usdaed

Investing, even in modest sums, early in one’s career, allows those savings to enjoy a most agreeable period of compounding. It’s a bit like planting a beanstalk, really. A small initial investment, nurtured over time, can sprout into something quite extraordinary. And if one is clever enough to shelter these funds within a tax-advantaged IRA or 401k – a decidedly sensible move, if I may say so – the growth is all the more pleasing, unburdened by the grasping hand of the tax collector.

The closing bell on December 31st hadn’t changed a thing. The Dow, the S&P, the Nasdaq – they’d all gotten a little fatter. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. They rarely do. They just tell you what happened, not how it happened, or what’s waiting around the corner.

The valuations, they are… ambitious. A man could lose his life savings chasing such illusions. Prudence, then, suggests a different path, a more grounded approach. One might consider the behemoth, Alphabet, the parent of Google. A giant, yes, but one with pockets deep enough to weather the storms that will surely come for these smaller, fragile startups.

Should this effervescence subside, certain equities will find themselves… exposed. One identifies two, not as predictions of failure, but as observations of inherent structural vulnerabilities. They are not necessarily destined to collapse, merely… to experience a more acute manifestation of the underlying condition.

To speak of shifting fortunes, of seeking alternatives to the established order… it is not to dismiss the leviathan, but to observe the currents. In 2026, the weight of expectation, the hum of necessity, will fall not on those who build the tools of war, but on those who forge the sinews of a new age. Broadcom, with its silicon heart, offers a different promise – a promise not of dominion, but of connection.

Last year, 2024, was a bit of a wobble, mind you. A 52% decline. Enough to give even the most seasoned investor a twitch. I wrote back in December that once the growth numbers perked up – and, crucially, if they did perk up – investors might remember why they’d been interested in the first place. It’s a bit like a slightly neglected garden; a little tending and it can bloom again. It wasn’t a particularly profound observation, but sometimes the obvious is overlooked in the general panic.

This here index, it’s been on a tear lately. Up 43% in ’23, another 28% in ’24, and a further 20% last year. Seems like it can’t be stopped. And the wise old timers around Wall Street, they’re whisperin’ that this bull market – the seventh since 1990, mind you – has legs. Might just keep dancin’ through 2026, they say. Now, I’ve seen enough cycles to know that “always” and “never” are words best left to fools, but the numbers do tell a story, and it’s a curious one at that.

This James Anderson, a Scotsman with a keen eye for what folks are buildin’ – and buyin’ – he’s the one spinnin’ this tale. Spent near forty years watchin’ the markets, and he’s got a knack for pickin’ winners. He saw the promise in Netflix, Alibaba, Amazon… names that were nothin’ but whispers a while back. And he put his money where his mouth was, and made a pretty penny doin’ it. A shrewd one, that Anderson. He noticed these companies weren’t just sellin’ goods, they were sellin’ the future.

Looking at the chart, it’s… well, it’s rather intimidating. It looks a bit like my attempts at yoga – a lot of upward movement followed by a slightly panicked dip. Units of Cryptocurrency Lost: 3. Hours Spent Staring at Line Graphs: Approximately 87. Number of Times I’ve Considered Becoming a Goat Farmer: 5.

It’s a diversified fund, which, let’s be real, is investor-speak for ‘we’re spreading the risk so we don’t look completely incompetent if something goes south’. It holds the usual suspects: Samsung, Alphabet, AMD, Taiwan Semiconductor… the big players. You know, the ones that probably fund entire countries. And, thankfully, it wasn’t a complete disaster zone. It ended the year up 32%, according to those people who track these things. It moved with the Nasdaq, mostly, but managed to stay ahead. Which, in my book, is a win. A small, slightly grubby win, but a win nonetheless.