As of mid-April 2026, the S&P 500 has surged to fresh record territory, closing above 7,000 for the first time and reaching 7,126 on April 17. The Nasdaq has also notched new highs, while the Dow has clawed back toward its peaks. This rally follows a volatile start to the year marked by a sharp correction in late March, driven largely by relief over a tentative U.S.-Iran ceasefire and resilient corporate earnings.But with the index now trading at elevated valuations, a critical question looms: Are investors pricing in flawless earnings delivery while downplaying persistent macroeconomic headwinds? The Earnings Optimism Driving the RallyThe bull case rests on exceptionally strong profit momentum. FactSet data shows analysts now project 18% year-over-year earnings growth for the full-yea

$MSTR 20260417 155.0 PUT$ expiry

Abbott Laboratories, a diversified healthcare giant with a 135+ year history, has faced investor frustration in early 2026. Its stock has pulled back sharply, trading around $95–$96 as of mid-April 2026 following a roughly 6% drop after Q1 results. The primary culprit? Continued weakness in the nutrition segment, which includes household names like Similac infant formula and Ensure adult shakes. This drag has overshadowed solid growth elsewhere, raising questions about near-term recovery and whether ABT remains a compelling long-term holding. The Nutrition Drag: What’s Happening?Abbott’s nutrition business has been a consistent underperformer. In Q4 2025, worldwide nutrition sales fell 8.9% year-over-year to $1.94 billion (9.1% organic decline), driven by U.S. market share losses—partly fr

In late February 2026, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, igniting a conflict that quickly threatened the Strait of Hormuz, spiked oil prices, and sent shockwaves through global markets. As of mid-April, fighting continues amid fragile truce talks, while other wars—from Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine to the persistent Israel-Hamas conflict and civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar—rage on with no end in sight. Yet here we are: the S&P 500 has clawed back every loss from the Iran war’s opening salvos, sitting just a whisper below its all-time high around 7,000 and posting its best weekly gains in months. How is this possible? Wall Street, it seems, has a remarkable talent for compartmentalizing chaos. The market isn’t blind to the wars—it’s simply pricing in a fu

In the age of artificial intelligence, market concentration isn’t a warning sign. It’s the scoreboard.As of the close on April 14, 2026, the cap-weighted S&P 500 (SPY) has posted a blistering +29.07% return over the past year. The equal-weighted version (RSP), by contrast, has lagged badly. The raw RSP/SPY ratio sits at just 0.2893. Normalized to 100 at the start of 2020, it now reads 80.99—down 19.01% over six years. That gap isn’t noise. It’s the clearest evidence that a handful of mega-cap innovators have carried the entire index while the other 493 stocks have mostly watched from the sidelines. Yet here’s the contrarian truth most breadth hawks miss: this extreme concentration is not a bug in the system. It’s the logical outcome of an exponential technology shift. And the first cra

bank earnings season is kicking off right now, and honestly, I'm pretty optimistic about what the big six – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley – are likely to deliver for the first quarter of 2026. Analysts are calling for overall profits to rise around 5% year-over-year across the group. Revenues should grow in the mid-to-high single digits for most of them, which isn't flashy but feels reliable in today's environment.What’s driving this? Net interest income (that sweet spread between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits) is still holding up nicely thanks to rates that, while lower than their peak, remain elevated after the Fed's cuts in late 2025. The Fed has kept the benchmark steady around 3.5-3.75% lately, with just one m

$Microsoft(MSFT)$ long term holding

$NVDA 20260410 160.0 PUT$ full premium at expiry 

No one can predict the future with certainty over a full decade, but Berkshire’s business model is built for durability and compounding, which supports reasonable projections. I’ll focus strictly on earnings, strategy, and share price/market cap based on the latest 2025 full-year results, Greg Abel’s first shareholder letter as CEO, historical trends, and the realities of Berkshire’s current scale. Current Snapshot (as of early 2026)Operating earnings (Berkshire’s preferred metric): $44.5 billion in 2025, down from $47.4 billion in 2024 but still above the five-year average of about $37.5 billion. Insurance underwriting and investment income faced some cyclical pressure. Net earnings (GAAP, including volatile investment gains/losses): Roughly $67 billion in 2025, impacted by mark-to-market

As someone who’s spent countless hours dissecting markets, crunching performance data, and watching investor money flow into shiny new products, I’ve developed a healthy skepticism toward actively managed ETFs. Don’t get me wrong — the idea sounds fantastic. Hand your money to a star manager like Cathie Wood at ARK Invest, let them chase “disruptive innovation” with bold bets on Tesla, CRISPR, and the next big thing, and outperform the boring old S&P 500. What could go wrong? Plenty, it turns out. The case against active ETFs boils down to three hard realities I see play out over and over: sky-high fees that quietly erode your wealth, returns that rarely justify the hype (and often lag simple index funds), and marketing that sells excitement instead of results. And the kicker? Replicat

If you blinked over the past week, you might've missed the wild swing. As of April 8, the S&P 500 has climbed back toward the 6,700–6,800 zone after posting solid gains on ceasefire hopes. The Dow and Nasdaq joined in, with small-caps (Russell 2000) showing even more pop. The trigger? Optimism around a potential pause or framework for de-escalation in the Iran conflict, including talk of reopening the Strait of Hormuz.Oil prices, which had been the big drama queen, dropped sharply—Brent crude pulled back noticeably after spiking hard earlier. That relief eased some of the inflation panic and gave stocks room to run.My honest take: This feels like a classic overreaction unwind. The conflict kicked off late February, sending oil surging (at times well above $100–110), spiking energy cost

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As a regular Singaporean middle-class investor  Ive been nodding along to Warren Buffett’s recent vibes. The Oracle of Omaha (or his successors at Berkshire) has been sitting on a mountain of cash—hundreds of billions—while being a net seller of stocks for quarters on end. Valuations look stretched, the Buffett Indicator is screaming high, and he’s basically saying: “Not much compelling out there right now. Patience is the name of the game.” It makes sense. With the S&P 500 and tech names trading at lofty multiples amid AI hype, chasing growth stocks feels like paying full price for a crowded kopitiam during peak lunch hour. Safe Singapore options? Fixed deposits are hovering around 1.3–1.5% p.a. at best, T-bills barely cracking 1.4%, and even USD deposits top out around 3.5–3.6%.

$Visa(V)$ Definitely one of the best company to own

st eng PE is at all time high Defense stocks aren't best judged on trailing P/E alone. Key factors include:Order backlog & book-to-bill ratio — Visibility into multi-year revenue (ST Eng has a healthy one). Growth profile — Especially in high-margin areas like electronics, cyber, and smart defence systems. EV/EBIT or forward P/E — These better capture the business quality than trailing earnings, which can be lumpy. Contract stability — Government-backed revenue often justifies a premium. Many quality defence names trade at elevated multiples today due to geopolitical spending, but always cross-check with EV/EBITDA, free cash flow conversion, and peer comps (e.g., some pure-play defence peers sit lower, while growth-oriented ones command 30x+ forward). At current levels, ST Eng pr

Hey folks, hope everyone's portfolio is holding up as we kick off Q2 in 2026. With all the noise around AI power demands, green energy ramps, central bank moves, and lingering geopolitics, commodities are staying front and center. After a wild ride in 2025 (hello, record runs in metals), the back half of this year looks like it could reward the patient ones who focus on structural trends over short-term noise.I'm not calling for a massive commodity supercycle blow-off, but a few names stand out as worth watching (and maybe positioning in) through December. Here's my semi-casual take based on the latest analyst chatter from the big banks and research houses—no crystal ball, just the setups that keep popping up. Gold (and Silver as the leveraged sidekick) – Still the safe-haven kingsPrecious

$Bank of America(BAC)$ been holding since 2020 COVID crash

$NVDA 20260327 160.0 PUT$ full premium at expiry 

Ah, another month, another dividend hike on Strategy’s STRC preferred shares.  I can’t help but think back to how I first came across this one. It was late last year—my wife was reminding me (again) that our emergency fund was earning peanuts in the bank, while inflation quietly nibbled away. A colleague who’s been dabbling in US stocks via his Interactive Brokers account forwarded me a link to Strategy Inc (formerly MicroStrategy). “Eh, this one like high-interest savings but with Bitcoin behind it,” he said. I laughed at first—Bitcoin? Sounds risky for a middle-class guy like me with a stable job, CPF contributions, and two kids heading to primary school soon. But I dug deeper. STRC, or “Stretch” as some call it, is Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock listed on Nasdaq. It’s designe

As we wrap up the first quarter of 2026, the markets have delivered a more sobering story than many expected after the strong momentum of 2025. The “easy money” environment has clearly shifted, and while underlying strengths remain—particularly in certain pockets of the economy—the path forward feels noticeably choppier amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, tariff uncertainties, and growing scrutiny around AI’s path to real monetization. Q1 Recap: Resilience TestedJanuary brought its share of volatility, driven by tariff headlines and fresh geopolitical concerns. The S&P 500 ended the quarter in slightly negative territory—down roughly 4-5% overall—rather than posting the modest gains some early commentary had hoped for. That said, there were encouraging signs beneath