🤣 I absolutely hated Lebron. Until this year. Cue that music

7 years ago today, Fran and I walked away from our broker-dealer to start Opulus. No mahogany office. No sales scripts. No suit-and-tie culture. We didn't have a plan so much as a conviction: we could build something better if we just stopped asking permission. A handful of clients said yes. So did some friends and family. About 50 people trusted us with roughly $12M. That was the whole company. Today we work with close to 200 families across 32 states. Median age 41. We're closing in on $115M under management. And somewhere along the way, the thing that used to get us in trouble became the thing that built the business. We went from being banned from social media at our old firm to sharing our thinking every single day, for free, so people can either use it themselves or bring us in to do it with them. Between me and Fran, that's grown into about 27,000 followers on here and 4,750 people who subscribe to our newsletter. I believed in 2019 that we were building something worth building. I did not believe it would look like this. I'm grateful for every client who bet on two guys with no track record and who didn't want to wear a suit and tie to the office. I'm grateful for the supporters, and honestly the critics too. You sharpen us whether you mean to or not. Most of all: my wife and our three kids gave me the room to take this risk in the first place. None of this happens without that. And Fran. Seven years in, he's not a business partner anymore. He's family. If you're an advisor, or really anyone, sitting on the idea that you could do this differently, betting on yourself is still the best decision I've ever made. Thank you 𝕏. — Ryan

5: Real payroll, and this is the one people underestimate. I run mine through Gusto. Withholdings, W-2s, quarterly filings, and state unemployment payments all handled automatically, without you touching a form.

3: The credit card too, same logic. Also Amex, for the same reason as the checking account: real separation from personal expenses.

2: A dedicated business checking account, separate from personal. I run mine through Amex. Every salary payment and every distribution needs to move through it, cleanly.

1: File the election first. Form 2553 has a real deadline attached, and missing it means waiting a full year or untangling a messy late filing.

Every client question this quarter is really the same: “Do I need to do something?” A century of data points in the same direction. The investors who came out ahead weren’t reacting. Their portfolios were built so they didn’t have to. --- * Student of the Market disclosures:

7. My favorite chart in the deck. Two investors, $1,000 each, 1926. One captures 100% of every bull and bear market. The other, just 85% of both. 100 years later: • 100%: $23.7 million • 85%: $24.9 million Losing less beat gaining more.

6. Higher rates changed the math on alternatives. Since 2001, when rates sat above 3%, alternative strategies averaged 5.5% to 8.2% a year. Cash: 4.3%. Bonds: 4.5%. With the Fed on hold, the 0% rate playbook isn't the playbook anymore.

5. Bonds are doing their job again. From 2022 to 2024, stocks and bonds fell together 14 times, the longest streak since 1926. Since 2025: stocks dropped 6 times. Bonds finished positive in 4. A stock and bond portfolio isn't dead yet.

4. "Is AI in a bubble?" I've gotten that question from clients for the last year. The data: tech stocks rose 1,097% during the dot-com era. The AI run so far: 569%. Half the size of the bubble that actually popped.

3. The top 10 stocks are now 36% of the S&P 500. The most concentrated in 50+ years. When concentration tops 30%, average drawdowns deepen: -12.1% vs. -9.5%. Hold company stock in the top 10 too? You're less diversified than your statements suggest.

2. The Magnificent 7 aren't leading anymore. • 2023: all 7 beat the S&P 500 • 2026 so far: 1 of 7 The other 493 stocks are up 16%. The Mag 7 are down 2%. Last cycle's winners rarely lead the next one.