melissabrock1/iStock via Getty Images Commentators have been discussing the “K-Shaped Economy” for a few years, but as time has gone on, it's only gotten worse. What I naively thought would be a trend that we left behind post-2023 after the worst of the inflation woes ended has become a long-term trend. The upper end is doing okay, whereas the middle class and lower end are weakening. We've notice...
melissabrock1/iStock via Getty Images Commentators have been discussing the “K-Shaped Economy” for a few years, but as time has gone on, it's only gotten worse. What I naively thought would be a trend that we left behind post-2023 after the worst of the inflation woes ended has become a long-term trend. The upper end is doing okay, whereas the middle class and lower end are weakening. We've noticed it in wage growth primarily, but it's also in asset growth, as well as other factors like default rates. Apollo I've been covering this trend on Seeking Alpha, most recently in “ The Consumer is Tapping Out, ” where I discussed flatlining retail sales. Here's an excerpt making a point about the recent acceleration of the lower leg of the K. ....Placer Labs, which tracks foot traffic into retail stores...noted that discount and dollar stores like Dollar General ( DG ) and Dollar Tree ( DLTR ), among others, had [risen above superstore traffic]. It would seem that consumer spending was flat because they were trading down on the price chain to afford similar quantities. Placer Labs They noted similar trends among off-price retailers—above the dollar stores in the price-to-quantity ratio but below superstores—and thrift stores as well, with their traffic also spiking during the peak of this holiday shopping season compared to last year. Placer Labs The consumer becoming more money-conscious is not a good sign of their robustness. I was quick to dismiss the retail sales data being flat as noisy, especially considering that 2024 was an unusual year in wage growth, so comparisons are tough. But take in the data that off-price, thrift, and dollar stores are taking market share of consumers while the YoY rate is flat, and it looks like contraction to me. The question was put to me recently, asking what stocks I'd consider buying to benefit from this trend. Now that I think we're entering a zone of market support that will mark a near-term bottom , it's worth really considering. Lu...
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. Th...
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading […]
LOS ANGELES, March 25, 2026--ReFrame, the initiative launched in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF to advance gender equity in the screen industries, and IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, today announced that 26 of the IMDbPro 100 most popular films of 2025 will be awarded the ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced production. The findings of the 2025 ReFrame Re...
LOS ANGELES, March 25, 2026--ReFrame, the initiative launched in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF to advance gender equity in the screen industries, and IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, today announced that 26 of the IMDbPro 100 most popular films of 2025 will be awarded the ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced production. The findings of the 2025 ReFrame Report, which examines hiring across key roles on all 100 films based on IMDbPro data, can be viewed H
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) looks caught between fear and opportunity following a sharp pullback. Investors are worried the company's AI spending could pressure profits, but if Azure, Copilot, and cloud growth keep delivering, this weakness may look like a major mispricing in hindsight. Stock prices used were the market prices of March 18, 2026. The video was published on March 24, 2026. Continue rea...
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) looks caught between fear and opportunity following a sharp pullback. Investors are worried the company's AI spending could pressure profits, but if Azure, Copilot, and cloud growth keep delivering, this weakness may look like a major mispricing in hindsight. Stock prices used were the market prices of March 18, 2026. The video was published on March 24, 2026. Continue reading
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. Th...
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire romances, disapproving werewolf mothers-in-law, and cliffhangers engineered to keep users tapping. The leading […]
Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images The Westwood Salient Enhanced Midstream Income ETF ( MDST ) is a promising income strategy on paper that blends a decent-yield underlying portfolio, introduces active selection alpha and employs aggressive covered call writing to generate around 9% income. This appears broadly sustainable too in the current regime as per my analysis, but for a vast majority of...
Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images The Westwood Salient Enhanced Midstream Income ETF ( MDST ) is a promising income strategy on paper that blends a decent-yield underlying portfolio, introduces active selection alpha and employs aggressive covered call writing to generate around 9% income. This appears broadly sustainable too in the current regime as per my analysis, but for a vast majority of use cases and scenarios, the performance is likely to fall short of expectations and alternatives. MDST is a Strong Hold candidate for income investors, but I do not recommend overweighting portfolios with MDST because of some structural concerns alongside my midstream regime outlook. Aggressive Option Positioning The full holdings available at the ETF website shows an underlying portfolio holding in midstream company stocks that add up ~$225 million (matching the ETF's AUM). The option layer shows laddered calls written for each underlying (stock level call writing at multiple strikes) across 1-2 month expiries. The lack of spreads indicates that upside is indeed capped and does not reopen above a certain level. Overall, the strikes look a little OTM, too (not aggressively close to the money strikes), but that is not conclusive evidence of how it was structured when it was set up. The prospectus does not specify a target percentage OTM or whether calls are written ATM. With markets having moved down over the past few days, this could have been aggressive ATM strikes that appear OTM now. The most important indication of option positioning is the notional value of the option layer and hence the amount of portfolio coverage accounted for by the option layer. Many covered call strategies keep a balanced coverage lower than 100% (sometimes as low as 25%-50%), which enables capturing sharp upside rallies. MDST writes calls covering almost full exposure of each single stock holding and at the stock level. The notional coverage at the portfolio level is ~87%. The only exceptions ...