Gun Stocks

I don’t know why I care about this.  I guess because I’m interested in what moves stock prices, narratives invented around stock prices, and how things get reported?

This effect seems to me to be exaggerated.

Motley Fool notes:

The market for firearms is highly fragmented, with many names — Glock, Colt, Beretta  — privately owned, located abroad, or both. This can making investing in guns tricky. One of the easiest ways for an investor to gain exposure to this market, though, is through buying shares of industry leader American Outdoor Brands.

American Outdoor Brands is a nicer name than “Smith & Wesson”

Yesterday they were up 3.21%.

I asked a financial friend if he thought that was significant:

3%? Not very

The other big gun stock is Sturm, Ruger – RGR.

Yesterday they were up 3.48%.  Today they’re up another 1.78%.

Is that meaningful?  Maybe?  A tiny bit?

Soaring?

There is an initial burst in stock price immediately when trading opened, but that was mostly corrected by the end of the day.

Why do we tell ourselves this story?

I guess because it’s shocking these companies aren’t at all harmed when their product or a competitor’s products are used to shoot hundreds of people.

We tell this story because it’s twisted and we like twisted stories.

Even the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund owns a buncha gun stock: