MELI (MercadoLibre) is actually a wild case study in how stock markets work. Over the past decade, this Latin American e-commerce + fintech giant delivered 32% annualized returns—basically the 35th best performer among mega-cap stocks. Revenue exploded nearly 4,000% in 10 years.

Here's the interesting part: the company did something most growth stocks fail at. It grew revenue AND maintained decent profit margins (around 10% now, after dipping when they scaled logistics). That's the secret sauce.

Yes, MELI is down over the past year. But the fundamentals haven't broken—still growing revenue at ~40% YoY, with a $26B trailing revenue base that's tiny compared to Latin America's total addressable market.

The takeaway? Long-term value comes from profitable growth, not just growth alone. MELI has both. Recent underperformance might just be short-term sentiment noise, not a fundamental shift.