What do you... believe they both get right about valuing what can't be measured

you know it's amazing so there you know stock markets around the world historically did have human beings involved obviously technology came along probably late 80s uh into the early 2000s we resisted the technology coming in and taking over the the the trading world on the floor of the new york stock exchange everyone should know that which is where a lot of the tech stocks are traded, is, you know, you may see it on TV when they ring the bell, but that's, you know, and they see confetti and you see people there.

There are no humans there.

It is literally an electronic marketplace.

So the NYSE, the New York Stock Exchange, is the last human marketplace in the world.

There may be three brokers somewhere in Amsterdam trading a few shares of stock, but that's been one thing that we have maintained on the floor of the stock exchange.

At one point, you know, in 1903, they issued 1,366 seats on the stock exchange, which gives you the right to trade.

So what do you working on the exchange floor still see and feel that a machine doesn't? So,

What do you believe they both get right about valuing what can't be measured?

You know, it's amazing.

So there, you know, stock markets around the world historically did have human beings involved.

Obviously, technology came along probably late '80s, uh, into the early 2000s.

We resisted the technology coming in and taking over the, the, the trading world on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Everyone should know that NASDAQ, which is where a lot of the tech stocks are traded, is, you know, you may see it on TV when they ring the bell, but it, that's, you know, and they see confetti, and you see people there.

There are no humans there.

[laughs]

But do you think that was right to bail them out?

Oh, yeah, I believe it was, because otherwise we would have been it took nine years to get back to even after the 08 crash.

OK, which I mean, think about it.

If you didn't bail them out, General Motors would have gone bankrupt.

AIG, the largest insurance company in the world, would have gone bankrupt.

And so when they go bankrupt, just think about it.

The ramifications of everybody, all the people who work there, all the people who are insured by them are going to be devastated, right? So the Federal Reserve, what they did was they put $800 billion stimulus in to backstop the banks during that crisis, okay? Over an 18-month period of time, okay? Even with that stimulus, it took nine years to get back to even from the crash of 08, okay? COVID...

But still, it's

When did you get home that day?

So I was evacuated from the exchange at 11.48. A number of New York City police came up the stairs.

I was actually trading in 30 Broad, which is one of the expanded rooms.

Back then, the exchange had five different rooms, right? Main room, blue room, and whatnot.

So it was sort of the height of the largest... footprint that the NYSE had at that time.

They came up the stairs, and they said, we're not really clear whether security is prepared for this.

Why don't you wrap your shirts around your face, soak them in water, and follow us? And about eight of us left the exchange as we walked outside at 11.48.

And how do we pick up the pieces and move on amidst all of this remaining uncertainty?

[laughs]

[laughs] Secondly, uh, look, any business, uh, every business, to be perfectly honest, has had to make transitions and pivot, uh, with technology.

Now, obviously, with AI as well.

Okay, and so we went from a, uh, uh, a basically a, a open outcry auction market, paper, uh, human element marketplace, one person to another, a crowd situation where people were buying and selling, screaming and yelling, just like you'd see in the movies.

That was the way it was, with a huge support staff, right, to make everything happen, because it was being done, uh, manually, right? You had a squad, a runner.

You had a clerk.

You had a reporter who put on every trade.

Oh.

What happened?

Okay.

So, um, I started on March 28, 1985, and it wasn't until recently they put up a photograph, uh, uh, at the stock exchange, that that was in fact the day that I was, I was 25 years old.

I had just come back.

I'd been living in Africa, and, uh, uh, I got a summary to my parents, said, "You know what? It's time for you to, like, put on your big boy pants and let's, let's get down to business." And I had a o- much older brother who had been, who was a pretty big, uh, takeover guy on Wall Street back in the day.

And so they got me a summer job.

I come back from Africa on the 23rd of March, and I'd been there for a year and a half, and I just sort of walked into this job.

Buy or bust?

Ever since Great Hike in history, right? It's crazy.

Exactly.

I mean, all of that, plus COVID, plus flash crashes, plus tariffs, plus a new administration twice, you know, obviously a battle between Fed chairmen and administrations, you know, and yet the market still trades at record highs, right? And so, you know, the market is, I'm humbled by the market's resilience and the ability for this market to continue to go higher.

And I think we need to You know, really understand who's in the market.

Right.

You know, you're talking about rich habits.

You know, the market is not being fueled, although I mean, I have to say I track a lot of retail investors.

Like, how do you black and white figure out this is going to be a thing or this isn't something I'm not paying attention to?

We've got two days left and we're recovering here.

We're recovering beautifully.

You know, I was a little perturbed.

You know, obviously, we always want the market to close out at the high, high highs.

But you know what? This market was no slouch at all.

We closed out last year with 52 record highs across the board.

I mean, you know, we could lay out a scenario where the Dow is up double digits, the S&P up double digits, NASDAQ up double digits, gold and silver up triple digits.

Does that resilience continue into 2026 or does it get a little bit more demanding, Peter?

Your thoughts as we conclude 2025 and your thoughts about 2026.

You know what? of this whole thing is that we've been coming here for so many years.

This is not a job for most of us.

If you find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life.

And I think everybody here feels that way.

So they have no problem coming back to celebrate this and to honor the families that have been here forever.

2025 was a year that everything that could have been thrown at a market was.

So what are the catalysts? What drives us? What sectors are number one and two?

As I said, I think it's clear that the largest catalyst, besides the fact that Palantir and NVIDIA had absolutely spectacular earnings, like beyond everything else, and that we obviously are seeing so much money being put into AI, which is still clear.

Look, we had that insanity that when Palantir came out with earnings and the stock sold off, even though the earnings were spectacular, the stock sold off 8%.

mainstream media decided to start talking about AI as a bubble and that this is all smoke and mirrors, which was ridiculous.

And then, I mean, that was just almost disrespectful to the new retail traders and to the whole investment community.

So that was what, and then we saw the interest rate story, which also made no sense at all.

You know, Dan Ives actually jokingly went on TV the other day and said, even when it looked like we weren't going to get a cut, that the probability of not getting a cut was the same as me playing center for the New York Knicks in the 25-26 season.

What are some of the tips, if you have three tips, or what are some of your trading tips that you go to?

What do you make of this? I mean, how do you sort of cut through all the noise that we're

hearing? You know what, look, I really kind of just, there's such catastrophism, you know, the response of mainstream media and just the general investment community.

When someone has asked for their opinion about something, they really give it.

And nowadays, you should almost not give it.

I try to be non-opinionated and just kind of look at how the market reacts to it.

You know, that same soft bank, CEO who just said that he unloaded all of his NVIDIA stock is the one that three weeks ago said that NVIDIA, which was in February 2023, was at $108.24.

It was at $900.

Do the markets throw their toys out of the pram?

So what's next? What are you watching?

You know, look, it's amazing to think of what is next.

Right? I mean, we are in the midst of a government shutdown.

Historically, the market would have engaged that in a negative way.

It's not.

Now, what's next would be is if this government shutdown stays shut for more than two or three weeks.

We know that, you know, even Besant, right, the president's advisor said that if, in fact, this continues for as much as three weeks, it will have as much as a 1% effect on GDP.

What gets us

Tell me, what are you thinking?

So look, today is just not another day.

I mean, today there's a lot going on.

So we just ended up the third quarter, right? 2025 has seen a market do absolutely everything possible that could be thrown at a market.

in our world has happened in 2025, right? The high high, the low lows, a new administration, that self-inflicted economic Armageddon of February, March, April, the interest rate thing, tariffs, a couple of global wars, it's all happened and it's all affected the market in a big way, yet we are still trading at record highs.

OK, so that's sort of that's the overview.

Now we just started an interest rate cutting cycle.

Correct.

Yeah.

And the process behind that, which we do better than anyone in the world, is the price discovery process that what goes on.

It's kind of like building a building.

The way you open a stock, the way we open a stock, uh, takes time because it's a matter of the information going back and forth.

It's a public offering, so the public has to understand what's going on.

And so we go back and forth with our customers.

It's kind of like if you put the bricks and the mortar in the right place, and you...

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the process behind that, which we do better than anyone in the world, is the price discovery process that what goes on.

It's kind of like building a building.

The way you open a stock, the way we open a stock, uh, takes time because it's a matter of the information going back and forth.

It's a public offering, so the public has to understand what's going on.

And so we go back and forth with our customer.

It's kind of like if you put the bricks and the mortar in the right place, and you...

Yeah.