📈 The SPAC boom's back end breaks into the 2022 shot clock
Q1 2021 alone raised ~$110B across ~300 SPACs on top of 248 in 2020, many from sponsors Chamath calls 'any random dog and cat'. The back end is where it breaks: PIPEs stop clearing, deals re-trade 20-40% below launch price, sponsors have to post their own money, and the reckoning peaks in the six months into the November 2022 expiration of the two-year shot clocks.
⚖ Why this verdict
fully deterministic — evaluate.py replays this from daily closes; nothing below is editable or hand-set
- Window: 2021-04-01 → 2022-11-01 — first mention + 19-month horizon, then the window locks.
- The call: ▼ SHORT IPO (primary play). IPO fell 55.9% over the window → direction-adjusted R = +55.9% (the call made money).
- Benchmark: holding SPY over the same window returned -1.9%
→ α = +55.9 − (-1.9) = +57.8%
— what this call made or lost against just owning the index. This is the number the verdict uses.
Stock-selection read: +54.0% — did IPO move the predicted way relative to the market. The two only differ on a SHORT: this call beat the index outright.
- Rule fired:
▶ HIT — R ≥ +10% AND α ≥ +5 ✓ (R 55.9, α 57.8)· PARTIAL — R ≥ +5% OR α ≥ 0· MISS — everything else
- Credit: supporters of a HIT earn 1.0 each, opposers the inverse — this feeds the scoreboard weights. supported: Chamath, Friedberg, Jason
Conviction timeline
bands: green ≥ 65 · watch ≥ 45 · ember ≥ 15
Plays vs SPY · % since first mention (2021-04-01)
Plays
| expression | symbol | kind | relevance | rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▼ SHORT | IPO | etf | PRIMARY | Renaissance IPO ETF — the listed basket of the 2020-21 new-issue/de-SPAC cohort; the direct SPAC ETF (SPAK) has since liquidated and returns no yfinance price coverage, so it is deliberately not listed as a play |
| ▼ SHORT | ARKK | etf | adjacent | held most of the speculative de-SPAC cohort in 2021 and trades as the same froth-unwind factor |
Mention log
“And so you're going to see some really crazy behavior, I predict, in November of 2022 ... Like the last six months leading into the expiration of all these Sacks in between now and then, I think the market is really going to hold people accountable.”
“I sent Chamath a note I got this morning from my friend who works at one of the banks and one of the bulge brackets, and they said there was like 50 pipes in the market last week. ... And they think only five of them are going to get done.”
“Anyways, the net net of it all is like, you know, that was very inefficient capital deployment. And as I look at it now, it's like, you know, I'm down. Well, I'm technically up 19%. But that's really because of one deal, if I take that one deal out, which was a total outlier, I'm down 17% on about $200 million of investment. ... And so all these pipes, I'm in the midst of sort of cleaning up and selling down. And they've been just a kind of a disaster for me.”
“Chamath, is it not true that we are seeing a bunch of these SPAC deals and new issuances come out to market with converts attached to them? ... At least that's what I'm hearing from bankers is kind of the rumbling in the SPAC and pipe market right now, is these kind of protective new types of equities that are coming out in order that the investors can kind of keep their mark on their private valuation rounds, but get the company out to public, but the public market is getting a better deal than just straight common equity.”
“Look, it's like bringing Pepto-Bismol to Mexico. If you're worried about an upset stomach, don't go to Mexico. ... The minute that you're trying to wrap all these features around something, the nature of those kinds of features is that it's trying to subsidize what is otherwise not a clear, simple, buyable story at that price. So either change the price or change the company.”
“And just trying to manage risk, and I exited a ton of positions, all my pipes, you know, my third party pipes, I basically sold off except for one. You know, I generated some liquidity in other places as well.”
“It's going to consolidate to the 10 of us that know what we're doing. ... Similarly, SPACs will consolidate around six or seven players and, you know, will do most of the business. ... I've invested a minimum of $100 million in every single deal I've done as a SPAC sponsor.”
“many investors made investments on the basis of those forecasts being to some degree reasonably achievable or likely achievable. And it turns out that in many cases they were not and were not achieved. ... the problem with investing in private companies or speculative companies is that you're investing on the come. And more often than not, that doesn't end up happening.”
Who built this conviction
each voice's total force on the score — supports and opposes from every mention, weighted exactly as the replay applied them · share = % of all mention-driven movement
⏳ decay drained -64.9 over the idea's life — that's time passing, attributed to no one
Score events
| episode | kind | Δ | after | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E28 2021-04-01 | init | +35.2 | 35.2 | E28 born by Chamath (explicit_prediction x3) [w=0.84] |
| E28 2021-04-01 | reinforce | +12.6 | 47.8 | E28 Friedberg support x2 (new voice) [w=0.87] |
| E29 2021-04-17 | decay | -1.0 | 46.9 | E29 silent |
| E30 2021-04-23 | decay | -0.9 | 45.9 | E30 silent |
| E31 2021-05-01 | decay | -0.9 | 45.0 | E31 silent |
| E32 2021-05-13 | decay | -0.9 | 44.1 | E32 silent |
| E33 2021-05-22 | decay | -0.9 | 43.2 | E33 silent |
| E34 2021-05-31 | decay | -0.9 | 42.4 | E34 silent |
| E35 2021-06-13 | decay | -0.8 | 41.5 | E35 silent |
| E36 2021-06-18 | decay | -0.8 | 40.7 | E36 silent |
| E37 2021-06-25 | decay | -0.8 | 39.9 | E37 silent |
| E38 2021-07-03 | decay | -0.8 | 39.1 | E38 silent |
| E39 2021-07-09 | decay | -0.8 | 38.3 | E39 silent |
| E40 2021-07-16 | decay | -0.8 | 37.5 | E40 silent |
| E41 2021-07-23 | decay | -0.8 | 36.8 | E41 silent |
| E42 2021-07-30 | decay | -0.7 | 36.0 | E42 silent |
| E43 2021-08-06 | decay | -0.7 | 35.3 | E43 silent |
| E44 2021-08-28 | decay | -0.7 | 34.6 | E44 silent |
| E45 2021-09-04 | decay | -0.7 | 33.9 | E45 silent |
| E46 2021-09-14 | decay | -0.7 | 33.2 | E46 silent |
| E47 2021-09-18 | decay | -0.7 | 32.6 | E47 silent |
| E49 2021-10-02 | decay | -0.7 | 31.9 | E49 silent |
| E50 2021-10-09 | decay | -0.6 | 31.3 | E50 silent |
| E51 2021-10-16 | decay | -0.6 | 30.7 | E51 silent |
| E52 2021-10-23 | reinforce | +15.2 | 45.8 | E52 Jason support x2 (new voice) [w=0.97] |
| E53 2021-10-30 | decay | -0.9 | 44.9 | E53 silent |
| E54 2021-11-06 | decay | -0.9 | 44.0 | E54 silent |
| E55 2021-11-13 | reinforce | +8.4 | 52.4 | E55 Chamath support x3 [w=0.84] |
| E56 2021-11-20 | decay | -1.0 | 51.4 | E56 silent |
| E57 2021-12-04 | reinforce | +6.3 | 57.7 | E57 Friedberg support x2 [w=0.87] |
| E57 2021-12-04 | reinforce | +5.3 | 63.0 | E57 Chamath support x2 [w=0.84] |
| E58 2021-12-11 | reinforce | +5.4 | 68.4 | E58 Jason support x2 [w=0.97] |
| E59 2021-12-17 | decay | -1.4 | 67.0 | E59 silent |
| E60 2021-12-23 | decay | -1.3 | 65.7 | E60 silent |
| E61 2021-12-29 | decay | -1.3 | 64.4 | E61 silent |
| E62 2022-01-08 | reinforce | +5.4 | 69.8 | E62 Chamath support x3 [w=0.84] |
| E63 2022-01-15 | decay | -1.4 | 68.4 | E63 silent |
| E64 2022-01-22 | decay | -1.4 | 67.0 | E64 silent |
| E65 2022-01-29 | decay | -1.3 | 65.7 | E65 silent |
| E66 2022-02-05 | decay | -1.3 | 64.3 | E66 silent |
| E67 2022-02-12 | decay | -1.3 | 63.1 | E67 silent |
| E68 2022-02-19 | decay | -1.3 | 61.8 | E68 silent |
| E70 2022-02-24 | decay | -1.2 | 60.6 | E70 silent |
| E71 2022-03-05 | decay | -1.2 | 59.3 | E71 silent |
| E72 2022-03-19 | decay | -1.2 | 58.2 | E72 silent |
| E73 2022-03-26 | decay | -1.2 | 57.0 | E73 silent |
| E74 2022-04-01 | reinforce | +6.5 | 63.5 | E74 Chamath support x3 [w=0.84] |
| E74 2022-04-01 | reinforce | +4.7 | 68.2 | E74 Friedberg support x2 [w=0.87] |
| E75 2022-04-09 | decay | -1.4 | 66.9 | E75 silent |
| E76 2022-04-16 | decay | -1.3 | 65.5 | E76 silent |
| E77 2022-04-23 | decay | -1.3 | 64.2 | E77 silent |
| E78 2022-04-30 | decay | -1.3 | 62.9 | E78 silent |
| E79 2022-05-07 | decay | -1.3 | 61.7 | E79 silent |
| E80 2022-05-13 | decay | -1.2 | 60.4 | E80 silent |
| E81 2022-05-23 | decay | -1.2 | 59.2 | E81 silent |
| E82 2022-05-24 | decay | -1.2 | 58.0 | E82 silent |
| E84 2022-06-24 | decay | -1.2 | 56.9 | E84 silent |
| E85 2022-06-30 | decay | -1.1 | 55.7 | E85 silent |
| E86 2022-07-08 | decay | -1.1 | 54.6 | E86 silent |
| E87 2022-07-14 | decay | -1.1 | 53.5 | E87 silent |
| E88 2022-07-22 | decay | -1.1 | 52.5 | E88 silent |
| E89 2022-07-29 | decay | -1.0 | 51.4 | E89 silent |
| E90 2022-08-05 | decay | -1.0 | 50.4 | E90 silent |
| E91 2022-08-13 | decay | -1.0 | 49.4 | E91 silent |
| E92 2022-08-20 | decay | -1.0 | 48.4 | E92 silent |
| E93 2022-08-26 | decay | -1.0 | 47.4 | E93 silent |
| E94 2022-09-01 | decay | -0.9 | 46.5 | E94 silent |
| E95 2022-09-10 | decay | -0.9 | 45.5 | E95 silent |
| E96 2022-09-17 | reinforce | +5.7 | 51.2 | E96 Friedberg support x1 [w=0.87] |
| E96 2022-09-17 | oppose | -10.1 | 41.2 | E96 Chamath opposes x2 [w=0.84] |
| E97 2022-09-23 | reinforce | +7.6 | 48.8 | E97 Friedberg support x2 [w=0.87] |
| E97 2022-09-23 | reinforce | +7.7 | 56.5 | E97 Chamath support x3 (flipped from oppose) [w=0.84] |
| E98 2022-10-01 | decay | -1.1 | 55.4 | E98 silent |
| E99 2022-10-07 | decay | -1.1 | 54.3 | E99 silent |
| E100 2022-10-14 | decay | -1.1 | 53.2 | E100 silent |
| E101 2022-10-22 | decay | -1.1 | 52.1 | E101 silent |
| E102 2022-10-29 | decay | -1.0 | 51.1 | E102 silent |