Category Archives: Daily Top Ten

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 January 07, 2026

1. Profit Adjusted Forward P/E Model Not Expensive …Do Your Own Research Here

Profit-adjusted valuation. “Using our profitability-adjusted model, today’s P/E comes out to about 16.6x, just a touch higher from its 20-year average of 16.2x.”

Daily Chartbook


2. Only 2 Mag 7 Stocks Outperformed S&P 500 in 2025


@Charlie Bilello


3. Oil Service Stocks OIH Pops +9%

Google Finance


4. TAN Solar ETF Left for Dead Last Year Making Run at 2023 Highs

StockCharts


5. Space UFO ETF—2025 Broke Out of 5-Year Sideway Pattern….Broke to New Highs Yesterday

StockCharts


6. IPO Market 2026?  Some Whales in Pipeline

The Irrelevant Investor


7. Median Age of Company Going Public 14 Years

Abnormal Returns


8. Natural Gas Back to Lows

Barchart


9. 4% Mortgage Update

Wolf Street Combined, the share of below 4%-mortgages dropped to 51.5% of all mortgages outstanding, the lowest since Q4 2020, as homeowners, facing changes in life – new job in a different city, divorce, growing family, death, etc. – ever so reluctantly sell their home and thereby let go of these ultra-low interest-rate mortgages.

At the peak in Q1 2022, over 65% of all mortgages outstanding had interest rates below 4%.

Wolf Street


10. Genetics, Environment, and Personality

Psychology Today Why personality has less to do with upbringing than many assume. Mark L. Ruffalo LCSW

  • Genetic factors account for much of the variation in personality traits across the lifespan.
  • Shared upbringing plays a smaller role in adult personality than many clinical models assume.
  • These findings have important implications for psychotherapy practice.

Most clinicians still underestimate the degree to which genetic factors shape personality traits and personality development. This is not controversial within behavioral genetics, but it remains surprisingly controversial in everyday clinical thinking.

Twin and adoption studies converge on a striking conclusion. Roughly half or more of the variance in most personality traits is attributable to genetic factors (Vukasović & Bratko, 2015). When combined with non-shared environmental influences, that figure exceeds 90%. What is notably absent is a large role for the shared environment, including broad features of upbringing that many psychotherapeutic models implicitly treat as decisive (Krueger et al., 2008).

This evidence has led me to revise my own thinking over the past few years. Like many clinicians trained in the psychoanalytic tradition, I once assumed that early relational experience held explanatory primacy for adult personality. I now believe that view substantially overstates what childhood environment can plausibly explain, even while underestimating what psychotherapy itself can still accomplish.

What the Data Actually Show

Genetic influence does not imply immutability or biological determinism. Traits can be shaped, moderated, and expressed differently over time, including through psychotherapy. What genetics challenges is not the possibility of change, but the assumption that adult personality structure is best explained by early childhood experience.

Shared family environment accounts for surprisingly little variance in adult personality. Siblings raised in the same home are often no more similar than strangers, once genetic relatedness is accounted for (Krueger et al., 2008). By contrast, non-shared environmental influences account for much of the remaining variance and often occur well outside early childhood (Plomin, 2011).

This creates a problem for psychotherapeutic models that rely on a simple developmental narrative. In those models, enduring traits are often treated as sequelae of traumaattachment failure, or parental misattunement. Such explanations are compelling, but they often exceed what the evidence can support.

Implications for Psychotherapy

If core personality traits are strongly influenced by genetics, then many of the features patients bring into treatment are not the products of childhood adversity. They are part of the individual’s constitutional disposition. Recognizing this does not diminish the role of psychotherapy; it simply clarifies its task.

Psychotherapy can and does help patients change. It can alter patterns of affect regulation, interpersonal behavior, self-understanding, and the way personality traits are expressed over time. It does so not by locating a childhood origin for every enduring feature of personality, but by helping patients understand how their relational patterns repeatedly play out in the present.

Some contemporary psychodynamic approaches already reflect this reality. Treatments such as Kernberg’s transference-focused psychotherapy and Gunderson’s good psychiatric management explicitly acknowledge temperamental and genetic factors, and they focus less on excavating hidden childhood causes than on helping patients understand current patterns of affect, relationships, and behavior.

This distinction matters clinically. Affective intensity, impulsivity, suspiciousness, and obsessionality may reflect enduring traits rather than the lasting effects of trauma. When clinicians assume otherwise, treatment can drift into elaborate reconstructions of childhood that are not well supported by the evidence.

Childhood experience still matters, but its role is often misunderstood. Development reflects an interaction between innate temperament and environment, with children shaping their environments as much as they are shaped by them. What looks like a pathogenic upbringing may in part reflect a difficult temperament eliciting more conflict or misattunement.

The arguments advanced here rest on a simple assumption that is not always made explicit: that what is true matters, and that clinical theory should be guided by the best available evidence rather than by tradition or preference.

Psychotherapy’s effectiveness lies in helping patients live more flexibly and consciously with the psychological structure they actually possess—one shaped by an interaction between innate temperament and largely non-shared environmental influences. A therapy grounded in that reality is not more limited. It is more honest, and ultimately more humane.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/from-freud-to-fluoxetine/202512/genetics-environment-and-personality

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 January 06, 2026

1. Tech Sector Saw the Biggest Valuation Contraction in 2025 vs. Other Sectors

The Irrelevant Investor


2. Copper New Highs

Bloomberg


3. Dow Transports Breaking Out

StockCharts


4. Financial Stocks XLF Make New Highs….Copper, Transports and Financials Make New Highs-Not the Setup for Slowdown or Recession

StockCharts


5. CES Conference Highlights

Perplexity


6. Norway 96%$ EV Cars…. Population is 5.6m

Chartr


7. Iran Inflation

Statista


8. Iran Protests…. Over 40% of Iran Unemployed are University Grads

Google AI


9. Home Affordability by County

The Daily Dirtnap


10. What you don’t know-Seth’s Blog

Are entrepreneurs professionals?

In professional fields, like law, medicine or accounting, it’s expected that you’ve done the reading. A professional has seen what has come before, understands the best practices and eagerly duplicates effective methods that have been shown to work.

As our understanding of marketing, management and tech has grown, there’s been a rise in intentionally naive wannabe entrepreneurs who decide that energy and authenticity are far more important than knowledge. That didn’t used to be a choice, now it is.

Sure, someone is going to win the startup lottery, but it probably isn’t going to be you. The good news is that there’s a lot to learn, all from easily accessible sources. It’s way less stressful to do it right than it is to do it over again.

https://seths.blog

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 January 05, 2026

1. Margins Expand in 2025

Carson Group


2. Strong Retail Demand for Gold

Apollo


3. Stock Based Compensation of AI Companies

WSJ


4. NYT Stock-NY Times vs. S&P 500 from Trump I Election to Today….NYT +588% vs. S&P 500 +278%

YCharts


5. Tesla Historical Deliveries

Wolf Street


6. Comparing AI Rally

Bloomberg


7. MSTR Shares Since It Began Buying Bitcoin


8. DOJ seeks to enlist 400 attorneys to review more than 5M pages of Epstein records: Sources

The review of the documents is expected to take much of January, sources said.  ByKatherine Faulders and Alexander Mallin

The Department of Justice is asking for help reviewing 5.2 million pages of unreviewed documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, seeking to enlist 400 lawyers total from its criminal and national security divisions along with the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Florida and New York, according to people familiar with the matter. 

As Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in an interview earlier this month, the DOJ already had nearly 200 lawyers working to review the files.But in recent days, department leadership has made clear to the workforce that more help is needed.

The New York Times was first to report the development.  The review of the documents is expected to take much of January, the sources said.  The reorienting of resources from both the criminal and national security divisions has already raised concerns among current and former DOJ officials given the department has already diverted many of those resources towards immigration enforcement, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-seeks-enlist-400-attorneys-review-5m-pages/story?id=128809409


9. Executions in Iran estimated to have doubled in 2025, report says

Sebastian Usher Middle East analyst

The number of executions in Iran in 2025 is estimated to have more than doubled compared to the number that took place across the country in 2024.

Norwegian-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group told the BBC it had verified at least 1,500 executions up until the start of December, adding that many more have taken place since.

Last year, IHR was able to verify 975 executions – although the exact number is never completely clear as Iranian authorities do not give official figures.

However, the analysis shows another significant annual rise, and the figures chime with those provided by other monitoring groups.

Iran’s government has previously defended its use of the death penalty, saying it is limited to only “the most severe crimes”.

Execution figures were already on the rise before mass demonstrations broke out across the country in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.

That protest movement represented the biggest challenge to the legitimacy of Iran’s theocratic leadership for many years.

In response, authorities intensified the rate of executions from around 520 in 2022 to 832 the following year – according to the figures verified by IHR.

There have been some executions for protesters or alleged spies – but 99% of those executed have been for murder or drug offences – a ratio which has remained constant.

Activists have said that the rate of executions in Iran increases when the regime feels under threat and that the aim is to forestall internal opposition by instilling fear in the population.

It seems to be borne out by the fact that since the 12-day war with Israel in June, as well as major setbacks for Iran’s proxy forces across the region, there’s been another big surge.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v1g227p4xo?utm_source=semafor


10. Rage Bait-Dr. Hyman

Mark Hyman

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 December 30, 2025

1. Game On…Bet on Anything

Callum Thomas


2. U.S. Dollar Worst Year Since 2003

Hedgeye


2. FTSE 100 UK Market Outperformed S&P for First Time Since 2009

Barron’s


3. Copper Miner FCX Making Run at 20-Year Breakout

Google Finance


4. Private Equity Selling a Record Amount of General Partner Stakes

WSJ The market for general-partner stakes—investments in a private asset manager that typically let the buyer share in management fees and deal profits—rebounded in 2025 after three lean years. GP-stake deal volume totaled $3.5 billion through the end of October, on pace to easily exceed the record of $3.6 billion set in 2015, according to PitchBook data.  And the market could expand dramatically over the next two years. A survey of fund managers by law firm Dechert showed that 77% plan a stake sale in the next 24 months, up from 34% in last year’s survey.

WSJ


5. Post Tariffs—Still Large Increase in Foreign Demand for U.S. Assets

Continued Strong Foreign Demand for US Assets

Despite the turbulence surrounding Liberation Day in April, foreign investors ended up buying more US assets in 2025 than in 2024, see chart below.

Note: 2025 data is annualized. Sources: US Department of Treasury, Macrobond, Apollo Chief Economist


6. CPA Exam Goes Back to In-Person

Semafor


7. Google Now Keeps Line Item for “Euro Fines”

The Kobeissi Letter


8. U.S. Religion Per 100 People

Visual Capitalist


9. USA’s safest and most dangerous cities ranked

Crime rates are often viewed as the best way to determine if a city is safe, but a recent push seeks to expand the definition of safety.

N’dea Yancey-Bragg

USA TODAY

What are the top 10 safest cities?

The top 10 safest cities in the United States, according to WalletHub, are:

  1. Warwick, Rhode Island
  2. Overland Park, Kansas
  3. Burlington, Vermont
  4. Juneau, Alaska
  5. Yonkers, New York
  6. Casper, Wyoming
  7. South Burlington, Vermont
  8. Columbia, Maryland
  9. Lewiston, Maine
  10. Salem, Oregon

What are the top 10 most dangerous cities?

The nation’s top 10 most dangerous cities (or the least safe of the 182 ranked), according to WalletHub, are:

  1. New Orleans
  2. Memphis, Tennessee
  3. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  4. Detroit
  5. Baltimore
  6. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  7. Houston
  8. San Bernardino, California
  9. Philadelphia
  10. Cleveland

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/12/29/safest-most-dangerous-cities-2025/87568616007


10. Michael Jordan Says His Bulls Contract Had a Clause He’s Positive No Players Today Have. It’s the Secret to Becoming the Best

In a recent interview, Michael Jordan speaks about the “love of the game” clause from his playing days, and how that helped shape the player he became.

EXPERT OPINION BY JUSTIN BARISO, AUTHOR, EQ APPLIED @JUSTINJBARISO

 is widely recognized as one of the best basketball players to ever live. In a recent interview, Jordan revealed one of the secrets to his success:

His love of the game.

Jordan says he loved the game so much he made sure to have a special clause included in his contract when playing with the Chicago Bulls, one which he’s “positive” players today don’t have: the “love of the game” clause.

“If I was driving with you down the street, and I see a basketball game on the side of the road, I can go play in that basketball game,” Jordan told NBC’s Mike Tirico. “And if I get hurt, my contract is still guaranteed.”

Jordan went on to explain that constant practice, not just doing drills but playing real games, helped him and other NBA players like Larry Bird master their craft. It was playing in games that helped players develop their love of basketball, and helped them remain passionate about the game, rather than just viewing it as a job.

“I love the game so much, I would never let someone take the opportunity for me to play the game away from me,” Jordan said.

Jordan’s “love of the game” clause teaches us an important secret to finding career success, namely: To truly become the best at what you do, you have to love it.

This secret is related to emotional intelligence, the ability to understand and manage emotions to reach a goal. How can you leverage emotional intelligence to master what you do? Let’s explore. (If you enjoy this article, consider signing up for my free emotional intelligence course.)

Leveraging your ‘love of the game’

To clarify, Jordan wasn’t speaking about becoming the best basketball player ever.

Although countless fans and analysts alike have pegged Jordan as the GOAT (greatest of all time), Jordan typically steers away from that conversation, saying that title disrespects the basketball legends who’ve come before him, and the players who play today.

Rather, Jordan was primarily interested in reaching his full potential—and his love of the game fueled that drive. “Basketball was that type of love for me,” Jordan said. “I had to find a way to make sure I was the best basketball player I could be.”

Jordan’s success led to his becoming the wealthiest professional athlete in history. Most of his earnings didn’t come from his playing contracts, though. Rather, they resulted in multiple business ventures and branding deals, most notably the Jordan brand with Nike.

But Jordan says for him, the brand never affected what he was going to do on the basketball court.

Maximizing Productivity: How a Busy Event Design and Production Firm Saves Time, Money, and Hustle

“I put the work first, and then the brand evolved based on the work,” Jordan said. “We would play this game for free. We did. And now we just happen to get paid for it.”

So, how can you apply this to your own work?

There are several reasons business owners run the businesses they do. You may have taken over a family business. Maybe you dabbled in the world of self-employment and discovered you enjoyed the freedom it offered. Other entrepreneurs become so out of necessity: Mark Cuban started his first business after getting fired.

But regardless of how you got into the business you now run, the secret to mastering your craft is to develop a love for what you do.

Ask yourself:

  • What aspects of my work do I really love? The things I’d do for free?
  • How can I practice those things as much as possible?
  • How can I further leverage that love to master my craft?

As you answer those questions, and as you put in the work, you’ll find yourself constantly improving, continually growing, and consistently becoming a better (work) version of yourself. Because if there’s one thing that Michael Jordan taught us, it’s that natural ability, talent, and skill will get you far, but love is what makes you the best.

www.inc.com

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 December 29, 2025

1. U.S. ETFs Attracted $1.4 Trillion in 2025…..1000 New Products Entered the Market

ETF stats. “US-listed ETFs have attracted a staggering $1.4 trillion in 2025, shattering the annual flow record set just last year. At the same time, more than 1,000 new products have entered the market — another unprecedented sum. Trading volume in the ETF market also hit a new yearly high. The last time all three measures hit a record in a single year was in 2021.”

Katie Greifeld – Bloomberg


2. Interval Funds Doubled the Number of Launches

Reuters


3. VIX Volatility Index Broke to New Lows this Week

StockCharts


4. Tech Companies Moved $120B of Data Center Spending Off their Balance Sheets

FT-Tech companies have moved more than $120bn of data centre spending off their balance sheets using special purpose vehicles funded by Wall Street investors, adding to concerns about the financial risks of their huge bet on artificial intelligence. Meta, Elon Musk’s xAI, Oracle and data centre operator CoreWeave have led the way on complex financing deals to shield their companies from the large borrowing needed to build AI data centres.

Financial Times


5. Bitcoin Mining ETF WGMI +71% 2025

Bitcoin Miners Thrive Off a New Side Hustle: Retooling Their Data Centers for AI

The pivot to AI has lifted a bitcoin-mining ETF by around 90% this year, even as bitcoin itself has slumped.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/bitcoin-miners-thrive-off-a-new-side-hustle-retooling-their-data-centers-for-ai-bdc408a9?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeiGFl2ziNeFUgJinPRdKgwAYnB7HPOWWtgC7oVvtkwBNMiM6uwpMpFbB-lQUA%3D&gaa_ts=694ef376&gaa_sig=17wIACkXmqrcS96rNoMnT3yJO4ZVZNTthlIJSsYSVkBr544GXsQa3e6plYtTjWYVzkoK00ttLmOSWZf9dSlwDA%3D%3D

Google Finance


6. WGMI -40% from 2025 Highs

StockCharts


7. China Investigated 63 High-Ranking  Party Leaders in 2025

Semafor


8. Share of U.S. 30-Year Olds Who…Prof G Blog

Prof G Media


9. States Renters vs. Home Owners %

Visual Capitalist


10. Building Health for Future

Mark Hyman