Earnings season is in full swing.

Somehow, the biggest, most popular companies in the world decided to report earnings in the same 48-hour period this quarter. Between the close of the market on Tuesday and the same period of time on Thursday, we may see what the next year looks like for businesses around the globe.

A few of the companies reporting are in the Asymmetric Portfolio, and I’ll be following them closely, so I wanted to go over five things I’m looking for that will drive the portfolio. More on that in a moment.

April has once again been an incredible month for stocks. Since bottoming in the last days of March, the Nasdaq is up 17%, and the S&P 500 has climbed 12%.

The Asymmetric Portfolio has had a nice recovery as well. It’s now beating the market by 17% long-term. Earnings season will determine if that margin widens or not.

Here’s what I’m looking at this week.

Shares of Spotify are down 33% from their high last year, and most of that drop is because the stock’s valuation got a little stretched. Shares currently trade for 34x forward earnings estimates and 26x expected free cash flow, which isn’t crazy, but this is a company only growing in the low double digits, so I don’t see multiple expansion as a big driver unless…

I’m watching to see if Spotify can kick up user growth as it spends more on marketing. You can see below that Q4 was good, and if that momentum continues, the company could deserve a higher valuation.

The next step will be getting more out of each user. We know Spotify has been raising prices in developed countries, so that should help revenue per user (orange line above), but we need to see that in the numbers, and growth in ad revenue would help as well.

And if Spotify can grow without increasing costs, as it has done to great effect over the last three years, the company can keep pushing operating margins higher. I’ll be watching these operating costs, which may tick higher in search of more user growth, but if they’re contained, the margin expansion alone could help the stock.

Robinhood is the best performing stock in the Asymmetric Portfolio, despite being in a 44% drawdown, but the company has a lot to prove. What I’m watching most closely is the number of users it has (27.4 million as of February) and the number of Gold subscribers.

For Robinhood to win long-term, it needs to attract customers. SoFi has done that well, but Robinhood hasn’t been as successful. I would like to see this user growth be in double digits, and if it can’t get there, the stock may have further to fall.

In Q4 2025, Alphabet reported 48% growth in Google Cloud, and its operating margin nearly doubled to 30.1%. What does Q1 look like?

All indications are that demand continues to be incredibly high. The result may also impact capex for 2026, which is expected to be ~$180 billion. I’m not sure if an increase or decrease would be bullish for the stock, but all eyes will be on Google Cloud in Q1.

Near term, the story of MGM Resorts is about buybacks. The company has $1.6 billion remaining on its buyback program and is generating enough cash to buy about 15% of shares annually.

These buybacks provide fuel for the stock once the Japan resort opens in 2030.

Revenue, margins, and cash flow all flow to one thing, and that’s buybacks, so I’m interested to see how aggressive management is getting.

Zeta Global has reported 18 straight “beat and raise” quarters. Will this be #19?

Management thinks the company can get to $2.3 billion in revenue and $371 million in free cash flow by 2028, which would put the P/S multiple under 2x and the P/FCF at 11.5x.

If Zeta continues to grow at a 20%+ rate, this is a cheap stock given the medium-term business objectives. If the report on Thursday looks good, this may be a great buy for May in the Asymmetric Portfolio.