PERFORMANCE RECAP - THE DISRUPTIVE INVESTOR
Dear subscriber,
Before the review that follows, please take a moment to examine what The Disruptive Investor’s selection process has produced since going live on Substack on March 12, 2026.
The table below serves a single purpose: accountability.
Each position was entered at a documented price, with a stated price target, before the market had a chance to deliver its verdict. The record is public, every entry is timestamped, and the sequence is exactly as it unfolded: unedited, in real time.
Some of you already know the exact names that are in the full selection. You are already in. If this is where you want to be, one click below is all it takes.
THE WEEK THAT PULLED IN THREE DIRECTIONS
Three events shaped the past ten days. They pull in different directions.
THE SHOCK AND THE SIGNAL. On Friday, June 5, the May Non-Farm Payrolls report delivered a blowout: 172,000 jobs added against an expectation of 85,000, with prior months revised up by a combined 93,000.
As a result, December rate hike probabilities surged to 63% and the Nasdaq recorded its worst single-day loss since April 2025 during the session. The crowd read it as a structural break. The underlying signal disagreed.
As detailed in the note The Pullback That Wasn’t, momentum quietly refused to confirm the price lows: the 4-hour RSI on the Nasdaq 100 touched a zone that has preceded a recovery 13 times out of 13 in recent history. A textbook bullish divergence, confirmed by improving market internals at the end of last week.
Furthermore, history added another bullish layer: the March-to-May nine-week advance ranks among the 20 strongest since 1950, and 19 of those 20 episodes delivered a positive one-year forward return. Strong runs of that caliber rarely mark the top. They mark the start.
Core CPI, released separately on June 11 reinforced the bullish scenario. Printed at +0.2% month-over-month, versus the +0.3% the market was bracing for, the most feared trigger for additional Fed tightening simply did not materialize. Rate-hike odds receded within minutes.
SPACEX WENT PUBLIC ON THE NASDAQ. On Friday, June 12, the company raised $75 billion at $135 per share: the largest initial public offering in financial history, eclipsing Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion record from 2019.
The stock opened at $150 and closed its first day at $160.95, a gain of 19%, lifting the market capitalization above $2.1 trillion. Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. SpaceX is expected to enter the Nasdaq-100 within weeks under a new fast-track eligibility rule.
The message for investors: the market is assigning disproportionately high valuations to companies building the infrastructure of the next decade.
AN IRAN PEACE DEAL IS TAKING SHAPE. Pakistan’s Prime Minister confirmed a “final, agreed upon” text of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding, with the signing of a ceasefire expected within days.
The Strait of Hormuz would reopen immediately upon signing. Brent crude has already fallen 3.4% to $87.35 per barrel, its lowest level since the onset of the conflict. Further oil declines from here are probable.
Lower energy costs, softer inflation, and a Federal Reserve likely to prove more dovish than the market currently fears: the macro backdrop is shifting in a favorable direction.
What follows is a brief review of each Disruptive Investor holding: what happened, and where the thesis stands.
Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI — $169.05): +57.3% | upside +120.1%
The week was volatile. On June 9, a bearish report from SemiAnalysis alleged delays in co-packaged optics deployment, sending AAOI down 17% in a single session and dragging the entire optical networking sector lower.
The stock recovered most of the ground within 24 hours. Raymond James reaffirmed its Outperform rating after direct discussions with the CFO; Rosenblatt raised its price target to $220; Needham lifted its target to $190.
A separate independent research piece published the same week made the counterargument directly: co-packaged optics is proceeding on schedule, and the SemiAnalysis report is factually incorrect. The Disruptive Investor's $372 target remains in place. Upside: +120.1%.
Bloom Energy (BE — $260.22): +47.3% | upside +102.1%
Bloom Energy's AI data center thesis is being validated contract by contract. The backlog now stands at roughly $20 billion, anchored by a master capacity agreement with Nebius worth up to $2.6 billion and a partnership with Oracle to deploy up to 2.8 gigawatts of fuel-cell power.
Management confirmed the build-out is fully self-funded: zero equity dilution required. Daiwa upgraded the stock to Outperform with a $324 target; UBS raised its target to $322; Morgan Stanley maintained Overweight at $310.
Bloom Energy is among the candidates discussed for S&P 500 inclusion. The $526 price target remains our stated destination. Upside: +102.1%.
Planet Labs (PL — $31.15): -2.1% | upside +119.9%
Planet Labs secured a $22 million NGA contract extension alongside a new crisis-response monitoring award. The Pelican-11 satellite shipped to Vandenberg Space Force Base for a SpaceX rideshare launch.
Planet Labs joins the Russell 3000 on June 29. The stock remains under mild pressure from a $1.5 billion at-the-market equity offering filed in early June, an instrument designed to finance the next-generation Pelican constellation.
The SpaceX IPO is resetting the valuation framework for the entire space sector. Planet Labs, with the only fully commercial satellite constellation at scale and confirmed government contract flow, stands to benefit from that repricing. The $68.50 price target stands unchanged, representing an upside of +119.9%.
Paid subscribers: eight additional picks, upsides ranging from +109.6% to +543.4%. The full analysis follows.