2024 is coming to an end. Has it been a wild enough year for you?

• Oppenheimer won Best Movie

• Taylor Swift became a billionaire

• Trump was almost assassinated

• Bitcoin broke $100K

• Madame Web did NOT win Best Movie (huge upset)

How can you make 2025 your best year yet?

1. Check out Sahil Bloom’s Best Ideas of 2024 for inspiration.

2. Listen to Jesse Itzler explain How to Plan an Epic 2025, Without Setting Goals.

3. Get better organized with the Full Focus Planner (not sponsored, but been using this for three years and can’t recommend it enough).

Markets

*Source: CoinGecko.com As of 9:16AM December 29, 2024

World news

Top news stories of the past week

1) Trump wants TikTok to stay?: President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The popular app where 16-year-olds spread impossible to understand trends (does anyone know what mewing is??) has been under fire for fires from the US government, with threats to ban the app entirely unless it was sold to a US-domiciled company.

2) Crypto king on the move: Montenegro has approved the extradition of Do Kwon, the “cryptocurrency king” to the United States. Kwon was charged in the U.S. with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York over a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency (TerraUSD), which devastated retail investors around the world.

3) Apple to help trial against Google: Apple has asked to participate in the upcoming Google antitrust trial. This is a huge deal. Google is under fire for anti-competitive practices and may be forced to sell its Chrome browser. To be the default search engine on Apple products, Google pays Apple $20 billion annually. The outcome here could massively impact the tech landscape.

Top WEIRD stories of the past week

1) World chess number one Magnus Carlsen has quit a major tournament after being told he couldn't wear jeans. I thought jeans were work-appropriate post-COVID!

2) The best dogs of the year is a pretty subjective award, but this list has some top candidates, including a dog who helped solve a murder!

3) After launching to the International Space Station on June 5th for what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight, these astronauts are going on month seven in zero G. To let their families know they have a good excuse for not getting them gifts, they sent a Christmas message.

Chart

You like charts? Graphs? Ya you do

Search is still dominated by Google, but ChatGPT is making serious headway.

Investment idea

What are we investing in?

The Presidential Triple-Threat

The start of a new (or returning) U.S. presidency can have a huge impact on investment trends, as new policies and priorities take shape. There are a few investment trends that have performed historically well at the beginning of a new presidency. I’ll name a couple of those plus add one bonus unique to Trump’s upcoming term.

1. Infrastructure and Construction

Presidents often propose infrastructure spending early in their terms to stimulate the economy and create jobs. To take advantage, here are a couple of ETFs that offer good exposure:

- First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF - this is focused on U.S. building and construction companies
- iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF - this ETF is focused specifically on U.S. homebuilding

2. Defense and Aerospace

National security is often a priority for new administrations, with potential increases in defense budgets. To get exposure, check out:

- iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF
- Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF

3. Technology

Trump has very aggressively aligned himself with some of the most prominent technologists in America/the World. Elon Musk, David Sacks, and other notable leaders in tech have gained appointments in Trump’s administration as key advisors. Tech will undoubtedly be supported. How can you get exposure?

iShares U.S. Technology ETF
Invesco QQQ ETF (the OG tech ETF)

History

On this day…

…in 1922, the Soviet Union was established following the Russian Civil War. At it’s peak, it was the largest country by area, extending across elevent time zones and sharing borders with 12 countries.

Technology

On the edge (NEW!)

In this section, each week we’ll cover a fringe area of new technology that’s getting attention. First up…

Agentic AI

As you probably know, 2024 will go down as the year that AI became everything, everywhere, all at once. One sub-trend in AI that is growing faster every day is “Agentic AI”.

Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that works on its own, making decisions and taking actions to reach goals without needing constant guidance from people. It can think, plan, and adapt to different situations, all within set boundaries.

This kind of AI is used in things like self-driving cars, virtual assistants, and robots, where quick decisions without human help are crucial. It’s also used in areas like stock trading, managing supply chains, and diagnosing health problems to handle complex tasks more effectively.

Agentic AI has the power to change industries by taking over complicated, time-consuming jobs and making systems smarter and more efficient. It could impact everyday life by improving healthcare, transportation, and how we work with technology.

What’s a crazy way it’s being used now? Crypto promotion. An AI agent was given access to Twitter, $50,000 in Bitcoin, and began promoting its own meme coin, which went from zero to a $1.3 billion market cap at peak.

Music

Banger of the week

Most important thing

Meme? Nah. Art.