Why 2026 Will Be a Market Rollercoaster: How to Prepare and Win

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts then add supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora and as the number one podcaster iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business. Call 844-844-IHEART This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring and sure, they definitely can be but understanding a professional's routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, day after day. It's like banking with PNC Bank.

0:37It might seem boring to save, plan, and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live a more happily fulfilled life. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865. Brilliantly boring since 1865 is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. PNC Bank, National Association member, FDIC. What is the outlook for 2026 in the market? It's going to be tumultuous, but I think it'll end positive. And then 2027, then we'll have Iceberg Slim show up. The most important lesson that I need you guys to know for 2026, whether we have a deep decline or we're flat, your job is to accumulate as many assets as possible.

1:28Now you got to be an asset hoarder. Like if it's accumulation time, for those of you who believe in micro strategy, if you believe in that, then it's time for you to pile in. If you believe in Bitcoin, it's time for you to pile into that. A lot of you are asking about SpaceX. Okay, well, let's cover Microsoft first, your index funds first, but this has to be a deep accumulation year. And also too, now is not the year for you to learn more. And I know he just said that, but in the market, we've given you to invest in you have to deploy more capital there the sense that i get from every person that i talk to and no one knows what the free fall cause is going to be but everyone i talk to knows that there's going to be a free fall at some point in 26 going into 27 and here's the part that no one's going to tell you no one's going to save you when you're in desperation because no one really gives of fuck.

2:21That's why most people who have information, they're quieter than ever in gatekeeping. There's not many people telling you even with SpaceX. Thank God for Vlad. But look how much pushback they gave him on tokenization of pre-IPO assets. We got this market down, but they're going to block you out the VC and the angel deals. Why? Private equity deals. Why? Because they don't want you to have access to it. they want to keep that 1%. It's like, well, we gave y 'all the stock market. You can have that, but the 700 % gainers that you can get before it even hits the market, we don't even want you to touch that.

3:01Yeah, I think that's why this is such an important time, such an important show, such an important moment.

3:092026, I'm optimistic about it. And there's a couple, I always talk about catalyst events and things that can have the market move. I think if you look at the hyperscalers, the Metas, the Amazons, the Microsofts of the world, Googles, Tesla, I think from what we've seen in 2025 and what their future projections are for 2026, I think the CapEx story still is the same. You ask yourself the question, are they going to spend less or are they going to spend more? And the answer is more. And if we're talking about infrastructure, are we talking about spending less? Are we going to be talking about spending more?

3:47We're going to be talking about this. We're spending more. We're spending more. Deregulation is a word that keeps coming up. And I think it plays a major part into the story of 2026 in terms of AI specifically, when we talk about Jenseng and our battle, our race to make sure that we stay ahead of China. He said the deregulation is going to be the biggest issue, right? It takes us six weeks to build or six years to build a data center. and it takes them two days to build a hospital, that's going to be a problem for us in the future. We have to figure out how we can get these things happening and foster ground faster to the point where now AI deregulation is going state by state.

4:28So you start to see the early signs with that. Deregulation helps the AI industry, but it also helps the financial industry when we're talking about banks. We'll talk about those a little bit later. So that's a tailwind that I think helps the market. when you talk about autonomous and EV. This is the year for Tesla. So it shall improve. So that's another event. I think the new Fed share, right? This is not going to be a person who is going to be, you know, someone that's going to set the economy back or you would think if, or they wouldn't be selected. So that is one. The China story with NVIDIA is another one.

5:08I think that first half of the year, I'm super optimistic. I think we're going to have another positive year. I know we're pacing at 17 % right now or just under it. So it would be three years and potentially of 20 % gains. Now, that's happened once before. I was listening to Tom Lee earlier. He was like, we've seen this happen in the 90s when we're talking about the internet. And then that fourth year was actually one of the better years out of the four. Obviously, we know what happens in 99 and 2000. But I'm optimistic about the market. I saw Oppenheimer had an S &P target of 8 ,100. And then there was an S &P raise of 7 ,100.

5:50But that median is like 7 ,700, which tells us, again, that we potentially will be sitting at another 11 % to 13 % gain for the S &P, which is, I mean, just above average, which is good. So I'm optimistic about it. I think toward the end of the year, we may see some tailwinds that might turn the market a little bit negative. Obviously, this is a midterm year. We already spoke about how markets perform in midterm years as government changes and political offices change. So we'll be looking toward that in November, but I think we start off the year pretty well. And you got to be more focused on the decade targets as a gym.

6:32I think too often people get too caught up in how a year is going to do opposed to if you really want generational wealth, if you're not willing to hold for 10 years, you're just talking. You're missing on too much upside to care about what was going to happen in a quarter or six months. Yeah, and I say that because I don't want people to be fearful, right? Like they keep hearing about this crash. They keep hearing about we're going to recession and then it doesn't happen and then you don't do anything because you kept listening to what people were saying. so well we hit recession in 22 and they changed the definition of what it was but that was an immense buying opportunity just like they won't print the fed reports now yeah and look at the returns out of that from 22 right you're talking about again three years of potentially 20 gains so you you can't the recession if if it if it does happen right or let's say we have a downturn we've just got to be prepared for that because that's when people are going to make money that is the exact time when you should be investing.

7:33Like, okay, here we are. We were prepared for it. We got our entry prices, whether it was in futures and options, or if you're just buying equities. Now we can grab those shares that we want at a price that we want, and let's watch those returns over the next two, three, five, 10, 20 years. Earners, what's up? You ever walk into a small business and everything just works? Like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just feels seamless, whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop-up market, or even one of our merch partners.

8:12Square makes it easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from one simple system. One of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up. There's this West Indian spot right in our community that started with a small takeout counter. Now with Square, they've been able to expand into a full sit-down restaurant and even started catering events across the city. That's the kind of growth that inspires us, and it's powered by Square. Square is built for all types of businesses, from the corner bagel shop that turned into a local chain, to the specialty market with thousands of unique items, to the stylist who's been holding you down for years.

8:52If you're a business owner or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down one of the best tools out there to help you start, run, and grow. It's not just about payments. It's about giving you time back so you can focus on what matters most. Ready to see how Square can transform your business? Visit square.com backslash go backslash E-Y-L to learn more. That's square.com backslash go backslash E-Y-L. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Let Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing your vision forward. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.