Last week, I sat down to write a general-interest investing article inspired by the wedding of billionaire Taylor Swift.
And I did, but not the one I planned:
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So I initially intended to write a light-yet-substantive piece about “how to invest so you can afford a wedding like Taylor,” and instead I kept chewing like a rescue terrier with a new bone until I came up with… this.
You can read “this” by visiting our official Barchart Substack to see exactly how BlackRock (BLK) and their absolutely historical inability to take an L resulted in a recent Supreme Court loss for pretty much every investor who’s not a high-powered Wall Street asset manager.
Be sure to subscribe for more exclusive reports, deep dives, and interviews while you’re over there.
The BlackRock Distraction
BlackRock, incidentally, gained 6.6% on Wednesday for its biggest single-day rally since April 2025.
BlackRock stock breaks out. The company reported Q2 earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as “clients entrusted us with $192 billion of net inflows, generating 8% organic base fee growth – well in excess of our target,” per Chairman and CEO Larry Fink.
All that and a Supreme Court victory! No wonder Larry has “never been more optimistic.”
But with the BlackRock distraction set aside for now, let’s return to the business at hand.
The ‘Baby Buffett’ Debate
Even though former Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) CEO and current Chairman Warren Buffett would very much like you to know that he’s still got skin in the game, based on his recent Google comments, that won’t stop pundits from looking for “the next Buffett.”
(Taylor Swift probably has a song about this phenomenon, idk.)
While current Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel seems like an obvious choice, let’s be serious.
A decade ago, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman told CNBC that his anointing by Forbes as a “Baby Buffett” was “unfortunate,” seeming hyper-aware of the cover story indicator implications.
However, Ackman hasn’t been able to shake the comparisons.
As recently as this past May, Bank of America’s Craig Siegenthaler wrote of Ackman’s flagship fund: “Pershing Square earns a royalty on compounding and is looking to replicate Berkshire.”
The HedgeWeek coverage continues:
The report also highlighted the persistent discount to net asset value at Pershing Square’s London-listed closed-end fund, which has historically traded below NAV since launching in 2014.
I promised myself I wouldn’t get derailed by discounted CEFs again…
Anyway, so there’s Ackman as a potential spiritual successor, and then there’s also – somewhat unbelievably – GameStop (GME) CEO Ryan Cohen.
“Ryan is making lemonade out of lemons,” according to outspoken investor Michael Burry in comments made earlier this year. “He has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business.”
To Burry’s mind, “I think [Ryan] is doing what Warren Buffett did and what I am doing. Essentially, waiting patiently. Unlike me, he is doing it with a public company, which, by all prior evidence, is very hard.”
Since then, Burry has unloaded his entire GME stake, though there are surely still investors who believe Cohen is the next Buffett. (We’ll have to check Reddit to know for sure.)
However, to this list of “baby Buffetts” I would submit a notoriously quiet and reserved megacelebrity billionaire who prefers to stay out of active social media beef, and instead communicates with her dedicated core fanbase through rarely granted but painstakingly written and oft-quoted missives:
Dr. Taylor A. Swift.
Building a Blonde Baby Buffett Watchlist
If you have not yet visited our Substack to read the first installment of my dark descent into madness, here is one more opportunity for you to support our uniquely alarming journalism by clicking this link.
That said, if you simply refuse to read the source article for reasons of ethics or disinterest or perhaps even petty spite, then here is the relevant text you’ll need to continue:
I thought if I were to build a hypothetical portfolio or exchange-traded fund (ETF) based purely on companies that Taylor Swift has partnered with, I might be onto something.
It was a fine enough idea, and surprisingly easy to execute, thanks to the lovingly assembled resources at the Taylor Swift Wiki.
Note that some of these partnerships, ambassadorships, and sponsorships are no longer active, or have at least gone dormant, which you can explore in more detail at the wiki.
Apple (AAPL) Coca-Cola (KO) Capital One (COF) Sony (SONY) Target (TGT)There’s an almost uncanny Warren Buffett quality to the list, from the outright twinning of Apple and Coke to the dividend history of Target to the Japanese exposure via Sony…
So we have those 5 core stocks, and then I was also going to throw gold on the list, via the exchange-traded fund (ETF) GLD.
I figured it would be a fun nod to the fact that Taylor is an institution and that’s what they buy…
Of course, gold is a very un-Buffett investment, but this being Taylor’s Version, we can do what we like.
The chart below is a pretty raw comparison of how these stocks (and ETF) are performing versus the broader S&P 500 ETF (SPY) over the past 5 years.
SPY vs. Taylor-adjacent stocks. I say “raw” in the sense that if you were building a real portfolio or even a mock ETF out of these symbols, you would not throw them all in at equal weight and hope for the best.
Although, if you are the kind of person who would plow the exact same amount of money into both Capital One and Apple, your journey is no less valid.
Anyway, over the course of her career, Swift has strategically aligned herself with companies spanning technology, finance, entertainment, retail, and consumer goods sectors, which reminds me very much of someone else I know – a certain Dairy Queen enthusiast in Omaha, specifically.
All of these stocks are saved for you here if you’d like to start building your own baby Buffett lineup:
Click to View & Save Taylor’s Watchlist
To learn more about how to use, customize, screen, and save this watchlist at Barchart, check out this tutorial:
Or, if you’d like to start building a model portfolio, visit our Investor Portfolio to start adding symbols and allocations.
About the Watchlist Symbols
For this piece of the story, I’m calling on my girl squad to help me finish out the research, just as I assume Taylor would want me to do.
Namely, that’s our AI content specialists over at Sigma.AI, led by honorary Barchart Editorial squad member Tilly, whose research platform helped to generate the below copy for us.
#1. Apple (AAPL)
In one of her famous passionate letters, Swift famously leveraged her enormous platform to challenge Apple Music's initial policy on artist compensation during free trial periods, ultimately prompting the company to reverse course.
This interaction transformed into a productive partnership, with Apple featuring Swift prominently in advertising campaigns and exclusive content deals that benefited both parties.
Apple currently trades as one of the most valuable companies globally, and its brand alignment with cultural icons like Swift has been part of a broader strategy to position its services segment as a premium entertainment destination.
#2. Coca-Cola (KO)
The wiki cites political reasons for this partnership ending, and I am staying on task and not getting distracted, but – Coca-Cola's partnership with Swift dates back to her earlier career years, when the beverage giant featured her in Diet Coke advertising campaigns.
#3. Capital One (COF)
Capital One has utilized Swift's fanbase through credit card partnerships and exclusive access programs tied to her concert tours, creating a direct link between financial products and passionate consumer loyalty.
This type of experiential marketing has proven effective for the financial services company, driving card applications and customer engagement metrics.
#4. Sony (SONY)
Sony's connection to Swift might reasonably be expected to center on the music industry itself. But as a brand partner, she mostly kept an arm’s length by working with Sony on their camera offerings.
#5. Target (TGT)
Target has served as a key retail partner for Swift's physical album releases, often featuring exclusive deluxe editions with bonus content available only at Target stores, driving significant foot traffic and sales volume during album launch periods.
#6. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)
We have no evidence of any gold partnership or sponsorship for Taylor, beyond “Gold Rush,” but our Sigma squad notes that “Taylor Swift's extensive brand partnership history spans some of the most recognizable companies in the American corporate landscape.”
With institutional buying still a major source of structural support for gold, and Taylor Swift proving her status as an American institution, we’re willing to call this one even.
This article was created with the support of automated content tools from our partners at Sigma.AI. Together, our financial data and AI solutions help us to deliver more informed market headline analysis to readers faster than ever.
On the date of publication, Elizabeth H. Volk had a position in: AAPL , KO . All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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