to sell

✔️ @venture

Warren Buffett:

“You have to make very, very few right investing decisions in your life. … The main thing to is buy into a wonderful business and just sit there with it.”

✔️ @venture

🔽 AI Fund Lost 70% Assets in Days

The $45B AI hedge fund Situational Awareness lost nearly 70% of its assets in just a few days. Its 24-year-old founder Leopold Ashenbrenner managed the crisis while guests arrived for his wedding.

Ashenbrenner left OpenAI in 2024 and quickly gained fame with an AI future essay before launching the fund. It achieved over 1000% returns in a few years, fueled by heavy leverage-borrowing $3-4 for every $1 of capital.

When the AI market turned down, the fund had to sell almost its entire portfolio. The crash coincided with Leopold's wedding to an Anthropic executive. He was fired from OpenAI for sharing data with Anthropic, where his fund still held $3.5B.

✔️ @venture

Jeff Bezos on what great inventors do:

✔️ @venture

💶 Scramble makes investing in consumer brands simple

Scramble is a European platform that lets anyone back fast-growing consumer companies and earn from it - without the noise of stocks or daily market tracking.

Each month, users get a curated batch of companies, and investments are automatically diversified.

🖱 Founder-backed loans, disbursed in stages to reduce risk
🖱 Group A: monthly repayments, up to 12.4% annually
🖱 Group B: higher risk, up to 25% returns
🖱 Scramble co-invests up to 20% in every batch

✨ New users get €10 for signing up, plus €5 bonus for every €100 invested.

Positioned as a hands-off, lower-volatility way to grow capital, Scramble is betting on the appeal of consumer brands as a stable entry point for retail investors.