Why GNUS is back stronger than ever in 2021

From the 11ish archive: written in July 2021. Prices, numbers and views are from then and are not investment advice today.

You know when the market goes into uncertainty, I tend to start looking back into speculative trades instead. In this post, let’s talk about why I favor them a bit more than usual right now, a couple of them that I’m looking at and why my favorite one is still Genius Brand.

I have long and swing trading portfolios, which means I tend to look at investment opportunities that involve holding 2 months or more. This strategy has helped me consistently beat the S&P year over year, but I’ve noticed through trading that when the market gets volatile, the more predictable stocks are actually the speculative ones.

The reason is that speculative trades don’t usually move with the market. Big firms aren’t invested in it because it’s too much risk, and retail investors are less likely to make knee-jerk reactions due to market conditions because market conditions are not the reason why they invested in speculative stocks in the first place.

So when market adjustments happen, the Amazons, Googles and Walmarts all move in relative unison. Meanwhile, most worthwhile speculative investments, usually in future tech or speculative pharma, are doing their own thing on their own news cycles and volatility curves.

So that’s why. Now at the end of this post I’m going to talk about a handful of speculative companies I’m currently looking at. There aren’t that many because ultimately I’m very careful with my money and for the most part, I’d rather park in cash than to spray and pray. But in this post, I want to talk about GNUS again. First and foremost, this COVID delta variant can easily manifest into a shutdown again, so that can help stocks like remote productivity, digital streaming, and home exercise (ie. PTON) explode again.

Since I last talked about them, the stock, for my intents and purposes, hasn’t gone anywhere, and meanwhile they’ve done a shit ton of equity gathering and value building.

GNUS is essentially a one-of-a-kind children’s network with educational content backed by star power, through and through. Not only do they have veterans RUNNING the company, they also have veterans doing the shows too.

For example, their CEO was part of the management that powers thousands of shows on all the grandfather children networks. They’ve brought a nationally recognized psychiatrist with 40 years of experience to their board so that their children’s content has the correct focus. They hired the same content writer that did SpongeBob to their team for obvious reasons, their executive president is the bloody president and founding member of Fox Kids, for fajita’s sake. I grew up on Fox Kids!!!

Then you have a show starring Arnold, a show starring Jessica Biel, one starring Shaq, and one starring THE Warren Buffett. If it sounds like I’m in love with this company, I truly am. The fact that the management team can pull this much star power together as a unit and face the same direction is an impressive feat in itself. Now Genius Brands just recently announced that they’ve been making great progress growing both revenue AND viewership AND they’re joining the RUSSELL 3000. Slowly but surely they’re building up their foundation and cementing legitimacy.

One of the biggest reasons I think this company has hidden value is because regular adults are investing in a stock that’s about children’s content. I dare say, most regular adults don’t understand children’s content and find that stuff annoying as hell. But the fact of the matter is regular scheduled TV content for children is the business model of the past. Content streaming, whether it’s for adults or kids is the future. You pair that with content that educates your kids on financial freedom, STEAM, self-empowerment, and diversity… I truly believe they have the right team to carry out what the future of children’s content should be. Best case scenario, Genius Brands becomes a household name. Worst case scenario, they eventually get bought out by Disney. Win win for us investors.

Now the biggest risk I keep highlighting in my videos about GNUS is that this is still in fact a penny stock. The swings are humongous so what I’d tell you is invest in GNUS the way you might invest in cryptocurrency. Like it’s a believable gamble but if you lost the money, you aren’t going to be pissed.

The 2nd risk I want to highlight is that this company is known to capitalize on stock price growth. They start raising money like crazy when the stock price goes past what it should be and they’ve done this enough to have acquired a very very juicy cash position. I think it’s a good thing for the company, because it gives them equity to hire, develop, and build partnerships. But for us stockholders, you better be willing to sit tight cause that can very well temporarily tank the stock price.

The 3rd risk is that this stock is flagged by a lot of reputable brokerage firms. This means you need an additional layer of authentication of ARE YOU SURE?!?! before you can invest in GNUS. This is naturally a turn off for retail investors and so don’t expect crazy action on this stock.

The final thought I want to share with you about this stock is that this stock is so undervalued, I think the reward is very high, but so is the risk. So do NOT put all your eggs in one basket.

Some additional speculative companies I’m looking at are e-gaming companies like Allied Esports Entertainment (AESE), Royalty Pharma, Nokia, and of course GNUS.

If you’re interested in me writing about any of them or you have your own stocks in mind let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to working with you next time.

~Steve

Disclosure: As of October 3, 2026, the author holds TOON (Genius Brands, now Kartoon Studios). No payment was received for this post. This is commentary from July 2021, not investment advice.