One of the biggest ETF launches in history just hit the tape.
Over a billion dollars pouring in. Headlines everywhere. People scrambling to explain why this is the next big thing.
And I’m sitting there thinking:
What the hell is a DRAM?
Not in a cute way. Not in a “I kind of get it” way.
I mean I genuinely have no idea.
I’ve been doing this for more than two decades. I’ve seen every acronym, every theme, every “this time it’s different” story you can imagine.
And now this thing shows up out of nowhere, takes in a billion dollars in 10 days, and everyone suddenly becomes a DRAM expert overnight.
Except me.
It Was Never About DRAM
This is the part that gets me.
People think they’re chasing some new cutting-edge idea.
Some next-generation tech trend. Something complicated that requires a PhD to understand.
Meanwhile, half the money is going into the same two companies that have been driving all the strength in the South Korea stock market.
The same leadership we’ve already been talking about.
So no, this isn’t about DRAM.
It’s not about definitions.
It’s not about sounding smart at dinner, explaining to your neighbor how Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) is revolutionizing the world.
It’s about flows going into leaders.
Again.
I’m happy for Roundhill, the ETF company that launched this new fund.
They recognized the demand for the so-called DRAM stocks, and they gave the people what they wanted.
You can get all the details in Roundhill’s fact sheet, but I do appreciate how they found a way to get investors access to stocks that had been harder to own, prior to this ETF.
And they seem to have done it at precisely the right time.
More than a billion dollars in assets in just a few weeks. Well done.
The Only Thing That Actually Matters
Twenty years ago it was the Four Horsemen: Google, Research In Motion (Blackberry), Apple, and Amazon.
Everyone had an opinion.
Then came FANG. Then FAANG. Then the Mag 7.
Before all of that, it was the Nifty Fifty. Xerox, Coca-Cola, IBM, Kodak, Polaroid.
And then you had the BRICs.
There’s always a group. This time, they’re calling it DRAM.
But the name never matters.
The only thing that ever matters is whether you are on the right side of the trend.
Price is what pays.
If these stocks are in uptrends, attracting capital, and acting well, I want to be involved.
If they’re not, I don’t care how good the story sounds.
So no, I still don’t know what a DRAM is.
But I know exactly what Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix charts look like.
And I know what the South Korea index looks like. That’s the only part of this story that matters.
Don’t let the DRAM experts make you feel like you’re missing something.
Sometimes not knowing is the edge.
Because when the trend ends – and it always does – the people who fell in love with the story are the last ones to leave.
The ones who just followed price are already gone.
Stay sharp,
JC Parets, CMT
Founder, TrendLabs