Advertising platform provider The Trade Desk joins the S&P 500. Smartphone broker Robinhood comes away empty-handed again.

$TTD (-5,03 %) will be included in the S&P 500 before the start of trading next Friday, replacing the shares of the software company $ANSS that is about to be taken over by $SNPS (-12,42 %) is about to be taken over by This was announced by the index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Shares in The Trade Desk rose by 14.68% to USD 86.50 in after-hours trading in response to the news.

Robinhood remains on the sidelines

The shares of the smartphone broker $HOOD (-9,88 %) was passed over for inclusion in the S&P 500 index for the third time in just a few weeks. At the beginning of June, Robinhood shares were not included in the index as part of a regular index review, although the company met all the criteria and many market participants had expected it to be included. At the beginning of July, Robinhood shares were also not included in the S&P 500 in an irregular index adjustment due to the takeover of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, but Datadog shares were.

Even now, there would have been many arguments in favor of Robinhood's inclusion in the S&P 500. The fintech meets the profitability and liquidity criteria for inclusion in the S&P 500 and, at USD 88 billion, has a market capitalization more than twice as high as The Trade Desk at around USD 37 billion. Robinhood is therefore also one of the largest companies not yet represented in the index. In recent months, Robinhood has recorded exceptionally strong share price momentum: since the beginning of the year, the share price has risen by 168%, while The Trade Desk has lost more than 35% in the same period. Robinhood's growing importance in the retail brokerage sector and the high level of trading activity in the share could also have been arguments in favor of Robinhood's inclusion in the index.

Although the composition of the S&P 500 is based on the market capitalization of companies in addition to formal criteria such as trading volume and profitability, the index committee has leeway when including new shares in this important index. Reasons for Robinhood's non-inclusion could be that the share has recently been very volatile and the company has been in the headlines several times due to regulatory violations and disputes with the US financial regulator FINRA.

With the inclusion of The Trade Desk in the S&P 500, a stock that has been weakening since the beginning of the year has received a tailwind, while Robinhood was once again overlooked despite its significantly higher market capitalization.

Background

In January 2024, Synopsys announced $SNPS (-12,42 %) announced that it would acquire Ansys $ANSS for 35 billion US dollars. The deal means that each Ansys shareholder will receive 197 US dollars and 0.345 Synopsys shares for each Ansys share held. After I became aware of this acquisition, I wrote a post on April 29, 2025 in which I pointed out the percentage difference between the then current price of Ansys stock and the sum of the price of 0.345 shares of Synopsys and the $197. That was about a 10% difference at the time. I joined Ansys as an experiment.

Today it was announced that the Chinese market regulator has granted the decisive approval for the acquisition under certain conditions. According to Reuters Synopsys and Ansys plan to finalize the acquisition on Thursday.

finance.yahoo.com please click on image for full view

Since the end of April, Ansys shares (blue) have significantly outperformed the MSCI World (purple).

What I have learned:

• I didn't have the expertise to assess whether the takeover would take place as planned.

• Not a simple, safe trade: The Ansys and Synopsys share price was very volatile.

• I underestimated the US-China risk in relation to the crucial approval of the Chinese competition authority.

• Timing is crucial: If I had entered in January, I would not have made any profits.

Disclaimer

This is not investment advice. These are personal assessments that cannot replace professional advice. You can find the detailed and complete stock analysis on my free substack (link in profile).

Conclusion

To summarize, I had more luck than sense. The composition of the deal was also relatively opaque and complicated. Personally, I will refrain from such short-term trades from now on.

$SNPS (-12,42 %) Synopsys announced in January 2024 $ANSS to acquire Ansys for 35 billion. Under the terms of the deal, each Ansys shareholder will receive $197 and 0.345 Synopsys shares per share. The current share price of Ansys is $302.74 and of Synopsys $413.32.

At the current price, this would mean: $197 + 0.345*$413.32 = $339.6 per Ansys share.

However, the current Ansys share price is $302.74. That is about 12% difference. The European and British competition authorities have already approved the deal. The takeover is planned for the first half of 2025.

How certain is it that the takeover will take place and that Synopsys will not pull out? Wouldn't it be smart to trade it? What do you think?

I would like to refer once again to the acquisition of

$ANSS by $SNPS (-12,42 %)

once again.

And I think that there is still enormous potential here.

What is your opinion on this?

https://www.simulationworld.com/?utm_campaign=brand&utm_medium=demand-gen&utm_source=google-dg&utm_content=digital_sim-world-2024_cnpr09lo_event-virtual_register_demand-gen_1a_en_global&campaignid=701Pf000007rK4bIAE&utm_source=google&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_term=&campaignid=&creative=695101364061&keyword=&matchtype=&network=&device=m&s_kwcid=AL!17240!3!695101364061!!!!!&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw57exBhAsEiwAaIxaZiN8exWWAdZqmLx-gVcdb7tA8HvGu3m4imvJFvhIhlCWlOGRDwTmORoCvDsQAvD_BwE

Hello everyone,

I am more than satisfied with the performance of my portfolio this year!

I was in the discovery phase for a long time as far as my strategy is concerned and I have certainly lost some returns due to some back and forth. The back and forth was mainly due to a steady increase in knowledge. I have learned a lot this year, particularly in the area of share valuation (DCF, fair value, trading comps) (and of course some gambling). With this additional knowledge, I also had to rethink some positions that I would certainly not have included in my portfolio today.

I am pretty sure that my approach of buying absolute quality companies at good prices will work out in the future.

That's why I want to focus my portfolio even more in the future!

For new additions to the portfolio I have $SNPS (-12,42 %)
$CDNS (-9,81 %)
$ANSS
$CPRT (-1,21 %)
$CTAS (-2,8 %) and $RACE (-3,78 %) at the top of my watch list. If something happens here that drives the valuation down significantly, I would like to buy it.

What are your top quality companies?

LG

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 🗞️

𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗸𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗣𝗢 / 𝗭𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗻𝗴 / 𝗥𝗮𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗞𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 / 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻-𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀

𝗜𝗣𝗢𝘀 🔔

Rivian - The electric vehicle startup, which is 20 percent owned by Amazon ($AMZ (-5,92 %)), is seeking $8.4 billion in funding by going public. That would make it the third-largest IPO in the U.S. in the last decade. This would give Rivian a valuation of $53 billion and would be almost as big as Honda ($HDM (-1,73 %)). A share is expected to cost between $57 and $62.

As recently as October, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, which is building a brand of electric SUVs and pickups alongside that production.

𝗘𝘅-𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 📅

As of today, Armstrong World Industries ($91A (-1,19 %)), Banco Bradesco ($BRE (-4 %)), Banco Santander (Mexico) ($BSMX), Cambridge Bancorp ($CATC), Fomento Económico Mexicano ($FOMC (-2,41 %)), Hess Midstream ($HESM), Hope Bancorp. ($NRB (-4,5 %)), NextEra Energy ($1NG), S&T Bancorp, Inc. ($STBA) and WSFS Financial Corporation ($WSFS (-3,69 %)) traded ex-dividend.

𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀𝘇𝗮𝗵𝗹𝗲𝗻 📈

Things are really busy again, so here are the main companies presenting their figures today. Today, Acerinox ($ACE1 (-5,81 %)), Ansys ($AKX), BMW ($BMW (-2,64 %)), Geberit AG ($GBRA (-1,11 %)), Klöckner & Co ($KCO (-4,25 %)), Lufthansa ($LHA (-2,02 %)), Marriott International ($MAQ (-3,51 %)), MetLife ($MWZ (-3,2 %)), Norma Group ($NOEJ (+0,4 %)), Novo Nordisk ($NOVC), Qualcomm ($QCI (-8,32 %)), Raiffeisen ($RAW (-1,08 %)), Teamviewer ($TMV (-3,29 %)) and Zalando ($ZAL (-4,18 %)) presented their figures.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 🏛️

Fed - The Federal Reserve holds its interest rate meeting today, at which the U.S. central bank is likely to announce a cut in its bond-buying program. Therefore, speculation of a possible rate hike next year is already in the room.

In the run-up, the markets present themselves in a very positive mood and continue to be on a strong course. According to analyst Jochen Stanzl of CMC Markets, this monetary policy change no longer represents a supporting burden for the stock markets. The reason for this is the consistently very positive quarterly figures.

Lufthansa ($LHA (-2,02 %)) - In the third quarter, Deutsche Lufthansa almost doubled its revenue and returned to operating profit since the beginning of the crisis. Revenue rose 96 percent to 5.2 billion euros in the months from July to September. Adjusted loss before interest and taxes narrowed to 17 million from 1.262 billion in the same period last year. It was a "milestone" out of the crisis, said Group CEO Carsten Spohr. The Group expects to be able to continue increasing its sales in the full year 2021.

𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 💎

El Salvador - The country plans to build 20 new "Bitcoin Schools" from the surplus of El Salvador's Bitcoin Trust. After another bitcoin purchase of 420 BTC ($BTC-EUR (+0,02 %)), the government currently holds 1,120 BTC in its Bitcoin Trust account. Back in mid-October, President Nayib Bukele announced spending four million US dollars from the Bitcoin trust on a new veterinary hospital.

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