" “The market” was once a symbol of integrity and serious business run by old fucks in bowties and suits, like the Duke brothers."
I have been a subscriber for several years now and I enjoy all your writings but I gotta tell you, this may be your best one yet. You took all the thoughts from my own head and wrote them down perfectly. I was explaining all this to my sons, the insanity of it all - and I was reminded of the phrase "the markets can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent"
"The frightening part is that every one of these products is marketed as empowerment, democratization and opportunity…but many of them are really just mechanisms for harvesting attention.
And the commodity being extracted isn’t just money, it’s your time, focus, peace of mind and energy. To quote Morpheus from The Matrix, it is “…a computer generated dream world, built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.”
It is turning people into slaves and calling it freedom. At its very root, it is a LIE....and that is a critical observation. The foundation of the Matrix was that their entire existence was based on a lie. We are pretty close in 2026.
Chris, you and I are probably never going to meet in person, so I am going to tell you in this comment where you are headed. Everything you describe in that article about "distraction" and "attention harvesting" is for a purpose, and it goes beyond monetization. It is about distracting us from the FACT that we are dying. To keep people focused on anything and everything other than the FACT that they are finite. I look at the "most powerful man to ever walk the earth" (his words not mine) every day and wonder just how many he has left. I wonder how often he thinks about dying with the daily schedule he has. Does he have time to think about the inevitable? Or does he just bury it under the mountain of a non-stop schedule of events?
I could fill pages on this, but let me sum it up by posting the most powerful, succinct statement ever made on the topic.....that encompasses your description of our society today:
"For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
All of those distractions are designed to keep a man from ever thinking about that question, much less providing the answer.
“At some point you have to ask whether we’re creating anything of lasting value or simply inventing new ways to distract ourselves.”
This puts words to something I’ve been feeling since Covid but have never been able to articulate. I’m constantly “taking breaks” from various platforms, websites, forums, etc. because I feel myself not being present at home like I should be.
I got into trading crypto during COVID because I was bored and needed something to do. Now I buy/hold BTC and don’t worry about the rest.
Good article and various parts resonated very strongly with me.
My biggest concern in life is not that you stopped trading, but that you stop writing. Your posts are intellectual candy, as well as hilarious. You need to create a sitcom around this. Combination of an updated Cheers, Friends, and Wall Street.
Amen - great article. Been thinking the exact same thing and it goes to show you a society given over to the lusts of the flesh. God is still moving though and it seems there are many people waking up to the fact that these things do not bring ultimate joy.
To be honest, I think your point about the financialization of everything is spot on.
However, I think there are still long-term opportunities out there if someone is patient. We just have to accept that good opportunities do not come every week, maybe 5-6 times a year if we're lucky. If you look at it from a capital cycle perspective, physical bottlenecks and emerging markets (especially banks) still look attractive. Despite all the bearishness, Indonesia and some other emerging markets remain very interesting places to invest, while also offering diversification away from AI. And I won't even mention some Norwegian oil companies with beautiful cash flows.
But all in all, reflecting on short-termism, I think we are near the end of a cycle. From a historical perspective, periods of huge capex spending like the one we're seeing today generally haven't led to great forward returns.
People follow you and subscribe to your blog to get market insights and stocks to watch. If you abandon that you may lose subscribers. Also your interviews have been great over the years. Hate to see you leave your wheelhouse my friend.
The crypto Solana recently sponsored the World Poker Tournament. Their thesis is that poker players are the new stock traders. It's not about fundamentals anymore.
I hear shit like “Solana” and just wonder to myself, when have I ever heard anyone say this is something I need to own for [reason]. Why does any of this crap even exist?
Excellent job Chris! I'm just rewatching "The Matrix" trilogy now. Amazing how prescient the Wachowskis' were "back in the day". Of course many of the themes had been "front and center" in sci-fi for decades, but they put a lot of things together very effectively cinematically.
Great article. I imagine you have experienced much more peace and joy over the past 30 days. Paying a momentum signal service seems to be the best way for me to go regarding my 401K.
Mechanicalmarkettiming.com Had I consistently followed the signal since I started subscribing in 2020 I would have many hundreds of thousands more. Being disciplined enough to ignore the fear has been my problem. But I can’t argue with the results of the signal (except in ‘21). All of the historical signals are on the website for your own backtesting purposes.
Now 68yrs old I can say you have hit on the "Secret Sauce" to happiness -- and Gen Z is already picking on this too.
This is also how we win back civility. The rejection of Algorithms and a renewed focus on personal and interpersonal connection. While I do keep a Lazer focus on the StockMarket (using mathematical tools as emotional Guardrails), my wife and I have stripped the varnish off almost every other aspect of our lives. We live simple (by design) and wanting nothing. We certainly "could" live flasher, but that's Fools Gold. Peace of Mind and enjoying where your are -- in the present -- is a most precious commodity. It's also not linear. You'll be tested.
This is the finest piece that I’ve ever read and as a three year subscriber (so far) to your Substack, this is the best article you’ve ever written!
I speculated in options, watched ES futures prices til wee hours, my every thought was of making money the following day. I was consumed with this gambling mentality and blew through $515k in 2025, virtually ALL of my life savings.
I wish I’d had your restraint and wisdom to just STOP! Thank God I have a $500k IRA (that I do not actively trade) to fall back on, yet I’m about to turn 60 and my wage earning years are well behind me.
All I want to say is that your readers read your article again and again and learn from MY misfortune. Trading is Gambling. Pure and simple. At this stage of the game, passive index investing is dangerous. T-Bills and physical bullion are the only safe investments going forward
Many people here have commented on their personal experience with options betting. So I will add mine. After taking back control of my IRA/ROTH. Started following a swing trader. After losing about 30% on option trades, I finally told myself, multiple times - just stop!
So funny thing is, this was only the ROTH. The IRA, which is a mix of ETS has done ok YTD. I also manage my wifes IRA, as a set it and forget it. Small changes occasionally. Well, it is has done best of the three! We also only have a half dozen working years left. We could survive now. Really looking to get some good returns to put into the comfortable range.
Anecdotique but true. I was talking with a neighbor this week and he told me his daughter is divorcing after 9 years at age 35 ; hubby lost it all on Bitcoin and borrowed secretly to double down !
To the neighbor's daughter: beware of signing a married-filing-jointly tax return, especially if the crypto trades weren't reported. Or if the supporting records are sloppy or missing. Assuming the damage is already done (filed a 2025 return), there's a possibility of "innocent spouse" relief if the IRS comes after you for your share of real or imagined tax debt but it can be a long expensive hassle to get the IRS to agree with your side of the story.
" “The market” was once a symbol of integrity and serious business run by old fucks in bowties and suits, like the Duke brothers."
I have been a subscriber for several years now and I enjoy all your writings but I gotta tell you, this may be your best one yet. You took all the thoughts from my own head and wrote them down perfectly. I was explaining all this to my sons, the insanity of it all - and I was reminded of the phrase "the markets can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent"
Great job on another excellent column.
Thanks for sticking around…
I LIKE this new "Chris."
"The frightening part is that every one of these products is marketed as empowerment, democratization and opportunity…but many of them are really just mechanisms for harvesting attention.
And the commodity being extracted isn’t just money, it’s your time, focus, peace of mind and energy. To quote Morpheus from The Matrix, it is “…a computer generated dream world, built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.”
It is turning people into slaves and calling it freedom. At its very root, it is a LIE....and that is a critical observation. The foundation of the Matrix was that their entire existence was based on a lie. We are pretty close in 2026.
Chris, you and I are probably never going to meet in person, so I am going to tell you in this comment where you are headed. Everything you describe in that article about "distraction" and "attention harvesting" is for a purpose, and it goes beyond monetization. It is about distracting us from the FACT that we are dying. To keep people focused on anything and everything other than the FACT that they are finite. I look at the "most powerful man to ever walk the earth" (his words not mine) every day and wonder just how many he has left. I wonder how often he thinks about dying with the daily schedule he has. Does he have time to think about the inevitable? Or does he just bury it under the mountain of a non-stop schedule of events?
I could fill pages on this, but let me sum it up by posting the most powerful, succinct statement ever made on the topic.....that encompasses your description of our society today:
"For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
All of those distractions are designed to keep a man from ever thinking about that question, much less providing the answer.
“At some point you have to ask whether we’re creating anything of lasting value or simply inventing new ways to distract ourselves.”
This puts words to something I’ve been feeling since Covid but have never been able to articulate. I’m constantly “taking breaks” from various platforms, websites, forums, etc. because I feel myself not being present at home like I should be.
I got into trading crypto during COVID because I was bored and needed something to do. Now I buy/hold BTC and don’t worry about the rest.
Good article and various parts resonated very strongly with me.
Thanks for the comment and the feedback 🙏
My biggest concern in life is not that you stopped trading, but that you stop writing. Your posts are intellectual candy, as well as hilarious. You need to create a sitcom around this. Combination of an updated Cheers, Friends, and Wall Street.
Waiting for CNBC to offer me the Bari Weiss deal…
We can crowd fund you. It would write itself!
You guys already do! :)
A boy can dream.
Amen - great article. Been thinking the exact same thing and it goes to show you a society given over to the lusts of the flesh. God is still moving though and it seems there are many people waking up to the fact that these things do not bring ultimate joy.
Yeah but that wake up call sometimes take a while and can be grueling to arrive at — and stay at.
To be honest, I think your point about the financialization of everything is spot on.
However, I think there are still long-term opportunities out there if someone is patient. We just have to accept that good opportunities do not come every week, maybe 5-6 times a year if we're lucky. If you look at it from a capital cycle perspective, physical bottlenecks and emerging markets (especially banks) still look attractive. Despite all the bearishness, Indonesia and some other emerging markets remain very interesting places to invest, while also offering diversification away from AI. And I won't even mention some Norwegian oil companies with beautiful cash flows.
But all in all, reflecting on short-termism, I think we are near the end of a cycle. From a historical perspective, periods of huge capex spending like the one we're seeing today generally haven't led to great forward returns.
People follow you and subscribe to your blog to get market insights and stocks to watch. If you abandon that you may lose subscribers. Also your interviews have been great over the years. Hate to see you leave your wheelhouse my friend.
SCORE! The 3 post parlay I bet that you would:
1. mention the Horseshack/Screech fight in a post
2. before 1pm on July 1st
3. while the sun is required to be shining is now a winner! Pay this man his money!
Agree with the post. Yes, anyone with a slight affinity for gambling is truly fucked in the brave new world of "efficient prediction markets"
The crypto Solana recently sponsored the World Poker Tournament. Their thesis is that poker players are the new stock traders. It's not about fundamentals anymore.
I hear shit like “Solana” and just wonder to myself, when have I ever heard anyone say this is something I need to own for [reason]. Why does any of this crap even exist?
To part fools from their money.
Excellent job Chris! I'm just rewatching "The Matrix" trilogy now. Amazing how prescient the Wachowskis' were "back in the day". Of course many of the themes had been "front and center" in sci-fi for decades, but they put a lot of things together very effectively cinematically.
Great article. I imagine you have experienced much more peace and joy over the past 30 days. Paying a momentum signal service seems to be the best way for me to go regarding my 401K.
Short term ups and downs. But confident I’m steering the rudder in the direction of longer term peace and joy.
What Momentum Signal is that, if you don't mind sharing?
Mechanicalmarkettiming.com Had I consistently followed the signal since I started subscribing in 2020 I would have many hundreds of thousands more. Being disciplined enough to ignore the fear has been my problem. But I can’t argue with the results of the signal (except in ‘21). All of the historical signals are on the website for your own backtesting purposes.
Thanks, will check it out
Great Stuff, Chris!
Now 68yrs old I can say you have hit on the "Secret Sauce" to happiness -- and Gen Z is already picking on this too.
This is also how we win back civility. The rejection of Algorithms and a renewed focus on personal and interpersonal connection. While I do keep a Lazer focus on the StockMarket (using mathematical tools as emotional Guardrails), my wife and I have stripped the varnish off almost every other aspect of our lives. We live simple (by design) and wanting nothing. We certainly "could" live flasher, but that's Fools Gold. Peace of Mind and enjoying where your are -- in the present -- is a most precious commodity. It's also not linear. You'll be tested.
Stay strong.
Great article. Glad you are doing better. Someone said, "Attention must be paid!"
This is the finest piece that I’ve ever read and as a three year subscriber (so far) to your Substack, this is the best article you’ve ever written!
I speculated in options, watched ES futures prices til wee hours, my every thought was of making money the following day. I was consumed with this gambling mentality and blew through $515k in 2025, virtually ALL of my life savings.
I wish I’d had your restraint and wisdom to just STOP! Thank God I have a $500k IRA (that I do not actively trade) to fall back on, yet I’m about to turn 60 and my wage earning years are well behind me.
All I want to say is that your readers read your article again and again and learn from MY misfortune. Trading is Gambling. Pure and simple. At this stage of the game, passive index investing is dangerous. T-Bills and physical bullion are the only safe investments going forward
Many people here have commented on their personal experience with options betting. So I will add mine. After taking back control of my IRA/ROTH. Started following a swing trader. After losing about 30% on option trades, I finally told myself, multiple times - just stop!
So funny thing is, this was only the ROTH. The IRA, which is a mix of ETS has done ok YTD. I also manage my wifes IRA, as a set it and forget it. Small changes occasionally. Well, it is has done best of the three! We also only have a half dozen working years left. We could survive now. Really looking to get some good returns to put into the comfortable range.
That was frickin awesome Chris, nailed it!
Anecdotique but true. I was talking with a neighbor this week and he told me his daughter is divorcing after 9 years at age 35 ; hubby lost it all on Bitcoin and borrowed secretly to double down !
To the neighbor's daughter: beware of signing a married-filing-jointly tax return, especially if the crypto trades weren't reported. Or if the supporting records are sloppy or missing. Assuming the damage is already done (filed a 2025 return), there's a possibility of "innocent spouse" relief if the IRS comes after you for your share of real or imagined tax debt but it can be a long expensive hassle to get the IRS to agree with your side of the story.
Thanks. I'll not get involved in giving advice in this situation.