Dialogue. Two Struggling Stocks: Turnarounds or Value Traps? (Copart, Trade Desk)

Alex (0:06)

Welcome to The Synopsis, a business and investing podcast. Today, we have our first filmed podcast. I am in not an environment where I have it, so I have a blurred background. I don't have any books or creatine like Drew usually has in his background. So we got a roll with it. It was impromptu. Drew sprung this on me. So I had to find a polo. I had to put myself together. And here we are.

Drew Cohen (0:29)

By impromptu, he means meticulously planned with the calendar invite that we kept moving for the past two months.

Alex (0:36)

You're right. You're right. And enough about that. My computer is dying. I only have one charger. It goes from my mic to the computer and my computer. I'm at 27 percent now. So we're going to see if we can even make it through. But you know what? It's all about overcoming. The show must go on.

For people, it's our first format on YouTube. So Drew, why don't you tell us a little bit about what are we talking about here? Just the 30 seconds. What is the synopsis about? What do we do here for those who don't know or maybe any new listeners?

Drew Cohen (1:00)

Yeah, so the Synopsis podcast actually is like many years old. What is it? Three years old, four years old now. And so this predates the YouTube by a long period of time. But since podcasts don't have any discovery function, it has never grown that much. And so we have decided to come on to YouTube, give the people what they want, fulfill some more consumer preferences. This is a podcast that is catering mostly to professional investors. It's going to be a lot more in-depth, a lot more analytical.

And so this is really going to be a higher-end finance podcast. That's at least what we're aiming for it to be. And yeah, what's that face, Alex? Maybe not.

Alex (1:40)

Well, first of all, I took a lot of issue with that.

We've done pretty well. We've got a few thousand listeners, we've got a community, so I don't want to begrudge, oh, it hasn't grown. We're doing pretty well. And yes, you've elicited four years of free labor to me. I don't like you reminding me that, especially when we used to do the long form Speedwell Research, where one thing that Drew does, which is the he's the writer for Speedwell Research, which puts out a hundred page reports on very, very extensive reports on the companies that we've all talked about here. We would do three to four hour podcasts about the reports, which we have now shortened dramatically, because I think we found you and I don't like doing it.

Drew Cohen (2:15)

I don't know if anyone liked listening to it, maybe a few people, but they were our most popular episodes, but we were trying to be acquired or something, and then also push out all this other content, and Acquired only does those once every month, and it was just like a side quest for us, so it was a lot.

Alex (2:29)

Let me tell you, I don't mean to talk bad, everyone likes their own, but I can't listen to a full episode of Acquired. I don't have the time. I mean, I'm five hours in, I pick it up, I pick it, I don't know what's happening, I got to rewind. Again, I like our shorter form. I think this is where the attention spans of the people are going. We can get the pertinent information, be information dense and efficient.

That's what we're doing today. We're talking Trade Desk, we're talking Copart. You have a great video on Drew Cohen Money, an hour long video, which again, still long but efficient, thorough. I watched it on two time speed because I do not have YouTube premium, so I can't watch it on three time speed. Good for my comprehension, bad for my time efficiency, but we got through it and I enjoyed it. I don't want to say I got through it like it was a chore, but it was a very interesting discussion and I think quite, I mean, I really didn't know a lot about The Trade Desk. I mean, we do talk a lot about the digital ad space, but something kind of an area that I'm not familiar with as much as like the app Loven's, the Trade Desk. Some of the, I would say, I don't know if I want to call them, they are main players, but I guess they're not Meta, Google, Amazon.

Can I call them secondary players or is that rude?

Drew Cohen (3:36)