Markets love a good headline.
A single press release can send stocks soaring. A tweet, a tariff, a central bank quip — they can all yank the S&P a few percent in one direction or another before lunchtime.
Traders rush in, the algos pile on, and money changes hands completely by instinct.
But just as quickly as the hype arrives, it fades. The trade unwinds and eventually what looked like a turning point turns out to be more noise as a new headline takes the old one’s place and the cycle repeats.
And sometimes, the opposite happens…
Everyone reacts to the loudest story in the room, only to realize weeks or months later that the real market mover was overshadowed by the splashier story.
A mundane policy shift buried in the fine print, a boring accounting change no one modeled, or a piece of seemingly humdrum legislation that quietly rewires incentives long before the data shows it.
Big, Beautiful and Buried
One of those overshadowed stories is gearing up to make a colossal impact in a few quarters and no one is talking about it – except me.
Back on July 4th, while the market was focused on summer barbeques, geopolitics, oil shocks, and the usual macro chaos, Congress was frantically trying to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill — a nearly thousand-page legislative monster too sprawling to summarize.
With so much firepower packed into one piece of legislation, the bill predictably made news for the flashy stuff: tax brackets, energy credits, and partisan bickering.
But buried on page 123 of Congress’ official PDF of the final enrolled bill was something with the power to reshape corporate financials across an entire segment of the market: a retroactive change to how U.S. companies can expense their research and development (R&D).
The market hasn’t reacted yet. But it will.
Because once that provision takes effect, companies will begin recognizing one-time tax benefits, unlocking surprise cash flows, and booking earnings no one saw coming.
And when that wave hits, the headlines will follow. But the move? That will have already started.
The Rule That Changed the Game (and No One’s Talking About)
Here’s what happened.
Between 2022 and 2024, U.S. companies weren’t allowed to deduct their R&D costs all at once. Instead, they had to amortize them — meaning they could only write off a little each year, dragging out the tax benefit over five years.
Companies were getting punished for doing the very thing we should be rewarding: investing in innovation.
But that all changed in 2025.
The rule quietly flipped back. Now, U.S.-based R&D spending can be deducted immediately in the year it’s incurred.
It doesn’t change revenue. It doesn’t touch margins. But it drastically boosts how earnings and cash flow appear on paper.
And in markets, appearance is everything.
Why This Matters Now
Think about it: If two companies each earn the same cash, but one gets a massive one-time tax break and a lift in GAAP profits (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)… Which one looks more attractive on the screen?
We’ve seen this before.
Earnings quality improves. Multiples expand. Screens start lighting up with “suddenly profitable” names.
And that’s before the one-time catch-up adjustment hits — where companies can flush out all the remaining unamortized R&D from 2022 to 2024 in a single tax year. That’s a stealth boost to 2025 GAAP income, with the potential to trigger surprise beats in Q3 and Q4.
It’s not in analyst models. It’s not being priced in. That’s our opportunity.
The Five Stocks Hiding in Plain Sight
Let’s break down the five names I believe are best positioned to benefit — not because of hype or momentum, but because of pure, clean tax math:
LYFT inc. (LYFT)
Let’s start with Lyft. This is a name Wall Street’s largely written off — a restructuring story, always playing second fiddle to Uber.
But here’s what they’re missing: Lyft spends around $375 million a year on U.S. R&D. That used to drag down their reported income. Now? That expense gets taken up front, creating an instant lift to both GAAP earnings and free cash flow.
And when you layer in new leadership, margin improvement, and the company’s sharper focus on operational efficiency… suddenly this starts looking less like a turnaround and more like a re-rate.
It won’t take much. A single earnings beat could get institutions sniffing around again.
Unity Software (U)
This one is the most tax-leveraged name on the list.
Unity spends nearly 70% of its revenue on R&D. Let that sink in. That’s one of the highest R&D-to-revenue ratios in the market — and it’s finally about to work in their favor.
The business has been through some resets. Leadership changes. Model tweaks. But the R&D engine never stopped running.
And now, with the ability to expense all of it in the same year, we’re going to see a dramatic change in optics.
Unity’s reported profitability and cash flow are about to look a whole lot cleaner — and for a software infrastructure company, that’s exactly what institutional investors want to see.
Unity is a stock every investor should keep on their watchlist. This major shift should signal even bigger gains from here.
And luckily for my Advanced Notice members, we’ve already managed a 227% overall gain trading this software powerhouse.
I recently recapped our big trade on Unity in Masters in Trading – and I explained why the opportunity with this stock is only growing from here.
Snap Inc. (SNAP)
Here’s a sleeper setup I love.
Snap spends about 40% of revenue on R&D — mostly developing AR tools, next-gen camera tech, and personalized ad delivery systems.
For years, that’s kept them in high-spend mode, and Wall Street has essentially written them off.
But with the new expensing rule, Snap doesn’t have to change a single thing about their operations to look drastically more profitable. And with expectations in the basement, all it might take is one surprise swing from negative to positive earnings per share (EPS) — and the rerate could be violent.
Don’t forget, this stock has a habit of catching the Street off guard during earnings.
It’s an under-the-radar pick that could seriously surprise to the upside – especially as we approach its newest earnings release on August 5th.
On Masters in Trading LIVE this week, I took a deep dive into a whole wave of Unusual Options Activity (UOA) boosting stocks just like Snap. And I explained exactly how how you can use UOA to profit from insider moves in real time. No fluff. No block trade delay. Just raw, transparent options flow.
Click here to watch my full rundown.
Palantir Technologies (PLTR)
This one’s been a lightning rod in the past — but I want to make one thing clear: Palantir’s R&D has always been a quiet strength, not a liability.
With deep engineering roots and high government exposure, Palantir spends heavily on innovation. But under the old rules, that spending dulled their reported earnings. That created a gap — between what the company was actually producing and how the market perceived it.
Now? That gap closes.
Expect higher quality earnings, better free cash flow optics, and an uptick in the kind of metrics that screens love. Two weeks ago on Masters in Trading: Live, I showed how PLTR had $25 million in call buying ahead of earnings and how options were only pricing in a 16% move — despite the stock historically swinging over 20%. That setup is still in play.
Rivian Automotive (RIVN)
Finally, let’s talk about Rivian.
Yes, it’s a cash-burning EV manufacturer. Yes, the headlines have been brutal. But buried under that is a company spending aggressively on proprietary battery systems, electric drivetrains, and in-house software platforms.
That’s all R&D.
And now that spending can be immediately expensed, reducing the company’s reported burn rate and making its EBITDA metrics look less… terrifying.
In a capital-intensive industry, perception of stability matters. And this tax change gives Rivian the chance to reset that perception — even before they scale to profitability.
Don’t Wait for the Headlines
Here’s the thing: this opportunity won’t show up in big bold letters even if you have a Bloomberg terminal.
It’ll be buried in footnotes, or mentioned in a single line during a CFO’s earnings call:
“Lower effective tax rate due to the change in R&D expensing treatment.”
That’s the phrase.
By the time analysts run their revisions and institutions start accumulating shares… the move will already be halfway done.
This is one of those rare setups where the edge isn’t about predicting the future — it’s about understanding the present better than the crowd.
The Final Word
Many traders fixate on noise — headlines, hype cycles, the same tickers that everyone’s already priced in. They follow the market like it’s a news feed. But creative traders? We look under the hood. We study how perception gets built… and where the levers are that shift it.
This isn’t about macro. It’s not about Nvidia or rate hikes or politics. It’s about a structural shift — a silent rerouting of how the market accounts for innovation.
And the best part? These companies don’t need to change a thing operationally. All they have to do is show up with earnings under the new tax math… and the story changes.
This is what creative trading looks like in action.
You’re not chasing headlines. You’re anticipating how the numbers will be read — not just how they’ll be reported.
You’re not looking for what the market is talking about today. You’re positioning for what it’ll be forced to recognize tomorrow.
That’s the edge. And when it clicks, the rerating isn’t gradual — it’s fast.
Because when perception catches up to reality, the gap doesn’t close quietly.
This is how creative traders think.
And remember, the creative trader wins.
Jonathan Rose,
Founder, Masters in Trading
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