Date: 6-17-2020

Articles of the Day

1. Is The "Second Wave" Another COVID-19 Hoax? (Zero Hedge)
2. Indonesian schools not ready for ‘new normal’: Survey (Jakarta Post)
3. BRI to provide “technical assistance” to Bukopin (Kontan)
4. Local sneakers in demand, Redknot adds distribution channel (Kontan)
5. How Robinhood Convinced Millennials to Trade Their Way Through a
Pandemic. (Medium)

Details
1. Is The "Second Wave" Another COVID-19 Hoax? (Zero Hedge)
- Last week the medical community embraced the story of “second wave” of coronavirus in
the United States.
- There are several problems with the assertion:
1. During George Floyd Rally, people were told to throw out the stay at home orders
and encouraged to join the protest. Covid-19 will not bother people who are
protecting for injustice, they implied.
2. Why now? The aftermath of the rally has caused thousands of small businesses to
seize operations and inner city folks have nowhere to shops for basic necessities of
life. Also….Trump’s rally.
3. Texas, Florida and California are singled out to scare the rest of the country.
However, the actual coronavirus numbers in Texas do not support the assertion of
a “second wave” (256/100,000 infected case rate).
4. Timing of the demands to increase test several weeks ago coincides with the
coronavirus spike in the US that was informed.
- There is something else going on here and it is in no way related to public health.

2. Indonesian schools not ready for ‘new normal’: Survey (Jakarta Post)
- Survey by Federation of Indonesia Teachers Associations reveals half of schools across the
country say they are not ready to resume face-to-face learning.
- Survey involved 1,656 respondents comprising of school staff in 245 cities. 53.4% of the
respondents claim they do not have the infrastructure to follow with new normal policy.
- The Governments School operation Aid (BOS) will not be enough to cover expenses for
new infrastructure, neither can it guarantee PCR testing for all students.
- Many schools are in doubt of government’s decision to do phased reopening of
schools in July for Covid-19 green zones.

3. BRI to provide “technical assistance” to Bukopin (Kontan)

- BRI is to provide “technical assistance” to Bukopin in terms of liquidity and operations.
- This is in response to letter from OJK requesting BRI’s involvement on 11 June 2020.
- BRI receives letter from PT. Bosowa Corporindo and given the right to use Bosowa’s votes
in the upcoming shareholder meeting
- While BRI will be involved in matters with Bukopin through Bosowa, it seems to deny
previous rumors of BRI taking a stake at the problem bank.
4. Local sneakers in demand, Redknot adds distribution channel (Kontan)
- Local shoe brands are rising in popularity driven by top class production facility
- One company capitalizing on this trend if Redknot. The company launched a new model in
June and was sold in less than an hour! The company plans to add distribution channels
- Indonesia is the fourth largest shoe producer in the world. Many big brands has opened
production facility in Indonesia, allowing local players to capitalize on those expertise as well.
- Not only International sneaker players are benefitting, it seems that even local brands
can thrive by capitalizing on the sneaker trend.

5. How Robinhood Convinced Millennials to Trade Their Way Through a

Pandemic. (Medium)
- Despite the Covid-19 outbreak which has caused S&P500 to plunge, Robinhood has seen
record trading volumes and record depository activity.
- Robinhood has continued to have over 50% market share of new brokerage accounts.
- This month the company completed $280m fundraising round led by Sequoia, which bumps
the startup’s valuation to $8.3bn.
- Robinhood’s idea was birth out of occupy wall street movement. It capitalized on a large
amount of young people who believe the financial system was corrupt.
- Robinhood is marketed a solution contrary to tearing the system down, rather giving more
people access to it through no commission trading. Giving people the feeling of someday
becoming part of the 1%.
- They target a market known as HENRY- high earners, not rich yet.
- The pandemic has shown an odd reaction from retail investors with brokerages such as
Schwab and Ameritrade racking up 1.7mn users, while Robinhood racked up 3mn users. It
seems that the stimulus check from the government was partially used to buy stocks.
- March trading volumes grew +100% yoy and April was 50% yoy.
- Robinhood capitalizes on newcomers to the market. The pandemic has only increased
this by giving the opportunity to get into the stock market at bargain prices. It reduces
psychological barrier of entry of young people to investing in stocks, allowing them
smaller commitment by trading small stocks ($1-$5/share)