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Stone SPAC Crazy … Come On!

Welcome to Reader Feedback day, Great Ones!

Today is all about you! Not that every day at Great Stuff isn’t about you … I mean, whom else do I write for here?

I guess I could just let all these song lyrics, market information, stock investing research and pop culture references rattle around in my brain like peanuts. But what fun would that be?

Anyway, today we answer your questions on Decarbonization Plus Acquisition (Nasdaq: DCRB) options — yes, SPAC options! — robotic surgeries, the SAFE Banking Act and the early ‘90s industrial band Ministry … of all things.

If you want to get in on the fun next week (you’re clearly too late to make today’s issue, unless you’re a time traveler), just drop us a line at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com. (See? No Arlo Guthrie this time around…)

And now for our featured presentation:

Good Afternoon, Mr. Great Stuff,

Hey, I have a question concerning the recommended DCRB SPAC. I am looking at buying call options on this to leverage a little more than I would be able to by just buying stock. What happens to the options? Do they convert? Do they disappear into the oblivion of the internet? WHAT HAPPENS!!! 

On a less intense note, thanks for the daily emails. They were the highlight of my day almost every day last year.  Have a Great Day — RC

Options on a SPAC? RC, you mad lad you! Thanks for writing in.

There are a couple of things to unpack here. First, when a SPAC finally merges with its target acquisition, its ticker changes to the new company automatically. We established that one last month.

Options are a bit trickier, but only because your brokerage firm makes it that way.

In most instances, when a SPAC merger takes place, any options on that SPAC automatically convert to the new stock.

So, when DCRB finally merges with Hyzon Motors, any put or call options you have open on DCRB will automatically roll over to Hyzon’s new ticker.

Easy peasy, right? Well, not always.

A few brokerage firms will actually close out all existing SPAC options when the merger goes through. So, regardless of whether you’re at a profit or a loss on your SPAC option position, the brokerage closes that trade, and you would need to open a new trade with the new ticker.

This is obviously bad news bears. Sitting on a loss in your DCRB call option, but you were banking on a sharp post-merger rally? Sorry, pal. You’re outta luck.

Unfortunately, the only advice I can give on this front is the boring ol’ “You need to talk to your broker to find out how they handle SPAC options.”

I have a feeling, though, that as SPACs become more popular, the “automatically convert” method will become the norm. Until then, call your broker … they miss you!

Thanks again, RC and good luck with those DCRB options. We’re in the second quarter now, so Great Stuff Picks readers are just waiting for Hyzon Motors to announce the official merger date. And then it’s off to the races!

Of course, you have much simpler options to start, well, trading options.

Mike Carr just released a brand-new video where he reveals how he beat the S&P 500 by a factor of eight last year using one simple trade at a time. Better yet, each trade was exactly the same. You can literally place this same trade every week.

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Great Stuff Reader Feedback

If you don’t see your email below, you might’ve cursed a tad too much. Or, you know, you never wrote in to begin with! Let’s fix that for next week’s Reader Feedback, shall we?Another Thursday, another shot at Reader Feedback Greatness! Let’s see what y’all were up to this week. Spoiler alert: Robosurgeons beat out regular non-robot-assisted surgeons every single time, according to y’all. (Sorry, Dr. Bob from last week.)

Drop us a line with your teeming thoughts and steaming rants right here: GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com.

Bionic Trendsetter

Just wanted to share that I had mitral valve repair in 2010 at the Cleveland Clinic via the DaVinci machine. No ripping my chest open, a couple of small slits in the right side of my chest, up walking the next day, and I was out of the hospital in two-and-a-half days. Never felt any pain.  

Had to do a lot of research to find that Cleveland Clinic had been doing these surgeries for the longest in the USA (not many other places in the USA at that time were doing them) and so glad I found them. I was almost ready to go to India for robotic surgery as I did not want my chest to be split open with many, many months of recovery. Would do robotic surgery again in a heartbeat (pun intended).

Anthony A.

P.S. I have a lifetime membership in Banyan Hill and love everything I get from all the contributors, even though it takes me hours to get through all my email on a daily basis. I am up 200% in my portfolio even with the sell-off in the last few weeks (was up 300%). I absolutely love Banyan Hill. Thank you for your contribution.

From what I’ve trawled through online (I don’t often go hunting down surgeries, you see), it’s still a bit of a search to find a place with a DaVinci machine from Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG).

But, like I said yesterday, the company’s hellbent on shipping out more scalpel-wielding surgeonbots this year as (hopefully) fewer hospital/clinic resources are dedicated to the pandemic fight. And it’s just a chain reaction of word-to-mouth sales hype — at least if the rest of the medtech industry is anything to go by.

I guarantee, once you have a bunch of people with positive stories like yours asking their docs about robosurgery, the buzz for Intuitive’s machines only builds. Intuitive’s sales squadrons need only capitalize on that growing hype and clinical acceptance, and it sounds like they’re doing a bang-up job as it is, judging from this quarter’s report.

Prostate Service Announcement

I did have the pleasure (?) of being worked on by the Da Vinci Robo. Prostate cancer: It happens to two out of three men over 60. Choices: surgery, radiation, chemo, cryogenic (really!), others. I (we, spouse included in the decision) chose surgery — laparoscopic/robotic.

The doctor was outstanding. Short version: In the hospital at 10 a.m., operation about 1 p.m., awake about 5 p.m., walking around about 6 p.m. and most of the night (all-afternoon nap, I guess), left the hospital 9:55 a.m. next day.

Six tiny holes the size of a pencil; doctor says I lost about one TEASPOON of blood! No real pain afterward. I think I took some Tylenol the first day. He is a great urologist and has done hundreds of these, so I was convinced. It’s been two years, and still doing great.

Yes, “I’m a believer, now I won’t leave her, earlier than planned.” Lesson: Get your PSA checked!! And now I may wait for a dip after the 10% pop and “Give a Little” to ISRG. Later,cb.

Congrats on your recovery, cb! I usually lose about a teaspoon of blood just from the little savages that are my cats. (Turns out they didn’t like the AirTags idea.) Between you and Anthony, I’m kinda sold on the Intuitive tech — since when do you hear people rave about surgeries?

It’s at this point I’m realizing that this probably sounds like a paid spot by Intuitive, but trust me, it ain’t. I’m just impressed these DaVincis can operate on a grape (it’s honestly the only surgery video I can watch without puking). And if it’s good enough for grape-based patient clientele, it’s good enough for me.

Oh, stock-wise? You’re on the money: I’d wait a little while for ISRG to digest its recent gains and superstardom if you’re looking to buy in.

A pullback to the $800 to $820 area would be the ideal buying op for you — should ISRG tread that low amid the ongoing volatility. That level is home to the December and January highs and was the stock’s prior technical resistance. If that doesn’t hold as support, ISRG bulls are in trouble.

Congressional Regression

The SAFE banking act pass with this Congress. They couldn’t find their butts with both hands, let alone find the bill to vote on it and if they did, someone would see Jesus and vote “no” or something; things are tight in Congress.

Did you ever stop to think as a mom-and-pop store that the owners ran the business themselves part-time? Cheers,John M.

See Jesus? Dude … you really are a Great One. I love it.

Now, as for your question on mom-and-pop store owners … yes, I think about them all the time. My grandfather ran a family grocery store when I was growing up, and I have several friends who run craft breweries in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area.

I’m well aware of the impact that current events are having on small businesses. And … while all of them realize that reopening would be the optimal route for them personally, they also are torn about reopening for public health reasons.

They’re doing what they can to survive. It’s painful. I get it. I see it firsthand. What irks me is exactly what we talked about with the SAFE Banking Act. Congress just doesn’t get it. If you’re going to allow states to make something legal, the banking system should follow suit.

Similarly, if you are going to force businesses to close by government mandate — for the public good — you should compensate them enough so that the mandate doesn’t affect their business. But we all know that didn’t/won’t happen.

Anyway, there’s no real investing takeaway here … just a rant. So, thanks, John M. I appreciate the opportunity to blow off a bit of steam.

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

I got you, bro. Maybe Musk can employ “Just One Fix” and get the media off his back. AJ

Soon I discovered … that this investing thing was true. Elon Musk was the devil. Mr. Great Stuff was an architect previous to his career as a prophet. All of a sudden, I found myself in love with Reader Feedback … so there was only one thing I could do…

Was rant away along with all of y’all Great Ones. Anyway, shout-out to you and Steven S. out there representing the industrial side of the Stuff entourage. There are dozens of us, I swear.

What’s on your mind today? Send it along to GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com! Oh, and thanks to all y’all who wrote in today. Your messages are the real Greatness each and every week.

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Until next time, stay Great!

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff