Mooooorning

Summer is half-done! Make sure to check off all the items on your summer activity list before the season’s over. Here’s a few recs:

• Frisbee golf

• Movie outside

• Fill your car with water so you can swim while driving!

Shall we?

Markets

Source: CoinGecko.com As of 3:08PM July 28th

World news

Top news stories of the past week

1) Paris Olympics have opened: With a ceremony that can best be described as…unconventional, the Paris Olympics have begun. There’s already a few controversies, aside from the opening ceremonies, including the threat of Parisians to poo in the river in protest against pollution. That outta help!

2) Interest rates are dropping: Western countries have started to drop their central bank rates, as inflation continues to fall while unemployment ticks up slightly. The Swiss and Canadian central banks both dropped rates, everyone’s waiting on the U.S. still!

3) Trump is a Bitcoiner: Former President Donald Trump, speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, pledged to make the United States the "crypto capital of the planet" if re-elected, promising to establish a national Bitcoin stockpile and implement crypto-friendly policies. HODLers everywhere rejoice.

Top WEIRD stories of the past week

1) A whale launched out of the water and capsized a boat in New Hampshire. The video is crazy - check it out.

2) The Ohio Supreme Court decided that chicken wings advertised as boneless can have bones. Don’t they have more important things to talk about?

3) Scientists discovered that sharks of the coast of Brazil tested positive for cocaine. Rowdy.

Chart

You like charts? Graphs? Ya you do

Truflation tracks inflation live with millions of data points. It’s continued to fall:

Investment idea

What are we investing in?

Small companies

Companies with small market capitalization (or small caps) have been on a tear recently, up 12% in the past month.

How small is small? Anything below $2 billion in total value. Sounds huge, but remember that the biggest in the world (Apple) is over $3 TRILLION.

Why invest in small companies?

1. Higher growth potential: Since these businesses are smaller, they have more room to expand and increase their market value significantly. Many successful large companies like Amazon and Microsoft started as small-caps, and early investors saw massive returns as these firms grew into industry giants.

2. Less covered: Small-cap stocks typically receive less attention from Wall Street analysts and institutional investors. This lack of coverage can create opportunities for individual investors to discover undervalued companies before they become widely known.

3. Diversification benefits: Small-caps often operate in niche markets or emerging industries, and their performance may not always correlate with larger companies or broader market trends. This can help spread risk and potentially enhance overall portfolio returns.

How can I invest in small companies?

1. Pick individual companies: Problem is there are thousands of them, so picking one can be tough.

2. Passive index ETF: This is an easy option - buy the market! Check out iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF

3. Active ETFs: these funds are overseen by professional managers who do the picking for you! Active management in under-followed parts of the market, like smaller companies, can provide better performance than the market. Heads-up though, they are more expensive. Check out T. Rowe Price Small-Mid Cap ETF or Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF.

History

On this day…

…in 1958, NASA was founded by U.S. Congress! Their creation was a response to the Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. U.S. said “you are not allowed to flex that hard”.

Music

Banger of the week

Most important thing

Meme? Nah. Art.