Here’s a stock market statistic that may surprise you: in the past 12 months the share price of Zoom has nearly halved while Exxon Mobil has nigh on doubled. It’s a statistic that jars with the prevailing narrative of “fossil fuels bad, remote working good”.
What’s going on? Lots, but I draw two conclusions.
First, great companies can make terrible investments, depending upon the price at which you buy them.
Second, a superficial but appealing narrative is often enough for investors to buy into a story. We would do well to consider the second-order effects of decision making.
Zoom is probably a bad example of the “great companies, terrible investments” thesis because it has not been around long enough to make a claim on greatness.
