X: Wow, you really flubbed this $PDD call, didn’t you?
M: Sorry, what?
X: You know, you’ve been knocking $PDD for a year and the stock is up 400%. You flubbed it.

M: Let’s turn things down a notch. I have very *specific* concerns about $PDD’s accounting and corporate governance. I made those concerns public. That’s it.
X: Yeah, but the stock has still gone to the moon.

M: You realize the issues I raised don’t preclude more people wanting to buy the stock than sell it, right? It’s perfectly possible for a stock, to use your phrase, to go to the moon, even with a slew of unresolved issues.
X: The market is a voting machine.

M: Precisely, the market has voted on $PDD. It remains to be seen whether $PDD can be as big as its current valuation implies. And, for the avoidance of any and all doubt, I’m agnostic as to whether it gets there or not.
X: So, you don’t feel bad about missing out on $PDD?

M: Not at all. I understand the name of the game on here is to post bold stock tips, mad triple-digit gains alongside charts that go up and to the right, but that’s just not for me.
X: What’s your game, then?

M: Well, as I’ve said before, I’m just here to help folks ask smarter questions, like why a $200B e-commerce company doesn’t have a CFO, why a company would lie about its ownership structure, or why the venture capital backing a coffee upstart are all interrelated parties.

X: You’re a black hat.
M: Not really. I just think understanding the people that run the company is more important than a half-page at the arse-end of an investment memo...

...My belief is profit is the result of distinctive practices. The people who run the show, specifically their quality of thinking, determines the presence or absence of distinctive practices. Therefore, I want to know who’s running the show.

X: You really like your Austrian economics, don’t you?
M: I cherrypick ideas. Now let me ask you a question. How much do you know about the folks that run the show at the companies you’ve parked your money in?
X: …

M: It's pretty intriguing you lap up all those podcasts with business leaders, but couldn't give a ha'penny jizz about who's running the show in your top holdings.
X: You can be a dick sometimes, do you know that?
M: That's why I have a criminally low follower count.