Welcome back to another day with Renaissance - your source of tactics, examples, action, and news to perform 1% better every day so one day someone can say you just got lucky.

You’re here, you’re active, you’re seeking alpha to get better. Not everybody does that with their day, month, year, life! Getting 1% better every day is as easy as showing up and clicking open. Good fortune to you sir!

So without further adieu let’s get into it.

Here’s what you need to know today:

Amazon blue chip feeling the blues?

Adani can't stop won't stop

Boschhhhhh £42M!

Ol’ Sammy strikes again

.......and of course. Your daily source of Alpha

The Board

Business, Money Markets & Financial News

Nike’s top swoosh

(Top tech exec), Ratnakar Lavu, has suddenly resigned with no explanation or succession plan, meaning there’s gonna be people gunning for the top position...someone call Logan Roy. This was announced suddenly in a quickly scheduled all-hands meeting lasting less than 10 minutes! Executive moves are always important to look for in the market, especially with public stocks. This is after Nike’s CEO made the push to become a more tech-focused company with online digital-first sales. Watch those sales and that stock price for their financial year ending May 31.

The stories continue with another blue chip - Amazon

Historically known as one of the best employers and even making their ‘Earth’s best employer’ initiative - it’s safe to say, it’s gone…

This initiative was officially announced back in Summer 2021 when Andy Jassy took over, trying to reform from its reputation as a toxic workplace where commands were shouted and you could only take toilet breaks into bottles on the factory floor. Now investors and staff alike are asking…

Coming on 2 years later and staff are still complaining of a toxic culture with reports of no executive direction and that there are no deliverables clearly laid out for teams. For us and the readers at Renaissance, we’re trained professionals working hard to hit targets to be at the top of our game - if we didn’t have those goals and targets, we’d probably fail too.

We should point out that Amazon themselves have stated that opinions don’t make facts, and have denied these shortcomings. But you can't deny the stock. With inflation, tech stocks have taken a beating and multiple layoffs across the industry have crippled morale even more. The days of Bezos are over, and in this financial environment it’s just too jazzy to sustain the high stock price and even the 18,000 workers let go doesn’t fix it.

It gets worse…recently published, some Amazon corporate staff will be paid up to 50% less this year, and the stock continues to reflect it.

Takeaway - it’s a dark time in the market and especially for growth stocks and tech. Amazon will have to adopt a leaner mindset and fast to bolster a decent stock price to get through it but it doesn't seem the execs can act or organise fast enough to see it done.

Adani stock just can’t stop bleeding billions in market cap after the short seller report came out!

Adani stocks have collectively fallen below $100B due to the short sellers.

At Renaissance we’ve covered these popular short positions before, and like we’ve said before, true or not it’ll still destroy the market cap. It’s like if someone tells you the toilet is clogged at a McDonalds, they might be lying but tbh I think I’ll take their word for it…(DYOD).

The damning report from Hindenburg Research (a famous short selling firm) is outright calling them one of the biggest cons in the world. The Adani Group are calling the claims baseless and that everything is fine, yet they just called off a number of acquisitions, namely a $847M power station.

If everything is fine why you calling off the deals bro…

Be careful in scenarios like this, but there’s a few takeaways from this:

You can become one of the richest men in the world by being a bullshit artist and doing dodgy finance. And you can make just as much money betting against them as soon as the whistle is blown and ride the price down to the bottom.

We at Renaissance have your back, we’ll update you the same day massive short selling reports come out so you can be on-trend.

Boschhhhhh £42M! In the UK - Quantum Motion has raised the largest ever investment round…the round was led by the Bosch VC group.

What are they doing that’s so special? Nothing, that’s the point. They’re building better and more scalable Silicon-based quantum processors. This opens them up to lower costs and easier and faster manufacturing than other sexier practices.

A big raise for a big business but it’s at a phase in the market where funding has dried up and layoffs are everywhere and long-visioned products have to grow slow to conserve the runway - some call it the quantum winter. So that money better last until serious results come in. And with bigger more stable competitors like Intel and IQM potentially getting there before them, I’d say it’s a tough bet. The only play Renaissance can see is that building on silicon opens up lower cost quantum computers for a wider customer base to more clients outside of big corps - and silicon could mainline that right into their arms.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Crypto Market & NFT News

Ol’ Sammy strikes again - his fraud and criminal acts have spread like wildfire through the crypto ecosystem and now Galois (hedge fund) closes after having half of all its assets trapped on FTX

A bit of advice - if this is your first massive criminal financial apocalypse - history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme. FTX is no different from Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the contagion that spread. But the plot thickens….

Some investors in Japan can now recover their assets on the FTX exchange, this is the first time any consumers have accessed their funds since November. Up until now we’ve seen over $3B in consumer funds go up in smoke, but it’s still unclear if we’re going to see other countries recover consumer funds and when.

It’s a glimmer of good news, but equally FTX has done irreparable damage in emerging economies that needed crypto the most due to inflated currencies and corrupt governments (which is ironic huh Sammy). India, Brazil and Thailand were hit the hardest and are some of the least likely investors to see their funds again!

Once again we remind you to stay safe out there - and not your keys not your crypto! Get your crypto off of exchanges and into hot or cold storage wallets.

As if crypto scams haven’t done enough, phishing scams are popping up all over

The scammers are targeting notable crypto events like EthDenver. They’re duplicating the website and overpaying on Google ads to rank at the top. Once unassuming attendees enter the fake site and they connect their wallets, all funds are drained.

They’ve stolen over $300k so far and have access to thousands of wallets at this point. Be careful out there and practice good wallet hygiene.

Alright enough scams - now some alpha💰: Airdrops that’ll melt your face they’ll be so good!🪂🪂🪂

Here you are again on the side lines, you missed all the airdrops we told you about didn’t you:

$BLUR, $APTOS, $OP, $CANTO.

Well here’s the ‘how to’ for the next airdrops that might just come our way so huddle up!

You sorry sons of business probably missed that sweet sweet BLUR airdrop and now we’ve gotta start from zero, never fear! Renaissance has got your back.

Suiswap: Sui is a promising network layer 1, they just launched their next Testnet v2 and they have confirmed they will reward early users! Making it a “topmost priority”.

You can set up a SUI wallet and be prepared if there is a $SUI drop, and interact with the network to earn your potential reward. I’ll remind you BLUR rewards were over $100k in many cases.

Go to Sui wallet, download your wallet in browser and allow permissions for the extension and go interact with the network any way you can, even the wallet is a help!

GonnaMakeIt

It’s another NFT marketplace with royalty protection at the front of what it’s doing. They recently announced an airdrop of $GMI! You can earn through referrals right now.

The $GMI airdrop will be rewarded to:

• All OpenSea users based on volume

• All users who hold NRG coins

• All users who have ETH coins

• All users who staked LOOKS

• All users who staked X2Y2

• All users who have UNI tokens

• All users who hold xSUSHI for staking on Sushiswap

AlienSwap:

On the 1Inch network, AlienSwap is an NFT marketplace as well, backed by OKX ventures - it gives 100% of its revenue back to the community. If you trade or list NFTs on the platform you earn reward badges to your wallet.

If you get enough rewards and badges you’ll qualify for $ALIEN Mystery airdrops, go check it out and see what you can get!

Wealth Building, Personal Finance Hacks & FAT FIRE

Now that we’ve got your attention I can tell you some really boring practical advice that’ll make you rich, sorry it doesn't have anything to do with the picture above.

Warren Buffet has been asked many times that if we have a $1M, what should we do with it in the markets?

He has always replied to stick it in a low-cost index fund and to get back to work. Nothing sexy, no commission fees from fancy funds, no swing trades, just set it and forget it and take your 40-year annualised return. After 40 years it’s a perfectly decent return and he stated why should we want more than that when we’re not professional investors and bringing anything credible to the table?

Look, we like a trade as much as the next guy, and our risk tolerance is high but you have to secure low cost long-term gains at some point, and this is the best advice that you don’t hear enough because no one is paid to tell you this. Simple as that. But we have your back.

Got ya!

Some little bits for ya that we like…

How to act like the rich and use a trust as a tax-break:

https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/xpqDb9 

Paid CAC on a budget for these trying times as a business:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/21/5-tactics-for-managing-paid-customer-acquisition-during-a-downturn/ 

When crypto hangs you out to dry and Warren’s option is 40 years away, Darksquare offer alternative investments for the now: like buying distressed credit or forests and other such strange assets for profit! We love getting creative here at Renaissance:

https://sifted.eu/articles/darksquare-alternative-investment/ 

Jeff Koons’ balloon dog piece gets smashed by a clumsy guest, it was worth $42k! More than that she didn't even pay for it after.

Investors in Koons’ pieces are rejoicing though, as the limited supply of 799 is now 798 and scarcity sells!

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/jeff-koons-art-smashed-miami-b2285356.html 

Physical & Mental Health

A longevity expert who is in his 60s is biologically aged 42! He starts his day with a smoothie packed with protein and other anti-aging beneficial ingredients, here they are:

• Protein, berries, collagen, almonds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, zucchini, MCT oil, almond milk, whey protein. It’s important here to cut out all the sugar in our diet and this is a great way to do that when we’re not using high sugar fruits like apples or bananas etc.

• Guys we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - the protein is needed to build and maintain the muscle mass and it’s a must!

Sports

The US and over 30 other nations are going to try and block Russian athletes from competing in the 2024 Olympics. This is big news and just makes the divide between nations wider! We’ve already seen this frostiness play out in Miss Universe where Miss Russia and Miss Ukraine squared off together…

An official letter to boycott the Russians has been written, signed by the nations, and sent. We’ve actually already seen Russian bans in sports, with Wimbledon banning Russian players from entering last year.

Meme of the Day

Music

Here’s a chill work or study playlist to relax to if you’ve got some focusing to do in a flow state:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XstikgbeTPI

People You Should Know

Sam Altman

Man if you don’t know his name already you may as well unsubscribe. The genius behind OpenAI’s chatGPT, the former president of Y combinator (the famous tech start-up incubator), amazing investor, and compared with the likes of Steve Jobs by Paul Graham (the founder of Y combinator) as being amongst the most impressive people.

If you don’t know his story or achievements already then I suggest you go and take a look!

Riddle

I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?

Referrals

You are: 1 referral away from The Next 10x Opportunity in Crypto for 2023 Report

Simply refer your friend using the link below ➡ Reply to this email with the word 'Report' cc'ing in your friend ➡ The report is all yours!

That’s a wrap for today! Meet us on Twitter to talk all about it. Where every day we’ll send you jokes, tips, and all important news from the world of money, business and crypto and more! (@RenaissanceDly)

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