Last week Facebook’s controlling shareholder Mark Zuckerberg moved to divert the very negative public conversation about his company by changing its name from Facebook to Meta. Frances Haugen, an articulate former employee whistleblower, testified to Congress recently about the challenges Facebook faces on its platform in controlling hate speech as it affects our democracy and the safety of young users. The stock has dropped from a high on Sept. 1 of $384.33 to a recent low of $320.

Facebook will begin trading as META with a new symbol of MVRS on Dec. 1. Therefore, no more FAANGs.

The FAANGs or FANGMAN consist of seven highly popular stocks that have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years right through the shutdown. If you add high-flying Tesla to the list there will be eight of them. Either way, if we add Tesla to the mix, we could call them the TAANGS. Each of these companies have enjoyed such gigantic success over the last decade that they overwhelm the performance of the S&P 500. Just six of them account for more than 30% of that index, totally masking the many stocks that have dropped in half this year even as the S&P 500 continues to zoom higher.

A recent pollster questioned investors on which FAANGs they have owned this year. Some 54% of respondents said they had never owned any of them. Below I show first the % who said they owned it (% unknown for Nvidia) and then the actual percentage the stock has risen YTD in 2021:

Nvidia + 98%; 11% own Tesla + 71%; 7% own Google + 64%; 13% own Microsoft +48%; 18% own Netflix + 26%; 19% own Facebook +21%; 17% own Apple +12%; and Amazon, the most owned by 21% with the worst return at 1.9%.

The Federal Reserve has recklessly pumped vast billions of dollars into our financial system pushing stocks and house prices to absurd levels. With spare cash, investors have increasingly turned to more aggressive, leveraged stock trading and to the use of options to a degree never previously seen. Nine of the top 10 days of option trading volume going back to the 1970s occurred in the first nine months of 2021. The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) reports that almost 39 million options had changed hands by the end of September, a surge of 31%. Historically, 80% of all options expire worthless. You can be right on your stock selection but the time limit on the option can wipe out your chance to benefit. To compound your potential to make a “killing,” you can buy options on margin. Of course, this strategy accelerates your potential to lose money with lightening speed. Tales of such disasters are rampant on the various investor message boards. Never forget people brag loudly about their winners but usually never mention their losing trades. This year many are crying in their beer.

The Wall Street Journal estimates that options activity will surpass stock purchases in 2021 for the first time ever. For example, “about $80 billion in Tesla options have changed hands daily this year, roughly quadruple the figure in the stock.” Options trading can exaggerate moves up or down in a stock and thus distort the trading in the “underlying” security on which they are based. Robinhood which popularized such trading for the masses this year, peaked at $85 on Aug. 4 and is now selling for $36. Perhaps what has happened to HOOD is a harbinger to heed for those chasing rainbows at young companies with no earnings.

Joan Lappin CFA has been called an “investment guru” by Business Week and a “top manager” by the Wall Street Journal. The Sarasota resident founded Gramercy Capital Management, a registered investment adviser, in 1986. Email her at JLappincfa@gmail.com. Follow her on twitter: @joanlappin. Her past columns appear at heraldtribune.com/business/columns.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: JOAN LAPPIN: Goodbye FAANGs. Hello MAANGs or TAANGs