Thank you. Thank you. What is up, everyone?
Boy, January the 5th, 2026.
I'm going to write the date wrong for at least another month.
me at least a five is easy to turn into a six. But either way, welcome in everyone. I sent that
co-host over to Story Trading. It did the classic thing and rugged him. I see laptop down there,
Dougie Fresh up here hanging out with us. Here we are, new year, same us. New year, same us.
That's what we're going to go with.
But either way, small cap show.
We run this each and every Monday here on Wolf Financial.
I see my friend Ariel down there as well.
Since you had an invite, guys, go ahead, jump up on stage.
Every Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern, we do the small cap investing, small cap show here on Wolf Financial,
where we talk some macro thoughts at the beginning.
We kind of get everyone's broad market thoughts a little bit, and then we get a little bit more
granular. We talk some themes. We talk some individual names that we're looking at. I know
the January effect's kind of going on. Been a wild couple of last few days in the market,
honestly. Been very interesting seeing some names get bought back up really quickly. And Ben put that
on some of you guys' radar. Some names getting bought up very quickly over the last few days.
We obviously had a little bit of a sell-off on Friday. We're right back up here, basically at
all-time highs, just underneath all-time highs, again, on the S&P. Tech kind of all over the place.
It's a very bifurcated market in some areas,
but a healthy market, obviously some geopolitical stuff going on as well. So,
sorry, I just got a headline. It's oil Venezuela headlines still going on. They're still trying
to figure things out over there. All right. I will shut up at this point because we've got a
great crew up here as always. Make sure you follow all these great speakers. Somebody says something
you like, go in and check them out. Obviously do your due diligence. Don't just jump in and follow
people in the names here. Make sure you do some research and stuff into it. No recommendations
to buy or sell anything, of course, here just for educational purposes as always. And with that,
enough said, let's go over to Ben to get us kicked off here a little bit.
Ben, I hope you had a great holiday.
Hope you had a good holiday too.
So things are going great.
I mean, January effect trade has worked out just beautifully.
That trade has worked out just beautifully. It started later than I expected. Usually those 2025 losers that rebound in 26, they usually bottom out last week of December. That didn't happen this year. It was a little bit atypical.
It started later than I expected.
selling and some of the 2025 winners.
And we saw a lot of money coming back into 2025 losers and just stocks also that may
have been up in 2025, but had a bad, let's say, fourth quarter, especially in the trendy
sectors like space and drones and things like that.
Anything that was sold off heavily at the end of December, I guess, from people who
bought the peaks and who were down on it.
They did some tax law selling and then, you know, just explosive moves since Friday continuing into today. So the January effect is working. We're making a ton of money in our community on those
names. And we got two other factors which are helping and giving a tailwind to risk assets.
which are helping and giving a tailwind to risk assets.
One is Bitcoin broke above a key level here.
Bitcoin broke above the 50 DMA.
We alerted that, sold that coming Friday morning.
And I think that also had to do with the end of some tax law selling
that was happening in Bitcoin in the fourth quarter.
So, you know, algorithmically, there's a lot of connections between Bitcoin and risk assets.
So that's helping giving a further bid to risk assets here since Friday, especially today.
And then we got a new factor, all the geopolitics.
Although oil is up right now, 1.6%, I think the consensus is that what's happened in Venezuela and what
may happen in Iran will be bullish for low oil prices, right? So if you get low oil prices,
that makes it easier to cut rates. So now you have multiple things in your favor here this month.
The January effect, maybe expectations, increased expectations of lower rates with lower oil.
And you have Bitcoin breaking back above the 50 DMA.
So I couldn't be any more bullish right now in risk assets.
And that includes a lot of times the small caps that we're talking about here.
Also includes some larger caps that are considered growth stocks.
So yeah, I'm pretty stoked right now.
I think my trade account's probably up something like around 15%, 16% year-to-date so far.
So things are going well.
Yeah, I knew you were playing hard into the January effect.
I know you were like a little concerned with how some of it was acting,
and I haven't followed along super closely,
it looks like most of that
has actually been started to play out nicely, especially with today and this follow-through
Yeah, it was definitely atypical, and I'm not sure. I have a couple feces why it was atypical,
but we don't need to go into it, but just got off to a late start, and it's interesting.
There's people who say, what are you talking about Ben January effects start in January but historically that's not true historically you start seeing those moves
in the last week of December right after Christmas it was it's pretty weird not to see that but so
it all worked out yeah excited to come back around and see what all you're watching. I know the StockPix stuff, which for those that haven't heard,
Ben is the official winner of the StockPix for 2025.
So congratulations to him.
Make sure you're tuning into that show.
We run 5 p.m. every Monday.
We are going to announce the year-long picks tonight on the show.
I think I've got one more that I'm trying to clear up from somebody
because we had a duplicate.
But other than that, we've got everyone's end.
And there's some really interesting ones on here.
I'm excited to see if Ben can go back to back this year after an incredible performance last year.
Tune in tonight if you want to hear the updates on that.
Obviously, our weekly show will still go on the same.
And we'll get into that as well.
But great to have Ben here.
Laptop, let's go over to you next and see what your thoughts are around what are you watching in this market as we kick
off 2026. Just testing one more time. Laptop, do we have you up here? No worries. If not, we can swing back around laptop. If you're able to
hear me, maybe drop down, come back up, or we'll see if we can get you connected here. Ariel,
I saw you up here on stage. Ariel, what's your take around these markets? I always love hearing
your thoughts on the bigger picture of things for sure. So kicking us off here a little bit, we'll come back around, maybe hear what thematics
But I'm just curious your thoughts on the overall market as we close up 2025 and kick
And I always love being back here with you guys.
And one of my most favorite shows, I've been getting a lot of people to actually tune in
So from my take, just so you guys
know, I was a banker for like over 20 years, right? And I was running banks all in the micro
cap, small cap arena. And just recently, I shifted over to being buy side only. And that's where I
started Diasis Holdings. It's essentially a micro cap slash small cap, a long only fund that has everything
to do with us helping the company grow. So it's like an active fund where we are actually assisting
businesses and all public companies. So I'm not going to mention those that I'm assisting on the
line here, but I'm going to tell you, basically, I have a really good feel for the market, obviously, because I'm seeing deal after deal now that I'm purely buy side. And I'm getting,
you know, probably about 20 to 50 looks a week on, you know, companies that need investing into.
So my perspective, as you guys could understand and, and, and appreciate is, is one that is from
the need of a capital constraint, right? From a company that
needs growth capital, how does it look today versus what it looked like a quarter ago or even
a year ago? And I can tell you that what it feels to me is that there is this underlying invisible
hand that I'm feeling out there that sort of went away in November. And I'll try to get you more
stats about it, but I've seen it across the board and it's back now. And it feels to me that there
are some very big names at play here that are playing the microcaps, are playing the Russell
2000s and whatnot. And it's something that I'm sensing a lot of capital starting to come into
companies. I could tell you the movement started with the precious metals going up and, of course, gold and silver going nuts.
So Canada had a huge boost of investing that came in through across the board, you know, and it's multiple industries, right?
Now you're talking about crude and not gas.
When you start looking at the thematics from last year that's carrying over to this year, the AI train is still running hard, but people are starting to realize that, okay,
NVIDIA is not going to go up 5x anymore, right?
It's going to go up maybe a little more.
So now who's the next down line that's going to succeed?
Obviously, the power generators, the data centers, the fiber optics.
So these are the plays that I'm thinking about. And then I'm asking myself,
how many undiscovered gems are there? I know we're talking about microcodes, look at MU where
it was at one point, and now it's up 6X. Why? Because if you just focused on the industry and
go downstream all the way and vertically think, then this is where you can make a lot of money.
And there's a lot of money being poured into the markets right now.
I could tell you, there's so many companies that need capital
that I'm literally picking my companies that I love.
And it's just simple business.
I'll finish this little point here, because I know there's more people here.
I can't wait to hear what they have to say.
Is that there is one way. You know, everyone's like, oh man, I don't know how the markets act. I can't wait to hear what they have to say, is that there is one way. Everyone's like,
oh man, I don't know how the markets act. I don't know. It's risky, common stock. Because I usually
do convertible notes and preferred, so I'm kind of higher up on the cap structure. But I could
tell you one thing. There is one way to be very comfortable and confident in your investment.
If you're investing in a business that you know is going to make money quarter after quarter after quarter, and obviously there are headwinds and winds that could change any second, but you have a good grasp of the markets, you're going to make money in the stock market.
So the purpose of everything I'm saying here is that you have one of the best recipes for success. You have a market and the president that's all about his grade is the stock market.
And then if you just do a little homework, I'm just asking everyone to hear, don't just hear
our picks and buy it. I may love USAR on the Rare Earth play. It's one of my biggest names,
but I'll tell you why later. But I'm saying, don't just buy because I said so. Go do your
own research. Understand if you even like Rare Earths to begin with. And then if you do, then start doing your
own homework. There's so many freaking tools out there for everybody to understand and then start
focusing on earnings. And how does that EPS start coming to light? Because that's when you see those
crazy multiples that you see. And by the way, one of the people that you have going to be talking,
I don't know if Madge is on, but he's one of the best names I've personally come across that looks at earnings on a micro cap level and his returns are impeccable. So that's an example
of how you could do really well. And that's what I'm seeing. I'm very, very bullish, especially
Q1 based on just all those setups that I'm seeing personally.
I'll throw one follow-up question at you before we come back around and see what areas you're
watching. I keep hearing a lot about the banks, the big banks, and being major beneficiaries.
Are you in that camp, or are you looking at the large banks or just banks in general,
Are you looking at the large banks or just banks in general, the banking and financial sector as something that looks very bullish going into this year and maybe for the rest of this administration?
People used to think of banks as net interest margin.
You look at the interest rates.
if it's high, am I going to make that spread? And I could tell you, if you look at Goldman Sachs,
If it's high, am I going to make that spread?
if you look at the big banks, go check out their P&L and check out where they're making all their
money. And let me tell you guys, it's very little in lending. It's going to be in trading. They make
a ton of money in trading. And that's when you see a market that's volatile, that's when these
banks do really well. So my answer is like, it's not a traditional answer because the fundamental guys are going to be like, Eric, what the hell you're talking about?
You don't get a multiple on trading. You get a multiple on traditional banking-like business.
I lend, I borrow, I make a net interest margin there. But in my estimation is when times are
good, when the markets are bullish, the banking system and the banks will do very, very well.
Do I think they're going to do as well as some of these other industries that if you have done your homework in tech and infotech?
No, they won't, but you do need to sprinkle a little bit of that into your portfolio for sure.
I would definitely weight at least some of my waiting into the banking system.
I appreciate those insights.
Laptop going to test you.
Again, I see your hand up.
Let's see if we get an unmute.
Great to hear your voice. Happy New Year.
What are your thoughts macro-wise around the market as we head into 2026?
Macro-wise, I think one thing that I'm really looking at is, you know,
the comment about Trump being using the market as his report card is very apropos here today.
And we see that he is not shy about stating his intentions and getting government involvement.
Look at the leverage that he placed on NVIDIA for China sales, helped prop up INTC, Intel I'm sorry, INTC, Intel by putting in a government investment
and then also going around and getting other companies to invest in other similar deals like that.
So we definitely see a proactive president and a very involved and engaged in a way we've never seen before,
a government that's actually taking stakes in companies.
So that's where I'm really focused in a lot.
And what I see is, you know, the government is sitting down and saying,
what do we need for the future?
What do we need to gain or maintain global supremacy?
And that is things like AI.
Of course, we have that lead in tech.
Also, rare earths has been a big play.
Energy, that's not just oil.
And we see these things that are coming.
Then on the side, also the government is investing in high-tech military.
So those are the kind of things I'm looking at.
Follow the money, but who's got the money?
It seems like they're going to run things hot
I mean, there's an arms race going on.
There's an energy race going on.
It just seems like there's a race to the top or to stay at the top, either one. It's like a dead sprint.
So it'll be interesting. That's kind of aligned with some of the things that I'm hearing from
a lot of the different conversations that I'm fortunate enough to be a part of and get to host
is a lot of people saying very similar to what you just heard from Laptop there. Appreciate your
thoughts. Excited to come back around and see what picks and thematics you've got on your mind.
Dougie Fresh, bring you in next.
Happy New Year to you as well.
What are you seeing in these markets?
I know you're a big chart guy.
Charts look great overall.
And I'm looking at this and I'm saying, okay, maybe MegaCap tech's lagging a little bit, but everything else looks pretty strong right now.
Yeah, I have to agree. And Happy New Year, everybody.
IWM small cap show. IWM looking great. Small caps looking really good.
I mean, look at ONDS and Galaxy, all these red wire right now going crazy.
So many great ones right now. The Q's and the SPY spy are not in sync which is kind of interesting the
spy is really set up and the q's look like they're going to pull back a little bit so that's very
interesting at the moment so they're not very in sync nvidia down a little bit but doesn't look
still doesn't look too bad right there it's been running up pretty big so it's definitely an
interesting market you know i look at it on the daily with the stock charts to see what's going on.
And crypto is just ripping away.
And we love that because that does pull up the market.
So, yeah, it's a very interesting look.
But I would have to say overall, it looks like the market wants to run.
I mean, the SPY setting up, that looks great.
The Qs just have a little bit of setup period.
I could see them pulling back a little bit.
And your IWM wants to rip.
it looks like things want to get cruising. The January effect stocks are looking great. They've been cruising right along, just as we thought, just a little bit of a stall. And I think we're
dead on the money, Ben, with the whole Bitcoin having an actual tax selling, tax loss selling
this year, which you generally don't see because as soon as the new year ended, it started to look good and started to cruise right back up. So I think that's pulling the
market along with it. And things are looking good to begin the year. Obviously, we have the
midterms going on in November. So we think that the market will be ripping around that time.
At least that's what the administration is going to be hoping for. They want the market to be
basically at its peak right around then. So you got to think about the logistics of that and the
whole entire year. So it should be a pretty solid year. And obviously the administration,
like laptop travel is saying, it's like their report card with the market. So they're going
to try to keep it running. So I think we're in for a really good year here for 2026. It's
starting out to look nice and
i think it will be a great one definitely dougie uh do you see any concerns out there i mean from
a chart structure the only thing like i see some of these mega cap leaders you know quote unquote
leaders of the market that their charts are a little bit broken. But outside of that, I mean, everything else, the charts look great.
Yeah, and you're definitely right.
Like in Apple and NVIDIA, I'd say they're kind of run up, I'll say,
but their RSIs are really low, and they're kind of just curling down on the MACD.
I think they're getting set up just to be very bullish, to be honest with you.
So they are kind of dipping down now. I think it's getting set up just to be very bullish, to be honest with you. So they are
kind of dipping down now. I think it's going to be a great opportunity. And I'll just use Apple
as an example real quick. You're at 267. You have a really good support line at 264. And I do,
I think you're not even going to get into the basement. You'll touch that bottom area and
you'll start to see these things pop back up. So I think the whole market in general, and that's
why I was saying the Qs have a little setup period that's what you're seeing right here some of these big caps
pulling the queues down and but some of the queues are uh some of the big caps are running so they're
kind of going against each other that's why the spy wants to rip because for the overall market
it wants to run it's just a couple of the big caps are stalling up and having a little hiccup
but yeah i think that they're getting set back up to run.
I don't find anything wrong with it just yet.
You can see the charts getting ready to go.
So I'm not that concerned.
I'm looking for more opportunities as they pull back, to be honest with you,
because when you get options on them big caps, they can pay out pretty well.
You do futures, don't you uh do um futures don't you um
and also uh the big caps is that what you're into mainly yeah that's that's my uh my bread and
butter is there and then i i listen to smart people like you guys up here and find ways to
diversify myself outside of that obviously especially when we get in time to the market
like now you look at the nasdaq hadn't made a new all-time high yet while the you know a lot of the other sectors are
all screaming so shout out to you guys for that no uh awesome and uh yeah no i do think that uh
your concern is going to be popping back up i don't think i'm that concerned about these big
caps really pulling back i think they're going to be good opportunities and that's exactly what
i'm looking for somebody's coming off the bottom just this nvidia recently has in like
tsm and they've run huge i think you're going to see that with a lot of these as the small caps
continue to run up because they look pretty strong in bitcoin and everything you always have your
pullbacks obviously you can't run straight up vertical uh all the time so you're going to have
your little bit of pullback so it can run up higher.
But yeah, definitely look for the dips because the market wants to continue to rip here, it looks like.
It does seem like we'll have a sustained bull market.
Finding the dips, that's what you guys are professionals at doing.
Finding value within this as well while the market is up here screaming still. Geopolitical risk going on, earnings season a couple weeks out, obviously new Fed chair,
there's a lot of pieces, a lot of data coming down before too long. We'll get jobs report on Friday.
So there is a lot to kind of digest for the market here coming up shortly, but
in the near term, and it seems pretty strong,
and we're getting that January effect. All right, that was some great thoughts from the entire
panel. Let's go back around. Let's talk some thematics, some individual names maybe that
we're watching, and we'll kick it off with Ben. Ben, I'm excited for your picks. You're already
in the lead, believe it or not. Two days in.
But goodness gracious, you're off to a hot start just on your picks for this year. But whatever you want to share here, names that you're watching, thematics that you're watching as we kick off 2026.
Excited to hear your thoughts.
And by the way, for the week.
You see the weekly competition there too?
I don't even want to look at it.
Anyway, I just wanted to comment on what you're saying about the weakness and the big caps.
I think a couple of things you're seeing there.
One is probably a little bit of a rotation into the small caps and the January FX stocks.
The other is some tax deferral selling.
So I've actually coming into the new year, I was keeping a yellow alert on our large caps and a green signal on our general effect and risk asset stocks because I was worried about tax loss selling and the know, when I first filled out that form for the competition for next year's picks, I actually picked MU and ASCS as my top two picks.
And then since I had back-end access, I was able to change it, and I changed it to ASCS and bull, because I was worried that MU would sell off on the first day of the year just because of tax law selling, even though it's like my top pick of the year.
And wow, can you believe it?
So you saw bifurcation in this tax law selling.
It's not like let's just kill everything in the QQQ and rotate into small caps.
You know, you saw it in Tesla and Pound here.
So names that are perceived to be overvalued, folks were holding on to them in December
and saying let's sell them in January 2nd.
But MU, which is extremely undervalued now,
given what's going on with AI and memory,
I'm like, nope, we're not selling that.
We're adding more at the beginning of the year.
That was just incredible.
I kind of wish I kept MU and ASCS as my top two picks for 2026,
but hopefully I'll just do fine with...
I don't know if I was supposed to reveal that, but today at 5 o'clock we'll talk about ASCS and Bull are my top two picks.
Just, oh my gosh, it's still in a crazy short squeeze right now.
So you're talking about, like, what...
Oh my gosh, look at these stocks.
Okay, what themes are going to do well?
Prior to the new year, I put together a list of 30 stocks across four sectors, which, you know, top 30 stocks across four sectors.
They were AI, or maybe it was five sectors, actually.
It was AI, energy, space, space um robotics and i think had drones
in there too so those are the five sectors pick the top 30 names and my i gotta tell you even
though the general effect stocks have done well my top 30 stocks for 2026 have done much much
better and i'm a little upset about it because in my trade account, I wasn't focused
on that. I have my top 30 stocks in my retirement account and it's doing great. But I was thinking
I would have time. I was thinking not everyone knows these are the best stocks of 2026. And
it's just unbelievable. I mean, these names, I'll just give you an example of like AVAB,
these names I'll just give you an example like a bad aero environment as
one of my top 30 picks up 17% today and was it was up big on Friday you Mac
that's also happens to be a small cap of 15% today was up on Friday Kato's I
mean redwire on DS cipher Carmen Carmenings, Skywater Technologies, ASTS, TE Energy, Fly Aerospace, Symbiotic,
AMPX, Bull, MongoDB, which that's like one of the only ones that might be slightly down
I kept tests on the list.
Snowflake, Ballantyre, Lunar, which is up crazy.
It really kind of took me by surprise because a lot of these, I would
say about 50% of those picks, my top 30 picks in those thematic areas, had a good 2025.
So I thought that there would be some tax deferral selling.
It'll be time for consolidation and I can get back in.
But no, I mean, they just ripped.
All these hot sectors, they're like, we're not waiting.
We don't care that these stocks are up in 2025.
We're doubling down, tripling down.
That Mu one especially bothers me because I had call options since earnings,
and they were up, like, I don't know, 400%.
And then I sold them before the end of the year because I'm like,
nah, there's got to be some tax deferral selling on Mu on Friday.
And this thing was up, like, 13%. I think if I held those options, it would have been up'm like, nah, there's got to be some tax deferral selling on Mew on Friday. And this thing was up like 13%.
I think if I held those options, it would have been up like 1,200% or something.
So anyway, so yeah, so those are the hot themes for 2026.
But, you know, that's kind of like my long-term account.
And, you know, what I kind of focus on in terms of the content here in our
community and our discord is more is it's shorter term oriented uh swing trading day trading intraday
trading over the next like kind of a two-week outlook so i'm really focused on the general
effect because to be honest with you i don't i don't think you need to pay someone for like
top ideas for 2026 like i told people in my community i'm
like if you don't have time to trade take these top 30 stocks equal weight them and i'll see you
next year peace out like you don't need to be in a discord man you know so that's like long-term
investing that's great but you know what we do in our community it's all about you know day-to-day
last year was up 667% in the trading account.
You're not going to get that in a long-term account by just buying and holding, even if you pick, you know, the 10 best stocks in the market.
So in our trading account, we're looking at outlooks of intraday to a few days out to a couple weeks out.
And that's where all my focus is on right now.
So in that vein, where am I focused?
I'm focused on still the January
effect stocks and some of the January effect stocks if you pull up a chart
completely symbols I'll show you some examples you know well let me see good
all of these are just beautiful but okay look at a SPI so a SPI here and these
are just like easy layup shots man man, from one moving average to the next.
And it happens within 5 to 10 days for the most part.
So ASPI gapped above the 20.
It's probably going to 50.
It probably does it in a couple days.
Good chance, although it seems unbelievable.
The RSI is not overbought yet.
It can make it to the 50 DMA at $22, $23 within like five days.
Redwire pretty much about to hit our target.
Our target was 1050, 1060 at the 200-day moving average.
I actually basically just sold all out of it.
It's my biggest one of the year so far.
I didn't feel like I needed to wait for the last 50 cents.
And all of these have the same characteristics on the chart.
You break the first moving average.
You move on to the second.
Some of them are still making its way to the 20 DMA.
Here, I'll give you an example.
Okay, Webull stops to make its way to 875.
It'll probably hit it tomorrow or maybe today.
Lucid, about to touch the 20 DMA. So all of these names I'm telling you about,
we played with call options in our community, mostly January 16th, call options, at the money,
a little bit out of the money. That's how we're playing these. And it's just working brilliantly.
And there's a few more days left of this action and um you know we'll just
have to take them so you know any specific stocks here i have no i got a list of like
you know 10 stocks i'm writing from one dma to the next um there is one speculative name i'll
give you which could be a home run or could be a bust uh imrx uhX, it's a pancreatic cancer company with great data so far.
They're starting phase three in a few months.
It's a great balance sheet, investment from Sanofi, best of class so far it looks like.
They might have one competitor in clinical trials, but
in any case, they have nine-month survival data coming out on Wednesday for pancreatic cancer,
and so far their one, three, six-month survival data has been incredible. So if the nine-month
survival data continues to show that, you could see this thing up 50 to 100% on Wednesday. So that's something to keep on the radar.
I'll probably make it one of my picks this afternoon.
I'll take a risk on that because the upside, I'd like to risk reward on it.
As far as like an individual stock with an individual catalyst, you know,
maybe I'll let Laptop talk about Lucid.
That's one of our January effect stocks, which has a catalyst this week.
Are any of the thematics in particular sticking out to you?
Or do you just like the best in breed from several different, across the different thematic?
I mean, obviously, we know there's multiple hot thematics in the market I'm just curious is there a certain one that you like
the most or a couple that you like the most or are you just saying hey these things all look
bullish for this year here's the best stocks that I like in within those so I just pulled out my
document on my top 30 stocks and you know know, maybe subconsciously the way I put this together answers their question.
I put them in five categories.
Categories I had were AI hardware, AI infrastructure was category one,
then drone and defense, category two, space, category three, AI software, category four,
category five was automation and robotics.
And in category one, the AI infrastructure, the first pick was MU, Micron, over there.
So I guess that's what I like the most.
In drone and defense, my number one stock was AVAV, ABAV.
I mean, look at these freaking, I wish I did stuff in my, I'm not kicking myself here.
I just had no idea that these great stocks for 2026 would, like, explode in the first two days.
I was more focused on the January effect stock.
So, like, I have zero exposure in the trade account.
Look at this, ABAP, up 17%.
That was my top drone stock for this year.
I did add it to my retirement account.
And then in Category 3 space, my number one pick was ASPS.
Oh, my God, look at this.
I don't know if you'd looked at it yet, but you're...
Oh my God, I should have charged like $5,000 for this document two weeks ago.
All right, my number one pick on AI software was Snowflake.
And Snowflake, it's up for the year, but not as much as ASPS, MU, and AVAB.
And then in manufacturing robotics, my number one pick was Rockwell Automation, ROK,
although maybe I should have picked Symbiotic, but Rockwell Automation,
two beautiful open green candles to start the year.
So those are probably my favorites.
I appreciate the additional thoughts there.
I know you let the cat out of the bag a little bit on your picks.
Obviously, everyone else's picks still a mystery,
except to me and you, the ones that can see them all.
But ASTS, one of StoryTrading's 2026 picks,
already up 21.4% on the year.
That's better than what the average person looks to make in a year.
Looks like Ariel had to drop there.
Let's go over to you and see if there's any thematics or individual names
that you're really looking at here.
Ben wanted me to speak on lucid.
So I'll just temporarily to speak on Lucid, so I'll just temporarily,
a short thing on Lucid. Lucid's an electric vehicle maker out of Canada. They're really
burning through cash. One second, sorry. There's breaking news on uranium right now. If anybody's
in uranium or looking at uranium, there's a huge investment that was just announced for uranium.
Sorry to interrupt interrupt but just
wanted to announce that no problem at all uh so with uh lucid um they've had a really bad uh cash
burn problem and uh low production but they just announced uh great numbers this morning uh they're
at the ces uh consumer electronics show in las ve. There's 4,500 presenters.
150,000 guest passes have been printed.
So again, a lot of exposure.
They're reporting good numbers.
Right now, this is one of our January picks.
If we can break 12, these options are going to go ballistic. And we're looking for 13 by the end of this week or
maybe Monday of next week. And those call options are going to go absolutely vertical. But my two
picks that I'm really looking at right now is one is AZ Alpha Zulu and this is a company that is designs it's a technology company
where they're doing shopping carts and so they keep a customized list of of your shopping list and who you are. They do like advertisements,
video advertisements in your shopping cart
They have been just signing deal after deal.
Just recently, I mean, over $110 million in deals.
And I think just today, and I really apologize
that I couldn't have told everybody this
at seven this morning, but they just announced a big deal with a company in Turkey, and they're with the largest supermarket chain there called Migros, and they have 3,800 locations. This stock has been battered down since the beginning,
since the peak in July of the summer. And now I think also in my mind is one of these tax loss
selling that is coming back strong. And like I said, unfortunately for people that were in it, but the stock right now is up 7.5%.
The stock is up 12.5% right now and still moving.
So this is definitely one that I like and look for a nice turnaround here story with this.
The next stock I have is ZSpace, and that's Zulu, Sierra, Papa, Charlie.
And this is an educational technology.
So they have VR headsets and things they're doing training.
This is also a great stock.
It's been in a long-term downtrend, hit highs around nine, and actually fell as low as 36
And one of the things that this company has done recently is they have gotten into the
So you can see people needing hands-on training on how to drive heavy equipment,
trucks, and really large, you know, like oversized bulldovers,
bulldovers, mining equipment, things like this. And this company is taking advantage of the
mining equipment, things like this.
investments in these kind of technologies to leverage this for their educational system.
And so they have been doing tremendously. And so right now they are up 9.6% this morning at about 56 cents.
I think we see our bottoming pattern here.
And recently, you know, we've seen some high numbers again coming out here in the beginning of the year.
They've been restructuring.
They have cash, a long runway to keep going, and their debt margin, they've renegotiated some of that.
They have a new product launch, several different things.
One particularly I noticed was the heavy vehicle side of the business for training.
And so it is a high risk, but definitely a high reward.
And so it is a high risk, but definitely a high reward.
At $0.56, if this goes back anywhere near $0.09, you're looking at an $0.18 multiple.
Even halfway there is really good.
And we've come off the lows of, like I said, $0.36 at the end of the year, trading about $0.57 right now.
So I really like ZSpace, love the chart.
I know that Dougie Fresh also likes the chart.
We've talked about it before.
But anyway, those are the three that I like.
And I'll just say that, you know, honestly, like Ben said, our picks for the January effect,
you know, that was a collaborative effort by a lot of people to put a lot of time
and effort into that to pool their thoughts. And then we had a matrix that we looked at
and analyzed and rated and used a lot of resources to come out. So, you know,
we feel really confident in what we have. And that's it for that.
As I was looking at them here,
I've got them written down personally,
so I can keep an eye on them
and look into them a little bit deeper.
I really like this chart.
Can I ask you on the January effect?
We've heard Ben share some of his thoughts around it,
but I'm just curious what all you look for,
maybe not just specifically for the January effect, but as one just curious what all you look for, maybe not just specifically
for the January effect, but as one of the layers of confluence. When you look at these
two stocks and you see the chart setups there, are there any other pieces? Are you looking
at fundamentals, valuations? I'm just curious if you wanted to share a little bit more on
your process before I go over to Dany. Yeahman yeah honestly i've always been a technical analyst back from the
days back in the early early midnight mid-1980s um colored pencils and and bar graph paper and
making my own chart so technical has always been there and i have to say today i i have to believe
that you have to start with charts because charts are very easily analytically analyzed by screening and different programs.
So that's the first place you start.
You find a chart that's interesting, whatever appeals to you.
If you're looking for a bottoming chart, you're looking for something that's continuing on an uptrend above a moving average.
Whatever floats your boat.
Whatever your game is and that appeals to you.
But once you've identified that, then for me, once I get the ones that meet my specific criteria
and I have my own customized filters, like most screens, as most people would,
then from there, then I definitely go to fundamentals.
story here i see the chart i kind of like that but let me find out what's what's moving that chart
in the background and then if i look at the fundamentals and it matches the story that i see
in the chart then i extrapolate where i think the chart should go. Well, that's the price of the stock.
I always love when I get a chance to take a moment and just pull back the layers there a little bit and hear kind of what happens under the hood in the minds of some of you guys.
So I appreciate you sharing that for me and for the audience as well.
Laptop, that was good stuff.
Dougie Fresh, let's pass the mic over to you
and see what you think about anything that was mentioned, of course.
And then anything on your watch list might be longer than mine,
and I'm a host, so that's saying something.
Yeah, AZ looking really good.
We haven't checked this one out on the show,
but that's getting into the top.
Looks like it wants to continue to run, definitely.
ZSpace, I'll tell you a little bit about this.
Like Laptop Travel said, I am familiar with this one.
Not that I know what the company does.
Laptop Travel just told me more about the company
And I've been watching it since it debuted
at like December 5th for whatever reason.
I just happened to see this thing.
I was like, oh, ZSpace, it's a computer hardware one.
And ever since, it basically ran down the entire year and i was wondering could this possibly be a tax loss selling idea too but the chart was getting set up and we go over every single night on my
show and we've been saying hey i think this finally bottomed out and i think there's a great
opportunity here so yeah z space i really think i'm gonna have to
get some options on this finally as i've been tracking it for over a year waiting for it to
get set up so here it comes so definitely keep your eye on that we talk about it all the time
and then a couple other ones uh ben imrx that one it looked a lot better this morning we'll see it
could be a little dip and rip obviously we, we're playing the trial information today.
So we'll see how it looks.
It's pulling back to the MACD.
But I do think it'll bounce off that 20 and get ripping there.
So that one Ben was talking about.
And then a couple other ones that I had mentioned before.
How about that data vault?
I gave that out last week.
It's been up almost 50% plus every single day the last three trading days.
And then what else did I give out?
UAMY, that thing is ripping as well.
So that one was a good one right there.
I'll tell you another great one to keep an eye on.
I'm not sure what's going on over here.
But their call options are just crazy.
uh on january 16th just look at 20 and 22 you got over 119 000 open interest and 117 000 open
interest i don't know what the heck's going on but something wild seems somebody seems to know
something if they're buying that many up that high so i definitely bought some i'm not
gonna lie and i didn't buy them that high i got like two dollar call options or something so
i grabbed a few they're really cheap right now so watch for the dip on that and what else is
there bit farms obviously looking real good as crypto is looking sweet so you can keep an eye
on this capital market it likes to run with uh with crypto and bit and bitcoin so it's running off to 20 right
now it's up like 11 a lot of these are run up today so it's kind of hard to say to chase them
but watch for any pullbacks and great opportunities and i've talked about the can and before it's up
today and jumping up the last two trading days here so that one's popping up on the 20 getting
can keep an eye on that it's a computer hardware one in singapore and that's what i basically have
for you for individual one so yeah thanks a lot everybody i hope everybody had a nice happy safe
and new year and thanks for tuning in and back to you ev yeah excited for 2026, excited for following along with you guys again after getting to do it
the last year. It's been fantastic. I have to say, I've actually benefited greatly from this show,
just some of the ideas that have been shared around here. Stockpick's show as well, which
Ben's a part of. And just a big shout out to the crew make sure you're following them make sure you're checking out all the
different things they're doing we have a little bit lighter panel today and a lot
of people were still traveling some people not around but just want to go
into some wrap-up here as we get towards the top of the hour we don't have to
fill the hour by any means so that we just want to give everyone a chance to
jump back in one last time if they have any other thoughts they want to share.
I know we're talking about a lot of positive things.
I don't know if there's any concerns out there.
I like to present both sides, so it's the only reason I'm asking this.
But, Ben, just coming back around to you, any final thoughts you had?
And are there any concerns with maybe the data, the Fed chair, anything like that,
geopolitical risk? Are there any things that, to me, it feels like there's more tellwinds and
headwinds right now, but I'm just curious if you're keeping your eye on anything out there
as maybe something that scares the market just a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, I'm always scared, to be honest with with you i don't like to lose money like one of
the things it's sick like people are on my discord who uh who see me it it's just incredible that i
was actually up 667 last year because they'll watch me in real time constantly selling the
dips i never average down and i get i I'm fanatical about protecting my capital.
If I have a pick and it doesn't go straight up
and I'm losing money on it,
I'm like, shit, I've got to protect my capital.
It turns out I'm almost always right about my picks.
If I just held on to it or if I averaged down,
shit, man, I'd probably be up 2,000% last year.
Honestly, I'm always scared.
think about the market uh fundamentally there's always black swan risk there's always geopolitical
risk and there's always things that maybe you just don't see and you're not seeing right so like
you know the general effect picks i already started selling some on the way up um maybe
lucid's one of the only ones that I haven't sold on the way up,
because I really like the chart, and we sell the CES catalyst of the new one deal tomorrow.
But, you know, you got to – this is my own personal philosophy, guys.
You can do what you want.
But, I mean, I think you have to take gains on the way up.
For me, I always say, again, don't listen to me, right?
Because I would say you got to be fearful of what could happen. You got to be protecting your
capital. So even though like the January effect for me, historically, I've seen, you know,
tremendous gains for really the first two weeks of the year. I would say minimum the first,
I would say, we actually,
I actually looked at this historically till about January 10th or so. Like you could see these names
running for days on end without stop. And I'm not going to sit here and watch these profits go up
and then a black swan hits and I lose everything. I'm not going to do that. You know, maybe one day
when I feel more comfortable financially and I have tens of I'm not going to do that. Maybe one day when I feel more
comfortable financially and I have tens of millions of dollars, I can have the luxury
to do that. But at my stage in life, I got a family to feed, I got a mortgage to pay,
and I'm like, I cannot risk losing money. So I'm selling on the way up, I'm taking my
profits, I'm moving the cash to a separate account. That's basically pays me interest and I might get
into some fixed income and corporate bonds and stuff like that with it. So yeah, I would say
no matter how good you feel about something and no matter how right you think you are about
something, there's always something you might not see. There's always a black swan that can happen.
And especially now, like after two two days we're up like 15 percent
like that's sick like you got to take some profits on the way up those are my final words
piggyback off of that ben uh great advice right there and you never know what's going to happen
look at avav look at that thing spiking ben remember i should i i played the story for you
guys the other day you never know when something's going to happen, guys.
ABAV, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I actually called the Trump assassination attempt when it happened.
Days before it happened, I played it for Ben.
And it started off, I was looking at ABAV, looking at the aerospace and defense ones.
And you could just see on the chart something major was going on.
I'd been saying it for a week, and I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I did say the country would be under attack and it did happen
about two days later right there. But yeah, you just never know what's going to happen.
So I always look at the market in fear because you always know that something is going to happen
and it's easier for these stocks to go down than to go up. I always think that way. And I always play the market daily.
So I'm not that concerned about the market going down that much because I know I could put the market down and take it that direction.
But your long-term stocks are definitely going to suffer.
So you're always having that fear.
You can't always be too confident.
When you get overconfident, that's when the market will humble you the most.
I'm telling you right now, it's humbled me plenty of times in my life.
Been doing this for over 25 years, guys.
So I've, we've, and Ben has too.
We've seen a lot of ups and downs and crazy stuff.
But yeah, you have to learn to protect yourself and always just look at it as something bad
might happen at any moment.
And I make this example, a stock could be going up 100%.
Their headquarters could burn down that day and the stock will just drop. I mean, you don't know
what's going to happen at any given moment. As good as the stock charts look sometimes and as
confident as I am, I have to play by rules. And I really did learn this year by getting burnt by a
couple of them that allocation size is the most important
thing. If you go against your rules and get out of your lane, the market has a good way of humbling
you. It's kind of amazing the way it does it to you. And it does, it just keeps you on track.
And when you stay on track and stick to your rules, that's when you see your biggest gains
and your accounts grow the most. So definitely always live in fear. Not that I'm
scared about anything, but always know that something in the market could always happen.
And you just have a global economy going on. So any minute you could see a war breakout or
Russia or China do something, you just never know. So always have that in the back of your mind,
no matter how confident you are with the market and how green it looks and how great it looks and that's just
my uh insight in the 25 plus years i've been doing it
well said there dougie laptop any uh final thoughts words or anything you want to piggyback off of there? Yeah, absolutely.
Senior person on the panel, I'll tell you that right now.
Number one concern for me right now is consumer debt.
We worry about the government, and we can see that Trump has already figured out ways to take care of the national debt, but consumer debt, no one's going to help you with. So I'm really concerned about that. And going with that, we also need to watch, and everyone's concerned about the Fed and what
they're going to do with interest rates. Jerome Powell's term ends May 1st of this year, and so we're looking ahead to that,
and I'm sure as well as the president is doing that as well. The other thing that has me
being concerned is, and I'm sure that the administration's already been going over this
day and night, is waiting for the Supreme Court decision on the tariffs.
That is like the second shoe that's going to fall. And so how is the administration going to respond
to that? My gut tells me that the Supreme Court is going to rule that the way that they went about
with the tariffs was incorrect. And then how do you unwind that?
That would seem to be a big thing with the justices.
But I'm sure that the administration has a way to pivot on that decision
if it comes down against the administration
and against their practice of the tariff.
So I'm worried about tariff policy there.
Definitely watching the Fed, interest rate,
new chairman, and consumer debt.
You know, as a nation, we need to be a happy, healthy nation.
Ben, I watch Ben all the time live,
and he is scared all the time.
He gives great advice, and everyone in the Discord benefits because many people that are more aggressive and riskier jump on this and do really, really well in a moment, in a flash.
But at the same time, he says, you know, I have a mortgage to pay.
I can't afford to lose money.
The U.S. consumer today, the average person, cannot afford to lose money.
And so how are we going to handle all this debt,
and how is that going to affect us going forward?
And I think that affects leisure spending as well as home purchases.
So that's where I think investors today need to be concerned.
That's where I think investors today need to be concerned.
Hey, if I may add on to that, you know, what I see even in our Discord, and it probably happens everywhere, Emp, you may have more insight into this because I think you may be involved in other discords but um yeah i'm fanatical about trying to educate people or
remind people to take profits allocation size preserve capital when there's a drawdown like
that's my perspective and despite all of those warnings you know when we get people leaving our
community markets down for two days or we're wrong 10 15 percent of the time on some call
and we get all these cancellations what the fuck it's like we're right like 85 percent of the time
and then if you just waited another week like you'd be at all time new highs why the hell those
people leave and it's because so many fucking people i'm sorry i'm like cursing they're going
They're like, okay, they'll listen to my show, they'll read the morning note, but they're like, I just want it to be easy.
I don't want to diversify.
Let me just take one stock of Benz and go all in, and they get wiped out.
And, you know, I'm not sure how to solve that problem other than, like, I just got to beat it over people on the head, like, every single fucking day.
I don't know why that came to my head laptop when you were talking about it.
But, yeah, you guys got to learn.
All of you listening, I'm sure, like, there's at least 20% of the people here,
You're like, oh, let me find that home run.
What did I hear today, which sounded like my ticket to, you know, my golden ticket. Let me get that one run what did i hear today which sound like my ticket to you know my
my golden ticket let me get that one stock and buy the call option and then if it doesn't work
oh i'm canceling ben sucks you know that's not how you do guys there's no such thing as a golden
ticket at the end of the day it's really just getting into the market understanding it being
really disciplined and knowing that nobody's ever going to be 100 that's the thing
you're never going to be 100 nobody is as well as we can see these charts and see the market
nobody's going to be 100 we do a pretty damn good of being accurate i can tell you that
but bitcoin just did my target that being said bitcoin just did my my target of 94 500 so
But that 1% of the time will bankrupt you, man.
Yeah, when you're 100% in, it certainly will.
Yeah, and to follow up on that, just a personal thing for me in the last 10 days, the end of the year,
I had a stock I had a very strong conviction on.
I got into it right before the market closed.
Ran up into it in after hours.
It's just a really big stock.
Overnight, got suspended and got kicked off NASDAQ.
So there are losers too. Losers in my portfolio.
But consistent wins that we have and working with Ben and seeing this is overall we have tremendous success. So don't let one stock put a sour taste in your mouth that you walk away.
taste in your mouth that you walk away. That's why allocation size is very important, guys,
because again, you're not going to hit them all. So that one loss, you don't know exactly which
one it is. Sometimes it's the one that you think is going to pop the best. All this chart looks
amazing. And that's why you go heavy on it. And it has a weird way of humbling you. So
just remember, allocation, stick to your plan, and that's when
you'll win at the market. I've realized that every single time I get out of my lane, it just doesn't
work out well. So stick in my lane, and I always do well. So that's my best advice and my insight
anyway. And like I said, been doing it for too long to be completely honest with you, but have done very well in the markets for a reason, because you have to be very disciplined
and you can't think that you're going to have a golden ticket. Like Ben was saying,
there's no such thing as a golden ticket. You might get lucky, but the very next time you're
not going to get so lucky and then it'll humble you. So that's why I say it has a weird way of
doing that to you. So that's why you have to stick to the plan. And that's why i say it has a weird way of doing that to you so that's why you have to stick to the plan and that's why we try to teach this mindset in the right ways in our discord and
everything the proper way to actually make your account grow like ben said up over 700 this year
i would say is making accounts grow so there you go i would say that's a good little insight
and uh to kick off the new year at least.
Hey, and by the way, here's another little example. Redwire, I gave you guys a 1060 target.
It's coming up on it, but I sent an alert to the community at like 1010.
I'm like, it's close enough to the target. Like, why risk it?
Yeah, 95% chance it'll hit that 50 DMA 1060 or 200 DMA 1060. Look, isn't on there. I have some regrets obviously looking at this, but like, you know, that's how I do. And the Alec, you kept mentioning the allocation here. Here's a saying for you. In real estate, it's location, location, location. In trading, it's allocation, allocation, allocation. Over to you, Ed.
allocation, allocation. Over to you, Ed.
Yeah, well said. What all these guys just said is why I led off today. And in general,
I try to always remind people, do your own due diligence. You're not going to become a great
trader investor just following someone else. Understand and learn their strategy. Listen to
what they're saying, why they're doing it. Watch how they manage their risk, but learn for yourself.
Because what works for Ben may not work for Dougie, may not work for laptop, and may not
And we can all find ways to be successful with our own emotions, our own risk management,
So learn how to fish, not just, hey, the fish are biting over here.
Use it as a good launching point
and a learning experience.
That's what I would always say in general.
But also just know when you follow somebody long enough,
you see their track record, do some due diligence.
You backtest your strategy,
backtest the people you follow.
And I guarantee you backtest story trading up here
as a group, you will see some pretty good results.
I've been doing it myself for quite a while now.
So good stuff. I appreciate everyone tuning in. Just went right over an hour. The entire show, as always, is recorded. You can listen back to any of this at any time as soon
as I close it out. And keep your eyes out for tonight's stock picks for the week, quote unquote,
show where we are doing the year-long 2026 pick reveal for everyone.
Ben gave you the little teaser
but I've got multiple people
I know Ben's taking a look at it as well.
and I'm looking and I'm seeing
multiple, you know, from small caps to large caps to mega caps, everything in between.
There's a short on here, believe it or not.
So you'll have to come tune in and see what that one is.
For tonight, 5 p.m. Eastern.
We do it every Monday, but tonight, obviously, a little bit special show where we reveal the 2026 year-long picks.
And, of course, final shout-out to Ben for being the champion of 2025.
I'm waiting for my box of chocolates to be sent to the office.
Yeah, we'll have to send you a box of chocolates.
Yeah, we need to get a little trophy there.
Yeah, that's what we need to get a little trophy, a little trophy there.
122.21% return on just two picks from last year.
And, of course, you could have taken profit.
I mean, this is a year-long stock picking competition.
It's just a competition, of course.
Oh, I didn't take profit.
I kept ASCS the whole year, by the way.
But I was saying Root, though.
Root actually kept that one, too.
Yeah. Fair enough. The weekly picks, you you know they change day to day the yearly picks it's usually stuff i have conviction for it all long term yeah i mean just for the example there root
itself was at one point up you know well over 100 if not i think it was close to like 150
somewhere in there um so i obviously you know this this is like pick and holding type of pick stuff here.
And obviously, if it's long-term conviction, which both of my picks are,
so the two picks that I'm going to reveal tonight,
both of them are doing very, very well today.
And it's my top, well, they're my top two heaviest positions now.
It was number one and number three in my equity account.
But after today, it won't have moved up to number two.
I'm sure you can see what they are, Ben.
But everyone else, tune in tonight.
You'll see what those are and we'll reveal it all.
And we appreciate the small cap crew.
Make sure you follow the great speakers up here that take time out of their day.
And check out all the other great things that they do on and off this app. It will improve your experience. And hey, you can always learn
something, right? So appreciate the crew. Appreciate the audience tuning in on this Monday.
Great kickoff to 2026. Let's see if we can hold in some of these gains. Keep this market where
it's at and set up things. And programming note, don't forget, Jensen Wong is speaking at 4 p.m. Eastern.
And then Lisa Su is speaking much later,
like at midnight or something like that.
So if you're still awake.
But CES is going on out there in Las Vegas.
Evan, Gov, some of our crews out there.
A lot of other big names, obviously, out there
seeing what's going on in the consumer electronics world.
And we'll see if anything comes out of that as well.
We'll catch you guys on the next show.
I'm jumping back over to the live stream.
We've got maybe Stocks on Spaces.
So if you don't see Stocks on Spaces,
it's because Evan and half of our crew are out there
trying to get Jensen's autograph on a leather jacket.
You can tell him I said that too.
Y'all take care. Thank you.