I don’t spend a lot of time on Reddit. But a recent visit reinforced my view that there are two kinds of investors and traders — and only two. You’re either a Wealth Builder or a Wealth Killer, cautions Bill Patalon, chief stock picker at Stock Picker’s Corner.
The market-related “subreddits” are useful in one way: It’s a technique to gauge market sentiment — which is useful to long-term, Wealth-Builder Contrarian Investors. Last Tuesday, I wandered over to Reddit to check on the latest Pirates and Penguins news — and figured I’d drop in on a few of the day trading and investing forums.
There were the usual posts from day traders acknowledging the pounding they’ve taken. But there was also this question, posted in the investing subreddit: “Does anyone know why the stock market is crashing today?”
You heard me right — “crashing.” I actually checked to make sure I didn’t miss something, and was glad to see that I hadn’t.
I’ve lived through (and worked through) stock-market crashes. The “Crash of ‘87” — a single-day plunge of 22.6% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average – launched my interest in stocks and investing. I predicted — and then reported on — the “Dot-Bomb” implosion of 2000. It ultimately scythed away 78% of the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index. Then there was the Great Financial Crisis — a 50% hatchet job on the S&P 500 Index (^SPX).
By contrast, the Tuesday “crash” that had the Reddit investor so worried? We’re talking about drops of 1.2% in the Nasdaq, 0.5% in the S&P, and 0.3% in the Dow. That’s nothing. Those are day-to-day “wiggles” — far short of the threshold that experts view as a peak-to-trough drop of 20% or more.
Here at the starting line of the 2026 second half – with a bull market that’s aging, prices that are gouging, and uncertainty that continues to spiral – that Wealth Builder/Wealth Killer lesson is one we all need to stay focused on.
It’s the long game that matters most — and always will. But the near term shows you what others are thinking, the mistakes they are making, the risks that are mounting…and the Wealth windows that are there for the taking.
