2. Top 10 Companies Account for 34% of S&P 500 Profits
Torsten Slok
3. Tech Stock Relative to Tech Jobs=Higher Profit Margins
Tech stocks vs. Tech jobs. “If you need a ‘stock market is not the economy’ visual, this is a good candidate: Tech stocks relative to the market: all-time high. Tech jobs relative to all jobs: all-time low.”
Kevin Gordon
4. Bitcoin ETFs Flow Reversal….-$2B of Outflows to +$2B of Inflows …IBIT -10% YTD
Google
5. Claude May Grow 80X?
Sherwood
6. Cloud Revenue Going Parabolic
The Transcript
7. Small Cap Still Room for Catch Up….Small Stock IWM +34% vs. Large Cap SPY +87% 5- Year
Ycharts
8. AI FEAR–New Technology Adds Jobs Over Long-Run….Spreadsheets were Predicted to Kill CPA’s Instead they Grew 4x
Prof G-But the tasks professionals perform have never been fixed, according to Eldar Maksymov, an accounting professor at Arizona State University. After the release of the first electronic spreadsheet in 1979, people predicted accountants would face mass unemployment. Instead, after adjusting for population growth, the number of accountants increased 4x over the next 40 years. “In every major occupational group that adopted computers heavily, employment grew faster than in groups that did not,” Maksymov wrote. “Computers eliminated specific tasks within jobs — but the resulting cost reductions created so much new demand that the occupations expanded overall.” Looking at AI, he concludes that the future of every knowledge profession hinges on a single question: Is human demand for analysis, oversight, and assurance elastic?
I believe it is. Case in point: computer programmers. They’re coding less and thinking bigger, according to journalist Clive Thompson, who interviewed more than 70 programmers in Silicon Valley and at small firms across the U.S. As he noted, “a coder is now more like an architect than a construction worker.” One executive Thompson interviewed put it this way: “I have never met a team at Google who says, ‘You know, I’m out of good ideas.’ The answer is always, ‘The list of things I would like to do is nine miles longer than what we can pull off.’” But as the cost of execution drops, new demand will likely come from areas that previously didn’t have access to programmers. “Several developers suggested that the number of software jobs might actually grow,” Thompson wrote. “An untold number of small firms around the country would love to have their own custom-made software, but were never big enough to hire, say, a five-person programmer team necessary to produce it.”
10. Untreated Hearing Loss Is Tied for the #1 Modifiable Dementia Risk Factor (And 1 in 4 Americans Already Has Damage)-Arnold Daily
1. Untreated Hearing Loss Is Tied for the #1 Modifiable Dementia Risk Factor (And 1 in 4 Americans Already Has Damage)
Untreated hearing loss is one of the single largest modifiable contributors to dementia worldwide, accounting for roughly 7% of cases globally, according to the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia prevention. It’s a ranking most people never encounter because they don’t think of their earbuds as a brain-health variable. The leverage is behavioral: noise-induced hearing damage is virtually 100% preventable, yet 1 in 4 American adults under 70 already shows signs, with roughly half of cases tied to everyday sources like headphones and concerts. For those with existing loss, the 2023 ACHIEVE trial found that hearing aids cut the rate of cognitive decline nearly in half over three years. And for everyone else, keeping headphones below 60% volume and wearing earplugs at concerts costs almost nothing, but it might help protect against a less healthy future.
2. The Most Sophisticated Form of Avoidance Is A Full Calendar
The most complicated form of inaction isn’t laziness; it’s the elaborate busyness system high-achievers build to avoid the thing they actually want to do: full calendars, reasonable excuses, and one more “almost ready” that functions as an anchor dressed as wisdom. Arnold’s insight, drawn from repeated first-step commitments across bodybuilding, Hollywood, and politics, draws a clean line: commitment isn’t confidence — it’s what precedes it, and what makes confidence possible after the fact. The practical instruction is deliberately small: name one thing you’re currently protecting instead of using, then design the smallest step that requires real courage and leaves the dock — an email sent, a registration completed, something said out loud to one person.
Investors had expected generally solid results when the reporting season kicked off last month, but they have far surpassed expectations. S&P 500 earnings are expected to have jumped 28.2% in the first quarter from a year earlier, including results from 350 index companies that have reported and analysts’ estimates for those yet to report, according to data as of Tuesday from Tajinder Dhillon, head of earnings and equity research at LSEG Data & Analytics. That increase would be the highest since the fourth quarter of 2021, when businesses were recovering from pandemic lockdowns.
“Excluding special factors like favorable base effects and corporate tax cuts, earnings growth is arguably the strongest in two decades,” Binky Chadha, chief U.S. equity strategist at Deutsche Bank, said in a note.
3. One-Year Small Cap Stocks (IWM) +47% vs. S&P (SPY) +32%
Ycharts
4. Semiconductor Stocks at Record Levels Above 200-Day Moving Average
Barchart
5. 1100 ETFS Launched in 2025….8 Out of 10 Were Actively Managed
6. Amazon Making Third-Party Logistics Available to Outside Companies…. $172B Revenues to Start
WSJ
7. U.S. Consumer Price Index 4% Since 2020
Charlie Bilello
8. The Market Makers on Kalshi are “Mostly Undisclosed”
Perplexity
9. 82% of Single Family Rentals are Owned by Mom and Pop Landlords
Wolf Street There are about 50 million rental units of all types in the US. About 15 million of them, or about 30%, are single-family rental homes (SFRs), of which about 82% are owned by mom-and-pop landlords with 1-10 rentals, and the rest by larger landlords, including a handful of giant landlords.
Wolf Street
10. 3 Reasons Intelligent People Can Be More Indecisive Than Others
Psychology Today You don’t win by finding the best option; you win by getting your time back.– Mark Travers Ph.D.
Key points
The pursuit of the perfect choice can quietly undermine well-being.
People who settle for “good enough” often report higher satisfaction in the long run.
The smarter and more thorough someone becomes in evaluating choices, the harder those choices can feel.
In a world overflowing with options, from careers and investments to streaming choices and dating apps, making decisions should theoretically be easier than ever. More information and more choices ought to help us pick better outcomes. Yet psychology suggests the opposite often proves to be true, especially for smart people, with their highly analytical disposition.
A landmark study by Barry Schwartz and colleagues found that people who strive to make the best possible choice, known as maximizers, often experience greater decisional paralysis and regret, and lower life satisfaction compared to those who settle for an option that is simply “good enough,” known as satisficers.
The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that maximizers tend to be less satisfied with their decisions and report lower levels of happiness, optimism, and self-esteem. In other words, the pursuit of the perfect choice can quietly undermine well-being.
Here are three psychology-backed reasons why highly intelligent or analytical people often struggle the most when it comes to making decisions.
1. Smart People Can Fall Into the “Maximizer Trap”
Smart people tend to set high standards for themselves. While this trait can drive success, it also increases the likelihood of becoming a maximizer, someone who feels compelled to find the absolute best option before committing.
The 2002 study by Schwartz and colleagues introduced the concept of maximizing versus satisficing. The researchers found that individuals who constantly search for the optimal choice tend to experience more regret, perfectionism, and dissatisfaction with their outcomes.
The logic seems straightforward: If you are determined to find the best option, you must compare every possible alternative. But this pursuit often creates an exhausting cycle.
Instead of choosing efficiently, maximizers continue searching for better possibilities, even after they have found a good one. This prolonged evaluation increases cognitive load and delays commitment.
Psychologists call this tendency “analysis paralysis.” Ironically, maximizers may sometimes make objectively strong choices, yet still feel unhappy with them. Because they know there were many alternatives, they keep wondering if something better existed.
By contrast, satisficers, people who choose the first option that meets their criteria, often feel more content with their decisions despite spending less time analyzing them.
2. Smart People May Overanalyze Every Possible Outcome
Intelligent individuals tend to think in complex scenarios. They consider multiple variables, long-term consequences, and hidden trade-offs. While this ability can be beneficial in strategic contexts, it can also make everyday decisions unnecessarily difficult.
A 2023 study shows that maximizers engage in extensive comparison across alternatives, which increases decision difficulty and psychological strain. This constant comparison triggers several mental processes that slow decision-making:
Information overload: Evaluating too many options can overwhelm cognitive resources.
Hypothetical thinking: Imagining every possible outcome can prolong deliberation.
Trade-off sensitivity: Noticing subtle differences makes choices feel riskier.
Because of these factors, decisions that should take minutes can stretch into hours, or even days. More importantly, the brain begins to treat every choice as high stakes. Even minor decisions—what to have for lunch, what laptop to buy, what color to paint a room—can feel like life-defining moves when analyzed through this lens. The result is a decision process that becomes cognitively exhausting and emotionally draining.
3. Smart People Experience More Post-Decision Regret
For many highly analytical people, the struggle doesn’t end after the decision is made. In fact, the real discomfort often begins after the choice. The same 2002 study found that maximizers are significantly more prone to regret and upward social comparison than satisficers. Once a decision is made, maximizers often continue to monitor alternatives.
They ask themselves questions like:
“Did I miss a better option?”
“What if another choice had worked out better?”
“Did I make the optimal decision?”
Maximizers are especially sensitive to feedback about their choices. When new information suggests an alternative might have been better, they tend to interpret it as evidence that they made a mistake. This creates a cycle of self-doubt and second-guessing. Rather than feeling relief after deciding, maximizers remain mentally attached to the road not taken.
In contrast, satisficers are more likely to commit psychologically to their decisions and move forward without revisiting every alternative. This difference helps explain why people who settle for “good enough” often report higher satisfaction in the long run.
The Hidden Cost of Seeking the “Perfect” Choice
Modern life encourages maximizing behavior. We are constantly told to optimize our careers, relationships, finances, and lifestyles. Technology has also made it easier than ever to compare options endlessly, whether scrolling through reviews, rankings, or social media. But psychology suggests that more choice does not always lead to better decisions.
Maximizers are often intelligent, ambitious, and conscientious individuals. Yet their desire to find the optimal solution can trap them in a cycle of overthinking and regret. Maximizers experience higher cognitive load because they are hyper-aware of opportunity costs or the theoretical benefits lost by not choosing the alternatives. This leads to decreased post-choice satisfaction.
In a decision-making matrix, the benefit of additional information decreases as the search time increases. Eventually, the “cost” of the search (in time and mental energy) outweighs the “benefit” of any incremental improvement in the outcome. The paradox is clear: The smarter and more thorough someone becomes in evaluating choices, the harder those choices can feel.
In the real world, “perfect” is often the enemy of “done.” If you try to optimize every single decision, you’ll end up with decision fatigue, a state where your brain is too tired to make even simple choices effectively. Here are three rules you can follow if you identify as a maximizer:
The “satisficing” rule: Instead of looking for the best possible option, look for the first option that meets your pre-set requirements. Once you find it, stop looking.
The 70 percent rule: If you’re 70 percent sure of a decision, make it. The time you save by not chasing that extra 30 percent of certainty is more valuable than the marginal gain of a “perfect” choice.
Post-decision lockdown: Once the choice is made, stop researching. Delete the tabs, stop looking at the better options, and put your energy into making your current choice work.
A version of this post also appears on Forbes.com.
Some people wake up at 5 a.m. to exercise, meditate and journal. They attempt to optimize every moment to create the most productive day possible. If this works for you, great. But it isn’t for everyone.
As a neuroscientist, I don’t follow a strict daily routine. Trying to shove your real life into a rigid structure can create unnecessary stress and undermine what you are trying to achieve.
Instead, I focus on a few key categories to make sure my brain gets what it needs to perform at its best, without burning out. Here’s how.
1. I focus on consistent movement over an intense workout
Physical activity doesn’t have to be intense to make a positive impact on your brain. Most mornings, I do about a minute and half of yoga and 20 pushups before breakfast. When I need a break from work, I take a 10 minute walk.
I also count tasks like cleaning the kitchen, carrying groceries or taking the stairs as helpful movement. It might seem trivial, but research shows that simply appreciating the physical activity you’re already doing can improve health and happiness.
2. I use enjoyable activities as mental fuel, not a reward for productivity
Every day I try to do something fun. I’ll mess around with the guitar, read or watch a TV show or movie I like.
When possible, I try to do activities that are both enjoyable and physical like pickleball. Or I turn chores into a game, like seeing how clean I can get the kitchen in five minutes.
Enjoyable activities boost motivation and reward circuits in your brain, while reducing stress hormones. All of this gives you more energy to invest in your big goals.
3. I prioritize meaningful activities, even if they’re not fun
Meaningful activities are about connecting your actions to ideas, values or relationships that are bigger than your own ego. Not everything that is meaningful is going to be fun, and that’s okay.
Building a company, writing a book, or helping others can be slow, frustrating or uncomfortable. But these experiences provide your brain with an essential sense of purpose and fulfillment. Without that, it’s easy to lose your motivation, even if things look successful on the outside.
I’ll try to connect unpleasant activities to something more meaningful in my life. A visit to the dentist is taking care of my health so I can be there for my kids. Getting through my e-mails is a commitment to the success of my clients.
4. I savor small achievements
If you want to unlock greater satisfaction in your life, don’t ignore your small wins. When you only focus on the final result, you miss out on crucial support your brain needs to stay motivated.
I break big goals into small chunks to maintain a sense of progress. For this, I’ll often use the Pomodoro Technique. I will give myself 25 minutes to work on a project. Then I will give myself a checkmark for completing that 25 minutes, regardless of whether the task is complete.
At the end of the day, even if the project isn’t done, I’ve still got a bunch of completed check boxes. Little sparks of achievement also come from doing chores or any of my enjoyable or meaningful activities.
5. I don’t eliminate socializing for the sake of efficiency
When life gets busy, social activities often get the boot. But as a social species, our brains evolved to rely on and connect with each other. Strong relationships help the systems in your brain designed to boost your mood and reduce stress.
The greatest mistake you can make is ignoring one of your brain’s most basic needs. In this case, all that is required of you is to be fully present with the people you care about.
6. I give myself enough time to rest and reset
Sometimes your brain just needs a break. In a culture that emphasizes constant output, it’s easy to view taking time to rest as a weakness, but that is not the case.
Athletes need sleep and rest to reach their full potential. That isn’t a distraction from their training. They need it to perform at their best. That’s true for all of us.
You don’t need a highly structured or “perfect” routine to succeed. Just focus on what will help your brain feel its best each day.
Alex Korb, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist, UCLA professor, and mindset coach. He is the author of ”The Upward Spiral.”
1. Technology vs. S&P Breaks Above Internet Bubble All-Time High
Stock Market Media
2. Global Defense ETF -15% from Highs…Failed to Make New Highs
StockCharts
3. U.S. Home Construction ETF -20% from Highs with Interest Rates Remaining in Limbo
StockCharts
4. The House Always Wins in the End-“Sophisticated Pros Dominate Polymarket”
WSJ Instead, casual traders are bleeding cash while a small number of sophisticated pros—including trading firms with access to vast streams of data—eat their lunch, according to a Journal analysis of platform data and interviews with traders.
On Polymarket, the Journal found, 67% of profits go to just 0.1% of accounts. That means less than 2,000 accounts netted a total of nearly half a billion dollars. The Journal analyzed 1.6 million Polymarket accounts that have traded since November 2022. There are at least 2.3 million total accounts on the site.
WSJ
5. Odds of the Fed Lowering Rates Dropped to 8% Chance….30-Year Hits 5%
Business Insider
6. DJT Trump Media has Recorded a Net Loss of $1B Since IPO….Hires New CEO
Google
7. The Federal Government Collected $5.3 Trillion Last Year
3. Tom Lee Recommended IGV Software ETF Last Week….It Held the Same Level 4x in a Row
StockCharts
4. Negatives-Oil and Rates Moving Higher
Marketwatch
5. U.S. Oil Exports Surge
6. Venezuela’s Oil Exports Boom
Semafor
7. Size of Sovereign Wealth Funds
8. Nashville Housing Market Rolling Over…Supply 67% Above Average
Nick Gerli
9. 7.2M American Homes Sitting Empty Due to Owners Holding Off on Paying Capital Gains
NYT By Vince Dixon –Roughly 7.2 million single-family homes are sitting empty and being kept off the market, according to the real estate investment service Flock Homes, contributing to a nationwide housing shortage. But a closer look at these “zombie homes” shows that for many owners, selling just isn’t worth it.
NY times
10. Percentage of International Student Athletes in U.S. Division I Colleges
