Hey Snackers,
A real-life mishmash of different Team Rocket wannabes is having a lot more success thieving “Pokémon” cards than Jessie and James ever did in their attempts to pilfer Pikachu throughout the anime series. Now, the massive boom in the value of “Pokémon” cards, with some seeing 3,000% returns on their collectibles, has spawned a string of “gotta steal ’em all” heists. To give a sense of what treasure the robbers are hoping to catch: the most valuable cards in the recently released Mega Evolutions set are going for over $1,000 each.
On Tuesday, US stocks tumbled and the VIX rose as investors worried about a broader pullback. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 sank over 1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped more than 2% as negative reaction to Palantir’s earnings dragged down the sector, along with big names revealing bearish views on it as well as Nvidia. Unsurprisingly, tech was the worst-performing sector ETF.
Stocks got speed checked
The stock market is facing a bit of a speed check.
That’s the message emanating from various key actors and assets, communicated in ways that range from subtle subtext, to somewhat fuzzy, to the extremely explicit.
Palantir was sold hard, falling 8% yesterday, on what are objectively good quarterly results: its ninth consecutive earnings beat and a boost to its Q4 guidance. The difficulty is, no matter how strong any results are, Palantir is always at risk of a “sell the news” event because of how darn expensive the shares are.
We saw something similar — a sell-off despite very good financials — in the wake of Micron’s earnings report in late September. And bitcoin, another “id” asset, was down over 5% yesterday.
The CEOs of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley gave some vague warnings about the potential for a material drawdown in the stock market at an unspecified point in the future.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF saw a broad sell-off, finishing the day down 3.8%.
A retail favorite failing to build on momentum even when it “deserves” to, the heads of banks warning of a pullback, and the most important part of the stock market being told it’s overheating, along with a filing showing that prominent short seller Michael Burry has bet that Nvidia and Palantir will tumble.
In and of themselves, any single one of these events probably doesn’t equal the S&P 500 being down over 1% on Tuesday. Collectively, under different circumstances, they might not be sufficiently potent for a sell-off of this nature. But the likes of Cboe and Goldman Sachs were flagging signs from the options market that traders were becoming perhaps a little overenthusiastic in their positioning.
The Takeaway
If you go over a speed bump while driving 100 miles per hour, there’s an extremely high risk of damage to the car even though the obstacle itself isn’t that daunting. Similarly, relatively inconsequential catalysts can cause more market damage at times when exuberance has started to creep in.
20% Bonus Shares? That’s No Small Perk.
Kevin O’Leary is a paid spokesperson for StartEngine. See his 17(b) disclosure, here.
StartEngine has opened the doors to private investing for everyday investors like you — and they’ve posted record financials in the process.
In the first half of 2025, StartEngine became profitable in H1 2025 with $4.9M GAAP ($11.9M adjusted EBITDA).1 After reaching $48M in annual revenue for 2024, they posted $70M revenue in the first half of 2025, up 3x YoY.2
Now the platform that’s helped investors gain exposure to companies like Databricks, xAI, and Kraken is offering a new opportunity: its own.3
Not only can you invest in this fast-growing fintech,4 but you can also earn up to 20% bonus shares5 when you do. It’s StartEngine’s way of rewarding investors who believe big in its mission to open the private markets.
You can join more than 50,000 shareholders who have invested over $80M in StartEngine across all offerings to date.6
Uber says it’s doing better in markets where it has autonomous vehicles
Uber’s earnings call yesterday saw the company reveal that markets where it has autonomous vehicles are outperforming markets without them.
Uber said it expects to have autonomous vehicle deployments on its network in at least 10 cities by the end of next year.
“The overall US market is strong, but we’re finding that, for example, growth in Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta was more than twice the rest of the US,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the call Tuesday morning.
He also noted that human driver earnings in those markets outpaced the rest of the US.
As of September, Google’s Waymo had more than 100 vehicles operating in Austin and “dozens” in Atlanta, where it has partnered with Uber to offer Waymo rides exclusively through the Uber app.
While Khosrowshahi said it’s too early to tell how the AV business, which is not profitable, affects Uber’s business overall, the relative growth is a “good signal.”
The Takeaway
Data earlier this year from ride-share comparison app Obi found that consumers were willing to pay more for autonomous rides, citing a notable preference by users of driverless car services to be in a car without a driver.
“I attribute higher demand for AVs to two reasons: a) novelty and ridership enthusiasm for a new experience and b) once consumers have taken rides it’s easy to see that the user experience in an AV is far superior,” Obi CEO Ashwini Anburajan told Sherwood News. “It provides privacy, comfort and safety, and all in a really nice car. The premiums in price are being supported by consumer enthusiasm.”
The Best Thing We Read Today
Michael Burry, of “Big Short” fame, makes massive ~$1.1 billion bet against Nvidia and Palantir
Michael Burry, famous for predicting the 2008 housing crash, has placed massive bets against Nvidia and Palantir, according to a new regulatory filing that reveals the huge put options his fund has bought on the pair. Last week, Burry warned of market “bubbles” on X, writing that “sometimes the only winning move is not to play.”
Snacks Shots
🏛️ Shutdown: Traders got a little more optimistic about an end to the shutdown, with prices implying a 70% chance the shutdown will continue through next Monday, November 10, while only 35% expect it to continue through Saturday, November 15, indicating that the market expects next week to be big for the negotiations.
🚘 Tesla: Despite the news that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund voted against Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, investors still seem pretty convinced that the package will ultimately be approved by shareholders.
🎬 Oscar/Movie: After a rough 2025 and a brutal October, traders on Polymarket seem to think that the best days for the movie business are coming up soon, with 41% of users saying the top-grossing movie of the year will be “Wicked: For Good,” 27% saying “Zootopia 2,” and 7% saying “Avatar 3.” Right now the high-water mark is “A Minecraft Movie,” which just 17% think will hold the title of top domestic grosser.
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
What Else We're Snackin'
Starbucks sold control of its China business for $4 billion
YouTube pulled in 12.6% of all TV viewership in September
$1.4 billion in crypto positions were liquidated on Monday, while bitcoin briefly dipped below the $100,000 mark Tuesday
Meme coins weren’t spared from the sell-off yesterday, with coins like shiba inu, pepe, and popcat dipping to lows not seen in well over a year
Snack Fact Of The Day
In just four months, the Switch 2 is only 3.2 million units shy of lifetime Wii U sales.
Today's Earnings
Earnings expected from Novo Nordisk, Humana, McDonald’s, Robinhood**, AppLovin, AMC, Qualcomm, IonQ, Snap, Duolingo, DoorDash, Lyft, Joby Aviation, Energy Transfer, and Lucid
**Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.
1 We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) calculated in accordance with GAAP adjusted to exclude interest expense, interest income, income taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and stock based compensation. We present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management team to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors regarding our operational performance and our ability to generate cash flows. Non-GAAP information should be considered as supplemental in nature and is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, our non-GAAP financial measures may not be the same as or comparable to similar non-GAAP financial measures presented by other companies.
Please see the tables on page 4 and page 26 of our Q2 2025 Form 10-Q/A to reconcile net income (loss), the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measure, to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented.
There is no assurance that we will be consistently profitable in the next three years or generate sufficient annual revenues to pay dividends to the holders of our shares. We have not yet generated yearly profits, and may not do so in the near future.
2 Based on our Q2 2025 Form 10-Q/A. This revenue growth has been driven by StartEngine Private, a new product line that offers funds in late stage companies. This product line has driven over $34.1 million of the $39 million in revenue from Q2 2025. To understand the impact on margins, see financials. Past performance may not be indicative of future performance.
See page 4 of the Q2 2025 Form 10-Q for the H1 2025 and H1 2024 total revenues. See page 35 of the offering circular and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for 2024 annual revenues.
3 The underlying companies held by StartEngine Private Funds LLC, and StartEngine Private LLC (together, “StartEngine Private”) are not participating or involved in the offering. The availability of company information does not indicate that the company has endorsed, supports or otherwise participates with StartEngine Private or any of its affiliates. StartEngine Crowdfunding LLC purchases shares from current and former employees, early investors, and advisors of the companies and sells the shares to StartEngine Private for each offering. When you make an investment in a company on StartEngine Private, you are purchasing an interest in a series of StartEngine Private Funds LLC or StartEngine Private LLC, each a Delaware limited liability company (together the “Series LLCs”), which were created to hold shares of privately held companies. An investor will not directly own or hold shares of the private company but instead will own member interests in a series of the Series LLCs, which either directly or indirectly, will hold shares in the company. There may not be a one-to-one economic parity on the value of the Series LLCs interests and the underlying shares.
4 Source: Inc., “Inc. 5000 2025: StartEngine,” Inc. Magazine, Accessed November 4, 2025
5 Bonus Terms & Conditions:
A) 10% if you reserved shares during the latest Test the Waters phase
B) 10% if you are a member of the Venture Club. Members get 10% on all investments in eligible offerings for an entire year for an annual fee of $275. This can be purchased at checkout.
C) 5% if you invest between $3,000 and $4,999.99, 10% if you invest between $5,000 and $24,999.99, 20% if you invest $25,000 or more.
Bonus shares in this offering are stackable. The maximum amount of bonus shares that an investor can receive is 20%. Any investor who falls into two of the three categories above will receive 20% bonus shares, as will anyone who falls into all three categories.
For example, if an investor reserved shares in StartEngine and is a Venture Club member, they will receive 20% additional shares. If that person also invests over $30,000, they will still receive the maximum of 20% bonus shares. Bonus shares may not immediately appear on your investor dashboard, but will be issued prior to the offering closing.
In order to receive perks from an investment, one must submit a single investment that meets the minimum perk requirement.
If you are investing via a self-directed IRA, you cannot receive additional perks beyond bonus shares due to tax laws
6 This is a paid advertisement for StartEngine’s Regulation A+ offering. For more information, please see the most recent Offering Circular and Risks related to this offering.
This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. No broker-dealer or intermediary is involved in the offering. In addition, as described in the Offering Circular, the Company retains the right to continue the offering beyond the Termination Date, in its sole discretion.
Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors. This investment is highly speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. It should only be considered a long-term investment. There is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.