February 2026 Mailbag: Countless… Right?

0:00David Gardner:Countless. Is it, though? Ten straight unanswered points, as opposed to ten straight answered ones? At the end of the day. Well, which day? And why the end? It started last week with my pet peeves, but something interesting happened. You wrote back. And now it turns out we have, well, at least for one mailbag, we have a movement, a linguistic uprising. It's a quiet rebellion against lazy phrasing, verbal shortcuts, small erosions of precision that, if we're not careful, dull the edge of our thinking. Because this movement on Rule Breaker Investing this week isn't really about grammar. It's about clarity.

0:49David Gardner:And clarity is an investing advantage. So at this month's close, well, for February 2026, at least, the mailbag fights back. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

1:06Tom Gardner:It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

1:14David Gardner:Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. Happy almost March. February has been a month. Gosh, it's been a very cold month on the East Coast And we just got another blizzard It's been quite a February Therefore, many of us who do I love winter, I'm always cheering on snow But once we've had enough of it Many of us look forward to March And on this podcast, I hope you'll also look forward With me to March Market Cab Madness Because starting next week with Lauren Hurst And Andy Cross And then the week after with Emily Flippen And Bill Barker We are going to have our final four of the Market Cap Game Show.

1:52David Gardner:Of course, the third week of March will battle off my two finalists. So, yeah, March Market Cap Madness starts next week. Keep in mind, you're playing along with us. While I will name a world champion among one of my four, and Emily Flippen is our defending world champion. The truth is, you know it. I know it too. The truth is, playing along at home, you can outscore my world champion. whoever that is, and I hope you'll play along with us all March long. March Madness is a big thing in college basketball in the United States. March Market Cap Madness, arguably an even bigger deal globally. All right, well, as I look over, as I pop open the mailbag and look at it, first of all, I'm amused because it turns out I'm not the only one who has some pet peeves to share through this podcast, And we don't do this very often.

2:48David Gardner:As I mentioned last week, it had been 27 months since our last Pet Peeves episode. So not only did I have something, actually several things to get off my chest last week, but you did too. And we're going to do that this week. Not all of our notes are your pet peeves, but most of them are. And I want to talk about this briefly up front before we get into it, because many of these notes, while on the face of it, they're about something in other people's language that annoys you or me. Specifically this week, you. It's when people say this or that thing, it drives you a little bit crazy, and they keep doing it, which drives you crazier.

3:28David Gardner:But what we're really doing, and I said this a little bit at the top, is we're trying to speak with precision. We're hoping for clarity in our own speech and those of others, including the media at large. precision, clarity, and I would say intention in our language. And I want to underline that. That is really good. This is not pedantry. This is not whining this week. This is in part why I think I've been a great stock picker and a somewhat successful entrepreneur because I care deeply about the language that other people are using. And because those people tend to be selling us their shares if we're buyers.

4:10David Gardner:Sometimes they're shorting the stocks that we're holding long. If it turns out not just their language, but their thinking is contrary to what it should be, or getting dulled by imprecise language, that is greatly to our advantage. And you might think this is all just a grammar exercise, but no, really it's not. It is a thought exercise. and I believe it's profoundly important to my own investment success and I hope yours too. In fact, I want to share a short section from my book, Rule Breaker Investing. It's entitled Opportunities Greater Than Sign Bargains and bargains is in quotes. And if you listen carefully, you'll see this is just again all about the language that we use and words matter.

4:57David Gardner:So I quote myself here starting with a line from Samuel Johnson Language is the dress of a thought, said Samuel Johnson I go on myself, I love majoring in English literature It's lines like these that have stayed with me and continue to add value The quality of our thinking is often linked to the language we use And vice versa The quality of our language often influences the quality of our thinking Scrutinize your own diction as well as the word choice of others Language matters It's worth more than its weight in gold Especially in light of its being abstract and weightless The word bargain is a good example Many investors love it It speaks to them like a retailer's 30 % off sign They're ever preparing for when stocks are on sale If you liked it at$100 a share The thinking goes, you're going to love it If it's at$52 And sometimes they're right bargain hunter nirvana.

6:03David Gardner:But bargains of this kind don't come along frequently. Meanwhile, the market rises day by day, two years out of every three, and over almost every decade. Many great rule-breaker stocks show up as early-stage companies never priced as bargains, offering us the great opportunities of our investing lifetimes. This is why I favor the word opportunity. I don't seek bargains. I seek opportunities. For market-whacking returns, opportunities have always served me better. If you start saying and seeking opportunities, you're much more likely to find them. Adopting this mindset will serve you well when investing new money into existing investments.

6:49David Gardner:Habit number two of the rule breaker investor, add up, don't double down, is to pursue opportunities, not bargains. And I'll close it off right there. So, yeah, as I said, language matters. In fact, language shapes our thought. Diction, which is just a fancy word for which words we choose, diction drives behavior. That is my lived experience And just thinking about words like correction Which is the wrong term to describe always a market drop Never, of course, a market rise As if it's correct for the market to drop Wrong term And I have made hay in my book, in my stock picking career And on this podcast around what the word overvalued really means to me So yeah, as I said at the start, the mailbag's fighting back this week.

7:50David Gardner:This isn't about pedantry or grammar. It's about clarity, which is an investing advantage. And before we get into the mailbag, every month I like to look back at the month that has been and just briefly review our path forward. So through February, it all started off February 4th. Let's talk about the future in 2026 with Kevin Kelly, the Wired co-founder. Just a delight to have Kevin back on this podcast and have him share his thoughts about the future. Few things are more important, by the way, to me, to my kids, and now to my grandchild that was just born this week, probably than the future.

8:31David Gardner:And few things are more important to investors as well than the future. because anything we say about the stock market, if we're looking even at today or backwards, has already happened. All that really happens is what happens next. Let's talk about the future in 2026 with Kevin Kelly. February 11th, it was 10 years later, five stocks to feed the bear. Yes, this podcast is a rare and daring thing. Every 10 weeks over these several years now, we are reviewing a group of five stocks that I picked 10 years ago that very week. So using the long arc of history, I would even say 10 years isn't that much if you're invested for your whole life.

9:12David Gardner:But for most people, 10 years is a long time. And for podcasts talking about stocks, well, I think it's very rarefied air. And so it's a delight every 10 weeks in this podcast to do our next 10 years later. In this case, it was five stocks to feed the bear. Go back and listen February 11th if you'd like to hear lessons and performance from a five-stock sampler picked 10 years ago this month. And then last week, of course, Pet Peas Volume 9, which we entitled Buy Now, Pay Later. Right? And we'll let that one speak for itself. It dominates this week's mailbag. All right, so that was the month that was.

9:49David Gardner:All right, before we hit our six mailbag items, let's kick it off with two hot takes from Twitter X. And the first is from Yavuz Majun, at YY Majun, which is spelled, I think Yavuz is Turkish. So if you're Turkish, it's M-A-C-U-N, at YY M-A-C-U-N. Yavuz, you were reflecting on two mailbags ago. It was the end of 2025. And you wrote, in regards to the December mailbag episode, probably my favorite at RBI podcast. I've listened every week for more than 10 years No skips, no repeats You wrote the eloquent poetic narration I'm dropping some other kind words Because it sounds too self-aggrandizing From at David G.

10:37David Gardner:Fool Were words of wisdom Where authenticity is in abundance Last four minutes of this particular episode Was particularly epic Enjoy, friends, from Yavuz Majun Thank you very much for that, Yavuz It does give me an opportunity to mention that those were the last four minutes of last year for this podcast. And I really did love speaking to the question that we got at the end of that mailbag, which is, am I a fool? This is somebody who wants to be a fool. Many people go through life never, ever wanting to be or look like a fool, small f, but this was a positive question. Am I a fool? And I did my best to speak to how I would answer that question.

11:20David Gardner:Am I a capital F fool? Thank you for that call out. That was a delightful end to 2025. And one more hot take from Twitter X. Again, we're at RBI podcast on Twitter on X. You can also follow me. I'm at David G. Fool. And this one is from frequent correspondent Andrew Gibson at Andrew Gibbs, 53446. Andrew, you wrote speaking to Kevin Kelly, my guest a few weeks ago earlier this month. Andrew, you were calling out that podcast with Kevin Kelly a couple of weeks ago. You wrote, at Kevin2Kelly and Bart Shannon, of course, my talented producer. Thanks, guys, for all you do. What an incredible episode this week.

12:03David Gardner:This will be a multiple-listen episode for me. And I'm going to say the same back to you right now, Andrew. Anytime we could have Wired co-founder and senior maverick Kevin Kelly on this podcast is a week worth listening to. And as you're just pointing out, re-listening to, you go on to say, at David G. Fool, I love the point about how people instinctively lean toward fear when it comes to technology. The reference to automotive crashes really drove it home. We accept thousands of fatal car accidents every year as a normal part of life and barely bat an eye at the statistics. Elon Musk often says about how routine crashes in traditional vehicles go largely unnoticed.

12:47David Gardner:While any incident involving a Tesla draws intense scrutiny and headlines It sells in for-profit media, Andrew adds It takes real effort to study the data, grasp what the tech has actually achieved and is achieving And maintain optimism Negativity is the easy path Optimism requires work and consistency Andrew closes I will take on Kevin's challenge to intentionally surround myself with people whose views oppose my own and to truly listen without interruption or rebuttal until they have fully expressed everything they have to say. That is where true genius lies. And, Andrew, you quote at the end F.

13:32David Gardner:Scott Fitzgerald, his classic line from one of his short stories, and I quote, the test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in, in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. End quote. Cheers and fool on. Well, cheers and fool on. Back to you, Andrew. Thanks for writing in. And speaking of thanks for writing in, six mailbag items this month. Let's get started with mailbag item number one. This one from Paul. Thank you, Paul. Hi, David. Your pet peeves always make me laugh. As an avid basketball fan, as I know you are too, one of my pet peeves is when an announcer says a team has scored, for example, in quotes here from Paul, 10 straight unanswered points.

14:25David Gardner:I always want to ask that announcer if he or she really meant that the team scored 10 straight consecutive unanswered points in a row without the other team scoring in between. End quote. Fool on. And that one's from Paul. And I appreciate that. Paul, you are 100 % right. Ten straight unanswered points is the linguistic equivalent of a fast break with maybe three extra dribbles. Because, you know, if they're unanswered, they're already ten straight points. We don't need the redundancy to pad the stat line. Now, sports is, of course, replete with cliches, stereotyped phrases that are repeated ad nauseum, whether it's by the fans, whether it's by the announcers themselves, or them interacting with each other on talk radio.

15:18David Gardner:There are a lot of thoughts and phrases that often dominate people's thinking. when you hear an analyst say another team just wanted it more. I'm always wondering how they're measuring that. I mean, I don't even know that it's possible to get inside one person's head, let alone an entire team's head, and decide, yeah, well, clearly they wanted it more. Usually the phrase is used after we already know the result, and then we're able to say that team wanted it more. Rarely, it does happen sometimes, rarely do you hear an announcer say ahead of time, this team wants it more. Therefore, I predict this team wanting it more as they clearly do shall win.

15:57David Gardner:You rarely hear that. Or last year, I had my friend Kimmel Crosley on this podcast. We did some rule breaker thinking around sports and sports cliches. In fact, it was called Breaking the Rules of Sports. It was April 23rd last year for any sports fans who want to think more like a rule breaker and miss that one. And Kimmel talked a lot about momentum, that concept, which I think we can all say, yes, momentum exists in life. It certainly exists in the stock market. And some people classify some stocks as momentum stocks. But it is widely overused. It dominates the thinking and commentary. Often of play-by-play or color analysts, as we're watching a game, we're hearing that the momentum is on someone's side.

16:44David Gardner:And usually, in my experience, it comes after some big plays have happened. Fans are usually not reacting in advance to great plays. They're reacting afterwards, which creates a sense of momentum. And then we start saying, well, the reason they're winning is because they had momentum. And then as inevitably that momentum shifts, as Kimball and I talked about last April, no one really says the momentum has shifted. Momentum is really only used as a backward-looking phrase the vast majority of the time to analyze sports. And whether or not it exists or how powerful a force it is, well, I'll leave that up to you.

17:21David Gardner:Anyway, thank you, Paul, for opening up a little bit of sports thinking on this podcast as we begin to close down February and get ready for March. Paul, I hope you have a great March madness and a great March market cap madness. Let's move on to mailbag item number two. Mailbag item number two, this one from Rick K. Thanks for writing in, Rick. Why is it you write that so many educated spokespeople, particularly those in the business and investment field, use the word scale at almost every opportunity to describe what used to be referred to as expand, increase, grow, build, and other words, indicating that the individual had a vocabulary greater than a few words?

18:05David Gardner:There probably are young parents who are business-savvy individuals, Rick goes on, who tell their friends and business friends that they are in the process of scaling their family. And perhaps business advisors are telling their clients, as words of eternal wisdom, if you are not scaling, you are dying. Let me pause it there for a sec. It's just a reminder to me, this was not a word that jumps out to me as something I object to personally, but this is your mailbag, not mine, And so I air all viewpoints. And I can certainly, any word that gets overused, Rick, I start to hop off that bandwagon. And I think you a long time ago hopped off this bandwagon.

18:45David Gardner:My only lack of objection here is I don't feel like the word scale is in any way particularly misleading or puts the wrong idea in people's minds. It's just maybe a little bit overused. Let's go on with your note. And you write that these same business and investment oriented individuals who are otherwise articulate, such as one often found on the Motley Fool broadcast, have to remind us that the response they give immediately after the previous speaker has spoken is to say this phrase. To your point, sometimes several times within one minute. Yes, this has happened. Rick writes, with respect to the full broadcast I thought the individual was either caught up in some unconscious verbal or compulsive loop Or going for the record in the Guinness Book of World Records For subjecting listeners to unnecessary references To which she was replying I'll pause there for a sec, Rick I don't know exactly who you're talking about But I will say this To your point is a popular phrase these days I think I started noticing it becoming Okara about 10 years ago and initially I thought it was a nice phrase because it shows the person who's about to speak has listened to you or at least they're seeming to claim that they have and they're saying whatever they're saying is speaking back to what you just said which though it can be repetitive is also a nice nod it's a little bit of a kindness from that person to use the phrase to your point but I think I'm getting from you again that if somebody is doing it all the time or if we're saying it too often then it loses any value and becomes verbal dead weight.

20:22David Gardner:Let me go on with your note as we close this one. And at risk of me, Rick K, being guilty of this last pet peeve, oftentimes on Rule Breaker Investing, Rick would be referring to this podcast, a point that can be made in one minute can take upwards of several minutes, if not far longer, as the communication is made to seemingly cover every possible nuance of the meaning and references to what is being said. At times, Rick says, I feel like screaming, make your point already. Well, I'll pause it there and respond back. Rick, I would say guilty as charged. I do think I may sometimes repeat myself.

21:05David Gardner:You know, I do feel like this medium, the podcast, is interactive, especially because I welcome in mailbag at the end of each month. I'm actively soliciting your reactions. I do feel a need sometimes probably to speak ahead of time to several different viewpoints in anticipation of getting mailbag notes if I haven't spoken to them properly in the first place. So I do think you're right. I do sometimes elaborate unnecessarily. I'm sure I repeat myself. I try not to, but I appreciate you pointing that out. I do want to say in the end, I'm probably most of all a writer. That's what I grew up doing.

21:44David Gardner:That's what I love doing. And in writing, we can excise all redundancies. And I think one of the things I loved about my Rule Breaker Investing book was trying to cut out every imaginable, unnecessary word and make it the tightest, fastest, most fun read I could for as many people as possible. I don't actively try to do that with this podcast We're a little bit more voluble A little bit more off the cuff Without that much opportunity to edit So I'm going to say Rick Thank you Guilty as charged Rick does close out his note I'll share this as well Years ago people communicated Without overuse of all these words With no loss to listeners ability To understand the exchange Appreciate that point Postscript note here Personal pet peeve You write, the market waits until the day after I have bought an equity to reveal, in quotes, bad news concerning a company resulting in a large decline in market price.

22:45David Gardner:Rick writes, I think if I had waited just one more day, I could have bought in at a price 40 % lower, such as with the recent price drop in gold and silver ETFs. Well, Rick, I'm fairly certain that particular market phenomenon, which you are underlining there, has been independently verified by investors everywhere. I certainly have felt it myself. So I guess we just reflect that the market does sometimes have impeccable comedic timing, even if it's not just our timing. So it's also true, though, that if waiting one more day were the key to riches, well, we'd all be billionaires. But that sting is part of the tuition I think that we pay to stay in the game.

23:32David Gardner:And fortunately, persistence matters more than perfect timing.

23:56Tom Gardner:Das Geräusch, das schönste von allen.

24:26David Gardner:Adam asks, does what you just said not apply or matter as much as at the beginning of the day? And three, we aren't smart enough to figure out X. Adam writes, if you don't know, just say, I don't know, rather than using this preface, then stating an opinion, which I wouldn't want from someone who's not smart enough to know. To sum it up, Adam writes, listen, at the end of the day, I'm not smart enough to know if this is an email worth sending, but I haven't written in too long and I'm still a big fan. Right? Keep up the good work, David and Fool on Best, Adam Nelson. Well, I mentioned earlier that Adam for me is somebody who I think it's Adam Nelson's world and the rest of us are just living in it.

25:18David Gardner:he is the one who changed forever the market cap game show. I was doing a little history check here. It was the January 2021 mailbag. So now over five years ago, where Adam wrote in and asked basically, David, why not just have the guesser have the ability to state a range of market caps? And then the opponent, you and me, if we're playing at home, after hearing that range of market caps, We just say inside that range or outside that range. And that is a direct quote from the great man himself, Adam Nelson. Adam, from that point forward, the market cap game show has changed forever. Before then, as you and older ears will remember, before then, I would just state a given company and have my single contestant, not two, just try to guess within 20 % of that market cap range.

26:14David Gardner:We haven't made many changes to the game over the years. We've added a bell here or a whistle there. But as will be on evidence starting once again next week, the game is now one where one player states what they think the market cap of Microsoft is, let's say, and gives a range. And the other person says, along with you and me, I agree, inside that range or outside. And that changed our Market Cap Game show forever. It made it better. So thank you again, Adam Nelson. And I want to say I like all three of your pet peeves here. Listen, I probably, I don't think I do that very often, but I hear you.

26:54David Gardner:It's not necessary to tell others to listen. It's almost a desperate plea in some cases, but it's definitely unnecessary. The second one at the end of the day, such a cliche. Of course, so many people are saying that. I'm sure I've done it myself in this podcast, but what about the beginning of the day? Or just, which day are we talking about? And then, we aren't smart enough to figure out X. Well, if the speaker isn't, then just admit it. You don't need to say all the rest of us aren't smart enough either. Let's move on to mailbag item number four. This one from longtime fool Jason Newman. J.

27:29David Gardner:New, thank you for this note. David, I loved your latest Pet Peeves episode. Classic as always. My question is admittedly a bit inside baseball But inquiring minds want to know In the past, you regularly mention Evernote As your preferred tool for keeping lists It even led me, Jason writes To pay up and use it for many years Before ultimately moving on I found it a bit too clunky for my taste Since then, I've struggled to find something That truly works for me When you reference that your pet peeves list Was quotes on my iPhone This time, without mentioning Evernote I could not help but wonder whether you are still using it Or if you have found a better system If Apple Notes is the simple answer, fair enough Though I often find it becomes a long stream of randomness In today's cloud and AI-driven world J.

28:26David Gardner:New closes, what is best in class for you? I'm genuinely curious, perhaps other fools might share their go-to tools in a future mailbag. Well, let me mention that, yeah, that is the purpose of Mailbag, Jason. As you well know, it's for all of us to share our best thoughts, and then I try to share them back out. We learn together. So if anybody has an amazing notes app that is usable by many others that you would recommend, I mean, we're not going to turn this into the Rule Breaker productivity month of March. March is all about madness for this podcast, but certainly if any bright light or inspired listener has a great tool they think all of us would benefit from in this cloud and AI-driven world.

29:10David Gardner:As Jason writes, do share. It might well make the mailbag. It's worth mentioning, by the way, not everything makes the mailbag. So thank you always to those who write in, even if I didn't get to your wonderful note. So just to cut to the quick here, I absolutely still use, always pretty much have used Evernote. So that I didn't mention Evernote, Jason, Well, maybe I was trying to be more spare with my words, but I started using Evernote in 2008. And for me now, 18 years later, I've invested so much in the system. I've organized dozens, hundreds of notebooks, thousands and thousands of notes. One thing I like about Evernote, it accepts all different media.