Leveraged fund and options trading volumes have accelerated sharply since the COVID‑19 pandemic, with Direxion projecting average daily leveraged‑fund turnover of $1.41 billion in 2025—up more than 130% from 2024 and 250% from 2020. Options activity is expected to hit 58 million contracts per day, a 26% year‑over‑year rise and double the 2020 level. Between 2020 and 2025 leveraged funds grew at a 29% compound annual rate and options at 16%, outpacing the 10% growth in stock volumes. Retail investors are now the primary catalyst behind this risk‑focused surge, and the number of active leveraged funds jumped 50% in 2025, the biggest annual increase since 2007.
Uber announced it will acquire parking‑reservation platform SpotHero, integrating spot‑booking directly into the Uber app. The transaction, expected to close in the first half of 2026, does not disclose financial terms. SpotHero operates in over 400 U.S. and Canadian cities,...
Institutional Property Advisors arranged the sale of Luxe Villas, a 60‑unit multifamily building in Brentwood, Los Angeles, for $49.494 million, or $824,900 per unit. The transaction is one of only three post‑2000, 50‑plus‑unit deals in Brentwood over the past 25 years....

Elon Musk’s high‑profile ventures illustrate a disciplined risk framework that can be adapted for personal finance. While Musk can absorb multi‑year burn rates, most investors—especially those nearing retirement—must manage tighter time horizons and liquidity constraints. Translating his emphasis on scenario...
Raising private capital for your next deal is about keeping the partnership passive. If a private money lender has to chase you down for details, your chances of getting their money is slim to none.

🏘️The housing market finally got some relief this week as the country thawed out after weeks of winter storms. New listings jumped, inventory climbed 1.4% to over 700,000 single family homes, and pending sales came in 4.6% ahead of last year....
The Bank of Jamaica cut its policy rate to 5.50% from 5.75%, its sixth 25‑basis‑point reduction since August 2024 and the first cut in nine months. The move was driven by a milder‑than‑expected inflation impact from Hurricane Melissa, improved agricultural supply,...
$AMC 10K firmly puts bankruptcy back on the table. To quote: In order to achieve net positive cash flows from operating activities, revenues will need to increase from current levels to levels at least in line with pre-COVID-19 revenues. However, there...
Covered‑call equity ETFs are gaining attention for delivering yields that exceed typical equity funds while still offering modest upside potential. The article highlights four notable funds, with Amplify's DIVO standing out due to its 4.9% distribution rate, quality‑focused U.S. holdings,...

Global equity indexes show mixed year‑to‑date performance as of February 23 2026. Japan’s Nikkei 225 leads with a 12.9% rise, followed by the UK’s FTSE 100 (+7.6%) and Canada’s TSX (+6.5%). In contrast, India’s BSE SENSEX records the largest decline at –2.3%. The watchlist also...

Learnings and conclusions from this week’s charts: 1. Bullish rotation remains in play. 2. Tech stocks still look troubled. 3. AI spillovers are helping (already bullish) commodities. 4. Newspaper stocks present a case-study in disruption. 5. Commodity stocks (as a group) look good. Overall, the US...
GEICO has agreed to sell its 26‑acre Chevy Chase campus to Bethesda‑based developer EYA, which will lead a joint venture with Washington, D.C. firm JM Zell Partners. The partnership will transform the former corporate site into a transit‑oriented development featuring...
A WisdomTree chart shows a truly global market‑cap weighted portfolio composed of roughly 50% equities, 30% fixed income, and a surprisingly high 12.7% gold, making gold the third‑largest asset class. The analysis estimates the total market value of gold at...
It's also bc site-built home construction is so labor intensive ... which means cities with high housing costs have high CONSTRUCTION costs That's exactly why @americanhousing is doing industrial manufacturing of high quality, non-combustible, beautiful, dense, attached housing We are bringing down...

"Financial leverage increases equity volatility, not business quality." Leverage doesn’t make a business better — it just makes the stock wilder. ⚠️📈 Financial leverage amplifies equity volatility. When debt is added to the capital structure, small changes in operating performance translate into...
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated most of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on clean‑energy imports. The decision instantly altered market expectations for solar panels, wind turbine components, and battery materials that had been adjusting to higher...
In recent years, a new form of 'synthetic' lending has emerged as a potential alternative to margin loans or SBLOCs for short- and medium-term borrowing: The "box spread". https://t.co/xmNXcFkoUQ Kitces Nerd Ben Henry-Moreland shares the mechanics of box spreads, why the...

The BofA fund manager survey has never been this bearish on the dollar. It is time to bite your lip and start being a lonely dollar long. I have a sample size of one here, arguably a sample size of...

The National Association of Realtors identified the Lake Havasu City‑Kingman, AZ metro as having the steepest decline in average household size over the past decade, dropping from 2.47 in 2014 to 1.96 in 2024—a 20.6% reduction. Median home prices hover...

The episode examines how renewed U.S. tariff uncertainty, sparked by President Trump's recent statements and a Supreme Court ruling, is rattling markets and leaving business leaders scrambling for clarity on refunds, consumer reactions, and legal strategies. It highlights the contrast...

Washington State’s House Bill 2089 seeks to restore dwindling wildfire‑prevention funding by revoking a tax deduction that currently benefits large digital mortgage lenders. The deduction, originally crafted for community banks, generated $91.6 million in savings in 2024, with 65 % captured by...

Recent academic papers reveal that options exhibit robust momentum effects across both monthly and intraday horizons. A 2022 study of delta‑neutral straddles finds that options with strong 6‑36‑month past returns generate superior subsequent returns, with lower risk than traditional short...

Ryman Hospitality Properties reported record Q4 and full‑year 2025 results, posting $737.8 million in quarterly revenue and $2.6 billion for the year. Adjusted EBITDAre rose 18.9% YoY to $224.3 million in Q4 and $794.7 million annually, while net income reached $74.5 million and $247.3 million respectively....

A federal judge in Connecticut dismissed a lawsuit filed by former COFINA bondholders against insurers Ambac, MBIA and related subsidiaries, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction. The ruling allows plaintiffs to refile a second‑amended complaint against MBIA Inc. by March 6,...

Homebuying power in the United States reached its highest level in nearly four years, driven by a decline in mortgage rates and modest inventory growth. A median‑income household can now afford a $331,483 home with a 20% down payment, roughly...

iShares has moved four of its short‑term fixed‑income ETFs—SGOV, SHV, PMMF and GMMF—from the electronic NYSE Arca platform to the NYSE’s hybrid floor model. The funds total roughly $96 billion in assets, with SGOV alone managing $75 billion and attracting about $6 billion of...

I vibe coded a widget to show the idea of the blog post below. It simulates yield curve evolutions and equity market returns. Then it plots the distribution of annualized returns and volatilities over a given horizon using...

Traditional lenders are eyeing the expanding non‑agency mortgage market as originations have roughly tripled in recent years, driven by growing appetite for non‑owner‑occupied and non‑QM loans. Securitization activity surged 78% in 2025, while delinquencies on non‑QM assets have risen above...
The BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income ETF (BKGI) delivers active, worldwide infrastructure exposure through 33 holdings and a 0.55% expense ratio. Over the past three years it generated a 19.4% annualized return, beating its S&P Global Infrastructure benchmark’s 13.6% return. The...

Scammers are exploiting the popularity of Korean beauty brands, the credibility of the Social Security Administration, and Amazon Prime’s reach to launch counterfeit product, phishing, and shopping fraud schemes. Fake K‑beauty listings mimic Medicube, Anua and Beauty of Joseon, often...
Former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice, a Netflix board member, publicly criticized President Donald Trump on a podcast, prompting the president to demand her removal from the board. The outburst coincides with Netflix’s $82.7 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros....
Mortgage rates dropped into the 5s today because everyone is finally realizing the robots are going to take our jobs. Bittersweet.

HIMS Q4 2025 earnings: • Revenue $618M vs $617M Est. • EPS $0.08 vs $0.05 Est. • Gross Margin: 72% vs 74% Est. • Subscribers: 2.5M (+13% Y/Y) FY26 Guidance • Revenue $2.8B vs $2.7B Est.
Cybersecurity stocks slumped after Anthropic unveiled Claude Code Security, a code‑scanning AI tool, prompting the iShares Cybersecurity ETF to fall more than 3% and major names like CrowdStrike, Okta and Cloudflare to lose 8‑9% in a single day. The sell‑off continued, with...

The apartment building with the highest rents in the entire DC metro ... is in McLean, VA https://t.co/UfLko09g2S

$WHR. Typical. Corporate strategy has always been Issue equity when you have to NOT when you can. Stocks down 7% on a forced issuance. $ORCL same story still dumping ATM every day https://t.co/vIGKQDwhZB

As a friend dm'd me, $SNDA just pulled the "Andrew Walker" special (big merger followed by a massive PSU grant with ambitious stock price versting targets) https://t.co/iEnOdITDX3

More 2x single stock ETF filings from @ThemesETFs. 30 on this filing. Issuers going further down the market cap spectrum. https://t.co/jWescSJO9t

Today was a solid day of relative outperformance for the all-weather portfolio thanks once again to our yellow rock. https://t.co/o0Q3fVP5ux

New: Kurv files options based income ETFs on a bunch of likely 2026 IPOs. SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic https://t.co/D7HkiQNfBo

New: @USCFInvestments files for a an Iron Ore Index Fund. Will invest in Iron order futures contracts. https://t.co/RHtnD2joQb
when you get involved in some random chinese stock you are exposing yourself to risk of coordinated manipulation. this is why for years we have cautioned our traders to not be short illiquid chinese stocks. the scale of coordination⬇️⬇️⬇️
$JPM just raised NII to $104.5B vs $102.9B expectation. Expenses in line. Expects retail deposit growth to resume in 2026 from underlying customer growth and a reduction in yield seeking behavior.

The S&P 500 looks calm, but look under the hood. Software stocks are DOWN ~30%. Defaults are CLIMBING. Private credit is AT RISK. https://t.co/qJPf95n11Z
Our savings yield for @bankonroger is 3.61 APY. I’m not worried about competition with stablecoin yields, I’m concerned how it robs community growth. Stablecoin funds gov’t debt while community banks fund community growth.

#IranWatch🇮🇷: Today, I measure Iran’s inflation at a PUNISHING 79.1%/yr. That's the world's SECOND HIGHEST INFLATION RATE. I remain the only reliable source of inflationary measures in Iran. https://t.co/Z869QfIwJT

Another day, another AI scare. A Citrini blog post titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” triggered another AI-driven selloff in US equities today. The Goldman Sachs Software At Risk Basket fell 6% today and is now down 33% year to...
Leave with this --> Bad situation + continued effort in the wrong direction = mathematically guaranteed worse situation.
“I’m more bullish on AI than I’ve ever been. And that’s exactly why I’m bearish on most software companies. Not because their customers will leave, but because their next thirty competitors just got a lot easier to build.”
.@SigmaLithium providing formal guidance just a few weeks after restarting mining under owner/operator model: ◦12 months annualized forward production: 240,000 tonnes ◦24 months annualized forward production: 520,000 tonnes $SGML 👇