Today's number 54. That is the

percentage of men who have some form of

facial hair, up from 42% 10 years ago.

According to surveys, most men don't

actually like their beard at first, but

then it grows on them.

>> Okay.

>> Oh, I was supposed to Oh my god.

>> No, no. If you don't find it funny, then

that that's just what we do. So,

>> I did, but it was a delay. It was a

delayed reaction. I did find it funny.

>> Welcome to Propy Markets. Scott is still

on vacation, but we are back in action

and we are kicking off the year with the

one and only Josh Brown, co-founder and

CEO of Rhett Holtz. Josh, welcome back

to the show. It's great to see you.

>> Great to see you. I apologize for

dressing like the great and powerful Oz.

I I didn't pick up on it until I saw

myself on a video screen. That's That's

what I'm That's the energy I came into

the year with.

>> I love it. You're looking good. How was

your How was your holiday? How was your

new year?

>> So sick. Oh, yeah.

>> So great. I You know what? I've been in

Florida for 2 weeks. I have a tan.

>> You look good.

>> The weather sucks here predictably, but

like it's not even bothering me. Um I

just uh I had an amazing couple of weeks

for the holidays and uh I feel good.

Ready for uh 26. ready to rumble, ready

for 2026. Okay. Well, let's get right

into it. Um, lot of questions I want to

ask you. Uh, we haven't had you on since

the summer and a lot has happened since

then. We had the government shutdown. We

had rate cuts. We had this AI bubble

story which kind of got huge. A lot of

people were talking about it. Um, just

as you look back on 2025 and what's

happened since we last spoke, just a

pretty general question. What have been

your biggest takeaways? I think the key

thing was not getting too negative in

November when Oracle was blowing up and

it seemed like this was going to be like

this uh this comeuppance for all the

data center spend and all of a sudden

like the floor was about to fall out

from under all of us and like if you

fell prey to that narrative which

obviously a lot of people so there's two

categories there are people that fell

prey to it because they are just nervous

by nature

or um they they tend to fall for all of

those types of like bouts of negativity.

But then there's another camp of people

that really did want it to fall apart.

They wanted it to crash.

>> Um and you know, some of that is like

political, some of that is people who

missed out on on the AI trade for the

last 3 years, but like whatever. You

just have this huge chorus of um people

warning you like this is the next year

2000 and it's dot com, you know, 2.0. 0.

But I think the key to this year was not

falling prey to it. And if you were able

to stay the course, like we're talking

right now, the Dow is going to have its

first close, I think today, above

49,000.

And the NASDAQ looks incredible, uh, you

know, through the end of last year and

now into the first week of this year.

And I think it's really, it's tough

sometimes when everyone is screaming

bubble, bubble, bubble. it's really

tough to like, you know, stay the course

and stick to your guns. But that that

really was the key to the to the fourth

quarter.

>> Which part of those bubble fears do you

take issue with? Cuz you know you know

we were talking about it a lot on this

podcast and there were several moments

which I think were substantial and they

were legitimately concerning. I think

the biggest one was probably what we saw

on Brad Gersonner's podcast where they

asked Sam Alman about the the revenue

and the amount that they're going to

spend. The fact they want to spend $1.5

trillion, they've got $13 billion in

revenue. And then we saw kind of the

worst response we've ever seen from a

CEO, the CEO of a company on which a lot

of the momentum uh in the market really

depends on. So, you know, we we weren't

saying it was doomsday on this podcast.

We were trying to be rational about it,

but it was something that we were

worried about or that we thought was at

least significant. I guess from your

view, which part of the bubble story was

wrong or misguided? Well, no. We still

may end up having a bubble, but um I

look at price. I look at I look at

valuation. I look at all the things that

classically you're supposed to look at.

And the stock market just was not uh

going along with the story that this is

all coming to an end. If you looked at

the way semiconductor stocks were

acting, they just they were not giving

into that narrative. And if you like I

so I'm one of the people that comes on

the show with you and you know my big my

big thing that I try to get across when

I can what I'm trying to convey is that

prices are more important than opinions

and prices represent the sum total of

people who actually manage money and are

voting with their money. So again I

think there's a lot of wish casting a

lot of people want to see open AI in the

private market. somehow like burst into

flames. A lot of people want to see

Larry Ellison and Oracle uh have a have

a comeuppance. Like a lot of that that's

wish casting is people saying they think

that's going to happen, but what they're

really saying is I want this to happen.

And if you were looking away from Oracle

CDS prices, which I don't think are

particularly important, um, but if you

were looking at actual share prices for

Nvidia and Broadcom and Corning, which

makes the fiber optics for all the data

centers, and you were looking at, you

know, you definitely saw stocks come

down, but you did not see stocks

plunging, stocks crashing. That's not

how the real money was betting. And here

we are just a couple of weeks out of

that and most of those stocks have

recovered. The SMH looks amazing. I

think 86% of the names in the SMH

semiconductor ETF are above their 50-day

moving average. That didn't take long.

So, I I think it's really important when

you hear people pounding on, you know,

with a with a wooden spoon on a pan

talking about bubble, ask yourself why

are they doing it? Are they in the

content business? Okay, they're doing it

for attention. They're doing it for

clicks. I get that. That's There's

nothing wrong with that. Everyone's got

to make a living. Um, are they money

managers who are overweight small cap

value underweight tech? Okay, I get

that, too. They're wish casting. They

want these stocks to blow up so they can

call their clients and say, "You see, I

was right. I'm not a schmuck. I I told

you that. I told you so." Um, so there's

a lot of that going on. Um, obviously

people on financial television, it's

high ratings when stocks like Oracle

blow up. And then the next one and the

next, they want that domino effect

because this is when people are paying

the maximum amount of attention to

financial media. So there are a lot of

people who have a vested interest in

seeing this thing go badly and maybe it

will, but I I think it becomes really

important to say, all right, who's

talking about this? that's actually

invested.

Who's talking about this that literally

has money on the line, reputation on the

line, that has skin in the game? I want

to listen to those people. Not that they

can't be wrong, but my god, I need a

counterbalance to all the Chicken

Littles and all the people saying the

end is nigh because without that

counterbalance, you're just listening to

people who are wish casting. What I

would say in in push back is, you know,

you're describing a dynamic where there

are certain people who have a vested

interest in things going down, but on

the flip side, there's also people who

have a vested interest in things going

up.

>> Yes.

>> And everyone has vested interests.

Everyone has things that they want or

internal biases. They want things to go

right. Maybe they want things to go

wrong. And I think to your point, it is

so important to figure out how to kind

of weed through that.

>> My point is when in doubt, follow price.

>> When in doubt, trust what the markets

are saying about the the price of a

stock.

>> Pay less attention to what people say

and more attention to what they do.

>> Fair enough. I I I think that's

definitely true. on open AI as an

example. So I I feel like we need to

kind of bucket these companies into into

into buckets basically.

>> Totally true

>> where you do have many of these AI

related stocks which I think are growing

pretty healthily and they're managing

their balance sheets well and everything

looks pretty good. And then I think

there are other companies like OpenAI

which I honestly I mean maybe I'm one of

those wooden spoon uh banging against

the drone but I I don't look at what

OpenAI is doing from a financial

management perspective and it I don't

think it inspires much confidence in me

personally. And the trouble is I can't

follow the price because it's private.

So I actually don't know what the price

of Open AI is. But if I had to guess

based on what we're seeing in the public

markets, I would probably look at Oracle

as a proxy for what's going on with Open

AI and it's not looking very good. So in

that sense, OpenAI doesn't seem to be

the best reflection of what is happening

in AI right now. I have so much other

stuff I want to ask you, but I am just

interested in this topic. Would you

agree that we need to divide it up?

>> I think you're exactly right. It's a

very unique situation where one of the

most important chess pieces is not on

the board. This it's it's highly highly

unique situation. Um I've likened it in

in in uh other venues. I've explained it

as Kaiser So in The Usual Suspects.

>> Sam Alton limping off.

>> It's the main character in the movie.

It's the thing that animates the actions

of everyone else in the movie. And he

doesn't show up until the last one

minute of the film. In old Hollywood,

they used to call it the McGuffin. So

the Maltese Falcon. The What is the

Maltese Falcon? It's a stupid statue,

but it's the McGuffin. It's the thing

that sets everything else in the movie

in motion. Open AAI share price is not

tradable. Now, of course, there are

people who are invested in it. But even

if they on a Monday they're bullish, on

a Tuesday they're bearish. They don't

have the liquidity to change their mind

and act on that that price in the way

that we have in the public market. To

which I would respond to you, I'd say

you're exactly right. Thank God for

public markets number one. Um because

yes there is a lot of concern about open

AAI and we saw it viscerally in the

prices of the companies that were deemed

to be quote open AAI dependent companies

that OpenAI is spending the most money

on their services and Oracle sort of

became like an avatar for that. But let

me ask you a question. Anthropic, one of

the biggest players in AI, also private,

um, spends about5 billion dollars

annually that we know of on, uh, the AWS

cloud to support its business. Anthropic

is actually ahead of Open AI in

enterprise. Um, they're selling to

thousands of the largest organizations

and corporations around the world. Um,

we don't have a share price for that one

either. You think you think Anthropic is

in as big of a draw down from its high

as the public share price of Oracle is?

Probably not. Um Amazon actually

consolidates some of the the profit from

Anthropic is doing as a very large

shareholder of the company. Um we think

that that business is gang busters. So

yes, you have to bucket these things,

but then you also have to realize

narratives in AI are shifting overnight.

Seven months ago, the talk around

Alphabet is that they're finished.

They're done. They're going to get

murdered by o by OpenAI and other LLMs.

People are going to start their searches

on Perplexity and and Claude and Chat

GPT and completely bypass the Google

experience. And then Google goes up 65%

on the year, becomes the best performing

of the Mag 7, and all of a sudden it's

Google's world and the rest of us live

in it. That shift didn't take three

years. It took like three months. So the

narratives and the banging on pots and

pans has to give way to the primacy of

price. What are people actually betting

on with real money versus who is wish

casting and just hoping the guy they

don't like uh goes down for the count,

right? Oh, I don't trust Sam or I hate

Elon or it's so important to focus on

price more than ever. not to try to sit

here and parse 50 different people's

opinions. That game is almost

impossible. The real game is okay, fine,

but what are the buyers doing? What are

the sellers doing?

>> We'll be right back after the break. And

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We're back with Profy Markets. Based on

everything you've you've told us here

and what you've seen in 2025, let's look

ahead to 2026.

Um, we've been having a lot of different

commentators on telling us their

predictions for the year. We've gotten

kind of a range of opinions. Um, what

are your predictions for markets this

year? Are you bullish on 2026? Are you

bearish and why?

>> So, we're money managers, not sellside

analysts and not chief strategists. So,

we don't have price targets. We don't

have our own internal earnings

expectation. What we do for clients is

we rationalize the risks they're taking

with data. We try to give them the

historical context that we think is more

important than the prediction of the of

of the month or of the day these days

because we're in the the January where

everyone's making their year-end

predictions. But this is what I would

share with you. The only questions that

matter for this year. Number one, will

the fundamentals continue to justify an

above average price earnings multiple?

That's it. That's the question. You

either answer that yes, no, maybe, or or

let's say yes, no, I don't know. So, of

course, like obviously I don't know, but

I think the answer is yes. Why do I

think the answer is yes? Well, the first

earnings uh season we'll have is Q4.

We'll start getting these reports in

February. And here are the consensus

estimates. You tell me what you think

when I'm done.

Wall Street thinks the S&P will deliver

an 8.6% 6% uh earnings growth quarter

versus Q4 of 2024. Okay. They think the

technology sector which is obviously the

most important sector for earnings

growth and also for market

capitalization will do 25.8% earnings

growth. That's an eyepopping number. If

they do 24% or 27% or anywhere in that

vicinity,

wouldn't you agree that that would

support a 21 multiple on the overall S&P

given how important those companies are

to market cap? I like that's what I

would say. Um, you're not getting that

across the whole S&P. You're getting

that in tech and a lot of that's coming

from semiconductors. Okay, fine. But the

number is the number. We don't put

asterisks on any other year for the S&P

500. Why would we all of a sudden put an

asterisk? Now, here are the full year

2026 consensus uh estimates for sectors,

the big sectors that matter. Uh Wall

Street thinks industrials will do 13.1%

earnings growth. They think uh

technology will do 29.7

30% earn not revenue earnings growth for

26 again if they even get close. But

here's what's really fascinating.

Financials 10.4% 4% for 2026. Disc

consumer discretionary huge sector.

Amazon's in that sector. Um Tesla for

some reason is in that sector 11.7%.

Um communication services that's

Alphabet, Meta, uh Netflix, etc. 7.2%.

So like if uh healthcare 8 and a half,

utilities 8.7, that's become a deacto AI

trade. So, the consensus thinks the S&P

500 will grow earnings once again for

all of calendar 2026 by 14.6%.

So, with a typical beat rate, it'll

probably be more like 15 16%. If you

think the market delivers that 21 times

earnings is justifiable and so it

doesn't mean we'll get another, you

know, 18 20% return on the S&P, but at

the very least, we should have a lot of

winners in the market. 16 stocks of the

S&P doubled last year. These aren't

obscure, bizarre stocks no one's ever

heard of. Some very big stocks doubled

last year. All sorts of stocks went up

30, 40, 50, 60%. And I want you to

remember the stock market wasn't cheap a

year ago at this time. So the earnings

growth has to deliver. So the the real

question that we need to answer is will

it?

>> Yes,

>> I think it will. And there's a chance

that that's wrong. You could have some

sort of an exogenous shock that changes

everything. So, you have to just be like

okay with that. That's the risk that

we're all taking because just for fun,

go read the January 2020 year ahead

outlooks from Wall Street. How many of

them were talking about Corona virus?

Zero. Hundreds of outlooks. Zero. And

that obviously changed everything. Stock

market ended up going up by the way. Um,

but I'm just making the point like the

thing that could alter the course of 15%

earnings growth this year is not really

the thing that any of us could put our

finger on. Now, a lot of people would

say, "Oh, it's going to be the AI data

centers. They're going to slow down.

There's going to be another Oracle, blah

blah blah." Okay, possible. Um, but

right now that's just not I wouldn't say

that's sort of like what should be

anyone's base case that all of a sudden

all this money that these companies have

spent they're going to say, you know

what, forget it. It's it's just unlikely

to me. So that that's where I am on on

26.

>> I think that makes a lot of sense and I

I I appreciate I think it's a really

good framework. Let's just focus on the

fundamentals. Are the fundamentals going

to grow in 2026? and a lot of indicators

would say yes they will uh beyond just

the numbers itself that that itself that

Wall Street is projecting but the fact

that we do have interest rates coming

down the fact that we're going to see

more deficit spending having said that

on the AI front I think one of the

questions that I'm thinking about and

that a lot of people are thinking about

is we've seen all of this unbelievable

spending and as you say it it is mostly

coming from the semiconductor industry

That's sort of where the action is

happening and that's what's kind of

driving growth at this point. But I

think the question then becomes will we

see the ROI on those chip and data

center investments? Like is it the case

that all of the money that Meta is

spending on the data centers and that

Alphabet spending on the data centers,

all the money that they're spending on

these chips, are we going to see that

reflected? Are they going to get a real

return on their investment in the what I

would say the real economy which is the

consumer economy? And for that we kind

of have to look at companies like

Anthropic. We have to look at companies

like OpenAI and we have to figure out

how much are people actually willing to

spend for this stuff.

>> Palunteer is your tell.

Okay. Amazon is your tell. Alphabet.

This is where the spending is literally

happening. Corporations are not buying

GPUs.

Amazon and and uh right like Amazon,

Alphabet, Microsoft are buying GPUs. Uh

Meta and why are they buying them?

Because their customers want to be able

to do more with their data. And that's

how that that works. So, um you watch

the data centers. I think I I think

everyone is. So that's not like a big

revelation. You watch the Palunteers,

the Accentur,

um you listen to their commentary, those

are the companies that are actually

assisting

um large enterprises with like okay

great AI AI AI. What do I actually do

with it? How like how does it help me

beat earnings uh you know next quarter?

Well, here's a project that you could

work on right now. So like that's that's

where the rubber meets the road is in

that part of the market. Um look I think

you look at the performance in sectors

that have nothing to do with AI over the

last year and you've seen like different

sectors waking up. Biotech had an

unbelievable comeback in 2025.

What has materially changed in biotech?

nothing other than the use of AI is

probably a huge efficiency driver in uh

phase 1, 2, and three clinical trials.

It probably speeds up a lot of the

things that have slowed those companies

down in the drug discovery uh realm.

That's the way Wall Street is starting

to price in the AI opportunity in in

healthcare. Look at the financials, same

thing. fraud detection, cyber security,

like AI becomes a force multiplier in

things that they're already spending

money on if they could spend money more

efficiently. And the last thing, and I

know we're going to get to this, but um

at CES, Nvidia was able to show that

they have done in one year what took

Tesla 8 years to automate an automobile

so that it could drive through the city

of San Francisco without a human

touching any of the uh steering wheel,

gear, shift, brake, uh acceleration. Um,

again, that's eight years of of Tesla

experimenting on the road. Nvidia has an

offthe-shelf solution for every OEM in

the world to turn their automobiles with

a few sensors and a software package and

and a chip package into an autonomous

car. You know who Nvidia works with?

Volvo, MercedesBenz, GM, Toyota, Jaguar,

Land Rover, all of them are going to

have access to minimum level two

autonomous driving via uh Nvidia.

They'll be able to catch up to Tesla

like within a year, 18 months. Did think

now you think about you say, "What's the

ROI? Are you [ __ ] kidding me?" the

ROI for these types of projects and

we're not even getting into robots which

is probably a late 2020s story like

robots right

>> as like an ROI driver is probably 27 28

29 but like that is what the street is

pricing in when it says it's willing to

pay 22 times for the top 500 companies

in the United States that's the

mentality right now it's not what's the

ROI it's oh my god I can't even imagine

how big the ROI could be. It's all

moving so fast. My dreams can't even

keep up with the things that they're

announcing. So, it's a very exciting

time to be an investor. Not to lose your

head. We It'd be a different If I said

to you, the S&P's 45 times earnings like

it's the year 2000. All right. It's a

different conversation. But that's not

what's going on right now. I wish it

were. It would be It'd be more fun to

talk about. It'd be a slam dunk bubble.

we could all be short and get rich. It's

just not that easy.

>> Yeah. I think the other the other piece

of it is the timing of all of this. It's

sort of like what is our time frame for

when we're going to see that ROI and

what are Wall Street's expectations for

when that is all going to come through.

And I think that kind of defines whether

we see an implosion, whether we see a

correction or some sort of crash or we

don't. I'm with you. the ROI is going to

show up at some point in some way and

it'll be in a very big way.

>> Would you right now here's a thought

exercise.

I take away your LLM usage from your

day. You're not a corporation. You're

not a government. You're an individual.

I say to you, no LLM for the next 30

days. What's your experience like

relative to what you've just spent the

last two years doing? It sucks. you're

not going to stop paying for it. And

then if I say, "Okay, you could have it

back, but the only way you could have it

back is you have to pay three times more

than you were paying."

>> That's the question. I'm not sure. I'm

not sure. That's what I want to know.

>> Oh, I'm fairly sure. If I took it away

from you for 30 days and then said, "All

right, you could have it back, but um

Chad GPT Plus is no longer 20, it's 40,

or it's 60." You're probably paying it.

>> I think I probably am. I think. But that

to me is the big question. And it's like

and that's what the I guess as a sort of

naturally maybe risk averse person which

is not a good thing by the way. It's way

better to be risk on risky. It's it's

it's a better strategy in general. But I

guess my point is and what I what I want

to know is what is that price, right?

>> And I want to see it in the numbers like

what are people actually willing to pay?

What is this thing really worth? And can

we see that happening? And I guess my

response I I just I don't quite know.

And that's why I feel and I think

probably others feel a little bit more

hesitation this year. Um is that we we

don't fully know yet. We we kind of are

getting a sense. We're beginning to get

a sense. We're beginning to see the ROI

begin to get reflected in the numbers,

but we haven't fully realized it. I

think there's already been a behavioral

transformation that um cannot be

reversed and I think that most knowledge

economy workers have already um very

heavily incorporated AI tools into their

daily workflows in ways that they might

not even be aware that they've done

because of the ways in which Alphabet

has sort of inserted this stuff into all

the services that we already use.

There's AI all over Gmail. Well, there's

AI all over Docs and Drive and I just um

and then you think about like for people

that are heavily working in tech doing

things like coding, no one's coding

without a co-pilot at this point. So, I

think there's been a behavioral change

that's irreversible and I think that

that um grounds this AI spending story

at least in something there's like a

baseline. Yes. Okay. So that's really

that's important. And Ed, you could not

have said that in 1999.

You could not have said that because

nobody was actually making money on the

internet,

>> right?

>> And uh it's funny, the first use case

where people actually were willing to

surrender a credit card number to any

internet company was the purchase of

online pornography. Like pornography is

probably the thing that got AOL to

profitability. Like honestly, it's a

it's it's um it's the thing that made

the internet like a going concern. It

was the only revenue.

>> It's what's going to get Open AI to

profitability, right?

>> Perhaps. But I I think this is very

different from that. I think this is

like it's already proliferated through

corporate America. And then just regular

people in the way that they look for

information. Like my wife and her

friends take pictures of things and ask

chat GPT how much does this cost or um

does this look like I should take my son

to the doctor or uh right like it's just

it's become it's become ingrained

behaviorally already. So we need to stop

thinking about this as something that's

about to abruptly end. And then I think

you're asking the right question. It's

like okay but what is it really worth? I

don't know that there's one one answer

that um makes sense for everybody, but

it's I I agree it's the right question.

We'll be right back. And for even more

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We're back with property markets. AI was

a huge narrative driver in 2025. Based

on this conversation, we're thinking

about what's going to happen in 2026. I

think it's probably going to be a huge

driver of the narrative in 2026 as well.

What else are you thinking about going

into 2026 aside from AI? What are the

big stories? is what are the big shifts

that are going to really drive the

market this year?

>> Well, it's profit margins and we hit

record levels of profit margins this

year and I think we'll do it again next

year and that is mostly an AI story. So,

I hate to like recursively keep coming

back. Um, I think that's really it. It's

so big, dude. It's so it's so big. Yes.

The most incredible thing for next year

is to see the S&P 493 stocks, not the

MAG7, start beating earnings and

crediting all these AI investments

they're making. That's it. Like that's

the whole that's the whole ball game.

And I think that's what we're going to

get.

>> What about interest rates? Are you

focused on what we're going to see from

the Federal Reserve? I mean, obviously

Trump's going to pick his new Fed chair

in May. Does that matter to you?

>> Not really. There are years in which the

Fed is the queen on the chessboard.

>> I think the Fed this year is a bishop at

best.

>> I just I don't think anywhere near as

impactful. If we get one interest rate

or three interest rates, I'm not sure

that that materially uh means a whole

hell of a lot. One of the things we've

learned over the last couple years,

which I know you and I have discussed,

is that high interest rates actually

served as a form of stimulus for the top

20% of the country. um people's bank

accounts were gushing income in ways

that they hadn't experienced in 15

years. Um there there's just no evidence

that what the system needs right now is

a lot of rate cuts. There's also no

evidence for any reason why we should

expect to see rate hikes. So I think

there will be a transition at the Fed. I

don't think it'll be fire and brimstone.

I don't think the new guy walks in with

a mandate from the White House to take

rates to zero. Um I I just I think the

most interesting thing happening at the

Fed right now is what they're doing with

very short-term uh repo markets just you

know doing their best to maintain

liquidity. Maybe that sort of becomes a

story if we have a liquidity air pocket

but outside of that I would not have the

Fed on my bingo card as being a

particularly notable player in what's to

come this year.

>> What about deficit spending? We've got

the big beautiful bill which is kind of

going to go into effect this year. It's

going to add nearly half a trillion

dollars in some form of fiscal support.

I assume that's just going to show up in

earnings. Are you thinking about that?

Do you think that will be a significant

driver this year in markets as well?

>> No, I think the deficit is just

something that you put on your list of

risks to the market every year. If

you're a chief strategist or a chief

economist, you just like it's like an

automatic. It's almost like putting uh

China invades Taiwan. Like it's just

like one of those like just pencil it

in.

>> Well, I sorry. I I mean it in a positive

sense that this is just more money.

We're just injecting more money into the

system and so perhaps it will be a good

thing.

>> The risk there is it's inflationary. Um

but the prevailing trend right now um in

the stuff that really matters and and uh

my colleague uh Cali Cox who's actually

uh out out of the picture on maternity

leave uh recently but like the big like

her big concept that she tries to get

across to people uh our investors is

just like look there are blips in

inflation for individual items but the

prevailing trend is lower uh less

exacerbated ISS issues in the labor

markets, lower wage growth, lower

commodity prices, filled up my car this

morning at three, you know, a three

handle for uh premium uh gasoline. Um

rents are coming in, home prices are

moderating. We do have, it's not at the

speed the Fed would have liked, but we

do have moderating uh inflation. all

that stimulus that you referenced, all

of that spending, all the

infrastructure, is there a risk there

that all of a sudden the inflation

picture moderates at a slower pace or

starts to scare people to the upside?

Sure, it's definitely something that we

can worry about. I wouldn't use that as

a reason to not invest. Um, you know,

it's it's on the list. Low on the list,

but it's on the list.

>> Josh Brown sounds very bullish is what I

would say,

>> but I always am. It's not it.

>> You always are. And I think I think I

mean it seems as though your view going

into 2026 is kind of stay the course

more of the same. Um which you know is

exactly what you kind of told us last

year and that's exactly how you were

rewarded for it. I mean we had a great

year.

>> I'd love to show up and say we're at a

turning point. I know I'm in the content

game also, but I I'm doing I'm doing

this a long time. I've been bullish

forever. My clients have been rewarded

for that. Um, there are bare markets

along the way. 2022 was not fun. We did

our jobs as wealth managers in 2022. We

had massive stocks like Meta and Amazon

in 50 70% draw downs. Like that does

happen. It's part of the experience of

investing. Our our approach is not to

try to predict those moments. It's to

help people get through them because

what's on the other side is even higher

prices, even more profitability, even

better outcomes for people who are

willing to bear risk. This is what we do

and and I think we're the best in the

world at it. We are not the best in the

world at calling turning points like

that. I can't get I wish I could. I

can't deliver that for you.

>> What would be your advice to young

investors right now? Uh I mean and I I

would just couch this in the fact that

we've had for example Asswath Deodoran

who we had on on our podcast earlier

this or early this year last year

towards the end of last year. Um and it

was one of the most strikingly bearish

pods we've recorded where he was very I

mean and this is not a person who loves

to sound the alarm on stuff. I mean, he

is a very calm, composed, measured

investor. He tells everyone what what

he's doing and you can track his

investments on his website, but he said

that he is looking at selling and

getting into collectibles because he

thinks that everything is is overvalued.

Now, I don't know where he stands on

things right now. This was this was you

know some time ago but just given what

everything we're seeing all the all the

opinions out there what would be your

advice to investors especially young

investors going into 2026 right now how

should you think about investing

>> do not get into collectibles um Asswath

is brilliant he's the dean of valuation

they call him I understand he's he's

looking at present valuations and he's

looking historically and he's it's

accurate

when you buy at high valuations,

prospective returns are lower. It's like

an iron law of of finance. The problem

is um we have seen a consistent

ratcheting up of multiples over the last

10 years and companies have found ways

to deliver higher than expected profits

and uh this could be yet another one of

those years. So I think the the key

thing for young investors is to pray for

downside in the stock market to remember

that they are forced investors, forced

savers. If you are in your 20s or 30s,

you have decades that you are forced to

take a portion of your paycheck every

two weeks and add it into a 401k. If you

know that today, are you rooting for

all-time highs? Are you mad? Have you

lost perspective on like time and space?

You want lower prices if you're young.

So I have clients in their 20s. I have

clients in their 80s. My clients in

their 80s want higher prices. No [ __ ]

They're cashing their investments out

now and living off the money today.

>> My clients in their 20s, we have

conditioned them. Don't root for record

highs. Root for 20% corrections and then

call me and tell me how you're going to

get me more money into your account or

I'll call you. So, you must, if you're

in your 20s and 30s, stop rooting for

record highs. I know it feels good. I

know it's endorphins. Look what a genius

I am. I bought Tesla at 300. It's 340.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. That's what

you're rooting for. But you shouldn't

be. What you really should be rooting

for is a lost decade. A, it'll hurt your

parents. I know you'll you'll get that

shade in Freud.

But B, you will be accumulating shares

in the greatest corporations known to

mankind at discounted levels from where

they once sold. And when you're buying

low, eventually the market goes back to

its old highs. You don't get back to

even. You slingshot ahead of where you

otherwise would have been. So if you're

listening to this, you're a young

investor. You're not an old rich man

like Scott Galloway.

Stop rooting for record highs. Root for

corrections. Root for lost decades

because that makes you uh a lot more

money over the preponderance of your

investing career, which is decades long.

Mine is too. I am an older gentleman. I

am a forced buyer of stocks. I'm 48

years old, if you could believe that. I

I can't touch my own 401k till I'm 65,

70 years old. I won't be withdrawing to

my IAS until the last minute. So, I'm a

buyer of stocks. I

alltime highs are great for me. They

make me look like a genius to my

clients, but the reality is I'd rather

buy low. So, it's it's a mindset shift.

It's not about predicting what's going

to happen.

>> Career advice going into 2026 for these

young investors, these young

professionals. Um, you know, you've had

so much success in so many different

arenas. I watch you on CNBC all the

time, crushing it. I listen to your

podcast. I love it. You're a great

writer. You're a great investor. Um,

what would be your your words of wisdom

for young people, young working

professionals heading into 2026? What

should they be focused on?

>> All right. So, I've heard a lot of very

uh accomp people more accomplished than

I am answer this question. I've heard

people give uh commencement speeches.

I've heard uh I've heard the professor.

Um, my opinion is figure out how to

solve the problems of wealthy people.

>> It's let's just cut it. And that could

be as simple as like everyone mocks, oh,

you're an art history major. Good luck

with all your student debt. Hey [ __ ]

what do you think all these

trillionaires are going to be doing with

their money? They're going to be

collecting priceless works of art and

they have no taste. You see how Jeff

Bezos celebrates his birthday on on a on

a yacht with people waving sparklers?

>> They they're Philistines. That was

amazing. They're they're Imagine having

a hundred billion dollars and that's how

you celebrate your birthday on [ __ ]

Instagram. Okay.

>> Cater to wealthy people. Solve their

problems. Make yourself

indispensable

to large corporations, small business

owners, people with means, people who

are willing to give you money to make

their problems go away. You will have

lifetime employment. It's as simple as

that.

>> I love it. Josh Brown is the co-founder

and CEO of Rit Holtz, a New York City

based investment advisory firm managing

$6.5 billion in assets for individuals,

corporate retirement plans, and

foundations. And you can also check out

his podcast, The Compound and Friends

for more. I highly recommend it. Josh,

uh, next time we'll have to do this

longer, but we'll let you go. Thank you

so much.

>> Always a pleasure, Ed. Wishing you guys

all the best in 2026.

>> You, too. Thank you, sir.

>> Thank you for listening to Profit

Markets from Profit Media. If you liked

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