Meta paid money to make a problem go away. Analysts called this a win. They always call it a win when you pay money to make problems go away. That's why I pay my bookie.
The child privacy case settled. Wall Street cheered. Not because children are safer. Because the number is final. Analysts can model a settlement. They cannot model congressional hearings that drag on for eighteen months while some senator from Utah asks Zuckerberg why his grandson can't figure out the Facebook.
Here's what you should do with Meta stock: look at the chart. Find support. Find resistance. Draw your lines. Place your trade. The settlement changes nothing about where buyers and sellers actually transact. It never does.
Every retail trader woke up this morning thinking the same thought. "Finally, clarity on the child privacy overhang." As if they had any position in Meta. As if they knew what an overhang was before CNBC told them. As if their three shares bought at $485 in 2021 were part of some grand thesis that just needed this one catalyst to pay off.
The stock will do what the stock will do. It did what it did before anyone knew there was a case. It will do what it does after everyone forgets there was a case. Price moves. News follows. Retail reads the news and thinks they're early.
Wall Street called it a win because Wall Street needed content for the morning note. The settlement amount was a rounding error on Meta's quarterly revenue. The legal risk was already priced in or it wasn't. If it wasn't, it'll get priced in when someone sells. If it was, it'll stay priced in until someone buys.
None of this shows up on a candlestick chart. Support at $512 doesn't care about your feelings on child privacy. Resistance at $568 doesn't read analyst notes. The 50-day moving average has never settled a lawsuit.
But sure, let the settlement guide your investment strategy. Right after you let the Farmer's Almanac guide your entries.
Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash
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