The Saturday Sendout

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Constant Contact!Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereInsider Trading & Hedge Fund Reporting: Found at InsiderEdges.comHelp Me Help You!One of the things I want to do more than anything else is ensure that you all are getting what you want from me. Please take a bit of time this weekend to let me know what you think can be improved upon in the newsletter by clicking the link below. There aren’t a million questions, nor am I collecting data, I just want to hear from you.If you want to get a quick overview of the current happenings in the oil market, I would go read last week’s newsletter (or listen to it). I would also strongly recommend that you go listen to anything from Doomberg. He is one of the top energy market analysts and is the person (group) that I turn to when the energy markets are having their moment. Doomberg was one of the first people to get me into my SMR investments. The most recent podcast I have seen from him is this one. Between those two articles, you should be able to catch up on the world of oil and the current state of the oil economy. If you have been following my recent oil bets over the past few weeks, then you know that we have made 3 main bets and they have returned 12%, 13%, and 10% just in the past week. You can find all of those picks I made in last week's newsletter, and I will include them in this week’s with some updates on performance. Let me quickly give my opinions on the upcoming market movements and the current state of the market. My opinions from last week remain. In 18 months, oil will be lower than it is today. If you wanted hard numbers, I would say that oil will be down below $90, and likely below $80 a barrel. With that being said, I think we are absolutely on the verge of an energy crisis; however, I do not think that the US is going to be affected as adversely as people think. Here is a quick quote on energy consumption in the US: The United States consumes approximately 20–20.5 million barrels of petroleum products per day as of 2023-2024, representing about 20% of global consumption.- https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=33&t=6Here is a quick quote on the energy production in the US:U.S. crude oil production is at record levels, averaging approximately 13.4 to 13.6 million barrels per day (b/d) as of early 2026. The U.S. is the world's top producer, with total petroleum production (including natural gas liquids) exceeding 21 million b/d.- https://www.eia.gov/pressroom/releases/press577.phpSo, the key thing to note here is that we are seeing production and consumption in the US that are nearly equal. We do not have to export what we have; we are self-sufficient in the oil markets, and if we need to, we can turn off the export machine and keep our oil internal. This means that we will not see oil restrictions at the pump, but the prices could remain elevated for longer. One of the trades that I would love to scream about from the rooftops right now is buying natural gas. Oil and natural gas have a long-term correlation, and with natural gas so low right now, the argument could be made that going long natural gas would be beneficial. The one issue I have with that trade is the fact that when we drill for oil, we typically end up with natural gas as well. Modern techniques like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling can extract both from the same well, and operators are likely to focus on the higher-priced petroleum products in the short term. This actually puts negative pressure on the price of natural gas in the short term, bringing prices even lower. The natural gas trade is coming, but has yet to arrive fully in my eyes. If we see natural gas futures get pushed down below $2 (or even lower), then we could have some extremely large upside opportunities over the long run. For now, the best trades to make are long oil (like we have done) and neutral on nat gas. The rest of the market will continue to decline until we see the newest American war start to shut down. Again, we are about 50% invested in our portfolios, and 25% invested in these oil bets on the side, and we can take this additional 25% in cash and push further into these one-off oil bets if we see further upside (helping to offset the portfolio losses further). Quick CommentsI am still 50% invested in my portfolios. These are the same ones you can copy trade on Autopilot (The Flagship, AI Second-Hand, and Tech Growth) portoflios. About 25% of my portfolio is uninvested and is returning 3.25-3.75% returns in HYSAs, treasuries, and other “cash equivalent” positions.The final 25% is currently invested across 3 main oil names and 1 additional crypto bet (with small allocations to others). Please note that these are available to paying subscribers. I will be sure to discuss these directly below for pro members. This year, the portfolios are struggling (no surprise here, as the whole market is); however, the other 50% is what is keeping our returns stabilized. My current investments are down about 10% YTD for all of the portfolios. In comparison to the -7% we are seeing in the SPY, I am not upset in the slightest about these returns. I still think we own some of the top-quality companies available to investors in the US!The 25% cash position is up something like 0.8%. The 25% we own in one-off bets is up about 10% on average. Portoflios (50%): -10%Cash (25%): +.8%One-off (25%): 10%Overall portoflio (100%): -2.5% YTDOverall, having a loss of 2.5% while the market struggles and sits at losses over 7%, I can’t be too sad. I think there are a lot of investors who are struggling much worse than I am right now. As an important note, I think we have some extreme upside in those one-off bets we have made, and we will see the portfolio turn green in the coming weeks as oil prices remain at their higher-than-normal levels. Between all of our oil bets, I can see a +30% upside possible (on average). **Final note: these are my personal opinions and investments and are in no way, shape, or form am I acting as a financial advisor for you or your portfolios. If you want to take a 100% position in the oil bets, if you want to take a 50% position or a 1% position, it does not matter to me. You do not, nor should you, copy my exact portfolios or positions. The “monthly picks” that I made have been faring the storm relatively well. They are down only .34% this month. We will be closing these trades on Tuesday, and we will then be opening April’s trades the following day (April 1st). We currently have 2 monthly stock picks in the works for next month. With all of that being said, I would love to hear from you all how you would like to see all of these different research articles and stock portfolios presented. I have thought about building a sort of heatmap for all of these, but I don’t know what would be best for you all.I like the website, but I think we can do better…As a further note, this is everything we offer to subscribers:* Portfolios* Flagship fund* AI Second Hand Effects* Tech Growth* Other* One-off Research* Macro Allocations* Monthly Stock Picks* Weekly Stock Picks* Hedge Fund Portfolio* Coming Soon in partnership with InsiderEdgesQuick Updates (Current Bets)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Groundfloor! (if you are looking for a solid place to keep your “cash” this is it — again sponsored but I love what they do). We have a few questions this week about our investments that I wanted to answer: Question about stop losses on weekly picks: Manual stop losses, we wait and see if things cross below 1% and then we kind of watch for a few mins. If the stock just immediately plumets then it is a sell right away, if not we hold for about 10 mins and then sell. Question on our portfolios: You can find all of the stock we invest in here: https://thesimpleside.news/ — we have a portfolios page, a research page, and a weekly picks page as well. All of these have available data for you!Reach out to me directly at [email protected] if you have further questions or use that button below.Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereHelp Me Help You!One of the things I want to do more than anything else is ensure that you all are getting what you want from me. Please take a bit of time this weekend to let me know what you think can be improved upon in the newsletter by clicking the link below. There aren’t a million questions, nor am I collecting data, I just want to hear from you.Current Economic ViewsOil, oil, oil.Really, that is the main and only thing driving the markets right now. If you are not up to speed on the oil happenings right now, I want to quickly update you. If you are up to speed, but you want a quick synopsis, this would be a great place to start. The current big issue is the Strait of Hormuz, which has been in a strict lockdown since the issues with Iran started. Currently, the strait has been deemed the “world’s most expensive parking lot” since nearly all ships (on either side) are held up and unable to pass through. The picture below is taken from marinetraffic.com and shows all of the ships stopped on either side of the strait.The average amount of oil that flows through the strait daily is about 20 million barrels of oil (and other crude products). This represents about 20% of the global consumption and nearly 25% of all seaborne oil (as reported by the BBC). The “war” has been going on for about 22 days now, which means about 440 million barrels of oil have been unable to move over that duration. In general, this seems like a drop in the bucket when you know that the total oil use annually is over 37 billion barrels; however, if you annualize the average daily amount of oil that passes through the strait, you end up with over 7.3 billion barrels cut from the world’s supply (this is about 20% as we noted earlier). This matters a ton for a few reasons, but the main one is the inelastic demand that the world has for oil — in other words, regardless of the price of oil, the demand remains relatively the same. This means, regardless of whether oil is $2.50 at the pump or $4.50 at the pump, the amount that people drive tends to remain about the same. This means that oil suppliers end up making tons more profits because they sell about the same amount of oil for much higher prices. The final important note is that when oil goes up, so does basically everything else. That is why when we look at the sector performance of all the S&P 500 industries, we see this over the past week: Now, the main issue causing oil to remain elevated for an extended period is Iran’s unwillingness to back down at the current moment. This is forcing Trump to remain involved and is almost entirely decreasing the “TACO” (Trump Always Chickens Out) ability. So, what exactly does this mean? Should we start going long oil? Should we start shorting oil?You will hear a ton of “self-proclaimed investment gurus” throwing opinions and commentary out there like they have been in the oil business for years… my recommendation? DO NOT LISTEN. I just recently saw a large publication on Substack tell their subscribers to short oil and go long gold… that is potentially the worst advice I have ever heard, and if anyone followed this advice, they are in a world of hurt right now.I do not have any direct recommendations like that, but I can tell you what we are currently doing. Since we have been sitting on nearly 50% cash positions, we have executed some trades (deploying about 20-30% of our cash) in some undervalued names, a few in the oil/energy space, and a few other undervalued names in other sectors. I love this positioning. When oil spikes, there is almost always a risk for a black swan event to occur (something out of the ordinary) that causes a drastic fall in prices, and I do not want to be caught with my pants down if that were to happen. I think the one-off bets we have in the oil space will help secure upside while other names in the portfolio fall. On the other hand, if a black swan event occurs and oil comes crashing down, the 50% positions we hold in our portfolios will negate the potential crashes in our oil bets. Currently, I think we are going to see the war remain at a standstill, and we will see $80+ oil through the end of the month at least. Iran really doesn’t have a reason to back down — yet — and I am sure they are aware of the previous TACO moves Trump has pulled with countries in the past. Again, I say, I like where we are. Current portfolio composition is the following:Portfolios: 50% Individual Bets: 25% (this is between 20-30% right now).Cash/Equivalents: 25%In this current setup, we have minimal exposure to high upside oil/gas investments and a medium exposure to lower-risk quality businesses in our portfolios. This is always the way we have wanted our barbell-centric portfolio to operate. Low-risk ideas on one side, high-risk bets on the other. It has served us well in the past and is serving us well now.One more key thing about oil: over the next 18 months, I can almost guarantee you that oil prices will be lower than they are right now. Yes, quote me on it.One Final Thought (*IMPORTANT*)The current price of oil is a black swan event. Something that only happens once in a blue moon, and there is always something big that happens after moments like this…Everyone starts to focus extremely hard on the cause of the black swan event and how to fix it.So, what does that mean for the current oil craze? When this event ends, everyone in the US is going to start talking about our reliance on external energy, and everyone will ask, “How can we reduce this reliance?” This is going to put alternative energy back into a bull cycle, and the additional tailwind of AI energy demand will bring energy stocks to unprecedented levels. This will not happen overnight!We will probably see a 2-3 year bullish investment cycle into alternative energy (specifically related to natural gas and uranium). We will likely also see huge investments into infrastructure (energy-related) in the US, as well. This bodes extremely well for our AI Second Hand Effects portfolio. All Current One-Off BetsWe currently have about 25% of our available cash balance invested in some one-off investments. Those names are as follows:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Cash App!Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereHelp Me Help You!One of the things I want to do more than anything else is ensure that you all are getting what you want from me. Please take a bit of time this weekend to let me know what you think can be improved upon in the newsletter by clicking the link below. There aren’t a million questions, nor am I collecting data, I just want to hear from you.Just A Few Side Bets… We recently came across some stocks we thought had outperforming potential and sent them out to subscribers. They also got posted here: TheSimpleSide.news. These trades are now up 1.53% on average.We also started a new service for paying subscribers, which offers deep value monthly stock picks. These can be found here: TheSimpleSide.news/monthly-picksThese trades are now down 1.11% on average.What I have for paying subscribers today is a quick look into two additional bets worth looking into. One in the AI-related realm and one in the oil-related realm. Before we get into all of those one-off bets, I want to quickly highlight what the macro quant tracker has been doing recently. Remember, this is a purely data-driven approach to the economy and the markets.As a note, we now offer all of the following to paying subscribers:3 Copyable Portfolios on Autopilot-The Flagship Fund-AI Bets-Tech Growth+The Macro Portfolio+Monthly Stock Picks+Weekly Stock Picks+One-Off Research ReportsThat is an absolutely insane amount of value for the subscription price we offer, and I am happy to do it all! Macro Quant ViewsBefore we get into anything, I want to show you the current portfolio performance from the Macro Quant Portfolio. If you do not know, this is a portfolio available to subscribers that makes a weekly allocation to either TLT, SPY, or GLD. We started this macro portfolio on Jan 1 of this year. Here is the YTD performance: What you will notice is that we have captured the GLD rally early in the year with a near 90% allocation to gold for almost all of 2026.In fact, I will share the image of what our rating of gold has been every day so far this year… as you can see, we have been in either buy or strong buy territory for nearly the entire year, and this has paid off handsomely. Interestingly, gold has entered into a period of “strong buy” again. Almost every time we have seen this in the past, we have seen GLD go on a run-up after. Of course, past performance isn’t a perfect indicator of future returns, but this seems bullish. Now, if we switch gears and look at the overall economy, we have reached the highest level of buying indication that I have ever seen since starting this program early this year.TLT, SPY, and GLD are all sitting in “buy” buckets right now (something available to our paid subscribers) on our website. This is the first time this has happened since about April of 2025, I believe. In general, what does this mean? Well, it means the market is likely overreacting to the situation in Iran, and the SPY could be entering into strong buy territory soon. On the other hand, we might see inflation remaining sticky and rate cuts less likely to happen. This is great news for gold, as there could be a further rotation from equities if that is the case, and this could turn into more GLD upside.In general, if you are invested in any of my portfolios, I would just remain calm at this point. I don’t think there is a reason for any sort of freak-out moment. The data seems to be supporting strong market dynamics, and the selloff on oil will not be a market-crashing event. Something I do want to highlight is that my cash holdings have decreased by around 20% due to the recent bets that I have made. That means we are sitting on 30% cash holdings, and even with that number, I feel extremely safe with the current market volatility. Research BetsIf you are a free subscriber, you are getting blocked off a bit early today. I apologize, but a lot of these ideas, I think, are extremely high upside ideas, and that is what everyone who subscribes pays me the big bucks for! If you would like to join, you can do so by clicking the button below.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Nibbles!Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereHelp Me Help You!One of the things I want to do more than anything else is ensure that you all are getting what you want from me. Please take a bit of time this weekend to let me know what you think can be improved upon in the newsletter by clicking the link below. There aren’t a million questions, nor am I collecting data, I just want to hear from you.Do I get to say that we called it yet? Just about two weeks ago, I posted my typical Saturday Sendout newsletter & podcast. I was discussing how the software selloff seemed irrational. We were seeing a software stock selloff on AI replacement fears, and at the same time, we were seeing the mag 7 selloff on fears that AI capex wouldn’t generate substantial returns.I titled the article: “The AI Paradox | Nobody Wins and Everyone Loses” for this reason. Can we have both?Can AI replace software companies while investment in AI loses its value? The answer is glaringly obvious: No. It must be one way or the other, and it seems that other investors have been coming to the same consensus this week. Stocks like INTU, RELX, and TTAN were all huge losers during the AI scare that has been going on for really the past year. The stocks are down drastically from their highs: -55%, -50%, and -55%, respectively. From the Tuesday after we posted that article, the stocks are now up 7.88%, 14.25%, and 18.67% while the SPY is up 0.46% and the NASDAQ 100 is up 1.04%. Now, I am not saying that we called it perfectly and software stocks will continue rising for months on end and we are all going to get rich investing in them, but the more important takeaway is the framework we had to have to “rationalize” the market’s irrationality. Ben Graham — mentor to Warren Buffett — was one of the first people to really make a point of this. He was reflecting on the fact that sentiment and news quickly adjust market prices. People vote on whether they think the news is bullish or bearish for a stock on a daily basis. In the long run, however, the market always returns to fundamentals (aka the weighing machine). One of the most important ways investors, businessmen, or entrepreneurs have made their fortunes is through a process called “riding the wave.” I am sure you know what that means, but in case you don’t, let me give you a quick recap. Picture a surfer. He is waiting in the water, then he turns and starts to paddle. Just as the wave starts to crest, he jumps on his board, and all he has to do is stay upright as the wave brings him along. This is one of the most powerful investing mental models. There is always some sort of wave out there. Some are bigger than others, some bring you closer to the shore, some of them you don’t see, some can wreck you, and some can make you lots of money. The waves can be small and unseen by most, or they can be huge, and everyone stands witnesses. When Les Schwab started in the tire business, he struggled to compete with others around him. Tire manufacturers would open up stores right next to his, and these were the same tire manufacturers that he had to buy his tires from. How could he compete when the company would sell their tiers cheaper than he could buy them for? Well, Les rode the foreign tire wave.Toyo tires entered the market with a cheaper alternative and wouldn’t force Les to overpay. Well, Les rode the foreign tire wave, and his company, Les Schwab Tire, would end up selling after his death for over $3 billion. Now, most people probably never saw the foreign tire wave, but it made Les Schwab a very wealthy man. Les got lucky because he sort of fell into the wave he rode throughout his lifetime. Investors like us are not so lucky. We have to do something that Les never had to, and that something is the hardest thing to do for any and every one: developing the vision to find the wave early. The Gold Rush & The AI WaveI won’t bend your ear about this again, but I wrote this article months ago discussing the “second-hand effects” of the AI wave. I compared it to the gold rush that occurred back in the 1800s, where the people getting rich were not the ones panning for gold, but rather the ones selling them their picks and shovels. Sure, every once in a while, someone would find gold and strike it rich, but the majority of the folks who went out there in search of fortune ended up with nothing more than the picks and shovels they bought when they went down there. In our initial article, we called out three key areas: semiconductor tool manufacturers/suppliers, data centers, and screens (we were a bit off on the screens thing). Some of the names we called out were ASML, AMAT, LRCX, and KLAC — all of which have had incredible runs since then. The one thing I missed back in June, which I posted about in November, was energy. One of the things I realized when putting together that article in November was that energy would be the hardest part of the AI buildout to start and sustain. The complications were (and still are) endless: the lack of supply, the aging grid, the distaste toward nuclear. These are all mounting tailwinds for the energy sector.Take it from the man who is driving a majority of the AI race: Nvidia CEO, Huang:Not only does he say that energy is the limiting factor, but his business is showing it, too. Currently, NVDA's finished goods inventories have grown to historic levels. Part of the reason for this growing level of inventory is CEO Huang’s belief that the demand level in 2026 will require it; however, it shows quite clearly that GPUs are NOT the limiting supply factor and will not demand huge premiums forever (unless demand runs wild again this year). Regardless, one thing remains true AI is worthless without data to train on, that data cannot be trained on unless those GPUs are available, those GPUs are worthless unless they have the power needed to run them. Everything comes back to the power supply.A report from the International Energy Agency shows a great representation of what I have been talking about for the past year or so. We are still anywhere from 4 to 5 years out from energy demand/growth, even getting close to leveling off. The other tailwind we are looking at is the rising energy costs. As much as it sucks to hear for those struggling with energy bills, data centers and rising costs will not stop anytime soon. The only way to bring these costs down is to flip the supply-demand curve from heavy demand to heavy supply. Again, requiring more investment in American energy production. I think the best investments to be made right now are still in the energy sector. The last thing I will leave you with is the performance of the S&P sectors YTD. So, the question remains, “What is the right move to make?” and the answer isn’t super obvious; however, there are some simple adjustments you can make to stay ahead of the shifting global economy. The first thing I would recommend would be to shift capital into the AI Second-Hand Effects portfolio and the Flagship Fund if you want to put your capital to work. The AI-Second Hand effects portfolio, which you can copy trade on Autopilot (use this link), is energy-centric and has been a clear winner over the past few months, and is outperforming the S&P by around 23% since July of 2025.We have been discussing the potential diversification of this portfolio if we can find other opportunities within the AI second-hand market, but valuations are still extremely high, and we have no reason to be in a rush. Now, I am going to get into our portoflios for paid subscribers, but whether you are a free or a paid subscriber, be on the lookout for 2 energy names coming your way over the next week. Quick Macro Views Macro seems relatively stable from a numbers standpoint. With the war (something we cannot account for in numbers), this probably drops into hold or slight sell territory. The general economy looks fine, again from a number standpoint. Sure, things have been "decreasing” over the past month, but in general no strong reaction from models either way. See the following for macro stances on SPY, GLD, and TLT. These are available to paying subscribers in real time on my website: https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicatorsPortfolios & Next Week’s MovesWhether or not you agree with me that energy is going to be the tail that wags the dog, I think you should pay attention to the current market’s price action. Now, I am going to give everyone an early access look at the stocks I will be posting research articles on next week. We have one name that is a very high-risk, high-reward play, and one that is set to have longer-term growth.The two names we are looking at for next week are both going to be added to our AI second-hand effects portfolio next week. We are going to wait to see what price action looks like from the recent Iran attacks before going into new companies.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Groundfloor — if you are looking for a place to keep your “sidelined” cash, Groundfloor might be the spot (perfect for our strong cash position).Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereHelp Me Help YouOne of the things I want to do more than anything else is ensure that you all are getting what you want from me. Please take a bit of time this weekend to let me know what you think can be improved upon in the newsletter by clicking the link below. There aren’t a million questions, nor am I collecting data, I just want to hear from you.You can let me know what you want me to write about, weekly things you want to see more of, if you want me to cover earnings, anything! I am happy to hear it all!Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.Simple Side Shareholders, welcome back to another weekly edition of The Saturday Sendout from The Simple Side.A few key things that happened this week, both in the markets and with the portfolios: some good, some bad. Before we get into it all, I want to quickly highlight what our quant macro indicator is flashing.Right now, we have shifted out of the “buy” territory for the general economy. This is the first time we have dropped into a hold since last week. This wavering between hold and buy has been happening since the beginning of the year. The highest level we have reached was 0.35 (still a far cry away from the max value of 1), and the lowest we have reach this year has been -0.049 (which is no where near strong sell territory). What is frustrating is that we are getting no clear signal (buy or sell) from the model. One of the things that we do know is that these periods of “waiting” — while not common — do happen from time to time. The most recent one occurred mid to late 2025 when we saw no clear signal from April to July (over 4 months in limbo). In this case, we have been in limbo since November 2025 (a current total of 4 months). One of the benefits of being a paid subscriber here at The Simple Side is getting access to a collective of portfolios that we offer. While not all of our subscribers follow these portfolios, many do and those that have followed the Macro Portfolio have outperformed the S&P 500 handily so far in 2026.The current portfolio is up about 14% YTD outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 0.74% YTD. You can find this portfolio on the “Portfolios” tab on our website: https://thesimpleside.news/. The macro indicators can be seen here: https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicators.The total macro indicator isn’t the only place where we are “missing” clear conviction, in the quant model we have built on the S&P 500 we are also witnessing a “I don’t know” feeling. We have been bouncing back and forth between the “sell - hold - buy” levels since the beginning of this year (again, with no conviction). So basically, it seems like the underlying economy is conflicted relative to the current valuation of the stock market. What does that mean for us? Well, it means keep calm and carry on. We have been holding 50% cash since that red circle you see on that chart. That is the beginning of 2025. Since then, the stock market is up about 16% and I am not upset in the slightest about the fact that 50% of our cash has missed out on that run. The market is still devilishly overvalued.This ratio shows the Wilshire 5000 index against the Gross National Product of the US — an indicator that is well known as “The Buffett Indicator.” The US market just can’t seem to return company valuations to “normal” levels. I think the huge swing up we are seeing can be “blamed” on two factors* The popularization of retail trading and $0 commission trading.* The AI “super cycle” which is leading to a huge “potential income” boost.Both of these are still playing out and they, of course, have multiplied one another. Regardless, the world won’t stop moving, overvalued or not. The other thing that won’t stop are the richest people in the world getting richer, and boy have they made some interesting moves recently…13F, ETF, and Mutual Fund InformationWhere has the smartest money in the world been putting their capital? I worked with the team over at insideredges.com to put together a quick list of 5 stocks that these investors have been snapping up across the board. Before we get into that, I first want to share with you some of the craziest data that the IE team shared with me. After the stock market crashed in 2022, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and 13F investors all seemingly had a perfect grasp on some companies that they wanted to buy. In January 2023, 5 key stocks popped as being heavily bought by all three groups. Those key stocks? * META* NVDA* NFLX* AMZN* ADBEOver the next year those companies would return 194%, 239%, 65%, 80%, and 77% respectively, and an equal weighting portfolio of those companies would have returned 131% in just one year.They managed to do it again in 2024 picking only 3 key stocks: META, NVDA, and AMZN which returned an equal weighted portfolio 93%. In 2025 it was more of the same and the portfolio returned 41.33%.Now, heading into 2026, the 3 wealthiest groups in the world have spoken and have highlighted a new set of 5 key stocks.1. Nvidia — NVDAThe number one pick 13F filers was NVDA. The stock is up only 1.78% YTD and is one of the few AI hype companies to really produce profits from the “hype” surrounding the company. It is now one of the most necessary, and impressive companies that exists in the world today. Currently, the company boasts a 3yr revenue growth of about 61%, net margins that eclipse 50%, and ROIC - WACC of 166% : 18.64% (one of the most impressive metrics I have ever seen). Not only are their profits impressive but the balance sheet matches just as well. Their cash holdings are now over 40 billion dollars and their debt is a measly 10 billion. Wildly impressive numbers from the behemoth, but what I find more impressive are the “smart money” moves that have been happening. Over 7% of all mutual funds and over 12.11% of all ETFs are buying up the stock in early 2026. It is the same story with the 13F filers of the world, over 31% are buying in. Now, when a huge majority of the worlds wealthiest are willing to all go in on the same company, what do we think is going to happen? I bet they do everything they can to keep that company riding high.2. AppLovin — APPAppLovin is an interesting choice because the stock is down over 37% YTD. However, it seems like analysts and “smart money” disagree with me. Currently, 11% of 13F filers are buying in, 6% of mutual funds are buying in, and 6% of ETFs are buying in as well. Oh, and the analysts?They are heavily weighted towards “buy” and “outperform” ratings. The lowest current estimate is set at $455 which is an 9% return from the current price. The highest estimate is set at $860 which is a 105% return, and the middle of the road price the stock at $670 or a 60% return (ridiculous numbers across the board). A quick DCF analysis on my end pegs the price of the stock at 20% returns over the next year, or a fair value of 529.13 (a bit more reasonable than the analysts). I am assuming free cash flow will grow at a pace of 50% for the next 5 years which is less than the current 5 year trend of 81.5%, less than the current 3yr trend of 118%, and is less than the all time trend for the company of 67.66%. Seems like a fair assumption to me. Regardless of what I think, “smart money” is going all in. 3. Tesla — TSLAOkay, I need to start going through these a bit faster… Tesla is a name on this list that I did not expect to see. The stock is down 8% YTD and is currently price quick high in my opinion — but again, in the world of mutual funds and ETFs, my opinion doesn’t matter all that much. Tesla stock hasn’t seen great revenue growth recently, so maybe insiders know something big is coming…To me, and again I say “to me” because we are focusing on the trades of those running portfolios much larger than mine, Tesla looks like a completely speculative bet. That, or it is a bet on Elon Musk and the potential for more M&A between his companies. In general, the company holds a strong cash position and is starting to see more and more revenue come from the energy generation segment of their business.Large buyers in Q4 of 2025 include Renaissance Technologies, George Soros, and Mario Gabelli. As for the big numbers we are paying attention to 24% of 13F filers are buying alongside 6% of mutual funds and 8% of ETFs. 4. AMD — Advanced Micro DevicesAMD is a name that I am happy to see on this list. Yes, the company is up over 160% in the past three year, but I think they are relatively overlooked in the AI race. Their revenue growth hasn’t had the same NVDA trajectory, but it does look like their balance sheet is starting to benefit from the AI wave. The company’s cash position jumped to nearly 2x the prior quarters size in Q4 as all of their key metrics started to perk up. Key buyers here were Renaissance Technologies and Jefferies Group which make this a particularly interesting purchase. This is the 13th quarter in a row that Jefferies Group has purchased AMD, and is their second largest purchase of the company. The big numbers from purchasers are as follows:18% of 13F5% of mutual funds8% of ETFs5. NOW — ServiceNowThis is another one of the names that I am happy to see, but am also astonished to see. ServiceNow is one of the recently beaten down software companies down over 55% from their highs over the past few years, and down 30% YTD. However, “smart money” doesn’t seem to care. NOW has been a growth machine, just constantly growing revenue, operating income, and free cash flow quarter over quarter. Talk about a machine that just can’t be stopped (and it looks like big money thinks so too). Current revenue growth is over 20% yearly since 2021, free cash flow is over 24%, and all the while company metrics are looking better than ever. Compared to historical values, the company looks like bargain on value (trading at one of the lowest PE’s that it ever has) and has a PEG ratio of .7 (better than 75% of other software companies). The company looks great in the finances department too with cash holdings eclipsing 3x that of debt, assets are growing as fast as ever, and their revenue outside of the US is starting to pick up as well. Diversification, growth, and profitability — check, check, and check. Big buyers were Jefferies (again), Mario (again), and Renaissance (a new buy for them). The big numbers are:15% of 13F5% of mutual funds7% of ETFs Time to buy?The equal weight portfolio of these 5 stocks is down 17% YTD, and while it is impossible to know what will happen tomorrow investing with some of the markets best as a tailwind is never a horrendous idea. In our current portfolios, we own names like NOW and AMD so I will be rooting for those, but the other stocks could play a key role in an outperforming portfolio as 2026 progresses.Stock Research ReportsIf you are a paying subscriber, you can head over to https://thesimpleside.news/research to get access to all of our historical and current picks. Currently, we have posted a total of 16 picks, and of those we have a total of 12 closed trades and 4 open positions. Of our closed trades we have 10 winners and 2 losers. We have 4 open positions we have 2 in the green (RTX and NEE) and 2 in the red (W and NICE). I currently have 2 picks in the works and I hope to be sending them out to you all soon! Portfolio InformationPaid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates. My portfolios are available for paid subscribers to access in three places:Joining paid here: LINKCopy trading On Autopilot: LINKViewing them on my website: LINKThis week went surprisingly well given the lower than hoped for GDP numbers and the mini war Trump and the courts are having. I think our portfolio shift was beneficial and I do think we will start to reap the rewards of that change very soon. There were some technical difficulties that happened with uploading the new trades to Autopilot, but they should be adjusted for everyone on Monday at market open if you follow the trades there. The change was made on Feb 17, and since then the portfolio is up around 1% (slowly gaining back the ground that we lost with our heavy software investment.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Wild Alaskan Company! Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereGood Morning, Simple Side Shareholders…I am going to write a lot (sort of ramble) about the current state of our portfolios, but there is a summary at the bottom of this section that will hit the quick highlights.Let’s address the elephant in the room… an absolutely brutal week for our portfolios. Across the board we got crushed and it was absolutely no fun to watch it happen. That being said, the outlook for these portfolios is not 1 week, or 1 month, or 6 months… I try to invest for at least 1 year and many of the holdings in my portfolio have a 3 year (or more) time horizon. In general, I am not super worried about the recent market drop. I don’t think that AI is going to suddenly render companies useless. Yes, you can build your own apps, and yes you can build your own software, but then you have to host it, manage it, fix all of the bugs, and your only tech support is another AI. The questions I started to ask myself were simple truths about the business we own…Do you think that companies are going to create their own custom tax software instead of using Intuit? Do you think that companies are going to create their own custom PDF software instead of using Adobe? Do you think that companies are going to create their own custom security and compliance software like Qualys? I just don’t see that being the case, and if you think AI companies are going to take away from the moats that these companies have then I would disagree. I think it is much easier to integrate an AI solution into an already working product than it is to build a completely native AI product. Google is a great case study. Remember when everyone was hating on Google because the company wasn’t far enough ahead in the AI race? It took them a few months to catch up and surpass nearly all of their competitors. I think more of the same will apply to the companies we own.That being said, I refuse to believe that I will read the market 100% right 100% of the time. There was probably a world where I could have predicted that software companies would go under fire because of AI fears, and I would have stopped my investments in some of my Flagship Funds biggest losers. I am sure that I had opportunities to decrease my tech exposure in the Tech-Focused Growth portfolio when AI worries came about as well. Luckily, the AI portfolio is focused on infrastructure which tends to outperform in market downturns. Of course, we have a lot of speculative holdings so we will never be completely absolved of market downturns, but we will fare much better.Well, now that we have addressed the underperformance of our portfolios, let’s talk about what I am thinking about and how I plan to make changes in my investment strategy as we continue through 2026.While I watched the market and my portfolios tumble this week, the first thing that came to my mind was “Thanks be to God that I have a 50% cash position” the second thing that came to my mind was diversification.My overall holdings are heavily indexed into tech, and specifically software, and I felt the pain because of it this week. My Flagship Fund is typically focused on high growth, low cap-ex companies regardless of the sector they are in.In the past, this has resulted in portfolios with 3/20 stocks in the software sector, it has resulted in 4/20, and of course this year we ended up with our highest concentration ever with 9/20 (darn it). This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but our worst returners are -32%, -23% and -23% (all of which are software companies). Honestly, I think allowing a very volatile sector to take over a vast majority of the portfolio was an oversight on my part. That being said I firmly believe that these companies are extremely quality and do not (in any way) deserve the selloff they received. Regardless, all of the issues in the market have brought me to 3 distinct paths:* Stay the course, potentially index heavier into some of my higher conviction holdings. Look to DCA into some positions that are underwater that I like.* Shift portfolio weights in some of our funds to reflect a lower tech/software focus, and make no additional purchases.* Shift portfolios by adding new positions and diluting current underperformers.What is so challenging about the current market is that you could be 100% correct about a stock, its ability to grow, and the fundamentals and the stock price will struggle while “performative” names are quicker to explode in price regardless of performance. QLYS for example saw 10% growth in 2025, had EBITDA of 47%, released an agentic AI risk management marketplace, and announced more share buybacks. The company projected growth of 7% in 2026, remains incredibly profitable, and has better growth rates than the majority of the industry.The stock after earnings? Down 14%… how does that make sense? The company is now valued at the same level that it was back in 2021 when their revenue was basically HALF of what it is today. If the company was showing terrible metrics and was not growing, I could understand the price action but with growth, buybacks, and great profits I couldn’t be more lost.I have been saying it for weeks, but the emotional driven marketplace is what we exist in right now. The internal debate is whether or not we should diversify to dodge some of the emotional risk involved in individual sectors, or trust that the companies we own are high quality and will recover. Something else that is very important to think about is the multiples that companies trade at. When you look at a company’s PE ratio, you know that is a “value indicator,” but what does it really mean. Well, simply put, it is the amount of dollars you are willing to pay for $1 of that companies earnings. So if a company earns $100 and you buy their stock for $200 you are paying $200 / $100 = $2 dollars for each dollar of earnings. This also tells us that at that same price point, it would take 2 years of that company operating at the same level for its earnings to be worth what you paid for it. In this example if you pay $200 for a company and then in year 1 it makes $100 and then in year 2 it makes another $100, then you paid a fair price. However, if the company in year 1 makes $100, then in year 2 makes $90, you overpaid by $10 for that stock. Now things aren’t always that simple because stock prices don’t follow their earnings 1:1, and people speculate. I doubt that many people are willing to hold a stock they bought at a 22 PE for 22 years. Why am I explaining this right now? Well, because in this case it matters greatly. People are willing to pay high PE multiples when they see companies growing, or when they think their is a clear opportunity for the company to maintain their current earning levels. What we are witnessing with software is a loss of faith in companies earnings growing, and the question you have to ask now as an investor is when does this faith come back? Stock prices move on investor emotions not the true underlying fundamentals. These software companies are going to have to “prove” that their earnings won’t be hindered by AI, but will continue to grow. Sadly, this will take at least 1 or 2 quarters of proven growth before I think we start to see real turnarounds in these companies. I say “sadly” because I am selfish and I want every stock I buy to launch to the moon immediately. Overview* Our portfolios are over indexed on the software sector (that isn’t normal, but just so happened to be our bad luck this year) which means we got hit HARD this past week.* We are looking at positioning our portfolio differently going into the next few quarters in case investor sentiment around the software companies remains low.* Stock prices are based on investor emotion in the short term, not real fundamentals so PE ratios and FCF multiple could decrease further from here.* I think we have a path to recovery over the next 1-2 quarters as long as we see earnings continue to grow.* I have an interim plan of attack for the next 2 quarters while we wait to see if we need to trim our software positions.Of course, all of my strategies and and investment decisions will be hidden behind the paywall, but before we get into that I want to quickly share the current quant analysis we have on the macro environment. Like always, the macro analysis can be found on our website: (https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicators). Let’s start with our general macro overview… General Macro Overview (Quant Model)In general, our quant macro model isn’t bearish here. We are still riding between buy and hold territory which really isn’t good enough for us to say “back up the truck” nor is it bad enough for us to say “unload everything.” We are waiting to deploy large amounts of capital until we see the “Strong Buy” show up across the board (in the Macro, SPY, and GLD models). You’ll notice that the model is still ranking GLD a strong buy at these levels which, in general, I think is a bit of a bearish call on the current equities markets. Regardless, I think the economy and the underlying forces driving profits for these companies are stable. One of the market indicators I pay attention to closely outside of my personal macro model is this S&P 500 momentum model. The nerd explanation for this model is the “slope of the 12-month regression of the S&P 500.” The simple way to think about it is the pressure on investors and the market. The higher the indicator goes, the more pressure there is to buy (higher emotionally driven market). The lower the indicator goes, the more selling pressure there is (also higher emotions in the marker), and the closer the line is to it’s average, the more fundamentally driven the market is. Now, I don’t think we should be using the S&P 500 momentum model to buy or sell the markets, but I do think it gives us a great picture of market anomalies that do provide good opportunities in the market. You can see pictured above and example of one of these anomalies. The market is rising as the general momentum in the S&P 500 is falling, then all of the sudden we see this HUGE drop in the S&P 500. This won’t happen every time, but falling momentum for multiple months in a row like that is never a good sign. Remember, a stock price is only worth as much as the next guy is willing to pay and typically if there are 100 people selling and 1000 people buying the price is higher. If there is a loss of momentum (more sellers than buyers) then we will start to see the S&P 500 drop. Another thing I am watching closely are insider buys which have been decreasing more and more over the past 3 and 5 year periods. You can see the S&P 500 modeled in green with the black line show it’s current trend, and then we have the orange line showing the current trend of insider buys.What we are seeing is a decreasing amount of insider purchases, a macro regime that is relatively undecided, and the momentum of the S&P 500 hitting a level we haven’t seen since July 2025. It is a frustrating answer, but the reality is that we are in a period of “wait and see.” I honestly do not think that there is a clear path to making a decision in the short term. Now, give us the first two quarters of earnings calls and then I think it will start to become apparent. I still remain 50% in cash. The market does not currently deserve to be valued as highly as it currently is, and the potential for a LARGE downswing is much more likely than another HUGE upswing.The Macro Portfolio is still CRUSHING the SPY, it is currently up over 10% in 2026Weekly ChartstormThis week’s sector returns showed investors leaning away from the mega-cap tech and media names and toward areas tied to commodities, industry, and steady cash flow.Basic Materials led at +3.16%, followed by Consumer Cyclical +2.76%, Industrials +2.05%, and Energy +2.04%. On the other side, the weakest groups were Communication Services -3.70%, Technology -2.87%, and Healthcare -2.29%. Even with several sectors up, the index struggled because the biggest declines were concentrated in some of the market’s largest, most heavily weighted companies.What the sector data showsWhen Technology and Communication Services fall in the same week, the index often has a hard time holding up because those sectors contain many of the largest stocks. That played out here. The “winners” list was broad, but the “losers” list was heavy.Energy and Materials strength also fits what we usually see when investors want exposure to real-world demand and pricing power. Energy benefited from firm crude prices and strong moves in large integrated names, while Industrials strength lined up with improving manufacturing sentiment and company-specific wins in big industrial leaders.What the largest stocks didThe week was shaped by sharp split performance inside the mega-caps:* Down: Amazon -12.11%, Meta -7.68%, Microsoft -6.77%, Alphabet -4.48%, Tesla -4.48%, Nvidia -2.99%.* Up: Apple +7.18%, Walmart +10.11%, JPMorgan +5.40%, Berkshire Hathaway +5.74%, Exxon +5.41%, Caterpillar +10.47%, Johnson & Johnson +5.61%, Eli Lilly +2.03%.In plain terms: a handful of very large tech and internet names fell hard, and that outweighed the steady gains across much of the rest of the market.What moved the market this weekA lot of the attention stayed on two questions: how fast the economy is growing, and what interest rates might look like next.* Growth expectations: The Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate was cited at 4.2% for Q4 2025, and there were public comments pointing to 5–6% growth in 2026. Those are optimistic numbers, and markets will treat them as “possible,” not “guaranteed.” If growth holds up, it can support corporate earnings. If the numbers cool, stocks that already assume strong growth tend to react first.* Federal Reserve leadership: The expected change in Fed leadership added uncertainty around where interest rates go next. Some investors are reading the incoming chair as more willing to cut rates if productivity improves, while others are focused on the risk of political pressure on the Fed. The practical takeaway is simple: when the path for interest rates feels less clear, markets usually become more sensitive to economic data and big-company guidance.* Valuation backdrop:* Shiller CAPE: 40.09 — this is a long-term price-to-earnings measure using 10 years of inflation-adjusted earnings. A higher number means stocks are expensive relative to that long history.* Buffett Indicator: 2.229 — a rough comparison of total market value to the size of the economy. Higher readings mean the market’s value is large relative to economic output.* 10-year minus 1-year Treasury spread: 0.75% — longer-term yields are above shorter-term yields. That’s healthier than an inverted curve, but it does not remove risk by itself.Outlier eventsAmazon: Shares fell hard after earnings as management discussed roughly $200B of planned spending focused on AI and data centers. That kind of spending can be positive long-term if it builds durable advantages, but it can pressure near-term profits and cash flow — and the market reacted to the near-term math.AMD: The stock dropped sharply after results as guidance became the focus. When a major chip company signals slower growth or weaker margins than investors expected, it often spills over into the broader semiconductor and AI complex for a few sessions.Gold and silver: After a major drop and then a rebound, metals became a headline again as futures margin requirements were raised. Big, fast price moves in metals can tighten risk appetite across markets, especially when traders reduce exposure in multiple places at once.Crypto drawdown and bounce: Bitcoin fell hard midweek and then rebounded into Friday. That mattered because the week’s weakest equity groups included many companies tied to high-growth narratives. When crypto is sliding, it often amplifies pressure on the most speculative corners of the stock market.Devon and Coterra merger: An all-stock deal targeting large cost savings by 2027 is generally viewed as positive for scale and efficiency, but it also signals that management teams see value in consolidation at current prices.Notable insider transactionsInsider activity leaned heavily toward selling in large blocks:* StandardAero: Major holders reported very large sales, including roughly $1.50B at around $31 and another $332M sale around $30.* Diamondback Energy: A large holder reported selling roughly $332M.* Banc of California: A large holder reported selling roughly $237M.* Nasdaq: The CEO reported selling roughly $29M.* Hartford Insurance: The CEO reported selling roughly $28M.* WR Berkley: A large holder reported buying roughly $33M, plus an additional buy around $21M.One week of insider selling doesn’t “call the market,” but clustered, high-dollar selling is still worth noting — especially in a week where the biggest growth-heavy sectors were already under pressure.Analyst rating changesAnalyst actions skewed toward upgrades, with several high-profile names getting more constructive calls:McDonald’s was upgraded to Buy with a $360 price target. Palantir saw multiple upgrades, including moves to Buy/Outperform with targets in the $190–$205 range. Visa was upgraded to Outperform. Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor were upgraded to Strong Buy. Roku and Ares also received upgrades, and GE Vernova was raised to a more bullish rating.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Stock Research ReportsI have been MIA when it comes to writing my research reports… at the beginning of the year I was finalizing the new website and building the new Flagship Fund portfolio (both of which took priority over my research reports). Now that both of these are finished, I can shift my focus back to writing and building out new stock research reports! Oh, and by the way, our research reports have been CRUSHING IT!If you are a paying subscriber, you can head over to https://thesimpleside.news/research to get access to all of our historical and current picks. Currently, we have posted a total of 16 picks, and of those we have a total of 12 closed trades and 4 open positions. Of our closed trades we have 10 winners and 2 losers. We have 4 open positions and of those we have 2 picks that are in the green, and 2 in the red. I will begin posting new picks this week! The first one that I am coming out with is a very high risk reward play. I don’t talk about these kind of picks very often and this will be reserved for paying subscribers only. Portfolio InformationWe currently have over $1.5 million dollars copying our trades on Autopilot!Paid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates. My portfolios are available for paid subscribers to access in three places:Joining paid here: LINKCopy trading On Autopilot: LINKViewing them on my website: LINKI need to update the historical trades that we made in the portfolios in these past weeks. Now let’s get into all of my portfolios, returns, and details…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Cash App! Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereGood Morning, Simple Side ShareholdersLike always, we are going to take a quick look at the current macro perspective we hold. You can and will find lots of different macro analyses out there, but none that are quite like ours. We focus on three core components — bonds, gold, and equities — and we have built a macro model for each. These three models provide a “risk score” which represents the risk the asset has of losing value. These current risk scores are accessible by paying subscribers on our website: https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicators.After each model runs, we run a fourth and final model that takes all of the data we have compiled and combines all of the other models together.I know that is a bunch of nerdy information, and I won’t bore you with any more of it. Just know that we are doing a lot to ensure our Macro Regime tracker stays accurate and valuable. The current overall regime is a slight buy at 0.17. If you are looking to allocate capital, I think the current state of the economy warrants it, however, there isn’t any strong conviction to either “back up the truck” and buy nor any to “unload everything and run.” In general, it is a safe investing environment. In the image below, you should be able to see how over the past three months we have really been wavering between periods of slight buys and then periods of holds. Again, I think this bodes well for the market in general, and if you check the 3yr look at the macro indicator you can see that the last time we bounced between slight buys and holds on this indicator, we saw a large buying opportunity follow.Remember, this regime looks at gold + bonds + equities so don’t base investing decisions entirely on the total macro indicator!We have detailed looks at Gold, bonds, and equities individually on the website: https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicators. I will show you all of the current regime rankings though: Last thing before we move on — we have added the macro portfolio to the portfolios tab on the website. You can see the macro portfolio by clicking here: Macro Portfolio. Please ignore the extremely high CAGR if you go to look at the portfolio… since the portfolio is brand new and has performed so well, the CAGR shows up as incredibly high. The macro portfolio is currently up around 13.37% YTDPortfolios & Research PerformancePaying subscribers have access to 4 different portfolios. Flagship FundTech GrowthAI PortfolioMacro PortfolioClick here to copy trade them on Autopilot.They also have access to our stock research reports as well. These stock research reports are typically once weekly and offer Bull, Base, and Bear cases for the stock. We also provide a time horizon as well as an exit price and our target return for the stock. We send out stock research reports through this newsletter, and publish all of them on our website here — https://thesimpleside.news/research — so that we can be transparent with the performance and the returns. This past week, we had another one of our picks hit our target return.We have published 16 stock reports. Of those 16, we have 12 that have closed, and 4 are still open. Of the 12 closed, 10 of them have closed in profit. So, we have an 83% win rate and a 24.3% average return… incredible. Before we get into all of the specific holdings we have across all of the portfolios, and our upcoming changes, I want to share the current performance we have across the board.Apologies for the fuzzy screenshots… I am trying to solve this problem…Portfolio Performance: Ignore the CAGR on the Macro Portfolio… since the portfolio is up 13% from Jan 2, and that is all the data we have on it, the CAGR just looks insane, but has yet to be proven.Stock Research PerformancePortfolio UpdatesThe password to access the website will be found after the paywall.Paid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates. My portfolios are available for paid subscribers to access in three places:Joining paid here: LINKCopy trading On Autopilot: LINKViewing them on my website: LINKNow let’s get into all of my portfolios, holdings, and updates…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comEnjoy this article thanks to Cash App! Reminders: Copy Trading HerePortfolio Views HereMacro Indicators HereResearch Reports HereGood Morning, Simple Side ShareholdersI like how we have been operating over the past couple of weeks in our weekly Saturday Sendout. We have been jumping right into the Macro analysis that we have running on our data website (https://thesimpleside.news/macro-indicators). Let’s start with our general macro overview… Macro OverviewThe current macro environment is a hold from my perspective. For those of you who do not know, “my perspective” incorporates 12 different macro metrics, including “The Buffett Indicator,” the spread between the 2yr and 10yr yields, inflation data, and more. So what does a hold mean, and what is driving that general market sentiment?A rough bond market and an overvalued stock market are currently competing against a strong gold market. That battle is resulting in a stalemate in my models. Every week, as you know, our website is updated with the newest macro model. That model includes a weekly allocation update (which is made every Friday) and a macro regime rating across the three asset classes. The allocation is made between 3 tickers: TLT (representing bonds), SPY (representing equities), and GLD (representing gold). You can see that the weight is still extremely heavily skewed towards GLD holdings. I think this speaks volumes about the underlying data driving the market. I have been saying for weeks now that the market has been under the wrath of investors’ emotions for a LONG time.Yes, the SPY is up 0.76% YTD, but in general, there is no data behind this to support the continued increase in price. In fact, if you take a look at the YTD rankings our model has attributed to the SPY, you’ll notice that for the past 10 days, we have been sitting in the “hold” and “sell” categories, and remain in a “sell” regime. The other thing our model doesn’t like right now? Bonds.Here is a look at the past 3 months of ratings from the macro indicator on bonds… YIKES.We have remained in a state of “hold” to “strong sell” for the past 3 months in a row. Now, we have seen TLT start to rise in the past few days, but in general, the model has been keeping us far, far, far away from bonds. Now, let’s talk about something that our model has been loving… gold. Over the past three months, we have seen “Strong Buy” and “Buy” ratings on gold almost exclusively. Over those 3 months, GLD is up 6%. If you follow the “Weekly Allocations” you’ll recall that our model has been allocating over 80% of the portfolio to GLD since the beginning of this year.Total Macro Portfolio ReturnsOkay, now you kinda have a feel of the general macro environment. Bonds and equities are underperformers and rated “sell” showing signs of a “risk off” regime. Gold and commodities on the other hand are showing signs of risk on and have taken over the allocation YTD. So, if you were keeping up with all of this and rebalancing your portfolio every Friday in accordance with our allocations how would your portfolio be performing YTD?I started a new account on SOFI that I am using to track the performance of the Macro indicators and the allocations between GLD, SPY, and TLT, and YTD we are up 5.69%. I will be adding the Macro Portfolio to the “Portfolios” page of the website soon!Weekly RoundupWhat the sector chart saysReturns this week were brought to you by steadier, cash-generating sectors. Basic Materials rose +3.32%, Energy +3.13%, and Utilities +3.05%. Real Estate added +2.11% and Industrials +1.82%. When investors move toward these groups, faster-growing areas usually cool off — Technology -0.61%, Healthcare -1.32%, Communication Services -0.10% did exactly that. Rates dipped midweek and finished a bit higher, with the 10-year Treasury near 4.23% on Friday. Mortgage rates around 6.06% helped housing activity. Gold set fresh records (a signal that investors wanted some safety), while oil near $59–61 modestly helped consumers and transportation. Semiconductors improved late in the week on stronger guidance from Taiwan Semiconductor; big banks had mixed days as headlines circled credit-card interest caps and Federal Reserve independence.Outlier events* Nationwide Verizon outage with $20 credits. Negative for Verizon in the short term due to service issues and bill credits; limited competitive spillover.* Proposed one-year 10% cap on credit-card APRs. Negative for major card issuers and large banks because it would cut interest income and likely tighten credit availability.* TSMC’s stronger outlook and higher capex. Positive for chipmakers and equipment suppliers by signaling durable AI and data-center demand into 2026.* Mortgage rates at a three-year low. Positive for homebuilders and housing-linked spending as financing improves.* Gold and silver at records. Positive for precious-metals miners and a sign investors kept some defense in portfolios.* Justice Department–Fed headlines. Negative for large financial firms because added policy uncertainty tends to curb risk appetite.Insider transactions* Delta (DAL): CEO sold ~$12.3M — the only airline sale we noted this week.* Redwire (RDW): A 10% holder filed multiple large sales (well over $200M combined), concentrating selling pressure in one space/defense name.* WR Berkley (WRB): A 10% owner bought shares twice (about $88M combined), steady accumulation in property-casualty insurance.* Aktis Oncology (AKTS): Multiple buys (over $75M total) signaled early-stage confidence in biotech.* Additional notable moves: sales at Diversified Energy (DEC), UWM (UWMC), Jefferson Capital (JCAP), IPG Photonics (IPGP), Madrigal (MDGL), and Airbnb (ABNB).Overall this week, insider buying clustered in insurance and biotech, while selling centered on one space name and a handful of consumer and finance names.Analyst changesUpgrades leaned toward semiconductors and the largest platforms — Applied Materials, Broadcom, Microsoft, Oracle, Netflix — reflecting confidence in AI-related spending and execution at scale. Intel was lifted to Neutral. On the defensive/consumer side, PepsiCo and Walmart picked up support. Roche and L’Oréal were marked to Neutral/Hold. The clearest message: analysts favored chip equipment, leading chip suppliers, and high-quality mega-caps.This week, investors preferred steady sectors while growth areas paused. Rates finished slightly higher, metals stayed strong, chips improved late, and housing benefited from lower mortgages. For next week, the key swing factor is the path of yields: easing yields typically help growth stocks and longer-duration tech; if yields firm up, value-tilted sectors (Materials, Energy, Utilities) are more likely to keep the lead.Stock Research ReportsI have been MIA when it comes to writing my research reports… at the beginning of the year I was finalizing the new website and building the new Flagship Fund portfolio (both of which took priority over my research reports). Now that both of these are finished, I can shift my focus back to writing and building out new stock research reports! Oh, and by the way, our research reports have been CRUSHING IT!If you are a paying subscriber, you can head over to https://thesimpleside.news/research to get access to all of our historical and current picks. Currently, we have posted a total of 14 picks, and of those 14 we have 7 closed trades that are winners and 2 closed trades that are losers. So, we have a total of 9 closed positions. We have 5 open positions and of those we have 4 picks that are in the green, and 1 (ticker: NICE) that is in the red. I will begin posting new picks this week! The first one that I am coming out with is a very high risk reward play. I don’t talk about these kind of picks very often and this will be reserved for paying subscribers only. Portfolio InformationPaid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates. My portfolios are available for paid subscribers to access in three places:Joining paid here: LINKCopy trading On Autopilot: LINKViewing them on my website: LINKI am going to be adding the Second hand AI and the Tech growth portfolios to the website in the portfolios tab this weekend, so be on the lookout for those updates!Now let’s get into all of my portfolios, returns, and details

Good Morning Simple Side Shareholders! We are starting off 2026 with a bang — we have finished stage 1 of development for our website! You can watch the attached video to see how to get access to everything now! We will be sending out the weekly newsletter, including all of the new holdings for the Flagship Fund will be sent out tomorrow! Down below I will do some explaining on how to access the new website in case you are having trouble with the video!Q&AWhere can I access the website?thesimpleside.newsWhere can I get the password to access the pages?Paid subscribers go here: CLICK HEREFree subscribers go here: CLICK HEREWhere do I put in the password?First, click on any of these headers!Then this page will show up! All you need to do is enter the password here!Where can I give feedback on the website?All you need to do is click the feedback button on the website!What is the password?You can find the current password here: CLICK HEREAlright everyone — I will see you with the new portfolio holdings tomorrow! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thesimpleside.substack.com/subscribe

Reminders - Disclosure is in the email footer - You can copy trade our potfolios here - You can get our daily news updates here - You can see our stock research reports here - Not all of these stocks make it into our portfolios** ALL OF MY PORTFOLIOS THAT I HELD IN 2025 ARE AVAILABLE TO BE SEEN AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE! This includes all current holdings and returns! ** YOU CAN ALSO SEE MY WEEKLY PICKS FOR DEC 30 - JAN 2**Please enjoy this whole article for free thanks to CONSTANT CONTACT!Good Morning, Simple Side ShareholdersLast week we took a quick look at some of the macro indicators that I have been building and working on in the background. We are going to start implementing these strategies into our investing in 2026 and wanted to give you all another look into systems we have built. We are tracking 3 main things:SPY — EquitiesTLT — BondsGLD — GoldI wanted to build a system that would utilize tickers so that anyone could implement this strategy if they so wished. That meant easily tradeable tickers (no options, no futures, etc.)With that being said, let’s jump into the current regimes we are seeing across all three markets (Equities, Bonds, and Gold). As a reminder, I have built these charts on thesimpleside.news/market-indicator so you can go and play with them there! Eventually, these will end up behind a paywall, so if you would like to get access, I would join our paid plan ASAP! You can do so by clicking here!Now we are going to jump into the three different regimes driving GLD, TLT, and SPY (gold, bonds, and equities). Before we do so, I want to let you know that at the end of these three sections, I will be setting up an “Optimal Portfolio” to follow based on my macro assessment. My goal was to find something to do with my 50% cash position that could potentially yield returns higher than 3.25%/yr outside of HYSA (high yield savings accounts). I will start with a small total cash position of around $1k as a test and then build the portfolio up as time goes on and there are true outsized returns from the portfolio. This portfolio will be something I hope to start tracking in 2026, and will continue to build and track over the next year. After I discuss the three current regimes each week, I will share the overall portfolio positioning. Using this strategy over the past month, I yielded the following returnsAs you can see I made about 2% over the last 21 trading days while the SPY lagged growing by less than 1%. Equities (SPY)I want to start out with our macro view over the past year. You can click on this image to expand it.The overall regime for 2025 in equities has been “risk on” meaning equities were a buy in 2025. Now, as you all know I have been heavily in cash in 2025 (50%). Now, if I had this indicator built then, would I have been as risk off? Probably not, but I didn’t have this built. Sadly, this mean we have left some $$ on the table this year. It is frustrating, but in general I like being in the current cash position that we are in. The question is, why? Well, in general I don’t like the forces that are driving the market. You can see on the graph where I have drawn some large red lines which mark emotionally driven sells that have happened in the market. Now, the indicator has caught them and labeled them as “Strong Buys” in the short term, but how long will it be before we see one of these dips that doesn’t stop? The sad reality is that I do not know, and neither does anyone else. One thing I do know is that risk of that happening increases drastically when the markets are driven nearly entirely by emotions. So yes, this is a risk off environment for me. If you want a quick look at the SPY regime for the past month, see the following graphic. Again, this is viewable at thesimpleside.news/market-indicator.So, coming into the first week of 2026 we are showing a “risk-off” regime.Bonds (TLT)The first thing I want to show you with bonds in the price relative to the historical price we have seen since 2024. Please note that the line you are looking at is colored by the regime we were in at that time. You can see that bond prices are sitting at the same levels now as they were at in 2004. Note that this doesn’t directly mean that bonds are cheap. Bonds aren’t like a company that builds up its revenues overtime — they pay a rate (set by the Gov. in this case), and are priced according to the rate they pay. There are other factors as well, but in general this is how they are priced. In general, bonds have been jumping between risk on and risk off this year. Over the past month though, we have been in “strong sell” territory and this past week we came into some “hold” territory. In general, I would say a “strong sell” or “strong buy” would mean it is time to enter or exit for short term gains. Currently we sit in that “hold” territory, and I would imagine we will sit here through this week. I will say that the past few months of risk off sentiment does bode well for equities (aka the SPY). The next inflation report will come out about 2 weeks into January, and the future price of bonds will probably be pretty dependent on what we see out of this data. One thing that I am not expecting is “higher for longer” CPI marks. Obviously, due to the gov. shutdown we missed a reading in October, but in general inflation is trending down and I expect it to do so in January as well. Obviously this data will not be 100% accurate, and adjustments can happen, but in general I expect things to sit and remain around that 2% to 2.5% mark. This will general bode well for bond prices.Commodities (GLD)I had to come back and adjust what I had written here after what the market did to gold and silver today (SLV down 7% and GLD down 4.4%). In general, this doesn’t come as a surprise as the indicator switched from “buy” to “hold” showing a changing in tides for gold. Will the drop be sustained? That is another question that I do not have the answer to. I would assume that our indicator will soon pick up some red or green in the graph soon and we will know that it is time to enter or start exiting into GLD positions. I don’t have a play on gold here because there is no strong conviction one way or another from the indicator. The Current Macro-Driven Portfolio The current portfolio is as follows: SPY18.38%GLD71.48%TLT10.14%Weekly RoundupOutlier EventsThe WBD takeover battle escalated as Paramount Skydance added a $40.4B personal guarantee from Larry Ellison, while WBD’s board continued to favor Netflix’s alternative. Gold and silver printed new records, and the S&P 500 and Dow closed at fresh highs in a holiday-shortened week. Notable deals and headlines included ServiceNow buying Armis ($7.75B), Alphabet acquiring Intersect ($4.75B plus debt), Waymo’s temporary pause during a San Francisco blackout, and a rare insider buy pop at Nike after Tim Cook’s purchase.What Happened Last WeekEquities drifted higher on light volume, led by AI stocks and broadening participation beyond mega-caps. The 10-year hovered near 4.1% as mortgage rates eased into the low-6% range, supporting housing activity at the margin. Macro prints were mixed: a firm 4.3% Q3 GDP contrasted with a dip in consumer confidence, while holiday spending tracked relatively solid. Bitcoin was range-bound in the high-$80Ks to low-$90Ks and precious metals outperformed.Our Opinions This Week The market remains a rates-and-AI story into year-end.Near term, we are watching whether the gold/silver momentum persists if rate-cut odds wobble. Base case: constructive into the final prints of the year; stay tilted to cash-strong positions and portfolio leaders.Remember, we are investing in a very volatile and emotional market right now. It is NOT the time to be placing super speculative bets unless your risk tolerance is above the moon. In general, I think heavy cash wins over the next few months/weeks until the market decides to get a better footing. Stock Research ReportsAs you all know, one of the things we offer subscribers are research reports on stocks that we think have potential to outperform over the next year-ish. We publish all of these stock picks in the same place our market indicators live: thesimpleside.news/stock-research. Currently, we are seeing outsized returns and a shorter timespan than we would have expected. Here is one of our recent picks that already hit its target in less than 2 months…We made a call on AppLovin (APP). We called for a 38% return on November 18… and we expected it would take us till Q2 2026 to reach that target, but APP surprised us. We surpassed the $730 price target on Monday, December 22, and secured the gain! Here is the article we wrote back on Nov 18: Now, these research articles we send out for free, but we have other things we offer only to paid subscribers. Our real personal portfolios are one of those things. We have our own money invested in them, and if you want to learn about them, today is your lucky day…. so keep reading…Portfolio InformationPaid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.Typically, these portfolios are hidden behind a paywall. You can’t see them, you can’t access them, and you can’t find them anywhere online. That is, of course, unless you join our paid membership! HOWEVER, today you get a one-time access to everything FOR FREE. I do this every December to let people know that I am being 100% honest about my portfolios, to show that I don’t just have things tracked in a spreadsheet, and so that you all can see that what we do here isn’t just to sell you on my newsletter. It is to build real wealth investing together. I make more money from my investing than I do from the newsletter. That is why you don’t see me trying very hard to “sell” my newsletter to you. That is why I give away money every year, but there is one more reason…I value openness and honesty in the finance community. It is something that a majority of people in the space lack. All of their returns only exist in spreadsheets; they promise courses that “teach you how to invest,” and for some reason, you can never seem to match their same returns… isn’t that strange?All of my returns exist in a spreadsheet too, well they used to. Now all of my portfolios are live on Autopilot. So you can see REAL RETURNS, in REAL TIME.Portfolio Returns, Holdings & UpdatesFLAGSHIP FUND: LINKOur Flagship Fund is the one you saw the returns for earlier. We have managed to achieve over 500% returns since 2020 with only 1 major drawdown year of >30%. Now, anyone who tells you that they are a great investor because they performed well since 2020 and doesn’t acknowledge that we were and are in the greatest bull market of all time is experiencing the “Dunning-Kruger effect.” Also known as someone who is too stupid to know that they are stupid. Of course, I and every other investor on the planet did great from 2020 through 2025. There was no other option… The market forced individual stock investors to outperform. Needless to say, we have been very blessed over the past 5 years, and I do not expect the same performance to continue through 2026, nor do I expect to see it over the next 5 years. AI Second-Hand Effects: LINKThe AI Second Hand Effects portfolio was a high conviction group of stocks that we wrote about in late 2024. The idea was simple: everyone was chasing gold, so why not start selling them their shovels? In this case, the gold was AI, and the shovels were land, data centers, and energy. The strategy and the portfolio have done extremely well. Since November 2024, the portfolio has returned a staggering 52% and is up 17% since July 2025. This portfolio’s goal is to do one thing and one thing only: find the second-order effect before everyone else. So far, we have been able to do that, and we hope to continue this trend into 2026. Since the main “boom” has really run its course, we are focusing on companies with cash flow and real ability to turn energy, data, etc., into cash. Regardless, energy demands aren’t stopping anytime soon, and we hope to watch this portfolio’s value do the same. Tech-Focused GrowthFinally, we get to the Tech-Focused growth portfolio. This portfolio is a bit more complicated in nature, but in general is much better suited for those looking for long-term bets with higher risk/reward ratios. In this portoflio we are focused more on large and mid cap growing companies primarily in the tech space. Although, as you can see many different sectors are represented: healthcare, payments, insurance, cloud & cyber, etc.In general, we look for undervalued companies that are growing consistently & quickly, and seem to have a stronghold on their respective industry. HOOD and HROW are great examples of large cap companies that fit the mold. Both are massive players in their respective industries. HOOD is a huge player in the financial services space and has a niche with the retail investor. The company has a nicer UI/UX than competitors, and is one of the few companies willing to innovate quickly. Their revenue is on a 3-year 51% CAGR run and shows no signs of slowing. (So we have growth, a moat on the industry with retail and UI/UX, and at the time we bought it, it was undervalued based on growth assumptions). HROW, on the other hand, is a player in the pharma space focusing on ophthalmic therapy. It sounds super fancy, but in reality, it is just therapy that uses non-surgical procedures (like games, filters, etc.) to help train the eyes and brain to work together. It corrects issues such as lazy eye, eye misalignment, and general coordination problems. When I read this, I see “AFFORDABILITY” screaming at me, and in a world driven by high prices and low wages, affordability reigns supreme. We also have revenue growth of 35% CAGR over the past 3 years, and a company that is projected to grow 40% over the next year. Again, this covers all of the bases.In general, the companies in this portfolio are meant to be held for extended periods until “the crowd” catches on to what is happening and the stock “blows up.” This is when you start seeing the name in the news, or your dad starts talking about it — then it is time to sell. Weekly Picks Performance**We treat the trades as buys on Monday’s Market open and sells on Friday’s Market close. We also have a -1% stop loss on each stock. The max gain isn't set to be a "sell as soon as we reach it" number. Typically, we watch the stock for around 10-15 mins when it passes the "max gain level." Then if the stock has surpassed the max gain we set a stop loss at the max gain level. This allows us to "let the winners ride" while maintaining upside and capping potential losers.**We have generated excess returns of 77% on these weekly picks alone.Weekly Picks🟢 The Buys:MPWR — Monolithic Power Systems* Expected Weekly Return: +0.50%* Context: 1-month trend +1.28% ≈ 0.32% per week* Key Drivers: Early MACD turn, improving 3–1M momentum (+4.69%), long-term strength intact despite being below the 200-DMA. High-quality semi name in early recovery phase.GOOGL — Alphabet* Expected Weekly Return: +0.55%* Context: 1-month trend +2.33% ≈ 0.58% per week* Key Drivers: Strong multi-timeframe momentum (3–1M +31%, 6–1M +79%), RSI in trend-healthy range, dominant cash-flow profile with AI optionality.APH — Amphenol* Expected Weekly Return: +0.55%* Context: 1-month trend +1.48% ≈ 0.37% per week* Key Drivers: Accelerating momentum (12-month +99%), MACD positive, leadership behavior within hardware despite longer-term DMA gap.LRCX — Lam Research* Expected Weekly Return: +0.80%* Context: 1-month trend +5.25% ≈ 1.31% per week* Key Drivers: One of the strongest momentum profiles in the entire universe (12-month +112%), RSI firmly bullish, leveraged to memory capex recovery. Higher beta, higher payoff.IDXX — IDEXX Laboratories* Expected Weekly Return: +0.55%* Context: 1-month trend +1.34% ≈ 0.34% per week* Key Drivers: Defensive growth compounder, rebuilding base after correction, strong profitability and consistency versus the cyclicals.KLAC — KLA Corp* Expected Weekly Return: +0.65%* Context: 1-month trend +2.70% ≈ 0.68% per week* Key Drivers: Best-in-class margins, steady momentum (12-month +82%), lower volatility relative to other semis with still-meaningful upside.- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thesimpleside.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comReminders - Disclosure is in the email footer - You can copy trade our potfolios here - You can get our daily news updates here - You can see our stock research reports here - Not all of these stocks make it into our portfoliosGood Morning, Simple Side ShareholdersLast week I told you that I had a few things planned for 2026. I wanted to share one of them with you now. The Macro Forecasting (aka The Simple Side Indicator) that I have been building behind the scenes. Of course, what you are looking at is a model that runs from 2010-2025. While predicting macro environments is near impossible, this model does a fairly good job of providing a “risk assessment” for anyone in the markets. You’ll notice a few places (I have marked them above) where the model was yelling “sell” and the market proceeded upwards, but in general, when you see a deep red sell indication it is a good time to step away from risk on assets. The same is true in the other direction, when you see a deep green color, typically it is an incredible time to “back up the truck.” This model will be shared will all paying subscribers starting in 2026 and will make weekly appearances in this newsletter alongside our market commentary, portfolio updates, etc… I will try to upload it onto the website TheSimpleSide.News soon as well. For those of you wondering, the dark red you see is a “Strong Sell” signal and the dark green is a “Strong Buy” signal. These two colors only appear about 4% of the time on this chart — typically indicating that there is a major market change on the horizon. Weekly RoundupThis weeks weekly roundup is going to be focused less on the news and more on what I am witnessing in the markets. The first thing I want to do is take a look at TSSI (The Simple Side Indicator) for 2025 and see how the data feels about the market.Overvalued.That is how the data feels about the market and how I feel as well. Paying subscribers know (and now you free folks do too) that I am 50% in equities and 50% in cash. Really, when I say in cash I am in accounts yielding 3.25% or 3.5% interest. In general, I feel like that is the correct position to be in given the current state of the market. What is the current state of the market: emotional. The market is being driven almost entirely by emotion, news, and investor sentiment. The market we would like to be invested in is the one where fundamentals are driving market prices.If you take a look at that beautiful red circle we have drawn above, you’ll notice that since June, the data behind the market hasn’t appeared favorable in the slightest. Now, surprisingly TSSI hasn’t actually hit a “Strong Sell” alert yet in 2025, though it has been close. Here is another view of the same chart….You can see that since June we have been exclusively in the “hold” and “sell” ranges. So, you are probably wondering why I am sitting in 50% cash when the indicator looks to be switching regimes from risk off back into a middle ground. Well, what is currently carrying the indicator from risk off to hold territory is the current market momentum. From July up until November, there has been incredible momentum in the market. That momentum has brough the market out of the “sell” phase and into the “hold” phase. However, there is something happening that might change the way the market will trend in 2026. That red circle on the right hand side of the screen… Momentum is slowing. Buyers are not showing up like they have in the past. If the regime starts to shift from hold back to the “risk off” territory, there is a great chance that we see another LARGE dip happen. One of the things we account for in this model are the Federal Fund Rates (set by the Federal Reserve), so if we end up losing chair Powell and a new chairman decides to honor Trump’s wishes by cutting rates, the model will take this into account. Needless to say, we are still very risk off. Building cash reserves, taking chips off the table, and being patient are the name of the game right now. I will be watching the data and the indicator heavily over the next few weeks and months as the government comes back online and we start to see somewhat more accurate data flowing again. Needless to say, we are still in a relatively RISK OFF REGIME right now. That can change, but at the current moment, risk off. Portfolio InformationPaid subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.I have had my portfolios available to copy on Autopilot since July, and had them available on DoubleFinance (which is now closed) since early in 2025. Since then, the market has returned about 7% to investors that makes up about half of the YTD returns of around 16%.That is relatively impressive performance for the SPY (not comparable to the past few years), but compared to the 10-12% most investors expect, 16% is great! On Autopilot, our portfolios show returns of 1.58%, 14.12%, and 12.01% (again returns since July 2025). All but one of my portfolios has nearly doubled the SPY returns since they were shared on Autopilot! If you have been following me since the beginning of the year (and invested in the AI Second Hand Effects portfolio at my initial article send in late 2024), you would be looking at two portfolios with returns of 36.16% returns in the Flagship Fund and 57.76% in the AI portfolio! Not too bad for someone who makes stock picks once a year! Regardless, 2026 is shaping up to be a challenge. As I come into the 2026 rebalancing season for my portfolios I am increasingly disheartened by the prospects of the 2026 year. As always, there can be a multitude of anomaly events that could launch the market in one direction or another. All that being said, I have some BIG updates coming for the portfolios (especially the Tech Growth), and even more changes coming in early 2026! If you are not allowed behind the paywall (aka not a paying subscriber, you should join now). We are and have been increasing our offerings to paying subscribers and have been showing real results and real returns for years now. If you haven’t wet your beak yet, 2026 is the yea to do so. Portfolio Returns, Holdings & UpdatesFLAGSHIP FUND: LINK

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comGelt is your partner in taxes: an AI-powered platform with an expert CPA team. Quarterly, we align entities, surface missed deductions, and keep estimates tight—turning tax drag into deployable capital with clear actions, predictable outcomes, and stronger cash flow.Reminders - Disclosure is in the email footer - You can copy trade our potfolios here - You can get our daily news updates here - You can see our stock research reports here - Not all of these stocks make it into our portfoliosBefore we get into everything, I want to apologize for being behind on updating the Google sheet that holds all of our data. I am working on a solution that should make that much easier. I will get back in there and start making updates soon! Thank you all for your patience with me right now!Market Wisdom“[Mr. Market] has incurable emotional problems… [he gets] depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world. On these occasions he will name a very low price, since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him.”— Warren BuffettWeekly RoundupS&P 500 fell roughly 2%Dow about -2%Nasdaq near -3%The 10-year Treasury yield edged down ~7 bps to ~4.07%The VIX finished in the low-23s after spiking midweek.Gold hovered a little above $4,050/oz.Oil drifted under $58–60. Bitcoin fell ~8–9% to the mid-$80Ks. The markets remained weak. Even solid numbers out of NVDA couldn’t help strengthen things.Returns this week were brought to you by… Extreme Fear.The AI euphoria phase is slowing down and of course people are terrified… try watching the news right now without being scared about the bubble popping. The reality is that it is all about perspective… Yes the past few weeks have been rough the SPY is down around 5% and my portfolios (in some cases) are down 10%.Why am I not sounding the alarm? Well, why would I?In the photo above, you can see earlier this year from Feb 19 to Apr 8. The market lost nearly 20% in those few short months. It then proceded to go on a 33% run, but again the media isn’t trying to sell you stability. They make more money when they sell fear and greed. We are in a fine position right now, yes, things are weak, but with nearly 50% of our cash on the sidelines I couldn’t feel more comfortable with this positioning. Nvidia sat at the center of everything. The company cleared a very high bar — Q3 revenue about $57B with data center north of $50B and Q4 guided near $65B — and still could not carry the market for long as traders faded the initial pop and leaned into “sell the news.” Again, the news is there to sell you on fear and greed.Around that, capital kept flooding into AI infrastructure and models: Google launched Gemini 3 across products, Brookfield outlined up to $100B for AI assets, Anthropic inked fresh multibillion-dollar compute commitments with Big Tech and chip partners, Saudi-linked groups announced large data-center plans, and Jeff Bezos surfaced with a new industrial-AI venture. Even bulls acknowledged froth risk — Sundar Pichai warned about “elements of irrationality” — and the market traded that way, with intraday reversals and sharp factor whips.What is my opinion here? Great, let the market fall — we are overvalued! I went ahead and put together a quick market indicator on my website: The Simple Signal that you can go check out. If you scroll down below this you’ll come across something called “The Buffet Indicator” which is a fancy way of looking at how overvalued stocks are relative to GNP. It should come as no surprise that we are wildly overvalued. The point is… we are 50% in cash because we don’t like the current market value, and would prefer to allocate capital when we get back down into the 113% - 138% range.Macro and policy pulled in opposite directions this week. October CPI and jobs were still disrupted, and investors were forced to handicap the December Fed meeting off partial and delayed inputs. Their meeting notes (aka the minutes) showed a wider FOMC split, but a late-week rate-cut nudge from NY Fed’s John Williams steadied risk (sending the 10-year a bit lower). Elsewhere, Japan approved a ¥21.3T stimulus that leaned into defense and industry, adding duration questions for JGBs. On the U.S. industrial side, rare-earth onshoring headlines resurfaced as policymakers try to cut China's exposure in magnets and materials.I would love to see some of the mineral stocks trade lower to allow us to make “value buys” in our AI Second Hand Effects portoflio with these. Walmart beat and raised on 28% U.S. e-commerce growth and share gains, while Target cut guidance and Home Depot missed again as big-ticket projects cooled; Lowe’s outperformed on cost control. Gap surprised with its best ex-pandemic comp growth since 2017. Early Black Friday promotions arrived across the board, but the University of Michigan sentiment gauge slid toward the low-50s, and a rise in household utility delinquencies hinted at stretched wallets. If there is a holiday winner’s circle, it is tilting toward value, essentials, and retailers with strong digital execution.As a reminder, markets are irrational. They are there to serve you, do not them control you (see the market wisdom above). Walmart has an incredible quarter, and I guarentee you that if the market continues down, WMT stock will end up lower than what it was before their earnings came out. Is that rational? No, but that is how you make money in this market. You wait and wait and wait, and when you finally see an incredible opportunity you make a move. We are in the waiting phase.Meta won a major antitrust case that removes a breakup overhang tied to Instagram and WhatsApp. Cloudflare resolved a broad outage tied to a configuration error, a reminder of how concentrated critical web plumbing has become. Speaking of which, Cloudflare is shaping up to be a “back up the truck” opportunity. We saw the exact same thing happen to Crowdstrike earlier in the year… I mean do people not think before they sell?Here is a July 19, 2025 article about Crowdstrike stock after their servers crashed:”The cybersecurity specialist’s share price was down 8.5% as of 11 a.m. ET, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Shares had been down as much as 15.4% earlier in the daily session.With a new update that it rolled out, CrowdStrike inadvertently triggered system locks for hardware using Microsoft‘s Windows operating system. The issue has caused massive global outages for information technology systems, and investors are dumping the company’s stock in response.”Sounds like a buying opportunity… not now, but soon.Roblox moved to age-verify chat and separate minors and adults, adding to a wider scrutiny cycle that also hit AI-enabled toys after an unsafe-content scare. In media, Warner Bros. Discovery formally drew multiple suitors for all or parts of the company, but financing and regulatory math will decide how real any bid is.Crypto traded like a high-beta macro asset and then some. Bitcoin knifed from the low-$90Ks to the mid-$80Ks before a small Friday bounce, dragging crypto-exposed equities and triggering forced deleveraging. MicroStrategy kept buying on weakness, but ETF outflows and tighter financial conditions outweighed dip demand this week.Stock ResearchOur stock research is meant to present subscribers with stocks that have the potential for outsized returns. Not all of these stocks make it into my portoflios, but some will every now and again. We started building out our stock research archive right before the market took its turn downward, so our track record doesn’t look incredibly stellar, but as time goes on and markets normalize, I expect this to catch up and turn around! Regardless, these research articles should be used as a tool to find potential new investments for your portfolio. We are keeping track of everything using the thesimpleside.news/stock-research website, and you can follow along there as well. Recent ArticlesNow, alongside these research articles, I am also tracking stocks I call “Berkshire Buy”, which I think are companies that the legendary Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway might buy.Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios, but a few have, like OXY, NSSC, and QLYS.Portfolio InformationOverextended & Oversold PositionsYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!These represent the 4-month average return of all investors who copy my portfolios.That means these will differ from the portfolio’s total returns since inception because everyone has different overall price averages, different DCA values and amounts, but these returns take into account all of that.Remember, that means that the Autopilot app won’t match 1:1 with your returns, but will show The Simple Side shareholder average.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.Behind The Paywall - Portfolio Weekly Returns - Portfolio Holdings - Portfolio Changes, Updates, New Investments - Weekly Picks - M&A Stock Picks - Top Investment Stock PicksPortfolio Returns, Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comThanks to Constant Contact for sponsoring today’s article!Reminders - Disclosure is in the email footer - You can copy trade our potfolios here - You can get our daily news updates here - You can see our stock research reports here - Not all of these stocks make it into our portfoliosMarket WisdomMichael Burry just disclosed that he would be shutting down his fund Scion Asset Management.Sometimes, we see bubbles. Sometimes, there is something to do about it. Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play.— Michael Burry (October 31, 2025)This quote is actually in reference to WarGames — a 1983 movie where a super computer calculates that the only way to win a nuclear war is by not starting one in the first place.Quite a timely reference since the current race is to generate the most power (through nuclear) to power AI… That is all well and good (and nostalgic), but there are some much much more meaningful references in this quote as well. Sometimes, we see bubbles.This part of the quote references two main things: * The housing market bubble in 2008 * The current AI bubble that Burry has bet against. Sometimes, there is something to do about it.This part of the quote of course referencing that in 2008 there was something to do about the bubble (bet against it). What about the current bubble? Well, that leads into the final part of the quote: Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play.Where he says that even though he believes that the current “bubble” is real, there isn’t anything he believes he can do about it. It is clear to Burry that there is a bubble but he isn’t sure how or when it will burst. That means there is nothing left to do but not play. Now, Burry did mention that on Nov. 25th he would be making an announcement or “moving on to better things,” so we will have to pay attention to what he gets himself into next. Weekly RoundupStocks ripped early and faded late…S&P 500: -.7%Dow: +0.11%Nasdaq: -0.23% The 10-year hovered near 4.1%, the VIX pushed toward 20, oil stayed around $60, gold eased, and bitcoin slid about 10% after breaking below $100K.Returns this week were brought to you by AI whiplash, shutdown relief turning into rate-cut doubt, and a market that still lives and dies by a handful of mega caps.40% — that is how much of the S&P 500 is driven by the top 10 tickers (I say tickers because Google is in there twice). That’s right, 2% of the companies in S&P 500 drive 40% of the returns… yikes. The good news for us is that we aren’t invested in the SPY, nor are we heavily invested in the top 10 stocks as a whole. The bad news is that when the S&P 500 drops people FOMO sell and let the fear guide them and it ends up causing issues for all stocks in or out of the S&P. We at The Simple Side have been expecting this sort of drop for a while now which is why we have been riding with a 50% cash portfolio. Early strength this week came on hopes Congress would wrap the shutdown and on fresh AI deals: a large OpenAI–AWS capacity pact, strong Palantir numbers, and Microsoft winning U.S. licenses to ship tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs to the UAE. Then the mood flipped — SoftBank dumped its Nvidia stake, CoreWeave flagged a data-center delay after touting a giant backlog, and AI leaders sold off midweek as investors questioned lofty multiples. AMD sketched bigger long-term AI targets, Anthropic laid out a massive U.S. build-out, and Microsoft formed a “superintelligence” group, but the bullish headlines couldn’t offset the valuation nerves.Fed rhetoric remained split and key October reports may never be fully published because of the data blackout, leaving rate-cut odds for December wobbling around a coin-flip. Speaking of which, Polymarket is a great resource to use when it comes to watching the rate cuts and the effect that the cuts have on the economy as a whole.Here you can see the current rate cut odds over the past 3 months. You may notice that over the past few weeks, the rate cut odds have started dropping, and what have we seen in the markets? The same thing, a dropping market. Current odd of a 25bps rate cut have dropped below 50% for the first time ever and right now that matters more than anything.Investors are betting big on the low rate environment helping companies grow quicker (justifying valuations sooner). If that happens, then the markets are safe, if not, then we are heavily overvaluing a majority of the market right now.Of course, there are ways to use these odds to help limit portfolio losses in the case that there is no rate cut, but we will get into that in another article.Consumer confidence remains soft right now, and the current sentiment around housing got weird: a floated 50-year mortgage drew pushback, and regulators mused about “portable” or assumable loans instead.Pfizer won the Metsera bidding war (obesity pipeline). Visa and Mastercard advanced a settlement that would trim interchange fees modestly and expand routing options (likely 2026–27). Merck agreed to buy Cidara for its long-acting flu program. Berkshire filled the last “Buffett-Driven report — adding Alphabet while trimming Apple (Greg Abel reaffirmed as successor). Walmart announced a CEO transition for Feb. 1 and Paramount Skydance laid out deeper cost cuts and price hikes while the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery drew suitor chatter.Target cut grocery prices into the holidays while early Black Friday deals hit Apple gear and more. Starbucks’ “Bearista” merch mania met a Red Cup Day strike; the company said sales still set records. Wendy’s plans to close hundreds of weaker stores to refocus.I think this is a sign that consumer spending is starting to weaken. Yes Starbucks may have set a record, but everywhere else seems to be slowing down a bit. Some fun stuffThe U.S. Mint made their last penny… (rounding to the nearest nickel becomes standard for cash), IRS lifted 2026 retirement contribution caps, and an infant-formula recall widened after botulism cases. Crypto spent the week bleeding as ETF outflows and risk-off tone weighed.Stock ResearchOur stock research is meant to be a tool for subscribers that allows them to read new ideas that we see, but we aren’t sacrificing portfolio positions to invest in. These research articles should be used to find potential new investments for your portfolio. We are keeping track of everything using the thesimpleside.news/stock-research website, and you can follow along there as well. Recent ArticlesThe two stocks we posted research about this week were NextEra Energy (NEE) and Western Digital (WDC) — both are strongly connected with the current AI stock bull market and have the potential to generate some serious returns if the market stays green. They both generate cash flow, have income hitting the bottom line and they both have the ability to capitalize on the AI arms race.Now, alongside these research articles, I am also tracking stocks I call “Berkshire Buy”, which I think are companies that the legendary Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway might buy.Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios, but a few have, like OXY, NSSC, and QLYS.Portfolio InformationOverextended & Oversold PositionsYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!These represent the 3-month average return of all investors who copy my portfolios.That means these will differ from the portfolios total returns since inception because everyone has different overall price averages, different DCA values and amounts, but these returns take into account all of that.Remember, that means that the Autopilot app won’t match 1:1 with your returns, but will show The Simple Side shareholder average.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.Behind The Paywall - Portfolio Weekly Returns - Portfolio Holdings - Portfolio Changes, Updates, New Investments - Weekly Picks - M&A Stock Picks - Top Investment Stock PicksPortfolio Returns, Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comThanks to Percent for sponsoring today’s article!Reminders - Disclosure is in the email footer - You can copy trade our potfolios here - You can get our daily news updates here - You can see our stock research reports here - Not all of these stocks make it into our portfoliosMarket Wisdom“Everyone has the brain power to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach.”- Peter LynchAbout 10 people copying my trades stopped copying them this week, and about 3 people unsubscribed from the newsletter this week. This is a common trend I notice every time the market dips. People forget that markets take dips, both short and long. Some will happen now, and others will happen later, but they are bound to happen regardless. There are drawdowns, there are setbacks, there are recessions, and there are depressions. To make money, you need to be able to stomach a loss here and there. I’ve done it a few times, and pretty notably in 2022.This graphic shows my portfolio returns from 2020 to the present. What you might notice is that we have experienced a 414% total return over that time periodThese are stellar returns.What you might also notice is that in 2022, I experienced a 30% drawdown… this meant that I underperformed the S&P 500 by 12%. It also brought my overall portfolio returns down from 93% to 34%. A tough loss, but if I decided to sell out of everything I would have missed a 103% return in 2023.That being said, let’s get into the news from this past week. Of course, if you are a paying subscriber, you should be able to jump down towards the bottom of this email to see our portfolio news and performance. Weekly RoundupStocks finally exhaled. After a hot stretch for mega-cap tech, the market spent the week trending lower as the AI trade wobbled and breadth stayed weak. By Friday’s close, the S&P 500 was down roughly 2% on the week, the Nasdaq lost ~3% (worst week since April), and the Dow slipped a bit over 1%. The 10-year yield hovered a touch above 4%, the VIX pushed toward the low 20s passing the 22 mark on Friday. Oil slid to just under $60, and bitcoin broke below $100K midweek before bouncing.Returns this week were brought to you by heavy AI headlines colliding with valuation reality and the long lasting Govenment shutdown. Early on, bulls cheered a seven-year, $38B OpenAI–AWS capacity deal, Palantir’s beat/raise, and U.S. licenses for Microsoft to ship tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs to the UAE. Regardless of the good news, traders questioned stretched multiples after AMD/AI names ran hot, and the Nasdaq’s leaders gave back gains into Thursday/Friday.Days/weeks like this make it feel great to see 50% of your cash on the sidelines “doing nothing.” If you have cash like this on the sidelines, then there isn’t a need to “panic sell.” In fact, drops in the market are exciting! Now one thing that I am not sure about is whether this selloff is going to be longer standing or if it is a “one time scare.” As with all else, only time will tell. That being said, we are so well positioned with the portfolios we have built. We own some of the most quality stocks the market has to offer right now. The gains in these portfolios will be built over the next few years and a week dip doesn’t make me nervous.Palantir raised its outlook on strong U.S. gov/commercial demand. AMD topped estimates and guided higher, but investors nitpicked margins and the pace of the data-center ramp. Uber beat on trips and revenue yet slipped on spending plans. Consumer bellwethers showed the same K-shaped pattern we’ve seen all year — resilient higher-income spending and softer traffic at the low end — while McDonald’s and Starbucks highlighted value hunting (and, yes, a holiday-cup frenzy).Policy and macro didn’t help risk appetite. The FAA began phasing a shutdown-related 10% air-traffic reduction at major airports, forcing schedule cuts. Mixed Fed speak (one governor urging faster cuts, others counseling patience) left rates near 4% but sentiment fragile. Layoff headlines flared again — even as private payrolls data showed modest job growth — and consumer sentiment slid toward cycle lows.Autos and health care each had their own plotlines. EV demand cooled after credit expirations (hybrids are holding up). Tesla shareholders approved a performance-based package for Musk tied to aggressive product and market-cap milestones. In GLP-1s, Lilly and Novo moved toward lower list prices and broader 2026 coverage, while Big Pharma M&A chatter stayed hot (and the Metsera bidding war escalated).Novo is startrting to look like a very investable stock. The company is down 68% from their high and is closing in on a single digit PE ratio. That being said, they just recently lost the fight for Metsera. Just hous ago it was annouced that MTSR would take Pfizer’s bid over Novo’s citing potential anti-trust issues with Novo.Deal and corporate maneuvering rounded out the week. Kimberly-Clark moved to buy Kenvue. Disney pressed YouTube TV to restore ABC for election coverage amid a blackout. Shein pulled sex-doll listings under French scrutiny. Millennium sold a minority stake in its management company. And a Commerce-backed plan aimed to jump-start U.S. rare-earth magnet capacity—small headline, big supply-chain implications.The race for rare earths is really starting to blow up and could become a very investable sector. Tickers like UUUU (Energy Fuels) have run up over 300% from their lows, but along with ohter stocks have been dropping over the past few weeks. UUUU is down 40% from its ATH on October 15. Under the surface, leadership stayed narrow. Mega-cap AI and cloud names still set the tone day-to-day, but when they sag, the equal-weight S&P can’t pick up the slack. Defensives didn’t save anything, either; the better cushion came from falling oil (easier input costs, softer inflation optics) and a still-contained rate backdrop.The only thing that makes me nervous is that oil is already cheap so falling oil prices can’t hold up the markets forever. Overall, I think we are starting to see a bit of the uneasiness hidden below the market starting to show its ugly head.Stock ResearchOur stock research is meant to be a tool for subscribers that allows them to read new ideas that we see, but we aren’t sacrificing portfolio positions to invest in. These research articles should be used to find potential new investments for your portfolio. We are keeping track of everything using the thesimpleside.news/stock-research website, and you can follow along there as well. Here is our most recent research article…This was the research article that we posted earlier this week, which highlighted Wayfair (W) and called for a 23% return with a target date of Q3 2026. Now, you may remember that in last week’s newsletter, we actually highlighted 3 stocks that have been included in our research article tracking website.Those stocks are Wayfair (W), Nice Ltd (NICE), and Bloom Energy (BE). Currently, only one of these stocks has a positive return (Bloom Energy), but all of their target dates are about 1 year out. As a reminder, you can now follow along with all of these research reports by going here: https://thesimpleside.news/stock-researchNow, this week I have even more trade ideas coming at you… one is an energy play and the other is hardware, but I guess I will keep those articles for this week…If you are or aren’t liking these research articles, let me know by clicking the button below and leaving me a message saying so.Now, alongside these research articles, I am also tracking stocks I call “Berkshire Buy”, which I think are companies that the legendary Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway might buy.Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios, but a few have, like OXY, NSSC, and QLYS.Now, you can’t make things like this up… last week I called out QLYS. I said…Currently, one of the stocks on this list stands out to me… QLYS. It is a quality company, with great-looking metrics, yet it seems to be struggling. The company is down 40% from its high in 2023. Since then, it has grown its revenue, its net income, and bought back shares, and grown its assets by $200M. This company may become a holding in the Flagship Fund when we rebalance the portfolio for 2026.We proceeded to make the stock the second-largest holding in our Flagship Fund… and here is how that ended up for us…A gain like this in the face of an SPY ending negative is a huge win.Portfolio InformationOverextended & Oversold PositionsPortfolio Returns (these represent the past 3 months)You can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!Here are our current 3-month returns! These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means these will differ from the portoflios total returns since inception because everyone has different overall price averages, different DCA values and amounts, but these returns take into account all of that.Remember, that means that the Autopilot app won’t match 1:1 with your returns, but will show The Simple Side shareholder average.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.Behind The Paywall - Portfolio Weekly Returns - Portfolio Holdings - Portfolio Changes, Updates, New Investments - Weekly Picks - M&A Stock Picks - Top Investment Stock PicksPortfolio Returns, Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comThanks to Avalara for sponsoring today’s article!Quick Reminders:* Our disclosure is in the email footer* Portfolio copy trading is available here* You can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! * You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.* Use this button to leave me comments about what you want to see in the newsletter.FIND ALL OF OUR STOCK RESEARCH ARTICLES HERE: LINK Our goal is to be the most transparent, open & honest finance newsletter out there. All of our researched stocks (good and bad). Will be published here after the article is written! Portfolio Overextended & Oversold PositionsMarket WisdomI call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate, the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! and nobody calls a strike on you. There’s no penalty except opportunity lost. All day you wait for the pitch you like, then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.”- Warren BuffetI think Buffett gets quoted and used as a headline far too often in the finance world, but can you blame anyone? He is the Michael Jordan of the finance world, or maybe Michael Jordan is the Warren Buffett of the basketball world… either way, his advice still rings true today. Today’s market wisdom quote is so important in the investment environment. There is so much fear & green being thrown at us as investors all the time. I can’t go more than a few minutes without seeing a post about the bubble. Here is the bad news: you can’t avoid a bubble unless you want to put $0 in equities. Here is the good news: you aren’t required to put all your money in equities! We here at The Simple Side are 50% in cash right now, just waiting for good opportunities to come across our radar. Needless to say, relax. Take a breath, go for a walk, ignore the media for a bit. If you are stressed about your portfolio, take some chips off the table! If you think you’re missing out on returns, throw some chips on the table!Remember, if you have cash on the sidelines, you can stand at the plate for weeks, months, years, and you’ll never be called out. Okay, let’s get into the news!Weekly RoundupStocks climbed to fresh records, powered (again) by mega-cap tech. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow all finished higher, but breadth stayed narrow: the market-cap indexes outpaced the equal-weight S&P, which tells you the biggest names did most of the lifting. That narrow leadership matters because it makes the tape look strong even when many stocks are just okay.Here is something a lot of people don’t understand when it comes to investing & it will be beneficial for you to see. What you are looking at is a graph of the median returns of each sector compared to the S&P 500. Tell me what you notice…If you are wondering how the S&P 500 was up this week and the median returns across all sectors was negative, DING DING DING. This shows the current intense concentration that the indexes have on mega-cap companies. The big takeaway here is 2 fold* Investing in the index is becoming an increasingly risky proposition and will begin to underperform in the coming years. * If and when mega-caps start to underperfrom it will bring the whole market down with it. This is bad for those who think the SPY is safe, but good for people like us with cash on the sidelines!The Fed cut 25 bps but warned the next cut isn’t guaranteed. The 10-year hovered near ~4%. Lower/steady long rates boost the value of future earnings, which favors growth and AI leaders. Volatility stayed contained in the mid-teens, a sign dip-buyers remain confident.The market is still experiencing an incredible “buying pace” — aka, people still cannot get enough of equities, so everything seems to remain “bullish” for equity investors (at least through the next few months). AI spending kept showing up in hard numbers. Nvidia pushed to new highs, guided to enormous chip orders into 2026, and extended partnerships from data centers to networking. Microsoft and Alphabet reported strong cloud/AI demand. Meta also grew, but its bigger-than-expected AI capex spooked investors. Useful reminder: the winners of this build-out (chips, racks, power, cooling, interconnects) can rally even when platform owners debate the payback timeline.Earnings flow backed the rally. Amazon beat with an AWS re-acceleration and raised capex for AI. Apple beat and guided to record holiday sales. Industrial and travel names posted solid prints (Honeywell, Las Vegas Sands), while a few payments and software names disappointed (Fiserv reset guidance). The “soft-landing + AI investment” narrative is still intact, but stock-by-stock results matter.Commodities were friendly for risk assets. Oil hovered around ~$60 — a low price for this cycle that eases costs for consumers, transports, and manufacturers (but pressures energy producers unless margins/volumes offset). Gold near ~$4,000 stayed elevated. High gold while stocks rise basically says: investors are willing to take risk, but they’re also hedging against policy/geopolitical surprises.This is something we have seen for weeks now, clearly, not everyone behind the scenes is 100% confident that the current market run can go on forever.Policy and trade headlines lowered tail risk. Washington and Beijing stepped back from fresh escalation and paused new rare-earth export curbs for a year. That reduces near-term supply anxiety for chip and EV supply chains, even if existing controls and scrutiny remain.Amazon announced deeper headcount cuts to streamline layers and steer more dollars to AI. On the deal front, Novartis’ buyout of Avidity lit up small-cap biotech, banks combined to gain scale (Huntington–Cadence), and two major water utilities agreed to merge — evidence of ongoing consolidation across sectors.Crypto was a sideshow: Bitcoin drifted around the low-$100K mark. Institutions keep normalizing the asset class, yet flows remain choppy. It’s acting more like a risk asset than an inflation hedge week-to-week.Insider Trade UpdatesWe keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet (available to paid subs), and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.)The current insider buy/sell ratio is sitting at 0.22, which is relatively low. Over the past 5 years, I have seen the average go as high as 0.81 in May of 2022 (a strong buying signal), and as low as 0.17 (a sell/hold signal). Whale BuysOct 30, 2025* MLPT — MapLight Therapeutics, Inc. · 10% Owner · 5,441,176 @ $17.00 ($92.50M) · holdings +38.17%.* NVCT — Nuvectis Pharma, Inc. · 10% Owner · 154,770 @ $6.18 ($957.08K) · holdings +5.01%.* IRDM — Iridium Communications Inc. · Director · 30,000 @ $17.49 ($524.70K) · holdings +11.22%.Oct 29, 2025* KMI — Kinder Morgan, Inc. · Executive Chairman · 1,000,000 @ $25.96 ($25.96M) · holdings +0.39%.* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd · 10% Owner · 28,500 @ $44.08 ($1.26M) · holdings +0.56%.* EBC — Eastern Bankshares, Inc. · Executive Chair · 50,000 @ $17.21 ($860.50K) · holdings +13.99%.* NSC — Norfolk Southern Corp · Director · 2,600 @ $281.86 ($732.82K) · holdings +59.09%.* BWB — Bridgewater Bancshares Inc · Director · 30,000 @ $17.45 ($523.54K) · holdings +3,409.09%.Oct 28, 2025* SMMT — Summit Therapeutics Inc. · Director · 533,617 @ $18.74 ($10.00M) · holdings +1.69%.* VRDN — Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. · Director · 454,545 @ $22.00 ($10.00M) · holdings +13.14%.* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd · 10% Owner · 41,507 @ $46.09 ($1.91M) · holdings +0.83%.* FCN — FTI Consulting, Inc. · CEO/Chairman/President · 7,500 @ $151.12 ($1.13M) · holdings +2.62%.* FMNB — Farmers National Banc Corp (OH) · Director · 73,500 @ $13.59 ($998.87K) · holdings +38.63%.* KO — Coca-Cola Co. · Director · 14,267 @ $70.00 ($998.68K) · holdings +1,276.00%.* GAM — General American Investors Co Inc · (N/A) · 7,208 @ $24.98 ($180.06K) · holdings +5.98%.Officer Skin in the game* EBC — Eastern Bankshares, Inc. · Executive Chair · 50,000 @ $17.21 ($860.50K) · Oct 29.* EBC — Eastern Bankshares, Inc. · Chief Financial Officer · 20,000 @ $16.98 ($339.60K) · Oct 30.* OBK — Origin Bancorp, Inc. · Chief Financial Officer · 4,500 @ $34.88 ($156.94K) · Oct 30.* FCN — FTI Consulting, Inc. · CEO/Chairman/President · 7,500 @ $151.12 ($1.13M) · Oct 28.Largest % Buys* BWB — Bridgewater Bancshares Inc · Director · 30,000 @ $17.45 · holdings +3,409.09% · Oct 29.* KO — Coca-Cola Co. · Director · 14,267 @ $70.00 · holdings +1,276.00% · Oct 28.* NWFL — Norwood Financial Corp · Director · 3,800 @ $26.71 · holdings +264.07% · Oct 29.* TTRX — Turn Therapeutics Inc. · Director · 20,202 @ $4.95 · holdings +202.02% · Oct 28.* NSC — Norfolk Southern Corp · Director · 2,600 @ $281.86 · holdings +59.09% · Oct 29.* RFM — RiverNorth Flexible Municipal Income Fund, Inc. · (N/A) · 3,216 @ $14.30 · holdings +41.69% · Oct 28.* EBC — Eastern Bankshares, Inc. · CFO · 20,000 @ $16.98 · holdings +71.37% · Oct 30.* MLPT — MapLight Therapeutics, Inc. · 10% Owner · 5,441,176 @ $17.00 · holdings +38.17% · Oct 30.* OBK — Origin Bancorp, Inc. · CFO · 4,500 @ $34.88 · holdings +34.29% · Oct 30.* MRP — Millrose Properties, Inc. · Director · 7,500 @ $32.52 · holdings +32.38% · Oct 30.Stock Research & Berkshire BuysYou all likely saw my most recent stock research report on RTX.As a reminder, you can now follow along with all of these research reports by going here: https://thesimpleside.news/stock-researchI went through some of my old newsletters and populated the website with a few of my previous trades — so we have a backlog — but every research article I post will now be able to be seen here (along with some stats).I have 3 more research reports on the way — I am having a lot of fun putting these together! As a reminder, these stocks are not always going into my portfolios! I will make it abundantly clear if these researched stocks make it into my portoflios. As a subscriber, you will be able to access and see these reports here, but you will also be able to see them in a weekly newsletter that will come out typically on Wednesdays! Like I said, I have 3 more research reports on the way. I am going to tell you about all 3 upcoming stocks now, and send the full research later this week. Wayfair (W)Return Target: 21%Bloom Energy (BE)Return Target: 20%Nice Ltd (NICE)Return Target: 44%I will continue to write “Berkshire Buy” articles as I see fit. These companies are ones that I believe fit Buffett’s criteria for investing (not always perfectly), and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.Currently, one of the stocks on this list stands out to me… QLYS. It is a quality company, with great-looking metrics, yet it seems to be struggling. The company is down 40% from its high in 2023. Since then, it has grown its revenue, its net income, and bought back shares, and grown its assets by $200M. This company may become a holding in the Flagship Fund when we rebalance the portfolio for 2026.Portfolio PerformanceYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!Here are our current 3-month returns! These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means these will differ from the portoflios total returns since inception because everyone has different overall price averages, different DCA values and amounts, but these returns take into account all of that.Remember, that means that the Autopilot app won’t match 1:1 with your returns, but will show The Simple Side shareholder average.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.Behind The Paywall - Portfolio Weekly Returns - Portfolio Holdings - Portfolio Changes, Updates, New Investments - Weekly Picks - M&A Stock Picks - Top Investment Stock PicksPortfolio Returns, Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comThanks to Percent for sponsoring today’s article!Quick Reminders:* Our disclosure is in the email footer* Portfolio copy trading is available here* You can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! * You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.* Use this button to leave me comments about what you want to see in the newsletter.Portfolio Overextended & Oversold PositionsWeekly RoundupReturns this week were brought to you by… …calmer rates, resilient earnings, and a handful of headline-grabbing corporate moves that kept risk appetite alive.Stocks finished higher overall. The S&P 500 and Dow both notched weekly gains of about 1%, while the Nasdaq did a bit better and small caps popped at mid-week before cooling. The 10-year Treasury yield hugged the ~4% line and even dipped below it at times. That matters because lower (or steady) long-term yields increase the present value of future profits. This tends to support higher equity valuations — especially for growth and tech. This is something that many “dumb money” investors do not understand right now. There is almost always an inverse relationship between these two metrics.This is the same reason why so many people seem to be so good at investing right now. Rates have been “coming down” since late 2023 (yes there have been ups and downs since but 2023 was peak).Oil spent the week around the high-$50s to low-$60s per barrel. That’s a relatively low price for this cycle and generally eases costs for transportation, manufacturing, and consumers; it’s a headwind for energy producer earnings unless volumes or refining margins make up the difference. Gold hovered near an extraordinary ~$4,100 – $4,300. Elevated gold usually signals investors are still buying insurance against policy surprises or geopolitical risk, even as stocks climb. The 3% selloff we saw this week is small relative to the 54% returns gold has had this year. Volatility cooled: the VIX slid back into the high-teens, a sign the market’s immediate fear level eased after the early-October wobble. Bitcoin held near the $110K area; more on why that mattered below.Earnings helped to do a bit of the heavy lifting this week. General Motors beat and raised guidance, showing that core auto profits can hold up even as the EV transition zigzags. GE Aerospace lifted its outlook again on strong jet-engine demand tied to robust global travel and aircraft production. Honeywell, Las Vegas Sands, and several chip-exposed names posted solid reports, helping industrials and tech lead. Defensive pockets like consumer staples and utilities lagged — classic price action when investors are leaning into growth and cyclicals. Don’t forget what’s important here… the buyers. Are retail investors the ones pumping growth and selling defensives, or is institutional money selling defensives and buying growth? To me? Looks like retail is the one selling defense and buying growth. This is a trend that has been going on for weeks now, and it is a clear signal to me that things big money is positioning itself for market drop. Tracking retail vs institutional volume is hard, but somewhat doable. Two ways I do it: Robinhood offers looks at their investors volume and market moves pre/post market. Tech stayed front and center for reasons both good and cautionary. Apple shares were helped by strong iPhone data and news it’s shipping AI servers from a new Texas facility. Nvidia and semi equipment names drew support from ongoing AI data-center spending. On the flip side, an AWS outage reminded everyone how concentrated the internet’s plumbing has become. America runs on Dunkin’ and the internet runs on AWS. It’s clear that when a major cloud region stumbles, downstream apps from trading to ride-hailing feel it. The takeaway isn’t “avoid the cloud”; it’s that reliability, multi-cloud setups, and redundancy remain investment priorities for enterprises.Another note from me here. I think there are going to be investment opportunities generated from this news. Of course, there is the classic buy AMZN because it is clear how many things rely on it. The other take is that we should be looking at and buying cloud backup & data protection companies: RBRK and CLVT are great examples.Autos and mobility mixed the near-term with the long-term. Tesla outlined aggressive production and software ambitions and reported record quarterly deliveries, but it also dealt with a safety recall and the air pocket that can follow expiring EV incentives. Rivian tightened its belt with layoffs and settled a legacy investor suit to clear the decks before its mass-market launch. Airlines like American beat expectations as travel demand stayed durable.Deal-and-capital headlines cut across sectors. Kering sold its beauty unit to L’Oréal to refocus on fashion and shore up the balance sheet. JPMorgan prepared to accept Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for institutional loans.This sounds like small news, but assuming all things go well, this could bode extremely well for anyone long BTC or ether. Coinbase kept expanding with another acquisition, while data-center landlords such as Digital Realty raised guidance thanks to record AI-driven bookings. Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan outlined a large slate of gas projects tied to LNG exports and the power-hungry AI build-out—one more link between semiconductors and old-school energy infrastructure.Kinder Morgan could become a great investment play. At a PE ratio of 21 it seems fairly valued, and a potentially massive player in the world of powering AI with many calling for “co-generation” being the first step between now and the nuclear power takeover. Okay, quick summary…Steady-to-softer yields are a tailwind for stocks. Cheaper oil cools inflation and helps most sectors’ costs & help to keep rates coming down. High gold says not everyone feels safe in the market.Calmer VIX means pullbacks can be shorter and more orderly—until a surprise hits. Put together, this week looked like “risk-on with hedges,” powered by earnings and underpinned by the idea that further rate cuts are on the way. Overall, I remain skeptical and happy with the large amounts of cash we are keeping on hand. Insider Trade UpdatesWe keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet (available to paid subs), and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.)The current insider buy/sell ratio is sitting at 0.21, which is relatively low. Over the past 5 years, I have seen the average go as high as 0.81 in May of 2022 (a strong buying signal), and as low as 0.17 (a sell/hold signal). Buy The Dip Tracker* None that I liked this week.Whale Buys* LAW — CS Disco, Inc.Director bought 24,831 @ $5.95 ($147.8K).* THFF — First Financial CorporationDirector bought 2,295 @ $52.25 ($119.9K).* FAX — Abrdn Asia-Pacific Income Fund IncDirector bought 534 @ $15.57 ($8.3K).* IAF — Abrdn Australia Equity Fund IncDirector bought 910 @ $4.50 ($4.1K).Officer Skin in the Game* CSX — CSX CorporationPresident & CEO bought 55,000 @ $36.87 ($2.03M).* CNS — Cohen & Steers, Inc.Executive Chairman bought 40,539 @ $70.21 ($2.85M).* GRF — Eagle Capital Growth Fund, Inc.CFO/CCO/Secretary/Treasurer bought 9,850 @ $10.59 ($104.3K).Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysI have received numerous emails from people requesting that I write more research articles on stocks and the state of the economy. I have previously stated that I prefer writing about the stocks I own and producing research only on stocks I buy. I think this approach is more genuine, and I feel that it is combative against many of the fake gurus who post multiple “stock picks” a week and then choose to only talk about the best ones. The original name of this newsletter was “Simple Side Research.” I shifted away from the “research” name and writing style because it felt too “stock picky.” However, with my current portfolios existing and available to track, and the returns speaking for themselves, I feel comfortable going back to my old “research” version of writing. I am not 100% certain how this will look over the next few months and weeks, but come 2026, I should have a good grip on how I want to do everything! I will continue to write “Berkshire Buy” articles as I see fit. These companies are ones that I believe fit Buffett’s criteria for investing (not always perfectly), and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.Portfolio PerformanceYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!Here are our current 3-month returns!These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.* Behind the paywall…* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksPortfolio Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comThanks to Cash App for their continued support of this newsletter!Quick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereYou can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.Use this button below to leave me comments!Quick UpdateI am out on vacation this weekend, so today’s newsletter will be quite quick. Two things* If the volatility this week made you queasy, then you need to reassess your risk tolerance and take some $$$ off the table. * I am currently around 50% in cash and find this positioning comfortable.* Go and read this post from this past week; it might help your mindset a bit.Weekly RoundupMonday, Oct 13Stocks bounced back after last week’s tariff scare eased. Lower bond yields (the 10-year slipped toward 4.06%) make future profits look more valuable, so growth names—especially big tech—led. Gold stayed near record levels, which usually means investors are still paying for protection even as stocks rise. Oil hovered just under $60; that’s cheap fuel for airlines, shippers, and consumers, but it can also point to slower global growth or ample supply.Broadcom jumped after teaming with OpenAI to build custom accelerators. Seems like OpenAI wants purpose-built chips, and Broadcom gets a multiyear, high-margin hardware pipeline. NVIDIA rose on fresh ties with Meta and Oracle. Retailers that source heavily from China (Best Buy, Burlington) rallied as trade fears cooled. Banks firmed up into earnings (Goldman, JPMorgan, Citi), which is typical when investors expect solid net-interest income and trading fees. One blemish: industrial distributor Fastenal slid after missing a soft read-through on factory demand.Tuesday, Oct 14Momentum faded. The S&P and Nasdaq slipped while the Dow eked out a gain as money rotated into “boring but steady” areas after strong bank prints from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. That mix, financials up, megacap tech soft, yields down again near 4.02%, often means rate-cut hopes are helping cyclicals, but investors are taking some profit in the AI leaders.Google’s $10B India data-center/AI hub shows the arms race to build compute and power in lower-cost markets with friendlier permitting. Ford flagged production cuts after a key aluminum supplier’s plant fire; for a truck maker that leans on aluminum, that’s a near-term margin and volume headwind. GM took a $1.6B charge to slow its EV ramp after incentives changed, code for “match supply to demand so we don’t build inventory.” Timber REITs popped on merger talk (PotlatchDeltic/Rayonier), land plus mills equals scale and steadier cash flows. Navitas soared on higher-voltage power chips for NVIDIA-class data centers; more efficient power conversion is a real bottleneck as AI campuses scale.Wednesday, Oct 15Markets clawed higher as yields hugged ~4.01% and Fed chatter kept cut odds alive. Under the hood, companies kept repositioning for the AI build-out and slimmer cost bases. Amazon prepared another round of corporate layoffs—painful news for staff, but a signal to investors that management is protecting margins while it spends heavily on data centers. Microsoft expanded an enormous GPU commitment with partners across the U.S. and Europe. ASML and Bank of America both beat on earnings quality metrics, supporting the “semis equipment and big banks are fine” narrative. In energy and industrials: a judge blocking the restart of a key California oil pipeline hit Sable Offshore; liquid-cooling and power-efficiency names (Asetek, others) benefited from the same AI-power theme that’s lifting chips.Thursday, Oct 16Risk appetite cooled again. Small caps slumped, and regional banks slid after Zions and Western Alliance disclosed fraud-related losses, never a good look for confidence in the sector. When financials wobble, the rest of the market typically trades more cautiously. The 10-year yield dipped under 4% at points (a safety bid into Treasuries), gold stayed elevated (hedge demand), and oil drifted lower (growth concerns plus adequate supply).TSMC’s big revenue jump said plainly that AI chip demand is still strong. First Solar rallied as analysts leaned into its U.S. manufacturing and backlog, AI data centers don’t run without lots of power, and utility-scale solar is part of that build-out.Nestlé announced major job cuts to lift efficiency, a classic “shrink to grow” move.Salesforce raised a long-term revenue bar on data + AI products. NIO fell on an accounting dispute with a major investor, a headline risk that can weigh on all China EVs. Tesla headed back to court over Elon Musk’s pay plan, a governance overhang. Beyond Meat bounced on a debt extension (less near-term default risk, even if the core business still needs fixing). MGM sold a property operation to raise cash and streamline, as well as a balance-sheet tidy-up.Friday, Oct 17Finished green as yields ticked back near 4%. When rates aren’t climbing and there’s no fresh policy shock, dip-buyers tend to show up. Gold eased a bit (less panic), oil stayed in the high-$50s (cheap energy, but also a soft-growth tell).Infrastructure and geopolitics drove headlines. Meta lined up a record private-capital financing for a massive Louisiana data center, important because it shows Wall Street is willing to fund the power-hungry AI build with creative structures. Micron said it would stop supplying server chips to data centers in China because of ongoing restrictions, while still selling to Chinese firms operating outside the mainland, one more example of supply chains re-routing around policy lines. BYD and Ford announced big recalls; recalls are costly in the short run and can dent brand trust, though they’re usually manageable for balance-sheet-healthy automakers. Boston Scientific bought a neuromodulation startup to deepen its pain-management line. Rare-earth exposure lifted Ramaco on hopes that the U.S. will onshore more critical minerals supply.Portfolio PerformanceYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!The returns shown are screenshots from Autopilot (the place where you can copy my trades). These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.Weekly Picks PerformanceI am debating pausing or stopping the weekly picks. We have done incredibly well with them thus far, but I think the time for them to perform so well is relatively over. If you would like me to continue, please fill out the form in the button below and mention that you want them to stay.We have generated excess returns of 77% on these weekly picks alone.Weekly Picks

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereYou can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.Recent Updates:I added to the paid subscriber spreadsheet to track positions across all my portfolios that are “overextended” or are “oversold.” Here are some of those stocks:Use this button below to leave me comments!Weekly RoundupReturns this week were brought to you by early-week record highs powered by AI and rate-cut hopes—and a late-week trade-war shock that flipped it all red.Oh how we haven’t learned…. does no one remember all of the trade war antics that happened earlier this year? Does no one remember how they tanked the market just for it to recover weeks later? Nothing burgers. We know how this story goesBig threat → Big Market Drop → Nothing Major Happens → Stocks ReturnsRemember that “Trade Wars” sell great in the news, but the news doesn’t make its money investing. The media makes its money selling fear or greed. When the sell fear, buy. When they sell greed, sell. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 notched fresh intraday records as investors leaned into Big Tech and semis. Treasury yields hovered a little above 4.1% on the 10-year and drifted lower midweek, which usually helps growth stocks. Oil spent most of the week around $61–62 a barrel—cheap versus the past couple of years—which eases costs for shippers, airlines, and consumers but can pressure energy company profits. Gold stayed near an all-time high (around $4,000/oz), which tells you some money is still buying insurance against political and economic shocks even while indexes are near highs.Then Friday hit. A fresh threat of “massive” U.S. tariffs on China sent risk assets into reverse: the Nasdaq dropped about 3.5% on the day, the S&P 500 fell nearly 3%, and the Dow slid close to 2%. When investors fear slower global trade and higher costs, they dump cyclical and mega-cap winners first, buy safer assets, and mark down anything tariff-exposed. You saw what happened: the 10-year yield slipped toward ~4.06% (a safety bid into Treasuries), gold popped, oil sank below $60 as growth worries rose, the dollar eased, and crypto struggled to maintain values.Now remember what I called out last week! The shift in institutional money to defensives (specifically healthcare). We saw tons of retail investors selling CNC, UNH, MOH, etc… No surprise that they shift to defensives just in time for growth/cyclicals to tumble. Big Company MovesBanking got bigger. Fifth Third agreed to buy Comerica in an all-stock deal valuing Comerica at roughly a 20% premium, creating the 9th-largest U.S. bank by assets if regulators sign off. Divestitures are common in big deals like this, and we will likely see the same here.Chips and AI stayed center stage. AMD ripped higher after OpenAI committed to deploy roughly six gigawatts of AMD GPUs—a huge signal that AI spending is shifting from demos to data-center build-outs. Nvidia grabbed its own headline later in the week with U.S. approval to ship certain AI chips to the UAE as part of a broader investment pact. Taiwan Semi’s September sales jumped more than 30% year over year, another sign the AI parts pipeline is still humming—right up until tariff worries sparked a broad semi sell-off on Friday.Tesla teased a cheaper Model Y configuration after posting record quarterly deliveries; an attempt to keep volume growing now that a key $7,500 EV incentive has expired. Ford faced a potential material squeeze after a major aluminum supplier’s plant fire—important because modern pickups are aluminum-heavy. Boeing, meanwhile, is preparing to lift 737 MAX production (subject to FAA sign-off), a needed step to refill airline fleets and repair margins.Deal and policy tape bombs kept coming. HSBC floated a plan to take Hang Seng Bank private, simplifying its Asia structure. Novo Nordisk moved to buy Akero to deepen its metabolic disease pipeline. Microsoft is baking Harvard Health content into Copilot so health answers are sourced and safer. Those same late-day Friday, tariff headlines led the entire market lower: megacap tech, semis, retailers and import-heavy names fell the most; classic “defensives” like consumer staples held up better (Pepsi kept rallying after an earnings beat and a CFO change).Lot’s of things mentioned above — but a few things really stand out as opportunities to me: NVO’s purchase of Akero, and Pepsi’s movement.Starting with Novo — their acquisition of AKRO is interesting to me, but could have large potential payoffs. AKRO, while not profitable, holds nearly no debt relative to their cash (36M in debt to 743M in cash). NVO stock is down 52% YoY but revenue growth still looks solid. Things slowed in Q1 of 2025, but seem to be pick up a bit of steam.Pepsi’s recent moves should come as no surprise. The company owns around 11% of Celsius stock (which has been growing unreasonably quick), and still has very stable revenues, and margins. In fact, net margin even looks to be increasing! I think as/if things continue to shift defensive, PEP will be seen as an undervalued defensive play and will outperform in a bear market. The End of The RoadTwo forces are pulling in opposite directions. On one side, falling—or even just stable—rates and real AI orders are good for profits and valuations. On the other, new tariffs would raise input costs, risk retaliation from China, and could re-ignite inflation just as the Fed inches toward cutting. That mix explains why gold is elevated (hedge demand), oil is soft (growth worries plus ample supply), and the VIX perked up into the weekend (investors paying for protection).In the near term, price movements will be driven by 3 things:* Trade headlines: tariff size, timing (Nov. 1 was floated), and any talk of carve-outs. Bigger, sooner, and broader equals more earnings risk for import-heavy sectors and semis with China exposure.* Earnings season: banks first (a quick read on loan demand, credit quality, and deposit costs), then megacap tech and chipmakers where guidance will matter more than backward-looking beats.* Yields: if the 10-year drifts lower, long-duration assets (software, semis, select biotech) can find their footing again; if tariffs push inflation fears up and yields back higher, expect another rotation into defensives and cash-flow compounders.Like always, the actual path forward is anyone’s guess. I would assume the following going into the end of the year: * China tariffs = nothing burger* Rates probably cut this month & yields likely decreasingInsider Trade UpdatesAs a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet (available to paid subs), and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.)The current insider buy/sell ratio is sitting at 0.21, which is relatively low. Over the past 5 years, I have seen the average go as high as 0.81 in May of 2022 (a strong buying signal), and as low as 0.17 (a sell/hold signal). Buy the Dip Tracker* KMX — CarMaxDirector bought 10,816 @ $46.21 after a 22.88% one-month slide.* FDS — FactSet ResearchCFO bought 370 @ $275.48 after a 25.01% one-month drawdown. Whales & Standout Size ($1M+)* SRRK — Scholar RockDirector bought 500,439 @ $37.58 ($18.81M).* BGC — BGC GroupDirector bought 8,973,721 @ $9.21 ($82.63M). Potential dividend reinvestment/tax-related.* GWRS — Global Water ResourcesDirectors bought 728,197 @ $10.30 ($7.50M) and 154,026 @ $10.30 ($1.59M).* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals10% Owner bought 46,649 @ $46.50 ($2.17M) as part of a steady schedule. Slow, relentless accumulation — like gold itself on a treadmill.Officer Skin-in-the-Game* ADC — Agree RealtyPresident & CEO bought 3,528 @ $70.63.* CALM — Cal-Maine FoodsChief Strategy Officer bought 2,800 @ $92.36. Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysLast week we picked up KVUE at $15.86 on market open Monday and the stock is up about 5% since then (now $16.65/share). I sold some covered call options on the shares I purchased, a few of them at the $16 range that expired today. Thankfully, none of my shares were assigned, so I get to keep the $10 per contract and the gains from this past week. If, for some reason, my shares were assigned and the transaction hasn’t been processed yet, I will be forced to take about a 1% return on some shares. If that happens, then I hedged this week’s losses with some small KVUE gains! I would also like to note that anyone who picked up KVUE with me was able to beat the S&P 500 this week by around 8%. Kenvue was one of the few companies that ended in the green this week, only dropping about 1% on Friday.As always, I am on the lookout for my next “Berkshire Buy” stock. These companies fit Buffett’s criteria for investing (not always perfectly), and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.I have been looking at a company to write an article about and you should see that hit your inbox in the next couple of weeks!Portfolio Performance & Forward-Looking Market StatementsYou can copy trade the portoflios by clicking here!The returns shown are screenshots from Autopilot (the place where you can copy my trades). These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.We have over $1M in AUM! Thank you to everyone who has joined the autopilot and now copies my portoflios! As you can see above, we have surpassed the $1M in AUM mark, and have all three portfolios making outsized returns relative to the market. Remember that all 3 portfolios have only been on autopilot for about 2 months! We have seen 24% returns on two portoflios in just 2 months, easily outperforming the SPY!Here are the total portfolio returns, looking at YTD metrics:Flagship Fund: 32%AI Second Hand Effects: 81% Tech-Focused Growth (I have shuffled these stocks around in different portoflios so finding the exact percentage is hard): about 70% Future ReturnsLooking towards the future and saying “This is what is going to happen!” is a fool’s game. The reality is that we never truly know what exactly the future holds. A great example is what happened this Friday. A quick tweet about potential trade talks ending caused the whole market to fall by nearly 3%. Of course, I think we are well-positioned across all three portoflios, each for its own respective reason. The Flagship Fund holds large companies with quality business models and strong fundamentals. Sure, a market drop will bring down their market prices, but the fund overall is relatively stable and will fend off a recession better than most portfolios. Overall, the risk assessment for The Flagship Fund is low. I expect stable returns to continue, and outperformance with these names to continue as well. I would be comfortable holding many of these companies through a market crash.Now, the Second Hand AI Effects and the Tech-Growth portfolios are much more risky. An overall risk assessment would be “High” for both portfolios. This is why I put large amounts of my invested capital into the Flagship Fund (50%) and am currently holding large amounts of capital in cash (50% of total investable dollars).This is what is referred to as a “barbell” approach to the stock market. I used to build my entire barbell strategy in the Flagship Fund, but started to break things out in 2025 so that people could follow the strategies that fit their risk tolerance. Okay, enough with the little rant, back to what I see in the future… in the near term, the Trump-China news is just that… nothing more than news, and I would ignore it. That being said, I think this should show you the market’s current instability and that is something to worry about. How you should respond or think about the Friday movement is entirely based on your risk tolerance. Here are my recommendations:* High Risk: Buy the dip / hold. Be smart about the dip buying and buy solid companies with good prospects, but buy the dips.* Medium Risk: Take a few chips off the table (especially with companies in the portfolio that have returns eclipsing 50-100% returns over the past two months)* Look to rotate into the Flagship Fund if the volatility in the other portfolios scares you. * Low Risk: Don’t panic sell into bad news. If you have holdings in the two risky portoflios, then start to build a cash pile and look to take some chips off the table at regular intervals over the next few months/ weeks to stop downside risk.Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.* Behind the paywall…* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksPortfolio Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereYou can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.Recent Updates:I added to the paid subscriber spreadsheet to track positions across all my portfolios that are “overextended” or are “oversold.” Here are some of those stocks:Use this button below to leave me comments!Quick Portfolio Highlights: Copy My Trades By Clicking HereWeekly RoundupReturns this week were brought to you by……record-breaking AI, healthcare’s hot streak, and “shutdown? shrug.” The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched fresh highs even with Washington closed for business. Big tech rode AI demand (hello, Nvidia’s $4.5T market cap), while healthcare ripped on drug-price headlines and fresh approvals. Small caps finally joined the party. Energy lagged as oil slipped into the low-$60s.Now, I try to offer just the facts when I do my weekly roundups, but I am going to start inserting my opinions in these quick sections where I feel it is valuable. In this instance, I see two market events that could spell a market top. One, healthcare stocks seeing large amounts of capital flooding in shows investors are running to defensive sectors. Now, when I say investors, I mean big-time smart money investors. Go look at the retail sentiment around healthcare… in fact, here is a screenshot from the robinhood app on Centene (CNC), Molina Healthcare (MOH), and UnitedHealth (UNH) stocks: Institutional money is getting defensive and retail is going risk on... who is right?Stocks pushed to new peaks this week. Investors seem to be increasingly confident that Federal Reserve rate cuts are in our future. Yields on 10-year Treasuries hovered above 4.1% and slipped late in the week, which tends to help growth stocks. We saw and felt this in both of our growth portfolios “AI-Second Hand Effects” and the “Tech-Focused Growth,” which had big runs on Thursday and Friday.Oil drifted in the low-$60s, which is on the cheap side for this cycle—good news for shipping, travel, and input costs—while less great for energy company profits. Gold stayed near the very high end of its range, around $3,900, a sign that some money is still buying insurance against policy and geopolitical risks even as stocks climb.In technology, Nvidia set a fresh milestone with a market value north of $4.5 trillion as demand for AI hardware and full-stack systems stayed strong. Just as important, companies are starting to place orders for AI projects — so the dollars are showing up in bookings and revenue for IT and chip suppliers.Healthcare was the week’s standout. Policy headlines on drug pricing, a handful of positive trial readouts, and new approvals lifted large drugmakers and biotech. This sector behaves defensively (steady cash flows) but still gets upside from successful medicines, which is a rare mix when the economy is slowing but not falling into recession.Again, this is likey institutional money look for “undervalued safe havens” before the market starts to turn.Autos delivered mixed signals. Tesla posted record quarterly deliveries as buyers rushed to capture a soon-to-expire $7,500 EV incentive, but it then raised U.S. lease prices after the credit lapsed. Ford and GM are using their finance units to keep lease math attractive by fronting incentives themselves. The near-term risk is that EV demand cools without subsidies; the longer-term support is that production costs are still trending down.The auto industry seems like a very “sketchy” place to be investing right now. Eveyone seems to be in an EV fight, but no one seems to be making real money from it other than Tesla. Of course, autonomous vehicles are becoming everyones target for success. I think this is extremely bullish for companies like Uber, Lyft, etc. If everyone is trying to “rent” their autonomous cars out, I would want to be the company taking no risk and all the reward (aka the “marketplace”). Industrial and energy news pointed to long-run investment, even with softer oil. Boeing lined up major aircraft orders and is exploring a new single-aisle jet that aims to be roughly 10% more fuel-efficient than today’s models—useful for airlines’ costs and emissions targets. BP approved a $5 billion deepwater Gulf project and outlined asset sales to cut debt, while TotalEnergies sold half of a North American solar portfolio to a financial partner but kept operating control. Pipeline and power deals (for example, Ares buying into key natural-gas infrastructure) underscored steady cash flows in the “picks and shovels” of energy.It is hilarious to see everyone calling energy the “picks and shovels” now. Back in 2024 I was calling for this. In fact, I wrote an article that said “when everyone chases gold, sell them the shovels” in refrence to AI energy demand. Look where we are now. China headlines were a mixed bag. Alibaba said it will spend even more on AI infrastructure and is adding office space in Hong Kong, signaling long-term commitment. BYD reported its first quarterly sales drop since 2020 amid intense price competition, while peers NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto each logged record deliveries. The takeaway: China’s EV market is still growing fast, but the fight for share is squeezing margins.A few prices help frame the road ahead. If Treasury yields drift lower from here, rate-sensitive and long-duration stocks (tech, software, select biotech) should stay supported. Cheaper oil eases inflation pressure and helps most sectors’ costs, but it can weigh on energy earnings unless offset by buybacks or higher volumes. Elevated gold says not everyone believes the “soft landing” is a sure thing—so expect quick rotations if the next data point disappoints.Insider Trade UpdatesNow, something that I will happily tell you more about is insider trades. I have been tracking insider trades in detail for months personally, and I finally decided to keep track of them in our paid subscriber sheet as well. Insiders don’t always get it right… But they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow. As a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.)Buy-the-Dip Tracker* $FBYD — Falcon’s Beyond Global, Inc.10% Owner bought 4,092,326 shares at $5.00 (≈$20.46M) after a −29.58% week. Note: classified as a dividend reinvestment—signal quality is lower than a pure open-market buy, but the check size is still eye-catching.* $TONX — TON Strategy CompanyDirector bought 70,000 shares at $7.11 (≈$498K) after a −52.41% month. * $NEXT — NextDecade Corporation10% Owner bought 1,001,329 shares at $7.00 (≈$7.01M) after a −31.98% month.* $UUU — Universal Safety Products, Inc.Director bought 25,010 shares at $4.28 (≈$107K) after a −30.82% week. Whales & Standout Size* $MBX — MBX Biosciences, Inc.Director bought 666,666 shares at $18.00 (≈$12.0M). No “dip” tag, just size. * $FBYD — Falcon’s Beyond Global, Inc.10% Owner DRIP buy $20.46M at $5.00 (also in Buy-the-Dip). * $NEXT — NextDecade Corporation10% Owner $7.01M at $7.00 (adds to multiple recent buys). * $PTRN — Pattern Group Inc.10% Owner bought 302,256 shares at $12.77 (≈$3.86M). * $OPEN — Opendoor Technologies Inc.Director bought 300,752 shares at $6.65 (≈$2.0M). * $UAMY — United States Antimony CorporationChairman & CEO bought 100,000 shares at $6.13 (≈$613K). Cluster & Repeat Buying (Always Worth a Look)* $COO — The Cooper Companies, Inc.Director bought 2,000 at $68.39. This marks the 5th insider buy in 30 days. When multiple people at the same table reach for the breadbasket, there’s probably butter.* $MSIF — MSC Income Fund, Inc.Director bought 3,700 at $13.55; 4th insider buy in 30 days. Quiet accumulation in income-land.* $WOR — Worthington Enterprises, Inc.Director bought 10,000 at $52.95; 2 insider buys in 30 days. Steel nerves? Perhaps.Smaller but Notable Nibbles* $FAX Director 600 at $16.78* $IAF Director 1,500 at $4.66* $AWP Director 2,000 at $4.00* $AOD Director 500 at $9.48* $ASIC Director 9,920 at $19.45Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysLast week, I had 4 different names for you; this week, I have one. Paying subscribers will be getting a full deep dive/ investment analysis on this company next week. That company is KVUE: Kenvue. Kenvue is now down over 40% since the company spun off from Johnson & Johnson. The majority of this drop off, of course, is coming from the recent Tylenol-Autism link claims. However, current analyst predictions call the company undervalued. By how much? Around 36%, and I tend to agree with these projections. The company has been hit with claims that Tylenol causes autism in children when used by pregnant mothers — a claim that was previously refuted by a judge in 2023. There were further studies in 2024 that made the same claim, but things aren’t always as they seem.Recently, the main researcher (the one who published the study against Tylenol in 2024) said his subsequent analysis shows the usage of Tylenol was not causative of autism.Dr. Brian Lee, a professor of epidemiology at Drexel University, co-authored a 2024 study that initially showed a small statistical association between acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism and ADHD. However, his subsequent analysis showed that the link was not causal and likely a statistical artifact.The stock currently yields a 5.22% dividend, which outranks over 82% of similar companies. While the name Kenvue may not be known by a majority of consumers, the brands that sit below the name are some of the best in the biz…Listerine, Johnson’s, Aveeno, Neutrogena, Tylenol — all of these are Kenvue brands. The company isn’t out there trying to solve hard problems. It is just quietly managing some of the world's most well-known brands.I hope to see KVUE shares show up on some large, prominent investors’ 13F filings in the coming months. Regardless, I think there are some very intelligent ways to make some great money on the company both in the short and long term.As always, I am on the lookout for my next “Berkshire Buy” stock. These companies fit Buffett’s criteria for investing (not always perfectly), and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.Here are the Berkshire Buy stocks and their returns:Portfolio PerformanceThe returns shown are screenshots from Autopilot (the place where you can copy my trades). These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.Oh, and I think you might REALLY like these averages — remember, these portoflios have only been on the platform for about 2 months…We have over $900K in AUM! That means we have made investors over $100K in returns!Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.* Behind the paywall…* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksPortfolio Holdings & UpdatesI am currently working with the Autopilot team to get an API hooked up to the Google sheet to show everyone 1:1 what is happening on Autopilot. This will help to keep the changes between the sheets and Autopilot to a minimum. I have noticed that the sheet and Autopilot don’t always align 1:1, and I am working to fix this.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereYou can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.Recent Updates:I added to the paid subscriber spreadsheet to track positions across all my portfolios that are “overextended” or are “oversold.” Here are some of those stocks:Use this button below to leave me comments!Quick Portfolio Highlights: Copy My Trades By Clicking HereReturns this week were brought to you by……AI money actually getting spent, weight-loss drug land-grabs, and a will-they/won’t-they Fed. Early in the week, big tech rode fresh AI headlines (Micron’s record outlook; Nvidia teaming closer with OpenAI; Apple iPhone 17 demand buzz).Mid-week, rate-cut odds wobbled after firm economic prints; by Friday, the tape steadied but finished a touch lower: S&P 500 −0.3% WTD, Dow −0.2%, Nasdaq −0.7%. Under the hood, breadth was mixed—energy caught a bid on firmer crude while mega-caps took turns giving back gains.Interestingly enough, if you take a look at the odds in Polymarket, it seems like the 25bps October rate cut is still in full force, with an 81% chance (down 5% from earlier in the week). The closest competitor is “no change” with odds under 20%…Remember, the market right now is so inefficient with all of the new “dumb money,” and these downturn swings are currently nothing-burgers (thanks NYUGrad for my new favorite terminology when talking about the news).The big moves (and why they matter)* Pfizer is trying to champion the weight-loss arms raceWhat happened: Pfizer is reportedly close to buying Metsera for ~$7.3B (cash + milestones).Why it matters: GLP-1/obesity drugs are the fastest-growing profit pool in pharma. Pfizer exited its prior obesity pill; this would buy back a seat at the table and future revenue optionality.* Micron blowing up: “tight chips, tight prices”What happened: Guided record Q1 FY26 revenue (~$12.5B) on AI-hungry DRAM/HBM demand.Why it matters: When memory gets tight, pricing power returns. That’s good for margins across the memory complex and a clean read-through to AI server build-outs.* Samsung memory green-lit for NvidiaWhat happened: Nvidia approved Samsung’s advanced HBM parts.Why it matters: A second high-volume supplier alongside SK Hynix eases AI bottlenecks—and can cap runaway component prices. More HBM = more accelerators shipped.* Nvidia is buying speed, not just chipsWhat happened: >$900M to hire Enfabrica’s team and license its networking tech that stitches 100k+ GPUs into one logical system.Why it matters: AI performance isn’t only about GPUs; it’s about feeding them fast. Better networking = more usable compute per dollar.* Oracle/TikTok chatter, Nvidia–OpenAI cozinessWhat happened: Headlines put Oracle back in the TikTok mix; Nvidia rallied on tighter OpenAI ties.Why it matters: Real, named workloads (social, cloud AI) mean actual invoices—less demo, more dollars.* Alibaba picking up the speed: “if AI capex is a race, spend faster”What happened: CEO Eddie Wu flagged AI infrastructure spend above the prior $50B plan.Why it matters: Confirms a global AI build-out isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon. Also, a tailwind for chip, memory, and power/infrastructure names selling into China.* Berkshire exits BYDWhat happened: After 17 years, Berkshire fully sold its BYD stake.Why it matters: Doesn’t doom EVs; it says “we made our money.” For BYD, it removes a perceived overhang but also a long-time vote of confidence.* Accenture & TD SYNNEX → enterprise AI is moving from talk to invoicesWhat happened: Both printed strong bookings/revenue; Accenture cited $80B+ annual bookings with gen-AI in the mix; TD SYNNEX raised outlook.Why it matters: Corporations are signing Statements of Work (translation: paying) to deploy data platforms, GPUs, and AI apps. That’s real spending, not show-and-tell.* Boeing wins with a huge Turkish Airlines orderWhat happened: 225 jets (mix of 787s, 737-8/10 with options).Why it matters: Long-cycle industrial demand is alive. Large wide-body orders help Boeing’s cash recovery story even as certification work continues.* PayPal sells BNPL IOUsWhat happened: Offloading ~$7B of “buy now, pay later” receivables to Blue Owl.Why it matters: Lightens the balance sheet, keeps the customer front end. Think “more fee business, less loan book risk.”* Eli Lilly coming at the world with a two-prong swingWhat happened: EU okayed Kisunla (Alzheimer’s); Lilly is also pouring billions into U.S. manufacturing for its obesity pipeline.Why it matters: One near-term revenue line plus scaled capacity for the category investors care about most (metabolic).Rates, oil, gold, crypto — what these prices are telling you* 10-Year Treasury ~4.12% → 4.18% (up slightly)That’s a highish real/nominal yield by post-2008 standards. Translation: the discount rate on future profits is still firm. Great stories still work, but cash-flow timing matters and “expensive” gets a closer look.* Oil ~$62–65 (West Texas)That’s cheap vs. the 2022–23 cycle and below many OPEC “comfort” levels. Translation: markets see adequate supply + cooler demand. Lower oil helps margins for transports/chemicals and tempers headline inflation—but it’s a headwind to energy EPS unless volumes or buybacks offset.* Gold ~$3,760–3,800 (elevated)That’s historically high. Translation: investors are paying up for insurance—against rate/path uncertainty, geopolitics, or just “AI-era” volatility. High gold often rhymes with sticky real-rate anxiety or big-picture hedging.* Bitcoin ~$109k–115k (drifted lower on the week)Risk barometer took a breather. Translation: in weeks when rate-cut odds soften and megacap froth is questioned, crypto enthusiasm cools first.Insider Trade UpdatesNow, something that I will happily tell you more about is insider trades. I have been tracking insider trades in detail for months personally, and I finally decided to keep track of them in our paid subscriber sheet as well. Insiders don’t always get it right… But they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow. As a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.Buy-the-Dip Tracker* ARVN — Arvinas, Inc.Director bought 30,000 @ $7.57 after a 68.74% one-year slide. Early stage drug programs + battered chart; look for a reclaim of $8.* NEXT — NextDecade CorporationDirector bought 100,000 @ $6.86 after a 30.66% one-month drop. This makes 5 insider buys in 30 days — classic “find the floor” behavior. A daily close back above $7 keeps the squeeze thesis alive.* BDSX — Biodesix, Inc.Director bought 142,045 @ $7.04 after a 74.59% one-year drawdown; 3rd insider buy in 30 days. Treat $7 as your pivot.* NXXT — NextNRG Inc. (one-time exception)CEO & Executive Chairman bought 1,000,000 @ $1.67 after a 45.25% three-month selloff. High-beta/speculative. Whales & Standout Size ($1M+)* NTSK — Netskope, Inc.Director bought 2,000,000 @ $19.00 ($38.0M). When someone drops a small island’s GDP at a round number, traders tend to circle that level.* VUZI — Vuzix Corporation10% Owner bought 230,242 @ $21.72 ($5.0M), tied to a purchase agreement. Watch $21–$22 as the battleground; sustained holds above there invite momentum money.* WBI — WaterBridge Infrastructure LLCDirector bought 300,000 @ $20.00 ($6.0M) and another 75,000 @ $20.00 ($1.5M). Multiple prints at a clean $20 often act like duct tape for price.* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals10% Owner added 25,870 @ $41.07 ($1.06M). Another week, another add — slow, steady accumulation while gold names oscillate.Cluster & Repeat Buying (Signal Upgrade)* NEXT — five insider buys in a month around $7 after a sharp dump. Translation: insiders are trying to nail the floorboards back down.* BDSX — three buys in 30 days while price defends $7.* ASA — ongoing weekly adds; the glacier keeps inching forward.Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysI have four things for everyone this week… some will get more in-depth write-ups later this upcoming week. There is no better time than the present to introduce some new ideas. The four companies that look very interesting to me are NTSK, NXXT, NEXT, and KVUE. NTSK — NetskopeThis is a company that I have discussed before, and I want to put it on everyone’s watchlist again. The company is expected to grow revenue at a 27% CAGR through 2027 (which could potentially value the company at $48 a share — a nearly 100% return over the next 2-3 years). My only reason for not investing? The company turns a total profit of ZERO. Well, technically less than zero, but you get the point.I want the company to prove itself a bit before I go throwing money at it. NXXT — NextNRG and NEXT — NextDecade Corp These companies both operate in the world of energy generation. NXXT in the world of solar and battery storage and NEXT in the world of liquid natural gas. Both companies have seen some pretty wild action in the world of insider buying, as highlighted above. NEXT is down over 30% over the past month, down 20% over the past 3 months, and analysts put the price of the company at $10 — a 42% upside from current levels. Now, all of the insiders are buying? Seems like there might be a bit of trade here. The story is more of the same with NXXT — the company is down 43% YTD, but has been on the climb (up 14% from lows this month). Insiders have been silent since the stock went public in February, then suddenly, insiders show up with $1 million? Both of these companies are RISKY — neither has substantial revenues, let alone “profit” or lack thereof; however, they both have the potential to ride the current wave of investments hitting “energy” companies. KVUE — KenvueKenvue has been in the news recently due to claims about Tylenol causing autism in children when taken by pregnant women. Again, in line with the dumb money thesis, we are seeing an overreaction in the stock selloff. The stock is down 21% over the past 3 months on the Tylenol claims. Yikes…Tylenol makes up about 10% of the company’s revenue, so maybe the 20% drop is warranted when you consider the potential lawsuits and loss of revenue. I can guarantee you that the revenue Tylenol generates isn’t 100% driven by pregnant women, so maybe Kenue loses 3% of their revenue? Maybe 5%? Regardless, the 20% selloff is overdone in my humble opinion — but the revenue loss isn’t the only reason why I think the selloff is overdone…The same claims happened in 2023, and guess what the outcome was? As Judge Cote said, “…experts failed to establish credible links between Tylenol and conditions such as autism.”Legal precedent is already there to absolve Kenvue of the current claims. So what would my play be? Well, paying subscribers will find out this week… I would join now to find out….As always, I am on the lookout for my next “Berkshire Buy” stock. These companies fit Buffett’s criteria for investing, and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.Here are the Berkshire Buy stocks and their returns:Portfolio PerformanceTracking portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, etc. So, performance will vary moderately between investors.The returns shown are screenshots from Autopilot (the place where you can copy my trades). These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.Oh, and I think you might REALLY like these averages — remember, these portoflios have only been on the platform for about 2 months…We have over $800K in AUM and based on the returns below, that means we have made investors over $100K in returns!Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here. Or you can directly copy trade by going here: Autopilot.* Behind the paywall…* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksPortfolio Holdings & UpdatesI am currently working with the Autopilot team to get an API hooked up to the Google sheet to show everyone 1:1 what is happening on Autopilot. This will help to keep the changes between the sheets and Autopilot to a minimum. I have noticed that the sheet and Autopilot don’t always align 1:1, and I am working to fix this.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereYou can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! You can get daily market news from: The Simple Side Daily newsletter.Recent Updates:I added to the paid subscriber spreadsheet to track positions across all my portfolios that are “overextended” or are “oversold.” Here are some of those stocks:Use this button below to leave me comments!Quick Portfolio Highlights: Copy My Trades By Clicking HereThis week, the returns in our portfolios were brought to you by "The Federal Reserve” and their rate cuts! We are going to jump into the AI-Second hand effects portfolio here in just a minute to discuss some of the factors that drove this week’s performance. If it just so happens that you were out on a beach this past week, don’t worry, I am going to catch you up with everything that happened in the markets this past week!The Big PictureThe Fed finally trimmed 25 bps and the market did the happy shuffle: S&P 500 and Nasdaq printed fresh highs mid-week, small caps woke up, and the 2s/10s hovered near ~3.5%/4.1%—easy enough on cash-flow math without feeling bubbly. Oil camped in the low-$60s, gold stayed rich, VIX stayed sleepy. Translation: cheaper money + still-solid growth = “risk on,” with anything tied to AI buildouts, software, and financing (M&A, buybacks) getting an extra tailwind.The Moves That Mattered* Musk writes a billion-dollar love letter to Tesla. Elon bought ~2.57M TSLA shares ($371–$397), which isn’t a tweet—it’s a wire transfer. Insider buy that size resets sentiment and says management believes margins/volume or new products can outrun the current skepticism.* Nvidia builds the AI plumbing while dodging geopolitics. A China pause on certain NVDA chips nicked the tape, but Nvidia countered by spending >$900M to hire Enfabrica’s CEO and license its networking tech (think: knitting 100,000+ GPUs into one logical machine). Add a planned $500M into UK self-driving startup Wayve and the story is clear: sell systems, not just chips.* Alphabet plants a bigger flag in Britain. Google committed £5B to UK AI (new Waltham Cross data center + jobs). More local compute = lower latency, easier compliance, and another on-ramp for Cloud/DeepMind demand.* Oracle keeps finding new on-ramps to cloud revenue. Reports it’s anchoring a consortium to keep TikTok running in the U.S. If that sticks, expect sticky, high-utilization workloads on Oracle iron—great for backlog visibility and margins.* Healthcare power plays. Roche is buying 89bio (up to $3.5B) to bulk up cardio-metabolic; Novo Nordisk rallied on data showing Ozempic beat Trulicity on heart outcomes and an oral sema readout with ~16.6% weight loss. That’s pipeline-by-checkbook from Roche and category expansion from Novo.* Cash speaks elsewhere, too. Microsoft lifted its dividend +9.6% (AI spend and shareholder returns), Netskope raised ~$908M in a punchy cybersecurity IPO, and FedEx mapped FY26 EPS $17.20–$19 on $1B in savings—leaner networks, richer profits.Portfolio HighlightOkay, now let’s talk about the AI Second-Hands Effects Portfolio. I won’t go through the whole thing here (paying subscribers can access it below), but I want to highlight a few of the stocks. The two stocks I want to talk about are SMR and LEU — both of which were parts of the initial contrarian trades I made on energy and “AI Second-Hand Effects” back in November of 2024. You can find the original article here: article link.Since I wrote about LEU and SMR, the stocks have returned 320% and 103% respectively. The reason we are talking about them today is because they both hit the list of “top gainers” on Friday with SMR landing a number 5 with a healthy 22.69% return and LEU ending at spot 11 with 12.12% returns.Now, the reason I want to highlight this is because I don’t make very many changes to my portfolios/investments. A lot of the time I am buying and DCAing into the same group of stocks for months or years. I make very few adjustments to the portfolios, and that makes my investment style the worst for writing a newsletter. It means I don’t send out a lot of emails, and I don’t send out emails saying “this micro-cap is the next 100x for your portfolio.” Now, that would sure help me sell subscriptions, but it wouldn’t help you or I make any money in the stock market. My personal money goes directly into the portfolios I share here. The gains you see are reflected in my brokerage account, and my goal is to make us money in the stock market.The best way to do that is for me to find once-in-a-lifetime asymmetric upside bets, tell you about them, and then invest.Sure, you won’t get 3 emails a week telling you about the next hot stock (boy that would sell better), but you will get outsized returns in the long run, and that is what I am here for.Insider Trade UpdatesNow, something that I will happily tell you more about are insider trades. I have been tracking insider trades in detail for months personally and I finally decided to keep track of them in our paid subscriber sheet as well. Insiders don’t always get it right… but they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow. As a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding… (I have been removing quite a few of the penny stocks/ super risky investments to make the returns more normalized.Buy the Dip TrackerInsiders buying after meaningful drawdowns — percent and window included.* TTGT — TechTargetDirector bought 20,000 @ $5.97 after a 75.19% one-year slide. Deep cut in ad/MarTech; use the print as your line in the sand.* NEXT — NextDecadeCEO bought 281,500 @ $7.14 after a 33.20% one-week drop;Director later bought 500,000 @ $7.31 after a 29.84% one-week drop;Other insider added 357,021 @ $6.98 after a 33.57% one-month pullback.Cluster + capitulation bounce setup; let price hold above the $7 area before leaning in.* RAPP — Rapport TherapeuticsDirector bought 41,666 @ $24.65 and 20,400 @ $24.48 after a 21.42% one-week hit. When the doctor orders two doses, you read the label.* ZVRA — Zevra TherapeuticsDirector bought 3,175 @ $7.79 after a 23.01% one-month drop. Small ticket, but it’s the third insider buy in 30 days — a nibble can still telegraph conviction.Whales & Standout Size ($1M+)Large prints that can set floors (or at least draw a line for the chartists).* TSLA — Tesla: CEO bought 2,568,732 @ $389.28 ($999.96M). That’s not a toe-dip; that’s a cannonball.* BRCB — Black Rock Coffee Bar: 10% Owner bought 3,118,938 @ $20.00 ($62.38M) in a public offering.* LBRX — LB Pharmaceuticals: 10% Owner 2,666,666 @ $15.00 ($40.0M); Director 1,000,000 @ $15.00 ($15.0M); 10% Owner 333,333 @ $15.00 ($5.0M). Triple-shot accumulation.* HYMC — Hycroft Mining: 10% Owner bought 14,017,056 @ $4.28 ($40.0M). A gold-adjacent splash.* CGON — CG Oncology: Director bought 1,515,151 @ $33.00 ($50.0M).* AMR — Alpha Metallurgical: Director bought 108,000 @ $148.55 ($16.04M).* RYAN — Ryan Specialty: Exec Chair bought 276,634 @ $51.84 ($14.34M).* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals: 10% Owner bought 205,492 @ $40.67 ($8.36M) — part of a steady weekly program.* OPEN — Opendoor: Director bought 451,127 @ $6.65 ($3.0M).Officer Skin-in-the-GameExecutives opening their wallets (always a stronger signal than outside directors).* ABAT — American Battery Technology: COO bought 1,240,709 @ $1.07 ($1.33M). Adds to recent C-suite activity.* ALXO — ALX Oncology: CEO bought 92,233 @ $1.08. Dollar-menu oncology; watch for follow-through.* MSTR — “Strategy Inc.” (MSTR): EVP & General Counsel bought 12,500 @ $96.92 ($1.21M). Lawyers don’t usually YOLO.* MBIN — Merchants Bancorp: CFO bought 3,000 @ $24.87.* NMFC — New Mountain Finance: EVP/CAO/Director bought 49,750 @ $10.03 ($498.8K) via DRIP; Director later added 106,691 @ $9.78 ($1.04M).Cluster & Repeat BuyingPatterns that upgrade the signal quality.* NEXT: Three insider buys in 3 days around $7 after a sharp selloff — classic floor-finding behavior.* ASA: Ongoing weekly accumulation — the glacial kind of buying that moves mountains over time.* BWFG — Bankwell Financial: 7th and 8th insider purchases in 30 days (directors at $44.78 and $45.91).* LBRX: Multiple insiders stacking size at $15.00.* ABAT: Another C-suite buy adds to the recent cluster.Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysThe past few IPO’s that I called out at interesting trades were Black Rock Coffee Bar and Netskope. Currently, Netskope and Black Rock Coffee are up over 30% from their IPO prices. Now, I am sure that the valuations are high post IPO; however, I like both companies as long-term bets. As for the Netskope thesis, I have been bullish on cybersecurity for a long time, and having a new player in the investing realm is great. As many of you know, I own NET (Cloudflare) in my Flagship and Tech-Focused growth portfolios and the performance has already surpassed 18% since my initial purchase. I don’t currently feel comfortable making a full investment thesis for the company. I want to learn a bit more about the company, their moat, and take some time to consider the future prospects of the business before making any final statements.As for Black Rock Coffee, I think a new major competitor in the world of “big time” coffee chains is needed and welcomed by a majority of the consumers. Starbucks has been struggling to find its “company identity” along with multiple staffing issues. I do know that the current price-to-sales ratio is 2.67 while Starbucks sits at 2.64 and Luckin’ is 2.1. As far as I know, the company currently has over $200M in debt and isn’t profitable, so it might be some time before I can build a true investment thesis here as well. While I want more information on both companies, I do think they both pose good potential investments.As always, I am on the lookout for my next “Berkshire Buy” stock. These companies fit Buffett’s criteria for investing, and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Not all of these companies make it into my personal portfolios. Currently, I own OXY and NSSC in my Flagship Fund.Here are the Berkshire Buy stocks and their returns:Portfolio PerformanceTracking portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, etc. So, performance will vary moderately between investors.The returns shown are screenshots from Autopilot (the place where you can copy my trades). These represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 with your returns, but show The Simple Side shareholder average.Oh, and I think you might REALLY like these averages. Free subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here.* Behind the paywall…* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksPortfolio Holdings & Updates

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. As a reminder, you can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! Updates The new format going forward will look similar to this in our weekly updates:* FREE* Market Commentary & News* Quick Insider Trade Updates* Interesting Trade Ideas* Portfolio Performance* PAID* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksAs a reminder, all of this will be accessible to you via copy trading. Remember that these portfolios ARE NOT GET-RICH-QUICK portfolios. I am focused on long-term market outperformance. There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! A few quick updates on all of the thoughts that you have been submitting. * I have added a spot on my paid subscriber spreadsheet to track positions across all my portfolios that are “overextended” or are “oversold” and could be trimmed or added to in your personal portfolios.* Someone was also asking for “Morning Tea” which I assume means that they want to see daily morning market news. Well… I have that already! You can go over to The Simple Side Daily and subscribe there!Market CommentaryThe big picture* Indices: Nasdaq +2.0%, S&P 500 +1.6%, Dow +1.0% (equal-weight lagged again). Tech did the heavy lifting—semis popped and Oracle stole the show.* Rates & odds: Headline PPI +0.4% m/m and initial claims up to 263k reinforced the “cooling, not collapsing” narrative. Markets kept a near-lock on a 25 bp Fed cut this month and left the door open for another by year-end.* Tone: Mega-caps outran everything else; cyclicals and energy were choppy with oil hovering near $62–$64.Tech & AI — the week’s horsepower* Oracle (ORCL): With remaining performance obligations at $455B (up 359% y/y), Oracle said it’s scaling cloud infrastructure for AI customers (think training clusters, inference at the edge). Translation: multi-year visibility plus room to raise capacity pricing if demand stays hot.* Synopsys (SNPS): With its purchase of Ansys now complete, Synopsys guided FY25 revenue to $7.03–$7.06B and said it’s steering chip-design IP toward AI, autos and high-speed connectivity, while trimming lines snarled by export controls and foundry bottlenecks. That’s code for “more dollars where demand is compounding, less where geopolitics slow POs.”* TSMC (TSM) & the supply chain: August sales +34% y/y and sequentially higher—evidence that AI silicon demand is still outrunning capacity. ASE (ASX) echoed strength in assembly/test; Texas Instruments (TXN) talked up data-center revenue potentially jumping ~50% into 2025 as AI buildouts need a lot more power, sensing and analog.* Adobe (ADBE): Record Q3 ($5.99B revenue) and a guidance lift as AI features (Acrobat AI Assistant et al.) pushed AI-influenced ARR >$5B. The story here isn’t just cool demos—it’s higher seat expansion and premium SKU mix.* Microsoft & OpenAI: A new pact lets OpenAI restructure into a for-profit while keeping Microsoft’s access to the tech. Expect faster capital raises on OpenAI’s side and more consumption for Azure on Microsoft’s.EVs & autos — growth meets growing pains* Rivian & Tesla: Rivian recalled 24k vehicles (software fix for Hands-Free Highway Assist); Tesla lost another senior engineer as leadership churn continues. Software credibility and talent retention matter when you’re selling autonomy as a feature.* Ford: 1.46M vehicles recalled for rear camera issues—costly, but more importantly it’s yet another reminder that legacy quality control remains under the microscope.* XPeng: Unveiled the Next P7 in Europe (durability + AI focus) while separately recalling 47,490 P7+ sedans in China for a steering gear replacement. Global expansion only works if home-market reliability cooperates.* NIO: Announced an equity raise (~$1B) to fund core EV tech and its swapping/charging network. Dilutive near-term, but it buys runway to keep the ecosystem moving.* Hyundai/LG Energy JV: A U.S. immigration raid paused construction at the Georgia battery site—an unexpected supply-chain speed bump for an otherwise aggressive U.S. EV footprint.Energy, resources & industrials — rewiring the world* SpaceX ↔ EchoStar: SpaceX is buying EchoStar’s AWS-4 + H-block spectrum for ~$17B (half cash, half SpaceX stock, plus it covers $2B of EchoStar interest through Nov ’27). This gives Starlink cellular-grade spectrum for Direct-to-Cell service; for EchoStar it’s a de-leveraging event with growth optionality instead of bond math.* Apollo ↔ RWE / Amprion: €3.2B equity commitment to back RWE’s 25.1% stake in grid operator Amprion. Why care? Regulated grid assets throw off stable dividends while Europe’s electrification needs colossal capex.* Baker Hughes: Won liquefaction equipment for Rio Grande LNG Train 4—more evidence U.S. LNG buildout momentum is intact even with softer spot prices.* Chevron: Plans to lean into South Korea petrochemicals via GS Caltex—not just fuels, but higher-margin materials as the refining cycle normalizes.* Freeport-McMoRan: Temporarily halted operations at Grasberg to search for workers after a mudflow—human priority first, and near-term copper volumes likely trimmed.* Energy Fuels: U.S.-processed rare earths showed up in EV magnets—a small technical win with big strategic implications for a China-light supply chain.Deals, capital & corporate moves — the money map* PNC x FirstBank (Colorado): PNC agreed to buy FirstBank for $4.1B (cash/stock), aiming to triple its branch footprint in Colorado. In plain English: PNC wants to be the go-to regional bank in one of the country’s fastest-growing economies, and deposits are the prize.* Anglo American ↔ Teck (rumored ~$20B): Would super-charge Anglo’s copper exposure just as grids, EVs and AI data centers gobble it up.* Phillips 66: Buying the remaining 50% of WRB Refining from Cenovus for $1.4B, taking full control of Wood River & Borger—simpler governance, cleaner allocation, better utilization.* Exxon Mobil: Acquiring U.S. assets of Superior Graphite to make synthetic graphite domestically by 2029—critical battery material without Chinese dependence.* Barrick: Selling Hemlo (Canada) for up to $1.09B to refocus on Tier-One gold/copper; Iberdrola lifting Neoenergia stake to 84% to deepen regulated networks in Brazil.* Figure (FIGR) IPO: $787.5M raised; Klarna priced at $40/sh (valued $15.1B); Alibaba upsized with $3.17B zero-coupon converts; Nebius lined up $3.75B debt/equity to scale AI data centers (tied to its Microsoft deal).* Veritone, Avidity, Astronics: More raises across AI and aero-sat niches—dilutive, yes, but they keep the growth engines funded into 2026.Health care & life sciences — pipeline beats and portfolio pruning* Eli Lilly: Late-stage Jaypirca data in leukemia extended progression-free survival; commercial upside grows beyond obesity/diabetes.* Novartis: Buying Tourmaline Bio ($1.4B) for pacibekitug (cardio)—continuing the “buy the best shots on goal” strategy in large chronic markets.* UnitedHealth: Reaffirmed 2025 EPS ≥ $16 on $445.5–$448B revenue; steadier guide helps the managed-care tape after a volatile year.* Regeneron & Sandoz: Settlement clears a path for an Eylea biosimilar in late 2026—margin pressure later, but also clarity for modeling.* Teva: Fast-track tag for emrusolmin (Multiple System Atrophy) accelerates timelines where treatments are scarce.* Summit Therapeutics: Phase 3 ivonescimab showed a survival trend but missed investor hopes; stock reset reflects the difference between “stat-sig” and “close.”Consumer & retail — winners know their lane* Apple Watch: Hypertension detection rolls out post-FDA clearance across 150 regions—health features keep Apple’s wearables sticky and raise upgrade intent.* Oxford Industries: Reiterated $1.475–$1.515B FY sales; Lilly Pulitzer and emerging brands offset softness at Tommy Bahama/Johnny Was—portfolio balance doing its job.* Potbelly: Accepted a $17.12/sh take-private by RaceTrac; Black Rock Coffee Bar raised $294M in its IPO—yes, we live in the golden age of caffeinated cap tables.* Pop Mart: Added to Hang Seng but slid on demand worries—index love doesn’t always equal sell-through love.* RH: Lifted ’25 revenue growth to 9–11%, pushing harder into Europe and shifting sourcing away from China to dull tariff bite.Media, software & cyber — cash flows and curveballs* BILL Holdings: Starboard nominated four directors (8.5% stake). Expect more talk about margins, go-to-market focus, and buybacks.* Vimeo: Being acquired by Bending Spoons for $1.38B cash ($7.85/sh)—a premium exit that ends its lonely life as a stand-alone public SaaS.* SentinelOne: Buying Observo AI to beef up data pipelines for SIEM/SOC—because detection is only as good as the exhaust you can digest.* Mitsubishi Electric: Moving to acquire Nozomi Networks—OT/IoT security is now must-have, not nice-to-have, for industrial giants.* Cerence: Building an in-car work assistant with Microsoft 365 Copilot + Intune controls—hands-free, IT-approved email and docs while parked (we hope).Banks & insurers — blocking and tackling* U.S. Bancorp: Dividend up 4% to $0.52 (≈4.2% forward yield).* Arthur J. Gallagher: Buying Bremer Insurance from Old National to bulk up P&C distribution.* PNC recap (because clarity matters): The FirstBank deal is PNC paying $4.1B to acquire a Colorado-focused bank so it can triple its branch count in the state, grab more low-cost deposits, and cross-sell loans and wealth to a fast-growing local customer base. That’s the whole play.Insider Trade UpdatesInsiders don’t always get it right… but they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow (and maybe place a limit order). As a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding…Buy the Dip TrackerInsiders buying after meaningful drawdowns — percent and window included.* VBIX — Viewbix Inc.Director bought 260,000 @ $1.00 after a 41.27% one-month drop. Private placement—treat $1.00 as the pivot; strength above keeps the squeeze thesis alive.* CE — Celanese CorporationDirector bought 1,039 @ $46.25 after a 62.61% one-year slide. Fifth insider buy in 30 days; use $46.25 as your risk line and look for a push back above the 20-day.* KURA — Kura OncologyPresident & CEO bought 50,000 @ $8.20 after a 59.05% one-year decline. CEO skin in the game on a beaten-up biotech—confirmation is a higher low above $8.20 with volume.Whales & Standout Size ($1M+)Large prints that can set floors.* SFD — Smithfield Foods: Director bought 1,800,000 @ $23.25 ($41.85M). Seven insider buys in 30 days—size + cluster.* MLYS — Mineralys Therapeutics: Director bought 1,176,470 @ $25.50 ($30.0M) and 588,235 @ $25.50 ($15.0M). Back-to-back eight-figure adds.* CELC — Celcuity: 10% Owner bought 170,100 @ $56.27 ($9.57M).* ABAT — American Battery Technology: CEO bought 2,525,497 @ $0.99 ($2.5M); paired with another insider buy—watch for a base forming.* ASA — ASA Gold & Precious Metals: 10% Owner bought 33,459 @ $38.71 ($1.3M) and later 24,510 @ $40.50. Programmatic cadence, but still real money.* REZI — Resideo: Director bought 29,460 @ $34.01 ($1.0M).Officer Skin-in-the-GameExecutives opening their wallets.* NVCR — NovoCure: CEO bought 81,550 @ $12.22.* COO — The Cooper Companies: President & CEO bought 10,000 @ $68.39; fourth insider buy in 30 days.* BUSE — First Busey: President bought 18,420 @ $25.48.Cluster & Repeat BuyingPatterns that upgrade signal quality.* ABAT: CEO + Chief Mineral Resource Officer buys in the same 30-day window.* ASA: 11th and 12th insider buys in 30 days—steady weekly accumulation.* CE: Fifth insider buy in 30 days—consensus forming.* LAB — Standard BioTools: Another 500,000 @ $1.27; third insider purchase in 30 days.* OCTO — Eightco Holdings: Two director buys (342,466 and 136,986 @ $1.46)—small cap, but clustered.* COO: Ongoing insider activity, including the CEO add noted above.Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysThis past week, we focused on all of the incoming IPOs. Sadly, allocations were scarce, and overall returns were mild. We saw few (if any) stocks really jump higher post-IPO, and while most of the returns were at or above 20%, the lack of shares and lower-than-expected gains were disappointing. I will be looking into the StubHub and Pattern IPOs as potential upcoming trades; of course, these will entirely be dependent on the oversubscription rates and the potential upside I see in the companies. A future IPO that I would love to get my hands on is Netskope. I have a firm belief that cybersecurity will only become more and more integral as reliance on AI and the digital world grows. Plus, vibe coding (aka coding with AI) is only growing in popularity. People are creating websites in days instead of months, but vibe coding has one main issue: security… Basically, AI creates code that works, but is very hackable, and guess who/what solves that issue… You guessed it! If you want to read more about this, check out this article by Databricks. As always, I am on the lookout for my next “Berkshire Buy” stock. These companies fit Buffett’s criteria for investing, and are analyzed from that exact viewpoint. Here are some of those stocks and their returns:Portfolio PerformanceTracking portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, and not everyone will be willing to hold through the downturns like others. So, performance will vary moderately between investors. The returns shown in Autopilot screenshots (aka my copytrading partner) will represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 the returns on the paid subscriber spreadsheet, but the holdings and trades will always match up!We launched our portfolios on Autopilot just last month and have already surpassed the S&P 500 index year to date! Paying subscribers get direct access to all of these portfolios & real-time updates by joining paid here.Portfolio Holdings & UpdatesCopy Trading LinksFLAGSHIP FUND: LINKAI Second-Hand Effects: LINKTech-Growth: LINKBehind this paywall, you can see all of our portfolio holdings. If you are already a paying subscriber, you won’t see the paywall and should be able to see all of the holdings.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. As a reminder, you can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! Updates The new format going forward will look similar to this in our weekly updates:* FREE* Market Commentary & News* Quick Insider Trade Updates* Interesting Trade Ideas* Portfolio Performance* PAID* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksAs a reminder, all of this will be accessible to you via copy trading. Remember that these portfolios ARE NOT GET-RICH-QUICK portfolios. I am focused on long-term market outperformance. There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! Market CommentaryThe week in one glance* After a choppy Tuesday, stocks firmed into week-end: S&P 500 up WTD (fresh intraday highs Friday morning), Nasdaq +1.1%, Dow -0.3%. Small/mid-caps finally joined the party (Russell 2000 +1.0%, S&P Mid Cap 400 +1.3%), a healthier look for breadth as the VIX spiked midweek and faded.* Yields eased by Friday (≈4.08% 10-yr, ≈3.6% 2-yr) as labor data cooled and September cut odds pressed into the high-90s. Oil slipped toward $63 even as gold stayed firm; call it “soft landing with a safety net.”Macro, rates & policy* A softer ADP print, three straight months of contraction in ISM services employment (46.5), and 22k nonfarm payrolls with 4.3% unemployment kept the “one-and-done” cut narrative intact. Markets are effectively pricing a quarter-point trim in September because the Fed likes easing when the job market cools without breaking.* A U.S. appeals-court challenge to tariff legality injected trade-policy noise; current tariffs remain into mid-October with likely appeals ahead. That’s not a forecast—just a reminder that supply chains dislike suspense.Leadership & sectors* Communication Services ran the table (+5.1% WTD) as Alphabet won breathing room on Chrome/search defaults, dragging mega-cap peers higher.* Energy sagged (-3.5% WTD) even with crude’s early-week pop; defensives were mixed and Financials lagged (-1.7%) on the “lower yields, later NIM” math. Under the hood, equal-weight and small-caps improving is exactly what you want to see if you’re rooting for a durable tape.AI, chips & cloud — the build-out keeps building* Broadcom posted record results, a 63% YoY jump in AI semi sales, a $10B AI infra order from a new customer, and a fat backlog—evidence that networks and custom silicon are the picks-and-shovels of this cycle. OpenAI teaming with Broadcom on an in-house chip underlines the same theme: hyperscalers want control of their bill of materials, not just more GPUs.* Credo (active electrical cables) and Ciena (optical) popped on strong prints tied to bandwidth-hungry AI clusters; Texas Instruments reminded everyone autos/industrial are still digesting inventory. Translation: AI spend is secular, but not every end-market is on the same calendar.* Amazon kept stacking chips and real estate—ramping Trainium with Anthropic while opening a 100% renewables-powered AWS New Zealand region backed by NZ$7.5B in capex. The cloud isn’t done; it’s getting closer to customers.Deals, capital moves & corporate resets* Kraft Heinz will split into two tax-free public companies to simplify the story and capital allocation; Elliott took a ~$4B swing at PepsiCo, a nudge that “do more, faster” plays well when share gains stall.* Air Lease agreed to a $65-per-share take-private backed by Sumitomo; lessors like steady, long-dated cash flows, and so do private buyers.* SS&C bought South Africa’s Curo Fund Services; Coincheck moved for Paris-based Aplo; Aon is selling NFP’s wealth arm back to Madison Dearborn—everyone’s pruning to the core.* On the balance-sheet front: Lyft raised $450M via converts (capped calls to tame dilution); BILL drew Starboard in at ~8%; T. Rowe Price rallied on Goldman’s planned $1B stake. The message: capital still chases fee streams and operating leverage.Autos, EVs & autonomy* Tesla’s India debut reportedly logged ~600 orders so far—limited cities, premium pricing, and early-days logistics make for a slow on-ramp; meanwhile BYD’s price-war squeeze clipped Q2 profits even as revenue rose, and NIO guided stronger Q3 deliveries while still burning cash. Competition is doing what competition does.* Toyota put €680M into a Czech BEV line (first in Europe), Qualcomm + BMW launched Ride Pilot, and Waymo won the green light to operate at San Jose’s airport—less sci-fi, more route map.Energy, resources & industrials* Exxon’s Guyana machine keeps scaling after election clarity; TotalEnergies grabbed Nigerian offshore exploration licenses; Uranium Energy stood up a unit to explore U.S. refining/conversion—vertical integration meets energy security.* In Canada, Strathcona took an 11.8% stake in MEG to contest the Cenovus deal; Tourmaline held its CAD 0.50 dividend; Teck launched an ops review around QB and tailings.* Boeing landed 30 more 737-8s (Macquarie) while Alaska Air upsized to 787-10s—capacity and fuel burn still matter when international demand stays sticky.* Niche but telling: Kraken Robotics booked $13M of sonar/battery orders, Dorchester Minerals added Colorado acreage, BW LPG sold an older tanker at a gain. Fleet discipline isn’t just for airlines.Health care & life sciences* United Therapeutics surged on a late-stage win for Tyvaso in IPF—label expansion talk is now justified revenue math. BioNTech posted positive Phase 3 breast-cancer data, Novartis inked a $5.2B cardio collaboration with Argo, and Medtronic’s Hugo robot delivered clean hernia-repair outcomes. When macro jitters rise, data wins the multiple.* HealthEquity raised guidance as HSA yields help, Mineralys upsized an equity raise, Elevance flagged weaker Medicaid margins but kept FY guidance—payers threading the policy needle, as ever.Software & data plumbing* Salesforce said 4,000 support roles are now handled by AI agents, freeing quota-carrying capacity even as near-term guidance disappointed; UiPath, DocuSign, Samsara, Guidewire and Braze all leaned into AI-assisted pipelines and lifted FY views.* Not all AI pixie dust sparkles every quarter: C3.ai guided light and shuffled leadership; GitLab faced second-half nerves. Investors are back to paying for bookings quality and dollar-based net retention, not just acronyms.The bottom line* The market absorbed a tariff curveball, softer labor data, and a semiconductor wobble—and still finished with better breadth and record highs in sight. Rate-cut hopes are doing some of the lifting, but the sturdier tell was where money flowed: into networks, storage, optical, and cloud regions that actually make AI usable, and into companies simplifying portfolios to unlock cash. If next week’s tape keeps rewarding execution over slogans, the rally has legs rather than headlines.Insider Trade UpdatesInsiders don’t always get it right… but they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow (and maybe place a limit order). As a side note, I try to stay away from insiders buying up their penny stock company. While these can still be great signals, the risk-to-reward ratio isn’t one I find favorable.We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding…Buy the Dip TrackerInsiders buying after meaningful drawdowns — percent and window included.* STTK — Shattuck LabsDirector bought 36,879,576 @ $0.87 after a 62.68% one-year slide. That’s backing up the truck at biotech prices.* BDSX — BiodesixDirector bought 3,488,372 @ $0.43 after a 77.19% one-year drawdown. Deep-value diagnostics; let price confirm the turn.* BLNE — Beeline HoldingsChief Accounting Officer bought 10,000 @ $1.59 after a 24.06% one-month drop. When the numbers person pays up, take note.* BSLK — Bolt Projects HoldingsCTO bought 10,940 @ $3.23 and CEO bought 13,374 @ $3.81 after a 51.18% one-week plunge. Two C-suite bites into a faceplant.Whale & Standout Size ($1M+)Large prints that can set floors (dip whales above not repeated here).* SMC — Summit Midstream: 10% Owner bought 120,160 @ $20.48 ($2.46M).* AFCG — Advanced Flower Capital: Director bought 474,526 @ $4.74 ($2.25M).* MDRR — Medalist Diversified REIT: Chairman/CEO/Pres bought 140,000 @ $12.50 ($1.75M).* REZI — Resideo: Director bought 29,460 @ $34.01 ($1.0M).Officer Skin-in-the-GameExecutives opening their wallets.* TPVG — TriplePoint Venture Growth: CEO bought 109,630 @ $6.69 ($733K); President & CIO bought 109,630 @ $6.69 ($733K).* MSIF — MSC Income Fund: CFO & Treasurer bought 1,800 @ $14.03.* AWRE — Aware: Chief Revenue Officer bought 5,000 @ $2.20.Cluster & Repeat BuyingPatterns that upgrade the signal.* MDRR — Medalist Diversified REIT: 6th and 7th insider buys in 30 days, including $1.75M this week.* REZI — Resideo: 5th insider purchase in 30 days.* TPVG — TriplePoint Venture Growth: 10th insider purchase in 30 days.* HTH — Hilltop Holdings: 4th insider purchase in 30 days.* HSON — Hudson Global: 3rd insider purchase in 30 days.Notable AddsSolid tickets or strategic context.* HII — Huntington Ingalls: Director bought 3,500 @ $272.78 ($955K).* FRHC — Freedom Holding: See Remarks bought 5,725 @ $171.67 ($983K).* LKQ — LKQ Corporation: Director bought 15,000 @ $32.12 ($482K).* TEAM — Atlassian: Director bought 1,455 @ $173.00 (10b5-1 plan).* CBNA — Chain Bridge Bancorp: Director bought 400 @ $29.81.* HTH — Hilltop Holdings: Chairman bought 10,000 @ $35.36.* MDRR — Medalist Diversified REIT: Chairman/CEO/Pres bought 22,899 @ $12.50.* HSON — Hudson Global: Director bought 1,100 @ $9.58.Interesting Trade Ideas & Berkshire BuysI didn’t have any big ideas or Berkshire Buys for this past week, but paying subscribers did gain access to this article, which covered up to six different trades that I am making this upcoming week. I am going to be sending out articles in the coming days as we get closer to these stock trade dates to update paying subscribers on my strategy. Our recent article, which again can be found here: Highlights the last trade we made using this same blueprint, which enabled us to achieve a 211% return on a Bullish stock! If you are not a paying subscriber but want access to these upcoming trades, you can join by clicking the button below: Since we have all of these incoming trades happening, I won’t be sending out any “Berkshire Buy” articles, but these past analyses have seen quite impressive returns.A few weeks ago, we wrote an article on Qualys, and the stock is up 2% since then!Portfolio PerformanceTracking portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, and not everyone will be willing to hold through the downturns like others. So, performance will vary moderately between investors. The returns shown in Autopilot screenshots (aka my copytrading partner) will represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 the returns on the paid subscriber spreadsheet, but the holdings and trades will always match up!Since transferring my portoflios to Autopilot last month, we have already seen incredible returns… For reference, the SPY is up 9.60% YTD or a monthly increase of about 1%. My AI Second-Hand Effects portfolio is up 9.45% in just one month! One month of the Simple Side portfolio returns = YTD SPY returns… My exact returns, as well as exact prices, and all that other great stuff can be found by paid subscribers using the paid spreadsheet. If you click on that sentence, it will take you to the new section of the spreadsheet!Portfolio Holdings & UpdatesCopy Trading LinksFLAGSHIP FUND: LINKAI Second-Hand Effects: LINKTech-Growth: LINKBehind this paywall, you can see all of our portfolio holdings. If you are already a paying subscriber, you won’t see the paywall and should be able to see all of the holdings.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comQuick Reminders:Our disclosure is in the email footerPortfolio copy trading is available hereTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. As a reminder, you can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! Updates The new format going forward will look similar to this in our weekly updates:* FREE* Market Commentary & News* Quick Insider Trade Updates* Interesting Trade Ideas* Portfolio Performance* PAID* Portfolio Holdings & Updates* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksAs a reminder, all of this will be accessible to you via copy trading. Remember that these portfolios ARE NOT GET-RICH-QUICK portfolios. I am focused on long-term market outperformance. There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! Market CommentaryThe week in one glance* Stocks notched fresh highs Tuesday–Thursday and then cooled on Friday as profit-taking hit mega-cap tech, semis, and cyclicals. Breadth quietly improved midweek with small and mid-caps outrunning the giants, a sign the rally can walk and chew gum at the same time.* Rates drifted rather than lurched, keeping the soft-landing story intact and September cut odds lofty. Oil hovered near $64, gold firmed, and the VIX stayed sleepy until a Friday yawn.Macro & rates* Growth looked sturdier than feared with Q2 GDP revised to 3.3% while weekly jobless claims stayed low, the combination investors usually order when they want easing without the drama. Two-year yields meandered around 3.62%–3.73% and the 10-year around 4.21%–4.33%, leaving the door open for a modest Fed trim next month if PCE doesn’t misbehave.* Housing stayed mixed and consumer gauges were fine, not fantastic; in market terms that’s “just right” because it cools the inflation talk without chilling earnings.Sectors & flows* Communication services led thanks to steady strength in Alphabet and Meta, while energy caught a bid as crude inched higher and balance sheets kept doing the heavy lifting.* Defensives lagged as investors rotated toward risk, and retailers turned in a patchwork quilt where great execution mattered more than category. The equal-weight S&P perked up midweek, hinting that leadership isn’t only a two-stock show.AI, chips & cloud: hype met housekeeping* NVIDIA delivered record revenue and a huge networking print, then reminded everyone that China is complicated and guidance can be… responsible. Shares flinched before the market remembered AI datacenters don’t build themselves.* Marvell’s outlook knocked the wind out of semis on Friday, a reminder that not every AI dollar shows up on the same quarter’s P&L. Dell talked up a path to $20B in AI server sales next year, HP pushed AI PCs past a quarter of its mix and sharpened the cost pencil, and SK hynix flexed with a 321-layer QLC part that doubles capacity—because storage wants in on the AI party too.* Software stole a few scenes: MongoDB ripped after a clean beat, Box nudged guidance higher as larger enterprises lean in, Snowflake and Nutanix talked bigger pipelines as AI-heavy workloads move from slides to spend, and CrowdStrike kept stacking ARR while bolting on data plumbing.Earnings & movers* Dollar General topped estimates and lifted guidance, proving value retail can still find value. Victoria’s Secret tightened execution and raised its sales view. Pure Storage impressed with margin and backlog momentum, which is what you get when customers need faster pipes for smarter apps.* Alibaba missed at the headline but showed double-digit growth ex-disposals and highlighted another quarter of triple-digit AI cloud revenue, then set to refinance a chunky loan—housekeeping that keeps optionality alive.* Caterpillar raised the tariff hit for the year, a useful tell for anyone modeling industrial margins into autumn.Autos, EVs & mobility* Tesla fought a two-front war: deep UK lease discounts and a European sales slump on one side, a jury verdict tied to Autopilot on the other. Plans for a lower-priced model in 2025 remain the demand valve, but competition isn’t waiting. GM recalled Corvette units for a fuel issue and Nissan slipped after Mercedes moved to exit a longstanding stake—classic reminder that strategic ties aren’t forever.Deals, capital & policy moves* Keurig Dr Pepper moved toward buying JDE Peet’s as investors did the spreadsheet and marked the stock down; bold portfolio reshapes usually come with upfront sticker shock.* Energy and defense stayed busy: Crescent Energy agreed to acquire Vital Energy in all-stock fashion to fatten free cash flow, RTX won a big F135 engine order, and Boeing secured maintenance work even as labor talks crept on. AT&T lined up $23B of spectrum to feed its 5G and fiber ambitions—because the network is the business model.* Terumo reached for OrganOx to deepen transplant tech, AbbVie bought rights to a mid-stage depression asset from Gilgamesh, and MannKind added scPharmaceuticals to bulk up in cardiometabolic. In healthcare, Eli Lilly posted positive Phase 3 obesity-pill data and an overall-survival win for Verzenio, while Regeneron and Alnylam advanced an RNA therapy in myasthenia gravis—clinical readouts that point to revenue mix shifting further toward specialty therapies.Oddities & outliers* Charter sweetened Spectrum bundles with Disney’s streaming stack at no extra cost for eligible plans, a tacit nod that “cable vs. streaming” is turning into “connectivity plus content, don’t make me choose.”* Box scores aside, Canada Goose and Aspen Insurance drew buyout chatter and deals, proof that private capital still likes cash-flow stories with a winter coat.Insider Trade UpdatesInsiders don’t always get it right… but they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow (and maybe place a limit order).We keep track of all of these trades on our Google sheet, and then insider returns are quite astounding…Buy the Dip TrackerInsiders buying after meaningful drawdowns — percent and window included.* ECIA — Encision Inc.CEO bought 1,000,000 @ $0.10 after a 42.35% one-month drop. Surgical entry at penny-stock prices; treat $0.10–$0.12 as the tug-of-war zone.* ECIA — Encision Inc.Director bought 750,000 @ $0.10 after a 42.35% one-month drop. Cluster buying amplifies the signal.* ECIA — Encision Inc.10% Owner bought 2,000,000 @ $0.10 after a 42.35% one-month drop. When both insiders and a 10% holder step in, floors often form.* NTLA — Intellia TherapeuticsDirector bought 100,000 @ $10.03 after a 22.02% one-month slide. Gene-editing dip buy; look for a higher low above ~$10.* FFAI — Faraday FutureGlobal President bought 10,560 @ $2.33 after a 21.31% one-month drop. High beta, high drama—trade the tape, not the story.* CLDI — Calidi BiotherapeuticsDirector bought 150,000 @ $2.00 and 250,000 @ $2.00 after a 43.33% one-week drop. Two prints into a faceplant; watch for base-building above $2.* COTY — Coty Inc.Chief People & Purpose Officer bought 30,000 @ $3.84 after a 24.54% one-week drop.CEO bought 260,000 @ $3.92 after a 24.54% one-week drop. When the C-suite buys the beauty dip, momentum traders bring mirrors.* AFCG — Advanced Flower CapitalDirector bought 375,147 @ $4.07 after a 52.37% one-year drawdown. Deep value or value trap—let price action decide.* STSS — Sharps TechnologyDirectors bought 400,000 / 100,000 / 80,000 / 40,000 @ $6.41 after a 99.13% one-year collapse. That’s not catching a falling knife; that’s restocking the cutlery aisle.* GMGI — Golden Matrix GroupCFO bought 25,000 @ $1.30 after a 21.34% one-month drop. Finance chief averaging down—eyes on follow-through.Standout Size ($1M+)Large checks that can tilt order books, even without explicit “dip” tags.* CEPF — Cantor Equity Partners IV10% Owner bought 900,000 @ $10.00 ($9.0M). Big private-placement bite.* REYN — Reynolds ConsumerDirector bought 159,506 @ $22.99 ($3.67M) and 71,586 @ $23.05 ($1.65M). Household-staples insider stepping up twice.* REZI — Resideo10% Owner bought 46,953 @ $33.55 ($1.58M). Strategic holder topping up.* AVTR — AvantorDirector bought 100,000 @ $12.56 ($1.26M). Industrial life-science pick-and-shovel.* HTH — Hilltop HoldingsChairman bought 30,000 @ $34.84 ($1.05M). Regional-bank confidence check.* ASAN — AsanaDirector bought 446,966 @ $13.74 ($6.14M). Plan-driven cadence but still size.Officer Skin-in-the-GameExecutives opening their wallets (items not already listed above).* TPVG — TriplePoint Venture GrowthCEO bought 122,003 @ $6.46 ($788.7K).President & CIO bought 122,003 @ $6.46 ($788.7K). BDC leadership alignment.* EBC — Eastern BanksharesExecutive Chair bought 44,642 @ $16.71; CEO bought 29,762 @ $16.71. Bank brass buying their own book.* SINT — Sintx TechnologiesChief Investment Officer bought 50,000 @ $3.70 ($185K). Early-stage materials, officer participation noted.* HSON — Hudson GlobalCOO bought 6,813 @ $9.24. Small, but operators buying dips often precede turnarounds.Interesting Trade IdeasI haven’t come up with any beautiful ideas for this upcoming week, but I will give an update on our most recent interesting trade idea. This past week on Monday, I initiated a position in BFST (Business First Bancshares) — which looks to be an undervalued M&A gem in Texas and Louisiana. The company hasn’t made any meaningful gains/losses since then, but I like the position we have in the company with a price just over $25/share. This week, we also sent out a “Berkshire Buy” article (a stock analysis through the lens of Berkshire. This week’s article was on Qualys, and the stock is up 2.31% this week. The company looks great from a growth perspective (5-year growth of EPS is over 20% and 5-year revenue growth is over 10%). A company that is cutting costs and growing revenue — I love it! You can see all of the “Berkshire Buy” stock we have written articles about by going here (only for paying subscribers)!Portfolio PerformanceTracking the portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, and not everyone will be willing to hold through the downturns like others. So, performance will vary moderately between investors. The returns shown in Autopilot screenshots (aka my copytrading partner) will represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. That means the returns in the Autopilot app won’t always match 1:1 the returns on the paid subscriber spreadsheet, but the holdings and trades will always match up!My exact returns, as well as exact prices, and all that other great stuff can be found by paid subscribers using the paid spreadsheet. If you click on that sentence, it will take you to the new section of the spreadsheet!Portfolio Holdings & UpdatesCopy Trading LinksFLAGSHIP FUND: LINKAI Second-Hand Effects: LINKTech-Growth: LINK

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. As a reminder, you can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and here on Substack! Updates The new format going forward will look similar to this in our weekly updates:* FREE* Market Commentary & News* Quick Insider Trade Updates* Interesting Trade Ideas* Portfolio Performance* PAID* Portfolio Holdings & News (copy trading links)* Flagship Fund, AI-2nd Hand Effect, Tech-Focused Growth* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksAs a reminder, all of this will be accessible to you via copy trading. Remember that these portfolios ARE NOT GET-RICH-QUICK portfolios. I am focused on long-term market outperformance. There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! Market CommentaryBig pictureChop early, rally late. Mega-cap tech slumped midweek, while small/mid caps, homebuilders, and cyclicals quietly outperformed; Friday finished with a broad risk-on pop.* Week-to-date: * Russell 2000 +3.3%* S&P Mid Cap 400 +2.6%* Dow +1.5%* S&P 500 +0.3%* Nasdaq −0.6%.* Rates/vol* 2-yr ~3.69% (down into Fri)* 10-yr ~4.26%* VIX eased back to ~14 after a Thursday spike.Macro & policy* Jackson Hole anticipation dominated flows; futures still lean toward a 25 bp cut in September.* Data mix* NAHB at 32* housing starts +5.2% m/m* permits −2.8%* jobless claims 235k* PMIs showed expansion (Mfg ~53, Svcs ~55).Sector moves* Leaders: Energy, Financials, Materials; Consumer Discretionary (retail/homebuilders) firm.* Laggards: Information Tech (semis and megacaps), parts of Consumer Staples after a big-box wobble.Notable tape & deals (highlights)AI / Semis / Cloud* Intel +5% after SoftBank’s ~$2B equity buy; Arm hired Amazon’s AI chip lead.* Nvidia: working on a China-compliant Blackwell-based part (B30A) while halting H20 production per reports.* Meta + Google inked a 6-year, $10B+ cloud pact; Workday, Zoom, Intuit all lifted AI-tinted outlooks; CrowdStrike added to the IVES AI 30.M&A / PE & financing* Thoma Bravo circling Dayforce; Goldman lining up ~$6B debt.* Nexstar to buy Tegna (with a competing Sinclair proposal still swirling).* Cenovus to acquire MEG Energy (C$7.9B) in oil sands consolidation.* Private/go-privates: Soho House near a take-private; Ross Stores expanding footprint; multiple smaller tuck-ins (Pentair→Hydra-Stop; Assa Abloy→SiteOwl; Rubicon→Janel).* Defense: RTX/Diehl to co-produce Stingers; Lockheed won Trident II work.Consumer / Retail* Target modest beat; TJX, Lowe’s firm; WH Smith flagged an accounting error.* Dick’s + Foot Locker announced a merger plan.* Walmart initiated a shrimp recall across 13 states following FDA testing.Autos / Industrials* Tesla slashed UK lease pricing amid weak July UK sales; later raised the Cybertruck “Cyberbeast” price with added features.* NIO unveiled an ES8 refresh; XPeng deliveries surged.* Boeing: China order chatter; separate labor action hit St. Louis defense lines.Regulatory/legal* Google fined A$36M in Australia over search preinstalls.* Masimo sued U.S. Customs over Apple Watch import approvals.* Microsoft to limit China access to vuln data; Visa shuttered its U.S. open-banking unit.The read-throughBreadth improved as investors rotated beyond mega-cap tech into domestically sensitive and rate-levered areas. Lower yields into Friday helped the pivot. AI infrastructure remains the secular anchor, but export-control headlines keep semis choppy.What I’m watching next* Powell follow-through and PCE next week for confirmation of a September cut.* Semis: China-compliant SKUs, datacenter order visibility, and optical supply tightness (Fabrinet momentum).* Cyclicals vs. megacaps: does small-cap leadership and homebuilder strength persist if yields back up?* Retail: guidance quality vs. resilient consumer narrative.Insider Trade UpdatesInsiders don’t always get it right… but they do get the best seats in the house. Here are this week’s trades that made us raise an eyebrow (and maybe place a limit order).Buy the Dip TrackerInsiders buying after meaningful drawdowns — percent and window included.* LINE — Lineage, Inc.Co-Executive Chair bought $499K @ $40.44 after the stock fell 53.0% over the past year. Buying into a bruised chart; watch for a higher low above the print.* AVNS — Avanos MedicalDirector bought $659K @ $10.99 after a 51.47% one-year slide. Classic mean-reversion setup if shares can base above $11.* EONR — EON ResourcesCFO bought $35.9K @ $0.36 after an 84.69% one-year drawdown. Micro-cap with fireworks; follow-on insider prints would strengthen the signal.* UAA — Under ArmourDirector bought $493K @ $4.93 after a 24.30% one-month drop, and $520K @ $5.20 after a 25.95% one-month drop. Two bites in 72 hours suggest real conviction; bias long on a firm reclaim of $5.20.* QRHC — Quest Resource HoldingDirector bought $25.4K @ $1.70 after a 33.33% three-month decline. Small check, but paired activity on the tape matters.* EOLS — EvolusDirector bought $204K @ $6.82 after a 27.28% one-month slide. Look for a push back above the 20-day with volume.* ACDC — ProFrac Holding10% Owner bought $10.0M @ $4.00 after a 36.78% one-week drop; a second $10.0M @ $4.00 allocation printed as well. Size into stress; $4 looks like the battleground.* OMI — Owens & Minor10% Owner bought $4.39M @ $5.37 after a 26.90% one-month decline, plus $3.71M @ $5.15 as an additional allocation. Scaling into weakness; a third print would upgrade the signal.* MKZR — MacKenzie Realty CapitalGeneral Counsel/Secretary bought $96.9K @ $4.84 after a 25.10% one-month decline. Quiet cluster forming; verify liquidity before acting.Whale Buys (>$10M)Size that can set floors — even without an explicit “dip” tag.* BHC — Bausch HealthDirector bought $312.5M @ $9.00 and lifted vested holdings by 96%. A forklift, not a shopping cart.* MDGL — Madrigal PharmaceuticalsDirector bought $36.9M @ $380.58 and $25.0M @ $364.04. Back-to-back eight-figure conviction in a clinical name.* REZI — Resideo Technologies10% Owner bought $20.7M @ $31.60. Strategic holder adding to the stack.* ATAI — Atai Life Sciences10% Owner bought $19.0M @ $2.19. Big ticket in a beaten-up biotech.* TBCH — Turtle BeachDirector bought $10.0M @ $14.41, lifting stake by 622%. That’s a remodel, not a touch-up.* SHCO — Soho HouseDirector bought $26.4M @ $6.00 via purchase agreement. Large print that still tilts the order book.Officer Skin-in-the-GameExecutives opening their own wallets — historically higher signal than directors.* VVV — ValvolineCFO bought $501.5K @ $39.41, increasing holdings by 2,456%. CFOs see the cash; he backed it.* TPVG — TriplePoint Venture GrowthCEO bought $662K @ $6.30, increasing holdings by 44.9%. Management leaning in on the book.* EFOI — Energy FocusCEO bought $500K @ $1.89, increasing holdings by 13.9%. Small-cap swing with insider alignment.* LLY — Eli LillyCFO bought $494.6K @ $691.79. Rare officer buy at a megacap leader.Interesting Trade IdeasI am going to be placing a small bet on Business First Bancshares (ticker: BFST) Monday at market open. The company is not being valued properly in my eyes, and I think the value is glaringly obvious. BFST is a serial acquirer having purchased multiple companies in 2024 and is looking to complete further M&A in 2025 & 2026. Net income at the bank has been growing at a +30% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the past 10 years. I am sure the stock price has followed suit, right? WRONG — the stock has gone from its listing price of $25/share to $25.40/share. Doesn’t quite seem like a 30% CAGR to me. The company also pays a 2% dividend, has multiple market whales quietly buying, and increased their interest-bearing assets by 400K from 2023 to 2024.The downside is that the company remains volatile and doesn’t show any obvious signs of a massive price jump. The hold may be a long one, but I believe that it will reap long-term rewards. The investment play is to invest around 20% of my cash on hand into the company. Given the large run-up in price from the Fed announcement, I don’t think going all in at once is a great play. I am going to invest 5% of my cash with plans to DCA up to 20% on any given price dip. Portfolio PerformanceTracking the portfolio performance is going to look somewhat different for everyone. Not everyone will buy at the same time, not everyone will DCAs the same amount, and not everyone will be willing to hold through the downturns like others. So, performance will vary moderately between investors. The returns shown in Autopilot screenshots (aka my copytrading partner) will represent the average return of all investors who copy my portfolios. PAYING SUBSCRIBERS — you have a link to join the autopilot at a discounted rate when you use the link found in the paid section below. There will be more details in that section as well!The values in column 1 represent last week’s returns, while the values in column 2 represent the monthly return. My exact returns, as well as exact prices, and all that other great stuff can be found by paid subscribers using the paid spreadsheet. If you click on that sentence, it will take you to the new section of the spreadsheet!I would like to note that I wasn’t able to roll over the original positions from the old portfolio into the Autopilot settings. That means I had to “restart” the portfolios just last month. While the returns are missing months of data, it’s nothing I am going to be terribly upset about. Just know that the “real” current returns are much higher than what we will see on autopilot. I am not going to make any major commentary on the portfolios here today; however, in the future, I will be talking and sharing a bit more insight about the portfolios in this section. I am currently taking baby steps to make sure I like the format of everything. Portfolio Holdings & News (copytrading links)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. We are finally back on all podcasting platforms as well!If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & Options**** Paying subscribers — I will be sending you an email about the plan forward since Double Finance is closing its doors. Be on the watch for an email this week**** I missed this last week as I was sick!Next Weeks Updates I am going to be changing the format of the newsletter next week. Instead of discussing the weekly picks, we are going to be focusing more on the long-term portfolios. Of course, we are going to keep the picks for everyone looking to keep trading weekly, but it is going to be much less of the newsletter. The new format going forward will look similar to this:* FREE* Market Commentary & News* Quick Insider Trade Updates* Interesting Trade Ideas* Portfolio Performance* PAID* Portfolio Holdings & News* Flagship Fund, AI-2nd Hand Effect, Tech-Focused Growth* Portfolio Strategies, Updates & New Bets* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock PicksAs a reminder, all of this will be accessible to you via copy trading. Remember that these portfolios ARE NOT GET RICH QUICK portfolios. I am focused on long-term market outperformance. Anyone who is constantly promising +50% returns annually is lying. There is one man who is able to do that and his name is Jim Simmons. He is the most secretive man on the planet and refuses to divulge information about how he trades. Do not believe these “guaranteed +50% annual return” con artists. There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! The Saturday Sendout (commentary)Big pictureStocks ground out fresh records mid-week and finished higher overall, paced by cooler-than-feared CPI, resilient earnings, and a bid into small caps and homebuilders. A hotter PPI print pared rate-cut odds a touch and nudged long yields higher into Friday.* Weekly moves: S&P 500 +0.9%, Nasdaq +0.8%, Dow +1.7%, S&P Mid Cap 400 +1.6%, Russell 2000 +3.1%.* Rate path: CPI in line (headline +0.2% m/m; core +0.3% m/m). PPI surprised to the upside (+0.9% m/m). Markets still lean toward a 25 bp cut in September, but the PPI print trimmed confidence.* Yields: 2-yr ~3.76% (flat on week); 10-yr up to ~4.33% by Friday.* Leadership: Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary, and small caps outperformed; mega-cap tech was mixed; homebuilders rallied.Macro & policy* Inflation: Headline CPI 2.7% y/y; core 3.1% y/y. PPI broad-based gains across stages of production.* Growth pulse: Services PMI hovered near the expansion line; factory orders were soft ex-transportation slightly positive.* Fed expectations: Cut odds remained elevated for September, with debate about follow-on moves into Q4.Sector check* Winners: Healthcare (helped by UNH, LLY momentum), Consumer Discretionary (retail, homebuilders), Materials.* Laggards: Real Estate, parts of Energy, and selected Semis after mixed guides.* Breadth: Equal-weight S&P and small caps outpaced the cap-weighted index on several sessions.Day-by-dayMonday (8/11)* Tape: Early strength faded; S&P -0.3%, Nasdaq -0.3%, Dow -0.5% as traders squared up ahead of CPI.* Chips & trade: Nvidia/AMD reportedly accepted a 15% revenue remittance on China AI-chip sales in exchange for export licenses; semis wobbled.* Capital moves: Ørsted plunged on a $9.4B rights issue to fully fund Sunrise Wind. Western Union agreed to buy Intermex (~$500M).* Company flow: C3.ai cut outlook and reorganized sales; SoftBank weighed a PayPay U.S. IPO; Avantor drew activist pressure; RadNet beat; GSK won FDA priority review (Blujepa).Tuesday (8/12)* Tape: CPI-relief rally to new highs—S&P +1.1%, Nasdaq +1.3%, Dow +1.1%; small caps ripped (R2K +3.0%).* Rates: September cut odds jumped; curve twisted with 2-yr down, 10-yr up.* Corporate: Gildan neared a Hanesbrands deal; Pfizer/Astellas’ Padcev+Keytruda hit key endpoints in bladder cancer; Bakkt pivoted to crypto infrastructure; Kodak outlined pension asset reversion and U.S. pharma capacity plans.Wednesday (8/13)* Tape: More highs with rotation—S&P +0.3%, Dow +1.0%, Nasdaq +0.1%; equal-weight and small caps led.* Deals/defense: Advent to acquire Sapiens ($2.5B). Elbit won a ~$1.6B European contract. Exxon inked exploration off Trinidad & Tobago.* Other movers: Hudbay sold 30% of Copper World to Mitsubishi; TSMC to phase out 6-inch wafers over two years.Thursday (8/14)* Tape: PPI surprise cooled risk appetite; indices mixed (S&P +0.03%, Nasdaq -0.07%, Dow -0.02%); small/mid caps fell ~1.2%.* AI & infra: Cisco set FY26 revenue target $59–60B on AI orders >$2B in FY25; Foxconn guided AI-server revenue +170% y/y for Q3.* Energy/industrials: EPD managed a Houston terminal leak; Halliburton won a North Sea stimulation pact with COP.* Bankruptcy: TPI Composites entered Chapter 11 with DIP financing.Friday (8/15)* Tape: Mixed finish—S&P -0.29%, Nasdaq -0.51%, Dow +0.08%; yields drifted up; VIX stayed contained.* Earnings & guides: Applied Materials posted record Q3 but guided Q4 lower on China uncertainty; still sees FY25 growth. Oracle expanded Google Cloud tie-up to bring Gemini models to OCI. Accenture bought CyberCX to scale APAC cyber.* Standouts: UnitedHealth jumped after Berkshire disclosed a new stake. Precigen surged on FDA approval of Papzimeos for RRP. Nu Holdings delivered strong growth.* Autos/EVs: XPeng and Volkswagen accelerated joint E/E architecture milestones in China.Notable deal & capital flow* M&A / stakes: Western Union → Intermex; Advent → Sapiens; Gildan → Hanesbrands (agreement announced later in week); Centrica/ECP → Grain LNG terminal; Alcon → STAAR Surgical (earlier this week’s flow).* Programs & financing: Uber authorized $20B in buybacks; Coinbase priced $2.6B converts; Meta secured $29B project financing for a Louisiana AI campus.* Restructurings: TPI Composites Ch.11; C3.ai leadership and go-to-market changes.Single-stock highlights* Chips/AI: Nvidia/AMD China-license structure weighed on near-term sentiment; TSMC July sales +26% y/y earlier in the month; Coherent slumped on datacom share concerns.* Healthcare: UNH rallied on Berkshire stake; GSK priority review; Pfizer/Astellas oncology data positive; Precigen won FDA approval; Eli Lilly launched Mounjaro pen in India.* Energy/commodities: Exxon expanded Caribbean exploration; OXY/COP advanced capital efficiency plans; gold eased late-week despite earlier strength.* Retail/consumer: Homebuilders strong; selected e-commerce (JD.com, Vipshop) beat; Roblox fell on safety headlines.“Guru” flow (selected)* Berkshire opened UNH.* Stan Druckenmiller added TSM; Louis Bacon added CCRN; Carl Icahn added CTRI.* Multiple long-onlys rotated toward cyclicals (homebuilders, industrials) and added to semis on weakness.The read-throughThe market rewarded signs of disinflation without growth shock, and breadth improved as small caps and cyclicals caught a bid. A firmer PPI reminds that the Fed still needs comfort to cut, keeping rates-sensitive factors and high-multiple names twitchy around data drops. AI capex and semis remain the swing factor; healthcare leadership broadened the advance.What I’m watching nextHousing data, retail sales, and the next round of Fed speaker cadence for confirmation of September cut odds.Weekly Picks PerformanceOur weekly picks are made in this newsletter (behind the paywall) every week. Now, nearly all of my conventional investing wisdom says that trading stocks weekly on “news” is a terrible idea. One particular quote comes to mind: “Buy bad news, sell good news.” Yet, we are doing the opposite! We are following good news & capitalizing on it weekly. Why does this work? Well, in a “normal” market, they don’t work; however, we are in a “dumb money” market (read about dumb money here). The main idea is that a significant amount of money is being allocated to equity markets without proper investment strategies (aka people trading the news). This creates ample opportunity to capture the alpha (excess returns) by making quick buys/sells in the market. Wondering if it works? See for yourself…We have generated excess returns of 70% on these weekly picks alone.Interesting Trade IdeasEvery once in a while, something strikes me as an opportunity in the market. Maybe I see an undervalued opportunity trending down on bad news, or an industry I want to talk about quickly. That is what you see here — quick bites on top hits!TTD Stock DropWe saw TTD fall a bit further this week, down around 5%. Overall, I think the company is currently undervalued. We did see a 2%-ish jump on Friday open, which shows general positive sentiment surrounding the company. I wouldn’t make a MASSIVE bet on TTD, but any small bet is reasonable at these prices.Healthcare StocksI don’t know what else to say about this. Buffett bought, and we capitalized greatly. This marks the 4th or 5th week in a row I spent calling out healthcare stocks as market laggards. The companies were poised for a comeback, and that is exactly what we have seen happen. UNH ended up rising over 25% on Buffett buying news (alongside other investors), and it seems like the company is now backed in full faith by market whales. UNH was the 6th most purchased company in Q4 by hedge funds, and that comes as no surprise.Here is our callout we made in May: LINK.Apple StockWe called out Apple stock when it fell below $200, and the stock just hit $230 this week. Nothing else to say here other than I made this exact comment: “Timmy Cook has already kissed the ring… and I guarantee Trump will reneg on his threat to Apple in due time. If you are an Apple (AAPL) bull, I highly recommend picking up your DCA values for the next 72-96 hours…”Same article as above, found here: LINKThe IPO World BLSH… what a score this was. Shares hit the market pre-IPO at $37 (where I was able to pick up some shares). Then, on the open market, shares started trading around 2 PM EST at about $91 (where I picked up more shares). I sold out of everything at $114 and took a 25% gain on the open market shares. The pre-IPO shares returned 208%.Not a bad return for a $200 annual subscription! You can read about this IPO callout here: LINK TO IPO ARTICLE.Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming. We utilize a dumbbell or barbell portfolio approach with one side offering a long-term “safe/slow” growth (cash, bonds, The Flagship Fund). The other side chases high growth potential (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks, Tech-Growth portfolios).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up over 43% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 70% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +47% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the latter parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 47% YTD and 70% over the past 57 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. We are finally back on all podcasting platforms as well!If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & Options**** Paying subscribers — I will be sending you an email about the plan forward since Double Finance is closing its doors. Be on the watch for an email this week**** I missed this last week as I was sick!Changes coming to the newsletter/podcastAlright everyone, I am looking at changing up the format again of this weekly newsletter/ podcast. I want to focus more on the holdings in my portoflios instead of the weekly picks. We will likely keep the weekly picks, but will make them a much part of the newsletter. As I begin to release copy trading, I want to keep everyone informed on the portoflios they are investing in! There will be updates made to the paid subscriber spreadsheet as well, but I will likely update everyone on those when they are completed! The Saturday Sendout (commentary)The market snapped back. After last week’s wobble, buyers showed up early and never really left: the S&P 500 rose 2.4% (just shy of a record), the Nasdaq jumped 3.9% to a new high, and the Dow gained 1.4%. Volatility cooled from a Monday spike back toward the mid-teens even as Treasury yields drifted a bit higher into Friday.What moved the marketMega-cap tech re-took the wheel.NVIDIA notched fresh highs, Apple rallied 8% on a U.S. manufacturing push, and the broader Info Tech group led the tape (+4.3% for the week). A steady drumbeat of AI and chip headlines helped: TSMC’s July sales rose 26% year over year; Samsung won incremental U.S. chip sourcing; and several hyperscale and data-center buildout stories kept sentiment firm.Deals, buybacks, and balance-sheet moves.Flow of corporate actions supported risk appetite. Boeing cleared a key hurdle to acquire Spirit AeroSystems; Amphenol advanced on a $10.5B move for CommScope’s broadband unit; Alcon agreed to buy STAAR Surgical; Uber authorized a $20B repurchase; Coinbase upsized a $2.6B convertible; and Meta lined up $29B in project financing for a Louisiana data-center campus.Defense and industrial spending stayed hot.Palantir’s 10-year Army award and RTX’s 20-year DLA umbrella contract underscored durable U.S. defense outlays. BWX Technologies ripped to records on nuclear program momentum.Tariffs, exemptions, and supply-chain rewiring.Chip tariff chatter stayed loud, but exemptions for key Asia suppliers and continued U.S. fab investment tempered worst-case fears. Auto and EV headlines were mixed: Tesla secured a Texas robotaxi license but wound down its Dojo team and faced a new class action tied to autonomy claims.Macro and rates• Services cool, goods mixed. ISM Services slipped to 50.1, factory orders fell 4.8% m/m (ex-transportation +0.4%), and the trade deficit widened to $60.2B.• Yields up modestly, curve still shallow. The 2-year rose 6 bps to ~3.76%; the 10-year added 7 bps to ~4.29% by week’s end.• Commodities diverged. Crude eased into the mid-$60s; gold held above $3,450. Bitcoin hovered near $117K.Sectors and breadthLeadership was clear: Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary outperformed, with Communication Services close behind. Laggards were Real Estate, Energy, and Health Care. Breadth improved—small caps and equal-weight indexes outpaced the cap-weighted S&P on several sessions—even if mega-caps drove most index points.Notable company highlights• Boeing cleared UK antitrust on Spirit AeroSystems; Amphenol advanced on a major connectivity acquisition; Alcon moved to buy STAAR Surgical.• Uber unveiled a $20B buyback; Coinbase priced $2.6B of converts; PG&E rallied after saying it won’t issue equity for a large capex plan.• Occidental and ConocoPhillips sharpened capital frameworks with debt paydowns, asset sales, and cost cuts.• Gilead raised sales/EPS outlook on HIV momentum; Sunrun surprised to profit as storage attach rates hit records.Weekly Picks PerformanceOur weekly picks are made in this newsletter (behind the paywall) every week. Now, nearly all of my conventional investing wisdom says that trading stocks weekly on “news” is a terrible idea. One particular quote comes to mind: “Buy bad news, sell good news.” Yet, we are doing the opposite! We are following good news & capitalizing on it weekly. Why does this work? Well, in a “normal” market, they don’t work; however, we are in a “dumb money” market (read about dumb money here). The main idea is that a significant amount of money is being allocated to equity markets without proper investment strategies (aka people trading the news). This creates ample opportunity to capture the alpha (excess returns) by making quick buys/sells in the market. Wondering if it works? See for yourself…We have generated excess returns of 70% on these weekly picks alone.Interesting Trade IdeasEvery once in a while, something strikes me as an opportunity in the market. Maybe I see an undervalued opportunity trending down on bad news, or an industry I want to talk about quickly. That is what you see here — quick bites on top hits!TTD Stock DropTTD (Trade Desk) stock dropped 40% this week on tariff concerns and pressure from Amazon. The stock is now up only 16% from 5 years ago. Since 5 years ago, TTD has grown revenue 192% and their FCF has grown 2x. In my eyes, a company that grows 2x and only gains 16% in share price is undervalued and represents a great opportunity.Healthcare StocksThe current headwinds for healthcare are “near-term” in nature, and investments in these companies now will make strong gains in the next 3-5 years. “What gives you opportunities is other people doing dumb things.”The IPO World Still welcoming to IPO flipping! I am writing an article discussing how to do this soon!Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming. We utilize a dumbbell or barbell portfolio approach with one side offering a long-term “safe/slow” growth (cash, bonds, The Flagship Fund). The other side chases high growth potential (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks, Tech-Growth portfolios).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up over 43% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 80% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +47% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the latter parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 47% YTD and 70% over the past 55 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. We are finally back on all podcasting platforms as well!If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & Options**** Paying subscribers — I will be sending you an email about the plan forward since Double Finance is closing its doors. Be on the watch for an email this week****The Saturday Sendout (commentary)The busiest earnings stretch of the summer was supposed to cement the “AI-lifts-all-boats” narrative. Instead, five trading sessions delivered a sharp reality check. A one-day spike in Microsoft and Meta could not prevent the S&P 500 from sliding 2.4 percent for the week and the Nasdaq from giving back 2.2 percent. By Friday’s close every major U.S. index had logged its worst weekly loss since April, Treasury yields were falling on talk of an early-September rate cut, and the VIX was printing a 20-handle for the first time in six weeks.What moved the market1. Earnings euphoria met guidance gravity.Microsoft’s blow-out Azure quarter and Meta’s record ad revenue sparked a mid-week melt-up, but the optimism faded as Qualcomm, Amazon, Apple, UnitedHealth and Novo Nordisk all trimmed outlooks. Traders were reminded that AI spending can raise the revenue ceiling while crushing near-term margins and balance-sheet flexibility.2. Mega-deals multiplied—but so did antitrust questions.Union Pacific’s agreed takeover of Norfolk Southern would create the first true coast-to-coast American railroad, and Baker Hughes’ bid for Chart Industries redraws the LNG equipment map. Palo Alto’s $25 billion purchase of CyberArk and Palantir’s decade-long $10 billion Army contract pushed the week’s announced deal value above $150 billion. Investors cheered the synergies; regulators have already signaled that rail, security-software and defense consolidation will not sail through unchallenged.3. Global supply chains keep decoupling.Samsung landed a $16.5 billion long-term chip contract, Huawei unveiled an AI server that claims to beat Nvidia’s newest rack, and Tesla lined up $4.3 billion in Korean-made LFP batteries to cut Chinese exposure. At the same time Washington broadened tariff coverage to Canada, India and Taiwan, and the EU agreed to commit $600 billion of fresh investment to the U.S. as part of its 15 percent tariff settlement. Boards are budgeting for permanently higher operating friction.4. Macro mood swung from “resilient” to “fragile” in 48 hours.Consumer confidence hit a three-month high on Tuesday, but Friday’s payroll report showed only 73 000 new jobs and a rising unemployment rate. Rate-cut odds for the September FOMC meeting jumped above 80 percent, flattening the 2-to-10-year spread to its narrowest level since March. Utilities and other defensives were the lone gainers on the week.Sector rundownTechnology finished lower even after Microsoft (+9 percent week-to-date) and Meta (+11 percent) set fresh market-cap records. Weak semiconductor guidance lopped 3 percent off the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.Communication services held flat thanks to Meta, but consumer discretionary dropped alongside Tesla and Amazon as margin pressure became the new buzzword.Industrials fell nearly 3 percent. Rail-equipment suppliers rallied on the Union Pacific-NSC news, but airlines and parcel carriers sagged after United Parcel Service’s cost-heavy quarter.Health care lost almost 3 percent. GSK’s licensing spree and AbbVie’s rumored $1 billion Gilgamesh buy couldn’t offset Novo Nordisk’s guidance cut and new U.S. drug-pricing rhetoric.Energy gave back early gains despite $69-plus crude as long-dated oil demand assumptions were revised lower in several conference calls.Fixed income and currencies• The 10-year Treasury yield fell nineteen basis points to 4.22 percent.• The 2-year dropped to 3.70 percent, taking the implied September cut probability to 86 percent.• The dollar slipped modestly; gold rallied above $3 400 an ounce on safe-haven bids.Looking ahead* July CPI and PPI (next week): any cooling in core services inflation would hard-wire expectations for a September rate cut.* Congressional hearings on rail consolidation: House Transportation and Senate Commerce committees have already scheduled informational sessions.* OPEC+ ministerial: with Brent still below $70, producers face pressure to defend price without ceding market share to U.S. shale.* Apple and Amazon follow-through trades: both firms guided cautiously despite record quarters—options positioning now implies heightened downside risk into Labor Day if unit data soften.Weekly Picks PerformanceOur weekly picks are made in this newsletter (behind the paywall) every week. Now, nearly all of my conventional investing wisdom says that trading stocks weekly on “news” is a terrible idea. One particular quote comes to mind: “Buy bad news, sell good news.” Yet, we are doing the opposite! We are following good news & capitalizing on it weekly. Why does this work? Well, in a “normal” market, they don’t work; however, we are in a “dumb money” market (read about dumb money here). The main idea is that a significant amount of money is being allocated to equity markets without proper investment strategies (aka people trading the news). This creates ample opportunity to capture the alpha (excess returns) by making quick buys/sells in the market. Wondering if it works? See for yourself…We have generated excess returns of 50% on these weekly picks alone.Interesting Trade IdeasEvery once in a while, something strikes me as an opportunity in the market. Maybe I see an undervalued opportunity trending down on bad news, or an industry I want to talk about quickly. That is what you see here!I have been discussing three main ideas over the past few weeks. UNH, AAPL, and IPOs.Healthcare StocksStocks like UNH and ELV are trading so cheap right now that it almost doesn’t make sense not to own the companies. ELV is trading at a forward PE of 7.98, and UNH at a forward PE of 10.65. The current headwinds are “near-term” in nature, and investments in these companies now will make strong gains in the next 3-5 years.The IPO World Last week, I said FIG was a HUGE BUY following the dumb money thesis, and boy did we see some gains from that. If you picked up shares at the $33 IPO price then you made out with a 200% gain last week. If you got shares on the drop at $85, then you came away with 50-70% returns if you sold. Congrats, I will keep everyone informed of incoming IPOs!Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming. We utilize a dumbbell or barbell portfolio approach with one side offering a long-term “safe/slow” growth (cash, bonds, The Flagship Fund). The other side chases high growth potential (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks, Tech-Growth portfolios).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up over 41% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 70% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +41% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the latter parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 46% YTD and 60% over the past 53 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. We are finally back on all podcasting platforms as well!If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & Options**** Paying subscribers — I will be sending you an email about the plan forward since Double Finance is closing its doors ****The Saturday Sendout (commentary)Weekly Market CommentaryThe last full week of July delivered new closing highs for the S&P 500 and fresh intraday peaks for the Nasdaq, but the real story was what sat beneath the index-level calm: an epic tug-of-war between exuberant AI spending, profit warnings in health care, and a surge of big-ticket deal-making that could redraw several industry maps.Big pictureEquities ground higher—Monday’s trade-deal optimism with the EU and Japan set the tone—and never broke, even as Treasury yields inched back toward 4.4 percent. The VIX slipped under 15 on Friday, suggesting traders have once again written off summer volatility. Breadth, however, stayed thin: more than half of S&P 500 members finished the week in the red, and chipmakers that carried the spring rally paused for breath. Oil drifted toward $65 despite OPEC+ export cuts, helping the inflation narrative but pinching energy shares.Three themes that mattered1. The AI infrastructure arms race just went global.Google’s $1.2 billion, five-year cloud win at ServiceNow clarifies how aggressively hyperscalers will buy share; ServiceNow is obligated to spend almost $5 billion on cloud services through 2030. T-Mobile, Verizon and Crown Castle, meanwhile, all cited President Trump’s expedited permitting order for data-center build-outs as a direct earnings tail-wind. Intel tried to keep pace by unveiling an $18 billion cap-ex plan and a pivot to contract manufacturing. The consequence is two-fold: back-end providers—from Digital Realty to Baker Hughes’ turbine unit—have visibility they haven’t enjoyed since shale’s heyday, but every CFO now faces a capital allocation dilemma as AI costs collide with shareholder-return promises.2. Reshoring and the tariff carousel.Apple’s $500 million pre-payment to MP Materials for U.S-made rare-earth magnets and BHP’s battery alliance with CATL and BYD tell the same story: supply-chain security is now a balance-sheet line item. Intel is consolidating fabs in Vietnam and Malaysia while freezing European projects until it sees what Brussels does with proposed chip subsidies. Meanwhile, the White House floated 15 percent reciprocal tariffs on the EU and Japan—temporarily soothed by talk of agriculture and auto quotas—but the message is clear: corporate planners should assume the 1990s trade framework is gone for good.3. August could be merger month.The FCC signed off on Skydance-Paramount, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern began feeling out a trans-continental rail tie-up, and Union Pacific’s upgrade from Jefferies signals that investors believe regulators might bless at least one mega-rail combination to counterbalance Canadian Pacific–Kansas City. In health care, iTeos, ZimVie and Vicebio all accepted cash bids rather than soldier on alone, while Newmont doubled its repurchase authorization instead of buying another mine—evidence that boards are leaning either to consolidate quickly or buy back shares rather than gamble on elevated asset prices.Sector scoreboard and consequencesTechnology added just under one percent, cushioned by Google and ServiceNow but held back by chip profit-taking and by Samsung’s warning that AI-server demand is not yet big enough to absorb lost handset volume. If memory pricing does not improve by autumn, the semi rally could lose a second leg of support.Communications services led the market thanks to T-Mobile’s blow-out subscriber guide and Alphabet’s cap-ex pledge. Longer term, pairing high wireless cash flow with low-latency data-center traffic puts the telcos back in the secular-growth conversation; the risk is that satellite ventures like T-Satellite balloon cap-ex just as rate cuts get postponed.Health care endured a tale of two tapes. Abivax exploded higher on Phase 3 success, while Centene logged its first miss in four years and Sarepta agreed to pause gene-therapy shipments after three deaths. Investors snapped up contract researchers Medpace and IQVIA, betting that Big Pharma will outsource trials aggressively rather than cut R&D. The larger implication: dispersion inside the sector is widening, and stock pickers finally have something to do.Industrials rode GE Vernova’s and Baker Hughes’ data-center orders, plus speculation that CSX or Kansas City Southern could end up the next rail target. If Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern proceeds, expect the Surface Transportation Board to demand divestitures—short-line operators could be the hidden winners.Macro and the FedNew-home sales ticked up, services PMIs accelerated, and initial jobless claims fell to 217 k—none of it weak enough to revive September rate-cut bets. Core inflation is easing, but a sub-15 VIX and record equity prices leave the FOMC little political cover for early easing. For now, the bond market appears willing to finance the AI-data-center boom at just under 4.5 percent on the 10-year; should that rate back up meaningfully, the equity rally’s narrow leadership becomes a bigger liability.What to watch next week* Mega-cap earnings: Apple, Amazon and Meta must justify $300 billion of fresh AI cap-ex in the pipeline.* July payrolls, due Friday: consensus sits at 185 k. A hotter print will push December cut odds below 50 percent.* Capitol Hill: the Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on large-language-model copyright—watch for clues on potential AI liability rules.* DOJ’s 30-day window to appeal the FCC’s Paramount decision expires; any intervention would rattle the bubbling M&A trade.Bottom line: Momentum, liquidity and an AI narrative continue to overpower valuation fatigue and policy risk, but leadership keeps getting thinner. Until breadth improves or bond yields break out, expect rallies to remain self-reinforcing—and vulnerable to single-headline reversals.Weekly Picks PerformanceOur weekly picks are made in this newsletter (behind the paywall) every week. Now, nearly all of my conventional investing wisdom says that trading stocks weekly on “news” is a terrible idea. One particular quote comes to mind: “Buy bad news, sell good news.” Yet, we are doing the opposite! We are following good news & capitalizing on it weekly. Why does this work? Well, in a “normal” market, they don’t work; however, we are in a “dumb money” market (read about dumb money here). The main idea is that a significant amount of money is being allocated to equity markets without proper investment strategies (aka people trading the news). This creates ample opportunity to capture the alpha (excess returns) by making quick buys/sells in the market. Wondering if it works? See for yourself…We have generated excess returns of 50% on these weekly picks alone.Sadly, we haven’t started our 53rd week off with a bang, but I am still confident in the returns we can generate from the “dumb money” in the current markets.Interesting Trade IdeasEvery once in a while, something strikes me as an opportunity in the market. Maybe I see an undervalued opportunity trending down on bad news, or an industry I want to talk about quickly. That is what you see here!I have been discussing three main ideas over the past few weeks. UNH, AAPL, and IPOs.United HealthWe are watching UNH closely as earnings approach; we expect poor results on the day of reporting and a 5-15% drop in price. However, if things go well, upside looks like it will be a minimum of +10% gain within the day. AppleApple has been crushing it since we last mentioned the stock was a buy at sub $200 levels. With earnings coming up after market close on the 31st, we could be looking at a rough or incredible August.The IPO World Major alert in the IPO world here: Figma (FIG) is set to IPO at $24 - $28 with a max price of $33.60 a share. This makes the company worth around $16 billion — a stark drop from the $20 billion buy offer Adobe made last year.Based on Adobe’s buy offer, Figma has at least 25% upside in the short term. Based on Adobe’s market cap (as Figma is a competitor), there is 10x potential for the stock in the long run. Figma will make a great IPO flip, but I am likely going to hold a majority of the stock for the long run.Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming. We utilize a dumbbell or barbell portfolio approach with one side offering a long-term “safe/slow” growth (cash, bonds, The Flagship Fund). The other side chases high growth potential (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks, Tech-Growth portfolios).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up over 43% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 80% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +46% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the later parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 46% YTD and 80% over the past 53 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comI have a new format for you this week! We are — right out of the gate — going to discuss some of the most interesting moves made by market whales, corporate insiders, and the wonderful folks up on the hill (politicians).As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know what you thought of the newsletter today using the link below:Quick Politician HitsThe five most recent politician trades indicate a bullish market trajectory, particularly with Apple and Amazon, which experienced significant buying from Democrat Cleo Fields of Louisiana. While Foxx and Fields were the only two buyers on the most recent trades list, they were among 10 total politicians who made trades in the market over the past month. Those 10 traders executed 65 trades, with a total volume of $6.91 million. What stocks were they trading? AAPL — 9 trades — 1 politicians — +6.44% returns over the past monthNVDA — 8 trades — 1 politicians — +13.82% returns over the past monthAMZN — 7 trades — 1 politicians — +7.46% returns over the past monthGOOGL — 2 trades — 1 politicians — +6.73% returns over the past monthJPM — 2 trades — 2 politicians — +13.00% returns over the past monthSNOW — 2 trades — 1 politicians — +5.42% returns over the past monthBullish or Bearish?The 5-year average Politician Buy/Sell ratio is 1.03 and the current ratio is 2.19. This indicates BULLISH SENTIMENT from politicians!Quick Guru UpdatesWe don’t have any of the filings from Guru’s 13F filings for Q2 of 2025, and until we do, it is hard to know what moves are being made by these folks. What we are going to take a peek at instead are the general trends we are seeing across all market sectors. Top Bought SectorsTop Sold SectorsTop Owned SectorsTop Options TradedThe Insider Intelligence ReportWelcome to your weekly dose of insider intelligence, where we decode the moves of those who know their companies best. This week's data reveals a fascinating tale of two markets: mega-cap executives cashing out at record highs while biotech insiders are doubling down on their beaten-down stocks. Let's dive into the smart money's playbook.Key ThemesThe patterns that matter mostThe Great Tech Cash-Out Continues: Silicon Valley's finest are still hitting the sell button with religious fervor. From Jeff Bezos unloading $737M in Amazon to NVIDIA insiders selling into the AI euphoria, tech executives are treating their stock options like winning lottery tickets.Biotech Bottom-Fishing: While tech insiders sell, biotech executives are buying with both hands. Cidara Therapeutics saw a massive $100M insider purchase, while Kymera Therapeutics insiders added $43M worth of shares. These aren't small bets – they're conviction plays.The Walmart Waltons Keep Selling: The retail royalty continues their methodical wealth diversification, with another $37M sale this week. Their track record? Not great for short-term holders, but their selling pattern suggests they're managing wealth, not fleeing a sinking ship.Top 3 Insider Buys: The Conviction PlaysWhen insiders put serious money where their mouth is1. Cidara Therapeutics (CDTX) - $100M Director PurchaseThe Play: A director just dropped $100 million on 2.27 million shares at $44.00, increasing their holdings by 208%. This isn't pocket change – it's a statement.Why It Matters: When someone risks nine figures on a biotech stock, they either know something we don't or they're supremely confident in the pipeline. CDTX is up 2% since the purchase, suggesting the market likes what it sees.The Risk: Biotech is binary – drugs either work or they don't. But $100M suggests this insider has seen compelling data.2. Kymera Therapeutics (KYMR) - $43M Combined Director PurchasesThe Play: Two directors combined for $43M in purchases, with one buying 1.31M shares and another adding 317K shares, both at $44.00.Why It Matters: Multiple insiders buying simultaneously is rare and powerful. It suggests board-level confidence in upcoming catalysts or undervaluation.The Upside: KYMR is trading near recent lows, making this a classic "buy the dip" scenario with insider validation.3. PVH Corp (PVH) - $1M CEO PurchaseThe Play: The CEO bought $1M worth of shares at $63.92, increasing holdings by 6.2%. While smaller than our biotech plays, CEO purchases carry special weight.Why It Matters: CEOs rarely buy their own stock unless they're confident about the business trajectory. PVH has been beaten down, making this a potential turnaround play.The Context: Retail has been tough, but insider buying often precedes sector rotations.Top 3 Insider Sells: The Profit-Taking ParadeWhen insiders cash in their chips1. Amazon (AMZN) - $737M Bezos SaleThe Sale: Jeff Bezos sold 3.32M shares for $737M, his 17th largest sale out of 62 total transactions.The Reality Check: This is wealth management, not panic selling. Bezos has been methodically diversifying for years through his 10b5-1 plan.The Takeaway: Don't read too much into this. When you're worth $170B, selling $737M is like us selling a few hundred dollars of stock.2. Oracle (ORCL) - $267M CEO SaleThe Sale: CEO sold 1.26M shares for $267M, reducing holdings by 53% – now that's significant.The Warning: Unlike Bezos's diversification, this CEO just cut his stake in half. Oracle stock was up 32% in the month before the sale, suggesting profit-taking at perceived highs.The Signal: When a CEO cuts their holdings by half, pay attention. This could signal limited upside ahead.3. BridgeBio Pharma (BBIO) - $154M Insider SaleThe Sale: A 10% owner sold 3.5M shares for $154M, reducing their stake by 15.9%.The Timing: Stock was up 25% in the month before the sale – classic "selling the rip" behavior.The Implication: Even in biotech's hot streak, some insiders are taking profits. This suggests the easy money might be made.Important Buys: The Sleeper PicksSmaller bets that could pay bigDick's Sporting Goods (DKS) - Director's $501K PurchaseA director bought 2,637 shares at $190.01, increasing holdings by 77%. Retail insiders buying is noteworthy given sector headwinds. This could signal confidence in holiday season performance or market share gains.LTC Properties (LTC) - EVP's $346K PurchaseAn EVP bought 10,000 shares at $34.63, increasing holdings by 178%. REITs don't usually see insider buying unless management sees significant undervaluation or improving fundamentals.Terns Pharmaceuticals (TERN) - CFO's $39K PurchaseThe CFO bought 10,000 shares at $3.93, increasing holdings by 67%. Small dollar amount but significant percentage increase suggests confidence in pipeline developments.Important Sells: The Warning SignalsRed flags worth watchingServiceTitan (TTAN) - Multiple Insider Sales Totaling $47MDespite being a recent IPO, insiders are already selling. Multiple executives sold shares around $105-108, including the CEO, President, and CFO. New public companies with immediate insider selling often struggle.Walmart (WMT) - Continued Walton Family SalesThe Walton family continues their methodical selling with another $37M transaction. Their historical win rate is poor (20-57% depending on timeframe), suggesting these sales often precede weakness.NVIDIA (NVDA) - Persistent Executive SellingDespite AI euphoria, NVIDIA insiders continue selling. The President sold $35M worth, while directors and EVPs also reduced positions. When insiders sell into strength consistently, it suggests limited upside.The Insider Intelligence PortfolioTurning insider knowledge into actionable strategies1-Week Portfolio (High Risk/High Reward)Riding the momentum wavesLong Positions (60%):* CDTX (20%): Massive insider buying could trigger momentum* KYMR (20%): Multiple director purchases suggest near-term catalyst* BTBT (10%): Up 12% today, insider buying at $2.00 looks prescient* SEZL (10%): Up 6% today with insider selling – contrarian momentum playShort Positions (40%):* TTAN (20%): Fresh IPO with immediate insider selling is bearish* HOOD (20%): Multiple insiders selling, stock down 4% alreadyStrategy: Capitalize on immediate market reactions to insider activity. High volatility expected.1-Month Portfolio (Medium Risk)Balancing conviction with cautionCore Long Positions (50%):

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & Options**** Paying subscribers — I will be sending you an email about the plan forward since Double Finance is closing its doors ****The Saturday Sendout (commentary)I realized that my weekly commentary should make you the most knowledgeable person in the room about everything happening in the markets. I can do that by either diving into one issue or going a mile wide and an inch deep. Today, we are going to be testing the mile-wide and inch-deep update! Please let me know what you think by using the button below!Now, into the weekly news…The first few days of Q3 brought a little turbulence, a few record highs, and a whole lot of EV headlines. Small and mid-caps stole the spotlight, while mega-caps took a breather. Tech slipped, materials surged, and Tesla… did both.Market Overview:* The S&P 500 kissed a new record midweek but ended just as high: small-cap and value stocks led, tech cooled off.* Nvidia and Alphabet lost altitude, but Apple and Tesla came in clutch — Tesla with a surprise China delivery rebound, and Apple with a Jefferies upgrade.* Bond yields ticked higher, gold sparkled, and oil bounced above $66. Bitcoin? Still over $100K but under pressure.Sectors:* Winners: Energy (+1.7%), Materials (+1.3%), Info Tech (+1.3%) early on* Losers: Health Care (-1.0%, thanks Centene), Comms (-1.2%), and Tech (-1.1%) on day one* Small and mid-cap indexes outperformed their heavyweight siblings.EV Rollercoaster:* Tesla: June China sales rose for the first time in 8 months, but Denmark deliveries collapsed 62%. Shares whipsawed — down 5.8% Tuesday, up 4.97% Wednesday. Elon reportedly took over sales ops himself. Subtle.* XPENG: +224% YoY in June deliveries. Indonesia expansion. Global flex.* Zeekr: +113.9% YoY deliveries but slipped MoM.* Li Auto: -24% YoY. Forecast trimmed due to a system upgrade.* NIO: +17.5% YoY June; Q2 up 25.6%. Quietly steady.Deal-Making & Drama:* Renault took an €11.2B accounting hit over its Nissan stake. Non-cash, but headline-grabbing.* Standard Chartered hit with a $2.7B lawsuit in Singapore over the 1MDB scandal.* KKR went shopping: £4.1B for Spectris, Stockholm housing deal with Reliwe.* PKG bought Greif’s containerboard biz for $1.8B — boring name, big box gains.* Zscaler raised $1.5B in convertibles. No interest. Literally.* Bombardier inked a $1.7B jet deal with 70-plane options. Sky’s the limit.* Baidu, Boeing, and BASF reshuffled their execs. Musical chairs, corporate edition.Headlines You Might’ve Missed:* Alibaba launched a $7B subsidy war to fight PDD & JD in instant commerce.* Lockheed Martin scored nearly $3B for Aegis missile defense upgrades.* Verint jumped 16% on Thoma Bravo buyout talks.* Intel may ditch its 18A chip — 14A is the new hotness.* Foxconn pulled staff from Indian iPhone plants. Apple’s offshoring strategy might hit a snag.* Google owes $314M in a data misuse case. Appeal pending.* U.S. Bancorp bumped its dividend and kept the $5B buyback machine running.* Figma filed for IPO under ticker FIG. Coming soon to a terminal near you.Last but not least:* Merck and Regeneron scored key FDA wins for Winrevair and Lynozyfic, respectively.* CAVA Group got the KeyBanc “Chipotle 2.0” nod — shares popped.* Coinbase acquired LiquiFi to boost its crypto infrastructure game.Weekly Picks PerformanceFor weeks, maybe months now, I have been saying that short-term trading outperforms when there is instability and volatility in the markets. This is directly in line with what I mentioned before: people are overbuying good news and overselling bad news.This is why our weekly trades portfolio has been performing so well. If you look at our returns, you’ll notice that our weekly picks portfolio size has begun to separate itself from the SPY over the past few weeks.Interesting Trade IdeasWe have been following two stocks closely: UNH & AAPL. We have also been a proponent of “IPO-flipping”UNH has been experiencing heavy buying from insiders, institutional buyers, and politicians while the stock is down 39% YTD on reports of fraud. UNH stock was basically even this week, though it did run up to $328 before returning to $308.AAPL was the recipient of personalized Trump tariff attacks and is one of the few stocks that is still down drastically from the beginning of the year: -16.37% YTD. AAPL was up around 6% this past week.This week, major news came out that affected both UNH and AAPL stock — just in very different ways. Let’s start with the bad and end with the good. Why did UNH run up to $320 just to get crushed and drop to $308 before the end of the week? Well, we can thank Centene and Medicaid cuts. The quick and dirty explanation of what happened is that Centene spent more money and made less. They insured patients for cheaper premiums and those patients ended up being more sick than they expected. This, in addition to Medicaid cuts, means that Centene (CNC) is going to take massive losses (at least in the short-term). For this reason, they had to pull their annual guidance which resulted in a 40% drop in their stock price. By the way… Medicaid programs account for over 57% of CNC’s revenue. The drop in their stock price is absolutely warranted as Medicaid cuts will directly affect their bottom line. This news negatively affected most other players in the space, like UNH and OSCR. UNH only derives 15% of its revenue from Medicaid, so the stock’s drop isn’t exactly warranted in this situation.The good news, comes from AAPL’s side of things. Apple had a couple of things happen this week that have been driving it’s gains. * iPhone sales grew in China by around 8%* News that the AI-powered Siri is likely going to get assistance from an acquisition or strategic partnership* Stock upgrades from analysts at major firmsIPO news continues to show there is money to be made in quick IPO flips:* EMPG* Offer date: 7/2* Returns: 8.75%* GRAN* Offer date: 7/1* Returns: 4.91%* JCAP* Offer date: 6/26* Returns: 23.56%I am going to continue to watch UNH, AAPL, and IPOs for opportunities. I am also looking at taking major positions in the health insurance space.Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming (given that you are following the DCA approach that I recommend). We utilize a dumbbell portfolio approach. With one side offering a long-term “safe” portfolio (our Flagship Fund & TSS 50), and the other going for growth (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up to 38.47% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 66% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +44% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the later parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 44% YTD and 68% over the past 50 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comTo Simple Side Shareholders — good morning! I am glad to have you join me for another Saturday Sendout. If you are new here or unfamiliar with our content, you can see the layout of everything below!* SATURDAY [free]* Market Commentary* Weekly Picks Performance* An Interesting Trade Idea *NEW** Total Portfolio Performance* SATURDAY [paid]* Our Weekly Picks* Mergers & Acquisitions Picks* Top Stock Picks* Micro Cap Stock Picks* Earnings & OptionsThe Saturday Sendout (commentary)I realized that my weekly commentary should make you the most knowledgeable person in the room about everything happening in the markets. I can do that by either diving into one issue or going a mile wide and an inch deep. Today, we are going to be testing the mile-wide and inch-deep update! Please let me know what you think by using the button below!Now, into the weekly news…Markets spent the week playing hopscotch with record highs. The S&P 500 flirted with a new peak, buoyed by mega-cap muscle (thanks, NVDA & GOOG) and an AI-fueled rally, but profit-takers kept things grounded. Semiconductors popped, small caps flopped, and bond yields dipped as rate-cut hope flickered.Big Picture:* The S&P 500 hit a new record high early in the week, driven by a Nike-fueled rally and U.S.-China trade optimism. But by week’s end, it cooled — still just 0.9% off its all-time high.* Fed Chair Powell didn’t rock the boat during Senate testimony. Yields slid (2Y at 3.72%, 10Y at 4.25%) as durable goods surprised to the upside and home sales… didn’t.* Market breadth struggled: the Nasdaq 100 soared thanks to Big Tech, while small caps (Russell 2000) and midcaps dragged.* Europe wobbled; Asia was mixed. Oil was volatile, gold shimmered slightly, and copper did copper things (i.e., not much).Sector & Stock Standouts:* Communication services led with a 1.8% lift, and semis stayed hot — the Philly Semi Index is now up 28.6% for the quarter.* NVIDIA (+4.33%), Alphabet (+2.24%), Apple (+0.63%), and Microsoft (+0.44%) kept the index afloat. These four now account for more GDP than some continents.* Micron (MU) surged after an AI-powered beat, Microsoft got a price target bump thanks to its $13B AI biz, and Tesla staged a robotaxi rally despite a European sales slide.* On the flop side: FedEx (-3.27%) delivered disappointment, and Tesla's EU sales were down 40% YoY. Ouch.Earnings & Headlines:* Nike ran up 15% on solid earnings and a new supply chain game plan.* Unilever splashed $1.5B on Dr. Squatch to soap up Gen Z.* RTL bought Sky Deutschland from Comcast for €150M — streaming wars go continental.* Concentrix doubled down on AI and beat expectations.* Carnival raised yield guidance; FedEx outlined $1B in cost cuts; Walgreens posted a beat while navigating an acquisition.M&A Mayhem:* SpartanNash sold for a 52.5% premium.* Shift4 expanded Down Under with Smartpay.* Rubrik scooped up Predibase to level up its AI game.* Vision Marine acquired a Florida boat dealer; Hive Digital grabbed a Toronto data center for AI horsepower.The Strugglers:* BYD delayed expansion. Altimmune cratered 64% on trial results. Wolfspeed and Meyer Burger flirted with bankruptcy.* Tesla’s Europe lead was sacked. Boeing faced crash probe headlines. Ambarella is exploring a sale.Odds & Ends:* Palantir inked a $100M deal to help build nuclear reactors.* Pfizer made hemophilia news, while Eli Lilly launched its obesity drug in India.* General Motors recalled 62,000 trucks for brake issues.* Xiaomi launched a cheaper EV than Tesla and got 200K orders in minutes.Weekly Picks PerformanceFor weeks, maybe months now, I have been saying that short-term trading outperforms when there is instability and volatility in the markets. This is directly in line with what I mentioned before: people are overbuying good news and overselling bad news.This is why our weekly trades portfolio has been performing so well. If you look at our returns, you’ll notice that our weekly picks portfolio size has begun to separate itself from the SPY over the past few weeks.Keeping Up With Our Interesting Trade IdeasWe have been following two stocks closely: UNH & AAPL. We have also been a proponent of “IPO-flipping”UNH has been experiencing heavy buying from insiders, institutional buyers, and politicians while the stock is down 39% YTD on reports of fraud. UNH stock rose by around 2.5% last week. AAPL was the recipient of personalized Trump tariff attacks and is one of the few stocks that is still down drastically from the beginning of the year: -16.37% YTD. AAPL was up over 2.6% last week (including pre-market trading).This week both UNH and AAPL followed general market trends this week rising with the rest of the market. UNH in particular had some great news helping with that gain. The recent healthcare spending cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” haven’t been “popular” with the Senate. This had most healthcare companies and care operators rising on the news. UNH also recently announced a new CEO within their OPTUM health system: DR. Patrick Conway. Dr. Conway is previously led Optum Rx and formerly headed Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. He also once led the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS. We likely won’t see any tangible results in the next earnings call with UNH, but over the next 3-4 quarters, we will likely start to see whether or not Conway is the man for the job.Apple, of course, saw a bump this week, partly from the news that broke about their potential purchase of Perplexity AI. The thing that kept AAPL from continuing its run? The EU-mandated app store changes. Essentially, the EU is requiring Apple to provide developers with more flexibility in payment handling and app promotion. To avoid any fines from the EU, Apple announced new app store fees, including a 5% commission on any digital purchase made outside of the App Store (current in-store commissions are 15% - 30%). I think this could bring the stock back below 200 and possibly 190, offering attractive investment opportunities for those looking at a future dividend cash cow. My remarks about IPOs have been right on the money. I said if you want to buy IPOs, you’re buying alongside a lot of “dumb money” in the market. CRCL stock was down 24% this past week, after an over 700% rally from the IPO earlier this month. Other IPOs were up on the week but are down all-time YTD (MNTN: -16.5% | CHYM: -10.91% | BULL: -6.8%). All of the aforementioned IPOs had massive stock pops in the first few days/weeks of trading.I am going to continue to watch UNH, AAPL, and IPOs for opportunities.Total Portfolio PerformanceNow, I know that many of my subscribers are looking for longer-term plays and don’t care too much about the weekly picks. I think that is just fine — our longer-term holdings have also been outperforming (given that you are following the DCA approach that I recommend). We utilize a dumbbell portfolio approach. With one side offering a long-term “safe” portfolio (our Flagship Fund & TSS 50), and the other going for growth (Contrarian Trades, Weekly Picks).This balanced approach has proven effective time and time again. We also offer paying subscribers the ability to look at any and all of our stocks and portfolios with real-time updates here: Check it all out here (for paying subscribers).My portfolio average return is up to 37.95% YTD.Our contrarian portfolio is up over 67% YTD, followed closely by our weekly picks at +44% returns year to date (these are the picks found in today’s newsletter). The lagging portfolio (based on a buy-and-hold basis) is the Flagship Fund. We expect performance to pick up in the later parts of the year when markets stabilize. Weekly PicksOkay, let’s get into the picks that have returned 44% YTD and 67% over the past 49 weeks. As always, what you see below is a summary of our investments for this week!🟢THE BUYS🟢

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comI have a new format for you this week! We are — right out of the gate — going to discuss some of the most interesting moves made by market whales, corporate insiders, and the wonderful folks up on the hill (politicians).As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know what you thought of the newsletter today using the link below:Guru TradesWhat you are looking at above are the most bought stocks in the S&P 500 by gurus. Use this at your digression, I am supplying it so you can stay up to date with the overall action in the markets right now. The only major guru trades we saw over this past week came from Warren Buffet & the VA Partners I fund. Both trades saw the effected stocks decrease in value after their initial sells.Neither trade is worth noting in any major way. Buffett only reduced his holdings in DVA by 0.59%. This is a relatively small amount relative to VA Partners I who sold 17.33% of their holdings in NSIT. NSIT is down 33.87% over the past year, so the reduction in holdings is likely due to profit taking in the short term and expectations of underperformance in the short run.Insider TradingInsiders — as usual — we much more active than the market Gurus. Typically, this means more buys, and great news about market movements. As of June 2025, the Insider Buy/Sell ratio is 0.39. The previous monthly ratio was 0.39 showing a neutral sentiment.For the past 5 years, the highest overall Market Insider Buy/Sell ratio was 0.81 in May 2022, while the lowest ratio was 0.17 in February 2023. This week, however, we are seeing seas of red.Staying up to date on insider trades can help you find market trends and opportunities that most people will never hear about.I would first like to highlight the immense amount of selling happening from major market players. The top 5 largest trades from this past week are all sales worth over $150 million a piece.Let’s talk about the largest trade: a $554 million dollar sell of HESM. There are probably a few reason for the large sell… this might be one of them. HESM has taken on ludicrous amounts of debt to fuel their growth. There could also be some issues with a lawsuit that’s on the horizon (article here). If you are a holder of HESM — it might be worth following and listening to the $500M moves made by Blackrock.The buy worth paying attention to is the $48M buy of LION (Lionsgate Studio). The stock is already up 10% since the insider bought, but us still down 8.85% YTD. Now, I think the LION purchase is a great lesson in the world of following insiders: not everyone always makes the best decision.The stock, and company as a whole, look like a terrible purchase to me — this is why you shouldn’t blindly follow every large buy you see. The company is struggling to generate revenue on a regular basis (let alone grow it). They have also taken on massive amounts of debt with low cash coverage. Did I happen to mention that their ROIC — WACC is terrible too? Their cost of capital (8%-ish) heavily outweighs theirs returns (just over 3%). Who, and why would someone buy into a company with underperformance and no clear path to revenue growth? I have no idea — but maybe these insiders do.Politician TradingThe final thing we have to talk about is politician trading. For those of you that don’t know, politicians can sometimes handily outperform the market; however, not all of them do. When watching politician trades, you need to be smart about the moves that you make.As of June 2025 , the current Overall Market Politician Buy/Sell ratio is 16.40, which is higher than the 5-year average of 1.29. This is a strong buy signal coming in from the political world. Maybe all of the folks up there in Washington believe in Trumps plan? (Yes, that is a question mark on purpose)FIVE MOST RECENT TRADESOne of the buys that caught my eye this past week was Marjorie Green’s purchase of UNH. Right at the bottom? Seems too perfect… let’s take a look at who else has been buying.It seems like all politicians seem to be either holding or buying more of their UNH stock. Interesting as the stock is down around 50% from highs in April after reports of fraud.Why would policy makers be buying stock in a company that they are going to have to litigate? Well… it seems that they make have a bit more knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes (looks like UNH is poised for a comeback). If you read my newsletter on Saturday you would know that we also saw over $10 billion in inflows to UNH in Q1 of 2025 showing a surprising amount of bullish sentiment going into Q2. It could be the stock of the year if UNH returns to its prior highs.Website Coming SoonI have some great news for paying subscribers — you will all be getting early access to some incredible trading tools very very soon… See a sneak peak down below…

Superinvestors (Buffett, Burry, etc) have been filling their 2025 Q1 portfolio updates… and they are full of surprises. We will get into the most notable portfolio change quickly. I am of course referring to Burry liquidating all of his holdings except for one stock… However, that isn’t all — other investors have made some BIG moves. It looks like a lot of investors’ investment theses have been shaken to their core.As always, I appreciate your feedback. Let me know what you thought of the newsletter today using the link below:Superinvestor News & UpdatesTop 10 bought stocks in Q1 2025 were…Microsoft Corp (MSFT)$22.61 billion purchasediShares S&P 500 ETF (IVV)$21.24 billion purchasedAmazon.com Inc (AMZN)$17.40 billion purchasedApple Inc (AAPL)$15.80 billion purchasedBroadcom Inc (AVGO)$15.02 billion purchasedNvidia Corp (NVDA)$14.33 billion purchasedAlphabet Inc (GOOGL)$12.21 billion purchasedMeta Platforms Inc (META)$11.31 billion purchasedCharles Schwab Corp (SCHW)$10.90 billion purchasedUnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH)$10.32 billion purchasedSuperinvestor’s Most Purchased Stock: MSFT (Microsoft). The three biggest buyers were Geode Capital Management, Vanguard, and BlackRock. They bought more than $8 billion worth of stock. The funds accounted for nearly 35% of the total inflows, which crossed $22.5 billion. Wondering if it is time to ride the Microsoft Wave? I went ahead and ripped through the earnings call they had on April 30th. Here are the key takeaways:Positve* Microsoft Cloud revenue surpassed $42 billion, up 22%, showcasing strong demand for cloud and AI offerings.* Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 33% and 35%, driven by strong demand for AI services.* Microsoft 365 Copilot usage tripled year-over-year, indicating strong adoption of AI-driven productivity tools.* Now this is surprising, given that many people don’t believe Copilot is going to be a major revenue driver for MSFT as a company. * Maybe there is a road to integrating the system into their ecosystem of products (Word, Excel, etc) to drive revenue. * The company is clearly betting on being a major player in the space with their data center announcement plans.* LinkedIn revenue increased 7% and 8%, with significant growth in LinkedIn Premium subscriptions.* There is no surprise to me here. The world is becoming increasingly business-centric. We know this to be true as we have seen the rise of the retail trader * Gaming revenue increased 5% and 6%, with Xbox content and services revenue growing 8% and 9%.Negative* On-premises server business revenue decreased by 6% and 4%, reflecting a continued shift to cloud offerings.* Again, I want to reference the billions of dollars MSFT is investing in data centers here. They likely know that “on-site” offerings will continue to decrease in revenue share as AI and cloud both become standard/ industry norms! * Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage decreased by 3 points year-over-year due to the impact of scaling AI infrastructure.* Again, we see the impact of their AI infrastructure buildout. * Operating expenses increased by 6% and 7%, driven by investments in AI infrastructure.* There are AI capacity constraints expected beyond June, indicating potential challenges in meeting growing demand.* Bad news in the short term, great news in the long run.* The Talent Solutions business within LinkedIn continues to be impacted by weakness in the hiring market.* We will likely see this trend continue until the economy starts to stabilize and we experience less market volatility.Overall, MSFT still looks like a solid stock to be invested in for those looking at smart & safe investments for 5-10+ years into the future. It will remain a staple in my “indicator portfolio: TSS 50.”Most Convicted SuperinvestorThe “Most Convicted” superinvestors matter because they hold so few stocks in their portfolios and are willing to continue betting on those concentrated holdings. The one big investor everyone seems to be worried about now is Michael Burry. Michael BurryBefore we get into his current market moves, I want to let you know what Burry’s portfolio used to look like. In Q4 of 2024, Burry owned 6 main stocks (with a few other small holdings sprinkled in) — they made up a total of 71.9% of his portfolio. Burry’s portfolio now? Well, it consists of one stock: Estée Lauder (EL). The question is, why? Why Estée Lauder? Well, beauty and cosmetic companies are well known to be some of the most resilient during economic downturns. Burry is betting that the economy is about to get really rough, and this sentiment is reflected in his options portfolio.While everyone is looking at and questioning why Burry is going all in on EL, they seem to have forgotten that Burry (famously) loves derivatives. Currently, all of the options Burry owns are put contracts. He is betting that things are about to head south in the markets. Now, whether you want to follow in his footsteps or think he is entirely wrong is entirely your decision. There is, however, one thing that no one can disagree with — he has the highest conviction of any investor right now. He is all in.Want more actionable updates like these? Subscribe and get access to them all!🟢Largest Insider Buys This Week🟢Notable Recent Insider Trades: UNH StockUNH is down over 40% since last year. The stock price is falling with all the negative news about dead CEOs, medicare fraud, etc. Well, some of the smartest people in the world have said,Buy on bad news, sell on goodandWhat it hated and unloved is the best investment🔴Largest Insider Sells This Week🔴🟢Largest Hedge Fund Buys This Week🟢🔴Largest Hedge Fund Sells This Week🔴🟢Largest Politician Buys & Sells🔴- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thesimpleside.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comSURVEY LINK: Start SurveyFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comSURVEY LINK: Start SurveyFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comSURVEY LINK: Start SurveyFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comSURVEY LINK: Start SurveyFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comSURVEY LINK: Start SurveyFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION: Subscription LinkANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Annual LinkFIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news- ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thesimpleside.substack.comFIND US HERE: https://thesimpleside.substack.com/FIND THE WEBSITE HERE: thesimpleside.news - ¢, Founder of The Simple SideNo Investment Advice or Brokerage; Disclaimer. For the avoidance of doubt, The Simple Side does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. As with any asset, the value of any asset class can go up or down and there can be a substantial risk that you lose money buying, selling, holding, or investing in any asset. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.