Friday's Fast Five: Week of 2.2

The One Part of the Housing Market That’s Growing (The New York Times): Existing homes typically account for about 90 percent of sales, but homeowners who have locked in low-rate mortgages have been reluctant to sell, resulting in limited choices and sky-high prices for prospective buyers. Last year, existing-home sales fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years, while the median price hit a record high. That spurred a rise in construction, as developers rushed to meet demand and dangled incentives to entice buyers. Sales of new homes jumped 4.2 percent last year from 2022, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

Michael Ovitz - Knowledge Is Power (Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Podcast): Michael Ovitz is the co-founder of CAA. We cover the best stories and lessons from Michael's all-star cast of clients, why speed and scale were critical ingredients to CAA's success, and how he's translating his legendary work ethic and talent spotting to the investing arena.

Is Buying Stocks at an All-Time High a Good Idea? (Meb Faber Research): “What if you bought stocks at all-time highs, otherwise you sat in the safety of government bonds?” So, we decided to take the study all the way back to the 1920s. And it turns out, it’s a pretty damn good strategy. I don’t think the takeaway is really that this is a system anyone would want to implement, but rather, an acknowledgement that all-time highs are nothing to be afraid of…and if your reaction is “that equity curve looks a lot like trend following with moving averages” then you’re probably right, they definitely look like siblings or close cousins!

Musk Says First Neuralink Patient Received Implant in Brain (Bloomberg): Elon Musk said that the first human patient has received a brain implant from his startup Neuralink Corp., a significant step forward for the company that aims to one day let humans control computers with their minds.

Grayscale Led the Fight for Bitcoin ETFs. Now Its Fund Is Bleeding Billions. (The Wall Street Journal): The crypto asset manager that forced U.S. regulators’ hand in approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds has lost billions from their launch. Investors cashed out $2.8 billion from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust after it converted into an ETF on Jan. 11, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.