🚨 JARDA on TTD

Jarda didn’t hold back in his commentary on The Trade Desk’s (TTD) second-quarter 2026 results, yet he confirmed he plans to keep holding the stock.

The core problem: a change in market dynamics

Jarda sees the key issue not just in the numbers themselves, but in how advertisers are buying ads.

* Programmatic Guarantee: clients are shifting from the auction mechanism to fixed, pre‑arranged packages.

* Impact of Amazon and streaming: this is the result of a massive surge in ad inventory kicked off by Amazon (on Prime Video) and joined by Netflix, Disney, and HBO. These platforms are “pitching unique deals” to advertisers in order to monetise their content.

* Loss of added value: it’s unfavourable for TTD because their main value lay in auction-based, best‑ROI decision‑making. In the current model, Jarda says they are “basically just pipes through which the ad is deployed”, because the buy is agreed in advance directly with the publisher.

Investment thesis and personal stance

* Even though the road to profit isn’t “smooth at all” and is “damn bumpy”, Jarda isn’t changing his original thesis.

* He still believes that “the auction layer is the best” for ad‑spend decision‑making, and he views the current buying method as “terribly old”.

* He pegged his current nominal loss on TTD at roughly 4% of the whole portfolio’s value. He likened it to physical strain: “It’s actually like proper muscle soreness after a solid workout at the gym,” and added the familiar “no pain no gain”.

* In a bizarre way, after the washout he “actually likes the stock even more than before,” precisely because of the lower price.

* He plans to hold this “bad boy” for some time yet, though he expects the recovery will take longer, since the ad market is currently in a strong “buyers market”.

* At the end he mentioned he’s thinking about buying more shares, though after the sell‑off he hasn’t acted on it yet.

I expect 70% – so far 🤦🤷

I bought about 10 shares around 40, but this is a real tragedy. Something like Paypal. I'll sit it out and hopefully it will at least sell for 0

I just sold out for $13 and will pour it elsewhere. But -€2240 :(

at least it will reduce the tax base, the released money will do better elsewhere

So I did it, and during the earnings call I will try to exit. I'm betting that after a 90% drop, the stock won't fall much further. Or at least not for long. As for the company's strategy for a better future, there are some interesting moments:

* Deployment of Kokai technology (Distributed AI): The company is transitioning to a new Kokai architecture, which uses thousands of specialized AI models instead of a single algorithm for real-time ad buying decisions. This increases efficiency (26% improvement in acquisition costs) and performance.

* Strengthening of management personnel: TTD has significantly revamped its executive team, including the appointment of a new CFO, CMO, and CCO. Additionally, AI and global scaling experts have joined the board of directors.

* Access to premium content (Netflix and Samsung): The company has secured automated access for its advertisers to advertising on Netflix and the Samsung TV home screen. This enables shifting money from walled gardens (like Google/Amazon) to the open internet.

* Analogy: Netflix used to be like an exclusive private club. TTD has now obtained a **VIP card** for its clients, allowing them to enter at any time.

* Deep data integrations (Adobe and Databricks): Through solutions like CustomerLake (Databricks), it enables advertisers to directly connect their own customer data with real-time ad buying.

* Focus on Retail and Commerce Media: The company has become a key partner for retail data with agency Dentsu and integrates purchase intent data from partners like Uber, Booking.com, and United Airlines.

^ Financial efficiency and share buybacks: The company continues massive buybacks of its own shares ($233 million in the first half of 2026) and strategically extended the lifespan of its servers to reduce accounting depreciation and save costs.

Most of these partnerships were formed in the first half of 2026, so they couldn't yet fully reflect in the results.