The Compound

02/05/2026

"Almost every investor with a lump sum of cash to invest assumes anything that can go wrong will go wrong when they put the money to work." 🤕

A reader asks: My partner and I are both 30 y/o and operate a small business. We made the max SEP IRA contribution in December 2025 of $70k; then another max contribution for FY 2026 of $72k in January 2026. The SEP IRA has $365k total market value and now about $145k in cash. My...

01/17/2026

"Gains in moderation, given what’s gone on over the last three years, are better than a parabolic, blow-off top." 😐

Tuck this stock market lesson away and keep it with you always

01/12/2026

"For investors, the key question is whether a SCOTUS decision affirming the appellate court’s rejection of the tariffs will be easy for the administration to circumvent." 🧑‍⚖️

* Hopefully…   This is likely the week the Supreme Court issues a ruling on the IEEPA tariffs in place since April 2025 (excluding the 90-day suspension, and other sundry modifications, revisions, pauses, exemptions, etc.). As I noted from the start, this is a deeply flawed policy of questionable...

01/08/2026

Housing prices simply don’t fall that often on a nationwide basis." 🏘️

Is housing a good investment right now?

01/04/2026

Foreign developed and emerging market stocks both outperformed the U.S. stock market by double digits." 🌍🌏

Some things that were surprising in 2025.

12/30/2025

"While investment skill matters, many times, how the market does matters more. In other words, pray for beta, not alpha." 🙏

Why the market's performance matters more than your skill—and what you should actually optimize for.

12/22/2025

The AI Trade

Michael Batnick & Ben Carlson
⏯️youtu.be/qrev-PEgU3Q?si…

12/21/2025

"The idea of people replacing their financial advisors with commoditized, automated asset allocation is now, in the year 2025, as dead as a doornail." 🪦

Wildly wrong predictions from a generation ago are laughable today

12/20/2025

In the past 5 years or so, the number of people with concentrated stock market gains has grown by leaps and bounds." 🤸

The pros and cons of concentrated investing.

12/19/2025

When Alts Go Bad: The BlueRock Blowup and a Liquidity Wake-Up Call🎙️

Michael Batnick is joined by Leyla Kuni, co-founder of to dive into one of the most misunderstood and increasingly controversial corners of investing: alternatives. We’re going to break down what actually went wrong, how interval funds really work when markets turn, and most importantly, what investors and advisors must understand before allocating capital to alternative investments👇🔥🆕

YouTube⏯️youtu.be/GebvyuWbmeE

Sponsored by: VanEck