The VI Stack curriculum

In March 2020, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell to 0.

Worked example: ARK Innovation ETF — 2021–2023 repricing — 10Y yield 0.5% → 4.2% drove a 75% drawdown without earnings collapse; pure duration shock

In October 2008, the spread between investment-grade corporate bonds and US Treasury yields reached 620 basis points — the widest since the Great Depression.

Worked example: US credit spreads — 2022 cycle — IG peaked 170bps / HY peaked 590bps despite the fastest Fed tightening in 40 years; spreads correctly signalled "repricing, not credit crisis"

When Wells Fargo's net interest margin compressed from 5.

Worked example: Silicon Valley Bank — March 2023

In 2022, the fastest Federal Reserve hiking cycle in 40 years compressed the S&P 500 P/E ratio from roughly 24x to 17x — not because earnings fell, but because the discount rate applied to future earnings normalized from near zero to 4%-plus, and valuations built on ZIRP-era...

Worked example: Zoom Video Communications — the 2022 discount rate collapse

General Mills' gross margin fell from 35.

Worked example: General Mills vs. Colgate-Palmolive — the 2021–2023 pricing power gap

Macro 04 — Knowledge Centre

Worked example: US energy sector — the HY blow-out of 2015–16

When you buy shares in a company that earns revenue in a foreign currency, you are making two investments at once: one in the business, and one in the exchange rate — and most investors only research one of them.

Worked example: �� Procter & Gamble — 2014–2015

Between June 2014 and January 2016, the oil price fell from $115 to $28 per barrel.

Worked example: Delta Air Lines — the 2014–2016 oil crash

In 2007, with the Baltic Dry Index averaging 7,070 points for the year and briefly touching 11,793 in May 2008 — its highest level in recorded history — dry bulk shipowners placed orders for new vessels at a pace that would add more than 50% to the existing global fleet.

Worked example: Dry bulk shipping — 2004–2016

In March 2022, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points — the first increase since December 2018.

Worked example: S&P 500 — 2022 hiking cycle — Fed Funds 0.25% → 5.50% in 16 months, long-duration tech multiples compressed 75–80% as discount rates repriced

Between 1999 and 2002, the US economy went through a recession triggered by the collapse of the technology bubble.

Worked example: The COVID cycle — 2020–2023

In January 2000, the S&P 500 traded at 32 times trailing earnings.

Worked example: Microsoft — 2013–2019

In November 2006, a private equity consortium paid $44 billion to take Clear Channel Communications private.

Worked example: Anheuser-Busch InBev — 2016

In 1998, Enron reported net income of $703 million.

Worked example: Apple — 2013–2023

In March 2009, Bank of America traded at $3.

Worked example: Berkshire Hathaway — 1965–2023

In January 1972, Blue Chip Stamps proposed paying $25 million for See's Candies — a California chocolate business with $4.

Worked example: Coca-Cola — 1988–2023

In 1986, two American steel producers faced identical industry conditions: falling domestic demand, intensifying competition from low-cost foreign producers, and steel prices that made profitable operation nearly impossible except at the top of the cycle.

Worked example: Five moat types — five companies, one decade

In the summer of 2011, Coca-Cola raised the price of a case of Coke by approximately 4% across its primary North American markets.

Worked example: Three businesses — one test

Between 1990 and 2010, two American retailers grew their store counts by roughly the same magnitude.

Worked example: ROIC decomposition — two software businesses

In the summer of 2022, two consumer staples companies faced the same macroeconomic environment: raw material costs surging, logistics costs elevated, and consumers under pressure from 9% CPI inflation.

Worked example: Gross margin decomposition — three businesses under pressure — 2021–2023

In 1988, two large American industrial companies each generated roughly $800 million in free cash flow.

Worked example: Capital allocation across four decades — two industrial conglomerates

In 2002, Amazon reported its fourth consecutive year of net losses.

Worked example: Amazon — when GAAP losses hid a cash machine (2001–2006)

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy — the largest in US history at the time, triggering the most acute phase of the global financial crisis.

Worked example: Lehman Brothers — leverage visible in the balance sheet (2004–2008)

On June 18, 2020, Wirecard AG — a German payment processor included in the DAX 30 index — announced that €1.

Worked example: Four red flag patterns — four cases

On February 19, 2020, the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high.

Every year, DALBAR publishes a study that has produced the same uncomfortable finding for three decades.

Worked example: The same fund — different investors

In 1988, a research analyst at a major brokerage firm published a 50-page report concluding that Enron's financial structure was sound, its earnings growth sustainable, and its stock undervalued.