The headline says they're sticking with Alphabet despite an imperfect quarter. Not a bad quarter. Not a disappointing quarter. Imperfect. Like someone describing their marriage right before the divorce papers get filed.
Alphabet spent more money on AI than expected. The stock dropped. Investors who bought at the top are now explaining to their spouses why patience is a virtue. Their spouses are explaining why the kitchen remodel is no longer happening.
Here's what imperfect means in financial media: the company made billions of dollars but not enough billions of dollars in exactly the way analysts with three-month attention spans predicted. Google still prints money. YouTube still exists. Android still runs on every phone that costs less than a mortgage payment. But the spending went up and suddenly everyone needs to write an article about conviction.
Conviction is what you call it when you're down 12% and can't admit you timed it wrong.
The market isn't in a forgiving mood, they say. The market is never in a forgiving mood. The market doesn't have moods. The market is a price discovery mechanism that doesn't care about your cost basis or your feelings about AI spending. You bought a stock that went down. This happens to everyone who buys stocks. The difference is most people don't publish articles explaining why they're definitely not mad about it.
They're not in a hurry to leave this stock behind. Nobody who's down money is ever in a hurry to leave. They're patient long-term investors now. They believe in the fundamentals. They've done the research. They're sticking with their thesis. These are all things people say when they're holding a position underwater and hoping CNBC will bail them out with a sympathetic headline.
Imperfect is the new word for red.
Photo by Galina Nelyubova on Unsplash
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