Warren Buffett once said, “The most important item over time in valuation is obviously interest rates. If interest rates are destined to be at low levels, it makes any stream of earnings from investments worth more money.”

With those words of wisdom, there are perhaps no greater beneficiaries to an environment where the Fed is lowering interest rates (and potentially keeps them lower) than small cap stocks.

In fact, if we look at the above chart of the Russell 2000 vs the S&P 500 over the past 52 weeks (as of this writing), gains in small cap stocks have been roughly on par with the largest 500 listed companies, returning about 30% each.

Now, these on-par gains of the Russel 2000 are particularly noteworthy as the S&P 500 includes the heavily weighted, and market outperforming Magnificent 7.

As a group, these seven stocks (MSFT, AMZN, META, AAPL, GOOG, NVDA & TSLA) have returned nearly 60% YTD. And, over the past two years, these highfliers have returned nearly 150%… wildly outperforming the index.

They’re called the Magnificent 7 for a reason, after all.

A quick side note: The other 493 companies in the S&P 500 have returned about 35% during this two-year timeframe.

So, why has the Russell 2000 done so comparatively well in 2024? Especially after having such a dismal 2023 (returning a negative 1%)?

Well, as you know, the Fed not only began lowering interest rates, but the market itself began anticipating a continuation of the rate cut cycle. Simply put, in this rate lower environment, small cap stocks are having a field day… And it’s a field day that could last a few years…

Regardless of whether the Fed continues to cut in 2025 or not.

But you don’t have to take our word for it.

On December 2, Wharton professor and economist Jeremy Siegel told Business Insider, “I’m expecting a much quieter year. I mean, we’ve had two blockbuster years, 2023, 2024, so I’m expecting an S&P probably in the zero to 10% range…

“Maybe for once, we will see relative softness on the big highflyers that have been so good for the market the last two years… if they do falter next year or even really don’t increase, it’ll be hard for the S&P to make anything like the gains that we had in 2023 and 2024.

“Maybe the Mag 7 will do nothing next year, and those small and mid-sized cap stocks, which are really so undervalued compared to the others, are finally going to have their day in the sun.”

And that potential day in the sun may not only be found in the Russell 2000, but in individual small and mid-cap stocks as well… the ones “which are really so undervalued compared to the others,” as Mr. Siegel says.

But it’s not just a highly regarded Wharton economist who thinks small cap stocks could be in for a wonderful 2025.

On December 3, MarketWatch said, “While the statistics are favorable for small caps moving forward, so are the fundamentals. The U.S. economy continues to hum along, the Fed is on its path to lower interest rates, and earnings growth remains strong. Even the recent spike in 10-year Treasury yields has done little to deter small-cap investors.”

Now, we’re not saying the S&P 500 will be a lower returning index than the Russell 2000 in 2025 as Mr. Siegel seems to suggest…

Only time will tell.

And we’re not saying you should ixnay the SPX, dump Mag 7 shares and go all in on small caps, as MarketWatch seems to suggest may already be happening…

But should history (and the Fed) be any indication, 2025 could be a very good year in the small cap space.

So, you should certainly be paying very close attention to the Russell 2000, to individual small cap stocks, and you should be getting yourself prepared for what may turn out to be the best year for small cap stocks… this decade.

“It seems to me that all of the things I’ve done leading up to this period were in preparation for what I’m living now.”

This sounds like a quote from a person who has recently retired; is living out their days playing golf, sitting on the docks fishing the days away… or jumping from cruise ship to cruise ship, port to port, doesn’t it?

But the quote continues… “So, it’s rather an enviable spot to be in. I wouldn’t think of retiring.”

That was Betty Reid Soskin, quoted in 2014 when she was 93. Today, Betty is 103 years old… and retired just two years ago as America’s oldest full-time park ranger.

Clearly, we’re not all like Betty Reid Soskin.

In fact, most of us plan on retiring by at least 65, and plan on living an “ideal” lifestyle in retirement.

A recent survey by Provision Living on the “ideal lifestyle in retirement” showed that 34.9% of upcoming retirees wanted to travel, 20.8% said they wanted to spend their time with family and 14.3% said they just wanted to relax.

It should be noted that nobody in the survey said they wanted to work until they’re 100. Like we said, we’re not all Betty Reid Soskin.

But therein lies the issue.

Money.

With the average American now living to 77.5, most of us will have at least a decade of bills to pay, regardless of our “retirement lifestyle.” That’s an average of 12 years of groceries, 12 years of utility bills… 12 years of housing, transportation, healthcare, taxes…

See, your 9-to-5 may come to an end, but the bills never do.

So…

In order to live the life you’ve earned, how much money do you need for retirement?

This is a question you’ve probably asked yourself dozens of times already, and it’s a query that has generated over 1.16 billion page results on Google.

However, the answer to this question is not so simple. We’re all very different, and as the Provision Living survey showed, we all have different goals for retirement.

But let’s make a few assumptions. Let’s assume you’re 45 years old, want to retire at 65, you currently make $100k a year, have no IRA, no 401K and no other retirement vehicles.

Now, most experts agree that you’ll need to have banked between 10 and 12 times your salary when it comes to retirement time. That means anywhere between $1 million and $1.2 million. No easy task, right?

Well…

Here’s where compound interest comes in. If you put $10k now, and are capable of putting $833.33 a month into the S&P 500 (and reinvesting dividends), every month from now until you turn 65…

You could be at least half-way there, with around $725k in the market.

That $833 represents 10% of your pre-tax monthly income, and with the historical returns of the S&P 500 being 10.7% a year (over the past 30 years) …

You could be sitting on nearly ¾ of a million dollars.

And if you do have retirement vehicles already in place, are funding them, and you still invest that $833 a month in the S&P, you could be far better off. In fact, you may reach or surpass the goal line.

Now, considering $833 is near the average monthly car payment, this simple monthly investment in your future can really pay off. But what’s better, at 65, you could cash out the entire investment and pay yourself (pre-tax) about $70k a year for a decade (cashing out wouldn’t be wise, but that’s a story for another day).

Of course, all this assumes the S&P 500 continues its 30-year, with dividends reinvested, historical returns.

But you should never assume anything.

You see, although it is wise to be invested in the S&P for the long-term, you should also consider investing a few bucks here and there in single stocks. Stocks that have high upside potential… stock that could turn into long-term, high yielding investments themselves.

But… how can you find them?

Well, while we won’t be giving any individual stock picks in this space, we do suggest you try SentimenTrader’s free simple Backtest calculator.

When you go to the page (HERE), simply input any ticker you believe has, or have heard has potential. Then click “Run and Send Backtest Results.”

Or try the Kelly Calculator. The Simple Kelly Calculator is a tool designed for stock investors to optimize their investment strategy. By inputting your starting capital and win rate, this tool calculates the optimal percentage of your capital to invest in stocks.

Both of these calculators are free.

Now, you may be a rare bird like Betty Reid Soskin and want to work until you’re 100. And that’s fine.

But if you’re like most of us, you should take control over your financial future immediately and consider subscribing to SentimenTrader.

In early 1848, a New Jersey-born carpenter made an astonishing discovery. It was a discovery that would completely change the trajectory of his life… the lives of hundreds of thousands of others…

And eventually, the lives of millions more.

Because what started out as an ordinary day, checking on the performance of his hydro-powered sawmill along the American River in the Sierra Nevada foothills, would soon become one of legend.

You see, on that Monday morning, January 24th, James Marshall noticed some odd rocks had settled in his mill’s tailrace. Rocks that were unlike any he’d seen there before. They were yellow in color and completely malleable.

Forget the sawmill…

Marshall knew that what he just came across was far bigger than any timber cutting business.

“Boys, I believe I’ve found a gold mine!”

And find a goldmine he did. In fact, that sawmill was sitting atop one of the largest, yet to be discovered goldfields in North America; the areas surrounding Coloma, CA.

Now, as word of the discovery spread, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world flooded into the area, looking for their chance at striking it rich. The California gold rush was on.

Over the course of the next few years, more than 12 million ounces were pulled from California’s gold-rich ground (well over $30 billion in today’s money). Of course, with that much gold being found, some people (the lucky ones) did indeed strike it rich.

But, as you know, the biggest fortunes were not made by the gold miners themselves, but by entrepreneurs selling various goods and services to the miners. Picks, shovels, food, news, lodging, “companionship” … overalls.

In fact, of those who got truly rich, few of them ever put shovel to dirt. Levi Strauss, for example, died in 1902 with a net worth approaching $1 billion in today’s money. He didn’t mine a single ounce of gold… but made durable overalls that miners couldn’t live without.

In business, we call this the “sell shovel’s principle;” servicing booming market participants with necessities, rather than servicing the market directly.

And yes, this business principle can be applied to the new gold rush in artificial intelligence (AI).

However, the “sell shovels principle”, when applied to AI, has one ironic twist…

And it’s a twist that may be at least partially responsible for the remarkable rise in the price of gold.

Now, before we explain the twist, and you may already know what it is…

Have a look at this chart:

This is the gold spot chart and the Nvidia stock chart over the past five years, starting in 2019.

Remarkably, the charts visually line up quite well. Especially beginning in 2022, when AI was just becoming all the rage. Perhaps not so coincidentally, 2022 was the same year OpenAi launched ChatGPT, taking AI mainstream.

Of course, there are macro-economic reasons why gold has been on fire, but why would a hot tech stock like NVDA and a seemingly unrelated commodity’s charts track so closely?

Because, ironically, gold is among the new “shovels” in the AI boom, and it’s a “must have” in order to produce digital wealth.

Get this: according to research published this Oct. 28, from S&S Insider, the AI chip market was valued at $61.45 billion last year, and is expected to reach $621.15 billion by 2032. That’s more than a 10-X expansion of market value.[1]

And inside all those AI chips?

You guessed it, there’s gold in them there chips!

You see, just as picks and shovels were a necessity for gold miners in 1849, gold is a necessity for AI chip makers today. Why? Because gold has unique conductive properties that are absolutely necessary for the efficiency of semiconductors.

Simply put, gold is superior to most other materials at moving electricity, and because of the insane computing power of AI chips, using gold in them is a must.

Or even simpler… the market needs AI chips, and AI chips need gold.

Now, clearly, we’re not saying the price of gold will increase 10X by 2032 (mirroring the expected growth in the AI chip market), that’s highly unlikely, but we are saying demand for industrial gold could very well rise.

In fact, in Q1 of this year, demand for industrial gold rose 10%.[2]

Now, with demand for AI chips expected to rise at a CAGR of 29.4% through 2032, it stands to reason that industrial gold demand could follow; although unlikely at a near 30% CAGR.

So, will the gold bull market continue (as of this writing, it’s down 8% from ATH)?

Are there still AI or gold stocks out there that offer solid upside potential?

Well, give this a try…

Go to SentimenTrader’s free simple back-test calculator (HERE), and type GOLDLNPM where it asks for a ticker symbol…

Or enter the ticker for any gold stocks.

Then click “Run and Send Backtest Results.”

Once you do that, try inputting NVDA …

Or any other AI stocks.

And enjoy!

[1] AI Chip Market Expected to Reach USD 621.15 Billion by (globenewswire.com)

[2] Technology | World Gold Council

Today, perhaps more than any time in history, American citizens are taking their financial futures into their own hands. With roughly 100 million brokerage accounts, holding over $20 trillion in assets, this is today’s American retail, self-directed investor. [1]

But, while the number of self-directed investors, and the value of assets held in brokerages has grown substantially over the past decade, the difficulty of amplifying long-term wealth has not changed. It hasn’t changed at all. In fact, it’s estimated that as much as 90% of retail investors end up on the losing side of a trade.

You see, while opening a brokerage account and funding it is easy, investing for profitable returns is not. However, there are at least ten proven strategies that can help retail investors beat the odds and grow their wealth over the long-term…

And one strategy that can help build wealth over the shorter term.

Now, before we show you these ten proven long-term strategies (and one short term strategy), it’s important to know why so many self-directed investors fail at growing wealth….

And the main reason for such failure?

Well, because of today’s “on demand” world, where social media has shortened our attention spans, too many retail investors (especially those who’ve recently opened trading accounts) are looking to hit it big, quickly.

As you know, this “get rich quick” mentality will only lead to failure.

Of course, perhaps because of this mentality, the internet is now flooded with fake investment gurus and scammers looking to take advantage. And take advantage of not only first time traders, but longer term investors as well.

If you pick any type of investment vehicle, short-term or long, and Google how to invest in it, chances are you can find fake gurus who are “experts” in that vehicle. But the likelihood they are actual experts is, well, practically nil.

As the late, great Charlie Munger once said of fake gurus, “If you take the modern world where people are trying to “teach” you how to come in and trade actively in stocks… well, I regard that as roughly equivalent to trying to induce a bunch of young people to start off on heroin.”

See, it’s the allure of getting rich quickly (and pervasiveness of fake gurus) that almost always ends up being a deadly habit, rather than a winning strategy. The investing public should treat these fake gurus for what they are, simple dopamine dealers.

So…

 What are the ten long-term strategies that can actually lead to wealth building?

• Avoid get rich quick schemes… avoid fake gurus.
• Start investing small and early.
• Have a full understanding of your risk profile.
• Avoid investing in a single sector or industry; diversify.
• Never be emotional about your investments.
• Put in the time, do the research, use reliable sources.
• Always pay necessary taxes; and put money in vehicles that can alleviate them.
• Consider investing a portion of your portfolio in index funds or ETFs.
• Use the power of compounding by reinvesting dividends.
• Balance your portfolio and allocate assets based on your investment horizon.

Yes, these are slow, boring ways to grow wealth. But they work. Take the S&P 500 for example. Had you invested $100k, ten years ago and reinvested the dividends, here’s what would have happened…[2]

Nominal Total Return:233.60%
Annualized: 12.80%
Investment grew To: $333,600.37

Clearly, those are wonderful returns… all without having to open a TikTok account to find a fake guru who’s only real expertise involves taking your money.

Now, is it possible to see returns like these in a shorter timeframe? Yes, it is indeed possible. However, you must avoid fake gurus, and like long-term investing, you need to put in the time, do the research and use reliable sources…

Reliable sources like SentimenTrader.

What is SentimenTrader? It’s Aether Holdings’ flagship asset, an independent investment research firm that blends qualitative insights from decades of market analysis with a quantitative approach enhanced by machine-driven technology solutions…

Offering both short-term and longer-term investment strategies. You see, SentimenTrader is no group of fly-by-night social media “influencers” …

It’s been offering professional-level insights, research and actionable investment information for 23 years and counting.

[1] State Of Retail Trading: The Evolving Retail Trading Landscape (forbes.com)

[2] S&P 500 Historical Return Calculator [With Dividends] – Of Dollars And Data

As a company that strives to establish itself as a preeminent technological enterprise, dedicated to the development of platforms tailored to empower the investing community with invaluable insights…

What business verticals does Aether Holdings currently operate in?…

What verticals does it look to enter into?

And what does the research say about these business verticals/industries?

Well, the simple answer to the first two questions is this:

Aether Holdings, through its current asset (SentimenTrader) and potential future assets, seeks to tackle some of the most important issues among self-directed investors.

Issues like…

The lack of independent, actionable and well-researched financial information.

The lack of intelligent, well-thought-out investment ideas.

And the lack of cutting edge financial technology, like artificial intelligence.

Now, because of these issues, retail investors have been having a tough go at it. A very tough go, in fact.

You see, research has shown that as many as 90% of self-directed traders lose money. This means they’re essentially “capital donors” to the smaller percentage of winning traders.

Even self-directed, long-term investors often end up on the wrong side of the market.

As MarketWatch said, “Going all the way back to 1926, it turns out that a stunning 59% — roughly three out of five — of all the stocks ever quoted on the U.S. stock market have made their investors poorer.”[1]

Meaning that for many, a buy-and-hold strategy, without proper research, may not be a winning one.

Now, investing may be as easy as watching a TikTok investment “guru” video and clicking the “buy” button on a brokerage app…

But being on the winning side of a trade, either short-term or long-term, well that’s clearly a different story.

Enter Aether Holdings.

Today, with well over a fifth of all trading volume in the US stock markets coming from retail investors, and with over 100 million people having retail brokerage accounts…

Aether Holdings seeks to equip this demographic, the retail investor, with professional-level tools necessary to better perform in the markets.[2]

Simply put, our goal is to serve the self-directed investor.

With that said, here’s what recent research says about the verticals we are in now, and have plans to operate in, in the future.

Reports and Data: The Online Investment Platform Market value was $8.12 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $30.42 billion in 2032.[3]

Global Market Insights: The Stock Trading and Investing Applications Market size was valued at $24.1 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to reach a value of $126 billion by 2032.[4]

Dimension Market Research: The (AI) in Fintech Market is expected to reach a revenue of $70.1 billion by 2033.[5]

Precedence Research: The Global Financial Analytics Market size was estimated at $7.39 billion in 2022, and it is expected to hit around $22.09 billion by 2032.[6]

Verified Market Reports: The Financial Research Software Market size was valued at $118.65 Billion in 2023 and is estimated to reach $282.71 Billion by 2030.[7]

Now, it’s not only the goal of Aether Holdings to be a market player in each of these growth areas…

But to penetrate them with the retail investor as an end user, in mind.

If you’d like to learn more about Aether Holdings, our approach to the retail investor market and how we hope to address its needs, feel free to contact us HERE

[1] Most stocks end up losing you money. So what’s a stock-market investor to do? – MarketWatch

[2] The Power Of The Retail Investor (forbes.com)

[3] Online Investment Platform Market Size 2023, Forecast By 2032 (reportsanddata.com)

[4] Stock Trading and Investing Applications Market Size Report, 2032 (gminsights.com)

[5] Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Fintech Market is expected to reach a revenue of USD 70.1 Bn by 2033, at 17.0% CAGR: Insights by Dimension Market Research – FinTech Futures: Fintech news

[6] Financial Analytics Market Size To Hit USD 22.09 Bn By 2032 (precedenceresearch.com)

[7] Financial Research Software Market Size, Share & Growth by 2030 (verifiedmarketreports.com)