Ideas
Breadth is back; diversification working again.
Diversification is working again in 2026: value stocks, small caps, emerging markets, equal weight, mid-caps and micro caps are all outperforming the S&P 500 while the Mag 7 has gone sideways; more stocks are participating in the rally, which supports continuation of the bull market.
Expansions favor stocks; buy equities.
During economic expansions, stocks are positive almost 90% of the time, with >10% returns 65% of the time and >20% returns about a third of the time; 10% declines occur only 4% of the time, and the lack of full-blown recessions has helped the market continue higher.
Dollar rolls over, helps international stocks.
The US dollar has rolled over and is back below its liberation-day lows, which is another tailwind for international stocks; however, over the very long run currencies tend to move in cycles and the dollar is roughly unchanged since the 1970s.
Dollar rolls over, helps international stocks.
The US dollar has rolled over and is back below its liberation-day lows, which is another tailwind for international stocks; however, over the very long run currencies tend to move in cycles and the dollar is roughly unchanged since the 1970s.
Silver parabolic, now meme-like and volatile.
Silver is up 55% year-to-date and 250% since the start of last year, and the price action now looks like a meme stock or fad investment; commodities are trend-following vehicles rather than buy-and-hold assets, and silver's history includes massive drawdowns, making it dangerous to be long or short after this parabolic move.
Real assets beating bitcoin.
Real assets are winning over digital assets: gold is up 90% and silver up 250% since the start of last year while bitcoin is down 4%; gold's market cap exceeds $30 trillion and central banks are the biggest buyers. The speaker would have expected crypto to be the play if the dollar was falling and people worried about the system, but bitcoin as digital gold has not worked.
Real assets beating bitcoin.
Real assets are winning over digital assets: gold is up 90% and silver up 250% since the start of last year while bitcoin is down 4%; gold's market cap exceeds $30 trillion and central banks are the biggest buyers. The speaker would have expected crypto to be the play if the dollar was falling and people worried about the system, but bitcoin as digital gold has not worked.
Robinhood extrapolating prediction-market growth.
Prediction markets are here to stay and will get bigger, but the early success is sending a wrong signal to companies going all-in; Robinhood is extrapolating too far because the hardcore users are already there and the pie won't expand as much as hoped, so growth cannot be annualized.
Prediction markets may disrupt sports betting.
If prediction markets supplant online sports gambling, FanDuel and DraftKings could be hurt; this is the scenario that would make prediction markets bigger than expected.
Netflix buys HBO to fill quality gap.
Netflix is acquiring Warner Bros./HBO to fill a quality hole in its programming; the HBO content and talent are the strategic prize rather than movie theaters, and keeping HBO's people to create quality content is a positive for Netflix.
This The Compound News video, published January 28, 2026,
features Michael Batnick
discussing RSP, VTV, MDY, IWC, EEM, IWM, SPY, USD, International stocks, SILVER, GLD, BTC, HOOD, DKNG, FanDuel, NFLX.
10 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Michael Batnick
· Tickers:
RSP,
VTV,
MDY,
IWC,
EEM,
IWM,
SPY,
USD,
International stocks,
SILVER,
GLD,
BTC,
HOOD,
DKNG,
FanDuel,
NFLX
