Stephen Kates, CFP®

This is the r/wallstreetbets comment to the SEC on quarterly earnings requirements. Chef's kiss. Yes, it is a wall of text, but it's worth a read.

The U.S. economy is still defying the odds.

The amount of leverage households have today is a fraction of what was in the system in '08. Homeowners have an enormous amount of equity and optionality with selling. Anchored to 2022/23 prices, existing homeowners just don't have to sell for the most part.

Stocks hit new highs due to strong earnings. AI-fueled tech leads the rally, and improving jobs data eliminates hopes for Fed rate cuts in 2026. Subscribe today. It's free. Substack: open.substack.com/pub/stephenkat… LinkedIn: linkedin.com/pulse/business…

@GreenPlusAnE Patience is key. I have gone months sometimes years without making a new individual stock trade. When the opportunity arises with conviction you make a move. Until then, keep funding those indices.

I have a large share of assets in index funds, and you probably should too, but if you have an intuition about a field you've researched, trade on it. I'm not that smart, but I've beaten the S&P consistently since 2018 in my active portfolio. Worst case: you learn something.

love this lede from my old boss @yardeni: “Before the Age of AI, economists were taught that there are only three factors of production, namely, Land, Labor, & Capital. The job of economists is to optimize the allocation of these scarce resources to maximize output (ie, real GDP). Now, economists should recognize that there is a fourth factor of production: Data. This resource is unlimited.” one of my favorite charts to boot

@DustinNickerson Can't wait.

Raising teens is fun if you want someone to think you’re the dumbest human alive while simultaneously needing your help to do anything

@JesseTinsley Live interviews are just straight up hard. Had he been better prepared for CNBC, this is an answer he could have given, and would have been welcomed by the CNBC team. They don't want interviews to be dead-air either. Good on him for getting back on the horse.

This is why you go on Fox News not CNBC. As i said yesterday the combined dilution is 60% Ryan confirms this here. The 50% stock is rolled equity this is very common in M&A. Lastly this proves my point that CNBC likely blindsided Ryan as this is how most CEOs would speak if they were given the questions prior. People acting like he can go wing it on live air on the spot without getting his Legal teams feedback are foolish.

Nonfarm payrolls come out on Friday. It's important to understand the labor market we have, not the one we wish we had. open.substack.com/pub/stephenkat…

@0xRuzy Gen Z is neither the most indebted nor the poorest. Those talking points are completely false.

“The average Gen Z person has about $400 in emergency savings and is $94,000 in debt. Statistics show it’s the poorest generation in American history. Do you think Gen Z is incapable of saving money or being financially responsible, or do you think it’s something else? Caleb Hammer’s answer was surprising.

3mo average has been below 1.0 since August 2025, but is also at it’s highest level since then.

New home sales rose for the second month in a row, thanks for lower prices and builder incentives. However, it's not enough to make up for the sad state of the existing housing market.

Private hiring rate the highest since Feb '24.

The US labor force is a living, breathing map. 🇺🇸 Watch the number of counties with labor forces in structural decline spread like a virus across America between 2010 and 2025. Shout out to @JMBDaecius for the idea to do this. #Economics #LaborForce #Trends

@HazelAppleyard Anyone who thinks they would fail this should admit to themselves that they have a massive spending problem.

Surely you would just not spend anything?

Jensen is one the smartest and most far seeing folks the world. "If an AI scientist warns people that AI is going to permeate across radiology and radiologists are going to get wiped out, it might seem helpful but it's hurtful. If we convince everybody not to be radiologists and we now need radiologists, that actually is hurtful to society. "It is hurtful to convince all the young college graduates not to study software engineering because we are going to need more software engineers than ever. That's hurtful." "Scaring people with nonsensical things, which are not going to happen, that this is an existential threat, there's a 20% chance that is is existential, that's ridiculous. "That it's going to wipe out 50% of college level jobs. "That is it going to completely destroy democracy. "These kinds of comments are not helpful. They are made by...CEOS. And you become a CEO, maybe you adopt a God complex and somehow you know everything." Brutal. And right.

@Sseverson_wtr says the economy/markets can "absorb" higher oil prices w/out a slowdown, Jenny Harrington of @gilmanhill says in the #MoneyLifeMarketCall that #AI mania has made some great non-AI plays cheap, & @StephenGKates of @Bankrate on new housing affordability stats.

@Sseverson_wtr says the economy/markets can "absorb" higher oil prices w/out a slowdown, Jenny Harrington of @gilmanhill says in the #MoneyLifeMarketCall that #AI mania has made some great non-AI plays cheap, & @StephenGKates of @Bankrate on new housing affordability stats.

Big surprise announcement from Jerome Powell. “I’m not leaving!”

NEW: There were *four* dissents on the Fed’s rate pause. Three bank presidents wanted to ditch the easing bias, and a governor dissented for a rate cut. The last meeting with four dissents was in 1992.