6. IPO Market Still Running at Half the Amount Raised in 2021
Barron’s
7. Dollar Rolling Back Over
Barchart
8. Luxury Home Market Slows
WSJ The number of luxury-home sales nationwide dropped 0.7% during the three months ended Aug. 31, compared with the same period last year, according to data from real-estate brokerage Redfin, which said luxury sales nationwide dropped to the lowest level for that period since it began tracking the market in 2013.
Price growth also slowed. During the three months ended Aug. 31, the median sale price for luxury properties—defined as the top 5% of the market—increased 3.9% year over year to $1.25 million, according to Redfin. But that is down from a 6.1% year-over-year price jump for the three months ended Aug. 31, 2024.
WSJ
9. How Religious is Your State? Pew Research
Pew Research Center
10. How to Become a Super Learner
Psychology Today Science-based techniques can help you learn more effectively. George S. Everly, Jr. PhD,
Key points
Science has revealed how to accelerate the learning process, with exercise, multimedia learning, and more.
Super learning techniques may even help overcome learning challenges.
Super learning techniques may enhance the brain’s learning capacity through increased neuroplasticity.
In my first year of high school, my father was summoned to my counselor’s office. He was advised to remove me from high school as I would likely not graduate. And if I did graduate, I would certainly never be accepted into college. It seems I was simultaneously burdened with two debilitating syndromes — dyslexia and ADHD. So, while my academic performance was short of outright failure, my prognosis did not seem very positive to my teachers at the time. Against my counselor’s advice, my father insisted I continue in high school.
My father delayed telling me about his encounter with my counselor until my graduation, but it wasn’t my high school graduation. My father decided to reveal his encounter with my counselor only when I reached the age of 27 and had just completed my first doctoral training program. What happened? Now, many years later, having been a professor at two of the leading universities in the world and the author of over 20 books I look back and try to answer the question “What happened?”
Jim McCann (author of the book Lodestar: Tapping into the Ten Timeless Pillars of Success) hosts a popular podcast, “Celebrations Chatter.” He recently interviewed Dr. Barbara Oakley. Oakley’s book, Learning How to Learn, is a national best-seller and her MOOC of the same name has been accessed by over 4 million learners. In her interview, her book, and her MOOC, Oakley describes how she went from an 18-year-old military recruit who hated math to a professor of engineering. What happened? She unravels the mysteries of learning. She describes how to harness an understanding of how the brain works so as to help you become a super learner. Most importantly, however, her message is a message of hope for all of us, especially those of us challenged by formal education or just learning in general.
The Secrets of Super Learning
Interestingly, my own personal journey with learning seems like a confirming case study of many of the techniques advocated by Oakley. Here are several techniques that appear to accelerate learning and creativity that almost anyone can utilize.
Moderate physical exercise before studying appears to facilitate learning.
Moderate physical exercise prior to taking a test appears to enhance test performance.
Try the Pomodoro Technique, wherein you engage in highly focused study, but only for 25 minutes. Then relax for 10-15 minutes. Then repeat.
Try “pre-sleep learning” (hypnogogic learning). This technique involves studying a problem as you literally fall asleep. The technique is purported to enhance retention and creativity. It was used by Thomas Edison and by Friedrich Kekulé, the chemist who famously envisioned a snake biting its own tail as an analogue for the structure of benzene. And it helped write a textbook that has been in print 45 years (Everly & Lating, 2019).
Multimedia learning involves taking the material to be learned and converting it into multiple media, such as a) text material, b) listening to an audio presentation of the same text, c) converting the text into a rhythmic poetic cadence, d) combining the text with music, and e) even converting key concepts into representative pictures.
Use a four-step active learning process: a) study the material for 25 minutes, b) reduce the material to an outline of only the key points, c) close your eyes and relax for 10 minutes, and finally d) have someone quiz you on the material just learned.
Lastly, harness the Pygmalion Effect. Find a friend or mentor who believes in you and who will support you in difficult times but most importantly be a relentless advocate and source of encouragement.
These techniques may be useful because they harness several mechanisms known to facilitate learning, especially overcoming barriers to the learning process (Oakley et al., 2018; Everly & Lating, 2019).
They seem to facilitate neuroplasticity, wherein the brain reorganizes itself in order to understand and retain new material. Physical exercise, pre-sleep learning (hypnogogic learning), and repetition are all associated with enhanced learning, likely predicated upon increases in brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF). Finding ways of enhancing the release of BDNF may be a key to becoming a super learner.
Multi-media learning is associated with the recruitment of varied and diverse brain regions serving to complement and enhance the learning process.
Interpersonal support is the single best predictor of human resilience. The belief and expectations that a teacher, coach, mentor, or parent have for their students can significantly impact who those students become.
While we have yet to discover a practical variant of a “limitless” pill as depicted in the 2011 movie, there is hope. Regardless of what kind of learner you were born, you can be better at it because whatever brain you have, you can make it better – my own journey would seem to support such a conclusion.
Corporate insiders. “Corporate insider activity signals a bearish tone, with the Insider Transactions Ratio reflecting both caution and profit-taking behaviors.”
Daily Chartbook
5. Bitcoin Entering Historically Bullish Months
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright–Furthermore, October ushers in the strongest seasonal period for Bitcoin. From the end of September to the end of May, Bitcoin averages a gain of 133.7% over those eight months. Meanwhile, it averages a 5.6% gain from June to September, meaning that almost all of Bitcoin’s gains have historically come outside the summer months. Similarly, the NDW index of the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market cap (DWACRYPTO) has averaged a 13.3% gain during the weak period and a 166.8% gain during its strong period. Despite early-year weakness, Bitcoin’s performance has closely mirrored its historical average, remaining relatively flat from late May to now. On the other hand, DWACRYPTO rose 26% during the weak period, highlighting the relative strength of altcoins during a typically sluggish stretch.
Seasonality alone doesn’t drive markets, but it can offer useful context, especially when supported by broader market trends and technical indicators. While crypto momentum has cooled off from summer highs, seasonal trends and expanding breadth offer reasons for optimism. For those with the right risk tolerance, an improvement within cryptocurrencies could offer more than just pumpkin spice and playoff races this Fall.
Nasdaq
6. Total2 is Measure of Total Crypto Market Cap Ex-Bitcoin….+65% in One Year
Total2–Crypto Total Market Cap Excluding BTC, $
TradingView
7. Vanguard Softens Its Stance: Crypto ETF Access May Be Coming—From The Crypto Advisor Substack
The Crypto Advisor
As alluded to in the main segment, the institutional tide in crypto continues to turn – this time with Vanguard.
The world’s second-largest asset manager, with $10.4 trillion in AUM, is preparing to allow access to crypto ETFs on its brokerage platform, Crypto in America has learned. This change in tune is notable coming from one of the most conservative firms – and one that not long ago said, “We also have no plans to offer Vanguard Bitcoin ETFs or other crypto-related products—our perspective is long-standing that cryptocurrencies’ high volatility runs counter to our goal of helping investors generate positive real returns over the long term.”
The significance is hard to miss. One of the industry’s most prominent crypto holdouts may now be preparing to open the door. With regulators fast-tracking ETF approvals and Vanguard’s new CEO, Salim Ramji, bringing direct experience from BlackRock’s blockbuster IBIT launch, the competitive pressure to offer access is mounting. If Vanguard moves forward, it could mark another milestone in bringing crypto into the mainstream toolkit of American investors.
Scientists in China have developed a revolutionary new “bone glue” that can heal fractures, which could traditionally take months to heal, in a matter of minutes, according to a report.
Product “Bone-02’ was developed by a Chinese research team, which sought to fix orthopedic injuries that would generally require months of downtime and invasive surgeries that often include metal plate insertions, the Global Times reported.
Lin Xianfeng, associate chief orthopedic surgeon at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, in Hangzhou, said the adhesive can achieve precise fixation in a matter of minutes even in blood-rich environments.
An X-ray of a broken arm that could be treated by the Chinese invented “bone glue” in just minutes.Nattapol_Sritongcom – stock.adobe.com
The glue treatment comes in the form of a single injection and will “bond shattered bone fragments in just three minutes,” according to that report.
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In one trial case, a patient with a wrist fracture received one injection via a mere 3 cm incision and was healed in just three minutes, Cho Sun Daily reported.
Twenty years ago, I wrote The UltraMind Solution proposing a radical idea: to fix your broken brain, you need to fix your body first. The medical establishment wasn’t ready. Today, Stanford Medicine is proving me right.
Dr. Shebani Sethi just published results that should shake psychiatry to its core. Her metabolic psychiatry approach achieved what decades of psychiatric drugs couldn’t: 100% reversal of metabolic syndrome in patients with serious mental illness, plus dramatic improvements in their psychiatric symptoms.
Here’s the science they don’t want you to know.
The 100-Year Cover-Up
A century ago, psychiatrists observed elevated lactate and low glutathione in patients with serious mental illness—clear markers of cellular energy dysfunction. Then we abandoned this research for the more profitable neurotransmitter model.
This resulted in treating symptoms while ignoring causes.
Your Brain on Metabolic Dysfunction
Consider these facts:
Type 2 diabetics’ mitochondria function at half the rate of healthy individuals
The brain has the highest concentration of mitochondria of any organ
93.2% of Americans have some form of metabolic dysfunction
People with insulin resistance have double the risk of depression
When your cellular powerhouses can’t produce energy efficiently, your brain doesn’t get a headache—it produces depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
The Stanford Breakthrough
Dr. Sethi’s ketogenic therapy trial delivered results that would make Big Pharma nervous:
36% reduction in visceral fat
27% reduction in insulin resistance
12% weight loss
Complete reversal of metabolic syndrome in every participant
Significant improvement in psychiatric symptoms
Unlike psychiatric medications that cause weight gain, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, this approach fixes the underlying biology.
The Mechanism Medicine Ignores
Here’s what happens when your metabolism breaks down:
Mitochondrial dysfunction reduces brain energy
Chronic inflammation damages neural pathways
Insulin resistance impairs neuroplasticity
Oxidative stress accelerates brain aging
We’ve been giving antidepressants to people with broken cellular metabolism. It’s like trying to start a car with sugar in the gas tank.
Beyond the Ketogenic Diet
Metabolic psychiatry isn’t just about going keto. It’s about fixing the four core mechanisms of metabolic disease:
At our Function Health centers, we’re seeing what Dr. Sethi describes: 70% of people have nutritional deficiencies, 95% show metabolic dysfunction, and 46% have elevated inflammation markers.
We’re not dealing with a mental health crisis, we’re dealing with a metabolic health crisis that manifests as mental illness.
What This Means for You
If you’re struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, ask yourself: Has anyone ever checked your insulin resistance? Your nutrient levels? Your inflammatory markers?
Probably not. Because the current system profits from managing symptoms, not curing diseases.
Dr. Sethi has launched Metabolic Psychiatry Labs to make this approach accessible nationwide. Stanford is scaling up research. The science is solid.
The question isn’t whether metabolic psychiatry works—it’s whether our healthcare system will embrace it or continue pushing pills that treat symptoms while the underlying biology deteriorates.
Your brain deserves better than a broken system. Your body holds the keys to your mental health.
China’s BYD and Sany dominate the global electric freight truck market.
Fewer than 1% of heavy-duty trucks are electric in India, the U.S., and Europe, compared with 22% in China.
High upfront costs, a lack of charging infrastructure, and fragmented ownership make electrification of trucks difficult.
China flooded the world with electric cars. Its next target is freight trucks.
BYDi, the Chinese automaker that overtook Tesla in sales of electric cars last year, now ships electric freight trucks to Italy, Poland, Spain, and Mexico — alongside eight other Chinese companies that dominate the global market. Chinese automakers accounted for 80% of the world’s 90,000 electric cargo-truck sales last year, according to the International Energy Agency.
Globally, CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles have risen by almost 3% every year between 2000 and 2018. Trucks accounted for 80% of the increase. Their outsize impact on the environment has made the electrification of trucks crucial for climate goals. Chinese companies are capitalizing on their massive home-market scale to export commercial-truck solutions, building factories from Mexico to Europe
“They bring cost competitiveness, manufacturing know-how, and proven technology stacks,” Bill Russo, founder and CEO of Automobility Limited, a Shanghai-based advisory firm, told Rest of World. “In many ways, they act as enablers for global fleet operators who want to decarbonize but lack local suppliers at scale.”
In China, electric trucks captured 22% of the heavy-duty market in the first half of 2025. In contrast, India sold just 280 long-haul electric trucks out of 834,578 total commercial truck sales last year. In Europe, EVs represent about 1% of truck sales. Tesla’s much-hyped Semi truck — announced in 2017 and delivered in token quantities to Pepsi in 2022 — has all but vanished due to component failures, range anxiety, and high costs.
10. Ed Stack: Lessons from Dick’s Sporting Goods-Shane Parish
Ed Stack built Dick’s Sporting Goods from a struggling family store into an empire of more than 800 stores and billions in sales. Along the way he nearly lost everything. Multiple times.
This episode is the story of what he did, how he did it, and the lessons you can learn.
Lessons From Ed Stack:
1. Believing in someone before they believe in themselves changes everything. Dick Stack’s grandmother pulled $300 from her cookie jar after his boss crossed out his carefully crafted list. She didn’t give him business advice or connections. She gave him belief. Dick’s Sporting Goods exists because a grandmother believed in an eighteen-year-old kid who barely graduated high school.
2. Your name is your biggest asset.When Dick’s second store failed in 1956, he could have declared bankruptcy like everyone expected. Instead, he sold his house, his car, everything he owned to pay back creditors in full. Six weeks later, when he asked those same suppliers for another chance, they remembered. Trust isn’t earned in the easy times; it’s earned in the fire.
3. Develop a taste for saltwater. Ed despised working at his father’s store every summer and on weekends from age thirteen. While friends played baseball, he unloaded trucks in suffocating heat. However miserable those years were, he learned. However, sometimes your worst experiences are the best education.
4. Ignorance can be a superpower. Ed and Tim signed papers to buy land in Syracuse with no plan, no budget, and no idea they were getting a “vanilla box”. They nearly opened a store with empty walls. They made every possible mistake. But here’s the thing: if they’d known everything that could go wrong, they might never have even tried to expand. Sometimes knowing too much kills action.
5. The quiet one is the decision maker. At the make-or-break GE Capital meeting, suits grilled Ed for ninety minutes. But in the back corner sat a man who never spoke, just watched. Ed reflected later, “If you’re in a meeting and there’s a guy sitting off in a corner, not saying anything, that’s the guy you probably have to convince. He’s the decision-maker.” Every important meeting works this way: The loud ones interrogate. The quiet one decides.
6. Own your mistakes. When GE Capital asked about Dick’s near-bankruptcy, Ed didn’t deflect or minimize. In fact, he was brutally honest: “We made a series of mistakes. Here’s what they were. Here’s why we made them. Here’s exactly how we’ll ensure they never happen again.” Most people explain away failure. The best own it. The precision of your diagnosis proves the depth of your learning.
7. Never rely on the kindness of strangers. After nearly losing everything in 1996, Ed learned what Buffett knew: “Never count on the kindness of strangers to meet tomorrow’s obligations.” The banks can’t take your business if you don’t owe them money. Never put yourself in a position to need the kindness of strangers.
8. Pick the company that wants it more.When Puma and Adidas wouldn’t return Ed’s calls, he gave shelf space to an upstart company that really wanted it. That company was Nike. When established brands ignored them, he backed a hungry football player making shirts in his grandmother’s basement. That company was Under Armour. Sometimes the best deals come from those desperate to prove themselves, not those who’ve already made it.
9. When the map and territory differ, believe the territory. The VCs pulled out spreadsheets showing Ed what looked good on the screen. But Ed remembered that kid in Buffalo who gasped at thirty feet of baseball gloves. Sure, that wall of gloves didn’t turn inventory fast, but it got people in the store. When spreadsheets and customers disagree, the customers are almost always right. The data isn’t wrong. You’re measuring the wrong thing. The map is not the territory. The spreadsheet is not the store.
10. Remember what you’re really selling. Dick’s Sporting Goods became an empire because Dick and Ed Stack knew they weren’t just selling equipment. They were selling dreams. When you understand what people really buy, you understand everything.
11. Become someone people want to root for. If people think you’re overrated, they’ll root against you. However, if people see you as underrated, they’ll go out of their way to help you. There is no status quo.
