🍋 Wall Street Meets TikTok

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Good Morning! Biden administration canceled up to $20k in student debt for Pell Grantees and up to $10k for those making under $125k. Peloton also had a good day – stock was up 20% on news that it has struck a deal to sell fitness equipment and apparel on Amazon. Running OG Usain Bolt applied to trademark his iconic victory celebration pose. I could try to write what it looks like, but y'all already have the image in your heads. 

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1. Story of the Day: Wall Street Meets TikTok

There's a shift going on in the biggest banks in the world, and I'm not talking about the slowdown in IPOs. Interns and analysts on Wall Street are part of a generation that's constantly posting on social media. As they take up the gauntlet of entry-level roles, they're not stopping their posting, but it's tough on Wall Street, a part of the world that is built on confidentiality.

Naeche Vincent, a TikToker whose videos have received more than 2.4 million likes, posted a video about getting ready to walk into her office for the first time since starting as a banking analyst remotely. One thing she was sure not to mention was who her employer actually was.

Vincent has posted more videos, including one about a 19-hour work day. "The banking world is very strict about what you can share online. If you're online posting about a specific company, then you basically become a spokesperson. I just don't say where I work," said Vincent.

While these videos can be a recruiting tool and shed light on a historically opaque industry, firms are tiptoeing around the new exposure that they may not have been expecting. Some are being cautious, some are encouraging social media use, and some are trying to take charge of what's being shared.

Filming on trading floors is banned but some banks like Goldman allow posting and Morgan Stanley this summer even offered their interns a ring light for shooting content and asked them to use the hashtag #MyMSSummer. 

Some like Blackrock have joined TikTok themselves and are creating Gen Z-targeted content. Goldman is planning to launch its own TikTok channel and share snippets of a typical day in the life of some of its junior staff.

Short Squeez Takeaway: While a few of these "a day in the life" videos might be insightful, I am not going to lie, most of these are highly cringe and very often inaccurate. A more accurate depiction is spending all day in Excel and moving around logos in PowerPoint but let's be real, that doesn't make for an interesting TikTok. I can't wait for banks to drop their own "day in the life" videos and show us how 1st year analysts are doing yoga at 12:30pm??? UBS Careers I am looking at you! 

2. Markets Rundown

Equities were up after a three day losing streak, but investors are still focusing on what will happen to rate hikes after inflation data comes out later this week.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) +18% after it was reported that the company has secured financing to help with its liquidity.

• (+) Peloton (PTON) +20% after it made a deal to sell some of its equipment and accessories on Amazon's platform.

• (–) Nordstrom (JWN) -20% on cutting its financial forecast for the remainder of the year, because of too much inventory and slipping demand.

Private Dealmaking

• Anyscale, an AI app development platform, raised $99 million

• Digital Diagnostics, a point-of-care disease diagnostics startup, raised $75 million

• Ready Player Me, a metaverse avatar developer, raised $56 million 

• SmartMoving, a business management software developer, raised $42 million

• Oliver Space, a furniture resale startup, raised $36 million

• Kasisto, a digital assistant for financial services industry, raised $15.5 million

3. Top Reads

• A brand-new jobs reports (Axios)

• Banks slice and dice $80 billion in M&A debt that no one wants (BB)

• Home prices fell for first time in 3 years last month (CNBC)

• Business economists give soft landing the side-eye (Axios)

• America’s trash flow isn’t signaling a recession (YF)

• Why Jim Cramer says tap the brakes on comparing this year’s market to 2001 and 2008 (CNBC)

• Dollar’s historic surge May be music to Fed’s ears (Reuters)

• Student loan deal could cost $900 billion and favor top earners (Fox)

• Tesla shares trade at 3-for-1 split after market close (CNBC)

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4. Book of the Day: The Charisma Myth

The charisma myth is the idea that charisma is a fundamental, inborn quality—you either have it (Bill Clinton, Steve Jobs, Oprah) or you don’t. But that’s simply not true, as Olivia Fox Cabane reveals. Charismatic behaviors can be learned and perfected by anyone.

Drawing on techniques she originally developed for Harvard and MIT, Cabane breaks charisma down into its components. Becoming more charismatic doesn’t mean transforming your fundamental personality. It’s about adopting a series of specific practices that fit in with the personality you already have.

The Charisma Myth shows you how to become more influential, more persuasive, and more inspiring.

“To know others is knowledge. To know oneself is wisdom.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• Your doppelgänger is out there - and you probably share DNA with them

• Why some people hate touch screens in cars

• Where people in America are living the longest

• 13 TikTok home hacks that will make your life easier

• In uncertain times, the best strategy is adaptability 

6. Daily Visual: US Dollar Index Hit its Highest Level in 20 Years

 US Dollar Index is a measure of the value of the US dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: Empathy is Difficult

"If you believed what he believes, you’d do precisely what he’s doing.

Think about that for a second. People act based on the way they see the world. Every single time.

Understanding someone else’s story is hard, a job that’s never complete, but it’s worth the effort."

Source: Seth's Blog

8. Crypto Corner 

• Crypto lender Celsius filed lawsuits in attempt to recover funds

• The 30-year-old spending $1 billion to save crypto 

• Coinbase CEO warns investors to buckle in for a long crypto winter

• Crypto faces Y2K moment with Ethereum merge

• Bitcoin breakout possible as whales close in on sideways BTC price

• Half of US adults say their crypto punts are worse than expected

9. Memes of the Day

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