The Biggest Bagholder Operation In History

Below are some of the most interesting things I came across this week.

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Individual investors’ enthusiasm for equities continues to set new records. Scott Rubner reports, “Retail’s appetite to buy the dip has remained a dominant force in early-2026 flows. Year-to-date, average net notional traded on our platform has been 2.5x larger on S&P down days than on up days.”

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This is a trend Elon Musk is looking to take advantage of in ways nobody has done before in what Robin Wigglesworth suggests could be, “the biggest bagholder operation in history.”

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Just as these massive, private AI companies attempt to come public all around the same time, though, there are signs the AI Bubble may be starting to leak some air. “Current capex related to model training—which is most of spending, and most of data center load—looks increasingly misguided and even stranded,” writes Paul Kedrosky.

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Meanwhile, the economy outside of the AI boom is not doing so hot. Jim Paulsen writes, “Technology may be the tail wagging the dog, but the rest is a recession by any other name!”

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And if you were curious to see what the opposite of a “bag holder operation” looks like, look no further. “Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel said he will use all of his take-home pay to acquire the conglomerate’s stock for as long as he’s in the role. To that end, Abel bought up about $15.3M of the shares this week. Berkshire also restarted share buybacks on Wednesday,” reports Bloomberg.