And I sat there listening to the presentations, noticing the same thing over and over.

Everyone was talking about the future.

Where is lithium going in five years? Are we in an AI bubble? What happens to oil if the Iran situation gets worse? Where does the Fed go in 2027?

Brilliant takes. Genuinely useful frameworks. I learned things.

But I kept thinking: This just isn’t how I trade.

The analysts in that room have built incredible track records doing things their way. I’m not saying they’re wrong.

Louis Navellier's Stock Grader quant system has been beating the market for nearly 50 years.

Eric Fry was shorting dot-com stocks while Wall Street was still buying €” and made his subscribers a fortune when the Nasdaq fell 80%.

Luke Lango recommended Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) at $4, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) at $3, and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) when everyone said it was going to zero.

And Marc Chaikin has spent 60 years building tools that institutional investors pay a fortune for.

These people are serious... and successful.

But I realized that I come from a completely different tradition €” and it produces a completely different kind of edge.

I spent 20 years in rooms where nobody cared about five years from now. The CME floor. Bond futures desks. The CBOE. You cared about right now.

What’s moving? Where’s the volatility? What’s the cheapest way to ride what’s already happening - right now?

I still think that way. Sitting in that conference room, I realized the gap between those two approaches is actually where my edge lives.

Here’s what I’m going to walk you through today.

First, the core principle I trade by €” one sentence that sounds simple but took me 20 years on the floor to fully understand.

Second, what that principle looks like when it’s working €” with some real numbers from the past year to back it up.

And third, a free stock pick that’s a direct expression of this exact approach right now.

It fits the current market setup better than almost anything else I’m watching.

Not only am I revealing that setup today...

I'm also getting ready to reveal a very special collaboration with my friend and colleague Marc Chaikin that could hand us a massive edge during one of the most volatile markets in a generation.

And I'm coming to you today to make sure you have the chance to gain access to the full webinar - plus the special tools and key trade setups we're watching - before the crowd catches on.

We're revealing it all in a special presentation we're calling the Convergence Trigger that launches on Thursday, May 28^th at 8PM EST. Just read on to get the full details.

Now, let me show you exactly where our edge lives right now…

The Principle I Trade By

Here’s my whole trading philosophy in one sentence:

Nothing is ever cheap. Nothing is ever expensive. Everything is relative.

When people ask me about it, I use the example of buying a house. When you’re shopping for a home, you don’t walk in off the street and just decide what it’s worth.

You look at what everything else in the neighborhood sold for. You find the one whose asking price hasn’t moved with the group. You buy that one.

Trading is identical.

I don’t say “lithium is going to be higher in five years because EV demand is structural.” I wait for the price of lithium to actually strengthen. When it does, I look at the lithium stocks and find the one that hasn’t moved with the rest yet. I buy that one.

I don’t predict. I react. And then I find the most efficient way to express that opinion.

This keeps me out of the trust-me trades. The “this has to work eventually” trades. The trades where you’re crossing your fingers instead of following evidence.

Here’s what it looks like when it’s working.

Earlier this year, the Iran-U.S. conflict escalated, and crude oil volatility spiked. Many investors were glued to the news, trying to figure out what would happen next.

My members and I weren’t asking that question. We were asking where the smart money was already moving.

The answer showed up clearly. Institutional positioning was concentrating in energy names before the broader market caught on.

We entered a bullish trade on Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) on February 19 and exited about 42 days later with a 780% gain.

Shortly after, the same approach pointed us to another energy name €” IREN Ltd. (IREN) €” where we locked in a 485% gain in about two months.

We didn’t predict the war or what it would do to energy prices. We followed the footprints.

That’s rinse and repeat for us. Quarter after quarter, same process, different names.

Over the past year:

• A 1,076% gain on a pharma name: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY).
• A 959% gain on a lithium trade: Albemarle Corp. (ALB).
• 700%-plus on a rare earths name: MP Materials Corp. (MP).
• Two separate doubles on a copper miner, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), in the same month.

I’m not sharing those to brag. Those numbers come directly from the process. And the process works precisely because it’s not built on prediction €” it’s built on waiting for the evidence to show up, then moving.

The Free Stock €” and Why It Fits Right Now

One name I want you to look at right now is Ameresco Inc. (AMRC).

This isn’t a glamorous name. It won’t get your pulse racing the way AI plays do. But that’s often exactly where the best setups hide €” the unglamorous names where the fundamentals are quietly improving and the smart money is moving in before the narrative catches up.

Ameresco does energy efficiency projects, renewable infrastructure, microgrids, and grid modernization.

Its customers are governments, utilities, hospitals, and schools €” the kind of clients who sign long-term contracts and don’t disappear when the market gets choppy.

Here’s why it fits my framework right now.

The AI boom, electrification, and aging infrastructure are creating enormous pressure on existing power systems.

That pressure has to go somewhere. And it’s increasingly going to companies positioned to modernize and reinforce the grid €” quietly, before the headline story fully takes hold.

Ameresco recently reported strong backlog growth tied to renewable infrastructure and distributed power systems. At the same time, institutional positioning around energy modernization names has been building €” the same kind of footprint we track before a move develops.

This is not a “five years from now” thesis.

This is a right-now setup. The money is already moving. I’m just pointing to the trail.

Which brings me to May 28.

Earlier, I mentioned Marc Chaikin. Marc has spentsixty years in markets. He is the creator of the Money Flow indicator that’s now built into every Bloomberg terminal on the planet, and a former research provider to Paul Tudor Jones, George Soros, and Steve Cohen.

I've spent the last several months working with Marc, and we discovered something when we started comparing notes: We’ve both spent our entire careers tracking the same thing €” the smart money €” just from different angles.

My work identifies where big, high-conviction positioning is showing up. Marc’s Money Flow confirms where institutional capital is actually flowing in the underlying stocks. One signal measures conviction. The other confirms the direction. Together, they form something neither of us had alone.

We combined them and backtested the result against nearly 200 of my real trade recommendations. Confirmed setups produced 45% higher average gains. Win rate jumped 17 percentage points. And the filter would have kept us out of two-thirds of losing trades.

We’re calling it the Convergence Trigger. We’re going public with it for the first time on May 28 at 8 p.m. Eastern .

AMRC is one of five stocks where that trigger is active right now. The other four are in the report you’ll get when you sign up for our free event's VIP list.

Click here to reserve your spot. And again, get all five stocks before the event if you sign up for the VIP list.

The smart money is already moving. The question is whether you’re in front of it.

The creative trader always wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Jonathan makes a point in today's piece that's worth thinking about: By the time most investors feel comfortable about a trade, a lot of the biggest upside may already be gone. That's why he focuses on following institutional money flows and volatility setups instead of trying to predict headlines months in advance. He and Wall Street veteran Marc Chaikin are discussing that approach in much greater detail during their free Convergence Summit event on May 28 at 8 p.m. Eastern. You can reserve your seat right here.

These include lithium-ion batteries, magnets and electric motors, power electronics, and embedded compute. 

It's the whole electric stack, if you will. And the cost of this stack has fallen 99% since 1990. China makes 75% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries and 90% of its neodymium magnets, which means it controls the means of production for EVs and robotics. 

Why does that matter for an AI investor in May 2026?

Because it explains why the AI trade keeps grinding higher even as Main Street bleeds out. 

In an essay by Packy McCormick, he quotes economist Joel Spolsky’s old line: “Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements.” China is happy to commoditize intelligence because they own action. Translated to Wall Street: whoever owns the complement to the hot new thing captures the profits.

Right now, the hot new thing is AI compute. And the complements are in short supply.

Memory is in shortage. Optical interconnects are in shortage. Power delivery is in shortage. Networking equipment is in shortage. Every hyperscaler capex announcement makes the shortages worse. And the market has finally noticed, which is why Home Depot Inc. (HD) and Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) are sitting at 52-week lows while SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AAOI), and Bloom Energy Corp. (BE) are up more than 400% year to date, and even higher over the past year:

The bottlenecks are not random, despite what you may hear. They are tradeable, they are predictable, and we now have a line on where the next one will be.

Let me show you where the chokepoints are, and how to position before the rest of the Street figures it out.

Click the video below to watch now:

The Consumer Is Bleeding Out. Why Are AI Stocks Ripping?

Because of the bottleneck.

Bloomberg Intelligence now projects AI capital expenditures growing at a 10% compounded annual rate through 2030, with peak annual spend hitting roughly $1.1 trillion. 

Within that wave, the highest-growth slice, networking equipment and memory, compounds at 24%. The dot-com comparisons are real, by the way. There will be a bust eventually. But the dot-com boom was hopes and dreams. This one is hopes and dreams plus real revenue, real earnings, and a buildout that hasn’t peaked. We’re in the eighth inning, not the ninth.

And the smart money is doing exactly what Rockefeller did. It’s hunting bottlenecks.

That’s the entire investment thesis right now. Let me break down where they are.

Memory: The hate trade. Doubters have called the top five times and been wrong five times. They’ll eventually be right, but only when supply exceeds demand, and based on the capex curve above, that’s years away. SanDisk is my favorite single name. Micron Technology Inc. (MU) is my second. For diversified exposure, the VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX) and the dedicated memory-focused DRAM-themed ETFs give you the basket without single-stock risk. Strategy here is simple: do not chase. These names go up 100% and pull back 40%. Wait for the flush.

Optics: This is where Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) just tipped its hand. Nvidia’s deal with Corning Inc. (GLW) tells you exactly where the next supply chokepoint is. Optical interconnects are the new tank cars. Nvidia isn’t building its own custom silicon to fight off the hyperscalers. It’s deploying its cash hoard to lock up the parts of the AI stack everyone else needs. That’s why I’m not bearish on Nvidia. I’m just more bullish on Corning, Coherent Corp. (COHR), Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE), Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), Marvell Technology Inc. (MRVL), and Fabrinet (FN). For the high-torque small cap, I like Applied Optoelectronics. Real orders, real hyperscaler scaling, no execution fairy dust.

The IPO signal: Cerebras Systems Inc. (CBRS) just priced its initial public offering at $185, well above its marketed range, after an order book oversubscribed by more than 20 times. A year ago, the same company pulled its filing. Two fears killed it: peak AI capex and Nvidia eating the entire chip market. Both fears are now demonstrably wrong. That’s why the IPO came back upsized rather than downsized. It’s a sentiment thermometer, and it’s reading hot.

The setup right now: technicals are stretched, earnings season is behind us, and a short-term pullback is the most likely next move. That pullback is your entry point, not something to chase.

This week’s full Being Exponential episode goes deeper on the memory rotation, the specific optics names worth front-running, and how to position for the back half of 2026 without getting flattened by a normal 10% correction. Watch the full episode of Being Exponential on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, be sure to subscribe to Being Exponential on X (formerly Twitter) for more exclusive content.

When you think of a Nolan film, it’s the execution that often grabs the headline. Memento was a story told in reverse. Inception was folded inside of dreams. Interstellar bended across time and galaxies. Dunkirk‘s narrative spread across three increasingly compressed timelines. Tenet was quite literally inverted. On the surface, these look like five completely different films… a thriller, a heist, a space epic, a war movie, a spy puzzle. But underneath, they’re all about racing the clock.

The best investors think the same way.

Here’s the problem with how most people are playing the AI boom right now: they see five different stocks and assume they’re five different trades. Quantum computing over here. Food delivery over there. Infrastructure silicon. CPUs and GPUs. Social media data.

But they’re not separate. They’re chapters of the same story… and the story is about who owns the infrastructure, the data, the compute, and the physical world before the AI buildout fully prices in.

The proof is sitting in last week’s first-quarter 2026 earnings reports. Hyperscaler capex is ramping up, not slowing down. Inferencing workloads are exploding. Quantum computing just crossed from science lab to commercial reality with triple-digit revenue growth. And the companies selling into all of it are putting up numbers that should be impossible at this scale.

Here’s the provocation: the market is still mispricing several of the best risk/reward setups in the entire AI complex… and one of them isn’t even an AI stock. It’s the anti-AI AI trade.

Below are the five names we covered on this week’s Being Exponential podcast. Click the video below to watch now:

IonQ Inc. (IONQ): The Commercial Quantum Leader

IonQ (IONQ) just delivered $64.7 million in Q1 revenues, up 755% year-over-year, and boosted 2026 guidance to $260 million to $270 million. That’s 102% growth this year €” and the forward curve calls for 40% to 45%-plus compounded growth through 2030. With gross margins headed from 43% today toward 70% to 80% over time, this looks like a future Nvidia of quantum computing. The chart confirms the thesis: IONQ reclaimed its 200-day moving average, lost it briefly, and retook it… classic follow-through behavior. I’m a long-term bull.

DoorDash Inc. (DASH): The Anti-AI Trade

Wait, DoorDash (DASH)? Hear me out. The market has punished DoorDash on fears that AI will disintermediate it. I disagree. AI disrupts software-native businesses; DoorDash’s moat is physical… drivers, logistics, vendor relationships across restaurants, grocery, convenience, alcohol, medicine, and retail. Total orders rose 27% year-over-year last quarter, with marketplace gross order volume up 37%. The stock trades at 16 times forward EBITDA €” basically a 5-year low €” for a high-teens revenue grower with expanding margins. Dirt cheap. The chart hasn’t confirmed the rebound yet, but the valuation is too compelling to sell.

Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB): The AI Toll Collector

Astera Labs’ (ALAB) Q1 revenue grew 14% sequentially and 93% year-over-year, with gross margins of 76.4%. Management projects silicon dollar content rising above $1,000 per XPU within AI racks. As we shift from training to inferencing, complexity increases exponentially… more switches, more retimers, more memory bottlenecks, more opportunities for Astera to sell into. At 57 times forward earnings on 79% growth this year and 42% next year, this is one of the best pick-and-shovel plays in the entire AI infrastructure trade.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD): The Catch-Up Trade That Caught Up

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has been on a tear, and I’d wait for a 20% to 25% pullback toward the $300 to $350 range before adding. But the long-term setup is exceptional: 42% revenue growth this year, accelerating to 51% next year. Nobody else in the AI complex is accelerating. The GPU story is real, but the CPU story €” controlling the inferencing layer €” is the bigger one.

Reddit Inc. (RDDT): The Humanpowered AI Data Goldmine

Reddit (RDDT) is the exception to my “I hate software stocks” rule. Its unique trove of human-generated content is becoming critical training data for the world’s best LLMs. The advertising business is doing well, but the AI data licensing deals will be the long-run kahuna. Chart is basing; ready for an upside breakout.

For my full breakdown on each name €” including the technical setups, margin trajectories, and the exact valuation multiples that make these setups so attractive €” watch the full episode of Being Exponential on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, be sure to subscribe to Being Exponential on X (formerly Twitter) for more exclusive content.

The Gold Rush is on. Make sure you own the right picks and shovels.

He was a French Orientalist diplomat who later developed the Suez Canal. But when he broke ground on the Suez in 1859, his skeptics dubbed it the most expensive ditch in history.

To be fair, the cost was astronomical. Lesseps’ project consumed $100 million in 1869 dollars, nearly double the original estimate, and bankrupted the French development company that built it.

But it didn’t matter who went broke building the Suez…

Once the canal was built, every ship crossing between Europe and Asia had exactly two options: The Suez Canal or bust.

The infrastructure created captive, permanent demand, and the companies supplying the coal, the dry-dock services, and the port operations on both ends collected tolls for the next century.

The bears calling tops on AI memory and cloud infrastructure are falling prey to the same blind spot. They’re watching the stock price rather than the $725 billion in hyperscaler capex that’s already been committed. Capital has to land somewhere, and that “somewhere” is increasingly SanDisk’s (SNDK) fabs and Nebius‘ (NBIS) data centers.

That’s the through line of this week’s Being Exponential, which we just debuted with a brand-new format. Our team has shortened the show, streamlined the topics of discussion, and built this episode of Being Exponential With Luke Lango around five stock stories.

More importantly, we’ll now have an extra podcast each week! Going forward, you can expect them in your inbox on Wednesdays and Fridays.

In the latest episode, we walk through Intel Corp. (INTC), Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), Duolingo Inc. (DUOL), Nebius Group N.V, and SanDisk Corp.

We cover the bullish, the neutral, and the bearish.

But there’s two AI infrastructure names where the market keeps trying (and failing) to call the top…

Check out the podcast by clicking the video below:

Why SanDisk (SNDK) Keeps Defying the “Memory Top” Call

SanDisk’s chart is a museum of premature obituaries. Traders called the top in October 2025. Then again in February, followed by March, and early April. Each time, the stock pulled back hard, sometimes 25% or more, only to rip to new highs. The bear thesis is basically “memory is cyclical and cycles end.”

Yet, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) have guided to roughly $725 billion in 2026 AI infrastructure capex. This is a once-in-a-generation buildout, and a meaningful slice of every infrastructure dollar lands in the memory complex.

The valuation tells the story…

SanDisk stock has run from $50 to roughly $1,400, yet its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio sits near nine. The earnings are doing the lifting, as multiples haven’t expanded at all.

As long as that holds, SNDK stock has more room to run.

Nebius (NBIS): The Neocloud Nobody’s Talking About… Yet

If SanDisk is the shovel, Nebius is the rented mule.

Spun out of the old Yandex tech assets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Nebius rebuilt itself as a “neocloud,” or a high-beta, levered play on the same hyperscaler capex wave.

The numbers are almost cartoonish: revenue is on pace to grow more than 500% this year, with margins climbing from roughly 40% to 59% by 2028. Yet the stock trades around 16 times forward EBITDA. Sixteen.

Technically, the chart just executed a textbook V-shaped recovery off its prior all-time high near $135, turning what was resistance into the new floor.

Both names share a pattern: violent, gut-wrenching pullbacks followed by face-ripping rallies.

SanDisk has fallen 25%-plus more than once this cycle. Nebius round-tripped from $90 to $166 and back to $135 in a matter of weeks.

Anyone trying to chase these stocks at the top got hurt.

Anyone who treated the dips as opportunities did very well.

What Else Is in This Week’s Episode?

The full episode goes deeper, including why we are bullish on Intel Corp.’s (INTC) turnaround, why Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) needs to retake its 200-day before we’ll touch it, and why Duolingo Inc. (DUOL) may be the poster child for the “SaaSmaggedon.”

Watch the full episode of Being Exponential on YouTube to get the complete picture, including specific entry levels and the technical signals we’re watching before stepping in.

On the morning of Jan. 10, 1901, crude erupted 150 feet into the sky and kept flowing at 100,000 barrels a day... roughly as much as the rest of the entire U.S. oil industry combined.

Within months, the population of Beaumont quintupled. Pipelines, refineries, and railroad depots sprang up seemingly overnight. The smart money chased every single company and industry that would be needed to move, store, refine, and deploy all that oil.

Fast-forward to this week’s earnings, where the Magnificent Seven put up high-flying numbers that would make the Lucas Gusher blush.

The Mag 7 Earnings Deluge

Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Meta (META) collectively committed to spending $725 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone. Three of the four boosted their capital expenditure guidance.

Amazon, the biggest spender of the bunch at $200 billion, maintained its already jaw-dropping commitment. And perhaps most telling of all: none of them so much as hinted at a peak.

Google said 2027 capex would rise significantly over 2026 levels. Amazon pledged to double data center power capacity by the end of 2027. Microsoft implied the company consistently underestimates its own compute needs. Meta echoed the same posture. Every signal pointed the same direction... up.

Those are the kind of numbers that rewrite supply chains. Because every dollar of hyperscaler capex flows downstream like crude from a gusher.

It hits the chip makers…

It hits the construction equipment companies…

Caterpillar (CAT) reported fantastic numbers this week, and why wouldn’t it? You can’t build a data center without heavy machinery. Nvidia (NVDA), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Micron (MU), Seagate (STX), Corning (GLW), Teradyne (TER), KLA Corp (KLAC), and WESCO International (WCC) all sit on the receiving end of that spending river.

The memory stocks deserve special attention.

Micron, SanDisk, Seagate, and Western Digital (WDC) still trade at single-digit or low-double-digit forward price-to-earnings multiples despite sitting squarely in the middle of a massive demand cycle. These aren’t names that have peaked.

Fundamentally, there remains considerable room for both earnings expansion and multiple expansion. SanDisk just launched a two-terabyte memory card retailing for $2,000. That tells you something about where the demand curve is heading.

Stocks to Buy After Earnings

For investors wondering where the next leg of this trade broadens, keep an eye on the industrial complex. Names like Caterpillar, WESCO, Deere (DE), Comfort Systems USA (FIX), and Dycom Industries (DY) are positioned to benefit as AI infrastructure buildout translates into real-world demand for equipment, energy, labor, and land.

These companies still offer discounted valuations relative to the pure semiconductor names (many of which have already sprinted to rich multiples).

Then there’s Qualcomm (QCOM)…

Over the past two years, the AI boom has systematically “reawakened” chip stocks that the market had left for dead. Nvidia was first. Then AMD. Then Intel (INTC), which rallied from the mid-teens to $90-plus in a matter of months. Now Qualcomm announced a new custom silicon business that has already secured a major contract with one of the world’s largest hyperscalers, with shipments expected by year-end.

QCOM stock hasn’t sprinted… yet. But it could follow the Intel pathway over the coming months, which suggests substantial upside from current levels.

Meanwhile, the other side of the economy keeps deteriorating. The Federal Reserve remains locked in a stalemate; a tug-of-war between incoming chair Kevin Warsh and departing chair Jerome Powell is all but guaranteeing that rates stay frozen.

The 10-year Treasury hovering around 4.5%, mortgages elevated, auto loans pinching consumers, credit card balances growing.

Iran’s nuclear standoff keeps oil above $100 per barrel with no resolution in sight.

Wage growth is running below inflation, creating negative real income growth.

The bifurcation is real, and it just got cemented. AI infrastructure is on fire. Everything else is limping.

That’s why Microsoft looks compelling here.

How to Proceed in This Market

A year ago, the market declared Google dead; GOOGL has since rallied 150%. Today, the same narrative is circling Microsoft and its OpenAI partnership. But GPT 5.5 just topped the benchmarks across the board.

OpenAI has $122 billion in fresh funding. And Microsoft remains the primary vehicle for that rebound.

Stop trying to bottom-fish Nike (NKE), Chipotle (CMG), and Disney (DIS). The macro backdrop isn’t built for those recoveries right now.

Ride the momentum where it lives: semiconductors, memory, industrials, and the broadening AI supply chain that’s only getting stronger.

The gusher is still flowing. The question is whether you’re positioned to catch it.

Watch this week’s episode of Being Exponential With Luke Lango to get the full scoop:

I'm sure many of you have traded them before. And if we're being honest with ourselves... you might even have liked trading them.

They move.

A lot.

And that's exactly the problem.

Let me explain...

The Product Everyone Loves... for the Wrong Reasons

When you buy a leveraged ETF, you're not buying the stock.

You're buying a daily-reset derivative designed to give you a multiple of that stock's daily move.

Two times. Three times. Sometimes more.

And that word €”daily €”is everything.

Because every single day:

• The fund resets
• The exposure recalibrates
• The math starts over

It doesn't care about your thesis, where the stock was last week or what your entry price is.

It just resets.

And then it compounds from there.

Why Professional Traders Don't Use Them

I started Masters in Trading back in 2015.

Before that, I spent decades on the professional side of this business €” CME floor, prop firms, market making at the CBOE. I was managing risk, trading size, thinking in terms of structure, probabilities, positioning.

And here's the honest truth...

Leveraged ETFs were not a core part of my world.

Not because they didn't exist €” but because the way professionals think about exposure, we don't need them.

If I want more leverage, I size up. Defined risk? I use options. If I want precision, I build the trade myself.

So when I started working more directly with individual traders, I was surprised to find so many of these poorly structured products getting buzz among my readers.

Why Traders Gravitate Toward Them

It's not hard to understand.

You pull up your scanner, you see a name like AXT Inc. (AXTI) lighting up with unusual options activity... and then right behind it, someone launches a 2x version of it, enter Tradr 2X Long AXTI Daily ETF (AXTX).

Of course they do. The thought of doing something twice as fast has a lot of appeal, which means people are going to give them what they think is more of a good thing.

If traders are chasing volatility, Wall Street is going to package that volatility and sell it right back to you €” with leverage.

And when you trade these products, you're buying the promise of getting more gratification, faster.

That's why certain trading cliques love them.

They feel exciting.

But there's something baked into these products that most people don't understand...

They leak.

And I don't mean metaphorically.

I mean structurally.

They are designed in a way where €” over time €” you are fighting against the math.

The Part They Don't Want You to Notice

Let me give you the simplest example.

Imagine a stock goes up 10% one day and then gives it right back the next day, down 10%. Most people instinctively think, "Alright, I'm back to even." But you're not €”you're actually down a little bit, about 1%. That's just how percentages work.

Now take that exact same path and apply a 2x leveraged product to it. Instead of up 10%, you're up 20%. Instead of down 10%, you're down 20%. And now, instead of being down 1%, you're down closer to 4%.

Same underlying move. Same two days. Completely different result.

That gap €” that widening loss €” is what traders call volatility drag or volatility decay.

The more volatile the path €” meaning the more frequent and larger the swings up and down €” the more those small losses begin to accumulate.

Over time, that creates a measurable gap between the asset's starting point and its ending value, even if the price appears to be moving sideways overall.

Here's what that looks like over ten days of back-and-forth movement where the stock itself finishes only slightly lower. It doesn't look dramatic at first glance...

But the leveraged ETF? It's down big.

Same underlying move. Wildly different outcome.

That's not bad trading or poor timing.

That's the structure of the product quietly working against you the entire time.

Now Layer Options On Top of That...

This is where the situation becomes more complicated. At this point, you're no longer dealing solely with the standard dynamics of options like time decay and changes in implied volatility €”  you're also working with an underlying product that is structurally losing value over time.

Options have the wonderful ability to amplify small moves in underlying equities. It can turn a small gain into triple-digit returns, and big gains into windfalls.

But when you try to amplify products that are built to lose, you end up amplifying that loss more often than not.

You've added another layer of friction to your trade before it even has a chance to work.

So even if you're right on direction... even if the move you're anticipating eventually plays out... the trade can still disappoint. And that's where a lot of traders get tripped up.

It feels like the timing was off, or the market didn't cooperate, when in reality the vehicle itself is working against you the entire time. You're not just trying to be right €”you're trying to overcome multiple headwinds at once.

That's why I say this very clearly: if you're trading options on leveraged ETFs, you're pushing a boulder uphill. It doesn't mean it's impossible. You can absolutely make money doing it. But you're making the job harder than it needs to be, and over time, that added difficulty has a way of showing up in your results.

How We Turn Opportunity Into a Structured Trade

A good way to understand this is to look at a setup where you're not layering complexity on top of complexity €” you're working with a clean underlying and using options the way they're intended to be used.

In our recent trade on POET Technologies Inc. (POET), we're dealing with a single stock.

No daily resets, embedded leverage, or structural quirks underneath the surface.

So when we add options to that position, we're not compounding hidden risks €”we're simply enhancing the exposure.

The options are directly tied to the stock's movement, which means if the stock moves in our favor, the options respond cleanly to that move. There's no distortion in the relationship, no extra variable quietly working against us in the background.

We kept things simple: One underlying, one directional thesis, and a defined-risk options structure layered on top.

So instead of fighting multiple headwinds €” time decay, implied volatility, and the behavior of the product itself €” we're focused on one thing: whether the stock moves.

And when it does, the structure is designed to pay you, not work against you.

When it was all said and done, our call spread reeled in a 492% return from an 80% move in the stock in 74 days.

That's what alignment looks like. And that's why this type of setup tends to produce more consistent, repeatable outcomes over time.

Trades like POET   aren't one-offs. It's a repeatable process €” from identifying setups, structuring the position, and managing the trade once it starts working. These are the fundamental elements of options trading we focus on inside the Masters in Trading Challenge.

Over the course of just seven days, I lay out the framework you can apply over and over again so that when the market presents an opportunity, you know how to act on it. If you want to see how this comes together in real time €”and start applying it yourself €”you can learn more about the Masters in Trading Challenge here.

This is the standard I want you using when you evaluate an options trade.

Is the underlying clean? Does it have clear structure? Is the risk defined? Is the trade giving you a direct way to express the thesis?

Because if the answer is no, I'd rather pass.

And that brings me to the names I see traders reach for all the time €” the ones that look active, look liquid, look exciting... but are built on exactly the kind of structure we want to avoid.

The ETFs I Want You to Treat Like the Plague

These are some of the most actively traded products I see come across our scanners and conversations.

And I don't want you touching them €”especially with options.

TQQQ €” ProShares UltraPro QQQ

3x daily exposure to the Nasdaq.

This one looks incredible in a straight-line rally. But in any kind of chop, the decay adds up quickly. If you're buying options here, you're stacking leverage on top of leverage €”and the math will catch up to you.

SQQQ €” ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ

3x inverse Nasdaq.

Pull up a long-term chart. It's a slow-motion grind lower with constant reverse splits. That's decay in action.

SOXL €” Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x

3x semiconductors.

Semis are already volatile. Now you've added leverage and daily reset mechanics. Great for intraday movement. Dangerous for anything beyond that.

SOXS €” Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x

3x inverse semis.

Same issue as SOXL, just flipped. You're not just betting against the sector €”you're betting against the structure holding up over time.

SPXL €” Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 3X Shares

3x daily exposure to the S&P 500.

This one gives traders triple exposure to the broad market, which can look great when the index is moving straight higher. But the S&P 500 doesn't move in a straight line. In choppy conditions, the daily reset and leverage create volatility drag, and buying options on top of that means you're stacking leverage on an already leveraged product.

UVXY €” ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures

Leveraged volatility exposure.

This is one of the cleanest examples of decay in the entire market. It exists to trade short-term volatility spikes €”not to hold, and definitely not to build options positions around.

UCO €” ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil

2x oil exposure via futures.

You're dealing with leverage and futures roll costs. That combination erodes value over time €”even if oil trends correctly.

AGQ €” ProShares Ultra Silver

2x silver exposure.

Commodities already have their own quirks. Add leverage and daily resets, and you get tracking issues that make options pricing even more difficult to navigate.

SSO €” ProShares Ultra S&P 500

2x S&P 500.

Even in a broad index, the same math applies. In a trending market it can work. In a choppy one, the decay quietly eats away at returns.

UNG €” United States Natural Gas Fund

Not leveraged €”but still decays.

This is an important one.

Even without leverage, the futures structure creates a long-term drag. Add leverage on top of something like this, and it only gets worse.

The Way I Think About It

If I'm bullish on a name, I'll buy the name.

If I want leverage, I'll structure it myself €” with options and defined risk.

But I'm not going to rent a decaying product that resets every day and expect it to behave over time.

Because it won't.

And if you take one thing from this, let it be this:

You're not just trading direction with these products.

You're trading against the clock...

Against volatility...

And against the structure itself.

That's a tough game to win, so don't play it.

It doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t show up in the headlines. It shows up first in the data €”pressure building beneath the surface of stocks that everyone assumes are safe.

Right now, I’m seeing that pressure building inside the business models of some of Wall Street’s most widely held software and AI companies.

The math changed before the narrative did at Enron.

It changed before the narrative did at Lehman. At Silicon Valley Bank. At every major blowup I’ve tracked across four decades of building quantitative models.

The stock charts looked fine. But the numbers underneath told a completely different story.

Right now, my models are picking up that same kind of stress again.

Not in the credit markets. Not in the broader economy. But inside the business models of some of the most widely held software and AI stocks on Wall Street; companies that most investors still think are bulletproof.

Most investors aren’t seeing it yet. The stocks still look fine and the narrative is still bullish. But the underlying dynamics are shifting in a big way.

My colleague Thomas Yeung has been tracking this more carefully than anyone I know. In the essay below, Tom explains what is driving this divergence €” specifically, a new class of AI that operates without waiting for instructions, and what that means for the companies most investors still consider untouchable.

He also points you to a free presentation from Eric Fry, who has been studying this transition for months. Eric’s conclusion: this isn’t just volatility. It’s the early innings of a major rotation €” one that could separate the next generation of big winners from the companies quietly being left behind.

I'd encourage you to read Tom's essay carefully, and then watch Eric's full presentation here.

The window to act is still open. But these windows have a habit of closing faster than anyone expects…

Imagine waking up one morning to find your bank account drained... your phone locked... and your passwords no longer work.

At the same time, systems you rely on every day €” payments, communications, even parts of the power grid €” start to glitch or go dark.

All this with no warning, no explanation, and no obvious point of entry.

Just chaos.

This is what could happen if hackers armed with AI exploited “zero-day” vulnerabilities: hidden flaws in software that no one knows exist and, therefore, has had zero days to fix.

On April 7, Anthropic released a limited version of Claude Mythos, an AI system so capable that the company immediately restricted access to it.

Mythos uncovered zero-day vulnerabilities in every major operating system, including one that had gone undetected for 27 years.

These hidden weaknesses can be exploited to steal data, seize control of computer systems, cripple critical infrastructure, and more.

Anthropic didn’t program Mythos to do this. The hacking capabilities emerged on their own.

As the company explained: “We did not explicitly train Mythos to have these capabilities. Rather, they emerged as a downstream consequence of general improvements in code, reasoning, and autonomy.”

The reaction at the highest levels was immediate. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a closed-door meeting with top bank CEOs to discuss risks to the global financial system. Shares of major cybersecurity firms fell by double digits.

Most investors missed it entirely. The usual noise €” Middle East tensions, gas prices, tariffs €” drowned out what may be the single most consequential technological development of our generation.

Because Mythos isn’t just a more powerful chatbot.

It’s a signal that AI has crossed a threshold that I’ve been watching for, and writing about, for months now. We’ve moved from AI as a tool that responds to instructions... to AI that can act, adapt, and solve complex problems entirely on its own.

In my work tracking hypergrowth opportunities across decades of market cycles, shifts like this don’t just change the technology landscape. They reshuffle the entire investment landscape with them.

The companies on the right side of this shift could see the kind of explosive, compounding growth that defined the early cloud winners and the best AI infrastructure plays of the last three years.

The companies on the wrong side may not survive it.

Which side your portfolio is on right now matters more than almost anything else.

This Shift Is Already Underway

To understand why Mythos matters, you need to understand what's been building underneath it.

A new kind of AI that doesn't just respond to prompts... but can execute complex tasks on its own.

A year ago, a Chinese startup called Manus AI introduced a system that could analyze financial transactions, screen job candidates, and navigate complex digital workflows without step-by-step human input. Retired New York Times writer Craig S. Smith called it a "game-changer."

That forced every major Western AI company to respond. Within months, OpenAI and Anthropic released similar systems capable of handling multistep tasks, managing workflows, and making decisions with minimal oversight.

Then last November came OpenClaw, a free, open-source platform that exploded to 30 million monthly users. At Nvidia Corp.'s (NVDA) GTC conference, CEO Jensen Huang called it "probably the single most important release of software... probably ever."

These aren't chatbots. They're digital workers - handling emails, moving files, managing information, writing code, reviewing contracts... and doing it around the clock without asking for a raise.

I've seen this firsthand. With Claude Code, I can now give an AI assistant raw financial data and ask it to build a quantitative model. It runs off by itself to write thousands of lines of code. Then it tests the model... critiques it... asks for more data... and suggests improvements. It's no longer a robotic mecha-suit that needs a human pilot. It's the whole machine, replacing entire teams of analysts and coders.

And if I can do that as one analyst, imagine what Anthropic's 1,500-person engineering team came up with when they used these tools for themselves...

So even if Mythos isn't the endpoint, it's a clear step-change in what these systems can do. New generations of AI models typically appear six to 12 months after a major launch, and I wouldn't be surprised if a "Mythos V2" arrives by December.

Why Your "Safe" AI Stocks May Be the Most Exposed

Here's where things get uncomfortable.

The same technology behind Mythos is now dismantling the business models behind some of Wall Street's most popular stocks.

On Feb. 4, Anthropic released a legal plug-in for Claude Cowork. The effect on Wall Street was immediate.

• Shares of Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI) gapped down 19%.
• LexisNexis parent RELX Plc (RELX) dropped 15%.
• LegalZoom.com Inc. (LZ) crashed 20%.

Wall Street has been calling this the "SaaSpocalypse," a rolling collapse in software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks that has now spread far beyond legal tech.

Will AI replace customer service platforms?

Real estate brokerages?

Financial services?

Business automation?

That fear isn't misplaced. For 15 years, the SaaS profit machine worked like this: Build a dashboard, connect it to a database, charge companies $30 to $100 per month per employee to use it. The more workers a client hired, the more money software companies made. No one questioned the 95%-plus gross margins these firms routinely earned.

But agentic AI doesn't need dashboards. It connects directly to underlying systems, pulls data, updates records, and triggers next steps automatically. When one AI agent can do the work of five junior analysts or paralegals, companies don't just need fewer employees. They need fewer software licenses.

And if these systems get powered by a model as powerful as Mythos, the pressure on SaaS business models could accelerate very quickly.

Meanwhile, the companies you'd expect to benefit - the pure-play AI names - are trading at valuations that assume perfection.

We saw this movie before during the dot-com hysteria. Many sought-after internet darlings like Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Lucent, and AOL failed to deliver... and so did firms like Borders and Circuit City that were disrupted by the internet era.

So, the question isn't whether AI is a big deal.

That debate is over.

The question is: As investors, how can we profit?

The Coming AI Reckoning

My InvestorPlace colleague Eric Fry believes the big profit opportunities will be in the "Appliers." These aren't the firms building AI. They're the ones using it to transform entire industries.

Think sensors, robotics, industrial systems, and security infrastructure. Companies with hard-to-replicate data edges and real-world integration that can't be vibe-coded away.

He sees this "AI Reckoning" as a major inflection point. In the coming months, he believes we're going to see a wealth shift from those holding the wrong stocks to those positioned in AI Applier companies that connect this digital technology to the physical world.

He's put together a free presentation that goes far deeper than I can here - naming the specific stocks he believes are most at risk, and the ones positioned to capture the upside as this shift accelerates.

The scenario we started with may sound extreme.

But the forces behind it are already here €”and they're beginning to reshape which companies win, and which ones don't.

If you own any AI-adjacent stocks (and at this point, who doesn't?), it's worth seeing what he found - especially before this shift becomes more obvious to the broader market.

Thomas Yeung, CFA

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace

P.S. A lot of investors think the biggest AI gains are already behind us. Eric Fry believes the opposite may be true... but only for a specific group of companies that most people aren't watching. In his latest presentation, he explains why some of today's biggest winners could struggle from here, and how a lesser-known group could deliver outsized gains in the next phase of the cycle. It's worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.

FAQ

Then it laid out what it would take to scale that process from a worm... to a mouse... and eventually, to a human.

Now, here's where things get interesting for us.

For decades, mapping the human brain has been one of science's biggest challenges. And while we're still years away from a definitive solution, we're starting to see the missing piece fall into place that could break the whole field wide open: brain-computer interfaces.

These are systems that allow the brain to communicate directly with machines €” turning thought into action and speech.

Right now, the headlines focus on major players like Elon Musk's Neuralink €” buffeted by twelve patients, a $9B valuation, and IPO rumors.

Sam Altman also committed $250 million to his own brain-chip startup earlier this year.

The reporting surrounding these companies often leans toward the dramatic: the merging of mind and machine, the next frontier of artificial intelligence, the possibility of restoring lost functions or even augmenting human cognition. 

It is a story that lends itself to headlines. But it is also, in some ways, a misleading one. The visible pieces of this emerging field €” the implants, the interfaces €” represent only its final layer.

What they're hiding is a much larger system that must exist before they can function in any meaningful way.

This is where the real opportunity lies for us. And in order to understand, we need to dig deeper than the headlines...

The Critical Systems Holding This Breakthrough Back

Once I got over my initial excitement after reading the report and considering what it might mean, I did what traders do: I moved straight to the supply chain. 

The MIT thesis, perhaps unintentionally, offers a map of this growing system. 

It identifies several areas that must advance together: structural imaging, which captures the physical wiring of the brain; functional imaging, which records activity; molecular analysis, which explains how neurons behave; and computational infrastructure, which integrates and simulates these layers. 

Each of these parts has made significant progress in isolation. What's new is the recognition that they are dependent on each other so that major progress in one without the others is unlikely.

This interdependence means that what we're really looking at is a set of bottlenecks that are overlooked in the broader narrative. 

This is exactly the kind of shift we focus on inside the Masters in Trading Challenge €” learning how to move past the obvious story and identify where the real edge sits before it becomes consensus.

It's not about predicting the headline outcome. It's about understanding what has to happen underneath it €”and positioning early. If you want to see exactly how we approach setups like this, you can learn more about the Masters in Trading Challenge here.

One of the clearest examples of this shows up in imaging. Imaging a brain at sufficient resolution is not simply a matter of improving a single machine. It requires scaling entire systems €” microscopes, data pipelines, processing algorithms €” by orders of magnitude.

The thesis suggests that even mapping a mouse brain would require dozens of high-throughput electron microscopes operating continuously for years.

And for a human brain? That demands far more extensive infrastructure that's currently lacking.

The Next "Genome Project" Is Already Taking Shape

Building these systems are not incremental challenges. They resemble, in scale and coordination, the kinds of efforts more commonly associated with large public works or scientific "moonshots." 

The Human Genome Project - the effort to map all human DNA that turned biology into a data-driven science and made genetic research dramatically faster and cheaper - is often cited as an analogy. 

When it was all said and done, that project required more than a decade and billions of dollars to complete. 

Brain emulation, if pursued at a similar scale, would likely demand comparable levels of investment and collaboration.

If the history of technological change offers any guidance, it is that the most transformative shifts rarely occur where attention is first directed. 

They unfold, instead, in the spaces beneath the surface, where small advances accumulate until they alter what is possible.

The sensors. The chips. The imaging systems.

That's where capital is starting to flow.

Right now, I'm tracking 14 names tied to this theme €” 10 public, 4 private.

In today's essay, I'm breaking down all fourteen names across three buckets:

• Two to start with today
• Eight to build deeper exposure
• And four private companies to watch as they approach public markets.

Let's dive in...

Bucket 1 - Start Here

If you only buy two names from this basket, start here.

Butterfly Network (BFLY): ~$500M market cap

BFLY produces handheld, chip-based ultrasound devices used in brain imaging. And unlike some of the other names on this list, this early-stage player is already bringing in sound business.

Last quarter, BFLY turned profitable for the first time, with revenue growing 41% year-over-year to $31.5M.

That momentum is only increasing as BFLY secures more contracts around its signature tech. Its ultrasound chip is licensed into Forest Neurotech, an Eric Schmidt-backed brain-computer interface project - and that's just one key partnership among many.

At a $500M market cap - with real revenue and BCI exposure - the risk/reward looks cleaner than most.

How I'd Play It

Start a position and add on pullbacks to support. This isn't a moonshot €”it's a functioning business with an underappreciated catalyst.

Quantum-Si (QSI): ~$194M market cap

This is the asymmetric bet. It offers the only commercial single-molecule protein sequencer currently available on the market.

The MIT research identifies protein sequencing as a gating technology for brain mapping. Right now, this is the only U.S.-listed way to access it. With revenue at just $2.4 million, this is a company firmly in its earliest stages with massive growth ahead.

How I'd Play It

Keep position size small. Treat it like a call option, not a core holding. If the thesis works, the upside could be significant. If not, downside risk is real.

Bucket 2 - Add These to Go Deeper

These names round out the basket if you want broader exposure. It's a mix of small-cap volatility and large-cap stability.

Hyperfine (HYPR): $127M market cap

HYPR provides the only FDA-cleared portable brain MRI system on the market - its Swoop device, which brings imaging directly to the bedside.

HYPR's reach is beginning to expand beyond the U.S. Just this year, the startup received approval in India to sell its devices, opening up a large new market.

HYPR is one of the smallest small-caps on this list. And it always trades on news.

With that approval and a surge in value since March, HYPR remains one of the best early land-grab opportunities in this basket.

How I'd Play It

Add HYPR for direct brain imaging exposure. Watch upcoming guidance for signs of international traction.

NVIDIA (NVDA): $5.6T market cap

Most investors own NVIDIA for AI, but few connect it to the brain race. That's about to change.

NVIDIA's Holoscan is an important application in the brain imaging race. For those who don't know, it's an AI-enabled sensor processing platform designed for real-time edge computing that can be deployed in various use cases - from security applications to the medical field.

Many of the top BCI players are building their tech on top of NVIDIA's Holoscan. BCI manufacturer Synchron's interface runs on NVIDIA Holoscan. And another BCI startup, Merge Labs, is expected to train models on its chips.

Regardless of which platform wins, NVIDIA sits upstream.

How I'd Play It

If you already own it, you have exposure. If not, this is another reason to consider it.

Micron (MU): $560B market cap

This is the memory bottleneck trade. Compute has scaled far faster than memory over the last three decades. That gap is becoming critical for both AI and brain emulation.

Micron is the clearest U.S.-listed play on high-bandwidth memory. And with so many clients for its chips already being participants in the modern brain race, this stock is one of the best ways to gain early exposure today.

How I'd Play It

It's cyclical. Look to buy on weakness.

Medtronic (MDT): $100B market cap

Medtronic partnered with Precision Neuroscience, gaining exposure to BCIs without building the technology internally.

That's a massive edge in a market where the biggest BCI makers are still dealing with major cost overruns and costly implementation failures.

Medtronic is already a giant in the space. With this partnership in place, MDT represents a more conservative way to trade the theme.

How I'd Play It

Useful for portfolios seeking income and lower volatility with some upside optionality.

Nautilus Biotechnology (NAUT): $331.6M market cap

This stock is a complementary play to QSI. NAUT approaches protein sequencing differently but targets the same bottleneck. And a recent partnership with Baylor College adds early validation.

How I'd Play It

Smaller position than QSI. Treat both as a paired bet.

Bruker (BRKR): $5.56B market cap

This is a "picks and shovels" name that's been setting off my UOA Monitor for weeks.

In fact, I just recently recommended the trade on Masters in Trading LIVE  as the perfect way to gain early exposure to the BCI trend.

This stock already has massive penetration in the space. Its microscopy systems are used across leading brain-mapping labs. It's a medium-sized player with a lot of room to run.

How I'd Play It

A more stable position relative to smaller biotech names.

Thermo Fisher (TMO): $174.5B market cap

One of only two companies globally producing the high-throughput electron microscopes used in connectomics research. A long-term compounder.

How I'd Play It

A steady, long-duration hold with lower volatility.

Broadcom (AVGO): $2.01T market cap

AVGO provides custom AI chips and networking infrastructure for hyperscalers. While not a direct BCI play, it supports the systems that make brain-scale computation possible.

How I'd Play It

Similar to NVIDIA €”core infrastructure exposure.

Bucket 3 - Watching, But Not Yet Public

These are private companies to monitor for IPO activity. When one files, expect ripple effects across the entire basket.

Neuralink
Private: ~$9B valuation

Elon Musk's BCI company has twelve patients implanted. So far, it's one of the most regulatorily compliant and well capitalized names in the space, already backed by FDA Breakthrough Device designation.

How I'd Play It

Not publicly tradable yet. When it files, expect rapid repricing across related equities.

Synchron
Private: Pre-IPO

Synchron offers a less invasive interface delivered via the jugular vein - all backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. As I alluded to at the top, Synchron also has several major partnerships in place with companies like NVIDIA and Apple Vision Pro.

HOW I'D PLAY IT

Watch for IPO filing. Potentially lower-risk than Neuralink due to its approach.

Precision Neuroscience
Private: Pre-IPO

Precision is working on a surface-level brain interface developed by a former Neuralink engineer. And it just recently received FDA clearance and partnered with Medtronic - all great signs as it works its way to a potential IPO.

How I'd Play It

Indirect exposure exists through Medtronic. Consider direct exposure if it goes public.

Colossal Biosciences
Private: Pre-IPO

Colossal is connected to Harvard geneticist George Church. While it's not a pure BCI play, the company is part of a broader biotech ecosystem that could intersect with neural research.

How I'd Play It

Highly speculative. Monitor for developments.

One last note: I'm long QSI. I do not currently hold the other names listed here. This reflects my research and watchlist €”not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Small-cap stocks in this space can be highly volatile. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before investing.

What Happens Next

History shows that when a complex problem becomes a matter of engineering €”when it can be broken down into discrete constraints €”capital flows to the solutions. And that all happens often before the broader narrative fully takes hold.

Today, much of this ecosystem remains underfollowed and, in some cases, mispriced relative to its potential role in the broader shift.

That won't last.

As progress in these underlying technologies becomes more visible €” through partnerships, breakthroughs, and eventually public listings €” the market will connect the dots.

When it does, the repricing is unlikely to be gradual.

For investors, the takeaway is straightforward: Focus less on the outcome and more on what must happen for that outcome to exist.

That's where the opportunity is today.

And if you're interested in learning more about the system that discovered all these names...

That knowledge is waiting for you inside the Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

The Challenge is where we take everything you've learned in my articles and daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

For seven days, we walk through the foundations of real options trading the way I learned them on the trading floor. You'll learn exactly how I think, exactly how I build trades, and exactly how I manage both the winners and the losers.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

Jonathan Rose,

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. In a recent beta test, TradeSmith CEO Keith Kaplan's new signals-based approach produced gains in just days €” not months. Now, for a limited time, you can explore the same system yourself and see what it's flagging right now across the market. To get a firsthand look at the same AI Signals system Keith uses €” including the top signals of the day and detailed data on any stock you search  €” watch the full presentation here.

That's the idea behind today's guest essay from TradeSmith CEO Keith Kaplan.

I asked him to walk you through how his team is using AI to identify these patterns €” what they call "signals" €” across thousands of stocks.

Not by predicting the market... but by recognizing when certain conditions line up the same way they have before.

It's a very different way of approaching investing, and one that's quietly powered some of the most successful strategies in history.

Even better, you can explore the system yourself right now, before Keith breaks it all down in his upcoming free event. You can reserve your spot and get access here.

In the spring of 1974, a 29-year-old architecture professor in Budapest set out to solve an engineering problem - and accidentally created one of the world's most fiendish puzzles.

Erno Rubik wanted to see if he could move a set of interconnected blocks independently without the whole structure falling apart.

He built a prototype from wood: 26 small blocks, held together by a rounded core inspired by the smooth stones he’d noticed along the banks of the Danube.

Then he scrambled it... and spent the next month trying to put it back together.

His cube had 43 quintillion possible configurations - the result of six faces, 54 colored squares, and every twist reshuffling their relationships.

What eventually cracked it wasn't brute force. It was the discovery that certain specific sequences of moves produced reliable, repeatable outcomes - every time.

For example: Turn the top layer clockwise twice, rotate the right side up, turn the top layer once more. Done in the right order, on the right pieces, that sequence always produced the same result. It didn't matter what the rest of the cube looked like. The outcome was entirely predictable.

What we've discovered at TradeSmith is that the stock market has its own version of this problem... and its own solution.

Each stock's trajectory is shaped by thousands of variables simultaneously price history, momentum, volatility, economic data, sector trends, and hundreds of other obscure factors most analysts would never think to connect.

That’s the principle behind a new AI-powered trading system our engineers spent the last 12 months developing. By evaluating 2.09 million potential trades every day, it’s found something striking.

When certain combinations of factors align, they point to trade setups with 90% or better historical accuracy.

These alignments don't just happen once or twice. They repeat across bull markets and bear markets, crashes and recoveries.

We call them "signals." And in a one-year backtest, a portfolio of these signal-based trades outperformed the S&P 500 by roughly 3-to-1.

In this piece, I’ll show you some examples of those trades... plus I'm giving you access to a beta version of our software ahead of our upcoming launch event.

First, if you don’t know us already, a little background on TradeSmith - and how we got here...

Modern-Day Prospectors

We're a financial technology firm based in Baltimore.

As CEO, I run a team of 65 people, and an annual budget of $8 million, to develop hedge fund-level analytical systems for self-directed investors.

More than 134,000 people in 86 countries use our software to manage over $29 billion in assets.

Inside our Research Lab, we're like modern-day prospectors panning for gold - only we use data and computers, not pans and pickaxes. We're constantly testing trading strategies, financial metrics, and data patterns to uncover profitable systems and indicators.

That's what's gotten us featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

Our risk-management software, TradeStops, put us on the map. It takes the emotions out of investing by showing you the ideal time to sell your stocks.

We've also created software that spots hidden seasonality patterns in stocks… finds undervalued options plays… and uses AI to forecast stock moves up to 21 trading days out.

I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far. But I have to say - this latest system tops them all...

Solving the Market's Puzzle... One Unit at a Time

Every signal in our new system is built from a specific combination of factors - technical indicators, price patterns, market conditions - that have lined up before and preceded big moves.

When they all line up again, the signal fires.

Take Invesco Ltd. (IVZ), one of the world's largest investment management firms.

Two factors have to align for this signal to fire. The stock's Bollinger Percent B and its Money Flow Index both had to exceed 80.

Bollinger Percent B measures where a stock's price sits relative to its recent trading range. The Money Flow Index tracks whether money is flowing into or out of the stock.

This is the kind of pattern no human analyst would ever find. Not because it’s complicated €” but because nobody would ever think to look for it.

But this IVZ signal produced an 18.8% gain in 11 days.

For Lam Research Corp. (LRCX), one of the largest makers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, two different factors had to align.

The stock had to close above its 200-day moving average. And that close had to fall two trading days before a market holiday.

That's it. Nothing about the company's earnings. Nothing about the semiconductor sector. Nothing about the broader market. Just a price condition and a calendar condition, lining up at a specific moment.

After the signal fired on August 28, 2025 - two trading days before Labor Day - LRCX gained 11.4% in 15 days. The historical accuracy rate behind that signal was 86%.

And we didn't just backtest this strategy using historical data. In January and February, we also ran a live internal beta test using these same signals internally - led by TradeSmith's Quant Strategist, Mike Carr.

Seven Times the Market’s Return

Mike started out writing code for the U.S. Air Force and working in cryptography for the Pentagon. He went on to co-manage mutual funds and high-net-worth accounts worth up to $200 million before joining us at TradeSmith.

He also holds the Chartered Market Technician designation - a credential in technical analysis that’s held by fewer than 5,000 people worldwide.

So, he's the perfect person to put this new system through its paces.

Of the top 100 trades he posted, we saw a 2.6% average gain in nine trading days. Over that same stretch, the S&P 500 went up just 0.4%.

So we're talking roughly 7X the market’s return.

And keep in mind, that average 2.6% return happened over nine trading days. That's the equivalent of a 73% gain across a full year.

Not from swinging for the fences on a handful of high-risk bets. But from a steady sequence of short, high-probability setups, each one identified by AI the night before the market opens.

And when we traded these signals with options, the results included:

• Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): 126% in 72 hours
• Nvidia Corp. (NVDA): 129% in 5 days
• Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT): 365% in 30 days
• HCA Healthcare Inc. (HCA): 461% in 13 days
• Generac Holdings Inc. (GNRC): 1,082% in 33 days

It's why I'm so excited to demo this new system at our upcoming launch event - and why I'd love for you to join me and test this breakthrough new system for yourself.

Unlike Anything in Our 21-Year History

At our AI Signals Trading Event I'll be sharing something I've never done before.

Mike agreed to put real money into whatever stock our signals system flagged one morning, without researching the company at all.

He didn't look at the earnings... or check the news... or even look up what the company did. He just followed the signal. We recorded the whole thing, and I’ll be sharing the result with folks who join us.

At the event, I'll walk you through exactly how our signals system works. I'll also get into the factors it tracks... the trades it's flagging... and why the weeks ahead could provide one of the most target-rich environments for signals trading we've seen in years.

It kicks off Wednesday, April 22, at 10 a.m. Eastern. So, make sure to clear some time in your schedule and secure your spot.

When you register with that link, you'll also get immediate beta access to our new signals software so you can test it out ahead of the event.

That way, you can explore the signals firing across 2,467 stocks for yourself before it airs.

I hope to see you there.

Keith Kaplan

CEO, TradeSmith

P.S. We've already let a small group of investors test the system ahead of the launch. One beta user, Edward V., reported a perfect success rate on every position he'd closed. Another, John M., called it a "game-changer."

Here's that link again to access our beta software before we launch on April 22.

Then reality caught up. A 57-page white paper from Google's DeepMind Research Center, Google's Quantum AI division, Stanford University, and the Ethereum Foundation proved that crypto encryption can be cracked with quantum computers far sooner than anyone expected.

This wasn't some amateur blog post or anonymous chirping in a comment section. This was a coordinated, peer-level warning from three of the most credible institutions in technology and cryptography.

The Numbers That Matter

I went through all 57 pages and distilled it down to the figures that traders need to understand:

Why This Is Worse Than the Headlines Suggest

Current blockchain security relies on elliptic curve cryptography €”the computational difficulty of solving discrete logarithm problems. Classical computers would need billions of years to crack a 256-bit key.

Quantum computers don't play by those rules.

Shor's algorithm, running on a fault-tolerant quantum machine, can theoretically reduce that timeline from billions of years to single-digit minutes.

We're not there yet €”current processors don't have enough stable qubits. But the paper argues the gap is closing 20 times faster than the industry assumed. Just like AI is improving a lot quicker than people think, quantum is on the same trajectory.

The $2 Trillion Exposure No One Is Pricing In

The critical detail most people miss: 1.7 million Bitcoin sit in old Pay-to-Public-Key addresses where the public key is already exposed on-chain. These are old, old coins €”keys likely lost forever.

At a $70,000+ valuation, that's over $100 billion in exposed assets. A quantum attacker wouldn't even need a man-in-the-middle attack €”they could derive private keys directly from the blockchain's public data.

Beyond that, 6.9 million Bitcoin across all protocols with reused public keys are vulnerable €”that's 33% of all Bitcoin in existence. Unspent attacks are possible: fast-clock quantum computers could intercept transactions in real time.

There's one piece of good news: proof-of-work mining itself is safe.

The risk is in the signatures €”the cryptographic locks that protect ownership. But that distinction doesn't shrink the scale of what's at stake.

Then there's Ethereum, which faces five distinct attack vectors: account-level, admin-level, smart contract code, consensus mechanism, and data availability layer vulnerabilities. The entire $600 billion-plus Ethereum ecosystem is in the crosshairs.

"It is conceivable that the existence of early quantum computers may first be detected on the blockchain rather than announced."

€” Directly from the Google DeepMind / Stanford paper

Let that sink in. The paper is suggesting that quantum computers may be used to steal crypto before anyone even knows they exist. That's the world we're walking into.

It all feels familiar - like we're living through another Y2K moment.

Yeah, Y2K turned out to be nothing. But the world spent $300 billion preparing for it.

Companies that sold the solution made fortunes €”not the ones who panicked on December 31st.

The same principle applies here.

Over $2 trillion in crypto assets are at risk. Unknown deadlines. The fix requires a global cryptographic migration. The money won't be made when quantum breaks crypto. It'll be made when the world starts preparing for it.

That preparation has already begun.

Panic Is a Strategy €” Just Not Ours

When this paper hit, we didn't scramble. We didn't panic-sell. We asked a better question than everyone else in the room:

Which blockchain is already built for a post-quantum world?

The answer: Algorand (ALGO).

I'll be honest €”I wasn't familiar with ALGO before I researched this piece.

But when you dig in, the picture is clear.

This is the first coin we've ever shared in a Masters in Trading Live broadcast, and there's a reason for that.

Why ALGO Specifically?

Algorand was designed from the ground up by Silvio Micali, a Turing Award-winning cryptographer from MIT, with forward-looking security architecture baked into its core.

Algorand's Pure Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism doesn't rely on the same computational assumptions that quantum computing threatens.

The Algorand Foundation has been actively researching and implementing post-quantum cryptographic primitives €”hash-based signatures and lattice-based schemes €”designed to resist exactly the kind of attacks this paper describes.

But here's the part most traders miss: narrative drives price before fundamentals do. The moment "quantum-resistant blockchain" becomes a mainstream search term, capital floods into the chain that already has the answer.

ALGO is that chain.

There's only one blockchain that's already prepared for this. On the day the paper dropped, ALGO was up 20%. It was trading at 14 cents at the beginning of the year, rallied up to 30 cents in 2025. The market is telling you something. Smart money is already positioning €”you can see the confidence just by looking at the chart.

The most efficient way to express this opining through coins is ALGO.

This is what separates us. Reading, doing the research, and then finding the most efficient way to express your opinion. That's the game.

Where the Capital Is Going

Zoom out. The post-quantum cryptography market is currently valued at roughly $400 million.

The paper projects it will grow to $2.8 billion €”a 46% compound annual growth rate. That's not a typo.

Who needs post-quantum security? Everybody at risk. And that's essentially everyone. The world needs to change as quantum comes on board.

NIST finalized its first set of post-quantum encryption standards in 2024. The U.S. Department of Defense, the NSA, and major financial institutions are actively auditing their cryptographic infrastructure.

Governments are moving. Institutions are allocating. Blockchains will be forced to adapt €”or face existential questions from every institutional allocator on the planet.

How to Invest in the Quantum Security Shift

It's not easy to get direct exposure. Here's the landscape:

Private pure plays are still in the venture stage €”these will eventually become massive IPOs.

On the public side, big cybersecurity companies are pivoting into this area: PANW (Palo Alto Networks), NXPI (NXP Semiconductors), and NET (Cloudflare) are all building post-quantum capabilities.

But for the most direct, highest-conviction expression of this thesis in crypto: ALGO is the play. Capital flows to solutions, not problems. ALGO sits directly in that path. And this may still be early innings.

Headlines Are Free. Edge Is Earned.

Anyone can scroll social media and catch the headline. That's table stakes. The real question is: what do you do with it?

Very few traders can digest a 57-page technical paper, extract the second-order implications, map those implications to specific assets, and translate all of that into a conviction position €”while the rest of the market is still processing the headline.

That's what happens inside Masters in Trading Live. Every session. In real time.

The ALGO setup followed this framework to the letter. So does every trade we take. This isn't about being smarter than the market. It's about having a repeatable process that consistently puts you ahead of the curve €”before the crowd arrives, before the FOMO kicks in, before the easy money is gone.

Stop Chasing Headlines. Start Building Conviction.

If you want to catch trades like this before they move, understand the "why" behind market shifts, and build the kind of conviction that lets you hold through the noise €”it's time to step inside the room where this work happens.

The Masters in Trading Challenge is designed to walk you through that process step by step. You'll see how we identify catalysts, interpret the signals that matter, and translate those into real trades €” all while managing risk in real time.

From identifying catalysts and unusual options activity... to translating that into trades... to managing risk and locking in gains.

You'll see the process play out from start to finish in just seven days, follow along with real setups, and start building the framework that allows you to think and act like a trader €” not a spectator.

No fluff. No noise. Just execution €” built around a repeatable system you can actually use.

Revenue beats. EPS misses. Conference call narratives.

That's surface-level noise.

What actually moves price is expectation €” and how real capital is positioned against it.

I learned that lesson the hard way.

You see, I've been in the stock market for over 28 years. While I've learned the mindset of a pro trader in that span, the knowledge and insights I've gained haven't come easy.

And four times a year, earnings season would roll around to remind me of just how much I hadn't yet learned about trading.

When I started on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 1997, I thought trading was about reacting quickly. I thought if I could interpret earnings faster than the next guy, I'd win.

I was wrong.

For years, every earnings season was the same. Volatility everywhere - but no high-conviction trade setups landing in my crosshairs.

Everything changed when I stopped asking, "What happened?" and started asking, "What was priced in?"

That shift €” from reaction to positioning €” is what built my process.

And today, there's an entirely new layer helping us answer that last question.

This "New" Prediction Market Shift Isn't on Wall Street's Radar

Prediction markets are online exchanges where participants buy and sell contracts tied to future real-world events €” interest rate decisions, election outcomes, inflation prints, tariff rulings, geopolitical developments.

Instead of trading stocks or commodities, participants are pricing probabilities. And they're putting thousands and even millions on the line to do so.

Contracts are binary: Yes or No, Will or Won't, Above or Below. They settle at $1 if the event occurs, $0 if it doesn't.

Now, these markets are nothing new. Polymarket came online back in 2020. Its nearest competitor, Kalshi, launched just a year later.

So why are prediction markets suddenly grabbing all the headlines?

Because when that much capital is on the line, belief adjusts quickly in the broader market.

In many cases, those probability shifts show up before analyst revisions... and before stock prices fully reprice.

That's the edge. Prediction markets don't replace fundamentals. They enhance them.

And they're changing the entire stock market as we know it.

Major institutions are already incorporating these probability signals into their forecasting process. Financial media is even beginning to monitor them closely this year.

And we can see in real time how these markets are handicapping the outcomes of everything from potential military strikes to business acquisitions.

Just check out one of the wagers I'm watching right now:

Source: Polymarket

Traders are betting thousands - even millions - on the odds that the U.S. government will invest big in any one of these stocks.

The list represents everything from semiconductor manufacturers to the suppliers shoring up the key materials these firms need to build out their chips.

You'll notice I highlighted several names including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), Freeport-McMoran (FCX), and Rigetti Computing (RGTI).

Each one was a winner for us over the last year. But it wasn't just earnings or a major acquisition announcement that tipped us off to these opportunities.

These trades express one new truth about the markets.

Combine prediction market data with the key institutional signals showing where the smart money is getting into position before earnings prints hit the tape...

And you have the power to get a read on the best opportunities in the stock market before the headlines have anything to say about them.

Just like we did when RGTI handed my readers a massive 233% gain in just five days.

Or when TMC netted my readers a whopping 700%+ gainer in just over two months.

That was a very special trade for us. TMC was the product of government-led volatility, a strong earnings beat carrying the stock higher - and the early probability signals from prediction markets that tipped us off to the setup in the first place.

I've already used these signals to identify rapid moves in stocks during earnings season and beyond:

• Sunrun Inc. (RUN), 151% in two days.
• BHP Group Ltd. (BHP), 189% in 17 days.
• Alphatec Holdings Inc. (ATEC), 213% in two weeks.
• Fastly Inc. (FSLY), 300%+ in just over a month.
• Snap Inc. (SNAP), 375%+ combined in about two months.

During this quarter alone, my closed trades are running at a 60% win rate, with an average return of 85.76% over roughly 31 days.

That's the repeatable edge we exploit.

Bets like the ones I showed you give us a stronger sense of the odds market participants are pricing in - and where they're positioning ahead of any big moves.

It's knowledge that, when paired with the data and fundamentals I highlight every day I go live with Masters in Trading, can help us pick more winners than losers.

Where the Edge Forms

Opportunities appear when belief changes €” but stocks haven't caught up yet.

That's the gap.

If probability markets suddenly reprice the odds of tariffs, subsidies, policy shifts, or macro outcomes €” and equities are still trading on outdated assumptions €” you have temporary misalignment.

And markets don't tolerate misalignment for long. That's how we've captured some of our biggest gains.

When tariff confidence deteriorated late last year, we moved early. SunRun delivered 151% in just two days. BHP returned 189% in 17 days.

Before earnings in Alphatec Holdings, the stock itself moved just 21%. Our structured trade returned 213%.

Snap dropped 44% after earnings. We still produced a combined gain north of 375%.

Fastly delivered over 300%. Taiwan Semiconductor produced a 700%+ gain in just over two months.

These weren't lucky breaks. They were pricing gaps closing.

I'm seeing more gaps like these emerging in the markets every day.

And right now, there's another massive gap bubbling up under the surface. It's right at the intersection of prediction market hype and institutional money flows.

Every earnings season I comb through the data to spot three new high-conviction trade ideas that bridge the gap between market hype and fundamentals. All in sectors that few investors are paying much attention to right now €” and we’re just days away from our picks for the new quarter.

I want you to be able to profit from one of the most important earnings seasons in recent memory.

That's why I put together a special presentation revealing these opportunities and much more.

Because here's the truth about hype... It's just another signal smart traders use to stay a few steps ahead of the crowd.

The kind of intel that allows you to stop gambling and start winning.

Here's that link again for you. I hope to see you there.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

They come from spotting the next constraint before it shows up in the data... before it hits earnings calls, before it becomes consensus.

That's exactly what we're starting to see right now coming out of Nvidia's GTC conference.

In today's issue, I've invited Eric Fry to break down a subtle but important shift inside the AI stack... one that could define where capital flows in the next phase of this boom.

It's the same pattern we've seen play out again and again: AI runs into a bottleneck... and the companies solving that constraint become the next big winners.

Eric has built a career around identifying these inflection points early. And right now, he believes a new set of constraints is forming... ones most investors aren't paying attention to yet.

He walks through the full thesis, and the specific opportunities tied to it, in his FutureProof 2026 presentation, now streaming.

You can watch it here.

Now, take it away, Eric...

Where will the next big gains in AI stocks come from?

That's the question every investor is trying to answer right now. And some of the most important clues for anyone tracking artificial intelligence stocks are emerging this week €” not on Wall Street, but in Silicon Valley.

At Nvidia's GTC 2026 conference.

Every year, thousands of engineers, developers, and executives gather to hear Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang outline what's coming next. But GTC has evolved into something much bigger.

It's where the AI industry telegraphs its next move €” and where investors hunting for the best AI stocks often get their earliest signals.

This year, one message is coming through loud and clear.

While NVDA stock built its dominance on GPUs, Nvidia is now turning its attention to something far less glamorous... but potentially far more important to the future of AI infrastructure.

The central processing unit €” or CPU.

It may not sound exciting. But this shift could define the next wave of leadership in artificial intelligence stocks to watch.

The Chip That Built the AI Boom

For the past several years, GPUs have been the backbone of the AI boom €” and the driving force behind the surge in AI stocks.

These chips excel at parallel processing, making them ideal for training and running large AI models.

That advantage created one of the biggest supply squeezes in semiconductor history.

Tech giants raced to secure GPUs. Data centers expanded at breakneck speed. And NVDA stock became the single biggest winner in the artificial intelligence trade.

In its most recent quarter, Nvidia generated more than $60 billion in data-center revenue €” up roughly 75% year over year.

Its market cap surged past $4 trillion, cementing its place at the center of the AI economy.

But the next phase of AI €” and the next leadership group in AI stocks €” may require something different.

The Rise of Agentic AI

Until recently, most AI applications behaved like chatbots.

You ask a question. The system responds.

But the next evolution €” agentic AI €” is already here.

These systems don't just answer prompts. They coordinate tasks, retrieve data, make decisions, and collaborate across networks of AI agents.

In other words, they don't just respond.

They act.

And that shift is reshaping the demands placed on AI infrastructure.

GPUs still handle the heavy lifting of model training and inference.

But in an agentic AI world €” where multiple systems are communicating, coordinating, and moving data in real time €” something else becomes critical.

General-purpose compute.

That's where CPUs come in.

GPUs run the models.

But CPUs increasingly run the system that manages the models.

And that distinction could matter a lot for investors looking beyond today's winners in AI stocks.

Nvidia's Quiet Pivot

Nvidia clearly sees this shift coming.

Years ago, it introduced its Grace CPU platform. Now, its next-generation system €” Vera €” is moving toward broader deployment.

The company recently signed a multiyear deal with Meta Platforms (META) to deploy Grace CPUs at scale inside its data centers.

And Nvidia-powered CPU systems are already running at major research institutions.

Why does this matter for AI stocks?

Because the explosive growth in GPUs has exposed a new bottleneck.

CPUs.

In today's AI data centers, racks are filled with incredibly expensive GPUs.

But if the CPUs feeding those GPUs can't keep up...

Those GPUs sit idle.

And idle GPUs are unacceptable in a world where demand for AI infrastructure is still accelerating.

A Quiet Supply Crunch

We're already seeing early signs of strain.

Server CPU delivery times are stretching toward six months. Prices are rising. And chipmakers are warning about tightening supply.

AMD has described demand as "unprecedented."

Intel has warned inventories could fall to unusually low levels.

The problem is straightforward.

Semiconductor capacity takes years to expand.

And as demand for AI infrastructure surges €” driven by both traditional models and agentic AI systems €” supply is struggling to keep up.

Some analysts now expect the global CPU market to more than double by 2030.

That's a major shift €” and one that could reshape the landscape of artificial intelligence stocks to watch.

The Next Opportunity in AI Stocks

Right now, most investors are still focused on the obvious winners.

Names like NVDA stock dominate the headlines €” and for good reason.

But the biggest gains in AI stocks rarely come from what's already obvious.

They come from bottlenecks.

Because when a system hits a constraint, capital flows toward the companies solving it.

We've seen this before.

In the early internet era, the biggest gains didn't just come from software companies. They came from the firms supplying the raw materials behind the buildout.

Companies like Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Cameco (CCJ), and others delivered massive returns as supply struggled to keep up with demand.

Today, the same dynamic is emerging in AI.

Because artificial intelligence doesn't just require software.

It requires infrastructure:

• Chips
• Energy
• Memory
• Data centers

And across this entire stack, new constraints are forming.

That's why the next wave of winners in artificial intelligence stocks may look very different from the first.

Preparing for the Next Phase

When bottlenecks emerge, money moves.

Often quickly.

And the investors who recognize those shifts early are the ones who tend to outperform.

That's exactly what I break down in my new presentation, FutureProof 2026.

Inside, I explain why multiple constraints are forming across the AI economy €” and highlight several AI stocks positioned to benefit as the next phase of AI infrastructure investment unfolds.

If you're looking for the next generation of best AI stocks, this is where to start.

You can watch it here now.

Only now, they are chasing the glitter of artificial intelligence €” the demos, the headlines, the glamorous software stories €” while missing the businesses supplying the machinery that makes the whole boom possible.

In a market that has turned flat, violent, and unforgiving, that mistake could prove costly.

The evidence is already there. The broad market has stopped behaving like the easy bull run of the past decade.

War headlines, oil shocks, private-market stress, and growing fears around AI-driven disruption have created a far more selective environment.

Meanwhile, some of the strongest signals in tech are not coming from the flashiest AI apps, but from the companies building the semiconductors, networking gear, memory systems, and data-center capacity behind the scenes.

Recent updates from names like Broadcom (AVGO) and Marvell (MRVL) suggest demand in that layer remains robust.

That is the part many investors still do not fully appreciate: in a messy market, the winners are rarely the most obvious crowd favorites. Often, they are the suppliers.

And that raises the more important question: if 2026 is shaping up to be a choppy, bifurcated market instead of a broad melt-up, should investors stop chasing AI's storytellers… and start buying its backbone?

In this week’s episode of Being Exponential With Luke Lango, we will look at why AI infrastructure stocks may be the most durable opportunity in today's market, why software could remain under pressure, and why the next phase of the AI trade may reward discipline far more than excitement:

The Argument for AI Infrastructure Stocks

One of the more compelling ideas from the latest Being Exponential podcast is that we are no longer in the kind of market investors grew used to over the last decade.

This is not a clean, broad rally where nearly everything rises together. Nor is it a straightforward bear market where the safest move is simply to duck and cover.

Instead, it looks more like a flat, selective, highly volatile tape… the kind of market that punishes lazy dip-buying and rewards precision.

And in that environment, AI infrastructure stocks may have the strongest hand.

The core argument is simple.

Even with war fears rattling markets, even with oil spikes creating macro stress, and even with broader concerns building around private equity, labor weakness, and software disruption, the AI buildout itself still appears very real.

That matters.

Because when investors strip away the noise, capital flows back toward the parts of the market where demand is visible, earnings are tangible, and spending remains urgent.

That is exactly the case for AI infrastructure.

These are the companies tied to the physical and technical backbone of the AI economy: semiconductors, memory, networking, data-center buildout, and other hardware-heavy enablers.

Unlike the more speculative corners of AI, these businesses are not selling a distant dream. Many are selling the actual equipment required to keep the boom going.

Our podcast points to recent strength from companies like Broadcom and Marvell, whose data-center businesses have continued to post powerful growth and improving outlooks.

That is not a trivial signal. If the companies closest to the infrastructure layer are beating expectations and lifting long-term targets, it suggests enterprise demand has not broken.

That also helps explain the growing divide between AI infrastructure and software.

The SaaSmageddon Is Here

Earlier in the year, hardware and infrastructure names were leading the market. Then wartime volatility briefly reversed the trade, with software catching a defensive bounce while semiconductors and industrial names slipped.

But as fears of a larger economic shock began to ease, the old pattern reportedly returned: hardware started leading again, while software rolled back over.

Why? Because software faces a more uncomfortable question. AI may not just help software companies… it may disrupt parts of the software business model itself.

If that pressure continues, investors may keep favoring the companies building AI's foundation over the companies trying to defend old margins against it.

That distinction could define this market.

The big takeaway is not that investors should blindly buy every chip stock in sight. No. It seems 2026 may require a different playbook.

In a flat market, leadership narrows.

Stock selection matters more.

Timing matters more.

The winners can still do extremely well, even if the major indices go nowhere.

That is why AI infrastructure stands out. It may be one of the few areas where fundamentals, momentum, and long-term narrative still line up.

The Bottom Line

Of course, the risk has not disappeared. The podcast makes that clear. If a deeper economic shock emerges €” especially from something like a private equity or credit event €” even the AI infrastructure trade could get hit.

After all, the AI spending boom is ultimately funded by real economic activity. If consumers and businesses pull back hard, the money feeding that buildout slows down too.

But that appears to be a later risk, not the dominant one right now.

For now, the market seems to be sending a more immediate message: this is no longer the age of buying everything. It is the age of buying what is still working.

And if that is true, the modern equivalent of picks and shovels may not be a romantic, old metaphor at all. It may be the most practical investment lesson of the year.

To see the bigger picture €” including the risks around war, private equity, gold, and why this market may stay choppy for months €” the full podcast is well worth your time.

Once he discovered the signal, he realized there was one big catch...

Between rising geopolitical tensions involving the U.S. and Iran, shifting liquidity conditions, and sharp swings in tech stocks , the QQQ could easily break in either direction.

So instead of trying to guess the market's next move, he took a page right out of the Masters in Trading playbook: He hedged the trade.

Specifically, he built a strangle. That's when you buy a call and a put with different strike prices but the same expiration date.

That strategy lets you position for a large move without needing to predict which direction the stock will go.

That large move Greg was looking for hit much faster than he expected.

Greg bought contracts Monday morning. By the end of the trading day, he was up over 536%!

Strangles are just one of the tools we use here at Masters in Trading. [You can watch my full lesson on strangles and straddles right here.]

We also use straddles, spreads, and other setups designed to profit from volatility itself €” not just market direction.

Right now, this kind of flexibility matters more than ever.

Markets are in panic mode amid the escalating Iran-U.S. war. Crude futures are spiking.

Major indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are taking massive hits, with both down roughly 7% this week.

Bonds bottomed out with their largest sell-off in nine months throughout February and early March.

In other words, the market that looked "stable" only days ago suddenly feels very different.

And this is exactly the environment where traditional long-term portfolios struggle the most €” when volatility expands overnight.

But remember something important.

There is always a bull market somewhere.

Where the New Bull Market Lives

Right now, the bull market isn't broad €” it's just concentrated in key assets like energy stocks, crude, and industrial metals.

When volatility spikes across these asset classes at the same time, it tells you something important: institutional capital is repositioning away from risk in droves.

We saw it last year with the endless tariff shock headlines and AI-driven sell-offs. We're seeing the same exact thing happen right now.

But here at Masters in Trading, the goal isn't to eliminate risk completely.

The goal is to control it.

We look for moments when institutional positioning and probability signals start to diverge from what the broader markets are pricing in. Then we structure trades around that gap.

That means positioning ourselves so we can capture significant upside while limiting our exposure to risk €” no matter which direction the market ultimately breaks.

This is the strategy that keeps our capital at work even when markets melt down.

Whether you're taking my recommendations or applying the Masters in Trading playbook to your own trades like Greg did...

Now is the time to lean into our options trading fundamentals.

The next place to look for profitable setups is in volatility itself. That's our edge.

And just like I taught Greg and all the other members of the Masters in Trading community, it all comes down to the key charts showing us where volatility is building next.

The Volatility Signals We're Watching Now: MOVE, VVIX, Crack Spread, USD/YEN

For the last month, I've been highlighting our five alarm, early warning system of volatility indicators to figure out exactly where the next volatility-based plays are emerging.

And I've been repeating one thing over and over:

The market cannot rally until the front end of the yield curve turns.

Last week, it finally did.

Short-dated yields started falling faster than longer-dated yields €” something investors call a bull steepening of the yield curve. That shift typically signals expectations for easier monetary policy, future rate cuts, and increased liquidity in financial markets.

So that's one out of five charts shifting in the right direction. But just because one chart is turning doesn't mean we can breathe a sigh of relief just yet.

Next, we watch the VVIX.

Think of the VVIX as volatility of volatility €” a measure of how aggressively traders are buying protection in the options market.

Right now, it's still elevated around 120.

Until that comes down, broad stock market rallies will likely struggle to gain momentum.

Now we zoom out to the yen carry trade.

This global strategy involves borrowing cheap yen and investing the money into higher-yielding assets like U.S. stocks or bonds.

When the yen weakens, the carry trade strengthens €” which usually supports U.S. equities. Lately, the yen has been moving fast again.

The last time we saw a move like this was August 2024, when global markets sold off sharply. That's a key level for us from here. A weakening yen keeps the carry trade in play.

Finally, we monitor one of the most important signals in the energy market: The 3-2-1 crack spread.

This measures the profit margin oil refiners earn by turning crude oil into gasoline and diesel.

When the crack spread rises, refinery stocks tend to follow. And right now? It's ripping higher.

That's not surprising when you consider that roughly 20% of global oil and natural-gas flows move through the Strait of Hormuz.

Any threat to that supply instantly pushes energy prices higher.

And when margins expand, refiners outperform. That's why names like DK, DINO, and PSX are strong.

Each of these charts is flashing alarms through the global financial system. They're broadly signaling a shift away from risk. Commodities and other safe havens are soaring amid a major repricing moment in the broader market.

Markets aren't collapsing €” but they aren't fully confident either. They're hovering right on the edge of a larger move.

That uncertainty causes most investors to panic. But for traders like us who understand volatility, it creates opportunity.

Because our strategy doesn't rely on predicting the market perfectly.

Instead, we stay proactive €” not reactive.

If markets drop? We position with puts.

If momentum builds higher? We ride the breakout. That's how we captured:

• 30% gains on a uranium trade this week
• 330% gains on an AI trade in Fastly (FSLY) €” even during one of the worst tech selloffs so far this year
• And a massive triple on CVR Energy (CVI) in just under two months

Each of these trades is based on the same volatility signals I highlight every day. The same system I've perfected over 28+ years. Consistent, repeatable, and profitable in any market.

And right now, I'm working on a complete overhaul of the essential technology behind that system. And it's set to change the way we trade unusual options activity forever.

The New Unusual Options Activity (UOA) Scanner

AI is making it possible to turn trading ideas into sophisticated tools faster than ever before.

In the past, building something like this required explaining every detail to a developer €” then waiting weeks to see the results.

Now we can build, test, and refine these tools in days.

And what we're working on now will dramatically improve how we identify smart-money options flow.

All of this is factoring into the new Unusual Options Activity (UOA) Scanner I'm building. This is no mere face lift.

I'm making a lot of tweaks to how we visualize options flow. For example, we can now get date ranges over the last one-day to seven-day range in total. I'm even able to fine tune the criteria for how stocks get tapped for the list.

But the real upgrade is something I rebuilt over one weekend - the Advanced Notice Scoring System.

This latest iteration of the model is generated by a machine learning model trained on 80,000 historical options flow events spread across a trailing 111 trading day window. That covers roughly 1,500 stocks.

This model looks for patterns in options activity that predict significant stock moves and options finishing in the money.

Instead of staring at a wall of options data trying to interpret it yourself, you'll be able to see where the smart money is really concentrating its bets.

Now, I'm not ready to release everything just yet. I want to make sure the system meets the same standard as the other tools I've built for our community.

There are still a few refinements underway. So keep in mind that the specifications you're seeing today are part of a working prototype and may evolve before the final release.

Consider this your first look at what we're building.

Once this is finished, it's going to change how we identify and trade unusual options activity.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Scanner - and the tickers and setups it reveals once I take it live...

The Masters in Trading Options Challenge is where you need to be.

The Challenge is where we take everything you've learned in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

1. What Is the Strait of Hormuz and Why Does It Matter to Investors?

The Strait of Hormuz sits between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula €” and war there has shaken global energy markets. The waterway is a critical passage for oil and LNG exports, and when it’s disrupted, the effects don’t stop at crude. They ripple into natural gas, fertilizer, and agricultural markets that most investors aren’t watching.

See which stocks to buy during the Hormuz crisis €” and why. †’

2. Should I Buy Oil Stocks Now or Did I Miss the Move?

The obvious trade has already proved dangerous. Oil nearly reversed 30% in a single session on Monday €” a reminder that trading crude during a geopolitical crisis is closer to a coin flip than an investment.

The producers worth owning are a different kind of bet entirely €” ones that stay profitable whether oil is at $85 or $120.

See which stocks to buy during the Hormuz crisis €” and why the crude trade misses the point. †’

3. Is Devon Energy (DVN) Stock a Buy During the Hormuz Crisis?

Devon is one of America’s largest shale producers and recently merged with Coterra Energy. Its breakeven oil price is low enough that it remains profitable even as crude pulls back €” and it can lock in current prices in the futures market regardless of where spot oil goes.

But Devon isn’t purely an oil story. A stranded gas problem in West Texas that hobbled Devon for years is now resolving, with new pipeline capacity coming online that connects its production to LNG export facilities on the Gulf Coast €” just as global LNG supply has tightened.

Get the complete Devon Energy (DVN) stock analysis for the Hormuz crisis. †’

4. Is Equinor (EQNR) Stock a Buy During the Hormuz Crisis?

Equinor is Europe’s largest supplier of piped gas €” and it has been here before. When Russian gas supplies dried up after the 2022 Ukraine invasion, Equinor stepped into the vacuum. Shares roughly doubled and dividends grew for four consecutive years.

Qatar has now been forced to curtail LNG production following Iranian missile strikes on its energy infrastructure. European gas prices have already spiked in response. Equinor shares are still trading nearly 20% below their 2022 peak.

Get the complete Equinor (EQNR) stock analysis for the Hormuz crisis. †’

5. Should I Buy Mosaic (MOS) Stock During the Hormuz Crisis?

The Gulf isn’t only an energy hub €” it’s a major supplier of nitrogen-based fertilizers, and those exports have effectively stopped. The most direct beneficiaries have already moved: CF Industries is up over 40% since January, Nutrien is up 20%.

Mosaic produces potash and phosphate €” a different category €” which is why it hasn’t moved with them. But rising nitrogen prices are already starting to influence crop planting decisions, and that ripple has implications for Mosaic that Wall Street hasn’t fully caught up to yet.

Get the complete Mosaic (MOS) stock analysis for the Hormuz crisis. †’

6. What Are the Risks If the Hormuz Crisis Resolves Quickly?

Oil prices are unpredictable in both directions. But Devon and Equinor’s low breakeven costs mean they remain profitable even if crude pulls back sharply. And the fertilizer market shift behind the Mosaic thesis is a separate dynamic from the oil price entirely.

See the complete Hormuz crisis stock analysis for Devon, Equinor, and Mosaic. †’

That's what today's essay explores. I've invited my colleague Luke Lango to explain why today's volatility is structural, why the old rules don't apply, and how identifying "breakout" stocks can dramatically improve your odds.

In his latest free briefing, Luke reveals how historical analysis shaped a breakthrough system designed to identify some of the fastest-moving stocks in the market €” before their biggest runs begin. The same framework identified stocks ahead of gains of 2,623%, 865%, and 2,149%... and it just flagged four stocks that could be on the verge of a major rally. (He reveals one for free during his latest broadcast.)

If you've been feeling the market's whiplash, this is a strategy built for this kind of environment. Read on...

On Saturday, February 28, at roughly 9 a.m. in Tehran, explosions lit up the Iranian capital.

Wall Street didn't wait for the morning shows. It didn't wait for analysis. It didn't even wait for traders to wake up.

Within milliseconds, trading algorithms had already processed the headlines, recalculated risk, and started selling.

By the time most of us saw "U.S.-Israel strikes Iran" on our phones, equity futures were sharply lower, oil was spiking, and volatility was jumping.

No panic on a trading floor. No shouting brokers.

Just machines.

This is how markets work now. Wars don't slowly ripple through investor psychology anymore. They hit the wires €” and algorithms pull the trigger.

More than 70% of U.S. equity trades are now executed by algorithms (and in certain high-frequency windows, that figure approaches 90%).

At the same time, retail participation has surged, with brokerage cash flows jumping more than 50% last year.

Fast machines. Record individual participation.

That combination creates a market that feels jumpier than ever.

I hear it from readers all the time: "I'm doing everything right... and it still feels like I'm one bad afternoon away from losing months of progress."

That anxiety is real €” and rising.

Just look at the extremes:

• Netflix Inc. (NFLX) down 75% in six months...
• Bill Ackman reportedly losing $400 million on that trade in three months...
• And a profitless "meme" stock like Opendoor Technologies Inc. (OPEN) rallying 900% while stronger peers finished the year down.

No wonder investors feel on edge.

So what's the answer?

Not prediction. Not panic.

A process.

Treat volatility as information, and then focus on the one signal that tends to survive chaos: breakouts.

The opportunity isn't in reacting to headlines. It's in recognizing when a stock quietly shifts from consolidation into momentum, before the crowd shows up.

That's what we'll walk through next…

Chaos Is an Asset Class… If You Have the Right Map

Volatility doesn’t care about your retirement timeline.

It doesn't care how "strong" the fundamentals look on paper.

When missiles strike while we sleep, the algorithms start firing before most investors have poured their first cup of coffee.

And just like that, months of steady gains can evaporate in an afternoon.

If your strategy depends on markets moving calmly and gradually, you have a problem.

Yet momentum traders are having their best stretch in years. Study after study shows momentum strategies tend to outperform over time.

The reason is simple.

You’re not predicting the future.

You’re reading the present.

But spotting genuine momentum before it becomes obvious requires more than instinct. It requires a system

Introducing Stage Analysis: The Hidden Architecture of Every Stock

In 1988, trading pioneer Stan Weinstein outlined a framework in his book, Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, that changes how you see stock charts.

His thesis: Every asset moves through four stages.

• Stage 1: Sideways consolidation, largely ignored.
• Stage 2: Breakout and sustained advance.
• Stage 3: Distribution, as smart money exits.
• Stage 4: Decline.

The money is made in Stage 2.

Consider a few examples...

Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) entered Stage 2 in May 2023 around $9. By late 2025, it traded above $200.

Carvana Co. (CVNA) broke into Stage 2 at nearly $7 in May 2023. It climbed more than 6,500%.

The investors who caught those moves didn’t need insider information. They recognized the Stage 2 setups before the rest of the market showed up.

That’s the power of stage analysis.

A System That Does the Work for You

Identifying true Stage 2 breakouts across thousands of stocks before they move requires serious analytical horsepower.

That's why my team and I have built a system that quantifies Weinstein’s framework into a proprietary scoring model - grading thousands of stocks in the market from 0 to 5 based on the strength of their momentum setup.

In back-testing, it flagged eight of 2025's top-performing stocks before their big runs, including:

• Hycroft Mining Holding Corp. (HYMC)before a 1,100% move.
• Terns Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TERN) before an 865% surge.
• MP Materials Corp. (MP) months before the Pentagon deal and a partnership with Apple Inc. (AAPL) sent it to the moon.

The system doesn't chase headlines.

It looks for one thing.

Stocks on the verge of entering Stage 2.

In a market driven by algorithms and geopolitical shocks, reading price structure instead of predicting headlines isn't optional.

It's essential.

The Window Is Open, but It Won’t Stay That Way

AI has fueled a powerful bull market. But history shows late-stage rallies can accelerate - and then reverse just as quickly.

That doesn’t mean you sit on the sidelines.

It means you use the right tools while the opportunity is still there.

Volatility isn’t going away.

Geopolitical shocks aren’t going away.

Algorithms aren't going away.

But chaos always produces outliers - stocks entering stealth bull markets while the rest of the headlines scream crisis.

The question is whether you have a way to find them.

In my latest free presentation, I explain why the old playbook no longer works… and what's replacing it.

You'll see how volatility has become the new normal... why buy-and-hold now feels like a white-knuckle ride... and how my Stage 2 breakout strategy is designed to target stocks just as major momentum runs begin.

I'll walk you through the four-stage framework, show you how my upgraded Nexus Stock Screener analyzes more than 3,000 stocks in seconds, and reveal the name and ticker of a stock the system just flagged.

If you're tired of reacting to market chaos, and ready to get ahead of the next major move, this broadcast is for you.

Click here to watch it now.

Regards,

Luke Lango

Editor, Hypergrowth Investing

Complexity loses its premium, and adoption explodes. Profit pools shift. And that's when money flows toward simplicity.

AI is bringing simplicity online in a big way. It's what I like to call AI's "Wallpaper" Phase.

You see, investors love the wiring phase: chip demand, GPU orders, data center build-outs, billions in capex.

But users don't care how AI is wired. They care about convenience. Businesses care about productivity. Markets care about margins.

That intersection is where durability lives. And that's where the next big opportunity to gain exposure to the AI wave is taking shape.

AI's Everything Plug: Model Context Protocol

MCP €”Model Context Protocol €”is the underlying layer that connects AI to websites across the internet.

And I want to make one thing very clear. The only stocks that will thrive during AI's next phase are the ones that go all-in on MCPs. The evidence is right in front of us.

AI assistants €”ChatGPT, Claude, and others €”are becoming the way people shop and interact online.

They need to connect to real businesses to work €”stores, banks, software platforms. MCP is the new universal connection layer that allows AI assistants to do exactly that.

Google. Microsoft. Amazon. OpenAI. They're all adopting it. And the emerging use cases for MCP tell us why.

Just imagine this:

You tell your AI assistant, "Find me a blue cashmere sweater under $200, size large, and buy it."

The AI searches thousands of stores €”but only those connected via MCP.

It selects three options. Your saved payment method is used. The item shows up at your door.

No website visited. No app opened. Not even a Google search. Just a seamless experience that users barely notice.

Growing Opportunity: New Wave. New Winners.

I'm using this example to make one point extremely clear.

If a company isn't connected to AI infrastructure, it won't even be in the conversation.

This is bigger than crypto. I haven't felt this strongly about a technology since 2019. That's back when I started talking about Ethereum early and positioned accordingly.

By 2030, this market could exceed $385 billion €”larger than the entire U.S. online grocery market today.

Not all of the major players in AI will be winners. But the ones that will survive - and thrive - should certainly be on your radar.

With all that said, the AI boom is a magnet for volatility. The last few months alone have been marked by sector-wide market shocks that are seriously weighing down AI stocks.

And while my thesis hasn't shifted, the next wave of profits in AI will come to those who manage their risk early - and understand the true stalwarts of the next AI infrastructure phase.

The Tech Sell-Off Isn't What You Think

Tech stocks are having their "Black Monday" moment right now.

Major software companies from Salesforce (CRM) to Adobe (ADBE) have registered deep losses over the last few weeks. Why?

It all comes down to fears around AI and the future of work.

The market is pricing in a scenario where artificial intelligence could replace 50% or more of software roles.

Now consider that over 80% of major software stocks are owned by institutional investors (pension funds, index funds, hedge funds). The selloff happened because they always move in herds.

So when a company reports disappointing earnings or negative sentiment hits the sector, institutional investors who are overweight tech are essentially forced to dump positions. That creates massive selling pressure - regardless of long-term fundamentals.

All this indiscriminate volatility in tech looks familiar. It really suggests another quick, DeepSeek-like selloff. And just like we saw with that sell-off last year, markets recovered quickly despite fears around AI dominance.

The Logic is Simple

The players I mentioned above are so deeply embedded in enterprise infrastructure that they’re “too big to ignore.” Institutions absolutely must own them regardless of short-term AI concerns.

After the initial panic subsides, the same institutions that sold must eventually buy back in to maintain their sector allocations. And that creates predictable buying pressure we can act on right now.

These panic selloffs typically create 10-15% single-day discounts in otherwise healthy companies.

That's exactly where we swoop in.

We've leveraged these pricing gaps with previous winners like C3.ai and even bearish plays on stocks like Asana that likely won't survive AI's next wave.

Each one trades on the same basic strategy.

This isn’t about believing AI won’t disrupt software €”it’s about exploiting the gap between long-term uncertainty and short-term institutional behavior patterns that create predictable price movements. That volatility is where we live.

And just like last year's panic selling, volatility is handing us serious opportunities - if we look in the right corners of the stock market.

I'd like to show you a better way to trade on every volatile market swing with The Masters in Trading Challenge.

It's a seven-day intensive designed to show you how to take everything you've learned in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

Just click here to learn more about the Challenge.

Now, let me show you where I'm finding the strongest signals around AI right now...

IGV: The "Everything AI" ETF Play

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is a basket of roughly 100 software companies €” and it's widely used by institutions and retail investors for broad exposure to the AI boom.

IGV has been falling as all these SaaS names get absolutely crushed. The ETF is down sharply in 2026. Roughly a trillion dollars in market cap has been wiped from the space.

SaaS names like CrowdStrike are double digits And many more are still in free fall.

But here's the problem with ETF selling...

When investors panic and sell the ETF, market makers must liquidate the entire basket.

It doesn't matter if the company is fundamentally strong or on a shaky foundation. Like I mentioned above, herd mentality always drives institutions to sell.

That means quality stocks always get punished alongside companies that truly deserve it.

But this recent panic is even more overblown than the headlines suggest.

Since late February, IGV has been holding above $80. That's a key level for us - our new "Line in the Sand." Any slight dips could mean another pullback from here - but I'm fundamentally bullish on AI in the long-term.

We just need to find the AI survivors not only enduring this next wave - they're building it all as I write to you.

3 AI Stocks Wall Street Isn't Watching

Not all tech companies are equal in the AI world.

Some businesses like Asana and Docusign are directly threatened by AI automation. If AI can replicate the function cheaply and instantly, those names are vulnerable.

But other giants in the space - Microsoft, Apple, Google, to name a few - stand to benefit massively.

Now, those companies represent the top layer of the AI build-out. They're building data centers, spending billions on software, and generally guiding the industry forward.

But for every big name like Microsoft, there are a handful of players positioned for the same shift that fly way under the radar.

Make no mistake - they're just as big and important as the headline stocks I highlighted above. I recently went live to discuss three of these names  with the Masters in Trading community. And I've only gotten more bullish on these stocks since then.

1. Shopify (SHOP)

Shopify has been beaten down because investors are treating it like a traditional SaaS company. But it's not.

Shopify is deeply embedded in AI commerce infrastructure. It partnered with Google to help build the standard language AI agents use for shopping. Walmart, Target, Visa, and Mastercard have all signed on.

Revenue is $11.6 billion €”and growing. Shopify is set to become one of the most essential payment rails for AI-driven commerce.

2. Cloudflare (NET)

Cloudflare has been dragged down with SaaS names. But Cloudflare is hosting the AI servers that facilitate our access to software.

If Shopify is the payment rail, Cloudflare is the infrastructure backbone. It is critical to how AI agents connect and operate.

3. Twilio (TWLO)

Twilio plays a crucial role in AI communication. It's how AI agents communicate €”messaging, verification, transactional interaction.

The AI Trader's Playbook

AI is making the services these companies provide even more indispensable.

That's the transition I'm focused on right now.

Not speculative moonshots. Not headline AI hype.

Just large-scale distribution platforms where AI gets layered onto recurring revenue streams and seamlessly serves millions of users.

Here's what traders need to know right now...

You don't need to be the builder. Follow the money, not the headlines.

Watch hedge funds, and endowments. Watch insider buying and selling. Look for margin expansion.

And don't chase flashy AI startups. Many winners will be boring. But this is all about allocation, not speculation.

If you're interested in learning more about the opportunities I'm tracking in this space...

The Masters in Trading Options Challenge is right here to help you in your journey.

The Challenge is where we take everything you've learned in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

1. Why Did Moderna Stock Crash So Hard?

The short answer: the fundamentals collapsed right along with the stock. Revenue fell by roughly 90% from pandemic highs, and Wall Street revalued Moderna accordingly €” from hypergrowth vaccine winner to shrinking biotech.

The longer answer is more nuanced, and it’s where the opportunity starts to take shape.

Get the full collapse analysis for Moderna stock. †’

2. Is Moderna Still Just a “COVID Company”?

That’s how the market is pricing it. But COVID-19 was never the business model €” it was proof of concept for Moderna’s mRNA platform. The company has since built a late-stage pipeline that spans oncology, respiratory disease, and rare genetic conditions.

Whether that pipeline changes the valuation math is the central debate.

Read why the “COVID company” narrative misses the point for MRNA. †’

3. How Important Is the Cancer Vaccine for Moderna Stock?

It may be the most important clinical program in biotech right now. Early data from Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine €” developed with Merck €” showed a dramatic reduction in recurrence rates that caught the attention of oncologists and investors alike.

Multiple Phase 3 readouts are on the calendar. If the data holds up, the investment thesis shifts entirely.

See why the cancer vaccine is central to the Moderna stock bull case. †’

4. Does Moderna Have Enough Cash to Fund Its Pipeline?

More than most investors realize. Strip out the net cash on Moderna’s balance sheet from the current share price, and you’re paying a surprisingly low amount for the entire pipeline.

The math here is one of the most compelling €” and overlooked €” parts of the Moderna stock story.

Review the cash runway analysis for Moderna stock. †’

5. What Are the Biggest Risks for Moderna Stock?

They’re real and worth taking seriously. Structural revenue decline, regulatory headwinds from the current administration, and the ever-present risk that Phase 3 oncology data disappoints €” any of these could extend the pain for Moderna stock.

See the full risk breakdown for Moderna stock before making a decision. †’

6. What’s the Upside Target for MRNA Stock if the Cancer Data Delivers?

A move toward $100 per share is plausible €” nearly double today’s price €” if Moderna stock gets revalued as an oncology platform rather than a fading pandemic name. That outcome hinges on Phase 3 data and longer-term revenue visibility, but the global cancer immunotherapy market is large enough that even a small share would dwarf Moderna’s current revenue base.

See the valuation framework and upside scenario for MRNA. †’

7. Is Moderna Stock a Buy Right Now?

At around $53, Moderna remains nearly 90% below its peak. Short term, the stock will move on clinical headlines. Long term, it comes down to one question: can the oncology platform deliver?

The complete risk-reward breakdown €” including where I stand on whether MRNA belongs in your portfolio today €” is in the full analysis.

Get the complete Moderna stock turnaround thesis. †’

Wall Street got caught flat-footed. Margins deteriorated sharply across the board, and forward guidance came in well below expectations. Most alarming: CoreWeave plans to deploy $2.60 in capital for every dollar of revenue it expects to generate in 2026 €” a ratio far above what analysts had modeled.

The market’s verdict was swift and severe.

Get the complete earnings breakdown and what it means for your portfolio. †’

2. Did Anyone See This Coming?

I did €” and the signal I saw came from inside the company.

Before the earnings report landed, CoreWeave’s own executives were quietly unloading shares at a pace that raised serious red flags. Senior officers sold millions of shares, many within days of receiving them. That kind of urgency from insiders rarely signals confidence.

Find out what CoreWeave insiders were doing before the crash €” and what it may signal next. †’

3. Is CoreWeave Actually a Tech Company?

Not in the way most investors think.

Strip away the AI branding and CoreWeave’s business looks more like a leveraged leasing operation than a technology firm. It raises capital, acquires hardware, rents it out, and uses the proceeds to service its debt. The margins of a lender. The debt load of a lender. And unlike true software businesses, it doesn’t get more efficient as it grows.

Understand why CoreWeave’s business model may be fundamentally misunderstood by the market. †’

4. How Exposed Is CoreWeave to Losing Key Customers?

Extremely. Two customers account for more than three-quarters of the company’s revenue. That kind of dependence doesn’t just create risk €” it eliminates pricing power entirely.

Management acknowledged during its most recent earnings call that rates for AI computing capacity failed to rise in 2025, even as demand accelerated. With operating margins forecast to shrink further in 2026, the revenue base is both concentrated and under pressure.

Read why CoreWeave’s customer concentration may be its most underappreciated risk. †’

5. What Is CRWV Stock Actually Worth Right Now?

At current prices, the risk-reward math is difficult to justify.

A rigorous fundamental analysis puts my fair value estimate around $100 per share €” close to where shares traded before the selloff. But for investors seeking adequate compensation for the company’s debt burden and business risks, the right entry point is materially lower than that.

Could momentum and retail enthusiasm push shares higher anyway? Absolutely. But there’s a difference between a trade and an investment.

See the full valuation framework and what price makes CRWV worth the risk. †’

6. Why Am I Calling CoreWeave the Next MARA?

Because I’ve seen this movie before.

MARA Holdings was supposed to deliver leveraged exposure to bitcoin’s rise. Instead, the stock dramatically underperformed the underlying asset €” weighed down by the same forces now bearing on CoreWeave: commoditized output, relentless capital requirements, and no durable competitive advantage. The parallel isn’t flattering.

Read the full MARA comparison and why it may be the most important lesson for CoreWeave investors. †’

7. Where Should AI Bulls Put Their Money Instead?

The long-term case for AI investing remains compelling. The question is whether CoreWeave is the right vehicle.

Companies with proprietary software, defensible technology moats, and self-funding business models offer a very different risk profile €” one that doesn’t depend on perpetual debt financing to stay competitive. Two specific names are already on my radar.

Discover which AI stocks may offer better risk-adjusted returns than CoreWeave right now. †’

There's a lot to like: the iconic car and soundtrack, the fantastic performances and sharp humor. But the thing that burned into my brain wasn't the car or the jokes.

It was the clock tower. What a great scene...

The storm is rolling in. The cable is stretched across the street. Doc is shouting at Marty that lightning would strike at exactly 10:04 p.m. Not maybe. Not possibly. Exactly.

As a kid, that idea felt – well, electric. Lightning €” something wild and uncontrollable €” suddenly had a schedule. A time. A place. All you had to do was be standing in the right spot with the right mechanism, and you could harness it to change the course of your history.

I didn't know it then, but that scene lodged itself somewhere deep.

Years passed. School, college, careers. The movie became a cultural touchstone for a generation. But the idea stayed with me €” the idea that chaos isn't always chaos. Sometimes it's structured. Sometimes it's scheduled.

Fast forward to my early days as a trader.

Instead of a movie screen, I was staring at price charts.

Markets are loud. There's always a headline, always a hot take, always someone shouting about the next big thing.

You turn your screen on and a stock is up 18% on some headline you didn't see coming. Another one gaps down 12% overnight. By the time you read the news and understand what happened, the move is over and it feels like the ship has already sailed.

It can feel random. It can feel unfair. It can feel like everyone else knew something you didn't.

But then I realized something that took me back to that theater in 1985…

Not all volatility is random.

Some of it is scheduled.

Some of it comes with a timestamp.

And if you know when and where the lightning is going to strike €” if you build the right mechanism in advance €” you don't need to control the storm.

You just need to be ready for it...

Very early in my career I developed a deep love and appreciation for the simple earnings trade.

They represent one of the rare moments in the market where uncertainty becomes structured. Sitting at the intersection of expectation, volatility, and psychology, they channel forces that drive price movement more than any headline ever could.

And just like that clock tower scene - when you approach it correctly, it transforms what feels like chaos into potentially life-changing opportunities.

So today I'm going to share with you the three biggest reasons earnings setups are some of my favorite trades a person can take.

No. 1 – We Know When Volatility Will Hit

If you've made it this far, then you've probably already figured out that I love earnings trades because they answer two of the toughest questions a trader can face: “Where" and "when."

Most market volatility feels random. A Fed comment hits the tape. A geopolitical headline breaks. A CEO says something off-script on television. You're reacting after the fact.

With earnings we're a lot like Doc and Marty - we know exactly where and when that lightning-fast volatility is set to hit.

So now that we have the earnings date, we know the right time and the right place. What we still need is the right mechanism.

No. 2 – High Probability Trade Setups

In the movie, knowing where the lightning will strike isn't enough. They have to capture it and direct it into the flux capacitor. So they build a wiring rig €” a cable system designed to channel 1.21 gigawatts of raw energy into the back of the DeLorean.

In earnings trades, that wiring rig is the trade structure itself €” specifically, straddles and strangles.

When traders think about earnings, most of them immediately start debating direction. "They're going to beat. Guidance will be strong. Buy calls!" "This one looks weak. Buy puts!"

The problem is that the market is already debating those things, too. Expectations are baked into the price before the company ever reports. A "beat" doesn't guarantee a rally. A "miss" doesn't guarantee a drop. What matters is how reality compares to what was already priced in.

Early on, I realized that trying to outguess Wall Street on direction wasn't a consistent edge. What was more interesting was how options were priced relative to the stock's historical post-earnings moves.

That's where straddles and strangles come in.

A straddle involves buying a call and a put at the same strike price and expiration. You're positioned for a significant move either up or down, because one side gains value as the stock moves sharply away from that strike.

A strangle is similar, but the call and put are purchased at different strike prices €” typically out of the money. This structure usually costs less upfront than a straddle, but still benefits if the stock makes a large enough move in either direction.

In both cases, the goal isn't to predict where the stock goes.

It's to position for how far it moves.

Instead of betting on up or down, we structure trades that benefit from movement itself. If history shows a stock regularly moves 8%, 10%, sometimes 15% after earnings, but the options market is pricing in a much smaller move, that's a pricing discrepancy.

Now we're not asking, "Will they beat?"

We're asking, "Is this move underpriced?"

That shift changes everything. It removes the emotional tug-of-war of being right or wrong on direction and replaces it with a probabilistic framework focused on volatility €” the kind of preparation that turns our lightning strike into something useful.

No. 3 – Repeatable Process

My third and final reason I love earnings trades is that they're not a one-off opportunity. This isn't about catching a single lucky move.

Earnings season starts all over again each quarter. Four times a year, the entire cycle repeats itself. Expectations build. Companies report. Volatility expands.

It's the next best thing to having a time machine.

And because we have a battle-tested approach we've spent the past two years putting together some of the best trades of my career.

We can scan for names with a history of large post-earnings moves, compare implied volatility to those historical moves, and structure defined-risk trades that align with that data. And we can size them in a way that assumes some losses are part of the distribution.

Then we do it again next quarter.

This isn't about hitting a grand slam every time. It's about operating with a framework that gives us a statistical edge over a series of trades.

That's how professionals think. They don't rely on one outcome. They rely on process.

That's the Power of Earnings

When probabilities move, but price and volatility haven't caught up yet, that gap becomes actionable. That's where opportunity lives.

Earnings season is where this strategy really shines.

So far this quarter, my closed trades are running at a 60% win rate, with an average return of 85.76% over roughly 31 days. And just last week, we closed out a 300% win on our Fastly (FSLY) earnings strangle.

That's when expectations collide with reality. When analyst forecasts meet hard numbers. When hype either gets validated €” or breaks.

And when expectations are even slightly misaligned, stocks can move violently.

So far this season, we've already captured multiple double- and triple-digit percentage gains by focusing on one thing: Real money flow, not headlines.

We look for moments when institutional positioning and probability signals start to diverge from consensus expectations. Then we structure trades around that gap.

I've already used these signals to identify rapid moves in stocks like:

• SunRun (151% in 2 days)
• BHP (189% in 17 days)
• Alphatec Holdings (213% in 2 weeks)
• Fastly (300%+ in just over a month)
• Snap (375%+ combined in about 2 months)

That's the repeatable edge we exploit.

And right now, another setup is forming at the intersection of prediction-market probability shifts and under-the-radar earnings catalysts. In a new presentation, I'm walking through three high-conviction opportunities developing in sectors most investors aren't paying attention to yet.

If the market has ever felt random to you, this will show you that it doesn't have to be.

Watch the presentation and see how we position ourselves when we know exactly where €” and when €” the lightning is going to strike.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

These were no fools. Kerosene worked, and so did steam. It was a profitable system, and these were practical people. Why rip it up for expensive wires and unproven dynamos?

Within a generation, the question wasn't whether electricity was a bubble but why anyone ever doubted it.

Power became abundant, cheap, and ubiquitous. In turn, it completely reorganized the economy around it.

This is the same dynamic investors are facing right now with artificial intelligence.

The risk isn’t that AI fails to live up to the hype, but that it works exactly as advertised… That it strips friction out of research, coding, legal work, customer service, and analysis €” not for $10,000 a seat, but for the cost of compute... or $20 a month.

You can already see it in the tape. The indices look calm, but underneath, it's a split screen: On one side there’s capital pouring into the physical AI supply chain while, on the other side, entire clusters of software and "friction businesses" get marked down in days.

When AI disintermediates one layer of spending, the money migrates, concentrating in the infrastructure that makes the system run €” and that infrastructure must be built, expanded, powered, and refreshed repeatedly.

That's why capital keeps attaching itself to areas like the semiconductor complex €” with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) €” and to chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM), Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), Micron Technology Inc. (MU), ASML Holding NV (ASML), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD)… even as many software stocks struggle to hold gains.

So the real question isn't whether to "buy the dip" in yesterday's winners… It's where the dollars flow when AI gets better every quarter.

In this week's Being Exponential, we break down the widening divide, explain why some software rebounds may be little more than reflex rallies, and outline how to position on the right side of this migration before the crowd fully recognizes what's happening.

Take a look and let us know what you think in the comments:

Today, Palantir has expanded into commercial sectors (from healthcare to energy) with a suite of platforms: Gotham (for government analytics), Foundry (for enterprise operations), Apollo (for deploying software in any environment), and its new Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) for integrating AI into business workflows.

In short, Palantir's software connects data, analytics, and operations so organizations can act on insights quickly… now with an AI platform layer to drive enterprise AI applications.

Why Is PLTR Stock So Expensive?

Palantir stock carries a sky-high valuation because investors have priced it like a future AI category winner. Even after a recent pullback, PLTR stock trades around $120 per share - roughly 200 times earnings.

The company's growth has been impressive (Palantir's U.S. commercial revenue jumped 137% year-over-year last quarter, with management guiding for ~61% revenue growth in 2026).

Those "inflection point" numbers have fueled optimism that Palantir's AI-fueled expansion will justify its rich price. In effect, the market expects Palantir to deliver exceptional growth and margins for years to come to support this premium valuation.

PLTR stock isn't cheap by any metric, but bulls argue that its unique position in mission-critical AI software warrants the premium.

Can Palantir's AI Platform (AIP) Drive Real Growth?

Palantir's new AI Platform (AIP) is key to converting hype into real growth.

AIP is an orchestration layer that securely connects third-party AI models (like large language models) to a company's internal data, with strict governance and controls.

This means enterprises can deploy powerful AI tools on sensitive data while meeting security requirements - a huge selling point in sectors like finance, healthcare, and defense. Palantir has been running AIP "bootcamps" to show clients quick wins and accelerate adoption.

The big question: will those pilot projects turn into large, repeatable deals? If AIP makes Palantir's software easier to deploy and more plug-and-play, it could transform Palantir from a custom consulting-like business into a high-margin enterprise AI platform. Early signs are promising - Palantir's U.S. commercial growth soared 137% year-over-year, signaling strong demand.

If AIP continues to convert trials into multi-year contracts and expands usage across organizations, it can absolutely be the engine of Palantir's next growth surge. However, if these AI pilots don't scale up, AIP could end up as more buzz than business.

What Risks Could Hit Palantir Stock?

At its current valuation, Palantir stock has little room for error.

The biggest risk is that Palantir can't live up to the enormous expectations built into its $100+ share price. With the stock around 200x earnings, even a slight slowdown in growth or margins could trigger a major pullback.

For example, if Palantir's much-hyped AIP deals stall out or if competitors offer cheaper AI solutions, the narrative of "unstoppable growth" could crumble. The company's history of heavy stock-based compensation is another concern… and the ongoing dilution of shares needs to taper off as the business scales.

Notably, famed investor Michael Burry has likened Palantir to an "emperor with no clothes," arguing that enthusiasm for the stock's AI story far exceeds its fundamentals. Burry even disclosed bets against PLTR, suggesting its fair value might be closer to $46 - implying a 60%-plus drop from current levels if the optimism collapses.

In short, any sign that Palantir's explosive growth is a one-time blip (or that Palantir's commercial growth decelerates sharply) could hit the stock hard.

Is PLTR Stock a Buy After Its Recent Rally?

After a huge rally this year, Palantir sits at a crossroads - and whether it's a buy now depends on your conviction in its future vs. its price.

Bulls see Palantir as a one-of-a-kind enterprise AI powerhouse that has become the "AI operating system" for high-stakes organizations.

They point to Palantir's expanding operating margins, nearly 1000 customers, and deep government ties as evidence that the company can keep delivering high growth and fend off competitors. On the other hand, bears argue Palantir stock is priced for perfection, meaning any stumble could be costly.

With the stock already reflecting years of future success, the key question is how much of that future is already priced in - and whether Palantir can outrun those expectations.

In practical terms, Palantir has enormous long-term potential in the AI economy, but new investors should be mindful that at its premium price, this stock will need to execute flawlessly to deliver further outsized returns.

Ready to dive deeper?

To understand Palantir's full bull vs. bear case and its outlook in the AI era, read the full MarketWise breakdown here.

A ship could return with less cargo than expected.

Or, even worse, two ships could return at once, flooding the market and crushing prices.

The Dutch East India Co. was one of the world's first multinational corporations €” and one of the first great engines of speculation.

Back then, investors didn't have stock charts, earnings models, or algorithmic tools. They had rumors, expectations, and whatever conviction they could muster.

Fast forward 400 years, and the tools have changed. Human behavior hasn't.

Traders still react to narratives. They still chase stories.

But modern markets don't move on stories alone.

They move on probability.

And right now, a powerful probability engine is shaping the next wave of market moves, whether most investors realize it or not.

These real-money probability signals  are often more reliable than analyst forecasts...

And I'm going to show you how I use shifts in belief, before prices adjust, to identify high-probability setups in individual stocks.

Because when you understand how expectations form, and how they break, you stop reacting to headlines.

You start positioning ahead of them.

The "Dirty Secret" Behind the Market's Latest Hype Cycle

In my 28+ years as a professional trader €” from the floor of the CBOE to running capital at a bond prop firm €” I've seen hype in every form imaginable.

I started trading near the peak of the dot-com boom. Retail investors chased names like eToys and Pets.com based on headlines and momentum. But on the floor, we weren't trading the headlines.

We were trading positioning.

We watched how institutions were allocating capital... how expectations were being priced... and where valuations had detached from reality. That's where the real profits were made.

I found similar setups during the Great Recession, the COVID crash, and the bond collapse of 2021.

The lesson hasn't changed: Markets move when expectations shift €” not when the headlines hit.

And over the past year, a new force has started accelerating those expectation shifts... combining retail speculation with actual gambling.

I'm talking about prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket.

These platforms allow participants to trade contracts tied to real-world outcomes €” policy decisions, economic data releases, elections, and other high-impact events.

Unlike traditional commentary, these markets reflect real money positioning. Participants aren't offering opinions €” they're committing capital based on how likely they believe an outcome is.

And that distinction matters.

Because prediction markets don't wait for headlines. They price probabilities before the news breaks.

When those probabilities begin shifting €” even subtly €” it signals that expectations are changing beneath the surface of the broader market.

And when expectations shift before stock prices fully adjust, opportunity tends to follow.

They're "Rigging" the Game

Kalshi and Polymarket have existed for years. But 2024 is when they became impossible to ignore.

Take the U.S. presidential election.

While most Americans were consuming media narratives shaped by whichever end of the political spectrum they preferred, prediction markets were pricing probabilities in real time.

If you were watching Polymarket closely, President Donald Trump's odds climbed decisively well before the final votes were tallied. Capital was flowing in one direction €” and it wasn't subtle.

Yes, one deep-pocketed French trader with about $30 million in Trump wagers was the biggest winner when the dust settled. But that's precisely the point. These markets reflect conviction backed by capital €” not commentary.

And it's not limited to elections.

When speculation began swirling around the next Federal Reserve Chair, odds on Kalshi shifted rapidly after key political signals emerged. The probability moved first. The broader narrative caught up later.

We've seen the same dynamic throughout the past year. Tariff headlines. Policy pivots. Trade negotiations. Each "news bomb" hit stock prices fast, but prediction markets were already adjusting probabilities beneath the surface.

If you want the fastest signal on rate cuts, trade deals, or sector rotations, it's rarely the press conference. It's the money positioning ahead of it.

That's what I mean when I say these markets are "rigging" the game.

They're not manipulating outcomes.

They're revealing expectations before the rest of the market fully digests them.

And when expectations move first, prices usually follow.

Prediction markets don't just illuminate politics or macro shifts. They also help us spot major shifts in global capital before they fully ripple through stocks.

Right now, several large economies are reducing their exposure to U.S. Treasuries. That may sound like dry macro trivia. It isn't.

When major buyers step back from U.S. debt, it affects currencies, interest rate expectations, and risk appetite across global markets. And those shifts eventually spill into stocks €” sometimes abruptly.

Here's the key: Traditional headlines often lag these transitions. But probability markets begin adjusting almost immediately.

When expectations around rate cuts, trade agreements, or currency strength start moving in these markets, that's an early clue that institutional positioning is changing.

You don't need to trade bonds or currencies to benefit.

You just need to recognize when a broad belief shift is underway, because that's when pricing gaps begin to form across sectors and individual stocks.

That's the framework my members and I have used repeatedly over the past year:

• Identify where expectations are drifting...
• Find where stock prices haven't caught up yet...
• And position ahead of the adjustment.

The real edge isn't predicting macro headlines.

It's recognizing when belief has already started moving.

Where the Real Opportunity Is

Prediction markets do privilege traders with the best intel.

Just look at the trader who reportedly put tens of millions behind a single election outcome. That kind of conviction doesn't come from guesswork. It comes from positioning.

And that's the dynamic taking shape right now. The most informed, best-capitalized players are constantly expressing their expectations in real time.

Most retail investors can't compete in those arenas directly.

But here's the good news: You don't have to.

Because the traditional stock market gives us something even more powerful - leverage.

We don't need millions riding on a political outcome. We just need to recognize when belief shifts before stock prices fully adjust.

Prediction markets become our early-warning radar.

When probabilities move, but price and volatility haven't caught up yet, that gap becomes actionable.

That's where opportunity lives.

Earnings season is where this strategy really shines.

That's when expectations collide with reality. When analyst forecasts meet hard numbers. When hype either gets validated €” or breaks.

And when expectations are even slightly misaligned, stocks can move violently.

So far this season, we've already captured multiple double- and triple-digit percentage gains by focusing on one thing: Real money flow, not headlines.

We look for moments when institutional positioning and probability signals start to diverge from consensus expectations. Then we structure trades around that gap.

I've already used these earnings season signals to identify rapid moves in stocks like:

• Sunrun Inc. (RUN), 151% in two days.
• BHP Group Ltd. (BHP), 189% in 17 days.
• Alphatec Holdings Inc. (ATEC), 213% in two weeks.
• Fastly Inc. (FSLY), 300%+ in just over a month.
• Snap Inc. (SNAP), 375%+ combined in about two months.

During this quarter, my closed trades are running at a 60% win rate, with an average return of 85.76% over roughly 31 days.

That's the repeatable edge we exploit.

And right now, another setup is forming at the intersection of prediction-market probability shifts and under-the-radar earnings catalysts.

In a new presentation, I'm walking through three high-conviction opportunities developing in sectors most investors aren't paying attention to yet.

If you want to understand how this belief-gap framework works in real time, and how to apply it during one of the most important earnings stretches of the year, I encourage you to watch it.

In the 17th century, traders had to wait months to learn whether a voyage paid off.

Today, belief moves instantly.

And the trader who reads that shift first doesn't gamble.

They position early.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

But here's what does matter €”and what has always mattered: how people feel about the future. Especially when those people are informed, engaged, and willing to back their views with real money.

That's not a new concept. Markets have been trying to quantify sentiment for nearly a century. What's new is how fast, how transparent, and how accessible that information has become.

The Old Way: Surveys, Snapshots, and Lag

Since 1946, the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index has been one of the most closely watched gauges on Wall Street. Every month, households are surveyed about their views on inflation, employment, their personal finances, and the broader economy. The results are dissected by economists, debated on financial television, and used to construct entire investment narratives.

When sentiment falls, the commentariat warns of slowing growth. When it rises, optimism returns. Markets respond €” not because the survey causes anything, but because sentiment shapes behavior. The people who feel confident spend, invest, and take risk. The people who don't, pull back.

This has been the template for decades: a monthly snapshot, released on a schedule, based on self-reporting, interpreted after the fact.

So imagine this: What if you could see that same shift in belief €” not once a month, but in real time? Not from a survey, but from people putting money behind their convictions?

Well, you can stop imaging it. It's already here.

Welcome to the Age of Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are online exchanges where participants buy and sell contracts tied to future real-world events €” interest rate decisions, election outcomes, inflation prints, tariff rulings, geopolitical developments. Instead of trading stocks or commodities, participants are pricing probabilities.

The two most prominent platforms right now are Kalshi €” a U.S.-regulated exchange offering event contracts on economic data and policy outcomes €” and Polymarket €”a crypto-based platform that has exploded in popularity for pricing political, geopolitical, and macroeconomic risk.

The mechanics are straightforward. Contracts are binary: Yes or No, Will or Won't, Above or Below. They settle at $1 if the event occurs, $0 if it doesn't. A contract trading at $0.70 implies roughly a 70% probability. As new information enters the system, prices adjust continuously €”creating a live, capital-backed gauge of collective belief.

And now that we know how it works, here's where it gets interesting for traders...

What These Markets Actually Look Like

Consider the question every equity and bond trader is tracking right now: How many times will the Fed cut rates in 2026?

Polymarket: "How many Fed rate cuts in 2026?" €” Probability distribution across outcomes, updated in real time.

This isn't a pundit's prediction. It's not a dot plot released eight times a year. It's a live market where thousands of participants are continuously expressing their views with capital at risk. Right now, the market is pricing two cuts (50 bps) as the most likely outcome at 27%, with three cuts close behind at 23%. A single cut sits at 18%, and four or more cuts at 12%.

What matters here isn't the snapshot €” it's the trajectory. Notice how the two-cut and three-cut lines have been converging since January while the four-cut probability has been climbing from its lows. That's a market quietly repricing toward more accommodation. If that shift accelerates, rate-sensitive sectors €” real estate, utilities, growth tech €” will begin to move before the headlines catch up.

The signal isn't the number. It's the direction of the number. And that direction changes before consensus does.

Geopolitics, Repriced in Real Time

Now consider a different kind of question €” one that doesn't show up in any Fed statement or earnings report, but has massive implications for energy, defense, and commodity markets:

Polymarket: "US-Iran nuclear deal by June 30?" €” Probability surging from ~12% to 39% in under two months.

This contract has gone from roughly 12% in mid-December to 39% today €” a tripling of implied probability in about two months, backed by nearly half a million dollars in volume. That's not noise. That's a significant shift in how informed participants are assessing the likelihood of a geopolitical outcome that would reshape energy markets overnight.

If you trade energy, defense, or anything tied to Middle Eastern risk, this is the kind of leading signal that traditional sentiment tools simply cannot provide. A monthly consumer survey will never tell you that deal expectations moved 12 points in a week. This market will.

The question for a trader isn't whether the deal happens. It's whether current prices in oil, defense stocks, and related sectors have already absorbed this shift €” or whether there's still a gap between belief and price.

Even Market Structure Is Being Priced

Prediction markets aren't limited to policy and geopolitics. They're now pricing competitive dynamics at the highest level:

Polymarket: "Largest company end of December 2026?" €” NVIDIA 47%, Alphabet 27%.

On the surface, this might look like trivia. But for anyone managing sector exposure, it's a real-time consensus gauge on the AI leadership race. NVIDIA's 47% probability reflects a market that believes the AI infrastructure buildout still has significant runway. Alphabet at 27% suggests the market sees a credible path for their AI strategy to close the valuation gap.

Think about what this means for trade construction. If you're considering a relative value position in mega-cap tech €” or deciding between semiconductor and cloud software exposure €” this is a live, crowd-sourced view of competitive probabilities. It won't tell you what to trade, but it will sharpen the questions you're asking.

How We Actually Use This Information

I want to be very clear about what we're doing and what we're not doing...

We are not trading prediction markets. We are observing them.

What I'm watching for is not a single probability number but movement €” especially sustained, directional movement. When odds start shifting meaningfully, it tells me that people who care deeply about these outcomes are updating their views. Something has changed in how the future is being priced.

Then I run through three questions:

1.  Has price already adjusted?  If the stock or sector has already moved, the opportunity is gone. I pass.

2.  How is risk being priced in the options market?  If implied volatility is already elevated, the cost of the trade erodes the edge. I pass.

3.  Is there a defined-risk expression that gives me asymmetric reward?  If I can't risk $1 to make $5, the setup doesn't qualify.

The opportunity lives in the gap €” when sentiment shifts first and price lags behind. That's where the creative trader operates.

The Framework in Action

This process has shown up repeatedly in recent trades, across very different parts of the market.

In materials-linked names like BHP, nothing fundamental changed overnight. The business didn't suddenly improve. What shifted was expectation €” around growth, rates, and macro conditions €” and those expectations began moving quietly in prediction markets before they filtered into equity prices. Using defined-risk call positions, we entered early and exited decisively as the repricing unfolded. Gains north of 170%, with one position approaching 190%, achieved in days.

In solar, the same framework appeared. Sunrun and the broader solar complex didn't become different businesses. What changed was how the world was beginning to think about tariff risk €”and prediction markets reflected that shift before consensus formed. Relative strength appeared in the stocks before the narrative adjusted. Two separate call positions produced gains of roughly 120% and 150%.

Different industries. Same logic. Same disciplined process. Same outcome.

What This Is €” and What It Isn't

Prediction markets are not a crystal ball. They won't hand you trades. They won't replace discipline, risk management, or the hard work of building a consistent process.

They can be wrong €” often. But they're honest. They reflect how belief is evolving before it calcifies into consensus. When combined with price action, options structure, and a systematic framework, they can sharpen your timing and improve your decision-making in ways that were simply unavailable to retail traders five years ago.

For most of market history, this kind of real-time sentiment data was asymmetric. Institutions commissioned proprietary surveys. Hedge funds ran private polling. Banks had economists interpreting early signals long before they filtered into public view. Retail traders got the headline version €”late and diluted.

That asymmetry is collapsing. The data is live. The access is free. The question is whether you're paying attention.

Markets Have Always Traded on Sentiment.

What's new is that you can now watch it form in real time €” backed by capital, updated continuously, and available to anyone willing to look.

Success in markets doesn't come from knowing the future. It comes from understanding how belief is changing €”and acting before price finishes the thought.

And if you want to go beyond watching sentiment shift €” and start building the kind of framework that lets you respond to it with confidence...

I encourage you to explore the Masters in Trading Options Challenge .

The Challenge is where we take the concepts we emphasize inside Masters in Trading €” defined risk, disciplined entries and exits, position sizing, emotional control €” and organize them into a clear, structured process. It's not about predictions or big promises. It's about learning how to approach markets with a repeatable method.

Over the course of the program, we slow things down and focus on the foundations. How to think through opportunity. How to structure risk before chasing reward. How to develop the kind of consistency that separates reaction from execution.

Information is everywhere. Process is what turns these creative insights into success.

Because the creative trader wins.

Earlier this month, I made a decision. I wanted to know my members better.

Every day I show up, talk to you, and answer questions in our Masters in Trading Discord community. I watch familiar usernames scroll by.

These are people I've come to know. I see how they think. I see how they approach risk. I watch how they're progressing with the trades, the tools, and the materials.

And I'll tell you €” there's nothing better than watching the lightbulbs turn on in real time.

But the truth is, most of our interaction still happens through screens.

Digital communities are powerful. They allow us to learn together, move together, improve together.

But they also create distance. You don't always get the chance to sit across from someone, slow the conversation down, and hear how the journey actually felt from their side.

So, I decided it was time to start shining some well-deserved light on the people who make this community what it is.

So I reached out to a member of the Masters in Trading community some of you might recognize - Jon.

If you're inside the Discord, you know exactly who I'm talking about. He's one of the steady voices in the room. Helpful. Thoughtful. Always working to understand the why behind what we're doing.

We've worked together for about eight months, but this was the first time we'd actually spoken face to face.

And as he started describing how things have changed for him over the last year, something became very clear to me.

I already knew Jon was doing well.

What I didn't fully appreciate €” until I heard him say it out loud €” was how profound the transformation had been.

In fact, his story explains what makes Masters in Trading different much better than I ever could.

Building a Framework

Jon is a physician. Highly educated. Comfortable making critical decisions with incomplete information. He's spent decades operating in environments where precision matters.

If intelligence and discipline were enough to win in markets, he would have been miles ahead of everyone right out of the gate.

But he told me that despite years of reading, studying, and subscribing to quality research, he mostly felt like he was treading water.

He described long reports that never quite translated into meaningful returns. Recommendations that seemed to arrive after stocks had already moved. Ideas that sounded great, but fell short on defined risk management. An unsteady thesis underpinning each trade he made.

What stuck with me most was how he described the emotional weight.

The uncertainty.

Putting trades on and then lying awake wondering if he had missed something.

I've heard that feeling from engineers, executives, attorneys, business owners €” incredibly capable people who somehow still felt like they were guessing.

Not because they lacked effort or capability. But because they lacked structure.

The Moment Things Started to Click

Jon didn't start by diving headfirst into paid programs.

He watched video after video of the hundreds available on my YouTube channel.

He joined as many of our daily livestreams as he could. He paid attention to how we talked about markets.

He noticed how often we waited. He saw that when we acted, it wasn't because I had a grand prediction €” it was because something observable had changed.

So, he tested a small idea.

It worked.

Then he tried another. A few hundred dollars risked turned into a result that made him pause and say, "Okay, there's a process here I need to understand."

That's when curiosity turned into commitment.

He joined the Masters in Trading Challenge. Then he stepped further into the ecosystem. And as he put it to me, slowly but surely the fog began to lift.

From Prediction to Positioning

At one point during the interview, Jon said something that made me smile because it's a phrase I repeat constantly: We're not trying to predict. We're trying to position.

That shift changes everything.

You stop asking, "What do I think will happen?" And you start asking, "What is the market telling me right now?"

When you operate from evidence instead of opinion, confidence grows naturally.

Risk becomes measurable and manageable.

Patience becomes logical. Even losses make sense because they exist inside a system.

Jon told me he sleeps better now. He told me he doesn't obsess after entries, and that he knows what he owns and why.

If you've ever spent days second-guessing trades, refreshing quotes, wondering whether you were early, late, or simply wrong - then you understand how great peace of mind really is.

Yes, There Were Wins

Of course, we talked numbers.

He mentioned a defined-risk trade where roughly $4,000 turned into about $30,000. He talked about other situations where a similar amount of exposure multiplied quickly once the thesis began to play out.

Closing out a profitable trade is always great. But seeing these ideas make meaningful impacts across multiple trades is truly the goal of Masters in Trading.

Even better was that he could explain the mechanics behind each trade. He understood why the opportunity existed. Why the structure worked. Why it was repeatable.

Without that understanding, wins feel random.

And random success is impossible to build on.

The Desk VS. The Island

Another theme Jon kept coming back to was something I've believed in from day one.

Community.

He told me this was the first time in his investing life that he didn't feel alone. He could test ideas. Compare interpretations. Watch how other people processed the same information. Learn alongside traders at different stages of the journey.

It stopped being him versus the market. It became a group of serious people working to get better together.

In many ways, Jon's journey resembles what happens on a professional trading desk €” multiple sets of eyes, different experiences, people talking through risk and opportunity in real time.

And, in my experience, a community of like-minded traders is the key to making better trading decisions.

For those interested in hearing more about Jon's journey, I've made our entire chat available over at my YouTube channel. You can watch the entire interview at the top of the page.
 
And, if like Jon, you're interested in joining our tight-knit Masters in Trading community...

The best way to dive in is through The Masters in Trading Options Challenge. 

The Challenge is where we take everything you learn in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

And that's setting off a massive opportunity for early investors to gain an early stake in the next Google, Meta, or Microsoft.

No doubt, this is a major wake-up call for investors. And it stands in stark contrast to the quiet trajectory tech IPOs have traced over the last five years.

Since 2021, tech startups have broadly delayed going public. The reasoning is two-fold.

For one, the Federal Reserve's agenda of Quantitative Tightening (QT)  - enacted just before the pandemic struck - marked a shift toward outright balance-sheet contraction that tightened liquidity in the broader market.

That period between 2019 and October 2025 (when QT effectively ended) marked a balance-sheet runoff that removed roughly $60 -$90 billion per month in liquidity.

Whenever liquidity dries up, investors develop an aversion to risk. And tech stocks (especially at IPO) are commonly seen as some of the riskiest ventures out there.

Add to that yet another crypto boom-and-bust cycle during the same time period - plus the "memeing" of every speculative tech trend from metaverses tothe blockchain  - and one thing becomes clear about that era in hindsight...

The IPO markets had fallen into what I like to call a "hype hole." There were simply too many next-big-thing startups vying for attention and investor dollars. But almost none of these companies had solid fundamentals to back up all that hype.

Back in 2021, would-be darlings like cloud provider Snowflake (SNOW) were getting near-daily coverage in the financial press leading up to their IPOs.

I remember being incredulous when I actually looked at SNOW's fundamentals.

It didn't have a solid product-market fit or any real semblance of a sustainable model.

The stock was hitting the public market at an extremely inflated valuation - and it was competing for scraps against legacy giants like Cisco (CSCO) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The markets were lousy with IPOs like SNOW back then.  And I truly believe these overhyped slush stocks killed the last IPO boom dead in its tracks.

But that dynamic is shifting as I write to you...

The Private Players Gearing Up for the Next IPO Boom

The last few years have been very quiet for tech IPOs. The reason is simple.

Many companies chose to grow privately on billions in venture funding - all while avoiding the scrutiny and pressure of the stock market.

But the stakes, cost and speed of the artificial intelligence race have changed that cautious stance across the entire industry.

The top AI players need far more compute capacity today than they did even a few years ago. They're all looking to scale ever-larger AI models - right as billions of dollars in data centers and cloud infrastructure are rapidly built out.

The dynamic here is undeniable. Private investors can only supply so much capital for so long. Long-term growth increasingly depends on tapping public markets that want a piece of the action.

And trust me, investors want in as early and often as they can.

As of early 2026, the total market capitalization of the AI industry is highly concentrated among top-tier technology firms. The combined value of major AI-focused companies currently exceeds $1.2 trillion. That number will only grow - especially as more AI players make their public debuts.

So the modern AI race will mint many winners. And we know most of them will be the usual suspects like Microsoft, Google, and Apple leveraging their entrenched positions in this space.

But those legacy giants won't be the biggest drivers of profits for early investors.

Instead, it's the next wave of exciting AI startups I'm watching as this renewed IPO boom takes shape.

And one of the earliest entrants in the race has been tipping off my Unusual Options Activity (UOA) Scanner for months now - Figma (FIG).

After one of the splashiest public debuts in years, Figma is carrying much of the AI hype cycle on its shoulders.

And it’s also pulling back the veil on one of the IPO market's "dirty little secrets"...

Figma's Public Debut Revealed This Hidden Market Dynamic

On July 31, 2025, Figma Inc. priced its IPO at $33. Shares soared 250% to close at $115.50 the very same day.

The debut was celebrated in the financial media. It was seen as clear evidence that the IPO market hadn't totally withered up and died.

Of course, FIG's initial gains eventually crumbled against the reality of a volatile market. Six months later, the stock trades at $22. It's now down 81% from its peak - and 33% below IPO price.

That fall from peak to crushing low in mere months is not exactly strange for a freshly IPO'd stock.

But the innerworkings of Figma's market debut are worth highlighting here for one reason...

They reveal a hidden dynamic in the broader market that most traders have no idea about.

Think about it this way…

Most retail traders would've lost their shirts had they purchased the stock right at the IPO.

But it's a very different story for institutional investors. They were allocated shares at $33 -then turned around and sold them at $85-$115, capturing 150-250% gains in a single day.

And for informed employees with equity? They already exited at $80 in September.

Major venture capital firms sold 5% at IPO ($280M) and voluntarily locked in the remaining 95% until August 2026.

And top-level executives obviously got a great deal. They sold $35 million at $43-48 in November €” all while retail investors who purchased shares in secondary trading at $85-$142 now hold positions at $22.

Here's how it all breaks down in a simple chart:

The data makes one thing very clear to me...

For everyone but the most informed market watchers, it was a wash.

True, none of these moves were below board for an IPO. Every element operated within securities law. There's nothing illegal in how Figma conducted its IPO.

Still, the situation raises a lot of questions about how the current IPO market rewards investors. Here are the questions I keep asking myself…

Can current IPOs really serve retail traders? Or are they only designed for the most well-informed and well-capitalized participants to make a killing?

In order to peel back that dynamic, we need to dive a little deeper into how Figma structured its IPO  - and the insider moves that are having ripple effects on every potential tech stock roll-out from here.

Figma's Pricing Decision: Fundamentals and Demand

Figma brought strong metrics to its IPO: $821 million in annual recurring revenue, 46% growth, 91% gross margins, and positive net income.

On paper, Figma looked better than most tech companies eyeing an IPO right now. And the smart money understood that in a big way.

Figma's offering was 40 times oversubscribed well before the IPO date. That means for every share available, 40 institutional investors indicated interest.

Despite this overwhelming demand signal, the company priced shares at just $33, raising $1.22 billion. Keep those figures in mind.

Now, here's the breakdown of that raise:

• $412 million in primary capital for the company
• $807 million in secondary proceeds for selling shareholders

The offering size represented only 37 million shares €” just 7-9% of total shares outstanding. That's small compared to typical IPO floats of 10-15%.

It was an unusual setup. But it obviously didn't deter FOMO-hungry investors that Figma was clearly overpricing its shares. Just consider this...

Had Figma priced shares at $90 €”still below the $115 closing price €”the company could have raised approximately $5.5 billion instead of $1.2 billion. That difference represents $3 billion in unrealized primary capital.

This capital remained unraised while institutional investors who received $33 allocations were able to make a killing.

Venture capitalist Bill Gurley said it best on IPO day: “They REFUSE to match supply/demand. They brag about the mis-match €”’40X oversubscribed.’ The outcome is expected & fully intentional.”

That pricing mismatch is exactly where institutional traders live. It’s one of those dirty little secrets that underpins most IPOs and the institutional money behind them.

This skewed dynamic is exactly what I highlight every day I go live with Masters in Trading. We've managed record-setting gains uncovering broad mispricings between stocks, sectors - and even entire economies.

The opportunity emerging with AI stocks like Figma is still not on most retail traders' radars.

But here at Masters in Trading, I give you the tools and the insights to trade confidently on the same signals institutional traders leverage every day on stocks just like it.

If you're interested in learning how to take your options mastery to the next level, I'd highly encourage you to join The Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

For seven days, we walk through the foundations of real options trading - just the way I learned them from 28+ years in the options market. You'll learn exactly how I think, exactly how I build trades, and exactly how I manage both the winners and the losers.

Most of all, you'll gain the knowledge to spot the kind of hidden market cycles I'm highlighting right here - whether it's IPO hype or government-sparked volatility in commodities.

Now, let's dive back into one of the weirdest parts of the whole Figma story...

Figma's "Weird" Share Allocation

We can understand how IPO pricing actually works by looking at how shares are allocated in the run-up to a public listing.

IPO share allocation operates through underwriter discretion.

Investment banks (in Figma’s case, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) distribute shares to institutional investors based on several factors - the historical relationship between institutions and the investment bank, capital commitments, and even participation in the roadshow process.

Retail investors generally cannot access IPO allocations except through limited brokerage programs or indirectly via mutual funds.

If you want to get in directly, you're required to purchase shares in secondary market trading after the opening bell €”at prices determined by the initial supply-demand imbalance

How Private Secondary Markets Factor In

Private secondary markets also serve an important function in IPO pricing.

When employees and early investors trade shares privately in the months before a public offering, these transactions provide objective price signals. They reflect what sophisticated investors will pay in arm’s-length transactions.

One great example of this dynamic at work is the enterprise security company Rubrik.  The stock allowed structured, secondary trading before it ever accessed the public markets.

Shares traded in the $30-34 range through private transactions. Rubrik priced its IPO at $32 €”closely aligned with the private market clearing price. As a result, the stock had a modest first-day gain with minimal volatility.

Figma went in a very different direction.

Figma initially conducted a tender offer in May 2024 at $23.19 per share. But this transaction occurred 14 months before IPO.

And it ultimately provided limited to no guidance for the company's July 2025 listing.

According to analysis by Augment, a secondary market platform, Figma actually restricted secondary trading in the months leading up to its IPO. This eliminated recent transaction data that might have informed pricing.

Without those transactions, the pricing process was primarily skewed toward institutional investors during the roadshow.

Augment’s analysis concluded:

“Without a robust secondary market, there were no real pre-IPO price signals. When companies suppress that information, they enter IPOs blind.”

Secondary trading is just one part of the larger dynamic underpinning Figma's IPO.

The other essential factor to consider is how IPO lock-ups traditionally work - and how Figma leveraged its lockup period to benefit insiders.

The Pre-IPO Lock Up Problem

Traditional IPO lockups are straightforward.

Pre-IPO shareholders agree not to sell shares for 180 days following the offering. This prevents immediate selling pressure and demonstrates insider confidence.

The standard structure treats all insiders uniformly. Everyone waits 180 days. And everyone becomes eligible on day 181.

Figma’s lockup agreement included a less common feature: an “Early Release Condition.”

This provision stipulated that if the stock price rose 25% above IPO price and maintained that level for five consecutive trading days, then 25% of locked shares would be released after just 36 days rather than 180.

Figma’s provision activated immediately because that $33 pricing was sufficiently below market clearing price ($85+ on opening) to guarantee exceeding the 25% threshold.

Here's how all the math breaks down:

• IPO price: $33
• 25% threshold: $41.25
• Actual opening price: $85
• First-day close: $115.50

Now, let me make one thing very clear €” this almost never happens.

Performance-based early lockup provisions appear in numerous IPO documents. We can think of them as theoretical incentives for employees.

However, actually triggering one of these provisions is exceptionally rare. And the reason is straightforward.

When IPOs are priced to reflect market demand, stocks typically trade near their offering price with modest gains of 10-20% - well below the 25-50% thresholds typically specified in these clauses.

In 28 years of actively trading and analyzing IPOs, I have not witnessed a performance-based early lockup provision actually close - until Figma.

The complete lockup architecture created multiple release dates. A staggered release schedule that, as you'll see below, mostly benefitted institutional players and other insiders:

• September 5, 2025 (Day 36): Performance-based early release of 25% of locked shares
• November 14, 2025 (Day 107): Additional release tied to Q3 earnings announcement
• January 27, 2026 (Day 180): Standard 180-day lockup expiration

This structure provided insiders with three distinct selling windows €”days 36, 107, and 180.

So how did all those individual transactions play out?

The Insider Transaction Timeline: August to November

On August 4, 2025 €” four days following the IPO €” CEO Dylan Field filed a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This plan allows executives to sell shares on predetermined schedules, providing safe harbor from insider trading liability.

Field’s plan authorized the sale of up to 3.06 million shares beginning November 24, 2025. Execution was conditional on the stock reaching certain undisclosed price thresholds.

When the performance-based lockup expired on September 5, the stock traded around $80 €”down 44% from its $143 peak but still 142% above the IPO price.

Shareholders who understood the lockup provisions and chose to sell at this juncture captured $80 per share. As we know, the stock would subsequently decline an additional 72% to $22 over the following five months.

In November, Figma's executives would get another profitable window in which to sell their shares.

And just like we'd expect, SEC Form 4 filings document significant executive selling in November 2025 when the stock traded in the $43-48 range.

Here's how all the executive sales break down:

Shaunt Voskanian (Chief Revenue Officer):

• November 3: 26,741 shares at $48.17 = $1.3 million
• November 10: 403,335 shares at $43.39 = $17.5 million
• Total: $18.8 million

Kris Rasmussen (Chief Technology Officer):

• November 10-12: 304,500 shares at $43.63 = $13.3 million

Praveer Melwani (Chief Financial Officer):

• November 10: 80,934 shares at $43.47 = $3.5 million

Additional executive sales: Approximately $8 million

Total November executive selling: ~$35 million at prices of $43-48

It's important to note those November sales happened around a particularly catalyst-rich time for the stock.

Executives had a Q3 2025 earnings release (released November 12) showing revenue growth deceleration from 41% to 33% year-over-year.

It also provided internal visibility into the company's Q4 2025 product pipeline and customer trends. And to top it all off, it clued execs into Morgan Stanley's lowered price target projection for January 2026.

Yes, gaps between internal knowledge and public disclosure are inherent in public markets. But this gap was engineered. Intentional.

And insiders are looking to leverage that knowledge gap for yet another pay day on Figma stock as I write to you.

The August 2026 Catalyst

The final lockup expiration occurs on August 31^st. That's when venture capital firms holding over 50% of shares become eligible to sell.

That total float represents approximately $7 billion in shares at current prices.

Now, let me remind you once again… This is all strictly above board. Lock-up windows like these are at the core of every IPO.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with the structure of Figma’s IPO.

Figma’s IPO structure combined four components that individually appear within normal parameters - secondary trading, consistent lock-up periods, a roadshow process, and a share allocation methodology that privileged those with a stake in the business.

But collectively, they benefited only insiders in the period following the IPO.

Don't get me wrong. I actually like Figma stock. Figma continues operating with solid underlying metrics. It's showing strong, 38% year-over-year revenue growth. Plus, it's cheap compared to its IPO price.

But I'm not recommending anyone buy FIG today.

I'm highlighting FIG because it's a sign of what's to come from the next wave of tech IPOs.

It's the perfect case study showing how pricing strategy, lockup architecture, and information flow intersect in modern public offerings to keep retail traders from getting in position before the smart money.

I asked earlier whether or not modern IPOs could serve everyone from retail traders to the C-Suite.

Figma's story would appear to slap a big NO on that one. But I'm a bit more optimistic.

Here at Masters in Trading, my mission is to give you the tools to level the playing field.

I hop on Masters in Trading LIVE every day at 11AM EST to show you how to spot the underlying dynamics - the institutional signals, the massive price dislocations - that actually move the stock market. No headlines or hype. Just the fundamentals.

If you've read this far, why not take the next step in accelerating your mastery of the options market?

Once again, I'd like to point you to The Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

The Challenge is where we take everything you learn in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

Here are the seven most important questions investors are asking about rare earth stocks, and the answers you need.

1. Why Are Rare Earth Stocks Suddenly Getting So Much Attention?

These aren’t typical mining plays. Rare earth companies sit at the intersection of AI infrastructure, national security, and geopolitics.

Project Vault commits $12 billion to stockpiling strategic minerals, turning Washington into a major buyer. When government procurement enters a sector, companies suddenly have creditworthy customers and predictable revenue streams.

That’s why CRML jumped 35% on the announcement alone. Investors realized the federal government was about to start writing checks.

Learn more about why rare earths are the “picks and shovels” play of the AI boom †’

2. What Does Project Vault Mean for Rare Earth Investors?

Think of it as a Strategic Petroleum Reserve for minerals instead of oil.

The program uses $10 billion in Export-Import Bank financing plus $2 billion in private capital to purchase materials like neodymium, dysprosium, and lithium. These elements power AI data centers, EV motors, and defense systems.

By guaranteeing federal purchases, Project Vault provides the demand certainty that mining projects need to secure financing and move forward.

See how Project Vault aims to secure U.S. rare earth supply †’

3. Why Does China’s Dominance Matter?

China controls roughly 70% of global rare earth mining and 90% of refining capacity.

For decades, Beijing invested heavily while Western producers exited due to low prices and environmental costs. The result is that America’s most critical industries depend on a single foreign supplier that has already shown willingness to restrict exports during trade disputes.

Without access to these materials, AI infrastructure, EV manufacturing, and military hardware production all face genuine constraints.

Get the full breakdown of rare earths’ role in AI infrastructure and national security †’

4. Which Rare Earth Stocks Are Positioned to Benefit?

Several U.S. and allied companies operate in spaces Washington is now prioritizing:

MP Materials (MP) operates America’s only functioning rare earth mine at Mountain Pass, California, and is expanding into refining.

USA Rare Earth (USAR) is developing the Round Top project in Texas, focusing on heavy rare earths used in military applications.

Energy Fuels (UUUU) runs rare earth processing at its White Mesa Mill in Utah, one of few U.S. facilities capable of producing separated oxides.

Critical Metals Corp (CRML) controls the Tanbreez deposit in Greenland as the U.S. seeks allied supply sources.

American Rare Earths (ARRN) is advancing Halleck Creek in Wyoming as defense procurement rules increasingly exclude Chinese materials.

Read more about 5 top rare earth stocks for 2026 †’

5. Are There Plays Beyond the Mining Companies?

Yes. Building domestic rare earth capacity requires significant industrial infrastructure.

Olin (OLN) supplies specialized chemicals for rare earth processing. Caterpillar (CAT) provides heavy equipment for mine development. Fluor (FLR) designs and constructs the processing facilities where raw ore becomes usable materials.

The opportunity extends beyond miners to the entire industrial ecosystem required to build a functional supply chain.

See 3 mining infrastructure plays to watch in 2026 †’

6. What’s the Timeframe for This Opportunity?

Don’t expect overnight transformation. Industry analysts estimate three to seven years before meaningful domestic capacity comes online.

Mining projects face permitting delays, environmental reviews, and capital requirements that run into hundreds of millions. What’s changed isn’t the timeline but the risk profile. Federal backing reduces financing uncertainty and provides revenue visibility.

Mining executive Robert Friedland recently noted that sentiment in the critical minerals sector has reached historic highs due to policy support backing these projects.

Get the timeline and risk assessment for rare earth stocks †’

7. What Should Investors Watch Next?

The core question is whether the U.S. can successfully rebuild domestic capacity for materials it now treats as national security priorities.

Rare earth elements are embedded in AI infrastructure, EV drivetrains, renewable energy systems, and military weapons. As demand grows across these sectors, companies positioned to mine, refine, and process outside Chinese control could benefit from sustained policy support.

Rare earth supply security is now a bipartisan priority. Both recent administrations have used Defense Production Act authority and export financing to accelerate critical mineral development.

For rare earth investors, this is less about chasing the next commodity boom and more about positioning for long-term policy support as supply chains shift.

Read the complete analysis of rare earth stocks and Project Vault’s implications †’

On the date of publication, John Kilhefner did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer.

1. What Happens to the Devon Energy Dividend After the Merger?

This is the top question on every income investor’s mind.

Once the merger closes in the second quarter of 2026, the combined company plans to pay a $0.315 per share quarterly dividend. That’s a 31% increase from Devon’s previous $0.24 per share quarterly payout.

The company also expects to launch a new share repurchase program exceeding $5 billion.

However, the dividend isn’t legally guaranteed until declared by the board each quarter. While both boards have unanimously approved the merger, it still requires shareholder approval from both companies.

Learn more about Devon’s dividend strategy after the merger †’

2. Who Controls the Merged Company?

Ownership structure matters in all-stock deals.

Devon shareholders will own 54% of the combined company, while Coterra shareholders will own 46%. This means Devon retains control.

The all-stock structure keeps Devon’s debt from rising €” crucial if oil and gas prices fall. Borrowing cash for a $58 billion deal would have required massive debt issuance.

The tradeoff? All-stock mergers increase total share count, which can initially dilute earnings per share (EPS). The combined company must generate enough extra cash to maintain or grow dividends for its larger shareholder base.

3. Why Did Devon Choose an All-Stock Deal Instead of Cash?

Two main reasons: debt management and market conditions.

All-stock deals avoid piling on debt in a sector that’s already exposed to commodity price volatility. If oil and gas prices drop, a heavily leveraged company faces serious risk.

This structure also signals that both management teams believe in the long-term value of the combined entity. Coterra shareholders are betting on future upside rather than taking a quick cash exit.

Get the full breakdown of the deal structure †’

4. What’s Devon’s Strategy After the Merger?

This merger isn’t about chasing explosive production growth. It’s about scale, diversification, and resilience.

The U.S. shale industry has matured. Success now comes from operational efficiency, not just drilling more wells. Larger operators can negotiate better drilling costs, optimize infrastructure, and invest in efficiency.

Geographic diversification is also key:

• Devon has concentrated exposure in the Delaware Basin (southeast New Mexico and west Texas)
• Coterra operates in three primary U.S. basins: Marcellus Shale (northeast Pennsylvania), Delaware Basin, and Anadarko Basin (Oklahoma)

The combined company won’t be dependent on just one location or type of fuel. This reduces reliance on any single basin or commodity cycle.

5. How Is Wall Street Reacting to the Merger?

Reactions are mixed.

Some analysts, like UBS, have expressed long-term optimism. UBS reiterated its Buy rating on Devon Energy and set a $46 price target following the announcement.

Others are more cautious in the near term, waiting for clearer guidance on:

• Dividend sustainability and growth trajectory
• How the all-stock structure and new share count will affect per-share payouts

Analysts often need quarterly results before meaningfully updating their forecasts. Rating and price targets for Devon Energy will likely shift over months, not days or weeks.

See the detailed analyst breakdown †’

6. Should Income Investors Buy DVN Stock Now or Wait?

It depends on your investment timeline and priorities.

This merger makes DVN:

• More attractive if you prioritize yield and long-term cash flow stability
• Less attractive if you prioritize clear signs, like confirmed dividends, first quarterly results, or regulatory approvals

For income-focused, longer-term holders, the appeal is that the merger aims to create a larger, more resilient shale producer.

For yield-chasers and short-term traders, there may be more appeal in waiting. The deal is still steeped in ambiguity, especially around dividend guidance.

7. What Should Investors Watch Next?

Keep your eye on these key milestones:

Both Devon Energy and Coterra will report earnings ahead of the merger’s expected close in the second quarter of 2026. Regulatory approvals and shareholder votes are also expected in the second quarter.

The merger doesn’t change how Devon Energy makes money from oil and gas. The company is still dependent on oil and gas prices, costs, and operations.

But what has changed is the company’s size, cash flow potential, and plans for returning money to shareholders.

For Devon Energy shareholders, this merger is less about chasing the next shale boom and more about securing steady cash flow as the industry matures.

Read the complete analysis of the Devon-Coterra merger †’

On the date of publication, Meghan Davis did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

They build quietly underneath the surface €” where early positioning can turn small stakes into generational gains.

That's where I've spent the last 28 years as an options trader. And it's why I built Masters in Trading in the first place €” to give everyday traders access to the same framework professionals use to spot these shifts early.

Over the past year alone, we've identified several under-the-radar themes before they went mainstream €” from quantum computing to ultrapure water to the next wave of clean energy.

Today, I want to talk about another sector that still raises eyebrows whenever I bring it up: Drones.

Many people still think of drones as novelties. Hobbyist toys. Light-show props. Flying gadgets.

That perception is dangerously outdated.

Drones are rapidly becoming core military infrastructure €” a foundational pillar of the next global defense build-out.

Drones are cheaper to deploy, harder to counter, and capable of inflicting disproportionate damage relative to their cost. Recent conflicts €” particularly in Ukraine €” have made that clear.

And yet, despite this shift, most investors still haven't fully priced in the true value of drone stocks.

That disconnect is where opportunity lives.

While most traders haven't spotted the opportunity in these stocks yet - we've been quietly banking on these names over the last 12 months.

For us, it was a tale of two drone stocks flying well below Wall Street's radar - Karman (KRMN) and Kratos (KTOS).

These weren't mere flashes in the pan.

Both trades stem from my conviction that drones are about to enter a supercycle.

In order to understand the major land grab taking shape here, let me take you back to 2025 - when both stocks were a mere blip on the radars of most traders.

Kratos: An Undervalued Stock Setting Off the Drone Supercycle

Over the last few years, I've produced countless videos  covering military defense stocks. It's one of my longest investing themes right now.

And each one has included at least one mention of my favorite name in the sector - Kratos (KTOS).

KTOS is one of the primary drone companies backed and funded by the U.S. government. The company builds low-cost, autonomous combat drones, including the Valkyrie, for the U.S. Air Force.

The key advantage here is affordability. Kratos delivers advanced drone capabilities without the massive price tags associated with traditional military aircraft.

I've long focused on this stock because it represents a major paradigm shift in how the U.S. will treat every kind of global conflict from here on out.

Every major military operation going forward will involve drones. That's no longer speculation €” it's already happening.

In this sense, the urgency around stocks like KTOS and KRMN can't be overstated. Both represent "land grabs" by the federal government that will shore up the U.S.'s defense capabilities for years to come.

Right now, nations are prioritizing domestic supply chains. They're ensuring they own the research, development, and production of drone technology rather than relying on foreign competitors.

At the same time, drones are evolving rapidly by integrating AI, edge computing, real-time battlefield mapping, and autonomous decision-making.

KTOS is key to handing the U.S. a strong advantage in defense applications around the world. And as we know, recent conflicts, particularly in Ukraine, have made this shift even more urgent.

All of those factors marked KTOS as one of my favorite drone stocks.

But when I recommended KTOS earlier in 2024, it wasn't being priced at all like the essential player I knew it was.

Back in March 2024, the stock was trading around $16. It was undervalued. Thinly traded. A very small valuation relative to close competitors like AeroVironment (AVAV) and Velo3D (VELO).

But I was certain of the underlying value of the stock.

And I knew any smart options trader could easily land a series of doubles - and even triples - with well-timed trades on KTOS.

Looking back, one thing is very clear to me. We were getting in right at the start of a massive run for KTOS.

Back in March, I recommended viewers of Masters in Trading LIVE climb into the July 2024 calls at $20.

I even recommended buying the underlying stock itself. After all, shares were still very cheap. I knew more bullish exposure to a potential run in the stock was a must.

We caught a beat on the massive call volume that started lighting up the stock in the middle of 2024.

And from there, KTOS's $16 shares exploded.

We caught our first big win on the stock with a 100% gainer just under a month after opening our initial March calls.

We added upside exposure with another set of calls that yielded a double - on top of our double on the underlying stock itself.

Those big wins were no one off. Over the last 12 months, KTOS has gone into overdrive.

From March of 2024 to January of 2026 alone, the stock has rallied over 421%. That's undeniable momentum - and KTOS shows no signs of slowing as the stock circles new highs in February.

KTOS is still a core name in the drone space and a long-term favorite.

And while we've managed gains in this under-publicized sector, there's one key takeaway every trader must know...

Stocks like KTOS don't gain value in isolation.

I've told you a lot about how we capitalized on the underlying move in the stock.

But I haven't told you much about how KTOS was being valued in relation to the competition. And that's key for us.

Because that dynamic is where the real gains are made.

The KRMN Trade: How We Secured Triple-Digit Gains on a Small Cap Competitor

KTOS wasn't the only player I was watching in this space between 2024 and 2025.

Other names like Aerovironment (AVAV) and Elbit Systems (ESLT) kept setting off my UOA Monitor over the last two years.

And right as heavy call volume began lighting up these smaller players, I kept noticing another stock repeatedly tripping my scanner - moving right along with the sector but gaining less attention than its nearest competitors.

Karman (KRMN) looked like it was on a similar fast track for exponential growth to names like KTOS.

For those who don't know, KRMN supplies key components used across 100+ active missile and space programs.

The company works directly with major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance. That means the stock is deeply embedded inside the U.S. defense ecosystem - similar to KTOS.

And just like KTOS, absolutely no retail trader was paying attention.

I shared KRMN back in August of 2025 - right when options started trading on the stock. Trading volume was thin. Market cap was low. Again, we were there before most investors had a clue.

But even back when I initially highlighted the stock, KRMN was already posting triple-digit growth, including 233% year-over-year earnings growth.

That's exceptional €” especially for a company operating in a highly regulated industry. And the stock has only gone on to become an indisputable winner as the drone build-out takes shape.

With a market cap still under $5 billion, KRMN offered meaningful upside as it scaled. This is exactly the kind of name institutions tend to discover after the early move has already begun. But not us.

I recognized early on that rising U.S. defense budgets, increased NATO spending, and reshoring initiatives were creating a multi-year runway of government contracts. Those tailwinds are exactly what can propel a small-cap like KRMN to exponential gains.

KRMN holds specialized government contracts that are extremely difficult to replicate. These high barriers to entry protect its competitive position €” similar to what we saw years ago with KTOS.

The Drone Divergence I Caught Before the Street

In many ways, it was pure déjà vu. KRMN looked like the next KTOS - just at an earlier stage.

And that brings us back to how we value trades in relation to each other. I always like to point out that stocks don't carry value in isolation.

The key is tracking stocks in the same or adjacent sectors that tend to mirror each other.

Stocks like Nvidia and AMD - two of the biggest semiconductor companies in the world - often trace each other's moves. It's the same thing with base metals, software stocks, and other sectors we track here in Masters in Trading.

KTOS and KRMN fall right in this camp.

Compare the two stocks - and you start to see that these players have been riding a similar wave of momentum the whole time. But there's one big (and profitable) catch.

Just take a look at the price charts for both stocks below:

Over the same period, we can see that both stocks were moving in a similar trajectory - but KRMN was seriously trailing KTOS in that same span.

That price action made one thing very clear.

While markets were starting to seed momentum in KTOS, KRMN was still way off the radar. No one saw what I was seeing just yet.

And that's precisely what tipped me off to the potential to leverage both stocks for huge profits.

The KTOS/KRMN Trade Setup No One Saw Coming

Luckily for us, we were already on the ground floor with both picks.

In the free portfolio, we got long KRMN stock. We originally got into KRMN because the stock was grossly underperforming KTOS. And we held KRMN as it stayed cheap relative to KTOS.

Liquidity improved by orders of magnitude over the next six months. And call flow was only going higher from there.

That's how early-stage institutional names evolve €” first the stock, then the options volume.

Looking at how it all turned out, we managed another win before most investors on Wall Street knew about it - an 82% gain in 160 days.

Of course, markets are fickle. And the tables have turned once again for both stocks.

Right now, it's actually KTOS that's cheap relative to KRMN.

And that price imbalance just triggered another trade for us.

After we sold KRMN for a hefty return, we used those proceeds to get right back in position with KTOS. It was another pure divergence trading setup - the same one that has netted us doubles and triples on both names over the last two years.

Now, we have a lot of options on the table from here.

We have the leverage. We have first mover advantage. And most of all, the fundamentals are firmly on our side.

Anyone reading this still has the opportunity to gain exposure to these key mispricings in drone stocks.

But I'm not recommending either of the picks I've covered to you today. In fact, I've got my eye on the next KTOS or KRMN from here.

And when it comes to the next wave of winning drone stocks, there are simply too many names that Wall Street isn't paying attention to yet - setting up a similar opportunity for early investors to get in position.

The Drone Supercycle Is Just Getting Started

In previous episodes of Masters in Trading LIVE, I've categorized the drone build-out into a few distinct tiers of players that will become heavy hitters in the next few years.

I grouped the industry into these tiers:

Tier 1: Core Drone Manufacturers
These are the primary names driving the industry:

• Kratos (KTOS)
• AeroVironment (AVAV)
• Elbit Systems (ESLT)
• Leonardo DRS (DRS)

Tier 2: UAV Subsystems and Defense Suppliers
These companies support drone infrastructure and components:

• Velo3D (VELO)
• Sidus Space (SIDU)

Tier 3: More Speculative Names
Higher risk, earlier-stage exposure with less liquidity.

• AIRO Group Holdings (AIRO)
• Draganfly (DPRO)
• Red Cat Holdings (RCAT)

When evaluating these stocks, the focus was on market capitalization, historical volatility, implied volatility, and options liquidity.

Companies with similar market caps tend to move together - just like we saw with KTOS and KRMN. And volatility helps determine whether a stock is suitable for options trading or better suited for long-term investment.

Each of these tiers will become essential as the next wave of drone tech hits the market.

And I want to make one thing very clear... It doesn't just end with these stocks.

Drones are no longer optional in modern defense. They are becoming foundational technology, reshaping how conflicts are fought and how governments allocate capital.

The key to profiting from this trend is discipline. We don't chase stocks at extremes. We wait for pullbacks, respect expected moves, and let the sector trend work in our favor.

I'll be tracking these names and more closely throughout 2026 on Masters in Trading Live, where we break down entries, exits, and strategy in real time every weekday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

But if you want to dive even deeper - and get into the next exciting drone name before the crowd does...

I highly encourage you to check out the Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

The Challenge is where we take everything you've learned in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

For two weeks, we walk through the foundations of real options trading the way I learned them on the trading floor. You'll learn exactly how I think, exactly how I build trades, and exactly how I manage both the winners and the losers.

Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Remember, the creative trade wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S., What we're seeing in drones is what happens when a theme moves from early adoption to institutional priority.

AI may be approaching its own transition.

History shows that after the first rush of enthusiasm comes a moment where expectations get tested. Leadership changes. Capital rotates. And the investors who prepared ahead of time have options.

Veteran market strategist Louis Navellier believes one of those inflection points is fast-approaching. Louis is watching February 25 closely as a potential point where expectations meet reality and investors are forced to decide whether to hold, sell, or rotate.

The real advantage isn't guessing what headlines will say afterward €” it's knowing, in advance, how to respond. He's laying out how he's thinking about that shift, where risk may sit, and what kinds of names could define the next phase. If you'd rather be prepared than surprised, you need to see this.

Inflation is soaring, currencies are being questioned, and faith in traditional finance is wavering.

In theory, this should be Bitcoin's (BTC/USD) time to shine - the moment the original cryptocurrency lives up to its billing as "digital gold." After all, Bitcoin was born from the last financial crisis, promising a hedge against exactly this kind of turmoil.

But as cracks form in the global financial system, a curious thing is happening: instead of surging, Bitcoin has stalled when it was needed most.

Consider the evidence. Inflation spiked to 40-year highs in 2022, yet Bitcoin plunged about 75% during that period, even as gold held steady and then climbed. Today, central banks are hoarding gold at a near-record pace - over 1,000 tons added in 2023 alone - reflecting a rush to time-tested safety. Gold prices have rallied to multi-year highs, reinforcing their safe-haven status, while Bitcoin remains well below its past peak.

It's a reality check for anyone who believed Bitcoin would automatically act as the future of safe-haven assets. Is the "digital gold" thesis failing, or is it simply not time yet for Bitcoin's moment in the sun?

In this week’s podcast, we unpack why Bitcoin's performance is lagging in a crisis, how it compares to gold's enduring allure, and what needs to happen for Bitcoin to truly become the digital gold it's often touted to be. The answers may surprise you … and could reshape your view on the future of Bitcoin as a refuge when the next financial storm hits.

The Digital Gold Thesis: Promise vs. Reality

For years, Bitcoin's champions have touted it as "digital gold" - a 21st-century answer to the timeless value of gold. The idea is simple: Bitcoin's supply is capped at 21 million coins, making it scarce like gold, and it operates outside any government's control. In a world where governments print trillions of new dollars and debt mounts, Bitcoin was meant to offer an escape hatch, preserving wealth as fiat currencies depreciate. This narrative gained traction after 2008 and again during the pandemic money-printing: if gold protected savers in the 1970s inflation, Bitcoin would do the same in the 2020s, only with the speed and portability of the digital age.

In theory, all the ingredients for Bitcoin to fulfill that promise are here. We've seen rapid currency debasement, fears of de-dollarization as nations seek alternatives to the U.S. dollar, and geopolitical conflicts driving uncertainty. These are textbook conditions where investors flock to safe havens. And indeed, they have - but overwhelmingly into precious metals. Gold prices have surged (up about 20% year-over-year in mid-2024), and silver spiked dramatically as well. Central banks worldwide, from China to Turkey, have been buying gold hand over fist, pushing official gold purchases in 2022 to the highest level on record and nearly matching it in 2023. They cite gold's reliability as an inflation hedge and store of value in crises. This flight to gold underscores a crucial point: when storm clouds gather, trust matters. And for millennia, gold has earned that trust.

Bitcoin, by contrast, has struggled to inspire the same confidence when it counts. Rather than acting as a stable store of value during recent inflationary spikes and banking jitters, Bitcoin's price has been as volatile as ever. Research confirms that Bitcoin has not reliably protected wealth during inflationary periods - in fact, its price often declines in response to inflation surprises. Instead of moving opposite to failing currencies, it has frequently moved in sync with high-risk assets. As one analysis put it, Bitcoin has "no consistent inverse correlation with inflation" and behaves more like a tech stock than like gold. Indeed, when stock markets tumble and fear spikes, Bitcoin has tended to plunge alongside equities, not counterbalance them. That's the exact opposite of what "digital gold" is supposed to do.

Real-world history bears this out. In 2021, as stimulus money flowed, Bitcoin did surge - but so did speculative tech stocks, suggesting it was riding a wave of risk-on enthusiasm rather than acting as a cautious hedge. Then 2022 hit: inflation in the U.S. hit 9% (a four-decade high), and the Federal Reserve slammed on the monetary brakes. If Bitcoin were truly digital gold, this was its chance to prove it. Instead, Bitcoin crashed over 60% that year, while actual gold finished roughly flat and even modestly up at times. An asset marketed as an inflation shield instead bucked under pressure, erasing wealth when cost of living was soaring - a painful irony for believers. Meanwhile, a traditional 60/40 portfolio or even plain cash fared better in preserving value, and commodities (like oil and grains) and inflation-indexed bonds outperformed Bitcoin. Simply put, Bitcoin's track record so far doesn't read like that of a safe haven; it reads like a high-octane growth asset taking its cues from risk sentiment.

Why Bitcoin Isn't Shining (Yet)

So, why hasn't Bitcoin lived up to the "digital gold" thesis so far? Several factors are at play:

• Extreme Volatility: Bitcoin's price swings are infamous - with annualized volatility often above 70%, it can swing by double-digit percentages in mere days. Such wild moves undermine its reliability as a store of value. Even gold, which isn't immune to ups and downs, trades in much tamer ranges. For an inflation hedge, stability is key; on that front, Bitcoin hasn't delivered.
• Risk-Asset Correlation: Rather than behaving like a crisis hedge, Bitcoin has shown a strong tendency to trade in tandem with risk assets. In sharp market sell-offs or liquidity crunches, it has fallen alongside stocks. This high correlation to equities means that when panic strikes, Bitcoin hasn't provided the counterweight that gold historically has.
• Short History & Trust Gap: Gold's safe-haven status comes from centuries of trust. Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is still in its adolescence as an asset. It hasn't yet navigated multiple full economic cycles or a truly systemic fiat crisis. Many institutions and investors remain wary, seeing it as untested. No central bank (to date) holds Bitcoin as a reserve asset, whereas gold is deeply entrenched in that role. This lack of institutional adoption as a reserve amplifies skepticism: in uncertain times, who's the buyer of last resort for Bitcoin?
• Regulatory and Technological Overhang: Ongoing regulatory crackdowns and questions about security (hacks, frauds, exchange failures) have periodically dented confidence. Whereas gold sits in vaults beyond the reach of hackers, Bitcoin holders must navigate digital security and evolving laws. These issues can force selling or deter would-be investors right when Bitcoin might need their support.

In short, Bitcoin's characteristics - high volatility, speculative flows, and nascent adoption - have so far prevented it from behaving like the steady, uncorrelated ballast that gold often provides. Even some crypto enthusiasts begrudgingly admit that Bitcoin has felt more like "fool's gold" during certain market storms, providing excitement and upside in good times but distress when shelter was what investors sought.

Is Bitcoin the Future Safe Haven or Just Fool's Gold?

All this isn't to say the digital gold dream is dead. Far from it. Bitcoin may not have proven itself yet, but the story isn't over - and there are signs the tide could still turn in its favor in the coming years. Proponents argue that as Bitcoin matures and adoption widens, its safe-haven properties will strengthen. Already, there have been episodes where Bitcoin did act somewhat like a refuge asset. During certain geopolitical flare-ups or banking scares, Bitcoin saw inflows alongside gold.

Its correlation with gold, while not consistent, has appeared episodically - often triggered by specific events like rumors of a Bitcoin ETF approval or surges in gold buying that spark parallel interest in crypto. Some institutional investors are starting to view Bitcoin as a complementary store of value to hold alongside gold, especially in diversified portfolios that hedge against extreme outcomes. In other words, Bitcoin doesn't have to replace gold to be valuable - it could stand beside it, offering upside and an alternative form of financial insurance if the traditional system wobbles.

Looking ahead, much depends on the broader context. If inflation remains persistently high or governments continue to aggressively expand the money supply, Bitcoin's fixed supply could become more attractive. Bitcoin predictions from bullish analysts often point to these scenarios: they foresee a time when trust in fiat money erodes so much that both gold and Bitcoin soar as dual anchors of value.

In such a scenario, Bitcoin might trade more on fundamentals (like adoption and scarcity) and less like a tech speculation. Technological developments could help too - improvements in Bitcoin's network (or wider Lightning Network adoption) might make it more practical and further legitimize it as "digital gold" rather than "digital poker chip." There's also the generational angle: younger investors who are digital-native may simply trust Bitcoin more than gold over time, gradually shifting the balance of safe-haven demand.

Still, sober voices caution that Bitcoin's future as a safe haven is far from guaranteed. It could just as easily remain a high-risk, high-reward asset class - valuable, yes, but not the go-to for capital preservation in crises. Some even ask whether perhaps something else could become the "next Bitcoin" in the safe-haven race - be it another cryptocurrency or a digital asset yet to be invented.

So far, no alternative has truly challenged Bitcoin's claim to that throne; Bitcoin remains by far the largest and most recognized crypto. But the very fact that investors muse about a "next Bitcoin" underscores the uncertainty around whether Bitcoin itself will fulfill its ultimate promise. Is Bitcoin the future of value storage, or will it go down as a speculative experiment? The market is still deciding, and it's keeping a close eye on the cryptocurrency's behavior in each new storm.

The Bottom Line

The Bitcoin digital gold thesis posits that in an era of money printing and global upheaval, a decentralized, scarce digital asset should offer the same sanctuary that gold has offered throughout history. It's an alluring vision - and it may yet come true in the long run.

But as of today, Bitcoin has not consistently lived up to that role. When inflation and geopolitical risks sent investors scrambling for cover, gold glistened while Bitcoin faltered. To earn the status of digital gold, Bitcoin will need to mature, dampen its wild swings, and prove itself when the next crisis hits. That could mean more time, more adoption, and perhaps a bit of luck in avoiding adverse regulations or scandals.

For investors, the takeaway is clear: diversification remains key. Gold's crown as the ultimate safe haven is not yet seriously threatened by its digital rival. Bitcoin can still play a valuable role - as a growth asset with unique properties, and as a potential hedge against extreme monetary events (like a collapse of fiat credibility) that are hard to hedge otherwise.

But counting on it as your primary inflation shield or crisis hedge today would be, at best, an ambitious gamble. The prudent approach is to recognize Bitcoin for what it is now, while keeping an open mind about what it could become in the future. After all, the financial world is changing rapidly, and the fact that we're even debating digital gold vs. physical gold is proof that we've entered uncharted territory.

Curious to learn more? These insights barely scratch the surface of the ongoing debate. In a recent episode of Being Exponential (InvestorPlace's Hypergrowth Investing podcast), we highlight this very paradox, noting that "Bitcoin was made for this moment... yet it's not having its moment in the sun." The discussion dives deep into why money is flowing into gold and AI-driven assets instead of crypto, and what could shift the tide going forward. Watch the full podcast here.

You'll come away with a richer understanding of how Bitcoin, gold, and other hypergrowth trends are shaping the future of investing … and perhaps a few ideas on how to position yourself for whatever comes next.

What's behind this epic rally, and can it continue? Below we tackle the five key questions investors are asking about SanDisk's surge:

1. Why did SanDisk stock go up so much?

SanDisk's stock price exploded because its core product - flash memory chips - suddenly became the hottest commodity in tech. The rise of AI meant data centers were ravenous for fast storage, but the supply of NAND flash memory was tight. This AI memory crunch (essentially a NAND flash shortage) sent chip prices soaring, which in turn fueled record earnings for SanDisk. With profits booming and demand outpacing supply, investors piled into SNDK stock - driving it up over 1,000% in an astonishing rally. (For the full story, read the full MarketWise breakdown here.)

2. Is SanDisk benefiting from the AI boom?

Absolutely - SanDisk has become a big winner of the AI boom. In the AI era, it's not just about powerful processors; it's also about having enough lightning-fast storage for all that data. As MarketWise puts it, "if there's no memory, there's no AI." Every AI data center needs tons of flash memory (SanDisk's specialty) to train models and power AI services, so the AI infrastructure buildout has massively lifted demand for SanDisk's products. Even Nvidia's CEO recently called AI data storage a "completely unserved market" that could become "the largest storage market in the world" - underscoring just how crucial companies like SanDisk are to the AI revolution. (Read the full MarketWise breakdown here for all the AI details.)

3. How is SanDisk different from other memory stocks?

SanDisk isn't just another memory chip company - it has some unique advantages setting it apart from peers:

• Cost edge: Through a long-term joint venture with Kioxia (formerly Toshiba's memory business), SanDisk secures massive manufacturing scale and lower costs. This partnership lets it produce flash memory more cheaply than many rivals.
• Market clout: The NAND flash industry is dominated by just a few players (an oligopoly). SanDisk holds significant market share alongside giants like Samsung and SK Hynix. In a shortage environment, being one of the few big suppliers gives SanDisk bargaining power and steady demand.
• High-end focus: Unlike some competitors, SanDisk zeroes in on premium, enterprise-grade storage for data centers. It's even previewing a 256TB solid-state drive - ultra-dense data center storage that cloud giants crave. By delivering top performance and reliability (where customers are less price-sensitive), SanDisk can command a price premium.
• Pricing power: Thanks to these strengths, SanDisk has something rare for a chipmaker: real pricing power. That transforms it from a typical boom-bust memory stock into a more durable AI-era infrastructure player with fatter margins.

The MarketWise article dives deeper into SanDisk's edge over other memory stocks - read the full breakdown here.

4. Could SanDisk stock crash?

After such a meteoric rise, could SNDK come crashing down? It's possible - especially if the perfect conditions change. Some potential risk factors include:

• Memory cycle flip: The memory market is famously cyclical. Today's shortage could turn into a glut if manufacturers ramp up output, which would send flash prices (and SanDisk's profits) plunging.
• AI demand slowdown: AI isn't going away, but its red-hot growth could cool. If the buildout of AI data centers slows or becomes more efficient, demand for new memory could normalize - and a stock priced for perfection can fall hard on any sign of deceleration.
• Rising competition or new tech: Rivals like Samsung won't sit by forever. They could flood the market or introduce new memory technologies, undercutting SanDisk. More competition means less pricing power.
• Overvaluation/Hype: After a 1,000% rally, SanDisk's valuation is extremely high. Any stumble - even "good" (not great) earnings - might spook investors and trigger a tumble from these heights. When everyone is wildly bullish, the downside can be brutal.

In short, yes - a crash is possible if the AI-memory boom reverses or even blinks. That's why investors should stay vigilant. (The MarketWise breakdown details these risks further - check it out here.)

5. Is SanDisk still a buy after its massive rally?

SanDisk could climb higher, but it's a tougher call after such a massive rally. The bull case: the same forces behind the surge (skyrocketing AI spending on infrastructure, a NAND flash supply crunch, and SanDisk's strong positioning) are still in play - so the story isn't over. However, after a 1,000% run, a lot of good news is already priced in. The easy money has been made, and any supply ramp-up or cooling of demand could hit the stock hard. MarketWise's takeaway: don't blindly chase SNDK at all-time highs. It might be wise to wait for a pullback - if the long-term AI memory trend stays strong, buying on a dip could be a smarter move than jumping in after a parabolic run.

Bottom line: SanDisk's epic rally shows how critical AI memory has become, but no stock goes up in a straight line forever. To get the full scoop on why SanDisk stock skyrocketed and what might happen next, be sure to read the full MarketWise breakdown here and dive deeper into the details.

It's a comforting story ... because it makes America's greatest tech boom feel accidental... almost inevitable.

But the truth is more useful for investors: Silicon Valley was built on government necessity. 

In the early Cold War, Washington couldn't "wait for markets" to produce the electronics, computing power, and communications systems national security required. So it did what it always does when it can't afford to lose.

It stepped in ... as the first customer, the biggest check-writer, and the ultimate accelerator.

And once that federal demand ignited a feedback loop (guaranteed revenue, clustered talent, scaled manufacturing), entire industries were born... and a handful of early investors didn't need to guess which stocks would "moon." They simply followed the flow of government capital.

Now the same playbook is back.

Six decades after John F. Kennedy declared America would go to the Moon - not for science, but supremacy - the United States is launching a new moonshot: the Genesis Mission, a push to fuse America's top supercomputers, scientific data, and research labs into a unified AI platform.

The signal is unmistakable. We’ve seen five strategic investments in five months:

• Intel (INTC): Revitalizing America’s semiconductor backbone
• MP Materials (MP): A bid for rare-earth magnet control, essential for motors, missiles, and robots
• Trilogy Metals (TMQ): Copper, cobalt, nickel - the nervous system of electrification
• Lithium Americas (LAC): Battery sovereignty
• xLight: Strategic optics play to break foreign supply chain choke points

Just have a look at TMQ before and after the Trump administration invested $35.6 million in the company:

From October 6, 2025, when the government invested in TMQ, to October 14, 2025, the stock shot up 407%! Even if you missed that initial surge, it's still up 200%-plus since.

Industrial policy has become industrial warfare. And it’s shining a spotlight on an industry set to dominate Wall Street in 2026.

Because here’s what they’re not saying out loud...

AI without robots is just ChatGPT.

Control of supply chains, physical production, and the technologies that turn software intelligence into real-world power - that’s the actual endgame. When you map these investments onto the Genesis Mission’s strategic pillars, the government’s grand plan becomes undeniable.

The Genesis Mission: Why Robotics Is the Real Endgame

Here’s the brutal truth the White House has now internalized: AI without robots doesn’t reshuffle global power. 

Robots without AI are just basic machines. But AI + robots = production dominance.

Every major Washington priority is tied to robotics. If it hopes to:

• Reshore manufacturing
• Compete with China’s labor scale.
• Offset labor shortages without igniting wage inflation
• Optimize defense logistics, infrastructure security, port automation, warehouse throughput
• And turn America’s AI lead into physical output...

Robots are essential.

And according to recent reporting from Politico, the administration is actively discussing a stand-alone executive order to support the U.S. robotics industry in 2026. 

Robotics is being elevated from ‘footnote’ to ‘pillar.’

Robotics as a Core Pillar in the Genesis Mission’s Six Strategic Industries

The Genesis Mission centers on six core industries:

1. Semiconductors
2. Energy (nuclear + grid + storage)
3. Critical minerals
4. Advanced manufacturing
5. AI
6. Robotics / physical automation

And if you’ll notice, robotics is the only one that physically integrates the other five.

Robots need chips, energy, magnets, copper, lithium. They automate manufacturing. They’re AI embodied - the connective tissue of the entire Genesis strategy...

Which is why the idea of a robotics-specific executive order in 2026 matters so much. It’s a declaration that Washington wants a domestic robotics champion class - and is willing to help create one.

And it’s acting with urgency because it’s acutely aware that political time is dwindling. Midterms are looming. Control of committees, budgets, and investigations shifts fast. So, the administration’s incentive is simple: Do as much as possible as quickly as possible.

Lock in programs. Commit capital. Anchor private investment to public support.

Genesis is about irreversibility.

Once factories are built, robots are deployed, contracts are signed, and ecosystems are funded, even a hostile Congress has a hard time unwinding them.

That’s why the pace has accelerated - and why robotics is taking center stage right now

The Robotics Companies Best Positioned to Benefit

If Washington is serious - and the signs say it is - here’s where the upside consolidates.

The Flagship Narrative Name

• Tesla (TSLA): Like it or not, Tesla sits at the intersection of AI, manufacturing, robotics, and American optics. More than just a humanoid demo, Optimus is a political symbol. It’s a robot designed to work in U.S. factories, built by a company already reshoring aggressively.
  
  If the administration wants a visible win - a ‘this is what an American automation looks like’ story - Tesla fits the script perfectly.

Warehouse & Logistics Automation

• Symbotic (SYM): Symbotic is one of the most important robotics companies in America: AI-driven warehouse automation, already scaled, already deployed, already saving labor.
  
  If Washington wants to harden domestic supply chains without blowing up inflation, this is exactly the type of technology that gets subsidized, accelerated, or quietly favored in federal logistics contracts.
• Teradyne (TER): Through Universal Robots, Teradyne dominates collaborative robots (‘cobots’): the kind of small- and mid-sized bots American manufacturers can deploy without rebuilding entire factories. If the goal is broad-based adoption, cobots are the fastest way there.

Service & Labor-Substitution Robots

• Serve Robotics (SERV): Serve creates last-mile delivery robots solving real economic problems: labor shortages, urban congestion, service-sector inefficiency. Practical automation.
• Richtech Robotics (RR): Hospitality and service robots to deploy in hotels, restaurants, casinos, and senior living facilities. We see this as the politically palatable version of automation: ‘robots doing the jobs nobody wants.’

Security & Infrastructure Robots

• Knightscope (KSCP): This company builds autonomous security for malls, warehouses, transit hubs, infrastructure, etc. If robotics starts flowing through DOT, DHS, or infrastructure budgets, this category could benefit fast.

The Picks-and-Shovels Layer

Now, here’s where ‘smart money’ often hides: within the critical supplies and materials that a technology needs to function.

Robots need components, like sensors, cameras, actuators, control and safety systems...

Companies like Cognex (CGNX), Keyence (KYCCF), and industrial automation backbone providers such as Rockwell Automation (ROK) quietly ride the wave when robot counts rise - regardless of which brand names win the headlines.

Why 2026 Marks the Inflection Point for America’s Robotics Industry

For years, robotics have been too early. Too expensive. And too clunky.

But the world is different now.

AI is powerful and widespread. Hardware costs are falling. Labor is scarce and expensive. And importantly, Washington is done waiting for markets to self-correct. It’s realized that if the state doesn’t shape the next industrial era, someone else will.

So, yes ... 2026 looks like the year robotics breaks out of niche status and into a national priority asset class...

Because power, productivity, and geopolitical leverage demand it.

And when Washington decides something is too important to leave to chance, markets break out.

The smart money doesn’t wait for the official announcement. It positions before the market reprices the entire sector...

The same dynamic is unfolding right now.

The Genesis Mission is reshaping the AI economy behind the scenes ... directing capital, accelerating timelines, and backing the companies that matter most to national strategy.

That's why my team and I have put together a free Genesis Mission broadcast, where I break down how this buildout is unfolding, where the real constraints are, and how investors can position before Wall Street fully prices in what's happening.

Silicon Valley was not an accident.

And the next great technology ecosystem won't be either.

Watch the free Genesis Mission broadcast here.

Most people assume my work is aimed solely at individual traders.

Now, don't get me wrong. That claim is half true.

Over the last decade alone, I've trained more than 100 professional traders and helped thousands of folks learn to trade options like pros with Masters in Trading.

And among those people I've helped are every kind of trader you can imagine - from total newbies to pro-level stock traders looking for an edge.

But you shouldn't be surprised to learn that a meaningful number of the people I train are already professionals. In fact, many of them are financial advisors simply looking for an edge. So why do they come to me?

It's simple. Think of the typical work a financial advisor does for their client.

A good financial advisor will find long-term investments where clients can feel safe parking their hard-earned cash. They discover ways for their clients to diversify their holdings and while reducing their exposure to risk.

Conservative. Reliable. Nothing left up to chance. Does that sound familiar?

As an InvestorPlace analyst, my focus is the same. I show you how to manage risk, volatility, and decision-making when markets don't cooperate. I just do it with options.

It doesn't matter who you are.Everyone needs that kind of intel from the freshest newbie to the most seasoned traders out there.

I don't treat what I do as so different from professional planners. The biggest difference simply comes down to how we go about growing our clients' money.

And here's one thing that holds true for nearly every financial advisor I've ever met.

Options trading is a total no-fly zone. They all tend to feed me the same few lines...

It's far too risky.

Options just don't provide the stability my clients are looking for.

I'm afraid I'll blow up my client's capital with a single misplace options bet.

Look, I get it. These are real concerns for any investor - especially if you don't know much about options trading in the first place.

That knowledge gap is where most financial advisors fall short. After all, you don't learn how to become a master options trader in a Series 7.

That's why financial advisors come to me in the first place. They're looking for an edge in a profession that often leans too hard into a conservative investing methodology.

Now, I've talked to many advisors over the years - but one advisor I met a few years ago set me on a whole course that influenced the way I approach Masters in Trading.

Allow me to explain...

"I Was Frustrated With What I Was Being Taught"

A few years ago, I interviewed a financial advisor named Georgia. She'd been a financial advisor for many years, spending years inside a major wirehouse before going independent.

Like many advisors, she was trained to follow a formula €” approved research, approved products, approved narratives. A conservative methodology that yielded conservative results.

On paper, it looked responsible. But in practice, it often fell short.

"I was frustrated with the information I was paying for and hearing," she told me. "It wasn't always the most profitable or useful for my clients."

The issue wasn't effort or intelligence. Georgia was more than capable of safely growing her clients' money.

It all came down to how advisors are trained to think about markets in the first place.

So Georgia went independent. And that's when she started looking for education that went beyond licensing exams, sales scripts, and long-term generalities.

That search eventually led her to join Masters in Trading. Before joining, she'd been warned by countless colleagues to avoid options trading.

She'd been told it wasn't a meaningful way to make her clients money. And the risks? Too great to potentially tank her career over.

She'd been told repeatedly: don't touch options, outsource them. You don't need to understand the market.

In Georgia's case, she wasn't just trying to turn a quick buck in the options market. It was all about setting her clients up for success in the long term.

Georgia works with retirees and clients taking distributions now €” not 20 years from now.

"I can't just say €˜wait it out.' That doesn't work." She was at an impasse, uncertain how to marry her conservative investing ethos with the more volatile world of options trading.

I understood her concerns. The framework I've built here offers something very different from the conventional wisdom behind financial planning. But in many ways, it delivers the exact same result.

So when I sat down with Georgia, I made one thing very clear... Trading options isn't so different from parking your money in mutual funds or REITs.

The goal is always the same. Maximize your profit potential on every position you take.

That's precisely what I teach every day I go live with Masters in Trading. My goal with Georgia was to show her that our goals were one and the same - even if the approach was different.

I want everyone reading this to have access to the same tools and insights I handed to Georgia. That's why I put together The Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

The Challenge is where we take everything you've learned in my daily LIVEs €” fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline €” and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment.

For two weeks, we walk through the foundations of real options trading the way I learned them on the trading floor. You'll learn exactly how I think, exactly how I build trades, and exactly how I manage both the winners and the losers.

You can click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you.

Now, let's get back to Georgia's story.

I knew I had to find a way to convince her of the power of options trading in isolation. That meant I had reach deep down and expose my own successes and failures in the options market.

We got into some of my early experience during our initial chat.

But eventually, I knew I had to get brutally honest with Georgia about how my unique background shaped my entire approach to options trading.

How I Learned the “Hard Way”

I have a confession to make...

For many years, I didn't understand the first thing about trading options.

When I first started trading options on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in my early 20s, I used to beat myself up over every trade I missed. I'd chase, overthink, and tell myself, "This one had to work."

So much of my first year was about learning from one mistake after another. Often with thousands more on the line than I'd ever be willing to risk today.

My first year trading? I was that trader making all the wrong moves. And I didn't truly understand how options were any less risky than flushing your money down the toilet.

No significant returns. Just frustration. Always wondering what I was doing wrong.

But all those losses during my first year weren’t in vain.

I was surrounded by so many older and wiser traders who helped me see the errors in my approach.

They helped me realize that professional options traders don't lead with their gut. That was my first major lesson.

Any trader can catch a lucky break here and there. But on the floor you can't survive on luck and gut instinct alone.

I know what some of you are probably thinking right now. "What was the tipping point for you? What finally clicked after months of bad trades?"

What It Really Takes to Succeed in Options

Without a doubt, process, conviction, and discipline are the rules of the game. These are the core principles all traders must fall back on. And only hard-won knowledge got me to understand the importance of each principle.

When I say process, it isn't a gut feeling we get from some squiggly lines on a chart. We're on the hunt for objective reasons why we should get into a trade.

It could be anything. Unusual options activity (UOA) sends a handful of stocks soaring in the near term.

Two mispriced but correlated assets like gold and silver start moving away from each other.

Maybe government-sparked volatility sends a group of mining or defense stocks higher.

We've had success with special situations like these, whether with KTOS and combat drones, QXO consolidating the retail building supply space, and mispriced stocks like BMNR with large Ethereum holdings.

Trades like these are based on a clear process. We're finding opportunities in the market driven by real dynamics pushing and pulling assets around.

Now, even the most thorough process doesn't spare you from the ups and downs of the market. After all, nothing moves up or down in straight lines.

A trade can look perfect on paper and not go the way you expected. And that's where conviction steps in.

Conviction simply comes down to doing your research and preparing for any outcome in a given trade. That's actually the beauty of trading options. We have the power to express our opinion on a stock rather than just betting on one direction.

Unlike stocks, options allow you to express a range of opinions about a stock's future. Will it rise? Fall? Stay flat? With options, you can craft strategies to profit no matter the scenario. And you can always do so with conviction that a trade can go your way with the right research and risk management strategy.

It's always great when a trade goes your way. But when it doesn't, maintaining discipline becomes our lifeline. It's all about setting the rules of the trade before you even put in your first offer. This is the biggest trap for investors.

They rely too heavily on technical analysis. They let excitement push them into chasing hot trades and oversized bets. They micromanage their portfolios within an inch of success - only to squander it all with a badly timed exit.

Strong process and conviction help you stay in the game. But without discipline, you're breaking all the rules you've set for yourself.

Of course, it's not enough to just have process, conviction, and discipline. You've got to pair that knowledge with a deeper understanding of the odds you're facing.

And that's where the most important part of my approach - exactly what Georgia came to Masters in Trading to understand - becomes clear.

How We Keep the Odds in Our Favor

You see, those years building a singular approach clued me into one lesson that completely changed how I trade:

Probabilistic thinking.

It's all about knowing that every trade has a probability. You can't know the result - only the odds.

I know that sounds obvious to most. And in many ways, it is. But in trading, so much of what we do is ruled by that “it’s gotta work” mentality.

Probabilistic thinking changes the game for us.

You always come in knowing the real underlying value of a trade doesn't exist in isolation. Assets only have value in relation to each other.

The odds come from understanding the underlying dynamics between assets - whether it's two correlated assets moving apart in price or key supply shocks moving entire sectors around.

The perfect example of all this knowledge at play? Just consider the commodities market over the last year.

While volatility sent equities in every direction, commodities became some of our most consistent earners here at Masters in Trading. And the setup for us was key.

Over the last year, the gold-silver ratio has flashed multiple warning signals that primed the pump for a rally in industrial metals.

For decades, these two metals have typically moved together.

But over the last year, silver started breaking away from gold in a big way - and that price action set up a whole series of winning trades for the Masters in Trading community.

Of course, those profits didn't just come from pure gold or silver plays. It's all in the metals the markets typically don't pay much attention to.

Thirty-plus year relationships between metals like platinum and copper were breaking down and going absolutely parabolic.

Spreads always go back and forth - but it’s not a good sign when they go parabolic like we saw throughout 2025. At the same time, the dynamics behind this shift were clear.

Everyone was rushing to safe-haven assets like gold as the ultimate hedge against volatility.

And once gold got overloaded and oversold,the opportunity in cheaper metals like copper became too good to pass up.

Here, we had a clear setup based on deep research. Our process at work.

And we could see the odds were favoring a whole surge in industrial metals the markets were mispricing. Pure probabilistic setup that steered us away from overcrowded metals like gold to something less obvious.

All that's to say... We did very well trading the price dynamic between metals like gold and silver throughout 2025 without gaining pure, direct exposure to either asset.

Our multiple doubles and triples in stocks like Freeport McMoran (FCX) and Pan American Silver (PAAS) prove that.

It's the same story with assets like copper, lithium, platinum, palladium, and more.

One of our biggest all-time trades in the history of Masters in Trading? It was a single lithium name, Albemarle (ALB), that netted us more than 1,000% in total gains over the course of just six months €” including maxing out our January $25 bull call spread for a spectacular491% return on Friday.

Those trades show just how effective putting a consistent strategy to work can be.

When you understand the key relationships between any related assets, you can spot opportunities others miss.

After our chat, I showed Georgia the exact same track record I'm sharing with you right now. Those gains? That's when it all clicked for her.

And that's when she truly started to understand the power of options trading.

Once you let go of all that common sense thinking and the emotional attachment to a trade, everything changes.

Suddenly, every trade becomes just another data point for us. It's no longer love or hate, but binary.

That's what a real options trader worth their salt does. They make bets where the odds are in their favor. And they always follow a plan based on conviction, process, and discipline.

Our Masters in Trading playbook is about finding those opportunities that tick all the boxes. And our strategy is designed to work in any market environment.

Remember when tariffs wreaked havoc earlier this year? That's precisely when we pivoted toward commodities like precious metals, lithium, and ETFs .

When government-sparked volatility boosted miners and defense stocks? We swooped in with trades on all-timers like MP Materials that represent some of the strongest gains in our portfolio this year.

Once I made the connection between all those principles years ago, everything changed for me.

And once I shared those insights with Georgia, it absolutely changed the game for her clients as well.

What Georgia Learned From Masters in Trading

Joining Masters in Trading and our little talk completely tipped the scales for Georgia.

She began to see options differently €” not as leverage or speculation, but as tools for managing risk and income.

Covered calls. Defined downside. Fewer, more intentional trades that have a higher chance of landing profits.

The first few months weren't easy €” and that's important to say.

Georgia wasn't just learning something new. She was unlearning years of conditioning.

Instead of worrying about what the market might do, the focus became simple:

Trade the market for what it's doing right now €” not what you think it should do.

That mindset applies just as much to advising as it does to trading. Fewer positions. More patience. Always aware of the risk you're managing.

When I got back to her several months after our initial chat, she'd already begun working the options market for her clients. The results?

"I don't have big gap-down days anymore," she said. "It's a more consistent way to manage accounts."

That shift alone changed how she approached client portfolios. And one of the biggest changes had nothing to do with charts.

"I get fewer phone calls now," Georgia told me. Not because clients were disengaged €” but because they finally understood what was happening in their accounts.

Instead of reacting emotionally, she began explaining positions through relative value and simple analogies €” like buying a house in the right neighborhood at the right price.

"That's where I started adding real value," she said.

I'm not sharing this to sell you anything.

I'm sharing Georgia's story because it highlights something most people don't realize about my work €” and why it looks different from typical market commentary.

It isn't about predictions. It isn't about trading more. And it definitely isn't about being right all the time.

It's about thinking clearly during times of uncertainty €” and having a framework you can rely on when markets get noisy.

That's why financial advisors quietly come here. That's why they stay. And that's why this approach has remained consistent over the years.

For InvestorPlace readers who want to see this framework applied step-by-step, the Masters in Trading Challenge is the most straightforward place to start.

It's not a signal service. It's not a prediction engine.

It's simply an introduction to how I think about markets, risk, and decision-making.

And if you'd like to hear Georgia tell her story directly, you can watch the full video below…

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose,

Founder, Masters in Trading

He calls these bullish periods “green days.” And in backtests across 5,000 stocks, his system has identified these intervals, to the day, with 83% accuracy. Since going live with official recommendations in 2025, readers could have doubled their money 13 different times using this approach.

Keith joins us today to explain the science behind these profitable patterns. And during his Prediction 2026 event on Tuesday, January 20 at 10.a.m. Eastern, he’ll discuss what to buy - and avoid - in 2026 and how to see the biggest stock jumps coming in advance...  

2026 started with a bang.

In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, January 3, U.S. special forces carried out a raid in Caracas to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Soon after, the White House floated the idea of taking control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark - a move that, if pushed far enough, would test the foundations of the world’s largest military alliance.

And there’s plenty of drama back at home, too.

The Supreme Court is due to decide on the legality of tariffs, forcing companies across the economy to rethink supply chains and pricing.

And President Trump is expected to name a new Federal Reserve chair - a choice that could shape interest rates and stock prices for years.

And that’s before you factor in the breakneck speed at which AI is advancing and the changes it’s bringing to society, whether we like it or not.

When the world feels unstable, it’s natural to assume markets must be unstable too - chaotic, unpredictable, and hostage to the next headline.

But this common assumption overlooks something important...

While the barrage of news headlines can seem scary, most systems move in cycles. There are steady, repeatable rhythms that persist even when, on the surface, these systems may look chaotic.

The natural world works this way. So does the stock market.

You can’t see these cycles with the naked eye. They only show up after you run decades of data and quintillions (billions of billions!) of data points through powerful algorithms. 

But once you do, a surprising picture emerges. 

Thousands of stocks have historically reliable windows - specific calendar days of each year - when they tend to rise and others when they tend to fall. That includes bull and bear markets, manias and panics, wars, pandemics, and more.

I’m proud to say that, at TradeSmith, we’ve built cutting-edge software to track those patterns. We’ve also created a rapid-fire trading strategy based on these signals that can pinpoint bullish stock seasonality windows on 5,000 stocks - to the day. In our backtests, the system’s trades have won with 83% accuracy.

You can try it yourself right now to see the "green day" for 5,000 different stocks when you register for our Prediction 2026 event, which airs next Tuesday, January 20, at 10 a.m. Eastern.

During that event, we’ll explain exactly how this works, including a new way to apply this secret in a model portfolio that’s turned every $10,000 into $85,700 in our backtests.

Then read on for more on the seasonality phenomenon in markets and how, over the last 15 years, some stocks have followed their seasonality windows with 100% historical accuracy.

Stock Seasonality: The Hidden Patterns Behind Market Movements

Once you start looking, you’ll find seasonal patterns everywhere.

Birds migrate on nearly the same schedule every year. Whales follow sea routes that line up with breeding seasons and feeding cycles tied to ocean temperatures. Even trees conserve energy and grow seasonally based on the length of days and shifts in temperature.

We see seasonality patterns in the economy, too.

Retail spending reliably spikes in December. Electricity demand rises each summer as air conditioners come on. Airline bookings surge ahead of holidays, then cool off in predictable lulls once peak travel passes

Investor behavior follows a calendar, too. 

Investors rebalance portfolios and harvest tax losses in December, then put money back to work in January. Mutual fund flows tend to increase early in the year as retirement contributions reset. And professional money managers adjust exposure before the end of each quarter to manage risk and reporting.

Human decisions shape markets. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that stock prices show seasonal tendencies as well.

This may be news to most regular investors, but traders have known about these patterns for decades.

Professional Traders Already Use These Seasonal Windows

Commodity traders, for example, have long tracked planting and harvest cycles in crops like corn and wheat. 

Energy traders watch seasonal demand shifts tied to winter heating and summer cooling.

The gold market has also shown recurring seasonal tendencies, often strengthening during certain parts of the year tied to jewelry demand, central bank buying, and annual festivals in India and China.

And stock investors have studied phenomena such as the January Effect for decades. Even Wall Street’s old saying - "Sell in May and go away" - comes from observed seasonal behavior, not theory.

The only thing that’s changed is how precisely we can track these seasonal phenomena.

Today, we can discover these patterns across thousands of stocks, over decades of history, and measure them down to specific days - not just months or quarters.

That’s what my team and I set out to do at TradeSmith.

We built software to analyze more than 2 quintillion data points across roughly 5,000 stocks, running millions of historical tests to answer a simple question:

Is there an optimal time of year to buy - and an optimal time to sell - each individual stock?

When we tested this approach over the past 18 years, the results were remarkably consistent.

A straightforward seasonality strategy produced a positive average return every single year in our study. The typical trade lasted about 18 days and generated an average gain of about 6% - modest in isolation, but meaningful when repeated. 

More importantly, the strategy didn’t fall apart when markets did.

It held up during the financial crisis. During the pandemic. During the 2022 selloff. The exact dates shifted slightly, but the cycles themselves persisted.

How Stock Seasonality Works Even During Market Crashes

One example still stands out.

In early 2009, at the depths of the Great Recession, Netflix (NFLX) entered a seasonal "green zone" - our indicator that a move up is imminent - in late January. Historically, beginning around January 21, the stock has risen roughly 20% over the following 80 days about 93% of the time. 

Even in 2009 - when fear dominated markets - Netflix followed the same pattern and moved higher.

We’ve seen the same behavior play out repeatedly in recent years.

• Take Intuit (INTU). In one seasonal window, the stock rose about 13% in just 15 days - a move that showed up consistently in historical testing.
• Or Blackstone (BX), which advanced roughly 7.6% over a 20-day seasonal window, even as broader market sentiment was shaky.
• Or Entegris (ENTG). During the 2022 bear market, the stock rose about 7% in a 43-day seasonal window - a period when many investors assumed nothing was safe.

What mattered in each case wasn’t the business or the backdrop. It was the time of year.

That doesn’t mean every year looks identical. The precise "best day" can shift as new data comes in, which is why our system updates regularly.

But the cycles themselves don’t disappear.

When we tested a simple approach - focusing only on historically bullish "green zones" and avoiding bearish "red zones" - we demonstrated that many of the market’s biggest short-term moves clustered tightly around these seasonal windows regardless of headlines.

Your Edge In an Unpredictable 2026 Market

Living in the second decade of the 21^st century can often feel bamboozling. 

We’re being constantly buffeted by geopolitical shifts, economic threats like inflation, and exponential technological change... especially AI.

You don’t need to predict the next geopolitical shock... Fed decision... or figure out the future of humanity... to invest well and grow your wealth.. But you do need a way to understand when the odds are historically tilted in your favor - and when they aren’t.

That’s what makes stock seasonality so valuable.

So, make sure you’re registered for our Prediction 2026 event.  

You’ll get immediate access to an "unlocked" version of TradeSmith’s ground-breaking Seasonality tool. 

You can explore the results of our powerful research for the stocks you own or are thinking of buying. It’s available online until next Monday, January 19. 

Then, on Tuesday, January 20, I’ll walk you through how we uncovered these patterns in stocks... why seasonality keeps working even when markets feel uncertain... and how you can use our software to spot hidden seasonality trends.

I’ll also share a free stock recommendation, so you can see how this works in real time - not just in backtests.

Markets will always feel noisy. And 2026 is no exception.

To get an edge, you need to know which signals to ignore - and which patterns have been there all along, hidden in the data.

Here’s that link again to register your spot.

The smell hit me first: sweat, paper, and burnt coffee. Then the sound.

A wall of voices shouting bids and offers, phones ringing, bells clanging. Paper tickets flew through the air like confetti. It was a storm in every sense of the word.

I was just 22 years old, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with men two and three times my age who had been trading longer than I'd been alive. I was nervous and my tie was a little too tight, but I knew I was exactly where I wanted to be.

I didn't know it then, but those first steps onto the floor would shape everything that came after. That was where I learned what really separates traders who survive from traders who wash out.

That's where I learned The Trader's Mindset.

Building Our Framework

Even when you think you're ready for the challenge, you find out quickly that there's still a lot left to learn.

Any trader can catch a lucky break here and there, but on the floor you can't survive on luck alone. You need process. You need conviction. You need discipline. These are the core principles traders fall back on when the waves come crashing in that keep us calm, cool and collected.

It all starts with process. If you can't explain why you're in a trade, you don't belong in it. This isn't a gut feeling we get from some squiggly lines on a chart, we're on the hunt for objective reasons to believe that an asset is mispriced. This can take a lot of forms.

Sometimes it's as simple as following some unusual options activity (UOA), or spotting mispriced earnings volatility. Maybe we find a divergence between two highly correlated assets.

We've also had success with special situations like KTOS and combat drones, QXO consolidating the retail building supply space, and more recently with mispriced stocks like BMNR with large Ethereum holdings.

But even the most thorough process doesn't spare you from the ups and downs of the market.  Nothing moves up or down in straight lines.

A trade can look perfect on paper and not go the way you expected. That's where conviction steps in. It's the belief born from research and preparation that allows us to remain confident when things don't go as planned. Without conviction, process is just theory.

While conviction is what carries us through the rough patches, it's even better if you can avoid those patches altogether. That's where discipline comes in.

Discipline is about setting the rules of the trade before you even put in your first offer. I've seen plenty of sharp traders self-destruct. And in every case, they would make the same mistakes...

They would rely too heavily on technical analysis. They let excitement push them into chasing hot trades and oversized bets. They would micromanage their portfolios. They would break their own rules. In the long run, the market will punish you for that kind of recklessness.

Discipline is the patience to wait for your setup, even when the market feels dull and your inner voice is screaming for action.

Discipline is what creates consistency. It's not glamorous, it doesn't get applause €” but it's the framework that allows us to fine-tune our approach to the markets.

Without it, you're just swinging at every pitch that comes your way. With it, you're ready to defend the strike zone and stay at the plate long enough to capitalize on the right opportunity.

That discipline, consistency and patience is exactly what I teach to my Masters in Trading community.

It's all part of the singular strategy that we leverage to systematically track hidden stock plays with confidence and pair them with a simple tweak that can multiply the payoff on great stock ideas.

I recently went live to discuss exactly how this system works with The Profit Surge Event. It's a special webinar designed to give you the tools and insights to trade with conviction and process - while avoiding market noise.

You can learn all about the system - and the key stock picks I'm watching - right here.

Now that you have a better understanding of the trader's mindset, let's take a look at one real world example that brings it all together.

Process in Action

I'll take you through our recent Lyft (LYFT) trade step by step. It's a clean example of how process, conviction, and discipline all come together.

Back in July, we took aim at Lyft Inc. The company was getting set to release its next earnings report on August 6.

We came into earnings with a simple observation: the options market was underpricing the move. The straddle was implying around a 16% swing, but Lyft's history told us the stock typically moved closer to 20% after earnings.

Even better, we also saw that LYFT has been lagging behind its top competitor UBER, which gave us conviction that LYFT still had room to catch up.

That's the edge. We weren't guessing. We weren't saying, "Hey, I think ridesharing is hot." We were playing the math and had multiple reasons to believe that LYFT had potential to move.

With catalyst events like an earnings release, we never know for certain whether the stock will go up or down.

So, instead of making a directional play, we trade the volatility. I

In this case we structured the trade as a straddle. That's when you buy calls (bullish) and puts (bearish) on the same strike price designed to expire at the same time. This way, we didn't need to worry which way Lyft would break. We just needed it to move more than the market was pricing.

Discipline Over Emotion

Then earnings hit. Lyft sold off on the news, but not far enough outside of the market maker's expectations. In this case that meant we were able to take profits on our puts, but it wasn't enough to cover the total cost of the strangle. Meanwhile the calls were close to worthless, which put us in a tight spot.

A lot of traders see red on one side of their trade and panic. It would be easy to cash them out, then to try and preserve capital while clawing back some more premium, but as a general rule, we never want to sell an option for less than $0.20. Even if we did, we would still be underwater on this trade.

On the flip side, we could hold onto the calls and see if shares recovered in the nine days before expiration. The situation didn't look good, but this is where conviction and discipline come into play.

We knew the research. Sure, the earnings catalysts didn't pan out. But that wasn't our only reason to believe LYFT could move to the upside.

That conviction in the trade and the discipline in our approach kept us from second-guessing the setup when the stock went against the calls.

Conviction Rewarded

And then, right at the last minute, the payoff came. On Friday, August 15^th, LYFT started moving after announcing its co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer were stepping down from the board next year.

That meant their Class B shares would soon turn into common stock, killing the dual-class structure and bringing our calls back from the brink. As a result, shares jumped more than 10% and brought our calls back in the money.

All told, the straddle returned around 5%. It was a minor win built on process, conviction, and discipline.

But it didn't end for us there...

Soon after LYFT's stock run, I saw yet another opportunity to turn LYFT's short pop into a fresh win.

I told my Advanced Notice viewers to go all in on the LYFT October calls at the end of August. In just two weeks, we netted over 200% from that short run in the stock.

Both trades on LYFT came from the same approach...

We didn't chase. We didn't guess. We didn't let emotions drive the bus.

We found a setup with edge, trusted the research, and managed risk with discipline. That's the trader's mindset in action €” and that's how you stay alive long enough to hit the big ones.

This isn't the only comeback story we've seen over the last year.

We saw rallies in IWM, AA and RUN over the last few months. They looked all but lost only to rebound and take what looked like surefire losers into the green.

It's the same story with two recent wins that looked to have completely run out of steam for us - Antero Resources and Coterra Energy.

It wasn't easy sticking with our bullish stance on clean energy throughout 2025. Government-sparked headwinds broadly sent clean energy stocks into a tailspin for much of the year.

But with both trades, our goal was getting long exposure. And luckily for us, we never wavered in our conviction with these trades. Our bets on these stocks paid off with gains of more than 90% and 145%.

The lesson in all of these trades is simple: don't mistake short-term noise for a verdict on your trade.

If your process is sound and your discipline is intact, you don't have to flinch when a position goes red. The market will test you €” it always does. It's about trusting the framework you've built, leaning on conviction when the waves hit, and letting discipline decide the exit.

Train Your Mind to Think Like a Pro

The truth is, no one is born with the trader's mindset. It isn't some gift you're handed when you open a brokerage account or read a book. It's forged in the fire of real-world trading decisions €” like the ones we just walked through with Lyft.

But here's the thing: you don't have to spend years on a trading floor to build it.

I spent years uncovering where the big money is getting in position before the crowd figures it all out. All that knowledge is exactly what I teach in Masters in Trading.

And I want everyone who's eager to listen to have that same knowledge. The kind that gets you a beat on the biggest opportunities before they hit most investors' radars.

That's why I recently went live with my "Trade of the Decade" at The Profit Surge Event.

Not only that, but during that presentation, I showed viewers exactly how to systematically track picks from my InvestorPlace colleagues - Louis Navellier, Eric Fry, and Luke Lango  - and pair them with a simple tweak that can multiply the payoff on great stock ideas.

This is the same approach we've used all year to stay ahead of massive shifts in precious metals, commodities, tech stocks, and much more. While everyone else was reacting to headlines, we were positioning where the real money is flowing.

All based on discipline and conviction. And all without paying any attention to the short-term noise shakes most investors' confidence.

For The Profit Surge Event, Louis, Eric, and Luke share their highest-conviction plays. These are the names they're watching most closely right now.

Plus, I show you how to get ahold of my Trade of the Decade... plus three more trades that I believe could be home runs based on my market forecast and Unusual Options Activity.

You can watch a full replay of our special event for a limited time.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

Enjoy his insights below, and we'll see you Monday.

Hello, Reader.

Pop quiz: Who said it?

This generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it €” we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond.

If you guessed President John F. Kennedy, during a 1962 address at Rice University, you'd be correct. His moonshot ignited an era of American ambition and industrial investment that helped define the original American Dream.

Now, how about this quote?

In the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute...

We are laying the groundwork for a highly scalable, future space-based AI infrastructure.

That's not JFK.

That's a November 4 blog post from Google Research.

And just this past Saturday, Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai said on TV, quite matter-of-factly, that the company has begun working on AI data centers -in space.

In an endeavor called Project Suncatcher, Google aims to launch swarms of small satellites powered almost entirely by sunlight. These satellites would run AI workloads in orbit, relieving pressure on Earth's energy grid.

Two prototypes are scheduled for 2027.

Maybe they get there. Maybe they don't.

What is certain is this: You don't need to watch the sky to see where the real money is being made.

Back on our "pale blue dot," AI data centers are springing up like dandelions. The hyperscalers are spending trillions, literally, to construct, equip, network, and power these computational fortresses.

Today, a new moonshot is underway €” and like the first one, it's setting off a massive economic shift. This is the early, structural phase of what my colleagues and I call American Dream 2.0.

It's a shift from a labor-driven economy to an ownership-driven one... and a seismic break from the last 40 years of economic dependence on foreign production.

The companies supplying this buildout are starting to see it in their earnings right now.

So, today, I'd like to plant our feet firm back on the ground. While the data revolution will always have its dreamers, the owners of this transition €” the ones supplying the must-have materials and infrastructure €” are already cashing checks.

Let's break it down...

The Paradox of Hyperscale AI

McKinsey estimates that data center investment will hit $6.7 trillion over the next five years - with $5.2 trillion earmarked for AI-specific infrastructure.

So what are the hyperscalers doing?

They're torching cash like it's kindling.

Google, along with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Microsoft Inc. (MSFT), Apple Inc. (AAPL), and Meta Platforms Inc. (META), have decided that the only way to survive the AI era is to spend into it, even if the economic payoff seems highly uncertain.

Their once-mighty $300 billion cash fortress has dwindled dramatically. Years of outspending free cash flow have turned these giants into heavy borrowers.

This is the paradox of hyperscale AI: The technology may deliver epochal gains over time, but paying for those future gains could crush shareholders in the near term.

Legendary hedge fund manager David Einhorn has called this a potential era of "tremendous capital destruction."

And the hyperscalers know it. They admit the returns are uncertain. They admit the payback horizon is murky.

Meanwhile, all this spending is doing something else €” something far more immediate and far more relevant to the idea of American Dream 2.0.

It's enriching the companies supplying the materials, hardware, energy, and infrastructure.

Which brings us to the real story...

Forget Outer Space - Go Underground

Every ton of metal pulled from the ground is a claim on the AI buildout.

Unlike software vendors or chip designers, metals companies don't need to guess which AI model wins or whose AI agent becomes standard. They just need to deliver the raw materials that make it all possible.

Take aluminum.

Every high-voltage line that feeds an AI data hub consumes one to two tons of aluminum per megawatt delivered.

Building the grid that AI requires means a surge in demand. From 104 million tons of demand in 2024 to an estimated 120 million by 2030.

That's relentless, structural growth.

The market has noticed. Aluminum prices are up roughly 10% year to date, a new three-year high.

“In a world in which we are more energy intensive… it’s going to be built with aluminum,” says Charles Johnson, the president and CEO of the Aluminum Association trade group.

In the race for AI supremacy, the hyperscalers may scorch their balance sheets, but the miners will still be cashing the checks.

Copper is on a similar trajectory.

And then there's the most strategically important category of all: rare earths.

Rare earth elements are essential for the core components of AI data centers: hard drives, cooling systems, networking hardware, fiber optics, and power systems.

Without them, the AI boom doesn't just slow down €” it stops.

So as demand for data centers grows stratospherically, so does demand for rare earths.

In fact, the scramble over rare earths production is signaling a $11.3 trillion economic shift, involving 127 companies and multiple sovereign nations.

It's one of the clearest examples we've seen of our American Dream 2.0 thesis: The wealth flows not to the tech giants building futuristic platforms, but to the foundational suppliers making it possible.

And that shift is about to accelerate dramatically on January 2.

That's why Louis Naveller, Luke Lango, and I have joined forces to identify a handful of small U.S. companies positioned at the center of this transition - companies directly tied to AI infrastructure, advanced energy, and rare-earth supply

Some of these players have potential upside of 2,400%... 3,500%... even 8,500% if this buildout unfolds as we expect.

We'll share everything at our upcoming event...

On Monday, December 8, at 10 a.m. Eastern time, the three of us are hosting the American Dream 2.0 Summit (click here to save your seat for this free event).

We'll detail a rare-earths miner sitting on a massive U.S. deposit, plus several other companies positioned to benefit as America rebuilds its industrial base.

Plus, we'll show you why January 2 could be the day this entire $11.3 trillion realignment goes vertical...

And reveal the name and ticker of the tiny company at the center of this January 2 catalyst as a free pick at the Summit.

This structural transition to the American Dream 2.0 will define wealth creation for the next decade €” the shift from labor-driven prosperity to ownership-driven prosperity.

You can click here now to reserve your seat.

No astronaut training required.

They churned out gas-guzzling muscle cars, confident in their dominance. Then came the 1973 oil crisis. Gasoline rationing and sky-high prices sparked a sudden consumer exodus to fuel-efficient Japanese imports.

Practically overnight, Toyota and Honda went from niche players to industry powerhouses, while Detroit's finest watched their market share shrivel. Investors who saw the writing on the wall €”and bet on the upstarts €”reaped fortunes.

Today, a similar upheaval is underway in the tech world, one that could upend the hierarchy of the $1 trillion AI chip industry.

And savvy investors stand to profit handsomely, if they can spot the new "Toyotas" of AI before the crowd...

The Ferrari of AI Chips: Nvidia's Reign and Its Hidden Weaknesses

For the past few years, Nvidia's (NVDA) graphics processing units (GPUs) have been the muscle cars of the AI revolution. These chips are ultra-powerful €”Ferraris for your data center €”capable of training cutting-edge AI models at blistering speeds.

This prowess fueled Nvidia's meteoric rise; its GPUs became the default engine driving everything from ChatGPT to self-driving cars. Nvidia's stock has skyrocketed, and for a while it seemed no competitor could catch up.

Yet, like Detroit's gas hogs in the '70s, Nvidia's high-performance chips come with serious costs and constraints.

They guzzle electricity and carry eye-popping price tags. Even worse, they're in short supply, with months-long waitlists.

Demand far outstripped supply in 2023 -2024, forcing buyers to pay exorbitant premiums or delay AI projects.

As one Reuters report put it, companies are now hunting for alternatives to "Nvidia's pricey and supply-constrained" GPUs. In other words, the AI industry is hitting a resource crunch €”much like an energy crisis of its own making.

And this is where the story gets interesting for forward-looking investors…

Rise of Custom Silicon: Big Tech's Secret Weapon

Under the radar, the tech giants have been developing their own custom AI chips €”more like reliable sedans than flashy sports cars.

Google led the charge with its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), a proprietary chip tailored for AI tasks. At first, TPUs were a niche tool used only inside Google. But that changed dramatically this year. Google's latest AI model, Gemini 3.0, was trained entirely on TPUs - a first at this scale.

The result?

Gemini 3 leapfrogged the competition in certain AI benchmarks, even outperforming OpenAI's newest models in key tests.

By proving that custom silicon can handle frontier AI workloads, Google cracked open the door for a new era.

Now everyone from Meta (META)to Amazon (AMZN) is charging through.

Meta, one of Nvidia's biggest customers, is reportedly in talks to spend billions on Google's TPUs for its own data centers.

Amazon has its "Inferentia" and "Tranium" chips. Even OpenAI and Apple (AAPL) are said to be testing TPU-based infrastructure.

The appeal is clear: these tailor-made chips can be more cost-efficient and energy-efficient for specific AI jobs.

It's like trading in a 12-mpg Camaro for a 40-mpg Camry €”you save a fortune and still get where you need to go.

A New AI Oligopoly: Meet the Next "Nvidia"

As this custom-silicon revolution accelerates, it's creating a new ecosystem of winners. Think of it as an emerging AI oligopoly sharing a pie that's expanding fast.

Who are the key players?

Semiconductor firms that assist Big Tech in designing and manufacturing these bespoke chips. Broadcom - a $400+ billion tech giant - is at the forefront.

It's Google's principal partner for TPU development, essentially the chief architect behind Google's AI chips.

Not coincidentally, Broadcom's stock has surged nearly 70% this year, outpacing even Nvidia's gain. Wall Street analysts now call Broadcom "a clear winner" of the shift to custom AI silicon.

Other beneficiaries include Marvell Technology, which supplies Amazon's in-house chip efforts, and Taiwan's TSMC, the contract manufacturer building most of these advanced chips.

Meanwhile, Nvidia isn't going away - far from it. The AI market is projected to double and then double again in coming years, a $500-plus billion CapEx tsunami that will lift all boats. Nvidia may lose some share of that growing pie, but the pie is growing so fast that Nvidia's own sales could keep rising.

In the 1970s analogy, Nvidia might be Ford - forced to share the road, but still selling trucks - while Broadcom, Google, and others become the new Hondas and Toyotas in the fleet.

What Savvy Investors Should Watch

The message is clear: AI's next chapter won't be a one-horse race.

For investors, the opportunity lies in spotting the suppliers and partners powering this broader AI boom. Follow the silicon - companies enabling big players to break their GPU addiction.

When news hit that Google might supply its TPUs to Meta, Alphabet's stock jumped and Nvidia's slid, but notably Broadcom popped 2% on the day. And when Warren Buffett's Berkshire recently took a stake in Alphabet's AI ambitions, it was seen as an endorsement of Google's full-stack strategy - chips included.

In every technological revolution, infrastructure winners often make outsized gains. During the Gold Rush, it paid to sell the shovels. In the AI gold rush, those "shovels" are custom chips and the companies behind them.

Nvidia's Ferrari-like GPUs still have their place on the track, but the real money might be on the convoy of efficient, custom-tuned engines quietly taking over the highways.

Investors who recognize this shift early - as some did with Japanese cars in the '70s - could find themselves riding the next big wave of hypergrowth, while others are stuck in the breakdown lane. Brace for the road ahead; it's about to get interesting.

By the time you're reading this, Nvidia (NVDA) earnings will likely be out.

How the numbers come in - and more importantly, guidance for the quarters ahead - will be pivotal.

After several weeks of pressure on tech and AI stocks, tonight's results have the potential to either stop and reverse the slide...or accelerate it if Nvidia shows any sign of slowing demand or softer AI momentum.

We'll be watching the numbers and the after-hours reaction closely. And of course, we'll break it all down for you in tomorrow's Digest.

For now, let's turn to the bigger structural question behind the AI boom. And on that note...

AI has a problem no one is discussing

I'm waiting for someone on Wall Street to highlight this, but so far, no one is touching it...

AI may be fantastic at replacing workers... but AI is terrible at replacing consumers.

It's the paradox hiding beneath this groundbreaking technology. And when you follow the money far enough through the AI economy, it raises uncomfortable questions about the AI narrative.

Stepping back, in yesterday's Digest, we walked through the warning about private credit from Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor, and Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital.

But the risk in private credit is just a small part of a bigger, interconnected story. Today, let's begin to unravel this story by picking up where we left off, exploring how the AI boom is intertwined with the leveraged lending system.

Then we'll redirect to look at the other end of that pipeline - the revenue side - and explore what happens when we forget that while AI is great at cutting costs, it's terrible at buying products - and that's a massive problem.

AI isn't immune to risks in the private credit sector

As we've been tracking in the Digest, the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence requires truly staggering sums of money. This is a historic scale-up of global computing infrastructure that will require trillions of dollars over the next decade.

Some of the largest projects in the world today - such as Meta's $27 billion Hyperion data center in Louisiana - are being financed not through traditional bank loans but through private credit lenders. And Meta is hardly alone. As the hyperscalers pursue their AI ambitions at full speed, they've increasingly been tapping private credit.

The borrowing is justified by one big underlying assumption...

Today's massive up-front spending will lead to tomorrow's avalanche of profits from AI initiatives.

So far, few people have raised concerns about this because the entities doing the spending - basically, the Magnificent Seven stocks - are the most cash-rich corporations in history.

Now, because the infrastructure spending is very real, the companies receiving that money - Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), chip suppliers, data-center builders - are reporting very real, very large profits. To many investors, this confirms the AI boom is "real."

But infrastructure supplier profits are not the same thing as long-term ROI for the hyperscalers themselves. The massive cost side of the AI equation is clear. The revenue side is still extremely blurry.

On that note here's Axios from last month:

It remains unclear how all that debt will be paid back: AI is not making any money (yet), and each new chip cycle brings costly upgrades.

This financing binge could pop the AI bubble.

Which brings us to the first uncomfortable part of the story.

Beyond profits for infrastructure builders, does AI math pencil out?

What do you pay for AI today?

For ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced, and so on, maybe $20 a month? Or maybe you don't even pay.

Now, hyperscalers do not expect $20 chatbots to cover the cost of their trillion-dollar infrastructure investments. They expect the real payoff will come from enterprise AI adoption - corporate customers paying tens of thousands of dollars a month (or more) to integrate AI across their entire workflows.

But here's issue #1...

So far, even when you include the early enterprise revenue, the revenues coming in are tiny compared to the capital going out.

From a different Axios article:

MIT researchers studied 300 public AI initiatives to try and suss out the “no hype reality” of AI’s impact on business...

95% of organizations found zero return despite enterprise investment of $30 billion to $40 billion into GenAI, the study says.

The "real" AI value proposition - the one after this infrastructure buildout phase - is murky at best. Revenue remains tame compared to the firehose of spending. So, unless AI monetization grows far beyond today's numbers, the math becomes increasingly strained.

And remember, because a meaningful portion of the buildout is financed through private credit, any revenue disappointment doesn't just affect hyperscaler earnings. It could feed back into the credit system, creating a domino effect of pain:

• If AI spending slows, liquidity tightens...
• If liquidity tightens, refinancing becomes harder...
• If refinancing becomes harder, capex slows...
• Lower capex leads to slower earnings growth...
• Slower earnings growth drags down the market's valuation multiples...
• Lower market valuation multiples ding stock prices...
• Lower stock prices create panic in Upper-K investors who sell, accelerating the unwinding of the wealth effect

I'm not predicting a collapse. I'm recognizing that a highly leveraged boom assumes highly reliable future cash flows - but those cash flows are not a certainty.

Now, let's pivot to issue #2 - the deeper, more complex question that almost no one wants to confront...

The risk of excluding Lower-K Americans from the economy

As noted above, the hyperscalers don't plan to make trillions of dollars from chatbots. Rather, they're banking on million-dollar contracts with Fortune 500 companies.

But that thesis rests on some very large assumptions. Here are three:

• The enterprise adoption will be enormous
• The AI tools that companies buy will generate measurable, solid ROI
• AI won't be commoditized into a low-margin utility like cloud storage or broadband.

All possible - but not guaranteed.

As of today, outside of the companies on the receiving end of the hyperscaler firehose of money, most businesses experimenting with AI still can't show a clean bottom-line return.

Yet even if those assumptions do play out exactly as the bulls expect, we run straight into an even bigger, more foundational issue - the one that surfaces when you follow the money one layer deeper:

Where do the enterprise customers get the revenue to pay the hyperscalers for all this AI?

I'm talking big picture - across the next decade.

When you trace that revenue pathway back to its origin, you land in the same place every time...

The U.S. consumer.

And that's where today's closed-loop economy may come back to haunt us.

What AI can't do well - consume

The bullish narrative around AI's enterprise value focuses on cost savings - and those savings are real. AI doesn't demand raises. It doesn't need health care. It doesn't go on strike or take vacation...

From a corporate cost structure standpoint, AI is an efficiency dream.

But there's a problematic flip side...

AI doesn't buy anything.

In other words, AI doesn't drive consumption - and consumption is still nearly 70% of U.S. GDP.

Source: Fed data

So, let's follow a new potential doom loop:

• If AI reduces the need for human workers in large enough numbers, we are implicitly reducing wage income for a significant portion of consumers...
• If consumer income weakens, consumer spending weakens...
• If consumer spending weakens, corporate revenues weaken...
• If corporate revenues weaken, enterprise software budgets weaken...
• And if enterprise budgets weaken, cloud and AI spending weakens - the very spending hyperscalers depend on to justify their infrastructure.

This ties into the "closed-loop economy" we've been discussing: the cycle in which AI boosts productivity, companies need fewer workers, profits rise, more money flows to AI, and even fewer workers are needed - all while the consumer base becomes less central to economic growth.

"But Jeff, I remember a recent Digest when you wrote that the top 10% of American earners were spending as much as the rest combined! You're being inconsistent!"

That stat is true - but it doesn't apply evenly across all categories of the economy.

Yes, the Upper-K consumer can support high-margin discretionary spending - travel, restaurants, even big-ticket items like homes and cars. In those areas, one wealthy household can spend as much as several middle-income households.

But there are enormous parts of the real economy where demand cannot be concentrated among the top 10%.

The wealthiest Americans can't eat ten meals a day... or buy forty times the amount of deodorant, detergent, or toothpaste... or pay for thirty streaming subscriptions...

Bottom line: Wealth can concentrate - but consumption can't.

Stepping back from the doom-and-gloom

Let's be measured...

History gives us plenty of reasons for optimism.

Technological revolutions have a way of creating entirely new job categories no one could have predicted...

The top tier of U.S. consumers - the "Upper K," as I often refer to them - has enormous spending power and continues to anchor demand...

Governments can soften transitions through transfers, taxes, and safety nets...

And the global middle class remains a massive and growing consumer base for U.S. companies.

But...

AI is different than past technological breakthroughs. Its ability to replace - well, just about all of us - creates a fundamentally different type of technology adoption curve. It's one that shifts the balance between labor, capital, and consumption in ways we need to monitor carefully.

This is precisely why our macro expert Eric Fry, editor of Fry’s Investment Report has been focused on what he calls "AI infrastructure plays with pricing power" - companies that can maintain margins even as AI commoditizes.

This is a lengthy Digest, so I won't go into all the details, but to help investors navigate what to sell - and where to reinvest profits - Eric recently released a "Sell This, Buy That" research package.

It lays out which AI (and non-AI) plays still have the earnings strength to thrive in today's AI economy. You can see three tickers - free of charge - in Eric's special report here.

Another portfolio action step to consider

Despite the long-term issues I've highlighted today, the next 12 to 18 months or so are likely to be a period of booming profits for AI infrastructure companies.

Hyperscalers have immense resources and powerful incentives to continue expanding. Capex pipelines are massive and growing. AI infrastructure orders are accelerating. And many businesses are in the early stages of exploration, which tends to drive continued spending.

So, this is still a moment of opportunity - even as we keep an eye on the underlying structural red flags out on the horizon. And this brings us to our hypergrowth expert, Luke Lango, editor of Early Stage Investor.

Luke has spent the past several months in Silicon Valley meeting with the engineers and founders behind the next AI wave.

His conclusion is that we are entering what he calls the "Hyperscale Revolution," a period in which digital-first companies can scale revenues exponentially without physical assets limiting their growth. Think early Shopify or Copart - but now amplified by AI.

Luke believes one small company (in a completely unexpected sector) could become the next "Amazon of its industry" as AI reshapes every corner of the economy.

We'll have more on that company from Luke next week. This is just a heads-up to keep your eye out.

Wrapping up

The explosion of AI capex - much of it financed through private credit - is real, spectacular, and enormously profitable for the companies supplying the infrastructure.

And despite our recent jittery market, the next 12 -18 months could continue to deliver outsized gains as the hyperscalers race to build the digital backbone of the next era.

But long-term profitability depends on something we seem to be forgetting...

A healthy, well-funded consumer.

Bottom line: AI can automate, optimize, and replace - but it cannot spend.

So, as our economy leans harder into automation and robotics, funded by massive spending and heavy private credit borrowing, perhaps it's time we ask an uncomfortable question...

With AI, are we unwittingly sawing off the economic tree branch that we're sitting on?

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

In Houston, NASA engineers were flooded with problems. Each one was urgent and life-threatening.

Flight Director Gene Kranz knew he had to keep his team focused. If they tried to fix everything at once, they'd lose focus, which would mean losing the crew.

He's famously quoted as saying, "Let’s work the problem, people. Let’s not make things worse by guessing."

The team worked step-by-step, blocking out any distractions and concentrating on what mattered most.

The stock market isn't life or death, but the same principle applies: focus on what matters most.

Right now, investors are facing an assault of distractions: the government shutdown (now on Day 18), a trade war with China, relations with Putin, and bailouts for Argentina, just to name a few.

It's easy to lose focus amid a sea of blaring headlines. But the investors who succeed are the ones who can tune it all out and concentrate on what truly drives results: Earnings.        

Because when you tune out the political noise, all the words from the talking heads and so-called experts, and focus on what really matters - profits and fundamentals - that's when you find the best opportunities.

That relentless focus helped legendary investor Louis Navellier spot a little-known chip company before it became the hottest stock of the decade - a pick that could've turned a $5,000 investment into nearly $800,000.

And today, he says he's found another one.

A Focus on Fundamentals

For more than 40 years, Louis has focused his stock-picking services on fundamentally superior stocks. That focus reflects his dedication to ignoring all the noise that distracts so many investors.

On any given business day, millions of people pay attention to the blinking lights and flashing numbers they believe make up "the stock market."

Unfortunately, paying attention to those signals doesn't get you anywhere. They don't reveal the real secret to making money in stocks.

Here is how Louis explains it:

Remember that a stock isn't just an update on your phone or flashing light on a screen or a trading hot potato. When you buy a stock, you buy a partial ownership stake in a real business.

You own a slice of that company's equipment, inventory, patents, real estate, and brands. You become financially exposed to both the company's upside and downside.

The major drivers of a stock's price are earnings (or the anticipation of them). The more a company grows its earnings, the more its shares will be worth.

Stock price trends can diverge from earnings trends for a while, but over the long-term, if a company grows and grows the amount of cash it takes in, its share price is sure to head higher.

That's how the market works. It's the "iron law" of the stock market.

The Iron Law in Action

That same focus once led Louis to a tiny California computer company in 1988 - long before the iPhone, before iTunes, before anyone could imagine trillion-dollar tech stocks.

The company was Apple Inc. (AAPL), and his recommendation went on to soar more than 600-fold, turning a modest $1,000 investment into over $600,000, as you can see below.

That's the result that happens when you ignore the noise and focus on what drives stock prices.

In 2016, when most investors had never heard of artificial intelligence, Louis recommended Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) because the company's earnings were quietly exploding. While others were distracted by short-term market noise, Louis saw a deeper story in the numbers. And he was right €” Nvidia went on to soar more than 16,000%, turning ordinary investors into millionaires.

(Disclosure - I own Nvidia)

Now, Louis believes he's found the next revolutionary opportunity - one that could be even bigger than the AI boom that has been so profitable for Louis' subscribers.

It's a breakthrough technology that experts say could be 1,000 times more powerful than artificial intelligence itself.

It's called quantum computing, and Louis says it's about to ignite what he calls "the third computing revolution."

Just as Nvidia's graphic processing units (GPUs) powered the rise of AI, a new generation of quantum processing units (QPUs) could reshape the technology that drives the world. And that means it could deliver significant gains to those who act now and become early investors.

Just as he has done before, Louis has found the company quietly working alongside Nvidia on this breakthrough - a little-known partner poised to lead this new wave of innovation.

While the headlines focus on trade disputes, inflation, the Federal Reserve, government shutdowns, and political gridlock, Louis is staying focused on what matters - the data, the earnings, and the companies positioned to dominate the next decade of technological change.

You can see exactly what he's found. As part of his Growth Investor service, Louis has just released a special report called Nvidia's Quantum Partner: How to Profit from the Next 150X Tech Breakthrough.

Inside, he reveals the name and ticker symbol of Nvidia's secret partner in this quantum revolution, along with two additional quantum stocks he believes could deliver gains of 100X or more.

His Growth Investor subscribers are sitting on open gains of more than 4,000% on Nvidia ... and Louis believes this could be a similar winner.

In markets, success comes down to focus.

And nobody stays more focused on what really matters than Louis Navellier.

Enjoy your weekend,

Luis Hernandez
Editor in Chief, InvestorPlace

But in 2025, it hasn't just been the Fed moving markets. Other government bodies have been throwing throwing their weight around in big ways €” through legislation, contracts, investments and policy shifts that have re-priced entire sectors almost overnight.

And if this year has taught us anything, it's that taking aim on these federally-fueled catalysts and position alongside them can be incredibly lucrative.

What has separated us at Masters in Trading is that we've learned to spot these moves coming before they hit the front page of Barron's, CNBC, or Bloomberg.

And if you've been trading alongside us this year, you've seen how powerful that can be.

MP Materials €” When the Pentagon Put a Miner on the Map

Rare earth minerals normally don't make for flashy headlines, but they're the backbone of modern technology. Without them you can't build electric vehicle batteries, you can't produce the magnets that run wind turbines, and you certainly can't keep the chip supply chain humming.

The problem is that for decades the United States has been almost entirely dependent on other countries €” namely China €” to supply these critical materials. That's a vulnerability the Pentagon simply couldn't tolerate any longer.

That's why the headlines out of China and the U.S. last year €” rare earth shortages, threats of supply cuts, pandemic-era style disruptions €” had my antennae up. When the world's two largest economies start sparring over materials this essential, traders need to be paying attention. I knew if Washington was serious about securing domestic supply, MP was going to be in the middle of the conversation.

And sure enough, the Pentagon stepped up and wrote a check. That single move flipped the narrative on MP overnight. MP closed one day at $30 and opened the next morning at $50. Wall Street suddenly woke up to the strategic importance of rare earths, but we were ready and waiting.

The payoff was massive €” a 534% gainer. James, one of our Masters in Trading All-Access members, woke up to $140,000 in profits from his MP calls. Don booked $55,000.  In total, just a handful of traders in our Discord pulled down a quarter-million dollars overnight. Many others locked in 500%+ returns. It was the single biggest win of the year €” and for a lot of folks, the biggest win of their trading lives.

We had a clear thesis €” that Washington would have to secure domestic rare earth supply €” and a carefully selected target positioned in the one U.S. company perfectly set up to benefit when the check finally cleared.

Of course, these aren't once-in-a-lifetime setups. They're repeatable patterns. You just have to know where to look. This is exactly how I teach traders how to think inside my Masters in Trading Options Challenge. If you want to learn how to identify trades like this one €” the Options Challenge is where you'll see step-by-step how pros spot, size, and manage these kinds of opportunities.

Lyft's Big, Beautiful Catalyst Hidden in the Fine Print

Markets love a good headline. But sometimes the real market movers are buried in the fine print.

That's what happened with the "One Big Beautiful Bill" €” a thousand-page monster that made news for the flashy stuff like tax brackets and energy credits. What almost nobody noticed was a quiet provision that flipped how U.S. companies expense their R&D.

From 2022 through 2024, companies were forced to amortize R&D over five years. It punished innovation and dragged down reported income. But starting in 2025, that rule was reversed €” and not just going forward. Companies could go back to 2022, 2023, and 2024 and expense those costs up front. That meant an immediate boost to GAAP earnings and free cash flow, along with a one-time catch-up that analysts hadn't modeled.

That's where Lyft came in. Wall Street had written it off as Uber's little brother, but Lyft spends around $375 million a year on U.S. R&D. Under the old rules, that spend was dead weight. Under the new rules, it became instant fuel for earnings.

Thirty days before the Street woke up, I wrote an essay to our Masters in Trading community pointing this out. Lyft was my top name on the list. We bought in on July 30th when shares were around $13. By late August, the stock had rallied to $17 €” right into its expected move range. That's when we started locking in some profits.

Why take some off the table? Because 76% of the time a stock closes inside its expected move. That's discipline. That's how we manage risk. We don't get greedy, we get paid.

And the results across our community were incredible. Ernie posted a 158% winner. James made $36,000, a 110% return. Linda banked 150%. Michael pulled 148%. Navi scored 200%. John closed 164% for $3,200 in profit. All on the same trade.

The best part? Lyft hasn't even fully priced in the catalyst yet. They haven't highlighted it on an earnings call. Institutions haven't rerated the stock. But the writing is on the wall. By the end of the year, I believe Lyft trades comfortably above $20.

Once again, this wasn't about catching a meme move or speculating on a chart breakout. It was about doing the homework, finding the story no one else is watching, and getting positioned before the analysts start chirping.

QXO €” The Builder Roll-Up No One Was Watching

So far we have two very different trades €” one driven by a $400 million Pentagon contract, the other by a buried accounting change in an omnibus bill €” both proving the same point: when you line up with government-driven catalysts, you put yourself in position to reel in outsized gains... and we're not done yet.

Next we turn our sights toward Brad Jacobs. For the uninitiated, Jacobs is a a serial entrepreneur with a habit of turning boring industries into multi-billion-dollar empires. He did it with Waste Management. He did it with XPO Logistics. And when he launched QXO to roll up the building-supply industry, most of Wall Street shrugged.

But that's exactly why I loved it. Boring and fragmented is Jacobs' playground. Backed by deep-pocketed partners €” including Affinity and the Kushner family €” QXO started raising capital and making acquisitions.

We were there from the start. Our first entries came in around $15. By early summer we'd already ridden multiple spikes to double and triple our option money. We took 180% gains, reset, and did it again.

Now Barron's is finally catching on. This past weekend, they splashed QXO across a weekend spread and suddenly everyone wanted to talk about it. But by then, we had already rung the register multiple times.

Kratos €” The Pentagon's Hot New Wingman

If MP Materials and QXO proved how powerful it can be to trade alongside government-driven catalysts, Kratos has been the name that showed us how far that theme can run once the market finally catches on.

We've had our eye on Kratos Defense (KTOS) for more than a year back when the stock was trading under $20. Then in December 2024, I highlighted why I picked drones as one of my top sectors for 2025. The Pentagon was pouring billions into unmanned systems, NATO allies were boosting their defense budgets, and everyone could see from Ukraine to the Pacific that drones had become the face of modern warfare.

Among the companies in that space, Kratos stood out. While competitors chased high-priced defense contracts, Kratos focused on affordability and scale. Its Valkyrie drone €” an autonomous combat aircraft designed to fly alongside piloted jets €” became the poster child for that strategy. A low-cost "loyal wingman" that the Air Force could deploy without risking a pilot, and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional fighter.

That's exactly the kind of platform the Pentagon can't ignore. And it's exactly the kind of situation we love at Masters in Trading.

Fast forward to Labor Day Weekend, and KTOS has been nothing short of a breakout star. While most of Wall Street was slow to pick it up, our community had been tracking it for months. We watched it grind higher through December, consolidate, and then rip into the new year. By the spring, KTOS was one of the strongest defense names on the board €” a stock that kept trading right up to its expected move, giving disciplined traders clean entries and exits all year long.

Common Ground

Look at these stories side by side.

With MP Materials, the Pentagon flipped the switch. With Lyft, it was a hidden accounting change. With QXO, it was a billionaire rolling up an industry with political capital behind him. With Kratos, it was the drone war playing out in real time with government contracts stoking demand.

Different names, different sectors, same principle: government money bends markets.

And as you've seen, the traders who position early €” before the analysts, before the media, before the Street wakes up €” are the ones harvesting triple-digit returns when everyone else finally catches on.

Below are just a handful of cases illustrating how policy catalysts have weaponized the market so far in 2025. Highlighted are those with trade results:

Why KRMN Could Be Next

All of this brings me to the next name I want you focused on: KRMN.

Karman is a small-cap defense contractor that builds the stuff that makes missiles fly and rockets launch. Through their Karman Space & Defense arm, they design, test, and manufacture mission-critical hardware €” things like payload protection, aerodynamic systems, and propulsion. Basically, if it's going up into space or screaming through the sky at mach speeds, KRMN probably has a hand in it.

Karman's growth tells us one thing loud and clear: this company is built to scale €” earnings up more than 230% year-on-year. They supply components for over 100 active missile and space programs, making them mission-critical to giants like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Defense spending isn't shrinking anytime soon. The U.S. budget is expanding, NATO is boosting commitments, and Washington is pushing hard on reshoring critical supply chains. Put those three together and you've got a policy environment that practically guarantees steady contract flow for years to come.

Here's what really excites me: KRMN's market cap is still under $5 billion. That means we're in before the herd. But there's more.

Since April, we've watched a massive divergence grow between the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000. Big tech has been ripping while small caps have lagged. That kind of divergence is a coiled spring, and when it releases, it's small caps that get the explosive move.

Layer in the Federal Reserve hinting at lowering rates, and that's rocket fuel. Small caps are more sensitive to borrowing costs than the megacaps. When rates fall, balance sheets open up, capital gets cheaper, and these companies get room to expand. That's why I think we're about to see a serious rotation out of stretched Nasdaq names into undervalued small caps. And KRMN is sitting right in the sweet spot to benefit.

When I look at KRMN, I see the same ingredients we've profited from in MP, Lyft, QXO, and Kratos. A powerful policy tailwind. Deep government ties. A market that's still sleeping on the story. That's the exact recipe that's given us our biggest winners. And I believe KRMN is next in line.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose,

Founder, Masters in Trading

Every generation has its watershed device.

In the 1970s, it was companies like Apple and Commodore that ushered in the first wave of home computing with the Apple II and the PET.

In the late 1980s, compact cassette and portable tape players like the Walkman allowed millions of people to listen to their own personalized soundtrack with them on the go.

In 2007, Apple once again changed the game with the iPhone. That now-ubiquitous piece of tech collapsed multiple categories into a single portable computer and rewired global communication in the process.

Each of these devices changed the world in ways we can still feel even in 2025.

And today, another revolutionary device is poised to introduce a new technological leap we'll be talking about for decades to come.

The race to develop the next generation of slick, AI-forward wearables is on. But it's not about the next evolution of the Apple Watch or a sharp new set of earbuds.

2025 will be the year that AI smart glasses finally take off...

The Ghost of Google Glass

Now, I know there's no shortage of skeptics out there. After all, smart glasses haven't had the best track record.

I'm sure many of you remember the roll-out of Google Glass. A lot of consumers were initially excited when Google released these smart glasses back in 2014.

Honestly, Google Glass had a lot going for it - the tech had a stylish form factor (by 2014 standards) combined with Google's OS. A single wearable that gave users the ability to do everything from record video to translate speech hands-free.

It seemed like the most transformative bit of tech to come along since that pivotal iPhone reveal back in 2007.

Source: Google

But Google Glass ultimately (and predictably) flopped. At the end of the day, the technology simply was not ready for prime time.

The gadget was undone by laggy, unresponsive software that didn't work as well as advertised. And the AI capabilities needed to make features like speech translation work well and consistently weren't there yet.

It was a similar story with another wearable Snap desperately tried to make happen...

But once again, a lack of apps, a laggy display, and the prospect of wearing bulky goggles that were more Devo than GQ put many consumers off the supposed "hot-ticket" item on release.

Source: Snap

Unlike Google Glass, Snap's dedication to their product is admirable - you can still find the latest fifth generation Spectacles in stores. However, it doesn't seem that many are very keen on owning a pair any time soon.

At one point, Snap actually wrote off over $40 million worth of its unsold Spectacles inventory. They just couldn't attract the sales. And that tells you everything you need to know about where Snap is on the smart glasses adoption curve.

It's safe to say the previous generations of smart glasses just couldn't nail what makes this tech so compelling.

The technology wasn't cutting-edge enough to convince consumers that wearing a clunky science project on their faces was better than a simple pair of glasses.

They failed to execute on what the iPhone and the first wave of home computers did before them...

They condensed multiple categories of work and communication into one slick, easy-to-use package. Everything from the tech to the form factor simply worked.

Smart glasses clearly already had their "emperor is wearing no clothes" moment.

But where those earlier iterations just couldn't stack up, the story is totally different for this tech in 2025.

The Meta Is Changing

Over a decade removed from the first wave of smart glasses, conditions have finally aligned for AI smart glasses to succeed. New players are entering the competition, and consumers are already buying them up in droves.  

Since their 2023 launch, Meta Platforms has sold more than two million pairs of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses €” far surpassing the roughly 300,000 units sold by earlier models from Google and Snap.

Disclosure: For the sake of transparency €” I personally own shares of Meta (META) in my own account. I'm sharing my perspective for educational purposes only, and you should always do your own research before making trading decisions.

Meanwhile in China, Xiaomi blew through early targets. The company moved 80,000 units in just two weeks. Those gangbuster sales forced the company to raise its 2025 projection to half a million units.

These numbers are promising, andthis is just the beginning.

The market for AI smart glasses is already valued around $1.3 billion - and it's projected to reach over $3 billion by 2035. That's growth at a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 11.09% from 2025 to 2032.

So it's really not a question of if AI smart glasses will finally have their iPhone moment.

AI glasses will become the new "front door" to the digital world. And at the rate consumers are buying them up, they could replace or at least displace the smartphone as our primary interface over the next decade.

When that happens, investors who see it early are the ones who will capture all the generational upside.

What Makes These AI Glasses Truly Smart

Unlike those earlier misfires, the technology and form factor have completely caught up to the ambitious design principles companies like Google and Snap tried (and failed) to implement over the last decade.

Just take a look at Meta's latest pair of Ray-Ban branded glasses:

Source: Ray-Ban

The key differences between the technological advances of today and the last decade are already clear at a glance.

This is because Meta has partnered with the Goliath of Glasses-makers, EssilorLuxottica. For those unfamiliar, the company was formed as a merger in 2018 between Essilor €” a premiere lens manufacturer, and Luxottica Ø… €” the world's largest luxury frame makers responsible for brands like Oakley, Prada, Chanel, Versace and of course, Ray-Ban.

Source: SEC.gov

As of 2025, Forbes estimates EsilorLuxottica controls around 25% of the global eyewear market.

This strategic partnership not only gives Meta access to their partner's extensive catalog of fashion eyewear brands and designers, it also provides them a built-in retail platform.

Luxottica's portfolio boasts a bevy of eyewear retail chains including Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and more.

Notice how these sunglasses actually look like a regular pair of wayfarers. No distracting hardware along the rim of the glasses. Just a sleek pair of glasses with tiny cameras embedded in the rims. I bet most people wouldn't even notice the cameras.

Now that we know this tech is no longer an eyesore or limited to gimmicky displays in retailers' tech aisles, we can start to focus on what's under the hood with the massive leaps Meta has made with AI.

Meta's glasses can now translate speech in real time, identify products in any store you visit at a glance, and even summarize lengthy business meetings in an instant.

None of this was practical with the technology available a decade ago.In the decade ahead, the use cases here are obvious - and endless.

Imagine a doctor glancing at a patient and instantly seeing vitals, history, or step-by-step guidance right in their field of vision. No clipboards. No glancing away. Just total focus on care.

Or think about an engineer fixing a machine the size of a house. Instead of flipping through a manual, every part is labeled, every wire highlighted, and a remote expert can literally draw instructions into the air where they're needed.

Smart glasses can also do something no phone ever could: boost your memory. Imagine someone walking up to you at a conference and their name, company, and the last thing you spoke about appears right above their shoulder. You're never caught off guard again.

These are all daily, repeatable, and - most important of all - sticky functions. And unlike the previous generation of "smart glasses," we don't have to wait to see how cool all of these features might be some day.

The tech and form factor are finally at a place where these glasses can do everything it says on the tin.

That means mass adoption is no longer some far-off dream. It's right in front of us, waiting to happen.

But while companies like Meta are leading the race to get sleek AI wearables to market - I'm not recommending anyone buy Meta right now.

The truth is, Meta may be selling the goods - but the real opportunity lies with a whole wave of stocks powering the key tech behind these devices.

The Stocks Powering the Rise of AI Smart Glasses

One of the most important and underappreciated aspects of the smartphone revolution is that most of the life-changing gains from the iPhone didn't come from Apple.

The real windfalls were in the supply chain. And that's true whether you're Apple introducing the world to one of the most advanced devices on the planet or Nintendo releasing a new gaming console like the Switch 2.

Skyworks (SWKS) ran +1,000% making RF chips for everything from retailers to automakers.

Broadcom (AVGO) turned into a multi-bagger on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sockets.

And Corning (GLW) made its Gorilla Glass the ubiquitous material that allows our iPhones to withstand falls from a great distance without cracking.

Nobody camped out at Apple stores to buy those stocks. But they were the quiet 10X trades all the same.

That's the setup we see again today.

This is not a speculative "metaverse" dream. There's a real bill of materials here €” with public companies you can buy today.

I've discovered seven stocks that are fueling the massive overhaul of AI smart glasses.

Each one of these players is supplying the key silicon, optical components, and AI muscle to power this new generation of smart glasses.

Here are the major picks I'm watching right now:

• Core Silicon: Qualcomm (QCOM) supplies the Snapdragon AR1 platform already inside Meta's glasses.
• Optics & Eyewear: EssilorLuxottica ADR (ESLOY) manufactures and distributes Ray-Ban and Oakley frames.
• Audio & Voice Interface: Knowles (KN), Cirrus Logic (CRUS) €” MEMS mics and audio processors.
• Connectivity: Skyworks (SWKS), Qorvo (QRVO) €” RF front ends for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.
• Displays: Kopin (KOPN) €” micro displays, speculative but leveraged to HUD adoption.
• Materials: Corning (GLW) €” specialty glass and optics for future display models.
• Cloud AI Backbone: NVIDIA (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), Marvell (MRVL), AMD (AMD) €” the data-center muscle behind multimodal AI.

The UOA Edge

Right now, the only name that probably stands out on this list for most of us is Nvidia.

All those other names? They're the biggest supply-side players around. But for most investors, they might as well be invisible.

Stocks like Knowles and Corning may not grab the big headlines. But they do something even more important - they move markets.

Now, here's where my background matters.

I learned to follow Unusual Options Activity (UOA) as a market maker on the floor of the CBOE. That's where institutions reveal their hand €” when big money starts flowing into calls on a stock most investors aren't even watching yet.

It happened in Broadcom before the iPhone boom. And make no mistake: I expect it to happen again in the stocks fueling this big moment for AI glasses.

Names like KN, CRUS, KOPN, GLW, SWKS, QRVO aren't crowded. They're overlooked €” until the smart money tips its hand.

With UOA, I'll see it first, and I'll bring it to you.

If you think this call sounds crazy, just remember... So did the idea of carrying a computer in your pocket in 2006.

But it makes sense.

AI smart glasses will create another watershed moment just like the iPhone and the first home computer before them.

That's the future barreling toward us. And the real money won't be in Meta alone €” it will be in the supply chain, in the quiet enablers poised for 10X runs.

This is our edge. And this is where the money's going.

The question isn’t whether AI glasses will have their iPhone moment. The question is whether you’ll be positioned for the supply chain explosion that follows.

When I see unusual options activity lighting up in names like Knowles, Skyworks, or Kopin, that’s when we know the smart money is making its move.

And that’s exactly the kind of edge we focus on in the Masters in Trading Challenge.

This seven-day intensive shows you how to spot institutional money flow before it hits the headlines. How to identify the supply chain plays that 10X while everyone else is chasing the obvious names.

Click here to learn more about the Masters in Trading Challenge

Because when the AI glasses revolution goes mainstream, the biggest winners won’t be the companies everyone’s talking about. They’ll be the ones nobody saw coming.

You can click here to learn more and sign up for The Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

The creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Wall Street has always thrived on secrets. But every so often, a breakthrough comes along that threatens to level the playing field.
Next Monday, September 30th, our colleagues at TradeSmith will unveil one of those breakthroughs €” a tool built on the unfinished work of hedge fund legend Ed Thorp, the man who once beat Vegas casinos at blackjack and then delivered five-fold higher gains than the S&P 500 for three decades.
For the first time, everyday investors can access the same hedge-fund quality edge that made Thorp a Wall Street legend.

Early users are already reporting remarkable results, with some generating thousands in weekly income and achieving win rates approaching 100%.
You can reserve your spot for that free T-Day Summit right here to see how this innovation could transform your trading approach from traditional buy-and-hold to systematic profit generation.

I still remember back in 2006, when the curve inverted ahead of the financial crisis. Hardly anyone outside of bankers, economists, hardcore investors and bond traders knew what it meant. But by 2008, every newspaper in America was running stories about the "inverted yield curve" that had signaled disaster. That moment put the yield curve on the public's radar for good. 

Now, whenever it flips or steepens dramatically, people pay attention - because history has shown it isn't noise, it's the market's smoke alarm.

And here we are again in 2025. After the longest inversion in history, the yield curve has snapped back into positive territory. Some pundits are calling it a sign of confidence. Others say it's the prelude to a recession... 

Either way, it's the bond market's way of telling us one thing €” "Pay attention!"

What the Yield Curve Actually Is

At its core, the yield curve is a simple graph showing the interest rates the U.S. government pays to borrow money €” from 3-month Treasury bills all the way out to 30-year bonds.

Under normal conditions, the curve slopes upward: short-term rates are low, long-term rates are higher. That's logical. If you're going to lend your money for 30 years, you demand a higher return than if you're parking it for 3 months.

But when that slope flattens - or worse, inverts - everything changes. An inversion is when short-term rates rise above long-term rates. That's the bond market screaming: "Trouble ahead." Historically, every U.S. recession since 1960 has been preceded by a yield curve inversion. Not a coincidence. A warning.

On the flip side, when the curve steepens - long rates moving further above short rates - it can mean one of two things: optimism about growth, or panic as the Fed slashes short-term rates into a weakening economy. Context is everything.

Winding Through History

Let's walk through a few key chapters to see how the yield curve has guided traders before.

Back in 1999 to 2002, the yield curve was unusually flat. Short-term and long-term rates were nearly indistinguishable, which is exactly the setup we see today. That flattening was a clear sign of stress building beneath the surface. Not long after, the dot-com bubble burst and the S&P was hammered. Traders who were paying attention to the curve already had reason to be cautious before the headlines caught up.

From 2003 to 2007, the curve regained a beautiful, healthy upward slope. Short-term borrowing costs were low, long-term rates higher, and that "normal" curve gave the economy plenty of fuel. Equities responded with one of the strongest bull markets in history. A sloping, healthy curve acted as the wind at the market's back, and anyone who stayed long during those years was rewarded.

But by 2006 into 2008, the story flipped again. The yield curve inverted, signaling that short-term borrowing costs were too high compared to long-term expectations. Bond traders saw the risk building months before it spilled into equities. Then came the financial crisis, which devastated global markets. I'll never forget it because 2008 ended up being my best trading year ever €”not because the market was "good," but because the yield curve told me exactly where the danger was rising.

From 2009 through 2019, short-term rates were pinned near zero, and the curve steepened sharply. That gave companies and consumers cheap access to credit, creating the perfect environment for risk assets to run. Stocks climbed steadily during this decade-long expansion, with the steep curve acting like rocket fuel underneath the rally. It's a textbook example of how supportive a healthy, upward-sloping curve can be for equities.

In 2019 into 2020, the curve began to invert once more. At the time, many commentators debated whether it was just a false alarm. Then COVID hit and the sharpest recession of our lifetimes followed. The inversion was the bond market's smoke alarm ringing loud and clear before the chaos arrived. It reminded everyone €”once again €”that ignoring the curve is a costly mistake.

More recently, from 2022 through 2024, we saw the longest yield curve inversion in U.S. history. The 2-year yield stayed above the 10-year for more than two straight years, breaking every prior record. Economists, traders, and journalists all sounded the alarm, with many predicting an imminent recession. But the economy proved surprisingly resilient. Inflation cooled, unemployment stayed low, and growth chugged along, leading some to wonder if this was the rare case where the curve's warning might not come true.

Why the Curve Matters Right Now

Here's where we stand in 2025. After the longest inversion on record - more than two straight years - the curve has un-inverted and started steepening again.

The 2-year yield now sits about half a point below the 10-year. Meanwhile, the 3-month to 10-year spread, one of the Fed's favorite gauges, is basically flat.

A few key factors are driving these dynamics:

• The Fed pivoted. After hiking aggressively in 2022 -23, they've already started cutting rates modestly. That pulled short-term yields down.
  
• The economy's held up. Stronger labor markets, resilient consumer spending, and business investment surprised a lot of people.
  
• Long-term rates caught up. Investors demand more yield for holding long bonds, reflecting both resilience and heavy Treasury issuance.
  

Some see this as a bullish sign €”the possibility of a soft landing where inflation comes under control without a recession. Others see it as history repeating: the curve un-inverting right before the slowdown actually arrives. Either way, the bond market is speaking, and the curve is once again at the center of the story.

The thing to always remember is this: the Fed only controls the short end of the curve. Powell and company can push down 3-month, 6-month, even 2-year rates. But the long end €” the 10-year, the 30-year €” that belongs to the market. And right now, I think that's where the real risk is hiding.

In my view, the Fed is 100% going to cut in September. That's going to drag short-term yields lower. But here's the kicker: the long end could actually rise at the same time. That kind of steepening isn't healthy. It's artificial, it's political €” and while the Fed tries to "thread the needle," the free market pushes back.

Cut too little, and they risk driving us into a recession. Cut too much, and inflation expectations can come unanchored. That's the knife's edge they're walking.

We've seen that movie before. Back in 2007 and 2008, the Fed tiptoed into cuts but didn't want to pre-commit to a deeper easing cycle. They tried to control the short end while the long end refused to play along. The curve steepened €” not because growth was booming, but because the bond market smelled trouble. We all know what happened next.

What This Means for Traders

Here's where all this history comes together. Right now, we're at the start of another tightening cycle. The Fed has pivoted from aggressive hikes to modest cuts, but policy is still restrictive, and the market is wrestling with how long this phase will last.

Short-term, stocks are likely to rally when the Fed cuts. Rate-sensitive names €” tech, REITs, anything tied to cheap borrowing €” tend to pop when yields at the front end fall.

But the real concern is what happens if unemployment keeps ticking higher. The Fed can lower 3-month, 6-month, or even 2-year rates, but they can't control the 10-year or 30-year. And if the labor market weakens, earnings pressure will mount just as long-term yields climb. That's the recipe for an "artificial" steepening €” one that signals stress rather than strength.

A truly supportive steep curve gives markets room to run. A policy-driven steepening does the opposite. It means borrowing costs for mortgages, corporate bonds, and long-term investment rise just as the Fed is trying to stimulate growth. That disconnect has marked the start of trouble in past cycles €” 2007 -08 being the clearest example.

So the underlying question traders need to ask is: How has the market performed when the Fed has moved rates in the past? The yield curve gives us the roadmap.

The good news is you don't have to guess. Tools like the St. Louis Fed's FRED database or €” my personal favorite €” StockCharts' dynamic yield curve let you line up past tightening cycles against S&P performance. The patterns are there in black and white. Study them, and you'll see the relationship between Fed cuts, yield curve shifts, and equity performance.

And there’s more good news for traders looking to keep their money at work wherever the markets ultimately end up...

While we can't say for sure what happens beyond September, none of us should be panicking or sitting on the sidelines.

If there's one thing this market has taught us, it's that uncertainty creates volatility. And here at Masters in Trading, we’ve been absolutely crushing volatile markets all year.

From that major victory trading an Ethererum ETF that wasn't on anyone's radar ...
To our massive wins in stocks like TMC (a play on deep-sea exploration) and QXO (builder consolidation)...

Masters in Trading has consistently delivered unique setups with massive upside potential - wherever volatility takes shape.

And the Masters in Trading Challenge is designed to show you exactly how we pull off volatile trade setups with conviction, process, and solid options fundamentals.
You can click here to learn more and sign up for the Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

In trading, the edge comes from anticipating what most people only recognize in hindsight. Right now, the curve is telling us that risk is elevated, the Fed's hands are tied to the short end, and the long end could still surprise us.

Know the curve. Respect its history. And trade with your eyes open. The yield curve is telling a story €” and it's one you can't afford to ignore.

Remember, the creative trader wins.

Jonathan Rose,

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S., While the yield curve may be flashing its warning, there's another story unfolding right now that could hand traders a very different kind of opportunity.

On Sept. 10th at 10 a.m. ET, my colleague Eric Fry is set to reveal an obscure AI robotics company he's calling "Nvidia on Steroids." His new Apogee stock-picking model flagged this name using the same rare 10X Pattern that appeared before Nvidia's 1,871% run, Apple's 4,285% surge, and Amazon's 1,115% climb.

Eric will be unveiling the full details of this opportunity €” down to the ticker symbol €” in a special event called Eric Fry's 10X Breakthrough. It doesn't cost a dime to attend, but you need to reserve your seat. [Click here to secure your spot now.]

It's a lot like watching a football game on TV. You see the camera cut to the quarterback, maybe a flash of the receiver, then the ball's in the air.

But you don't see what's happening across the rest of the field €” the safety creeping up, the cornerback cheating inside, the linebacker dropping back into coverage.

All the things that tell you where the play is going before it happens are hidden from view.

Now, when you're at the stadium, it's a different story. You can see the whole field €” all 22 players. You watch the defense shift.

You see the gap open before the snap. You know, before the quarterback even throws, exactly where the ball should go. That wide view changes everything.

That's the kind of perspective I realized we needed to understand the explosion around Ethereum.

For weeks, I'd been talking about how certain companies hold huge amounts of ETH in their treasury €” and how their stock prices don't always match the value of what they own. Those mismatches are opportunities, but they open and close fast.

One day, while I was breaking this down live for our members €” digging through filings, lining up ETH prices, stock prices, market caps €” it hit me: we were watching the game on TV.

We were piecing together the action from different angles, different screens, different charts... but we couldn't see the whole field at once.

So I built a tool that does exactly that. One screen. All the companies, all their ETH holdings, their market caps, and whether they're trading at a premium or a discount €” updating in real time.

Now, when Wall Street's defense blows an assignment, we see it instantly. And when we see the opening, we can move before the rest of the market even knows it's there.

This tool is our ticket to the stadium €” the full-field view that lets us trade like we're on the sidelines, not stuck at home watching the highlights.

And in today's Masters in Trading LIVE at 11 AM EST, I want to break down exactly how we used that tool to get a beat on one of the biggest market trends of the year. And I want to explain the tale of one trade we discovered that single-handedly gave us one our biggest-ever crypto based plays. You can watch the video at the end of this post.

And I want to make something else very clear.

My greatest passion is uncovering trades no one else is watching, where you can risk small and win big.

From that ETH trade that was on no one's radar...

To our massive wins in TMC (a play on deep-sea exploration) and QXO (builder consolidation)...

Masters in Trading has consistently delivered unique setups with massive upside potential.

Want to learn the fundamentals behind these big trades? I’m inviting you to take this journey with me. It's all in the special options-trading intensive I designed to take anyone from novice to pro in just seven days. Just click here to learn more.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose Founder, Masters in Trading

They create the expectations that traders use to price the markets.

They're the big movers of the global stock market - often more than religion or government.

But history is also littered with forgotten stocks that simply couldn’t compete.

I should know - I’ve weathered some of the biggest boom-and-bust cycles in my decades as an options trader.

Lessons From the Dot-Com Crash

I got my start as a floor trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 1997. That's right when the dot-com boom was getting started.

I remember that era very clearly.

Names like Pets.com, 360Networks, and eToys.com were sucking up all the oxygen in the stock market.

There was a running joke on the floor: affix a “.com” to your name, launch an IPO, and watch the money flood in.

For a while, the hype actually worked. These newly-IPO’d stocks were reaching sky-high valuations based on nothing more than a name and a vague idea.

But then it all came crashing down like a high-wire act with no net.

Market watchers were paying attention to the flashy, attention-grabbing stocks driving the internet hype bubble.

Many of these companies eventually filed for bankruptcy under massive debt. Some were eventually absorbed by the competition.

And some stocks even saw both outcomes.

That overhyped stock eToys? It filed for bankruptcy with $247 million in debt, then got acquired by KB Toys - which also later filed for bankruptcy.

As a floor trader, I could smell a rat before many of these companies went bust. They simply weren’t stocks I would ever recommend trading.

Many players were rightfully consigned to the dust bin of history.

But some - like Amazon and eBay - emerged victorious.

They managed to beat the hype cycle - and forge a path giving consumers something they didn't even know they needed yet.

Those are just a couple of examples. Now I want to reach farther back to give you another one that sets the tone for the big investment idea I'm about to put on your radar today.

The Power of the Pivot

We all know Apple (AAPL) as one of the biggest companies on Earth.

But in the late 1990s, Apple was in an iffy spot. It had gone from being one of the top computing players in the 1980s to a has-been stock with multiple failed product launches.

It's easy to forget now, but Apple certainly could’ve gone the way of eToys and Lycos - or Commodore International and a whole slew of dead home computer companies before it.

But then Steve Jobs returned to the helm.

And that's when the company started looking beyond the present and asking a fundamental question: What will consumers want to buy a few years from now?

They found their pivot point in products like the iPod and iPhone. And that's when Apple rapidly became one of the most valuable stocks out there - part of the same Magnificent Seven as Amazon and Tesla.

A powerful pivot can make all the difference. A singular investment in a major trend right as it takes off. A key product launch that plays on something consumers don’t even know they want yet.

These moves can transform a single stock into a market-dominating player.

And right now, we're at the start of a similar moment in the crypto space.

Just like Apple and Amazon, this opportunity isn't on most trader's radars - unless you're watching this space.

That's because I've been busy highlighting the massive moves stocks are making to gain ETH exposure in 2025.

And I've been letting my readers in on the best way to profit from all this momentum.

Not only have we already profited from ETH's huge jump over the last year... I've also been eyeing a whole pipeline of crypto opportunities that allow us to gain exposure to assets like ETH without buying it outright.

You can click here to find out all about the winning strategy I’ve been using to capture crypto’s biggest profit opportunities.

And read on to find out more about the specific land grab that's happening right now - and the best way to profit from it.

MicroStrategy's Big Gamble

This whole story starts with yet another stock that was once left for dead.

But just like Apple, an extraordinary pivot took this stock off life-support in a matter of years.

MicroStrategy (MSFR) wasn't on any trader's radar back in 2020. And for a while, it seemed to be coasting much like Apple in the late 90s.

It was a company working in a similar field to heavyweights like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO). MicroStrategy's biggest offerings were enterprise software products. But they barely registered on any sales chart.

The stock was going nowhere fast. So the company's executive chairman, Michael Saylor, made a bold bet: he believed Bitcoin would eventually outpace gold.

And he started to believe that adding more reserves of BTC might be the perfect way to shore up the stock.

That's when he started raising capital and buying Bitcoin (BTC). Lots of it.

Adding those BTC reserves did more for the stock than any new product launch ever could.

The markets stopped caring about their old software business. And investors began to value the stock almost entirely on their Bitcoin stash.

As Bitcoin ran higher, MicroStrategy didn’t just follow along - it multiplied the gains, fueled by scarcity and investor FOMO. Just take a look at the chart below.

Over the last five years, the stock has gone from a measly $14 to $386. That's a 2,740% return for any investor lucky enough to gain exposure to the stock back in 2020.

That alone makes MicroStrategy one of the biggest financial success stories of the last five years.

And right now, it's getting a sequel.

Enter BMNR: The Ethereum Play

This time, it isn't Bitcoin in investors' crosshairs. It's Ethereum €” and the lead role is being played by Bit Mine Immersion Technologies (BMNR).

I put this story on your radar over the last few weeks. And over at Masters in Trading LIVE, I've been giving you a lot more reasons to look into the megatrend boosting stocks like MicroStrategy and BMNR.

So let's dive a little deeper...

BMNR has a singular public mission: own 5% of all Ethereum in existence. That's about 6 million ETH.

With reserves already totaling about 1.15 million ETH (~$5 billion), BMNR is now the largest public ETH treasury in the world.

And one mega investor is pulling the strings behind the scenes - Peter Thiel.

This is the same contrarian investor who helped launch PayPal, provided Facebook’s first major investment, and co-founded Palantir. Thiel has a knack for spotting big changes before the rest of the world realizes the rules are being rewritten.

Thiel currently has a 9.1% stake in BMNR. The company is committed to “best efforts” acquisition - meaning they’re moving quickly, not inching in over years.

That's setting up the perfect arbitrage opportunity for early investors. And it all comes straight out of the MicroStrategy playbook.

Like I mentioned, I've been talking about this pivot all week in Masters in Trading LIVE. On Tuesday, I even broke down the full story behind BitMine's big ETH buying activity. You can learn all about it right here. 

Why BMNR's Pivot Works

Just like MicroStrategy, BMNR’s stock is becoming a pure Ethereum proxy.

Every time BMNR raises money to buy ETH, the market cap swells in line with the expanded treasury. Does this cause dilution? Yes - but the pie grows much faster than the slices shrink.

In bull markets, treasury value can grow from both new ETH purchases and ETH price appreciation. That’s a double engine for market cap growth.

Now, BMNR isn’t just adding some ETH to shore up its reserves. It’s aggressively pivoting just like MicroStrategy did.

At today’s ETH price (~$4,350), here’s BMNR’s potential trajectory over the next few years:

*Illustrative only €” in reality, accumulating this much ETH could tighten supply and push prices higher.

Add those number together - and you have a few undeniable takeaways...

• +500,000 ETH in ~60 days is realistic given recent activity.
• 2 million ETH could be on the books within 6 -8 months if raises continue.
• The 5% goal (~6 million ETH) could be within reach in 2 -3 years €” right as analysts expect the next ETH bull cycle.

This isn’t speculation. We're seeing institutional validation at the highest level.

And it's all happening right as Ethereum goes mainstream...

Ethereum ETFs are gaining massive momentum as the digital asset space continues its historic climb.

And just like BitMine, we’re also seeing more corporate treasuries rotate into ETH. They're simply positioning ahead of broader Wall Street adoption.

Companies are realizing that holding ETH isn’t just about crypto exposure. It’s about owning a piece of the infrastructure powering the future of finance.

And now this major institutional shift into ETH is setting off a whole tidal wave of opportunities for early investors. I want to give you a clear idea of just how big this opportunity is

Over 6 million ETH in one treasury could influence global ETH pricing for years to come. So BMNR is in a unique position to control the pricing environment for ETH and a whole raft of other stablecoins.

CPI volatility is also pushing capital into scarce assets.

The U.S. national debt has surged to nearly $36 trillion, climbing at a pace that even seasoned economists are calling unsustainable. At the same time, the value of the dollar is under increasing pressure. It's not collapsing €”but it's quietly eroding.

That all means Inflation isn't going away. It's proving far more stubborn than most expected.

So investors and institutions are actively on the hunt for alternative stores of value that can also generate yield.

That all makes ETH very appealing. And it creates the perfect opportunity for ETH's next bull run to align with BMNR hitting major milestones.

Right now, ETH buying is spiking as more investors discover this story.

And while those numbers I showed you above might just be projections on a chart right now, they're signaling the next major step in the evolution of cryptos.

Just like what happened with MicroStrategy, I expect this story to boost both the stock and ETH itself as it becomes a bigger part of corporate treasuries.

And we're on the ground floor watching this story unfold.

Ethereum's MicroStrategy Moment

This is Ethereum's MicroStrategy moment €” only bigger.

BMNR isn't just playing the ETH game €” they're trying to own a significant piece of the board. If they succeed, they won't just ride the next wave... they could help make it.

Of course, it's not just BitMine's story.

Like I mentioned, many stocks are remaking themselves as leveraged ETH players in a still-young market.

Over the last few weeks, I've told you all about companies like SBET and BitMine rotating their corporate treasuries into ETH.

This is where I believe the next big opportunity is opening up for us.

Sure, we could buy ETH outright. But the institutional shift that's happening right now gives us an even better entry.

Sowe have our stocks. We have our catalysts.

And while we're still off from ETH's potential new highs, there’s still time to position yourself.

Our ETH Success Story

My Advanced Notice readers already know exactly how lucrative getting in early and often can be.

This week, we’re celebrating a major win with our exit from iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA).

Since we first entered this position, we’ve been riding the wave of corporate America’s massive ETH buying spree.

And our returns have been incredible. Look, the numbers speak for themselves. Our community members reported these huge gains over in our Discord:

• James banked $146k in profit
• Multiple traders scored triple-digit wins from 97% to 216%
• And many more scored consistent double and triple-digit returns across the board

You can find out more about our big win and the story behind it right here.

This is just the beginning of the corporate ETH revolution.

BMNR's big bet isn’t just about a few investors' conviction. It’s a signal that the smartest money in Silicon Valley recognizes Ethereum’s big moment.

And just unlike all the big historical pivots I showed you at the top, we're in the early innings. As more companies remake themselves into ETH proxies, we have the intel  we need to make a land grab while most investors' backs are turned.

Now is the time to position yourself. Before more ETFs launch, before institutions flood in, and before ETH definitively reclaims leadership in the digital asset space.

Just click here to find out all about the winning strategy I’ve been using to capture crypto’s biggest profit opportunities.

I’ll give you the tools you need to spot the big bets institutional traders are placing on cryptos like ETH right now. And I’ll show you exactly what it takes to trade just like the pros in mere days.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. While everyone’s watching the S&P 500 flirt with all-time highs and celebrating another stellar earnings season, the smartest money is already positioning for what’s coming next.

We’re standing at the edge of a $20 trillion revolution that will dwarf everything we’ve seen so far.

It’s called Physical AI - and it’s about to transform how robots interact with the real world.

The markets are heading into completely uncharted territory as a new economic order takes shape.

And my colleague Eric Fry is ready with his game plan: 7 must-buy stocks and 7 to dump immediately. His “buy now” list features under-the-radar opportunities that could multiply your money as the world adapts to this Physical AI revolution. Eric’s revealing his complete analysis in a special presentation. Click here to see everything he’s uncovered.

That hit home for me.

Because PJ's not alone.

Why So Many Traders Are Nervous About Options

I've talked to thousands of traders over the years, and I can tell you without hesitation: the number one reason most people avoid options is because they've either been burned themselves, or they know someone who has.

And in most cases, it's not because they're reckless or unprepared €” it's because they were led down the wrong path.

Maybe they followed some flashy trade alerts that promised triple-digit wins. Maybe they bought into a strategy they didn't fully understand. Or maybe, like PJ, they trusted someone who looked credible €” only to find out later that there was no real education behind the recommendations.

The result is always the same. Their confidence gets shattered. Their portfolio takes a hit. And they walk away believing options are too complicated, too dangerous, or just not for them.

But it's not options that are dangerous. It's the way they're taught.

So when someone like PJ shows up €” nervous, cautious, maybe even burned €” I don't try to hype him up.

I slow him down.

Learn the Fundamentals: Education Mitigates Risk

Options can be complicated.

But they don't have to be.

One of the core principles we teach at Masters in Trading is the importance of paper trading. That means practicing without using real money €” so you can learn how positions behave, how to size your risk properly, and how to read market flow with confidence.

Professional athletes don't just show up on game day €” they practice until their approach becomes second nature. Trading should be no different. That's why I believe one of the most valuable lessons we teach is the discipline and mindfulness to practice, refine, and build confidence before ever risking real money.

The goal isn't to throw you into the deep end and hope you swim. It's about teaching you how to spot high-probability setups, manage risk with discipline, and understand what's really happening beneath the surface €” not just what's being shouted on TV.

Because some trades are like an ice cream cone on a 100-degree day. They look great at first, but if you try to hold on too long, they're going to melt. That's the kind of risk most traders don't even realize they're taking €” until it's too late.

I'm here to change that. I’m here to help make the market make sense.

That's what so many traders discover once they step into our community. For the first time, they're not just reacting to the market €” they're learning how to read it. They start asking better questions, understanding the why behind each trade, and building a foundation that gives them the confidence to grow.

Follow the Real Options Flow

Once you understand the basics, I'll show you something most traders never even learn to see €” unusual options activity.

Most traders are reactive. They trade headlines. They chase earnings. They follow Twitter tips and hope the stock moves fast enough to get in and out before things reverse.
But that's not how smart money trades.

The best trades €” the ones with real edge €” are the ones that come from understanding where institutional money is flowing before the crowd catches on. That's what we track using our Advanced Notice scanner.

We look for signs that big players are positioning themselves for a move. Not based on hype, but based on actual, real-money bets showing up in the options market.

We're looking for setups like:

€¢ A sudden explosion in volume out of the money options...
€¢ A recurring buyer stacking size on the same expiration...
€¢ Bullish spreads being built across multiple months...

This is the kind of footprint that tells you someone with real money is making a move.

And when we see that kind of flow €” like we did recently in PCG as well as TMC, and ARM €” we dig deeper. We ask questions. We don't blindly follow €” we analyze.

Then we build the trade with fixed risk from the start. So if we're right, great €” we ride it. And if we're wrong? We already knew our max risk going in.

Why Community Changes Everything

Inside my strategies, I don't just throw you trade ideas and wish you luck.

Most traders are stuck in isolation. They'll get a few trade ideas in their inbox, maybe watch a video or two, and then they're on their own.

Not here.

We go live together. We break down trades together. We learn together.

With Masters in Trading, we go live together every day the market is open. I walk through the market in real time. We talk through trades €” both new ideas and how to manage our portfolios. And after the live session, we keep the conversation going inside our Discord group, where traders can ask questions, share updates, and learn together.
You're not just following one person. You're trading with a team.

There's accountability. There's support. And for a lot of our members €” especially those who've been burned before €” that's the first time they've ever felt like they had someone in their corner.

Results That Speak for Themselves

Since May 1st, our Advanced Notice strategy trades have posted:

€¢ 18 trades shared
€¢ 14 winners
€¢ 4 losses
€¢ Average Position return: 119%

Every single one of those trades is built around this unusual order flow and had a fixed, known max loss. We never risk more than we're comfortable with. We never put our portfolios in danger.

You're Not Afraid of Options €” You're Afraid of Uncertainty

If you're still feeling hesitant about trading options, let me say this:

You're not afraid of options. You're afraid of not knowing what's going on.

You're afraid of risking money without a plan. Of following advice you don't understand. Of repeating the same mistakes that left a scar.

That's perfectly fair.

But that fear disappears when you have the right tools. When you have a system that protects your downside. When you have people you can talk to. When you know that no matter what happens, your risk is already defined.

That's the power of real education and community. And that's what we do every day and it all starts inside the Masters in Trading Options Challenge.

If you're ready to learn the right way €” with zero pressure, fixed risk, and a community that supports you €” I'd love to see you inside the Challenge.

You've got nothing to prove. You've just got to be willing to learn.

And once you see how simple it can be, you'll never look at options the same way again.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose,
Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S., If you're the kind of trader who wants to stay aware of what's next €” not just what's moving today €” you might want to keep an eye on what some of my colleagues here at InvestorPlace are tracking. Louis Navellier, Luke Lango, and Eric Fry believe we're about 100 days away from a major shift they're calling AI Day Zero €” the moment when AI stops living in screens and starts reshaping the real world through robotics, automation, and self-operating machines.

They're calling it AI's "iPhone moment," and they just released a full research briefing on the seven stocks they believe are best positioned to ride the $20 trillion wave they see coming. If you want to hear their side of the story, you can click here to find out all about it.

However, Buterin spotted a massive gap in the puzzle.

Sure, Bitcoin was a fast-rising currency that was shaking up the entire financial world.

But there was no infrastructure for people to build the applications we needed - software that could power things like contracts, basic transactions, and much more.

That white paper? It described Buterin’s vision for the next step in crypto's evolution: Ethereum. You can read the whole thing here.

What he outlined was nothing short of revolutionary.

Ethereum would represent the base layer of the new internet economy €” programmable, yield-bearing, and upgradeable.

A complete financial operating system that would connect the disparate outposts in crypto's Wild West-like expansion.

In 2015, the Ethereum blockchain went live with Ether (ETH) as its central currency.

And over the last 9 years, we’ve watched Ethereum evolve from an abstract concept to one of crypto’s biggest success stories.

One Coin to Rule Them All

Today, Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It trails only Bitcoin.

But unlike Bitcoin, ETH’s use goes way beyond simple currency.

Nearly every crypto platform, decentralized app, and smart contract runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Here’s a staggering number: As of May 2023, 158 out of the top 200 tokens by market cap live on the Ethereum blockchain. That means Ethereum powers over 75% of all cryptos - from stablecoins and DeFi apps to tokenized assets.

This puts Ethereum in a unique position. The blockchain is called the “fuel” of the digital asset space for good reason - nearly everything crypto-related runs on it.

And that powerful reach isn’t going unnoticed by institutional traders.

Right now, one of Silicon Valley’s most legendary contrarian investors is making his biggest bet yet on ETH’s breakout.

And I want to make sure everyone reading this can get into position as the smart money builds a stake in the next wave of crypto adoption.

I’ve already helped my own readers discover the best crypto investing opportunities right as institutional money starts pouring in.

This year alone, we’ve locked in gains as high as 58% trading Bitcoin ETFs. And I’m watching a whole range of other picks – including Ethereum ETFs and much more – set to benefit from the serious momentum building in cryptos in 2025.

Just click here to learn all about the strategy we’re using right now.

Now, I want to give you the full story behind Ethereum’s big moment.

But first, we need to understand the revolutionary concept that makes Ethereum fundamentally different from every other form of money out there.

Sound Money Vs. Ultrasound Money

Most currencies fall into two camps - sound and ultrasound.

Sound money simply holds its value like gold. When we say a currency is sound, we mean it maintains a fixed or predictable supply.

Bitcoin is the perfect example. It has a fixed supply of 21 million coins. That scarcity drives its value as “digital gold.”

ETH works completely differently. This is where ultrasound money comes in.

Instead of maintaining a fixed supply, ultrasound money actually shrinks over time.

It might sound odd at first, but the mechanics make perfect sense once you understand how Ethereum truly works.

The Merge: How Ethereum Became Deflationary

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum launched its biggest upgrade ever: the Merge.

This wasn’t just a technical tweak - it completely reimagined how the network operates.

The Merge moved Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) model to a more efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system.

Bitcoin itself operates on this PoW model. That means miners compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles to validate transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain. Miners are then rewarded with newly minted bitcoins for their efforts.

Under PoS, though, the situation changes drastically.

Validators (rather than miners) are selected based on the amount of cryptocurrency they hold. They then “stake” it in the network to validate transactions and create new blocks.

Here’s the game-changing part for investors…

Even before the Merge, Ethereum had a unique feature built into its code - the network burned a portion of transaction fees.

That meant the total supply would decrease based on activity.

This is why ETH investors started calling it “ultrasound money.” It was becoming scarcer over time by design.

The Merge simply supercharged this scarcity mechanism.

Since the Merge, ETH’s total supply has been shrinking at about 0.29% per year.

So while Bitcoin’s supply is fixed, Ethereum’s supply actively shrinks and becomes more valuable as network usage climbs.

The Merge created the perfect conditions for ETH's massive rise over the last few years.

And now we’re seeing a dynamic shift between ETH and Bitcoin that could signal a major supply-side breakout for Ethereum in 2025.

Ethereum Vs. Bitcoin: 2025‘s Biggest Investment Opportunity

Ethereum’s rise over the last year has been incredible.

One of the most traded cryptos on the planet is up 65% over the past 30 days - that’s over 159% since its April lows. And it’s significantly outpacing Bitcoin in the same period.

Historically, Bitcoin and Ethereum moved together. But while we’ve seen some divergences before, the gap between them is widening - and it’s signaling something huge.

Just take a look at the current ratio of ETH to Bitcoin:

Here's how the chart works: The ratio divides the price of Ether by the price of Bitcoin. So what we're seeing here is how much Bitcoin it takes to buy 1 Ether.

When the ratio rises, it means Ether is outperforming Bitcoin. When it sinks, Ether is underperforming.

Looking back, Ether hit several major peaks throughout 2023 and 2024. And it’s starting to happen again.

Right now, the ratio is flashing a strong bullish signal.

The ratio recently closed above the key 0.039 resistance level. And it's holding firmly above the 21-week exponential moving average.

For anyone who’s interested in going deeper, I actually took a closer look at the ETH vs. BTC divergence in a recent episode of my daily podcast Masters in Trading LIVE. You can watch my full analysis below.

Now the move we’re seeing right now isn’t random. It's a sign of real institutional backing moving the needle on ETH.

And the source of that big move? It all comes down to one major catalyst most investors don’t even know about.

The Peter Thiel Factor

Wall Street strategist Tom Lee was recently named chairman of Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR).

This is the same company that just revealed a $250 million private placement specifically to build an Ethereum treasury.

Now, that alone would ensure BitMine has one of the largest corporate Ethereum positions on record.

But the bigger story is the mega investor pulling the strings behind the scenes - Peter Thiel.

Some of you may already be familiar with that name. This is the same contrarian investor who helped launch PayPal, provided Facebook’s first major investment, and co-founded Palantir.

Thiel has a knack for spotting big changes in the game before the rest of the world even realizes the rules are still being written.

So when he places a bet this big, the smart money tends to pay attention.

BitMine Immersion now holds approximately $1 billion worth of ETH. And Thiel’s 9.1% stake in this project reveals one key takeaway…

This isn’t speculation. This is institutional validation at the highest level.

And it's all happening right as Ethereum goes mainstream...

Ethereum ETFs are gaining massive momentum as the digital asset space continues its historic climb.

Rising stablecoin adoption is also creating another powerful tailwind. As I mentioned, stablecoins rely heavily on Ethereum’s infrastructure.

The same goes for traditional financial institutions getting digital asset exposure. Major banks and financial companies are increasingly using Ethereum’s network for custody and cross-border payments.

And just like BitMine, we’re also seeing more corporate treasuries rotate into ETH. They're simply positioning ahead of broader Wall Street adoption.

Companies are realizing that holding ETH isn’t just about crypto exposure. It’s about owning a piece of the infrastructure powering the future of finance.

Ethereum is connecting legacy financial institutions with the new programmable money layer of the internet that’s being built in real-time.

And now this major institutional shift into ETH is setting off a whole tidal wave of opportunities for early investors.

So what comes next from here?

Why ETH Is Set to Break Out in 2025

There's a slow-burning problem in the global financial system €”and it's getting harder to ignore.

The U.S. national debt has surged to nearly $36 trillion, climbing at a pace that even seasoned economists are calling unsustainable. At the same time, the value of the dollar is under increasing pressure. It's not collapsing €”but it's quietly eroding.

Meanwhile, central banks are trapped. They want to cut interest rates to stimulate growth, but every time they ease up, inflation threatens to flare back up.

It's a lose-lose scenario: keep rates high and strangle the economy, or cut them and risk another wave of rising prices.

The result? Inflation isn't going away. It's proving far more stubborn than most expected €” and that has huge implications for investors.

That means investors and institutions are actively on the hunt for alternative stores of value that can also generate yield.

This is where Ethereum’s unique properties become very appealing.

ETH offers something no other asset can match. Sound money principles + yield generation + platform utility.

It’s truly unmatched in the digital asset economy. And it's increasingly competitive with traditional financial instruments.

Think of the relationship between Ethereum and Bitcoin like the historical relationship between silver and gold.

Ethereum is rapidly becoming the “digital silver” to Bitcoin’s “digital gold” - but with superior growth and utility as the crypto adoption wave intensifies.

Right now, the market cap ratio still generally favors Bitcoin at roughly 15:1. But that dynamic could change dramatically over the next 12 months.

The biggest catalysts for ETH €” more ETF approvals on the way, treasury adoption, and institutional rotation €” are still playing out as I write to you. And the real move is still ahead of us.

ETH Volatility on Sale: Why Now Is the Moment to Act

Now here's the opportunity that excites me most.

The smart money is pricing in cheap volatility for cryptos.

And right now, we can use this cheap volatility to our advantage. Think of it as a launching point to get into position well ahead of any potential moves.

I'm happy to say that I've been helping my viewers get into position right as this wave takes off.

I'm talking about exposure to the best leveraged ETH ETFs out there. Even direct exposure to the asset itself.

It's a great time to start building positions as the next wave of crypto adoption takes shape.

But the window of opportunity is narrowing.

Soon, we’ll see even more major ETF approvals that bring billions in institutional capital.

We’ll witness a flood of traditional financial institutions integrating Ethereum into their operations.

We’ll watch as ETH reclaims price leadership over Bitcoin and potentially reaches new all-time highs.

I'm here to tell you one thing...

Before all of these catalysts fully play out, there’s still time to position yourself.

The Peter Thiel bet isn’t just about one investor’s conviction. It’s a signal that the smartest money in Silicon Valley recognizes Ethereum’s big moment.

Now is the time to position yourself. Before more ETFs launch, before institutions flood in, and before ETH definitively reclaims leadership in the digital asset space.

Just click here to find out all about the winning strategy I’ve been using to capture crypto’s biggest profit opportunities.

I’ll give you the tools you need to spot the big bets institutional traders are placing on cryptos like ETH right now. And I’ll show you exactly what it takes to trade just like the pros in mere days.

The ultrasound money revolution is happening right now. The question is whether you’ll be part of it. I really hope you’ll take the journey with me.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. Eric Fry has an incredible track record: 40+ stocks in his portfolio have soared over 1,000%. But here’s the thing - most of those winning companies never made mainstream headlines.

Now Eric is making a bold call for the second half of 2025. He says investors need to dump today’s “ticking time bombs” like Tesla, Nvidia, and Amazon. Instead, he’s identified three under-the-radar stocks with much higher profit potential.

Eric has put all the details in his new Sell This, Buy That presentation. You’ll also discover how to access his brand-new report, Sell This, Buy That: The $24 Trillion Rise of Robotics, which reveals three more companies positioned to capitalize on the massive $24-trillion robotics boom.

Don’t miss this - Eric’s contrarian picks have delivered life-changing gains before, and his latest research could do it again. [Watch the free presentation here.]

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What is ultrasound money in crypto?
  Ethereum's "ultrasound money" status comes from its deflationary supply €”its issuance shrinks as network activity rises.
• Why is Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin in 2025?
  Institutional investments, ETF catalysts, and ETH's utility are helping it outpace BTC.
• How does Ethereum generate yield?
  Through staking on its Proof-of-Stake model, ETH holders can earn yield while helping validate transactions.

Stocks are surging Tuesday on hopes that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran - announced last night by President Trump - will hold this time.

"This time" is a reference to how the fragile peace has already stumbled.

The ceasefire was supposed to be effective as of midnight, but in the hours since, both sides have accused the other of violating the agreement.

Earlier today, an exasperated President Trump said that both sides "don’t know what the **** they’re doing."

Let's go to legendary investor Louis Navellier for more. From this morning's Flash Alert in Growth Investor:

A little confusion going on with the situation between Israel and Iran.

Trump announced a preliminary ceasefire within 24 hours. Iran fired some missiles. Israel was still sending planes. President Trump told Israel to turn them around - don't drop the bombs...

President Trump is on his way to The Hague for the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) meeting...

It's still up, up and away folks. Stocks that have the best earnings are poised to prosper.

Like Louis, Wall Street is looking beyond this stop/start, seeing the end of the conflict. As I write, all three major indexes are up 1%+.

Meanwhile, safe-haven assets oil and gold are tumbling. This is unsurprising. In last Wednesday's Digest, I wrote, "If the Israel/Iran conflict remains contained and supply remains uninterrupted, prices should drift back toward pre-conflict levels in the $60s."

It appears that's where we're headed.

Longer-term investors should consider taking advantage. Top-tier oil stocks are already selling at low valuations. Meanwhile, the global supply/demand looks increasingly attractive as we look farther out.

Let's rewind to our 9/20/24 Digest. We'll pick up quoting CNBC:

The oil market will face a supply shortage by the end of 2025 as the world fails to replace current crude reserves fast enough, Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told CNBC on Monday.

About 97% of the oil produced today was discovered in the 20th century, she said. The world has replaced less than 50% of the crude produced over the last decade, Hollub added.

"We're in a situation now where in a couple of years' time we're going to be very short on supply," she told CNBC's Tyler Mathisen...

For now, the market is oversupplied, which has held oil prices down...

But the supply and demand outlook will flip by the end of 2025, Hollub said.

As for gold, we'll circle back momentarily.

First, let's switch gears...

The overlooked answer to some of today's most urgent financial challenges

Consider these all-too-common investing issues:

"I started investing late - I don't have 30 years to compound slow gains at 6.5%."

Understood. Learn how to trade.

"Retirement's rushing toward me. I can't afford a market crash, but I haven't reached my target yet so I must stay invested."

Millions are Americans are in your shoes. Learn to trade.

"Our budget just got wrecked by surprise bills. How do we recover without sinking deeper into debt?"

You've got options - if you'll learn how to trade.

"The way things are going, AI might take my job... and the next one too. How do I protect my income?"

Join the club... and learn to trade.

But what does "trading" really mean?

If you're like me, you were raised in the school of buy-and-hold.

Trading was never taught - mostly warned against as a way that impatient investors lost money fast by targeting overnight riches.

So, when I'd hear people discussing their trading wins, I had loads of questions:

• How do you actually do it?
• How long does a trade last? A day? A week? Several quarters?
• What specific indicators inform your entry/exit timing? How accurate are they?
• Do you focus on a few big winners that offset loads of small losers? Or are tons of small-yet-consistent winners the way to go?

Without answers, I mostly stayed on sidelines. And when I tried a few trades - and lost money - retreating to buy-and-hold felt safer. You might have had a similar experience.

But as I've highlighted in past Digests, we're not in the same market as decades ago. Today's market isn't built for passive investing alone. Greater volatility is the new norm. AI-based job disruption is real and accelerating. And the cost of living is rising fast.

In this environment, trading is becoming more essential than optional.

So, over the coming days, we'll take some time in various Digests to look at different types of trading to provide you a starting point for your next step in sharpening this skill.

In this first installment, let's begin by hitting the "easy button" on trading

Trading can be time-intensive, especially for beginners. It demands constant monitoring of markets, researching setups, tracking economic news, and managing positions in real time.

Unlike passive investing, trading is hands-on - requiring focus, discipline, and swift decision-making. Without a system or structure, it can quickly become a full-time job.

But cutting-edge technology can help bypass a lot of this.

In recent Digests, we've profiled how our corporate partner TradeSmith just launched a new trading tool. It scans 120 million data points to identify prime trading moments - freeing you from having to do it yourself.

The tool then suggests the direction a stock is about to move and shows you the type of trade you can execute to capitalize on it.

These "profit windows" range in duration, specific to the stock. Here's TradeSmith's CEO Keith Kaplan:

For example, today, Tesla could have a 6-day window. But Apple could have a 15-day profit window. And Microsoft could have a 10-day window...

In backtests, this tool identified time windows where stocks surged so fast, it was like compressing four, eight €” even nine €” years of market gains into just a few weeks.

Bottom line: With this type of "trading," you're relying on new technology to do the heavy lifting for you.

Critically, what you're not doing is relying on your own interpretation or "hunches"

With this style of trading, you're basically allowing cold, impartial data and complex algorithms to guide your market moves - not your own instincts or gut feel.

While do-it-yourselfers may prefer to wield more control, studies on investor returns consistently show that we're our own worst enemies. This is because our emotions trip us up, resulting in suboptimal market choices.

When you use technology to guide your trading, you're handing over the reins to data and predictive analytics. You don't have to second-guess your market decisions.

Back to Keith:

AI doesn't enter a trade because of FOMO...

It doesn't bias its decisions based on optimism, pessimism, or any other unhelpful human emotion.

And it doesn't get rattled when the market opens red.

It simply follows the data.

Instead, it constantly scans the markets, analyzing millions of data points, backtesting strategies, and adjusting in real time.

Something no human - no matter how skilled - can do with the same level of speed and accuracy.

To see this in action, you can join Keith tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern. He'll be holding a live demo of how this new trading platform works... what the backtests show about its results... and he's even giving away the names and tickers of three new opportunities for July 1 that could each shoot up 100% or more in days.

To register to join immediately with just one click, click here.

Tomorrow, we'll profile a trading method Luke Lango uses called "stage analysis." One of Luke's trades anchored in this approach recently passed the 200%+ milestone. I'll tell you why tomorrow.

Returning to gold...

A few days ago, our macro expert Eric Fry of Fry's Investment Report told investors that the move higher in gold was a "rally worth chasing."

Today, gold is pulling back sharply as tensions in the Middle East cool. I suspect Eric's response would be, this is a "pullback worth buying."

Backing up, Eric has been a gold bull for years. He positioned his subscribers in various gold plays long before the yellow metal's meteoric ascent that began in spring of last year.

For example, Eric's Fry's Investment Report subscribers who acted on his official recommendation several years ago were up 201% in Freeport-McMoRan as of yesterday's close. More recently, subscribers are up 51% in Westgold Resources.

Let's circle back to Eric's analysis from a few days ago:

I rarely suggest "chasing rallies" like this one, but I suspect this rally is worth chasing.

A near-term correction could certainly strike the gold market at any moment, of course, but the long-term outlook for this ultimate portfolio hedge looks compelling.

Behind this is what Eric calls the "twin disorders" of monetary and geopolitical disorder.

Even if today's fragile peace in the Middle East holds, we still must contend with monetary disorder.

Back to Eric:

During the last few months, CD rates - or prices - on U.S. Treasury debt have jumped to all-time highs. That trend suggests that some folks are getting nervous about a looming disaster in the Treasury market.

Rising CD rates on U.S. Treasury securities reflect a combination of risks, but the top among them is America's soaring debt load.

Back in 2016, U.S. debt-to-GDP crept above 100% for the first time since the end of World War II. Since then, U.S. debt levels have continued ratcheting higher... and now tally nearly 125% of GDP.

Although that level of indebtedness is not fatal, it is suboptimal.

This is where gold comes in.

As I mentioned, gold is a different type of default insurance that has been soaring right along with U.S. debt levels.

Right now, dollar bills are the only asset backing U.S. Treasury debt, and the only "asset" backing dollar bills is the "full faith and credit" of the United States.

But if the dollar's recent performance is any indication, there's not a lot of faith in the U.S. government

The U.S. dollar is down about 10% on the year.

That's significant, but if we're on the cusp of a real dollar bear market, then your buying power will be headed much lower.

Here's Charles-Henry Monchau, CIO at Syz Group:

True US Dollar bear markets are usually 20-40%:
1970s (-30%) – End of Bretton Woods (USD delinked from gold)
1980s (-40%) – Plaza Accord (G7 nations devalued USD to reduce trade deficits)
2000s (-30%) – Post-9/11 policy shifts, Fed rate cuts

While a dollar bear would be awful for that family vacation to Europe, it would be fantastic for your gold investments.

As Eric notes, our politicians seem unable (or unwilling) to curb their spending, which impacts the dollar:

As mighty as the greenback remains, it will not retain its might without prudent stewardship of our national finances.

Although the U.S. government's debt burden is not yet fatal, it is moving in the wrong direction, which is why Moody's - a company that provides credit ratings, research, and analysis on companies and governments - stripped the U.S. of its Triple A credit rating last month.

As Moody's said, "Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs."

Given these trends, gold deserves an allocation in every investment portfolio, including yours.

We couldn't agree more.

Bottom line: If you're not in gold today, this pullback is a gift.

We'll keep you updated here in the Digest.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

Of course, the markets and news never sleep. And as I was in Montana, tensions continued rising in the Middle East. Israel and Iran have exchanged strikes, and betting markets like Polymarket now show a 70% probability of U.S. military action against Iran. That's up from 40% just weeks ago. Despite this, markets remain calm.

Why? Because AI is the signal. 

Without the anchor of exponential innovation, geopolitical shocks like this would send markets spiraling. Instead, investors are looking past conflict, focusing on a more profound transformation: sovereign AI.

The Rise of Sovereign AI

Sovereign AI isn't about chatbots or poetry. It's about AI built by nations, for nations, to run nations.

We’re talking about systems that:

• Manage national energy grids
• Control missile defense and security infrastructure
• Overhaul country-wide healthcare operations
• Streamline bureaucracy with tech-company-level efficiency

This is the deepest-pocketed AI race on the planet, and it's accelerating:

• OpenAI just landed a $200M Pentagon deal
• Nvidia (NVDA) is building sovereign AI with Germany
• Gulf states are pouring billions into sovereign AI ecosystems

Countries that lead in sovereign AI will dominate economically, militarily, and politically.

Imagine government services running like Amazon (AMZN). Permits would be processed in minutes. Potholes could be fixed before you know they exist. That's not a dream; It's the direction we're heading, driven by necessity as nations wrestle with debt and deficits.

This trend is sparking an AI infrastructure supercycle. While consumer AI has seen its initial surge, sovereign AI is where the next trillion-dollar opportunities lie.

That's why AI builders and chipmakers remain compelling - even in a choppy market.

From Training to Thinking Machines

A major evolution is underway. We’re moving from training-centric AI - massive models preloaded with data - to inferencing-first AI that can think, adapt, and problem-solve on the fly.

This shift favors a broader chip ecosystem. Whereas the Training Era was dominated by Nvidia's GPUs, the Inferencing Era is seeing new demand for TPUs, XPUs, and vision chips.

Even grabbing 1% of Nvidia's projected $250B revenue pie by 2027 could mean billions for upstarts like Ambarella (AMBA) or Lumentum (LITE).

This is a foundational shift in global governance. Sovereign AI will:

• Slash inefficiency
• Supercharge defense
• Rewire public infrastructure
• Drive economic supremacy

The stakes are existential: nations that fail to lead in sovereign AI risk falling behind economically, militarily, and geopolitically. But the upside is generational - those who get it right will redefine how governments function, how citizens live, and how power is distributed on a global scale.

This isn't a tech upgrade. It's a new operating system for civilization.

The sovereign AI revolution isn't coming. It's here. It's scaling fast. And it's rewriting the rules of governance, security, and innovation in real time.

Ignore it, and you'll be left behind. Understand it, and you'll be ahead of the most important transformation of our time.

Click here to watch on YouTube.

The most likely explanation comes from 18th-century England. At the time, wealthy British investors often sold their stocks before moving to their country homes for the summer. The seasonal fire sales supposedly caused markets to slump.

Fast forward to today, and much like afternoon tea and handlebar mustaches, this centuries-old habit seems to live on.

According to a study by LPL Financial, the May to October stretch has been a financial dead zone, delivering just 1.8% annual returns since 1950. Trading volumes typically dry up as traders go on vacation, and there's simply not enough buying demand to power stocks higher.

Meanwhile, the November to April months have rewarded investors with a much stronger 7% return, as shown in the graph below.

The effect is also noticeable across other countries. A 2002 study by LPL found that 36 of the 37 markets they studied showed lower returns in May to October. The one outlier was Australia, which experiences seasons opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Still, selling your entire investment portfolio in May isn't just terrible from a tax perspective. It also causes people to miss out on potential recoveries.

For example, the S&P 500 rose 12% in the summer of 2024 after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. An investor too distracted by the "sell in May" mantra would have missed out on those gains. The 2008 financial crisis and 2020 COVID-19 pandemic also saw incredible resurgences the following summers.

In today's Digest, we'd like to give nine other reasons (i.e., stocks primed for success) to stay invested in the summer. Well... I'll give you two here...

And InvestorPlace Senior Analyst Luke Lango will reveal another seven in a special portfolio he built using his new powerful stock algorithm. It's designed to do one thing... help you beat the markets and volatility, month after month, by helping him find the best stocks at the best time. You can learn more about how that tool works - and that special seven-stock portfolio - in Luke's new free broadcast here.

Now, let's get to the two stocks I'm looking at this summer - and take a quick peek at Luke's special portfolio and how these seven stocks all represent even more reasons to stay invested this summer…

1. Seasonal Effects Can Dominate

Some companies naturally do well during the warmer months.

Outdoor sportswear makers... ice cream parlors... summer camps...

Then there's my favorite example, Intuit Inc. (INTU). (You can tell I'm popular at parties).

Sunday Digest readers will recognize this tax and accounting firm as one of my top growth picks for 2025. America's current tax laws expire at the end of this year, and the Trump administration and Congress are lining up a new "big, beautiful bill" that will change everything from the state-and-local tax (SALT) deduction to the way tips are taxed.

Intuit stands to do well because it serves the individuals and small businesses affected by these changes. Do-it-yourself filers are far more likely to use Intuit's TurboTax software on a major tax overhaul, and INTU's shares surged 80% during the last major change in 2017.

The software firm also benefits from a significant summer effect. Most of Intuit's profits happen during the tax filing season that ends on April 15, and markets seem consistently surprised by the 10X jump in operating profits once they're reported in late May.

"Seasonal" investing software from our corporate partners, TradeSmith, finds that shares of the TurboTax owner typically rise 10% between May 13 and August 11 as these financial figures are announced and digested. The green line in the graph below shows the typical path INTU shares have taken over the past 20 years.

We're within 48 hours of the best day of the year to buy.

source

In addition, TurboTax has several secular tailwinds in its sails. The company will benefit from the end of the IRS Direct File program, which previously offered free tax filing software. And the firm is also a leader in AI-powered accounting, which is helping sales of its popular QuickBooks product.

Though the average firm typically does poorly during summer months, tax firms like Intuit and H&R Block Inc. (HRB) prove that there are some notable exceptions to this rule.

2. Last November-April Returns Were Poor

Last year's November to April returns were mediocre at best. The S&P 500 dropped 2.8% over this period, compared to its long-term average gain of 7%.

That means markets are unusually cheap for this time of year. The median S&P 500 company now trades at 17.9X forward earnings - 5% lower than last November, and 7% below the 19.2X level seen in the past five Mays.

That's made several high-quality firms incredibly attractive long-term buys. And one that stands out is Corning Inc. (GLW).

Corning is an upstate New York firm that's developed high-end glassware since 1851. It invented Pyrex in 1915, the low-loss fiber optic cable in 1970, and the iPhone's "Gorilla Glass" in 2007.

Today, the firm is a leader in liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, smartphone screens, and the fiber optic cable used in broadband connections. It's an up-market manufacturer that's survived outsourcing and offshoring thanks to decades of innovation.

Perhaps most excitingly, Corning also manufactures the high-end fiber optics used in data centers to link servers. This essential technology allows AI-focused data centers to send more data across tighter spaces. It's become one of Corning's greatest growth drivers.

"Our growth is primarily driven by powerful secular trends and more Corning content in our customers’ offerings," CEO Wendell Weeks said in prepared first-quarter earnings call remarks. "We continue to see and hear reconfirming evidence that our secular trends are intact and remain relevant. We see it in our results and we see it in our order books, and we hear it in our detailed dialogues with our customers."

Meanwhile, the firm's profitability is excellent. Corning has earned positive operating earnings for the past two decades (even through two recessions), and analysts expect return on equity to surge to 17% this year - roughly twice as high as market averages. Shares additionally trade at just 19X forward earnings given the November-April selloff.

Now, you might be thinking there must be something wrong. How can a firm have it all? And you'd be right to worry.

Corning supplies many of the world's top TV makers, which are now facing enormous tariffs on exports to the United States. Public funding for broadband expansion may also get cut in the upcoming federal budget. Both factors have contributed to a 15% selloff since February.

However, it's becoming increasingly clear that the market's "sell first, ask questions later" approach has turned Corning into an irresistible "Buy." Shares still trade 20% below their February peaks, and we believe this firm is an opportunity too good to pass up this summer.

3. The 7 Short-Term Trades

Finally, Luke Lango has long maintained that there's always a bull market somewhere. Last year, 60 of the S&P 500 companies saw shares rise more than 30%, and this group included names like Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM) (up 58%) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) (up 60%).

At first glance, Iron Mountain and Nvidia seem to have little in common. The former is a blue-chip warehousing firm known for safekeeping corporate documents and Prince's unpublished music. The latter is a hypergrowth chipmaker at the bleeding edge of artificial intelligence.

Nevertheless, the two do have some commonalities.

On the fundamental side, both firms saw accelerating growth in the fiscal year leading up to 2024. Iron Mountain came from a relatively low base to notch 24% growth in earnings before interest and taxes from the previous year, while Nvidia's earnings quadrupled to $37 billion.

Meanwhile, the technical factors were also on their side. Iron Mountain's shares had risen 40% the previous year, while Nvidia's had surged 240%. History tells us that rising stocks tend to keep going up. The two companies also saw significant analyst upgrades, another sign of gains to come.

Luke and his team have spent over a year assembling these insights into a single system called Auspex. This monthly process now screens over 8,000 stocks on the last day of each month and helps them identify "perfect" stocks with strong growth momentum for shorter holding periods.

In a new presentation, Luke reveals the secrets behind this system and shows how it has now selected seven elite stocks that look set to buck the summer doldrums.

But don't wait long.

For Luke's special Project Auspex presentation and insights into his Auspex portfolio picks, simply click here.

The Trouble With Selling in May

Studies have found it's hard to outperform the stock market by selling in May and rebuying in October. Transaction costs and taxes tend to erase any potential gains even if you put the money into yield-returning T-bills.

In addition, this year has seen some incredible first-quarter results. According to FactSet, the average S&P 500 firm reported a 12.8% increase in earnings per share. We're seeing firms like The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) surge 16% on strong earnings figures. Selling now would leave people missing out on the typical post-earnings bump.

That's why we've been broadly recommending investors stay in the market. There's a great deal of opportunity for those who know where to look, and that's why I urge you to watch Luke's free Auspex presentation to learn more.

Until next week,

Tom Yeung

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace.com

Since then, these five firms have performed splendidly, largely outperforming the S&P 500's 8% rise. 

• Salesforce Inc. (CRM) +16%  
• Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) +13%  
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) +16%  
• Moderna Inc. (MRNA) +6%  
• Celanese Corp. (CE) +13%  

InvestorPlace Senior Analyst Luke Lango believes this is just the start.  

He predicts a major event on May 7 will trigger a flood of cash - as much as $7 trillion - to rush back into U.S. stocks. It's a catalyst that could change the entire market dynamic and create a new summer "panic" of the sort not seen since 1997. 

This is why he held a special 2025 Summer Panic Summit on Thursday. At this event, Luke explained why he believes this catalyst on May 7 will be a game-changer. Plus, he revealed a new set of stocks that he believes are primed to lead the next wave of growth. (You can watch a replay of the event here.)  

Now, I can't tell you what this catalyst is. You'll have to see it for yourself in Luke's special presentation. But if this panic buying he describes does take off, several of my top long-term picks are certain to benefit.  

Let's revisit two of them today - and a new one as well… 

The Leveraged Play 

The first is Sabre Corp. (SABR), one of the three firms that run the world's Global Distribution System (GDS) for hotels and flights. Virtually all travel agents and online booking systems use GDS to book flights since it's the only platform with real-time data on available seats, rooms, and prices. That means industry profits are generally stable and very high. (Even Alphabet Inc. [GOOGL] failed to create a rival system and now uses Sabre to power Google Flights.) 

That's why private equity decided to take Sabre off the public markets in 2007. They saw a cash cow that could be loaded with debt to make large profits even bigger. And it worked, at least in the short run.  

Sabre returned to public markets in 2014 with 50% higher net income, and the stock surged another 70% the following year as profits continued to climb. 

Then, two things happened. 

• Covid-19. The once-in-a-century pandemic brought air travel to a near standstill, slashing Sabre's revenues and making debts impossible to service.  
• Rising rates. The following year, the U.S. Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to stave off inflation, making it harder for Sabre to pay off existing debts and roll them into new deals.  

That crushed Sabre's share price, which has fallen 90% since early 2020. Its debts are now worth almost six times more than its equity... a situation usually associated with near-bankrupt companies. 

But if Luke's calculations are right, things could soon turn around for this equity "stub." 

In fact, since the company is so financially leveraged, a 10% increase in enterprise value will translate into a 58% increase in share price. 

That makes Sabre an incredible "option-like" play. In the worst case, the stock goes to zero... but in the best case, SABR shares could rise 2X... 5X... or even 10X.  

The Real Estate Kings 

The May 7 catalyst will also be felt among real estate companies that rely on more traditional debt financing. 

My two favorites are on opposite ends of the risk spectrum. I would recommend both as complements. 

• Realty Income Corp. (O). This real estate investment trust (REIT) is arguably the most conservative of its kind. Leases are made on a "triple net" basis, meaning tenants are responsible for almost all costs, and the company attracts blue-chip tenants by offering minimal rent increases. Its dividend is paid monthly and sits at a stunningly high 5.6%.  
• Digital Realty Trust Inc. (DLR). Meanwhile, DLR is one of the most aggressive REITs thanks to its single-minded pursuit of growth in AI data centers. Gross income more than doubled to $2.9 billion in 2024, and analysts expect another 50% surge to $4.5 billion by 2027. Cloud computing firms like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are still starved for computing power, and Digital Realty has grown as quickly as possible to service that need. Dividends are lower at 3% to reflect this potential.  

These two firms are well run. Realty Income has played the long game by focusing on grocery stores (10% of its portfolio), convenience stores (9%), non-retail stores  (i.e., industrial and services) (21%), and other businesses resistant to e-commerce competition.  

On its part, Digital Realty realized early on that cloud computing customers would need dense colocation data centers (where powered, connected warehouse space is rented out to firms that bring their own servers) and quickly moved to offer that service. 

That means both firms should see a surge in buying interest on a May 7 catalyst. Despite their differences, these REITs are economically sensitive firms. And if Luke is right, a summer panic could send these types of companies soaring.  

The Healthcare Acquirer 

Finally, I'm adding a new pick to my top list: 

Biogen Inc. (BIIB). 

This high-quality biotech firm was created in 2003 in a mega-merger of Biogen and automation company Idec. Shares rose as much as 1,200% through the biotech boom of the mid-2010s as blockbusters like cancer drug Rituxan and MS therapy Avonex came onto the market. Biogen also proved reasonably adept at acquiring and partnering with other biotech firms, though a 2019 acquisition of Nightstar did end with two clinical failures. 

Challenges began to mount after 2023 on rising research costs and high interest rates. Suddenly, new therapies became far more expensive to finance. A lackluster launch of Alzheimer's drug Leqembi also spooked investors. So did recent staffing cuts at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which will increase the time and barriers for new drug approvals. 

Biogen's stock has dropped 60% over the past two years and trades at 8X forward earnings, compared to a long-term average of 13.3X.  

The May 7 catalyst could change part of that equation. 

This summer, we could see investors return to this beat-up stock whose forward price-earnings ratio now looks more like an automaker's than a top-tier biotech's. Biogen's pipeline and several new launches look reasonably strong. Recently approved drugs like Skyclarys, used in neurology, and Zurzuvae, for postpartum depression, should reduce the impact of expiring drugs and Leqembi's slower-than-expected success.  

It's also worth noting that large biotechs like Biogen have significant marketing and production scale that make them attractive partners, allowing them to snap up promising smaller firms at a discount. 

Of course, many of Biogen's challenges will remain. Biotech is an industry that generates enormous paydays and equally significant flops. I'm also not expecting a quick return to "normal" at the FDA. 

Still, if you had told me two years ago that Biogen would be on sale at 8X forward earnings, I wouldn't have believed you. And now, it's something worth taking advantage of. 

The Summer Panic of 1997 

In May 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis was getting started. Currency speculators were dumping the Thai baht, forcing that country's central bank to defend their currency exchange rate with a dwindling supply of foreign reserves. By July, these reserves had run out, triggering a devaluation and market mayhem. It only took several months for the crisis to spread to South Korea, Hong Kong, and beyond. Asian stock markets collapsed. 

Yet, none of this affected the dot-com boom. Over the same period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 20% to a new record as American investors began recognizing the promises of the internet. Retail investors were more panicked about missing out than with some faraway financial crisis. 

Luke Lango believes we're approaching a new version of this two-sided "panic." 

Today, bearish institutional investors are dumping tariff-impacted companies as global macro fears kick in. Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) have dropped 38%, while those of shoe retailer Deckers Outdoor Corp. (DECK) have sunk 45%. 

Meanwhile, retail investors are aggressively buying the dip every chance they get. On April 3, individual investors bought $4.7 billion of equities following President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" selloff. And on Wednesday, a negative U.S. GDP report was quickly buried as these same mom-and-pop investors snapped up shares. 

That's because there's a lot of money sitting on the sidelines. And there are a lot of bullish investors waiting to buy up stock. 

This could come to a head on May 7, when Luke predicts an event will trigger a new cascade of retail buying. 

Understandably, everyone is focused on short-term moves in the midst of a fast-paced market. But there's something bigger happening behind the scenes…  

For the full breakdown of this catalyst - and Luke's blueprint for the summer - click here to check out his 2025 Summer Panic Summit.

Until next week, 

Tom Yeung 

Market Analyst, InvestorPlace.com