It’s been a mad week in the UK and it’s only Tuesday. It’ll just get madder as March 29th approaches. Another day another Brexit vote. Concessions from Brussels or no concessions, nobody knows anything, journalists just keep guessing and drawing up flow charts, and businesses have no idea what to expect. The only way to get through it with any sense of normalcy is to stay liquid, keep risk at a minimum, and maintain a slow and steady growth strategy. Just stay the course, assuming the course you are in is calm and sensible. And if you’re GVC and your course hasn’t been slow and steady for years, sell 3 million shares at a discount as fast as possible.

So in the shadow of all that’s going on day-to-day on that politically dysfunctional island, the long-awaited massive GVC hangover has finally arrived. GVC shares collapsed nearly 20% yesterday after news broke that insiders were selling shares at a discount. I doubt this is the end of the decline. GVC reported earnings last week and net losses increased by 60%. GVC’s long term strategy has never made much sense to me. It just started gathering up assets under a giant umbrella and left a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle unassembled on the floor. How it all fits together is a mystery, other than citing marketing crossover synergies and whatever other vague claims you can make off the cuff. The number that stands out in its 2018 earnings is SG&A payments equaled gross profit. If your staff costs as much as your gross profit you’ve got structural problems.

You can pump shares for a long time with excitement fueled from leveraged buyouts, but it can’t last forever. After a sugar-fueled climb, the bust is certain, though timing is always the hardest part. If you can guess it right, you can get rich quick.

What I find funny about the reporting on the GVC collapse are assertions that investors were “spooked” about the effects of the cut on maximum stakes on fixed odds betting terminals. Spooked? GVC bought Ladbrokes and its FOBTs on a conditional deal that took into account the FOBT max stakes cut. This was not a secret. How can investors be spooked unless they really have no idea what GVC has been doing on even the most basic level? There was no spookery here. It’s just the parabolic advance running out of fuel. No other reasoning need be prosthetically attached here. This is always what happens at the end of skyward advances with little fundamental backing.