Merlin is a 100x-or-bankrupt opportunity, too binary to invest in personally despite liking Merlin and Matt. Shield AI and Anduril are focused on defense right now, but it makes sense for them to go after the commercial sector eventually with proven tech, and more competitors are targeting cargo. The stock should rebound once high-beta names come back into favor. x.com 

Merlin Labs common stock is in a death spiral toward zero because preferred holders and shorts hold the upper hand. Equity raises have no limit and the preferred ranks senior to the common, so fundamental analysis does not matter. @ShawarmaCapital, a former bull, attributes the fall from $17 to $1.81 to a roughly 44M-share unlock on a thin float, a Series A Preferred conversion reset on October 15 already headed for its $5 floor, and an unwinding short squeeze. x.com  x.com 

Merlin could squeeze sharply because about 72% of the float is short in a low-float de-SPAC positioned in AI and military spending, two of the decade's biggest themes. The float should stay dried up until late May or June, raising the question of whether it can reach $30 or even $50. x.com 

Merlin's long-term competitive moat is questionable, because companies like Anduril, Boeing or Lockheed Martin could build similar technology in-house instead of paying Merlin for it. The stock is a falling knife; a break of the downtrend would help, and landing a big new partner or contract could break the trend short term, but the long-term fundamentals remain the concern. x.com  x.com 

SpaceX looks frothy at 229x next-twelve-month EPS, yet many retail investors see no difference between it, Marvell at 45x and Micron at 6x, treating all of them as momentum growth stocks. That is relevant to recent market action in both directions. The businesses deserve different multiples, and Marvell also looks expensive. x.com  x.com 

Merlin Labs' real-time short interest has hit an all-time high of 4.6M shares with the borrow rate still around 37%, building the supply setup further. Short interest has climbed steadily from 3.1M on May 21, even though PIPE holders became free to sell when the resale registration went effective April 17. x.com 

SpaceX is not a buy yet because its valuation is sky-high at about 64.5 times annualized sales. Per the quoted post, investing in many companies with such multiples, like Snowflake, Palantir and DJT, has historically led to poor performance, so valuation metrics matter even for innovative companies. x.com 

Penguin Solutions' price may be getting ahead of fundamentals, so it is now on a do-not-chase list. The stock has kept pumping, partly on retail hype from subscription sellers, and trades near 100x earnings after breaking out of a three-year consolidation range. It can keep running on hype alone. x.com 

Merlin's deal with Israel Aerospace Industries adds credibility and a distribution path, though not revenue, and kills the argument that there is no large-aircraft market, per @ShawarmaCapital. IAI did $7.4B of revenue last year, holds a roughly $29B backlog and leads passenger-to-freighter conversions, owning the only approved 777 widebody conversion in service. There is certainly a future market for large civil aircraft. x.com 

SpaceX at 100 times sales is not a winning entry: buyers at $225 last week are already suffering. x.com