Category Archives: Daily Top Ten

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 March 19, 2026

1. Bitcoin Holding 2024 Lows

Bitbo.io


2. MSFT Holding 2025 Lows and 200 Week Moving Average

StockCharts


3. Euro Currency Rolling Over Post Iran War—FXE Euro ETF

StockCharts


4. 422 Members of S&P were Negative Yesterday


5. Short Interest has Tripled in Oil Funds

The Kobeissi Letter


6. Annual CO2 Emissions

Our World in Data


7. Dubai Airport Flights Fall Off Cliff

Semafor


8. NYC Spends More Per Homeless Person than NYC Median Household

Charlie Smirkley

Perplexity


9. San Fran Housing—Bidding Wars $400k Over Asking and Rents Up +14%

WSJ Katherine Bindley  San Francisco’s housing market is experiencing a significant rebound, driven by the AI boom and municipal leadership changes.

SAN FRANCISCO—At a Pacific Heights open house in January, a line of people made their way up the steps of a two-bedroom, one-bath cooperative. There were 85 of them—steps, not people. Eight flights, no elevator.

The property received 14 offers and sold for over $1.62 million, more than $400,000 over the asking price.

While much of the U.S. housing market has been stuck in a rut, slowed by elevated mortgage rates and home prices near record highs, pockets of San Francisco are rebounding in a big way.

The AI boom, a new mayor and other changes in municipal leadership have helped to bring the city back, reversing a yearslong slump that was compounded by the ripple effects of the pandemic, crime and persistent struggles with homelessness.

Rents citywide were up 14% year over year in February, the fastest growth in the country, according to Apartment List. Mansions have been getting snapped up. An uptick in demand coupled with the city’s notorious lack of housing supply means that fierce bidding wars are breaking out again for single-family homes and condominiums in desirable neighborhoods.

https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/san-francisco-housing-market-ai-8c4e3f59


10. Post 50-Actively Invest in Someone Else’s Growth

The Pump Club

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 March 18, 2026

1. Private Credit Defaults Hit 9.2%

Michael A. Gayed


2. Private Credit Books at Large Firms Bigger than Private Equity Side

Gain


3. Betting on 5 Minute and 15 Minute Moves in Crypto-Financial Times

Financial Times


4. Follow Up to Yesterday’s Under the S&P Hood Slide….40% of S&P Stocks -20% from Highs

Special Situations


5. XLF Financial Sector ETF –50day About to Cross Below 200day to Downside

StockCharts


6. Defense Company Valuations Post Trump II-Prof G

Prof G Markets


7. Small Cap Holding Above 200-Day


8. Gasoline Prices Still Below 2024 Highs

Wolf Street


9. Home Buyers vs. Sellers

Bilello


10. Natural Dopamine

Mark Hyman

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 March 17, 2026

1. Where Does Hormuz Oil Go?


2. Hormuz Traffic -98%

Sherwood News With attacks on vessels in the narrow transit corridor escalating last week, Bloomberg data shows that daily ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has plunged 98.5% over the past three weeks, from 67 vessels on February 22 to just one ship on March 16. 

The only maritime gateway between the Persian Gulf and the open ocean, the strait handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, with very few alternatives if closed.

Sherwood


3. Mag 7 Market Cap History-Bespoke

Bespoke’s


4. INDA India ETF Hit -20% from Highs…Closed Below 200-Week Moving Average

StockCharts


5. Value of Private Equity Deals Held for More than 7 Years Hits $1T

Financial Times


6. Quarterly Performance of S&P 500 When Yield Spreads Narrow vs. Widen

Nasdaq Dorsey Wright The economy and the stock market are not one in the same, but there is a typically a strong relationship between the two and US equities have historically performed significantly better when high yield spreads are narrowing, indicating favorable economic conditions. The table below shows the quarterly performance of the S&P 500 when high yield spreads are narrowing versus when they are widening. It is also apparent that the magnitude of the change is also change is also significant as the S&P has performed better during quarters when spreads narrowed significantly and worse when they widened by a large amount.

Nasdaq


7. High Dispersion Under the Hood of S&P

Axios


8. VC Backed Crypto Companies Investing in Non-Crypto Businesses

Pitchbook-So far in 2026, VC-backed crypto companies have invested $1.4 billion in startups outside the industry, more than twice the $600 million they invested in crypto-focused startups, according to PitchBook data.

PitchBook


9. Probability of a Rate Hike Higher than Cut as of March


10. Cultivating a Lucky Mindset

Looking for the lucky explanations in life can transform our experiences-Psychology Today Dayna Lee-Baggley Ph.D.

Key points

  • Train your brain to find lucky interpretations with practice and repetition.
  • Acknowledge reality and reframe it positively without ignoring negative events.
  • Practice finding the lucky explanation to create new neural connections and change your mindset.

There was a study of people who considered themselves lucky and people who considered themselves unlucky (see Wiseman, 2003). They had to read a scenario and discuss it. One of the scenarios: You’re at the bank, and while you’re at the bank, there’s a robbery, and you get shot in the arm.

  • The unlucky people said, How unlucky am I? I’m at the bank, and I get shot during a robbery.
  • The lucky people said, How lucky am I? I only got shot in my arm.

This begs the question: Do they have a lucky life, or did they find ways to find a “lucky” interpretation?

Cultivating a Lucky Mindset

Most of us don’t automatically come up with a lucky explanation when faced with adversity. It requires conscious effort and practice. However, with time and repetition, you can spontaneously train your brain to expect and generate these positive interpretations.

Acknowledge the Reality: It’s crucial to understand that adopting a lucky mindset doesn’t mean ignoring or downplaying negative events. The lucky participants in the study acknowledged the fact that they had been shot. They weren’t engaging in toxic positivity, which involves denying or minimizing genuine distress.

Reframe the Situation: After acknowledging the reality, intentionally look for a positive angle. For instance, “I got shot in the arm, but how lucky am I that it wasn’t more serious?” In psychology, a well-known effect highlights the importance of who you compare yourself to. When researchers examine the happiness levels of Olympic medal winners, they find an intriguing pattern: gold medalists are the happiest, followed by bronze medalists, with silver medalists being the least happy. This phenomenon occurs because each group has different reference points for comparison. Bronze medalists tend to compare themselves to those who did not win any medal, which makes them pleased and grateful for their achievement. In contrast, silver medalists often compare themselves to gold medalists, feeling disappointed that they did not win the top prize. Think about your comparison group when proposing a lucky explanation.

Practice Regularly: Like any skill, this mindset requires regular practice. Whenever you encounter challenges, make it a habit to finish the sentence with, “How lucky am I?” As you repeat this process, you create a new neural connection. Over time, your brain will begin to do this automatically.

Conclusion

Science shows us that adopting a lucky mindset doesn’t mean ignoring life’s challenges. It’s about finding a balanced perspective that acknowledges difficulties while recognizing the positives. Consciously practicing this technique can train your brain to seek the lucky explanation. This can make life feel way more manageable and hopeful.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-psychology-of-weight-loss/202405/cultivating-a-lucky-mindset

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 March 16, 2026

1. S&P Short-Term Oversold

Barchart


2. Financial Stocks Leading S&P Lower


3. Financials Correction Started with Private Credit Sell-Off….Now Moving to Investment Grade?

Tavi Costa


4. MAG 7 Official -10% Correction….Closes Below 200-Day

StockCharts


5. Jet Fuel Chart Breaks Above Ukraine Invasion Highs

Jet fuel. “Jet fuel costs have increased by 81% since the start of the war in Iran and are up by 124% this year.”

Joseph Brusuelas – RSM


6. 87% of Asian Crude Flows thru Strait of Hormuz

Barrons -87%-The percentage of crude oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz that was sold into Asian markets in 2025.

The problem is that the strait can’t be cleared solely through a bombing campaign, or an attack by destroyers. Iran’s navy has been severely depleted by the U.S., but the country doesn’t need large attack ships to scare commercial vessels away. Its weapons include mines, fast attack boats, missiles and drones. Layered on top of each other, they become exceptionally difficult to remove.

“They’ve created an integrated, vertical stack of threats that can cover the strait from undersea all the way to above the surface,” said Jonathan Schroden, chief research officer at the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded nonprofit that does research for the Navy.

Once mines are in the water, this becomes “one of the most dangerous scenarios that people who focus on the Middle East have been thinking about for decades,” he said.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/hormuz-strait-iran-mines-reopening-news-tankers-hit-7d83dbef?mod=past_editions

Prof G Chart


7. The Remaking of NY Times

New York Times – News Subscribers v. Bundle/Other

Over the last 4 years, the New York Times has successfully pivoted away from its 175 year history as a news-first company.

News-only subscribers have collapsed by 65%, while bundle and other single-product subscribers have increased by 157%. Now, only 1 in 10 subscribers are coming to the New York Times strictly for the news.

This successful pivot is a byproduct of the New York Times’ growth in mobile gaming (acquired Wordle in 2022), podcasts, cooking content, and personalized sports content (acquired The Athletic in 2022 as well).

This rebrand also helped revitalize the business from a profitability perspective. From 2007 to 2022, operating income at the New York Times went from $187 million to $202 million. Over the last 3 years, operating income has exploded to $432 million.

Fiscal.ai


8. Venezuala Owes $150B to Foreign Creditors

Google


9. Share of New Car Sales that are EV’s

Semafor


10. Shane Parish Interview with Marriott

J.W. Marriott built the foundation of the world’s largest hotel company.

But he didn’t open his first hotel until he was 55.

Everything started with a nine-seat root beer stand in Washington, DC, and a simple goal: serve people well and build something that lasts. And of course, he didn’t just go from restaurants to hotels; along the way, he started the airline catering industry.

This episode explores the timeless principles that guided his success, including his obsession with downside risk, his practice of isolating variables, and his expansion during the Great Depression while his competitors folded.

A few of the Tiny Lessons I took away:

  1. “Manage your time. Short conversations to the point. Make every minute count.”
  2. Take care of your people before your customers. People who feel disposable deliver a disposable experience.
  3. “Guard your habits. Bad ones will destroy you.”
  4. The person who wrote the rule might say yes if you actually show up and ask.
  5. “Discipline is the greatest thing in the world. Where there is no discipline, there is no character.”

https://fs.blog/about/

TOPLEY’S TOP 10 March 11, 2026

1. Redemption Requests for Non-Traded BDC’s

Bloomberg


2. South Korea Leverage Stocks Bets Hit Record

Dave Lutz Jones Trading Retail traders in Asia are loading up on borrowed money to fund purchases in their brokerage accounts, traders and dealers said, as they chase oil and energy ​prices higher and scoop up sinking stocks.  Investors have made fresh margin payments to extend positions as well as top up where they have incurred losses, brokers said.  The ⁠behavior is emblematic of a habit of dip buying honed in seemingly unstoppable markets in the years since retail trading exploded in popularity during pandemic lockdowns – one which has repeatedly ​proven highly lucrative.


3. 2012-2024 Tech vs. Energy/Materials

The Kobeissi Letter


4. Banks -10% Correction

Barchart


5. TSLA Holds Level for 4th Time in One-Year

StockCharts


6. HIMS Pulled Back to 2024 Levels Before this Week’s Rally…40% of Float Short

StockCharts


7. Tether And The Hidden Demand For U.S. Treasuries-The Crypto Advisor Blog

One of the more remarkable data points in digital assets today is this: if Tether were a country, it would rank among the top-20 foreign holders of U.S. government debt. According to the company’s most recent attestation, Tether holds roughly $122 billion in direct U.S. Treasury bills backing its USDT stablecoin. At that level, it would sit around 17th place globally, ahead of countries such as Israel and Germany and just behind major sovereign holders like Saudi Arabia and Brazil. For context, the threshold to enter the top 10 foreign holders of Treasuries is roughly $310 billion, meaning Tether would need to add about $190 billion more – more than double its current holdings – to reach that tier.

What makes this especially notable is how quickly those reserves have grown. Tether’s Treasury exposure has expanded dramatically alongside the growth of stablecoins and digital-dollar liquidity inside crypto markets.

  • Q4 2021: ~$34.5B in U.S. Treasury bills
  • Q4 2022: ~$39.2B
  • Q4 2023: ~$63.1B
  • Q4 2024: ~$94.5B
  • Most recent: ~$122B

Over roughly four years, Tether’s direct Treasury holdings have increased by more than $85 billion, including about $27–28 billion added in just the past year. This rise closely tracks the expansion of USDT itself. Tether’s market capitalization has grown from roughly $68 billion at the end of 2021 to more than $180 billion today, reinforcing the direct relationship between stablecoin issuance and demand for short-term U.S. government debt.

https://thecryptoadvisor.substack.com


8. What is Gaesa?  Cuba’s Military Business Conglomerate

Perplexity


9. Expected vs. Actual Costs Afghanistan and Iraq-Prof G Blog Ed Elson

Ed Elson’s


10. Healthiest Way to Make Coffee at Home-Perplexity

Perplexity