MM #257: 5 Money Moves You MUST Make Now! Warren Buffett Steps Down, Bitcoin Explodes, & Stocks Rebound

Summary

Market Mondays Episode #257: 5 Money Moves You MUST Make Now! Warren Buffett Steps Down, Bitcoin Explodes, & Stocks Rebound

Release Date: May 6, 2025

In this episode of Market Mondays, hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, alongside stock market expert Ian Dunlap, delve deep into pivotal financial strategies, significant market movements, and the monumental announcement of Warren Buffett’s retirement from Berkshire Hathaway. The conversation is rich with insights, actionable advice, and expert opinions aimed at empowering both novice and seasoned investors.

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1. Warren Buffett Steps Down: A Legacy in Investing

The episode opens with the groundbreaking news that Warren Buffett has announced his retirement as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway during the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

Ian Dunlap (07:27):
"Warren Buffett, after his illustrious career in his mid-90s, he had the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and he announced that he will be retiring his duties as CEO."

Rashad Bilal (09:34):
"He did a great, amazing job. The greatest to ever do it. Like I was watching it and I was just thinking like this... it's definitely an end of an era for sure."

Troy Millings (12:09):
"There's no debate in my eyes, especially when we're talking about long-term investing. He created the blueprint for it."

The hosts reflect on Buffett’s enduring influence on investment philosophies, emphasizing his commitment to long-term growth, disciplined investing, and his modest lifestyle despite immense wealth. They highlight Buffett’s impact on making investing accessible and appealing to the average person, noting his approach has inspired countless individuals, including Rashad himself.

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2. Top 5 Money Moves You MUST Make Now

Transitioning from Buffett’s retirement, the discussion shifts to actionable personal finance strategies essential for financial stability and growth.

Rashad Bilal (20:57):
"Number one, use the debt snowball method to eliminate your smallest debts first. Number two, pick two to four stocks to invest in for the next 10, 15 years and stick with them."

Ian Dunlap (26:20):
"If you die today, will it be a mess? Have a handbook detailing your financial affairs with someone you trust."

Rashad Bilal’s Top Five Money Moves:

1. Debt Snowball Method: Focus on paying off the smallest debts first to build momentum.
2. Long-Term Stock Selection: Choose a select few stocks for long-term investment to avoid overtrading.
3. Consistent Investment Amounts: Set a fixed amount to invest regularly, regardless of market fluctuations.
4. Financial Accountability Partners: Engage with one or two trusted individuals to discuss and track financial goals.
5. Avoid Lifestyle Creep: Maintain modest living expenses to ensure savings and investments grow.

Rashad Bilal (22:44):
"Kill the lifestyle creep. It's easier to have money working for you than spending it on unnecessary luxuries."

Ian Dunlap (26:20):
"Secure your retirement by investing in 401k, IRA, and other retirement accounts. Have a forced savings plan that leverages tax advantages."

The hosts emphasize the importance of disciplined saving, intelligent investing, and prudent financial planning. They advise listeners to live below their means, consistently invest in retirement and brokerage accounts, and prioritize financial security for future generations.

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3. Market Insights: Stock Rebound and Strategic Investments

The conversation progresses to current market trends, focusing on the rebound of major stocks and identifying promising investment opportunities.

Rashad Bilal (39:32):
"Last week, we saw some of the Mag 7 deliver, all of them pretty much beat expectations."

Troy Millings (40:16):
"I'm still bullish on Netflix. People are anticipating Palantir's report today, and Uber is another company to watch."

Key Stocks Discussed:

• Netflix: Continues to show strong performance and resilience.
• Palantir: Positioned for growth with strong defense contracts and AI integration.
• Uber: Demonstrates robust performance metrics, nearing all-time highs.
• HubSpot: Transitioning from AI infrastructure to enterprise solutions, making it an attractive prospect.
• AMD: Reporting soon with expectations of solid performance in the GPU and CPU markets.
• CVS: Among the notable performers in the S&P, indicating stability in the healthcare sector.

Rashad Bilal (37:41):
"Buy quality and if you don't know what to do, go to indexes and ETFs. It makes your investment journey a heck of a lot easier."

The hosts advocate for focusing on high-quality stocks and diversified ETFs as safeguards against market volatility. They highlight the importance of staying informed about company performances and market conditions to make strategic investment decisions.

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4. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency: The Rally and Future Prospects

Bitcoin's recent surge is a focal point, with discussions on its potential trajectory and the broader cryptocurrency landscape.

Ian Dunlap (57:16):
"Bitcoin has rallied from where it was a month ago, moving from $74,000 to $94,000. It's a great return for investors who bought the dip."

Rashad Bilal (59:03):
"Bitcoin is going to do incredibly well over the next 10 to 15 years. The banks' involvement has provided stability."

Key Points:

• Bitcoin’s Rally: Bitcoin has experienced a significant price increase, nearing $100,000.
• Market Sentiment: Increased mainstream acceptance, highlighted by Coinbase’s NBA playoffs commercial.
• Future Projections: Experts believe Bitcoin will continue its upward trend, with potential for further gains despite inevitable pullbacks.
• Ethereum Concerns: While Bitcoin thrives, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies face challenges and lack visibility from key figures like Vitalik Buterin.

Rashad Bilal (62:01):
"Bitcoin is superior to other crypto assets, and its resilience is unmatched. Only time will tell how it evolves, but it's a strong contender for long-term investment."

The hosts recognize Bitcoin's dominance and longevity in the crypto market, contrasting it with the struggles of other cryptocurrencies. They encourage listeners to consider Bitcoin as a viable long-term investment while remaining cautious of the inherent volatility in the crypto space.

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5. Interview with Steve Quirk: Robinhood’s Perspective on Retail Investing

A significant portion of the episode features an interview with Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood, offering valuable insights into the current retail investment landscape.

Steve Quirk (64:19):
"We have almost 26 million customers, with the average age in the early 30s. Half of them are brand new to the market, often feeling unsettled by recent volatility."

Key Insights from Steve Quirk:

• New Investors: A substantial influx of young, inexperienced investors entering the market, seeking to capitalize on dips.
• Margin Accounts: Robinhood observes that while margin trading is popular, educational efforts are crucial to ensure responsible usage.
• Cryptocurrency Integration: Robinhood is enhancing its platform with AI tools like Robinhood Cortex to provide real-time market analysis and personalized investment strategies.
• AI and Future Features: Plans to develop real-time AI advisors to assist investors in making informed decisions based on their investment theses.
• Trading Behavior: Younger investors tend to prefer broad-based ETFs during volatile periods for safety and diversification.

Steve Quirk (70:28):
"Our goal is to create an ecosystem where customers can handle all their financial needs in one place, making investing and banking seamless and accessible."

Rashad Bilal (88:25):
"For all the parents tonight who may have kids that may have a similar fear, how do you stress to them when you're talking to your daughter?"

Steve Quirk (89:45):
"If you're uncomfortable with an investment, you probably shouldn't be in it. Educate yourself and stick to a disciplined investment plan."

Steve emphasizes the importance of education, discipline, and strategic planning in retail investing. He highlights Robinhood’s initiatives to support new investors through advanced tools and educational resources, fostering a more informed and confident investor base.

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6. Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts

As the episode draws to a close, the hosts recap the key takeaways, encourage listeners to take actionable steps towards financial growth, and promote upcoming segments and events.

Rashad Bilal (93:37):
"Buy quality and index funds, protect your portfolio, and stay disciplined. Investing is not that hard if you follow the right strategies."

Troy Millings (94:16):
"During downturns, buying the dip in quality stocks is a strategic move. It's about taking advantage of opportunities when fear is high."

Ian Dunlap (94:16):
"In times of uncertainty, have protection for your investments. The market continues to provide opportunities for disciplined investors."

The episode concludes with acknowledgments of notable guests, upcoming events like Invest Fest, and a heartfelt shout-out to listeners celebrating milestones and life events. The hosts reinforce the importance of continuous education, community building, and maintaining a disciplined approach to investing.

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Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal (09:34):
  "He created the blueprint for how to build a legacy business and a legacy company."

• Troy Millings (20:43):
  "Happy birthday to my beautiful wife. Love you for life, girl."

• Steve Quirk (64:19):
  "If you're uncomfortable with an investment, you probably shouldn't be in it."

• Ian Dunlap (26:20):
  "If you die today, will it be a mess? Have a handbook detailing your financial affairs with someone you trust."

This comprehensive discussion encapsulates the essence of financial prudence, strategic investing, and the evolving landscape of the stock market. Whether you're beginning your investment journey or seeking to refine your strategies, this episode offers valuable guidance to navigate the complexities of the financial world effectively.

Transcript

[Ian Dunlap]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Troy Millings]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Ian Dunlap]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes, sir.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Happy Monday.

[Troy Millings]

Ian's mic is on.

[Rashad Bilal]

Microphone check. My bad. Show technology.

[Troy Millings]

Happy Monday. Happy May. It is Cinco de Mayo. Shout out to everybody that recognizes that and it's eating tacos and drinking what would be the drink of choice? Margaritas.

[Ian Dunlap]

Shout out to all my Mexicans out there, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure. Love y'all.

[Ian Dunlap]

It wouldn't be LA without Mexicans. It wouldn't be America without Mexico.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Big facts.

[Ian Dunlap]

Do remember, please do remember.

[Troy Millings]

Our friends. Our friends shout, you had a good weekend. Shout out to everybody in Connecticut, New Haven that pulled up on us at the you deserve to be rich tour.

[Rashad Bilal]

That was like, I had a good time. Hold on.

[Ian Dunlap]

Gotta drip responsibly at all times.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, at all times.

[Rashad Bilal]

That.

[Troy Millings]

That was dope. Some of these markets, you know, get skipped over a lot. You know, people will go on tours, a book tour or music tour, any type of tour. It'll be like, hey, we're gonna go to New York and then we're going to Boston. And they forget the in between places. Providence, Connecticut. So it was a quick drive for us, but people are very appreciative that we pulled up, and we were appreciative that they showed up, man. Shout out to everybody that came out, got the book. Some people won some tickets to Invest Fest.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's fire.

[Troy Millings]

So that was dope, man.

[Ian Dunlap]

For sure, man. Salute. So before we start, you know, I definitely want to be a man of My word. But more importantly, a man of the people. And I've been wearing black clothing brands, and there was one clothing brand a couple of weeks ago that I really, really liked, but I didn't know the name of because the name wasn't in the tag. And they actually tagged me on Instagram. So this is a T shirt from them as well. I wore the corduroy jacket. But the name of the brand is Wild Things. And as I said previously, I think that they gave me the best merch that I've received in this campaign of getting merch outside of Godspeed. They gave me a corduroy suit, like a corduroy jean jacket type vibe with pants.

[Troy Millings]

I got it on Blackout.

[Ian Dunlap]

Very well crafted. Yes.

[Troy Millings]

Spell it out for us.

[Ian Dunlap]

So their Instagram is. Wow. Things brand. Wild. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Wild. Okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

Wild Things with an S brand. Wild Things brand is their Instagram page. So go. Go support them. Like I said, they actually have very high quality merch. This is a T shirt from them. And I didn't give a chance to shot them out on Blackout because I didn't know the name. But now I do know the name. So once again, you know, you have to be a champion of the people.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Important.

[Troy Millings]

They put so much clothes in this P.O. box. It went from Blackout to now. Market Mondays.

[Rashad Bilal]

Wild Things. Can you send my box address, please?

[Troy Millings]

In the chat, please?

[Rashad Bilal]

I need that on express order, please.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's a fact. That's a fact.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, man. Ian, how was your weekend, man?

[Rashad Bilal]

Amazing. Good time with Xander. Shout out to. Well, shout out to Coach. Great season. Shout out to Steph. Shout out to Ernest. Oh, my boy. My boy got in the game last night, too, so Kaminga, proud of you. But great weekend, man.

[Troy Millings]

Absolutely. It is a huge week here in the Millings household. Tomorrow is my wife's birthday. Happy birthday, Danielle, my beautiful wife. Amazing, amazing, amazing mother, Terrific daughter, sister, aunt, all those things. It is her day, so we're gonna celebrate her tomorrow. Happy birthday to her. Love you for life, girl. And we got a couple other birthdays in the eyl family yesterday. 19 keys. Happy birthday to Keys.

[Rashad Bilal]

Birthday, my guy.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact, man. I called him. He was like, what do I owe the pleasure? I'm like, I want to be the first to tell you before any post. Happy birthday, my brother. You mean a lot to the community. You mean a lot to us, and we're super proud of him. So shout out to him.

[Ian Dunlap]

Happy birthday. 19 keys. Happy birthday, Danielle. Kenya.

[Troy Millings]

Yep, Kenya's birthday's tomorrow. Tanya's birthday Shout out to my sister in law Tanya. Dame Dash birthday.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

A lot of tourist birthday.

[Rashad Bilal]

Royal birthday was the other day too.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, it's tourist season, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Big week for EYL. Blackout. We are back 10 o'clock Eastern Standard time this Wednesday. Spicy topics per usual. Why don't we get married and then Thursday we're going. We got, we got a Cali edition. G Perico.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, okay. I should have been there for that one. Wait, wait, wait. Okay. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Just when you thought we couldn't, you.

[Ian Dunlap]

Know, anytime we get to, you know, we got a special relationship with la. It's complicated relationship but we, it's a good one for sure it is. But we connected with a lot of people that you wouldn't traditionally think we would be connected.

[Rashad Bilal]

Eyl and G Perico. Let's go back and study out of that one.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, check that out. At 6:00 on Thursday, shout out to oh Cali G and the whole team.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Ian, any announcements you'd like to make?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, if you want to get rich from the market, go to ian invest.com. if you don't want to worry about where to get in and where to get out, come please join Red Panda. Prices will be out this Wednesday. If I made you money, please put yes in chat. I love y'all. Let's have an amazing show.

[Troy Millings]

Let's do it. Let's get it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Let's get it.

[Troy Millings]

Oh man. You know how this works, man. Do your own research. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It's very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a professional connection with or independently research and verify any information that you find on our show. And a wish to rely upon whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise. People continue to do the research, share the research, show love, give love. Let's build community, let's build wealth. Let's do it together. Let's go. Let's get this thing going.

[Rashad Bilal]

Stock club this Wednesday, 7pm Central, right before blackout. Blackout at 9pm Central. So see y'all Wednesday.

[Ian Dunlap]

So, okay, we gotta start with the great legend Warren Buffett.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

So Warren Buffett, after his illustrious career in his mid-90s, he had the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska over this past weekend and he announced that he will be retiring his duties as CEO. And you know, it's one of these things that his career has been illustrious to say that the the least one of the, one of the wealthiest people in the world. Wildly known as, you know, the greatest person when it comes to investing. The oracle of Omaha. Take when you look at Berkshire Hathaway, their stock when it first came out in 1984, it debuted at $1400 a share and now it's at 700, $776,000 a share. Never split, doesn't believe in stock splits. Has as a a B component for people that want to invest in a lower price point. But man, his career expands upon decades. He's involved in stocks, obviously real estate done at the highest level possible. Survived every era, every, every downturn in the market when people counted them out, stayed the course. Never was one to be too flashy in public.

[Rashad Bilal]

Y'all go cool with the little miss number. Wealth isn't loud. That's not true. You just haven't been around them in private settings to see them be ostentatious.

[Troy Millings]

But in public you ain't been to the Omaha party.

[Ian Dunlap]

But yeah, somebody that's really revolutionized investing for sure. So what is the legacy of Warren Buffett?

[Rashad Bilal]

I think he did a great, amazing job. Journalist of the year covering this for real. The greatest to ever do it. Like I was watching it and I was just thinking like this. I felt when like Jordan made that last shot against Utah, like the game won't be the same. It's the end of an era. I, I think at a time when investing was not popular, he did so when long term invested in the approach of doing good over the greed is good model that wasn't popular but he made that popular. And definitely if it wasn't for him, that would be no me. He's had the greatest impact on my long term investment philosophy. So 5 million percent return since he started the company. Built it with one of his dear friends. Like he's, he's created the blueprint for how to build a legacy business and a legacy company. So the hands down the greatest to do it. I hate to see him go, I know he's going to be in a chairman role but it's, it's definitely an end of an era for sure.

[Troy Millings]

Definitely end of the era. I think, I mean you guys summed it up. This is the goat, I think, you know, gratitude. As I was watching it, it was great. We were driving up to New Haven. I was, I was watching the, the meeting and every time he spoke it was like his sound was a little bit different than it usually is. It just felt like, you know, time is taking a soul but just gratitude, man. We, we grew up in an era we've watched and you can, you can pick a genre or I was thinking that, yeah, we've watched the greatest. Whether it's in entertainment, whether it's in, you know, sports, investing. We've watched the greatest and we've had an opportune seat to watch it over the past seven years being, you know, around people who are very close to him and know him very well. Just, just the absolute greatest, man. And one of the things that you, you'll never forget is, you know, make money while you sleep. Make money while you sleep. And when, when people think of that, that adage, that's him, that's him. And I sat in my office in, in the Bronx when I was teaching. I sat in my office in New Rochelle when I was teaching and just thought like, this is not, I'm not making money while I sleep. How do I, how am I going to be able to do that? And so his impact will live on. Obviously he's still here. He'll, he'll be present. But the messaging, the, the constant, you know, be, be fearful when, when people agree all these things, those, those adages just stick with you when they become a part of the fabric of how you invest. And so people might debate, is he the greatest?

[Rashad Bilal]

There's no debate.

[Troy Millings]

There's no debate in my eyes and especially when we're talking about long term investing. This, this is the, the matriarch, this is the guy who created the blueprint for it. And kudos to him. Kudos to him.

[Rashad Bilal]

Rashad, your thoughts?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, for sure. You know, like I said, you know, somebody that has done it the right way consistently over the course of time, stay true to his principles, stay true to what he believed in and really helped a lot of everyday people feel comfortable investing, no matter, no matter what if it was some level of showmanship or whatever. But you know, the way that he dressed, the way that he carried himself in public, it was welcoming to the average everyday person and that helped a lot as far as getting people involved into investing and encouraged. And then of course, you know, Jim Cramer, he, he came and he helped and then, and we came. Yeah. So you know, this, this torches that get passed over the course of time, but historical footnote.

[Troy Millings]

You gotta play history in this place.

[Ian Dunlap]

My man, Warren Buffett, man, icon living. So congratulations to him and you know, hopefully he can have some time to do whatever he likes to do. I don't know what he likes to do, fish or whatever, but hopefully, hopefully I know He's a boxing fan for sure. Hopefully he has some time and just. Just chill out for a little bit and. And enjoy the rest of his. His life.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I like that you said that he did it the right way. Even when people came around our culture, you could kind of see it was kind of like how we gonna smooch off them, how we're going to use them for notoriety. And even when you saw him with Jay or you've seen him with Bud Bron, it was always like he was given information.

[Rashad Bilal]

He was giving. Yeah, anything back.

[Troy Millings]

He didn't want the notoriety. He wasn't a guy who was looking for or wanted the cameras to be around. It was just like, let me pour some information to y'all, and that's how.

[Rashad Bilal]

It should be done. Yeah, it was impactful with Floyd. Yep. And he did it with Jay. At a time when Jay was on the cusp of becoming icon, he didn't wait to became till Jay became who he is now. Yeah, I think that's very special. And like you said, he did it the right way. And also too, to focus on investing in great companies and being around great people. Like, you can see the friendship that him and Charlie had. Mary, who's like his right hand. Those relationships, power relationships, they've been together 40, 50 years. That's a dream life. And then to take care of your kids and see your kids flourish and to give back to the world. So just a true leader in the space at the time when it was a very like, barbarian like culture. Prior to his mantras being pushed forward.

[Ian Dunlap]

Salute.

[Troy Millings]

He's the one.

[Ian Dunlap]

There was some key takeaways from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. From an investing standpoint and looking at the market, which everybody here, that's what they're interested in. What can we learn from this?

[Rashad Bilal]

For me, the ones that stood out is true. Number one, choose your circle wisely. There's not enough. There's a lot of alpha talked about on fundamental analysis and technical, which should always be combined, but not enough is talked about. How you structure your team and who you choose to do life and business with is going to have a profound effect and impact on the top and bottom line. Number two, that there are a bunch of contrarian opportunities that are available. I kept hearing him stress that. And in a time when everyone's panicked over a drop in the market, there's some opportunities there, and I think most people just are not looking at them. Kind of like in the NBA, where like the Cavaliers didn't get highlighted in lieu of the Lakers. There are some bright spots in investing that not many people are talking about that are there. Number three is to be ripe with cash. I know some may criticize him for having that much cash on hand, but if he needed to go buy a Tesla car or company or he needed to buy into the AI race if Greg needed to, now a CEO, he has more than enough cash to do so and it won't hurt their investment percentage into the market. And I know he talks about trade is not a weapon, but not to be worried full of things. Tariffs, tariffs, sorry about that. Tariffs. But not to worry about things in the short term horizon like he, like you said, Rashad, he's been through every era of this. The 87 crash, the dot com crash, the 2008 crisis, a 15 pullback won't give any challenge for what they're looking to do. And I think sometimes as investors, we look at the media too much on a day to day basis and not looking over decade to decade or like a five year period at a time. So not to focus on the short term, but to figure out things on the long term horizon and those, when those opportunities come and when there is blood in the street like there was in early April, that's the time to be buying.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. I, I think I'll add to some of the points you made. I think the first thing that came to mind was the tariffs being used as a weapon.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And how global prosperity benefits the United States. And he kind of went on that for a while and I was like, all right, he's saying it. Let's see how the market reacts to that. I think the second thing, and kind of an inverse to that was that the United States deficit is just unsustainable.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

And the fact that we. He said that he doesn't trust Congress to figure this out. And so it leads you to the point, well, who's going to try to figure this out? Right. Does that leave it up to a dictator to figure it out? I think the, one of the most important things, and this is again, when we talk about stick to your plan, stick to your plan, stick to your plan. Even with having $347 billion.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

They still have a cautious investment approach.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

Like even with all the uncertainty, like the market drops, they talked about potentially having a $10 billion acquisition date. I don't know if they mentioned what company it was. And even in the midst of it they were like, nah, yeah, it doesn't feel right. So I mean, having that type of discipline with having that level of a treasure chest speaks volumes. Right. Like, most people won't take a risk, and they're not even. No, they're not even near like most people. I mean, the average person doesn't see that type of money. But being at that level, having that much experience provides a level of discipline and certainty. Right. Like, you know that you're doing the right thing because you've seen this happen over and over. So those are like the. The three. And then obviously Greg Abel being. Being named.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

The new chair was. Was the fourth point. I'm like, okay, now we got to study, like, who he is. In fact, when I did the research, he already said that this was going to be the person who's right. Yeah. He said this in 2021. Yeah. And so I don't. I guess the timing of him doing it at the meeting was a surprise. Who he chose wasn't much of a surprise.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

And that was a big shoes to fill. Rashad, what about you? Were there any big takeaways for you?

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, the biggest takeaway is that you never know when it's going to be over. And you got to appreciate greatness in the moment. Spoke about this for 19 keys, but this might be the last opportunity that we ever get to see Warren Buffett speak publicly. We do need him at Invest Festive.

[Rashad Bilal]

Sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

There's a lot of people that watch this show, so if anybody has any direct relationships, man, let's. Let's. Let's make magic happen one last time.

[Rashad Bilal]

But, Becky, quick, please.

[Ian Dunlap]

We had a similar situation with Junior Bridgman, which that was. We didn't know that he was gonna not be here anymore. There's somebody that became a billionaire and spoke at Invest Fest that might have been the last time that he really had an address that big as far as public address in the public. And then shortly after that, he passes away. So. Yeah, man, you have to appreciate moments and people and opportunities and things like you saying, like, all right, I'm all next time or next year or I'm gonna do this. And, like, I'm watching Market Mondays, but I'm not really watching. I'm not halfway paying attention. You never know. Yeah. When it's gonna be the last time.

[Troy Millings]

That's a great point.

[Rashad Bilal]

You never can even being on stage. I said every year. And people get tired of me saying it every time on stage. Act as if you're last, because if you missed that, it could be.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's a fact. That's a fact. So get your tickets to Invest Fest because You never, you never know. No, but I want, I want to do this though. I do want to have great perspective. I want to have some personal finance talk before we bring our guests on and we talk about the market. So what are five things? If somebody's just starting out right now, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

What are five things? Like a mandatory five things that they have to do as far as their personal finance in regards to the stuff that we talk about.

[Rashad Bilal]

Number one, I love the debt snowball. So take off your, your smallest debt, aim to pick that up first. Number two, pick two to four stocks that you're going to invest in for the next 10, 15 years of your life. Don't deviate from it. Number three, pick an amount that you are going to invest and don't deviate because sometimes people hear these numbers and like, well, I don't have 60 grand to put into the market. Start with 200 and then once you see the 200, go to four, you're gonna find a thousand or 1500 to then put into that vehicle. Number three, not to be self aggrandizing, but to watch us every week. Because if you do that, you're going to get a higher return on investment than if you watch other shows. If I made you money, please put yes in chat. Love y'all. Get the book. You deserve to be rich. Number four, find one or two people that you're going to have these conversations with. It's like having a sparring partner or someone to work out with. I, I don't want you to lean on them for accountability. But if, like, we've stuck together for five years and we kept telling y'all, we're going to stick together, right? We've grown collectively and individually as a result. A lot of times I'll see people trying to do this on their own and because they don't have someone to lean on, they don't stay in the game as long. And then number five, kill the lifestyle creep. Like, I see too many of us get to that first hundred thousand, first 200,000, and you get the blowing on Mike Amiri. And you want to talk to me about tariffs, go shout out to Johnny Dang. I see a lot of y'all come out here and go hit Johnny Dang. And hey, I give you a discount because people have been coming. I'm like, I know it's fun to look like you have all the money in the world. It's more fun to actually have the money in your possession.

[Ian Dunlap]

Fact. That's a fact. Now that was great. That was great for me. It would be. You have to secure your retirement. So you start to invest in your 401k, have an IRA if you're self employed, have a set plan. These are things that we talked about. But you gotta have money for later on down the line.

[Rashad Bilal]

Sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

A forced savings that you don't even think about. That is tax advantage, where you're saving money on taxes. And you'll also be able to have a nest egg at some point in time in retirement because it's going to be here before you know it. So securing your retirement is a major thing. And then if you have kids, you got to plan for them. Yeah. So we talk about 529 plan, which is how you can save money for college. Or you can have an UTMA account, which is how you can just save money for your child in general. Doesn't necessarily have to be used for college, but you want to secure or start to, you know, have some level of security for them. So that's important. You could put money away. The earlier you start, the better, compounding interest. One of the things that Warren Buffett championed across the way, life insurance. You have to make sure that you secure your life. Life insurance, we've had a lot of conversations about that. But if somebody's just starting out, that's a great thing to do for sure. For, you know, foundational purposes. As far as your financial plan, I would say dollar cost average into the stock market every single month from a brokerage account. You can open a brokerage account, put a hundred, 200, 300, 500, whatever you can afford. Whatever you can afford. But you know, Ian says to tech, to index, you put together your strategy and you might have, okay, an S P500. I'm gonna put 200 into that every single month. I'm gonna put 200 into Microsoft every single month, Put money into the market in a brokerage account, force yourself for savings every single month. That's important outside of your retirement. Two different things. Your retirement, what we call qualified, what's not retirement, is non qualified. So non qualified is just regular brokerage. You can use that money whenever. You don't have to wait until you're 59 and a half. But you want to do two things simultaneously. And then the last thing I would say is estate planning. Put together a will. If you're at the point where trust makes sense, make sure your beneficiaries are listed. That's important. So those are five things, especially the.

[Rashad Bilal]

Last one for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

If you, if you, if you on Your, your pathway. If you're just starting out, even if you haven't just started out, you want to just look to make sure you're doing things correctly. Retirement, college, savings, or just savings for your children in general. Life insurance, dollar cost average into the stock market every single month, and then estate plan. And make sure you have a will, a trust, put beneficiaries on things, look to see if everything is set up. If you die today, will it be a mess? That's how you got to gauge this. If. If I die today, is it going to be a mess? Meaning when I say it's going to be a mess, is it going to be, how they gonna know what your passwords are? How they gonna know how to get into your bank account? How they gonna know where you have bank accounts at? How they going to know? So what you should do is have a. A handbook where it's actually detailed and you put it with somebody that you trust, your beneficiary, your lawyer. So that way, it's hard enough, you die, somebody's going to have to make funeral arrangements. But just think about that. Like you, you're doing all this stuff, you're acquiring all this stuff. You got properties over here. If nobody knows about it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

Probate, Nobody know your password.

[Ian Dunlap]

Or, or worst case scenario, it can get forfeited or it's just not even. It's just held. There's billions of dollars that's just being held in suspense right now because nobody's ever claimed it, because nobody knows about it. See, property, Think about it. Crypto, same thing. If you got crypto, nobody, coinbase is not gonna call your family, like, hey, you got in Ethereum waiting for you.

[Troy Millings]

What's your catchphrase?

[Ian Dunlap]

Gotta think about it.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, man, that was a lot. But this is so the first thing I. And you kind of just went down all of them. But get your affairs in order. And like, what you just named was the affairs. I know, Ian, we joked about this like three years ago, but like that paperwork party.

[Rashad Bilal]

Get your paperwork in order.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, there's an order, I'll add, because I was listening to, see what you guys may have not said. But reserves, right? Like as you're creating this, this wealth. Right. It's cool. But like one of the first things, and I remember sitting down with shoddy 17 years ago, it was like, you need to have six to 12 months reserves. I know when we started market Mondays, you were like 60 months. And I was like, damn, man, that's five years. But you got to have some Reserves, Right. For yourself on a personal level, that's the first set of reserves. But in the market and once you have your brokerage account, so I would say obviously open a brokerage account, but have reserves in your brokerage account as well. For opportunities for when people are being greedy. Right, right. You wait for that market to pull back and you see opportune times like we saw in late January, like we saw at the beginning of April. And who knows, it could happen again based on what the, the economy looks like and what the leader of, you know, United States government will pull tomorrow. I think having an exit plan is important.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right? Like that's a great point.

[Troy Millings]

When you open that account, what's the strategy for you to exit? Are you holding things for long term? Cool. Are you making short term opportunities for yourself? Right. Because yeah, it's cool to get the money and watch it be unrealized and then it sucks when it starts peeling back. And now that unrealized gain is not what you thought. Right. It's not realized until you sell it. And so have an exit plan. Is it a percentage? Right. Is it a term?

[Rashad Bilal]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

We always talk about having long term investment, but some people do futures, some people do options. What is the exit plan for you to get out? I think having a CPA that's qualified is yes, man, gold. I mean, if you get the money, trust me, the government is going to want the money. So having a CPA and a tax strategy and that's stuff that we're learning as we're going as well. Like we're learning new tax strategies and that's the power of having relationships. So people like, hey, we're doing this. I'm like, oh, well, tell us how that works. So having a CPA and a tax strategy is important. And I think I, I'll end it where you ended it, Ian. I think watching us is important and you deserve to be rich. Be rich is important. I saw somebody put in the comments at the book tour, like I figured this out. Like, this isn't a book you read once. This is a book that you come back to as you're going through your journey of life. Right. You might identify with a character in one phase of your life and then you might identify with another one. The strategies that you are maybe have passed. Now that your life and your wealth has changed, you can now implement that. They make more sense to you. And so reading obviously is one of those paramount things when we're trying to preserve and keep wealth. And I think we created the blueprint for it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, that's podcast. Poppy reaction videos are not ip. So you go through the estate planning, they ask you like what? Stocks, bonds, real estate, intellectual property. Ironically enough, reaction videos to us do not qualify.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's not on the asset sheet. But I will say this too. You gotta think about if you die today, what would happen at least every. Every couple very important. That's important because most of the time, and even for me, I had to realize that like most of the most of us, if we die today is not organized enough. And that's, that's a problem.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's be bulletproof.

[Ian Dunlap]

You gotta think if I die today and you gotta avoid money traps. And I've talked about this last week, but I'm going to double down on this because I'm. You know some helping people is more important than what critics have to say. Buying a home is extremely important. But it also can be a money trap.

[Rashad Bilal]

It can be a money pit.

[Ian Dunlap]

It could be a money pit. That's unfortunate situation because once you're in it, you can't really turn around. But buy a home. Like if you can, if you can get approved for a million dollar mortgage, buy a condo for 250. Thank me later.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hello.

[Ian Dunlap]

Thank me later.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hello.

[Troy Millings]

I go through it. So you wouldn't do it after.

[Ian Dunlap]

You might not have the same level of okay, I'm gonna bring this girl over and she thank me later.

[Rashad Bilal]

If she wants you, she wants you.

[Troy Millings]

Regardless why y'all gonna build it together.

[Ian Dunlap]

Bye. Lower.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Than what you and what you get approved for. Thank me later. Yeah, because it's more beneficial to have money working for you for sure. Then you actually putting money into something that potentially down the line you can have equity down the line you need somewhere to live. That's important for sure. Modesty is important in life. But in this home thing, that's probably even more important than anything. The modesty. Nobody ever talks about that. You got to be modest in your living. That's the most important thing. I have a modest. And that's one lesson that we can learn from Warren Buffett. I don't know if this is true or not, but they always say that he lived in the same house that he grew up in in Omaha, Nebraska. Oh, he kept it modest. Modest in your living. Be modest in your living.

[Rashad Bilal]

Because if you don't have high, I'm gonna cut you off. Go ahead.

[Ian Dunlap]

Did you write it's the biggest thing, it's the biggest expense and it's an ongoing expense and it's an expense that Only gets more expensive.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, and I know y'all want to throw them big ass parties and then someone slips on your marble.

[Troy Millings]

Not fun.

[Rashad Bilal]

214, 000 lawsuit for a person. Oh, and if I ever pass early, God forbid, let this be public record. Don't go to my mom and my cousin talking about Ian would have. Want me to have this. I want you to have nothing. Fainting the will. Sorry. Sorry.

[Troy Millings]

Right. Don't confess your love. Don't confess your love. If you couldn't go to the house and give my mama a hug. Yeah, I did that. As soon as we were. Were building and I was like, all right, this is a moment. I had the red button. I was like, I went to Danielle. I'm like, yo, here's the codes. Here's the codes. Keep it safe. Put it locked somewhere. Anything happens to me, here's what you do.

[Rashad Bilal]

Just in case. Yeah. This.

[Troy Millings]

This is what you do. And this is what you do. I don't want to think about that. Well, I did. I thought about it for you. Here's what you do.

[Rashad Bilal]

That modesty of the business too over expanding. Just to over expand and not hiring the right talent. Well, what's the quote? Higher slow and fire fast.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

No one talks about the payroll part. It's like keep your.

[Ian Dunlap]

Keep your expenses low at all times. Cars, like if you don't. You don't need to necessarily buy the car in cash. You can lease it. That's when Jay said we don't lease. We buy the whole car. As you should.

[Troy Millings]

Is that good advice?

[Ian Dunlap]

That's actually bad advice.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

It depends on your state.

[Ian Dunlap]

Salute.

[Troy Millings]

When he's. When he said it. When he said it. I. I think he would go back and look differently at that line.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's a hustler's mentality. But it's not necessarily.

[Troy Millings]

It's a braggadocious mentality.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's not necessarily.

[Rashad Bilal]

It was a flex.

[Ian Dunlap]

Man and Rolls Royce.

[Rashad Bilal]

If we ever find out what the car really costs, we are gonna report on it for seven weeks straight.

[Ian Dunlap]

Keep your expenses down.

[Rashad Bilal]

Please do.

[Ian Dunlap]

And the cars and the jury in the homes. It looks good, but it's not necessary because one car does the same thing that two cars can do. One watch tells the same time that three watches can tell for sure. A three two bedroom house served the same purpose that a six bedroom house. Because most people's not using six bedrooms.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

What I'm saying is that live below your means your means. When they say live below your means. Nobody's ever really critically Thought about that. That means that your means you're actually living less than your actually means. Right. That means that you actually should be at a hundred thousand, but you're living at 70,000. That. What does that mean? That means you have to make sacrifices. Live. They didn't say live at your means. Nobody. They didn't say live at your means.

[Rashad Bilal]

They said way below. And if I would be honest, it's one of the hardest sacrifices I've ever made, man. Big Mike. Shout out to Mike out there in Elliana. They hit me every week.

[Troy Millings]

What's the. What's the biggest?

[Ian Dunlap]

And you've done the best. Yeah, you're actually. I'm gonna give you credit publicly because you. You out of everybody that I've seen.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's tough though.

[Ian Dunlap]

You've done the best at living below your means. And I mean, you still live a good life. But I've see, I see it like, I'm an observant person. Right. I. I noticed that you live below your means, and that takes discipline a ton.

[Rashad Bilal]

And I didn't think I would have.

[Ian Dunlap]

Because that's something that most people would not talk about. But you are a very responsible person when it comes to how you're living.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you.

[Troy Millings]

What's the. Because this is true. And when. What's the biggest societal pressure that you face when you say, like, I need to have discipline to do this? What are those. Those pressure points that it's like, damn, I really want that, or I really could do this, but I'm not going.

[Rashad Bilal]

To just getting offered. Hey, come to the Rolls Royce dealership and we'll give 40, 40 off. I like you. Cool. It's tough to take them calls. And then you see your friends start to. It's like, even when Joe went and got the Ferrari. Joe Facetime me like, yo, big dog, yo, go get matching. We're not gonna get matching Ferraris. Like, money, anything. Like, I'm. It's sound fly. It's dope on Instagram, but is it really worth that? So it's tough though, especially now, like looking at the houses and we talked about it before the tax on being own. Now I gotta go have somebody go look for me on my behalf. So in certain instances, I. I don't get taxed. But I'm not gonna lie. It's tough. I'll see future pop up in some of the videos. Like, I need two of them chains, two of them watches. Boom. Big Mike almost got me last week.

[Troy Millings]

Damn.

[Rashad Bilal]

I don't care about the resale value. I Got it. And I was like, no, I'm good. I'm be apple Watch. So. But knowing that I'm good and that, you know, my family's good and that my kid is good, but now Xander started impressing me.

[Troy Millings]

Yes, you do.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep. He like, dad. It'd be nice.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Yes, you do.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. So it's tough. It's worth it, though.

[Ian Dunlap]

It is.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm do the buffet. I'm gonna play meek. And then on the private time. Boy, two Rolls Royces. I said, oh, okay. Buffy got the first colony. Y'all stop saying the Rolls Royce. Don't advertise. You just may not see where they advertise. We gotta stop a lot of these misnomers that are just not True. Go to F1 or Monaco, and it's a lot of advertisements out there.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, they advertise to their clientele.

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure. For sure.

[Troy Millings]

Why would they put that on NBC?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, and Rolex. Can y'all quit copying watch designs? Because I would like another. But y'all just flat out copying everybody. Jesus. The sicario of the watchmakers this year. What y'all doing? John Sicario.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sicario. Well, yes, ladies and gentlemen, keep that in mind when you're on your pathway to become rich, wealthy, live below your means.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

And invest as much as possible and keep cash on hand at all times, please.

[Rashad Bilal]

This time I had investors. I may get y'all a show, though. Light show, maybe.

[Ian Dunlap]

Best fest.

[Troy Millings]

Okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

You never know.

[Troy Millings]

A light show. Okay, maybe.

[Rashad Bilal]

I don't know.

[Troy Millings]

They're gonna be like, ian, you've changed.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, no lenses in my glasses. One of them big blinders.

[Troy Millings]

I promise. I spent, like, five minutes.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like, yo, I thought my contact is tripping. I'm like, what?

[Troy Millings]

I'm looking him in his face. I'm like, yo, he ain't got no lights.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's different.

[Ian Dunlap]

Salute to Floyd.

[Troy Millings]

Yep. Shout out to Floyd. Shout out to Manhattan. He owns 20 of it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Alleged.

[Rashad Bilal]

Troy's a great guy. Great guy.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay, so leading into earnings.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

What companies are you most bullish about?

[Rashad Bilal]

Let me come back to this, because I may want to do this at the end.

[Troy Millings]

At the end of the show?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, end of the show.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, all right, all right.

[Rashad Bilal]

I got two.

[Troy Millings]

I got two lists.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay, go ahead. I got two lists.

[Troy Millings]

I didn't know what you was gonna say, so I made two lists.

[Rashad Bilal]

Kick it off now. We can.

[Troy Millings]

I'll kick it off, then. I'll kick it off. So, yeah, last week we saw some of the Mag 7 deliver. I think all of them pretty Much.

[Rashad Bilal]

Beat on shout out to Microsoft.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, Microsoft beat and Apple did which was like we was surprised about that. And the two for sure that I'm looking at Netflix, I've been talking about it for five months for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

So I'll give you.

[Troy Millings]

But I'm. I'm still, still bullish on Netflix. I think everybody is anticipating obviously Palantir they reported today. So palate those. Yeah that's the best performing stock in the S P. But oh we spoke about it last week and I said when we were talking about the healthcare field and what it is on sleeper companies. You look at the number, I think it's number two or three in the S P. CVS is right there that those would be three. The top two I'm excited about I think next fix and Palantir. But I think Uber is another company.

[Rashad Bilal]

That we got to pay attention to.

[Troy Millings]

And will there be a partnership? Will Tesla figure something out on Totemus to have them as an official car? We'll see. And then the one I've been talking about for the past three years and they'll be reporting this week as well. HubSpot. I think we've seen the AI infrastructure play. Now it's time from enterprise play and I think obviously Salesforce leads in the large enterprise but I think HubSpot when the everyday business person can use it and we're clients as well. Just for the record, I think HubSpot is another one of those that I'm excited for. So if I had to put an order I'd say Netflix, Palantir, Uber, HubSpot and then CVS Wildcard gonna go high tech.

[Rashad Bilal]

Disney needs to sell to Netflix and AMD needs to sell to Nvidia.

[Troy Millings]

Big week for them.

[Rashad Bilal]

AMD is. I don't know if they'll be able to turn the ship around.

[Troy Millings]

They crossed 100 so that's. That's a good sign.

[Rashad Bilal]

Wow.

[Troy Millings]

So much.

[Rashad Bilal]

And a league where you can shoot threes. The the one three point shooter that's supposed to be Tony K coach from 92 is making one three a game. I loved amd ever the lev Raytheon. Well, not everything. What was it? Rising ship. Oh, amazing. But they've just mismanaged this thing into the ground. It's like the people in Seattle who had a financial literacy platform too and they went away. Oh never mind. Yes, Starbucks. So America runs on Duncan and Starbucks too.

[Troy Millings]

New CEO we it ain't really work out like they thought.

[Rashad Bilal]

I don't. I mean the semi glutide and Ozempic model. Like people want to be in ship. Like when you're selling sugar at scale.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

And then you have a workforce issue when you allowed employees to express so much that they felt like they almost ran the company. I go back to the issue when the gentleman got locked up in the Starbucks. Like, you're fighting for what your culture looks like and why the profit margin is down and Dutch Bros. Is on fire. It's not the time to do it. They need diversity in that lunch offer, that product offer, and I don't know what they can do to do that. And if we're going to be very honest, the coffee is not great. It's okay.

[Troy Millings]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like we're like in this pivotal time with all this economic crunching, we're like, either you're great or nothing. Please put that in the chat. Invest Fest, great, right? Market Mondays, great. Red Panda, great. Like, there is no in between. There's no room for mediocre businesses going into this next decade when you have open AI and Andrew and Lily and subpar products.

[Troy Millings]

So is it too early, though? I mean, this is. What is this the second quarter as CEO, do we do. I mean, we got to give him a little bit of time to figure it out.

[Rashad Bilal]

Listen, if they move the definition of recession on Biden, we can give him grace for 2/4 of 2/4.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, we. He. He has a proven track record.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

That we can't ignore. And so it's still early in the game. So. Well, we got a mind to this thing with Starbucks.

[Rashad Bilal]

Chances. Starbucks.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. I was going to put. And I think we're going to talk about a little bit later, but HIMS is an interesting company as well, for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

And people have been asking about this.

[Troy Millings]

We've been asking about. So we'll talk about that a little bit later. But that would be another one of those companies, especially with some of the announcements, they. Announcements that they had recently that I definitely would be keep an eye on, especially throughout this year.

[Rashad Bilal]

Pfizer, y'all need to sell the hymns. I don't know what's going on with Pfizer, but it's done. It's over with. We ain't did that or alive or well. But as far as getting that paperwork.

[Troy Millings]

In order, get your affairs in order, It.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's time.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's time.

[Troy Millings]

The red button.

[Ian Dunlap]

So stock market had nine days of a rally before today. So is this a sign going into spring and summer that we're gonna, you know, have upticks or is this a pump fake before A sharper decline happens.

[Rashad Bilal]

I think that the opportunity was so great that you could not pass it up now in that keeping the expenses low conversation. If you get a deal that's so remarkable that you can't pass up, have a ball by all the mirror you want to if you get 60 off. Right. The market was on such a sale that if you bought at the right time at the top of April, you were almost guaranteed a return. So I think people who missed out on those games and say like VO and like in that 475 spot, you were almost guaranteed a, a high return. So I think the market is going to continue to fight back and continue to climb. And if we're going to be very honest, after the election was decided, the market had ran up too fast and it just went back to the levels where it should be. And then people found a great spot to be able to buy in and they took absolute advantage of it. So I don't think it's a, a pump fake. I think we'll start to stabilize over the next couple of months and I think the end of July and August will be rough, but I think by end of the year we'll be okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I think the, the S P got back to like right where it was on November 4th.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep. Right.

[Troy Millings]

The day before the election. And so, yeah, I, I mean obviously uncertainty is still, could still certainly be a factor. Some of those tariffs are going to be kicking in in the next few weeks here. We still haven't heard what the farmer tariff is going to be. The semiconductor. We haven't heard what the numbers are going to be. Maybe they won't be. There was some promising news that China may be willing to talk negotiations. That would be promising. But if some of that can get cleared up in the next few weeks or so here. Yeah, I think we'll have a positive view or.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm sorry to China.

[Troy Millings]

My bad.

[Rashad Bilal]

Let's be friends. Market going soar.

[Troy Millings]

I ain't mean it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Rashad, I'll see you pondering. What are your thoughts?

[Ian Dunlap]

Can't tell. It's, it's a. So it all depends on what Trump wants to do and he's very unpredictable person. So, I mean, you talking about somebody that tweeted pictures of him with the Pope as. The Pope, as a new Pope.

[Rashad Bilal]

Maybe that's his grand desire. It's cosplay Halloween outfit.

[Ian Dunlap]

Potentially. Yeah, potentially. So it's, it's, it's a lot of variables that go into play here for sure. And we don't Know how it's going to play out. A company like Apple said they're going to $900 million impact from tariffs and that they're getting. They're getting it like the worst America as far as the tariffs. But China is actually. And China is actually putting down the hammer as well, kind of reverse engineering the situation. Like, okay, like if you do business with. So a company like Apple who's in the middle of China and America is trying to navigate and they. They're having pressure put on them on the Chinese side. Nobody's talking about that. And they're having pressure put on them on the American side. And they're trying to figure out ways how to go around that, which is India.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

But they're losing money. 900. That's almost a billion dollars.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's a lot.

[Ian Dunlap]

And it showed on their stock price. So we don't know. Every day there's a new tariff. You know, we talked about Hollywood films. So, you know, it is a very unpredictable regime for sure, to say the least. And I think everybody's hoping for the best. Everybody's hoping that, okay, yeah, you know, it's gonna smooth out. You know, everybody realized that it wasn't a great idea and they're gonna work it out and we're gonna come to the table. But you can't make sense out of nonsense.

[Rashad Bilal]

That is a bar.

[Ian Dunlap]

And you can't necessarily think that somebody's going to be a rational thinking person when they've proven that they have not been rational thinking for.

[Troy Millings]

I feel like that's what they're doing though. Right. It feels like they are trying to make sense out of nonsense. Like I'm still.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's what, that's what humans do, though.

[Troy Millings]

Yo, gas is a dollar 98. I have. Where is that happening here?

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, human nature. Human nature is to make sense out of nonsense. So if you've ever been in a toxic relationship and you normalize it and you dealt with somebody that's toxic, you. You make excuses for their behavior because you think like they think like you. It's hard to. For you to think like somebody that is irrational person. So you're thinking that the person is thinking just like you and they had a bad day or, you know, something just happened at work or, you know, it was my fault. And this happens all the time. This is, this is how abusive relationships get normalized. Because you are not thinking on the other person's brain. You're thinking with your brain and you're making. You're making sense out of their Nonsense. Until you realize that you can't make sense out of nonsense. It takes a long time to realize that you can't make sense out of nonsense. It may sound easy. It may sound easy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

But like I said, if you've ever been in this type of situation, you realize it takes years sometimes to realize, no, this is not normal way of thinking. This person is, is, is irrational. This person is completely different from most people, how they actually think. And I think that what's happening in America right now is that a lot of people are fearful. You watch 60 Minutes, as far as the, the legal community, the educational community, everybody terrified. They're very fearful of the American. So nobody's really saying anything publicly. And everybody's just trying to rationalize how this is going to make sense, how it's going to go back to normal. That's wishful thinking. Yeah, but it could not potentially go like that. That.

[Troy Millings]

So that, that's part of it. We were having this conversation the other night. It was, if it takes, say, two, what has it been, three months to erase all progress, Right. And it's abusive. How long will it take for people to realize, like, this is abusive and can we correct it?

[Ian Dunlap]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

Because like, every industry that you just named at some point has felt like this is a shakedown, and if we don't come and meet and if we don't come to terms, our livelihood is at stake. Right. That 60 Minutes piece with the law, I was just like, that's, that's pretty interesting. The, the department of Same thing. If you don't meet, your livelihood is at jeopardy. Right. So you're gonna. This is another thing we talked about negotiating. When you, when you're, you're fearful or when you have, you're not, you have no leverage. You have no leverage. Like you're gonna accept terms that aren't favorable for you. What are the repercussions long term? How long will it take for people to come out of that? That's like, that's what we're at stake at right now. Like, could it be five years? Yeah. He said he didn't want to run for a third term, but the things that he's put in place, the executive orders that he's put in place, the sustainability for that might be 10, 15, 20 years down the line.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, most people are more concerned about 100 gorillas versus one man. 100 men versus one gorilla. That's, that's more important to the average person because they've remixed that story at least 37 times. So what ends up happening. Is that once again going back to the abusive relationship thing, you know, And I was, even if you watch these documentaries, I was talking to somebody like, even like this, my manipulation when it comes to like a pimp and a prostitute. Right. And most people will look at a prostitute and be like, damn, like, how would you get yourself in that situation? It happens over the course of time and it usually happens in a, in a way that you don't fully, you're not even fully realizing it. And then by the time you realize that you're in a situation, you're embarrassed because you're like, damn, how did I let myself get into this situation? But it's, you're too far gone down the road to turn back. This is what America is in right now. A lot of everybody that's championed all of this, it's like, damn, like, it's kind of embarrassing that we even put ourselves in a situation. But now we are under the, the real, we under a real monster gorilla. Like, when you come to that type of. That's the real, like, and, and, and there's nothing you can do about it. And there's repercussions if you, if you try to turn backwards. So now you just try to move forward and you're, you're scared and you're trying to just walk on eggshells pretty much. And you're just trying to just make it through. But it's, it's a scary situation because at any given moment you can really get punished.

[Troy Millings]

Do you feel like people are. Majority of the people who supported it then feel embarrassed now? I don't, I don't feel like there's an overwhelming sense of embarrassment.

[Ian Dunlap]

I think so. Because when you, when you got people like, I mean, okay, so when you have people like Jim Kramer who's like, man, this is not what we signed up for. I ain't think about this just for him to say that. Imagine what he's saying off camera. When you got people like Jamie Dimon, who's saying, like, no, this isn't the best way to go about it. Like, this is going to lead to a recession. This isn't what we, you know, champion. Like when you have people like Ken, what's his name, King Griffin, for sure. He, he walked back. But the other guy.

[Troy Millings]

I see, I see what you think. Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

For them to make these kind of public statements.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Which some might see as soft, but that's actually pretty bold of them to actually in public. Right. But these are people that champion the regime now. You Start to think, damn, what are the conversations that they're actually having behind closed doors? Like, because they're losing billions of dollars.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

They're not. They're not functioning properly as far as how things are moving. Right. It's causing a lot of uncertainty. So if they're, if they're, if they're at the point now where they're starting to speak out publicly, then you can imagine the settlement that is had when there's no cameras on.

[Troy Millings]

So here's the interesting thing. Everybody you just named comes from a very niche environment. Right. Those are all people in the world of finance pretty much, which is. They're all 1% is the people that you just named. But those aren't the people who won the election. Those are people who might have donated to the campaign, but the person who. The people who helped him win are middle to lower class, uneducated population.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right. Now, if we're gonna be fair, they're having the same regret that most of us.

[Troy Millings]

That's what I'm trying to say. You think they.

[Rashad Bilal]

The sentiment is changing slowly. Okay, yeah. Now. Now will they. That's different from them not having the same core belief. The leader just has not done well for everybody in the comments who's like, what was this when the Biden covered. When Biden was in, I was the only black person that said he should be out of office when they could have jeopardized my life and career. Go like, stop watching clips because we was on that bandwag. I told you. Applause is the main advocate trouble. So we're saying here if he's not leading well, leading the country well and damn near cause a global recession from a bad plan that. And this is 20 years after the Bush fiasco. Another war we didn't need. That's above my pay grade. So I'll leave that one alone. This one I can speak on. So are they having some change of heart? Yes, because I'm getting a lot more messages from them now than ever. Will they publicly say it? No. Will the ideology change? No. But if I was a mastermind, wouldn't it be brave or wise of me to install some people who would cause this kind of mishap at scale to then allow me to run in 2028 or 2032.

[Troy Millings]

32. Now he out of here by now.

[Rashad Bilal]

Talking about the real mastermind.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, not that real mastermind.

[Troy Millings]

Okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay. All right.

[Rashad Bilal]

If I make Rashad uncomfortable. Yeah. It's time to go. Next subject.

[Troy Millings]

Next topic, please.

[Rashad Bilal]

Personal finance. For kids.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh yes, for sure. So okay, so let's talk about bitcoin. So bitcoin has rallied. Pull back a little bit today, but almost at a hundred thousand. Almost. You know, two days ago it was at 95,000. So Bitcoin is on the move and quietly. It hasn't been talked about a lot but it has rallied. It definitely has rallied from, from where it was even a month ago. It was at 64, 000amonth ago and now it's at 94, 000. So if it's up 30. No, a month ago it was. What was it that month ago it was at? It lowered, I think it lowered at 74. 74, 000. Yeah, a month ago and now it's at 94, 000. So $20,000 in one month.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's a great return.

[Ian Dunlap]

At the beginning of the year, before the year started I said that my, my picks for the year were Microstrategy and Bitcoin. That was my personal 2. MicroStrategy is also doing pretty good. We haven't talked about Michael Saylor in a while but yep, quietly Michael Strat. My it went from last month it was at 237 and now it's at 380. Yeah, quietly creeping up the the ranks again. So is this bitcoin, is this bitcoin rally something that is going to explode or when we see a pullback again?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, I mean every asset pulls back. But is it going to keep going up for a long period of time? Next 10, 15 years for sure. My question not to deviate too much is what the hell happened to Ethereum? Vitalik has not been visible. Ethereum has not moved. All you Ethereum Maxis, please tell me what's going on. But no, Bitcoin is going to do incredibly well. I mean we talked ad nauseam about how the banks have had involvement and it's provided stability for them. As a result the person has done well. But going back to April, around this time last month it was a great price to buy 7 bitcoin at 74, I'll take all day. All day. Like anything in the 70s, 72 range. 74 all day. If I get to swing at that pitch going back to Warren, like waiting for a big fat pitch to invest in, that's a great one. Then if it tops out at 100 and comes back down, it's just really about where to get in on a great asset. And all great assets are going to continue to rise.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, and it's a big weekend I want to give a huge shout out to my man Austin, one of our, our elite minds at uilu. We did a class in January and he was talking about the executive orders that have been put in place.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And one of the deadlines is actually today where every, where you have to create a budget neutral strategy to acquire Bitcoin and potentially any other cryptid crypto asset for a natural reserve. So on the 8th this Thursday, this is an important day. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the stablecoin bill, bringing us one step closer to the first ever piece of crypto legislation becoming law. First time ever that's happening this week. And so you can kind of see this rally towards bitcoin as we start hitting and getting closer to these executive order deadlines. You're starting to start to see moves. And it used to be, I know we were like, hey, Tesla and bitcoin kind of run in it in parallel. That's over with now. This is United States government, deadlines, legislation. And watch what the crypto space does.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean, if you watch the NBA playoffs yesterday, you saw an interesting commercial for Coinbase when they talked about bitcoin and it said, did you see it?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Ian Dunlap]

So anybody didn't see it? It was talking about how if you have all the bitcoin that's ever going to be created, you can fit it. If it was a coin, if it was a quarter, you could fit it inside a container, like a shipping container.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

And they, they did that. They showed the visual comparison of all of the money that's in circulation currently and all the money that's been print and it was like 100 million containers. So they, what they were showing is that the scarcity, the scarcity model when it comes to bitcoin versus the devaluation of the American dollar because the American dollar, I thought it was an interesting commercial to put on the NBA playoffs because, you know, a little complex but.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well timed, I think, and to make it mainstream.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, it says a lot about the times that we're in, but it also says that people gonna have to deal with bitcoin in some capacity. You know, some people still don't believe in it. Our guest a few weeks ago still didn't. He didn't believe in it. So only time will tell. That's the thing. Only time will tell. But it's been very resilient so far.

[Rashad Bilal]

And yeah, we'll continue to be.

[Ian Dunlap]

So, yeah, the other cryptocurrencies have not been resilient.

[Rashad Bilal]

Nope.

[Ian Dunlap]

And I mean, not just ethereum But I mean, xrp, have we heard anything from XRP recently? Like, this is a company that they said, okay, when they beat the case. When they beat the case. When they beat the case. Okay, well, we're still waiting. No, still waiting.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

All you XRP enthusiasts out there. Okay, I'll defer. We have a guest. We have official.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bitcoin is superior crypto asset. There's no question.

[Ian Dunlap]

Speaking of crypto, one of the premier providers for people to actually have easy entry to cryptocurrency is a company called Robinhood.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Good friends with the people at Robin Hood.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Interviewed the CEO a few times, went to their conference. And Steve Quirk is a person that we actually met in Miami at their conference. And, you know, it's interesting because we talk about the times that we're in right now, and a lot of it has to do with our people. Confident, right. So he's the chief brokerage officer of Robin Hood. So it's an interesting conversation to talk about the brokerage aspect right now and, and retail investors and consumer confidence and all of that stuff. So we're honored to have this, this segment in the show. So if we could bring Steve up. How's it going, man?

[Steve Quirk]

Thanks. Nice to see you again. Thank you.

[Ian Dunlap]

No problem.

[Troy Millings]

Our pleasure. Our pleasure, my guy.

[Ian Dunlap]

So, yes, as I said, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood. So you're in charge of the brokerage operation?

[Steve Quirk]

Yep, the brokerage operation. So that'd be everything, you know, the, the equity trading, the option trading, all the margin or we have yield products as well, you know, and yeah, listen, we've, you brought it up. You know, we have, we have, you know, almost 26 million customers and their average age is early 30s, but half of them, they're brand new to the market. So this is their first time investing in, you know, a lot of them haven't seen these kind of movements before.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, that's, so that's my question. So, okay. It's been a very unusual, to say the least, couple of months in the market. So you guys, like you said, you have a lot of new investors or maybe investors that are not as, you know, seasoned. Like they haven't gone through a bear market before. Right. Let's say. So how are customers navigating the recent volatility?

[Steve Quirk]

You know, so the, the, you know, we saw the VIX shoot up to 60 and, you know, I mean, look.

[Troy Millings]

You'Re good, Steve.

[Steve Quirk]

I didn't know I did change, so I, I thought maybe I got drop even, you know, look, I, I, I was watching some coverage of, of Warren Buffett over the weekend. You know, look, he's been around 90, you know, investing for 71 years. I think it is. And even he's saying, look, there could be challenges here because this uncertainty is really, if you're brand new to investing, it's a little bit unsettling. Look, other than your health, your wealth is the most important thing. And they just haven't been on the roller coaster before, at least this roller coaster. So I actually get it from my own daughters who are in their 20s. And you know, they're, they, you know, they, generally speaking, they take an allocated amount of money and they, you know, put it into the market every single month. But my one daughter just doesn't feel comfortable. She said, I just, I, I don't have a good feeling and I don't have a good understanding. So, you know, we have a yield product. You earn 4%. Listen, 4% is great. It's better than going negative. It's better than, you know, sitting in a bank and earning a tenth of a percent. So, so I mean, what we always try to tell customers and, you know, we, we help them is if you're uncomfortable with an investment, you probably shouldn't be in it. Yeah, you, you need to, you need to be comfortable because it is your money. And I think what people generally learn is it over time they become more comfortable in like, it's like a scary movie, the first scary movie you've ever seen. It's probably scares you quite a bit. But when you start seeing a bunch of them, you know, you, you kind of say, this too shall pass. You know, there's highs and lows in the market. And you kind of say, hey, I've been in this market long enough. I looked at the highs and lows, and I can actually draw a straight line and say, I, I know if I, if I persevere the way I should, these things shall pass. So the way they've been navigating it, to answer the question directly, is our customers have really been conditioned to buy the dips. It's been successful for them. Going all the way back to Covid, when I would argue the institutional investors were kind of getting rid of a lot of securities they didn't have confidence in, and retail kind of stepped in and, and kind of saved that market, which was.

[Ian Dunlap]

So you're seeing an, you've, you've seen an inflow of money come into brokerage accounts during down these, this downturn.

[Steve Quirk]

We have, we've a record 18 billion in deposits in the quarter. And I think what it is, is, you know, you hear people, customers talk about liking stock ABC at this level, and now it's at this level and they say, hey, I'm going to be doing this for 35 years. So I just think my job is not to market time. My job is to, to continue to invest through thick and thin.

[Troy Millings]

That's interesting, man. That, that speaks to the education around brokerages and around the stock market in general when you start hearing people talk like that. So especially from retail investors, that's very encouraging.

[Steve Quirk]

Well, I could give you guys credit too. I mean, I feel like this is our whole. The industry's job is to make people successful.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah. There's one of the things that you guys released in the quarter and we had the privilege of seeing a little bit before it was released to the public was Robin Hood Gold. And that's been a huge success. I know there was a 90 increase in subscribers. Talk about how the first almost year or so now, or maybe half a year since the product's been released, how it's been going. What have you been seeing from, from, from the audience?

[Steve Quirk]

Well, so we have a bunch of things that are components of it. The credit card, of course, which has been really cool. It earned you 3%. But then there are other elements where we continue to add value to that subscription, which is $5 a month, and one of them being yield, you can earn 4%. But we're up to almost 3.3 million customers that are part of that gold program now. And I think it's a good way for them to find value in whatever area they're interested in, whether it's on the crypto side or on the traditional brokerage side or even in what I'll call kind of lightweight banking. What we're really trying to do is make sure that what people really like is to be able to do, to basically handle all their financial needs in one place. They don't want to go to five different apps for different investing and banking and, you know, other things that they do, their credit card or savings or check deposit. So we're just trying to create an ecosystem where they can do that all in one place. It's really easy to see where everything is. It's really easy to manage it, and it's really easy to take actions, you know, if you want to do so.

[Rashad Bilal]

For all the parents tonight who may have kids that may have a similar fear, how do you stress to them when you're talking to your daughter? Like, if you Invest in this moment in 20 years, which I know she's not thinking that far, you're going to have an amazing return. How do you talk her to get over the fear, given the hindsight of our age and insight that we've had in the market?

[Steve Quirk]

I think what I, I think that the charts do it like if you look at a chart that shows compound, you know, compounding, the power of compounding. And then you just talk to them and say, hey, here's a chart that goes back to 1950 and the average return of the S and p is roughly 9%.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Steve Quirk]

So you're going to have periods where it's probably not going to be comfortable. But, and I always tell them I can't use the word guarantee, I'm not allowed in brokerage.

[Rashad Bilal]

But the high probability, there's a very.

[Steve Quirk]

Good likelihood that in 30 years you will, you will be very happy that you do that. And you know, I'm sure you guys have heard it too. The number of people that I've encountered that have started investing in, you know, late 40s or 50s, all they ever say to me is, man, I wish I would have started this.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Steve Quirk]

I wish I would have started earlier. I would have been in such great shape.

[Ian Dunlap]

So you had $18 billion come in, in deposits. That's actually, you know, obviously very encouraging as far as people buying a dip. But for options, how, how, how has that been for options? And are people doing long term options play? Are you doing more short term options play? Are they doing Nvidia? Like what, how did the options inflow look during this couple of months that we've had?

[Steve Quirk]

It's been really busy. We, the answer to the question is we, we have people who do both. So like, people can be very strategic and surgical with their option trading. So like, you know, I like to consider option trading, you know, particularly for people who have a portfolio. It's like, you know, getting insurance. And if I knew a storm was coming on a particular day, I'm not going to buy insurance for a month. Yeah, I'm going to buy insurance for a day. And so like I've been holding Apple forever. It's a, you know, I've got a 40 appreciation on this thing, but earnings are coming out. I have no idea what's going on with this tariff stuff. Who does? Right. So, you know, they say, hey, you know what? I'm going to buy a put for today and I hope nothing happens with it because it's going to cost me a little money, but it's going to protect that, you know, my, whatever percent gain I have. So people can be surgical with it, but there's also people who do it on a continual basis. Okay, I bought a stock, we'll pick on, you know, one and I like the returns I'm getting, but I want to check, generate some revenue. So I'm going to write a covered call on it every quarter and get a little additional revenue. And if, if the stock goes up so fast, it goes up, you know, 20 in a quarter, then you can take that stock away. I'm okay with that. You know, if I'm gonna earn 20 on a stock in a quarter, I'm down, that's like 80 a year and then I'll go back and buy it again. Right?

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah, that, that is, that is the formula. So I'm always interested, especially since you guys have the 24 hour training five days a week in seasons like what we saw last week when the max have is reporting and obviously this week, this, I think over 5,000 companies are going to report. No, not 5, 500 companies reporting like on Wednesday this week. How does volume look after close? Right, because we all, we all traditionally know 9:30 to 4:00pm but then you have people who report and then earning, you'll see they, they beat their earnings and the stock will go up. How is volume post 4pm so the volumes of.

[Steve Quirk]

Here's where. When we see the biggest increase in volumes, you're hitting the nail on the head. Even though earnings, even when earnings come out, which is right after the bell and that's intentional because you know, they don't want to move in the main session, typically it takes a while like so the earnings come out. Here's your number. Well, great. You know, the stock reacts, but then they start talking and their guidance means a heck of a lot more than what that number was like. Hey, you know, we had, we had.

[Ian Dunlap]

The best quarter ever.

[Steve Quirk]

But guess what? Next year we're gonna fall off a cliff, right? Yeah, that's at 8:00 at night, you know, so, so having the ability for, for customers to be able to react to this news when it's happening is super important and something that we've been sort of pushing on for so long because like people, you know, they understand. It's an electronic marketplace. We lived through Covid. There were no humans on trading floors and it functioned pretty well.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Steve Quirk]

So the idea that you need these humans on a trading floor. I came from a trading floor. I know this, you don't. The other thing that I think Is super interesting is the busiest nights we have are Sunday nights. Do you know why? You have a weekend full of news that happened and there's a lot happening in the world that you know happens on a weekend and that news is all bunched up. So 8:00 Chicago time, 8:00 Chicago time, that thing opens up and it's busy. Because everybody wants to protect a portfolio, take advantage of an opportunity and be able to capitalize that whenever they want. The final thing that I would say that kind of drives it is almost all of our customers are working. And the time when they do a lot of their research, when they do a lot of their education is not during market hours. They come home from their, from their whatever primary job they have and then they do some homework and they do some education and they figure out what they want to invest in. And they're often very frustrated by the idea that they got to wait for some, somebody to ding a bell the next morning at 9:30, you know what I mean? They say, hey, going to buy stock ABC At $10, I don't care. When I buy it. It's like telling me Amazon's closed. Why would Amazon ever be closed? Right, Ian?

[Troy Millings]

Guys, ask a follow up. Go ahead. When we met last year there was about a thousand stock equities and a few ETFs. Is the plan to incorporate more? What's the process of adding more to that 24 hour?

[Steve Quirk]

So we have this criteria that we use because what we don't want to do, we're still around a thousand what we don't want to do. And that probably covers about 85% of the volume of the market. What we don't want to do is get stocks in there that trade like three times a day because they're going to be really wide and it's going to be a bad experience and there isn't much demand for them. So I mean as more stocks get more volume we have a process where we add them, but we have a minimum volume threshold that and, and a whole committee that looks at them and says we, we don't want to, we want to make sure it's a good experience for customers.

[Troy Millings]

Gotcha.

[Rashad Bilal]

As a features trader, I have to ask what plans for 2025, 2026 with the features market? I saw the demo last year, loved it. But can you talk to us about the prediction markets and the futures markets and what you guys have planned there?

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah, I think the power of both of those are they're both, they're both 24, five, too. So the idea that I can trade futures whenever events happen is amazing. And the most, the example that everybody uses on the futures market was the first time this president was elected in 2016, the futures market was down almost 7%. And by the time we opened for the regular market trading, when the equities open, it was up 1%. So you basically could have made 7 or 8% in a day if you had access to those. So that's why people are so enamored with the idea of things that trade around the clock. And futures are those on the prediction markets. I think what we've discovered is, and the first thing we did in the prediction market space was around the election and we saw, you know, I would share this. 800,000 accounts opened and 600 million contracts traded. What people, you know, basically what it is, is it's a, you know, it's kind of like, here's the market. But what's really driving the market and the moves in the market? Well, it's right over here. It's the election, right?

[Ian Dunlap]

So why do I have to buy.

[Steve Quirk]

A stock that I think is going to go up? If this person's elected or that person's elected, why don't I just.

[Rashad Bilal]

Make a.

[Steve Quirk]

Prediction on the election, right? So it's kind of like what happened in, like in the, in the, in the futures market when they would, you know, they're doing things on the grains and, and they, you know, all the grains did was move on the weather. So they're like, well, why don't we just have a weather future, right? And so I think, I actually think you'll see getting back to earnings. I think what you'll see, and it's already being talked about on some exchanges, is you'll get something closer to, let's say, Apple. Again, Apple comes out with earnings. The earnings are great, but the guidance is terrible. People say, hey, I bought Apple. I did my homework. I, you know, had my estimate of how many phones were going to be sold, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I was right on everything. And my stock got smoked. That's terrible. So, like, what, where I think this is going to go is you'll see, you'll see actual contracts on what were the earnings, what were the employment numbers? What, what happened that I specifically did my research on that I was accurate on, not on, you know, the derivative of that. That made my, you know, whatever I invested in go south. Because that's super frustrating for people, you.

[Ian Dunlap]

Know, you know, you know what this Sounds like, right?

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

What does it sound like?

[Steve Quirk]

No, no, what it sounds like. Sorry.

[Troy Millings]

Sounds like prop bets.

[Ian Dunlap]

It sounds like prop bets. It sounds like prop betting. So, I mean, this is interesting because you bring up a valid point, right? Like the market. Tesla is a perfect example of this. Right. Tesla's revenue goes down 75% and the stock goes up. So it's like, okay, that's done because of sentiment that you think Elon Musk is going to step away from Doge and now he's going to put more time in. But that has nothing to do with the fundamentals of the company. So somebody's investing on, based off a fundamental. They've done that, they've done their research and they, they know that the revenue is going down and selling less cars. They, they should be rewarded for that, theoretically. But they're getting punished for that just because Elon says, I'm going to spend less time and watch.

[Steve Quirk]

It's almost like you separate those things because then you're saying, I'm just an Elon fan.

[Rashad Bilal]

Right.

[Steve Quirk]

I'm not, I'm not doing this because of the numbers or anything like that. Right. So let's separate these two. Right?

[Ian Dunlap]

So in the future, we could potentially see contracts of, is Tesla's revenue going down or not, or, and that's not related to stock price going up, but it's like, okay, I think Tesla's revenue is going to go down by 70. I think it's gonna go down by 50. I think it's gonna go down by 30%. And now we replacing bets solely based on that. If you get it, hit it on the Hill, you'll get rewarded even if the stock price actually goes up.

[Steve Quirk]

Yep. It also opens up a couple other tangents, too, because if you think about it like, I, look, I don't, I don't, I don't think I was predicting if Elon goes and helps, you know, with Doge, because, you know, the stock's going to get smoked globally because people are opposed to that. So, you know, if you're like, here's another vector where I can, you know, if I'm, if I'm geopolitically, that's another hedge.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Quirk]

I, I, oh, this is going to be a bad move for them. You know, I'm gonna take a, you know, a position that would, would make me successful if that does happen.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, because it's, the prop betting thing is interesting because it's like, for instance, boxing is a sport that's comparable to this. Right. Because it's it goes by a judge's decision, not necessarily by how many points you score. So you can, so somebody can actually land more punches in a boxing match and lose a fight. So you can say, okay, well, I'm a bet that this person lands more punches. I can't control the, the judge's decision. Yeah, but even if he loses the fight, I could still, but I'm still gonna win because he could potentially land more punches. But let me ask you this though, because I do have a question that I'm sure some people have. So margin, right? You guys have a, your margin book reached $8.8 billion. It's a lot. So how do you balance consumer demand for leverage with responsible risk management?

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. Because what you don't want to do is, see, we talked about in the beginning, you don't want to see people, you know, get out over their skis and not be able to understand, you know, the leverage is a great thing when it's working for you, but it's a double edged sword when it's not.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's, oh, it's terrible.

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah, yeah. So I think, I think what we try to do is just educate people to the extent that we can on just how they should invest and when they should. And part of it gets back to what we talked about initially. Like if you're ever in a position where you're uncomfortable with the position, you shouldn't be in that position. Like you shouldn't be in that position. You should either trim that position down a little bit to where you feel comfortable or you shouldn't be in it. And that extends to leverage as well. So I, I think from a margin.

[Ian Dunlap]

What'S your advice for people that, because we never really talked about this before, what's your advice for margin? People that want to use margin, that.

[Steve Quirk]

They want to use it? Yeah, I would say if you want to use it, I would be, I would be very methodical about the way you use it. So in other words, like, here's the way I would think about it. This is me personally, if I see an opportunity in a stock or in something that I think is really good opportunity. Like I've been following stock ABC for a long time. The fundamentals look amazing to me. I think there's an opportunity that others are missing and it just doesn't look like it's trading where it should be trading. That to me is like opportunistic. And I say, you know what, with the amount of money that I have in my Account, I think I have an opportunity to get outsized gains. Would I advocate that people do that on a continual basis? No. No, I would not. I would say, you know, you always have to come up with a plan, stick to your plan, and that's good or bad. So if that goes against you, then you have a plan to get out of it the same way you have a plan to get out of it if it goes in your direction. And I think the thing that we've been really, really pleased with seeing is that when people stick to a plan, like, they, you know, you can't change your plan in the middle of the movie. You have to stick to that plan. And when they do, I think that we tend to see more success. But so the direct answer to the question is, I think what we tend to see is people using margin episodically when they have. When they think that there are opportune times, you know, for that to be a good thing for their portfolio.

[Rashad Bilal]

Was last month.

[Steve Quirk]

One of them was last month, you know, in the eyes of some customers. I think so, yeah. Because I think they tended to see, even though our margin balances came down, that's just because the balance, you know, the balance, everything came down. It's 20 lower, you know, But I think you see people like, you can watch them become more aggressive when they think something is at a level that they feel is really attractive.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Steve, you guys sit in a unique position. Obviously, you said the average age is about 35 and so of a retail investor, but you are seeing sophisticated trading behavior. Right. When you just talked about margins, even options, buying low during. During opportune times. What are some of these other characteristics that you're seeing? Obviously, you've been in this space in finance for a number of decades.

[Steve Quirk]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

What are some of the other atypical things that you're seeing from such a young age demographic when it comes to trading?

[Steve Quirk]

You know, what, what's. What's kind of interesting is, look, so I came from the world of Schwabs and TD Ameritrade. The average customer age is 55 to 58. Their accounts are way bigger because they've been doing it for much longer. And, you know, they're at the end of their. Or toward the end of their investing.

[Ian Dunlap]

What was the average account for the Schwab? And just count over.

[Steve Quirk]

There is like 250. Average account at Robinhood's about 7k. Okay, so there's a couple things. Number one, I. I absolutely reject the idea that just because I'm younger and my account smaller. That I'm not as sophisticated. I can tell you with absolute certainty that's not the truth. But I think that the thing that's kind of ironic is there's a lot of similarities between these customers even at that age with that account size and the younger ones with the smaller account size. When the market starts doing what it did, has done in the last month, becomes very volatile. Customers move away from individual securities and they trade broad based ETFs. They trade the spider, the IWM, the QQQ.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Steve Quirk]

Because here, here's their logic. This market has moved down 20 in a very short period of time. I like stock abc, but I don't have as much certainty that it's going to rebound as I do that the market is going to rebound. So it, and by the way, this happens across the industry. Like you can see the volumes across the industries. Broad based ETFs become a bigger percentage at Robin Hood at all these other places. And it's just a safety factor for customers. Like they want to, they want to be opportunistic, but they like you're protecting yourself. Right. Like if there's some anomaly with one stock and I'm wrong and it goes down 50%, that's ugly. If there's some anomaly with one stock and I bought the S P 500, it goes down a penny. Right.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm glad you said this because something I've been saying for a long time. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's right in line with our philosophy for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

On the AI side, I have a question for you. What plans do you guys have for AI in terms of integration on the platform that you can tell us about? Because I, I think at some point there will be some kind of integration into Robinhood Gold. But is there anything you can tell us about how you can use AI to become a better trader or investor on the platform?

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah, we're doing a lot of it. Like a lot of financial services companies we started internally. So I mean efficiencies and helping people. But I think one of the first things we're doing and one of the things we talked about at our Gold event was Robinhood Cortex, which is essentially using AI to, you know, if I have a portfolio or I have a watch list and I have interest in these securities, like anything that's happening, any market moving news, you, you know, we aggregate it and get it to you right away, the second iteration of that will be okay. Well, now I want to know, you know, I'm bullish I'm bearish. I'm, you know, neutral. You know, what is a. What is a good strategy that you think might be able to assist me in whatever that investment thesis is? And that's where I think, you know, that's where really interesting. And that's the next iteration.

[Rashad Bilal]

So, like a real time AI Advisor.

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah, exactly.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, Steve, thank you for your time. Before you leave, one last. One last question.

[Steve Quirk]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

The Trump administration.

[Steve Quirk]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Interesting choices that they've been making so far.

[Rashad Bilal]

Are you.

[Ian Dunlap]

Are you bullish or are you bearish on the political leadership as far as how it's going to impact the stock market?

[Steve Quirk]

I'm.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm.

[Steve Quirk]

It's weird. I'm bullish on some of the things that are being done. I'm bearish on the way they're being done.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm.

[Steve Quirk]

I'm actually bullish on some of the things I think they needed to be. Some of the things needed to be addressed. I just don't like the way they're being addressed. And I would also argue that, like, in the interest of, like, stop telling us that it's all going to be good and, you know, and that we should understand what the changes are. Nobody understands.

[Rashad Bilal]

No one gets. It's a Hollywood tariff.

[Troy Millings]

Including the person saying it.

[Steve Quirk]

I have more clarity on how much water my shower can flow now than I do on what tariffs are going to be in some country. So I would argue, like. Like, let's get the messaging down so that, look, we're all in the market all the time. Like, what we don't like is uncertainty and we not give us the rules and we'll play them right.

[Troy Millings]

So we'll see. We. We appreciate you.

[Rashad Bilal]

I appreciate you so much, man.

[Troy Millings]

As always, send love to Vlad and Nora and the entire team. Yeah. We look forward to seeing you guys again.

[Steve Quirk]

All right, thanks again. Thanks for having me.

[Troy Millings]

I appreciate you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Appreciate you so much.

[Ian Dunlap]

There you have it.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. It sounded very similar to Steve Eisman when he was saying that. I agree with some of the things. I just don't like how they're being executed. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Execution is off.

[Troy Millings]

Same sentiment. Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. And etf. Flight to safety. Something that we've championed saying. I've been saying which ones? V O O v t I vgt qqq. Yeah. IWM. If you want Russell exposure, there's international ETFs. Investing is not that hard.

[Troy Millings]

The last presentation was pretty much based on that. Like, I literally said, these are the ones because of exactly what he's talking about. So that's Interesting.

[Ian Dunlap]

In times of uncertainty, you got to have some level of, you know, protection. And like you said, when, when things go down, you want to. It's this. We. I know the stock market's gonna go up. I don't know if this company's gonna go up.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right. Like that's, that's a difference. I know, I know the general NASDAQ will go up. I don't know if this one individual text.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I think it's interesting too from. I mean we can see this as we go out and we see people more that that idea of the market's going down. I'm losing money, I'm taking my money out. I'm never doing this again.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, it's going away.

[Troy Millings]

You don't hear that anymore. It's like, oh, the market's down. This is an opportune time to buy. Which is like. That's really encouraging.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, by the dip is something that was actually championed during the crypto run of 2007.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

About a dip is something that, you know.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Has become part of cultural vernacular. So I think like he said, people are buying a dip. $18 billion was poured in. I think that's a record breaking quarter for them. So, yeah, I think people are understanding now that it's not a time to necessarily panic. But buying the dip is not a strategy either. You gotta know what you're actually that.

[Troy Millings]

That's like when we talk about COVID there was a lot of negative impacts. That's one of the positive ones where people happen before and they took advantage of it and like, here's something like that comes again. Let's take advantage of it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. And go to quality. Because even like a company like Zoom or Zillow, they haven't recovered. But the cream share rise to the top. I know a lot of people are fans of GameStop, but just buy quality and if you don't know what to do, go to indexes and ETFs. It's gonna be for those you are starting out and you're fearful. If you buy the indexes first, then you begin to buy individual stocks. It'll make your journey a heck of a lot easier. It's really hard for the spy or Q. Q. Q. To actually go out of business.

[Troy Millings]

I think he said one of the most important things was watch us Big facts.

[Rashad Bilal]

I've been telling you face.

[Troy Millings]

We gotta give ourselves, you know, every now and then pat yourself on the back. Ian Rashad, myself, like, yo, a lot of that education happens because of this.

[Rashad Bilal]

Type of Movement and it was not here prior. I appreciate y'all.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, sure. Invesco, qqq. Everybody should have that in their portfolio.

[Rashad Bilal]

Investment with Invesco. Deal with BlackRock.

[Troy Millings]

Anymore?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Black Rock.

[Troy Millings]

Invesco as well.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, man. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Vanguard.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shots of Vanguard. I have a slogan for you next week. I love y'all for sure. Rashad, if I made a dumb purchase, what should my dumb purchase be?

[Ian Dunlap]

If. If you do make a dumb purchase.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, come on.

[Troy Millings]

No, no, save it for Wednesday. Save for Wednesday. I got a bunch of ideas for you, bro. I got a bunch of them. I got a list.

[Rashad Bilal]

You ready to clip me up?

[Troy Millings]

All right, I'm putting that in the notes. What should your dumb purchase be? I don't think you'll do it, though. Like, you're so conservative.

[Ian Dunlap]

Have a conversation about these bags, too. Because I did, actually. Somebody. Somebody was. A lot of people had feedback about the clip that we had about the designer bags. And so, you know, there was people that was actually in the comments. And then I actually spoke with a person. They were saying that our take was off.

[Rashad Bilal]

Misguided.

[Troy Millings]

In what way? Because of depreciation of the bat.

[Ian Dunlap]

They said that Birkin bags appreciate over the course of time. There is a marketplace to sell them. You can sell them relatively easy. Most people that are just buying Birkins have to buy them from secondhand because you have to establish they gave a whole relationship.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, you can't walk in.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's a liquidity issue. And you can't scale that. That's.

[Troy Millings]

That's a part. Yeah, there is a market for it. The clientele for that market. I mean, good luck.

[Ian Dunlap]

So, yeah, they gave a whole. They gave a whole thesis on why. But he's buying a Birkin bag. Is it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Was this a woman or a man? That's going to determine my response.

[Ian Dunlap]

It was a woman.

[Rashad Bilal]

Never mind.

[Troy Millings]

That is such an expensive. And even Chanel bags, like, even now. I've been into the store a few times. I'm looking. What's the Chanelli? I'm looking at the bag that I bought maybe four years ago and it's up like $6,000. The same exact bag. No, not allegedly, bro. Actually, I'm telling you, bro, I got.

[Rashad Bilal]

The minis are up $3,000.

[Troy Millings]

I bought it. I remember when I bought it, I went back to the store, allegedly, maybe over the past couple days, and I looked at a different color jumbo. Five thousand dollar difference in price.

[Ian Dunlap]

All right, the price. The price is 5,000. Yeah, but has the value going up $5,000. Because there's a difference.

[Troy Millings]

No, well, here's what.

[Rashad Bilal]

Here.

[Troy Millings]

No, no, no, no, no, no. Here's how. Right. If I have. Well, not I have, but my wife has one that's in perfect condition. Maybe she's wore it once. That nine thousand dollar bag can now be sold at that, that market price.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, potentially. Potentially.

[Troy Millings]

Or it could be sold a little bit under the market price, which makes it even more desirable because you can't get it if you have the retail.

[Ian Dunlap]

If you have a buyer that's. That's willing to pay for it. In theory. In theory.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, that's all business.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, but some things have higher liquidity than others. But why did the price of the bag go up $5,000? That's the question.

[Rashad Bilal]

When you are the leader in the market, you can do what you want to do.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's price manipulation.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, that's free market structure.

[Ian Dunlap]

But free market structure still has some level of guardrails that have to be protected. You can't go price gouging is, is illegal.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I mean they, they put the price, they set the price, the demand is there.

[Ian Dunlap]

Price gouging is illegal.

[Troy Millings]

It's like, why Harlem's 150 cash right now? Well, they're not even. What do they call them now?

[Ian Dunlap]

Air Force ones?

[Troy Millings]

No, they don't call them. G Phasos. I think they call them.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm not that we grew up.

[Troy Millings]

They was. They went from 79 to 99. Now they weren't sure. Yeah, the shoe was the same.

[Ian Dunlap]

Inflation.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, inflation.

[Troy Millings]

That's what happened to the back.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, close.

[Troy Millings]

The leather went off.

[Rashad Bilal]

But yeah, maybe we'll talk about it on blackout. But since the sister brought up, I have no pushback for it.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. Why did we just skip to Birkin? Like when did people just like, oh, I'm buying Birkin bags.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like, I mean having a thirty thousand dollar bag and without thirty thousand in savings or investing is a mistake.

[Troy Millings]

Without two hundred in your purse.

[Rashad Bilal]

Facts. Not that sister. But it'd be some of y'all who want to sit down. Maybe your maxis and y'all be sleeping on a twin bed. That makes no damn sense.

[Troy Millings]

Bad living in a plastic bin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Stop.

[Troy Millings]

No knock to anybody that's doing that.

[Rashad Bilal]

No. But if you are having an auction selling, you call me. I quit being conservative.

[Ian Dunlap]

But, but for the, for their defense, they'll say, okay, you say that the Birkin. But there's a lot of dudes would bust down Cuban chains that have never opened a brokerage account. Either person, they have a hundred thousand dollars in questionable jury.

[Rashad Bilal]

Y'all having fake moissanites is crazy questionable.

[Ian Dunlap]

Jury to say the least.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

With no real estate portfolio and no brokerage account.

[Rashad Bilal]

No stop.

[Troy Millings]

No life insurance.

[Ian Dunlap]

That happens all the time.

[Troy Millings]

They equally need to be educated for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

What's worse?

[Troy Millings]

Sure that's great because we don't know.

[Rashad Bilal]

The dude's over index.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Was the Birkin gifted? The Birkin was probably gifted. More than likely from the dude who bought the chain.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hey ladies. I'm still. Hey. I already talked about on blackout. But if you can get you a little simple. Get you a Birkin and reselling the fact. I'm not mad at it.

[Troy Millings]

You've eased up on the sims. You have. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

You just shouldn't do it. But what do I know But Troy. Wednesday. Conservative. Charlie. I mean come on. My bad, you know.

[Troy Millings]

All right, we got some ideas.

[Rashad Bilal]

Liquidity event.

[Ian Dunlap]

The price of oil. Oil prices have dipped around 58 a barrel. What's your forecast for CREW from here and how much lower can it go?

[Rashad Bilal]

Worst case scenario, I think crew can get to 40.39.93. May take 5 or 6 months to get there. If we get there, amazing buying opportunity if you are trading the crude market or buying it long term. And then probably about next time it will be back up to the 90s. So crude is very cyclical. They go in these big cycles of years when oil went negative. I don't know how the hell that happened in the futures market. First time in history. And then two years later it got to an all time high. So they can get the 39, 98 around the area. That would be an area while I would be interested in buying anytime it's got to the 39 to 40 level. It was definitely time to buy if you look historically. So. But I wouldn't worry about this. We have so many other things on the table that we should be worried about. Crew probably isn't even in the top 50, but. And there's been a steady decline from that exorbitant pricing of 120 of a couple years ago. In 22.

[Troy Millings]

Maybe we can get the $98 a barrel. I mean a gallon.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, maybe. And that's probably like in Idaho some random place.

[Troy Millings]

Please just send me a picture. Tag me and I just want to see it.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, you can just AI it now.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, this is AI. I'll tell you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Matter of fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

What?

[Troy Millings]

You're right. You're right, bro.

[Rashad Bilal]

1.98. I said man, that was like the price when we was in college. What? So.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay, oil, Oil, Palantir. Palantir has stock dropped. Then it's back up again and it's up over 10 over strong AI and defense contract news. What's your ideal entry point for Palantir?

[Rashad Bilal]

Going back to that mastermind. If I can get it at 65, 61 or even that 98, 93, I would love it. One of those two prices, I think Palantir in the next year and a half probably should get to 158.95. For moral reasons, I still don't love it. As I said from the very beginning. But if, if you look at Alex and then the person who is the chairman of it, you cannot argue with their path and track record. So for that reason I do see it didn't have a precipitous increase in pricing. Yeah, just morally I don't like it. But you cannot deny they are a blockbuster stock. And if you've invested it, you've got gotten great returns in it.

[Troy Millings]

If you've invested in this year, you've had a hell of a hell of a year over. Even over the past maybe two years when it was trading maybe at $9 to see where it's at now. You, you don't like it because of the technology.

[Rashad Bilal]

That, the technology piece. Okay, yeah. Even the mastermind, one of greatest entrepreneurs all time, like you can't argue. I may not like his personal political leanings, but in terms of what he did in startup land, that, that's the, that's triple H for sure. Trump is Vinnie Mac. It's about to be over. Listen. And someone say, well, how do you like Andy Real but not Palantir. I just think that the way things have been done in terms of how we are policed, that is going to scale 100x because of that software. Now if I'm leaning towards that political leaning, all brilliant software, Microsoft too. So if I wasn't black, I probably would love it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sure.

[Troy Millings]

Government contract.

[Ian Dunlap]

And another thing too about this bag situation is you, that goes. No, no, this goes back to white supremacy also because they convinced you that anything that has a European designer name on it is better. Swiss chocolate comes from, from Ghana. All of these leathers from Italy comes from Nigeria. So this is something. We was at a dinner the other day and they were saying like Vladimir Putin has said this about African leaders before and it's true. And he was like, you know, it amazes me when African gets money. When an African gets money, he sends their children to go to school in Britain or Switzerland, and they go shopping in Paris and they go on vacations in Italy. But when they. But when they want to get. When they die, they want to get buried in their village.

[Rashad Bilal]

So Putin said that.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. So it's one of these things. And the same thing with black people in America. Right. Like, you're seeking the validation of other people. You can't wait to go to a fashion show or we're. I don't even wear designer clothes, honestly, unless I like it, but I really don't.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, okay. But this custom.

[Ian Dunlap]

My closet is not designed. I don't go shopping and, like, in those type of things, because it's like the clothes is not going to fit you anyway. I say that to say we really got to reevaluate the way that we're spending our money because all of these luxury brands are just marking up their items.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to him.

[Ian Dunlap]

But the only reason, or the only reason, the only reason why they have validation is because they're from Europe.

[Rashad Bilal]

True.

[Ian Dunlap]

How many luxury brands come from other parts of the world outside of Europe? Forget Africa. Any part of the world. How many luxury brands. How many luxury brands are there outside of Europe?

[Troy Millings]

Just a handful.

[Ian Dunlap]

A handful. Exactly. Not a lot.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And even if they are luxury brands that are from America and they've gone to Europe to manufacture in some way, how do you think of Ralph?

[Rashad Bilal]

I love Final Touch.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. Ralph Lauren.

[Ian Dunlap]

I want to look at Ralph's version as a luxury brand. I'm talking about, like, luxury brand. Like. Yeah, but Tom Ford had to go to.

[Troy Millings]

That's what I'm saying. Even if they did, they. They went over there and became the head of Gucci.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. You had to go to Europe.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

So I'm thinking of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gooch, that type of.

[Rashad Bilal]

The whole LVMH tree.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, the whole LVMH tree.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's Europe. That's European. Specifically, France, Italy, Like a few countries in Europe, not even a whole part of Europe. Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Think about it. These are the same countries that colonized the whole world, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

They don't want to hear that. They trying to get lit and, you know. But it's. It's cool. You see that stack price. But now for when you go to the organization charter, what LVMH on. I'm like, all that culture talk. They own the culture. Oh, yeah, they own the culture. Like, all that. We need to come together. You see that family tree? Oh, man, they look like that Roc Nation tree. And then like, yo, what you drinking.

[Troy Millings]

The whole same family stock club too.

[Rashad Bilal]

Much Once I thought.

[Troy Millings]

Well.

[Rashad Bilal]

I want to text chubbs. Y'all paying $12,000 for them Chrome hard jeans. Is that what they look like? What look like? Edge used to wear them in WWF. I said them. Not even that. Five twelve.

[Troy Millings]

It's 12,000 for a pair. Damn.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. An emergency come up. You can't get your kid. That's crazy to me. That's crazy that I did not know that.

[Troy Millings]

Wow.

[Rashad Bilal]

I said wow. The boy got over on y'all now with Kendrick. This one. That's right.

[Troy Millings]

But the. The AI has spoken. The national average for regular gasoline is approximately 3.17 cents per gallon. The lowest state average is found in Mississippi 2.75 cents. Followed by Oklahoma and Tennessee. Recent claims suggesting that gas has dropped below $2 per gallon have been fact checked and found to be completely inaccurate.

[Rashad Bilal]

We all have misspoken. I have two squares.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

But a good trade. I know y'all be asking when is a black company going to go publicly traded? It's hard to do so when y'all give all your money to those other brands.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Go vest in lvmh.

[Ian Dunlap]

Or when you openly support. How many black jewelers do you know?

[Rashad Bilal]

1. 2.

[Ian Dunlap]

Once again they convinced you. Diamond district. That's a. That's just a random street in New York City. But they convinced you that you have to go to the diamond district in order to actually get the best quality diamonds. The half of the time you're getting ripped off half of the time.

[Rashad Bilal]

Facts.

[Troy Millings]

That's 50. Yes. Not. Not you. I know you got. Yeah. Not you. Other 50 of people. Everybody say it wasn't them.

[Ian Dunlap]

So where are you getting your diamonds from? You getting. You're getting your. You're getting your clothes. Your Italian leather comes from Nigeria. Your Swiss chocolate comes from Ghana. The Israeli diamonds comes from South Africa.

[Steve Quirk]

What?

[Ian Dunlap]

You notice a common theme here?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Yep. And I get the criticism. But y'all a lot of. Y'all be giving a lot of money to them other. Other cultures at scale and becoming right to invest fest Talking about we need to get together as a black group habitually.

[Troy Millings]

What?

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Can I run down some earnings?

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure.

[Troy Millings]

Let's do that. Man. Obviously Palantir and hims and we'll talk. Hims is interesting. And I said we would bring it up a little bit earlier but start out as a telehealth company for erectile dysfunction and now has turned into something.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's a lot of y'all who drink too much Moet and had an issue too. That's why him's on the rise.

[Troy Millings]

Last week they announced their partnership with Novo, who produces with Govi. And so now you can get WeGovy, which is the weight loss magic pill. Well not pill dose right now. I think they're in trials to get the pill. I know Lily's ahead of them in terms of pill form, but now you can get it as a prescription through hims, which is huge because I think HIMS was trying to establish their own weight loss drug. So now to have a partner like them, that, that does, that does make him a very interesting prospect over the next two to five years for sure as weight loss pills and weight loss solutions become more paramount than ever. So that'll be. That was today, Tuesday. You. I don't know if you said dead or not, but AMD will be reporting so we'll be anxiously watching that.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm very injured.

[Troy Millings]

I'm interested to see how the obviously we know where they are in the GPU market but the, the CPU market is, is going to be important from a graphic standpoint. So we'll see where they're at. Super Micro will be reporting as well. We already know what they're going to be reporting. Obviously they had to put their, their paperwork in and if they filed, they filed in time. But we'll see what the future guidance looks like for them. Arista Networks will be reporting as well on Tuesday. Wednesday big day we got Disney arm will be reporting Vistra app Lovin a company that we said yes we had an incredible run and looks like to be rebounding. We'll be reporting as well on, on Wednesday. And then Uber. Uber is a company we got to definitely watch. Thursday we got Shopify, Coinbase, DraftKings. This is that quarter where you're going to have the playoffs from the NFL and all that betting and you're going to have March Madness and the Masters. All these prop bets that happened during this quarter will be part of this and so that should be an interesting quarter for DraftKings and Cloudflare. We talked about security in, in the the AWS. I mean the cloud economy, Cloudfare as a company we definitely have spoken about before and that we report on Thursday as well.

[Rashad Bilal]

Uber's almost at its all time high so 86.22 right now so they're doing incredibly well. If I can put a pair trade together. I was short Pfizer probably down to 17 and be long hymns. Some of these legacy companies are just managing things incorrectly. So a few people have been asking me for a few weeks about hims. I do like the company. I can see it probably running into resistance. Around $60. But if you're long hymns now I would stay in but I would definitely be short. Pfizer.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, that. It feels like that might be the way of in, in terms of doctor visits going forward. During the pandemic, we saw it happen. We couldn't go. You had to do telehealth. But now they can do the telehealth. You get to have a consultation with a medical professional and then they can also provide prescription.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

For you. So that's pretty interesting.

[Rashad Bilal]

Doesn't have another blockbuster drug in a while either. Once they lost the license to a Viagra. Tough.

[Troy Millings]

The blue pill.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Having desire and then not having your dick work after is crazy. You focused on the wrong my boy.

[Troy Millings]

It's your mind, right.

[Rashad Bilal]

For real.

[Troy Millings]

Get your mind right.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'll be wearing stiff legged jeans. And don't be stiff when it matter who you crazy. Hey yo.

[Troy Millings]

Hey yo.

[Rashad Bilal]

Pause.

[Troy Millings]

That's wild.

[Rashad Bilal]

Flip it up, clippers, go to work.

[Ian Dunlap]

So what is, what's your review of Trump's first 100 days in office?

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm not qualified enough to answer this profoundly because I'm not a political expert. So I'll tally it back to you. If I would give him a grade, I would give him probably C minus, I think. Great idea on paper, horrible execution and the fact that even if you don't like the political leanings of those who may have supported him, he has an amazing cohort of people he could have leaned on for advice in business and the political sphere. And just from what I heard, he just like Kanye. One day he'll stick to one thought and he'll meet with somebody else and it's out the window. So underperform for me.

[Troy Millings]

C minus.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Very lenient, very bell curve.

[Troy Millings]

You got a great form.

[Ian Dunlap]

For Trump. Yeah, I mean I don't think it's, it's gradable. I don't think it's great.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's why I rock with shoddy not in he keep it real for the people.

[Ian Dunlap]

Because waiting when you go grading, you're only, you're participating in the system. Right. So a grade to me means I'm showing up to class and I'm taking the test and I'm actually doing my homework and then based off of my performance, that's how I'm going to get graded.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, you don't show up if and then fail.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, he's been there in Mar?

[Ian Dunlap]

A Lago Na. Not applicable. So I don't think, and I don't think anybody has the authority to grade him. That goes back to another thing too. Like you got to have a superior to actually grade you. Right. There's no.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's a bar.

[Ian Dunlap]

The public. Nope.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay. That's a shot in the heart before. That's a great point.

[Ian Dunlap]

Nope. The public is not. Is not powerful enough to. To.

[Rashad Bilal]

What do you think the people that selected him think his greatest.

[Ian Dunlap]

He's above. He's above. He's above. He's above reproach. Hate him. I love him. He's above reproach because he's done things that we've never seen with no apology. So he's put himself in a level above reproach. When the Supreme Court has a unanimous decision, that's almost impossible with the Supreme Court. They have a unanimous decision, which is pretty much a mandate to tell you, this has to happen. And you say, no, it's not going to happen. Now what's the recourse for somebody that's openly defiant to the Supreme Court? We don't know because we've never really seen that happen before. This is actually precedent that he's setting. So it's like, okay, what, what's going to happen when your parents tell you to do something and you don't do it, but you put them in a situation where now it's awkward? Because before that.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, it's not. My mom was putting both the ass on it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Until they don't. Because before that there's no precedent. Because it's like the president is. The Supreme Court has to tell you what to do, right? Yeah, but what are we going to do? Arrest them, hold them in contempt? Have the military come. No, that's not going to happen. He's already positioned the military to be on his side for sure.

[Troy Millings]

He didn't. Well, he didn't say no yet. He said that he doesn't know. And he has lawyers who told him that he shouldn't do anything just yet.

[Ian Dunlap]

He literally said that he's not coming back. He said that. He literally said no.

[Troy Millings]

And so then that's when they asked.

[Rashad Bilal]

Or the wrong person.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, after he said that, they asked him. Well, the Supreme Court has said this. Are you not going to abide by what the Supreme Court says? He says, I don't know. I have lawyers who told me I should just let them handle it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Which means, no, he's not going. I'm not doing it. No. And then he Put a tweet out that said, no, he's not coming back. So whether you. Whether you would like the situation. You don't like the situation. It's unprecedented. Did. The idea of checks and balances is out the window. Somebody said can override something that is supposed to be the law of the land and the voice of the land, you say, no, no, not doing that. That's unprecedented. So he's. He's a. He's above reproach.

[Troy Millings]

All right, well, what about the things that he has implemented?

[Ian Dunlap]

What about the grade?

[Troy Millings]

So, like, on a tariff, would you give that. You can grade that. No, no, the idea. I'm just talking about singular issues.

[Ian Dunlap]

He's. What he's done. He's. He's changed the whole country. The world changed the fabric of the whole country.

[Troy Millings]

So you give him incomplete. You give him. Na. Not.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not.

[Troy Millings]

Apu.

[Ian Dunlap]

Above. Above reproach. He's above reproach.

[Rashad Bilal]

Joseph, I know you're in the comments, so I'm gonna give a little. If he changed the country. We have to be honest that the country was broken before he took office.

[Ian Dunlap]

For sure, it's been broken.

[Troy Millings]

Has he changed it, or has he allowed people to feel proud, to express their true viewpoint?

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, for sure. But if my thing is too on the other side of the candidacy, I wish they would have done some of the things the way that he did and just be unapologetic about them and not play this vanilla. Which caused the shellacking in the post.

[Troy Millings]

Somebody. Somebody posed this question, and maybe y'all could tackle it on. On Wednesday, they were like it. There's been third parties before in American politics. Will there ever be a third party that actually has a legitimate chance to, you know, become never, never to.

[Rashad Bilal]

Too much money at play to me, too much lobbying power, too much institutional pressure. And then a lot of times, they may have great intent, but you end up splitting the votes. Right. And I still feel bad for Bernie Sanders. It's a conversation I don't want to have, but he was railroaded. A lot of this goes back to that. We could, of course, correct it. And they snatched that opportunity from him. He was just as wild as Trump just on the other side. But he was fearless in approach. And then when he could have went, they took the opportunity from. So, yeah, yeah, interesting.

[Troy Millings]

We'll see. Yeah, that was part of the argument. It was like, who would have enough capital to do it or get behind it? Then it becomes a swing. Right. Like if an independent gets 3% and that takes away from somebody who potentially won. So.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, Stephen, a lot you press Ryan, but.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, he told me. You saw when he. The president spoke to him. That was interesting. No, no, he was. He called in. He was on with Bill O'Reilly in Como.

[Ian Dunlap]

What do you say?

[Troy Millings]

He was like, I love him. He's a great entertainer. I think he definitely should be. To take part in there. I think he should run.

[Rashad Bilal]

Getting an endorsement from Republican commander in chief when you run a Democrat, it's crazy.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. That was wild.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. I see you playing both sides.

[Troy Millings]

My boy said people love him. He's a great entertainer. He'd be great. He has the personality.

[Rashad Bilal]

But if we're gonna be real, better chance than aoc, Democratic Party. Y'all didn't listen to me last time. Listen, this time it's not her turn yet. Don't send her out to the slaughter.

[Troy Millings]

Don't do it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Don't. Not. Not yet. Not yet. Too soon. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

Well, it's. It's been an eventful Monday. Shout out. Can I give us. I gotta give a shout out to. Is it Malia Obama? She directed this, uh, Asia Wilson, uh, night commercial audition. Phenomenal.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay.

[Troy Millings]

That A1 commercial. If y'all haven't seen it, go check it out. I'm a. I love Asia Wilson. I think she's an incredible player.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Shoe is fire.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. Once in a lifetime.

[Troy Millings]

The commercial.

[Rashad Bilal]

I didn't see it. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. And then I didn't even know she was the director of it until after, and I was like, oh, wow. Yeah, they got this one. This is. This is a good campaign. Yeah. Shout out to Malia. And shout out to Asia Wilson. I know the WNB is about to start in a few weeks. Yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. I'll kill Shoddy for his take on Caitlyn, but it's panning out.

[Troy Millings]

It's bad enough I'm gonna add to the topic list, today's May 5, which there's a huge trial that's starting here in New York City, so maybe we'll talk about that on Wednesday.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. They're picking the jurors today. Today. Well, and tomorrow. And I think proceedings start on Thursday for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Be mindful, Ladies and gentlemen, get your tickets to Invest Fest. Invest. You deserve to be rich. Trueinfest.com.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. Shout out to Brady. Semi exhale. Send my shirt to Shoddy. P.O. box, please. A four pack, please.

[Ian Dunlap]

Thursday, six.

[Rashad Bilal]

LA Leakers. Who? No, I'm joking. I love LA Leakers. Y. Y'all on the run. A historic documentarian of LA history. Appreciate it.

[Troy Millings]

Appreciate it. Cali love.

[Ian Dunlap]

Cali love. All right, all right, guys. It's been real.

[Troy Millings]

It's been real. Happy birthday again, honey. I love you. My Chanel connect. I appreciate you.

[Rashad Bilal]

You the reason the price of the bags going up. My boy.

[Troy Millings]

Y'all be good, man. Love is love. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. We can't go, fellas. We can't go. How wrong would we be if we didn't recognize the most important way?

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, yes. Yes.

[Troy Millings]

Happy Mother's Day bands to all of the women in our world, in your world, I mean, where would we be without our mothers? Love is love. I got my. My day planned out already, so happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. We love you. We love you.

[Rashad Bilal]

We love you. Shout out to my mother. Appreciate you, man. Shout out to the mothers out there. Without you, it would be nothing. Fellas, if you haven't started your shopping, they be playing on the express delivery, so order. Yeah, yeah, you got.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, it'll tell you arise before Mother's Day on the. On on the shipping. So, yeah, make sure y'all take care of that, all right, y'all? Peace.

[Ian Dunlap]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Troy Millings]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Ian Dunlap]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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