It came to light last week that I pick up pennies; usually on the sidewalk, sometimes on the soccer pitch, occasionally in the TSA bins at the airport. However, I am not the only one. The revelation took on a life of its own, leading to some friendly wagering on how much one might find over the course of a year.

Aside from his inexplicable disdain for tea, we love Ted Lasso. For those unfamiliar, the eponymous series focuses on an American football coach inexplicably hired to manage an English football, i.e., soccer team, despite the obvious hindrance of having never coached or played soccer, or even having a basic understanding of its rules.

Cliches. The investing world is full of them. Wide-moat business. Intrinsic value. Be fearful when others are greedy. Skate to where the puck is going. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

We looked at 2020 through the lens of 1999, specifically its worst music. Strangely, while the music from 1999 was dreadful, the films released that year were truly outstanding. This first month of 2021 reminded us of several classic films from 1999. With that, let’s Go (underrated cult classic).

What is clear is that this year has been widely regarded “unprecedented”, an overused term Recently, we have seen many instances of “unprecedented” behavior and this last two weeks of market trading is another chapter in this unprecedented time. In order to enjoy this “meal of information” we are going to now “set the table,” and try to explain what is happening in the stock market.

Though Neil DeGrasse Tyson would reprimand us, probably in a condescending manner, about ascribing significance to an arbitrary day commemorating one revolution of the earth around the sun, people, in general, put stock in the “new year.” The level of excitement associated with the arrival of 2021, closing the books on a year that will certainly live in infamy, is rivaled, at least in my lifetime, only by the mania associated with the end of 1999 as we stared into a new millennium.