Austin Smith

An African American man and woman sit at a wooden table, both smiling and looking at each other. The woman on the left wears a yellow shirt and holds a pen over an open notebook, with a smartphone nearby. The man on the right wears an orange button-up shirt and holds financial documents, with a laptop and eyeglasses also on the table.

Here Are the Maximum Social Security Benefits at Ages 62, 67, and 70 in 2026 and How to Get Close

Picture a 61-year-old engineer who has spent her career at or near the Social Security wage cap. Her statement shows a benefit close to the program’s ceiling, and now she is staring at three…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A 73 Year Old With $1.6 Million in a Traditional 401(k) Faces a $60,400 First RMD That Quietly Triggers an IRMAA Surcharge

A single retiree turns 73 this year sitting on $1.6 million in a traditional 401(k) and a $3,000 monthly Social Security check. The first required minimum distribution is no longer a future problem. It…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

An expansive, luxurious hotel lobby with a high ceiling, multiple large chandeliers, and ornate crown molding. The room features several seating areas with mustard yellow armchairs and dark grey sofas arranged on a large green and cream patterned rug. Tall, translucent drapes adorn large windows along one side, allowing natural light. Two prominent grey marble columns stand towards the back left, and a large floral arrangement with purple flowers is central to the lobby's layout. The floor is made of polished light grey marble, reflecting the light.

This Hotel REIT Just Tripled the S&P 500 YTD: RLJ Up 35% as Travel Spending Roars Back

A beaten-down hotel REIT spent years stuck below $10 while the broader market left it behind, then something changed in early 2026 that sent investors scrambling to figure out whether they missed the trade…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A double exposure image featuring a nighttime cityscape with numerous illuminated buildings, overlaid with abstract digital financial graphics. The graphics include a glowing blue world map composed of horizontal lines, rising line charts, and candlestick charts in white, pink, and blue, along with numbers '88.154' and '44.186'. The overall color scheme is dark blue and purple, suggesting a futuristic financial data display.

Schwab’s International ETF Is Up 21% YTD (and 45% Over the Last Year)

A Schwab international ETF that almost nobody talks about has been quietly lapping the S&P 500, and the reason has less to do with where it invests than with how it decides what to…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A close-up digital screen showing financial data with a dark background. Bright green numbers like '+0.20' and '+0.07' are visible alongside a dynamic green candlestick chart. A yellow line graphs an upward trend, and a large, opaque green arrow points sharply upwards in the foreground, signifying growth.

This 2x Super Micro ETF Just Soared 175% in One Month. The YTD Number Is Wilder.

If you put $10,000 into the Defiance Daily Target 2X Long SMCX ETF (NASDAQ:SMCX) on the morning of May 8, 2026, you were sitting on about $14,100 a month later. That is a 41%…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A composite image featuring a blurred, wavy American flag in the background, partially obscured by two dark oil barrels. Overlaid in the foreground is a luminous financial stock chart with an upward-trending yellow line and blue bar graphs. Key figures visible on the chart include 'Δ97.134', '+4.221', '+0.44%', and '76.633', indicating market activity and price changes.

Energy Stocks Are Back From the Dead: IYE Up 27% YTD

If you bought iShares U.S. Energy ETF (NYSEARCA:IYE) on the last trading day of 2025 at about $47 and you are still holding it this morning at about $61, you are sitting on an…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

An aerial, wide-angle shot of an active open-pit mine under a bright sky. The mine consists of multiple terraced levels of reddish-brown earth, with large yellow dump trucks and excavators moving along the dirt roads. In the background, industrial structures with conveyor belts are visible, and distant mountains rise under a clear horizon. Dust hangs in the air from the mining operations, illuminated by warm sunlight.

Metals and Mining Just Doubled the S&P 500 YTD: XME’s Quiet Tear

XME spent most of 2026 lapping the S&P 500 by a wide margin, but a single brutal week erased the bragging rights and exposed just how fragile a commodity supercycle rally can be when…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

An older man wearing glasses and an orange polo shirt sits at a wooden table, holding and reading a document. Beside him, an older woman with grey hair and a yellow shirt smiles. An open laptop, a notebook, and a plate with two croissants are on the table. The background shows a modern, bright kitchen.

A 73 Year Old With $1.6 Million in a Traditional 401(k) Faces a $60,400 First RMD That Quietly Triggers an IRMAA Surcharge

A single retiree turns 73 this year sitting on $1.6 million in a traditional 401(k) and a $3,000 monthly Social Security check. The first required minimum distribution is no longer a future problem. It…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A dynamic double exposure image showing the silhouette of a bull. The bull's upper body is filled with a dark teal overlay featuring a city skyline, financial bar charts, and three bright teal arrows pointing diagonally upwards. The lower body of the bull shows dark, smoky cloud textures. The background is solid white.

Large Cap Growth Just Lapped the S&P 500: PWB Is Up 28% YTD

Invesco's large-cap growth ETF has turned a simple earnings momentum screen into a relentless outperformance machine in 2026, but the same mechanism that built the lead is precisely what makes it fragile when the…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A senior man and woman with gray hair are seated at a wooden table. The man, wearing a blue polo shirt and gray cardigan, looks intently at documents held by the woman. The woman, dressed in a black shirt with white polka dots, appears focused on the papers. On the table, a light blue mug, an open notebook with colorful charts, and other documents are visible. The background shows a softly blurred home interior.

How a 401(k) Balance Over $1 Million Quietly Pushes 85 Percent of a Couple’s Social Security Into the Taxable Zone

A married couple, both 72, sit on a $1.05 million traditional 401(k) and collect $52,000 a year in combined Social Security benefits. They built the balance the right way, deferred taxes for decades, and…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

Emerging Markets Are Embarrassing the S&P 500: EEM Up 28% YTD

Emerging market stocks have spent 2026 making US large caps look slow, and the reasons behind that gap reveal something uncomfortable about where the real AI trade is actually playing out.

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

Energy Refuses to Quit: XLE Up 29% YTD as Oil Stocks Wake Up

Everyone wrote off energy as a value trap buried behind the AI trade, yet one sector ETF has quietly outpaced the broad market by more than 20 points in five months. The real question…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

This 2x Nvidia ETF Is Up 31% YTD and 121% Over the Last Year

A leveraged NVIDIA ETF turned a $10,000 stake into thousands more over the past year, but the same mechanism that built those gains just wiped out nearly half of them in a single week.…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

Cybersecurity Goes Vertical: CIBR Just Crushed the S&P 500 by Three to One

A dollar in First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (NASDAQ:CIBR) on the last trading day of 2025 was worth about $1.22 by the close on June 5, 2026, while the same dollar in the S&P…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A close-up shows a person's hand, partially obscured by a dark suit sleeve, pointing to a glowing white arrow that sweeps dramatically upwards from the lower left to the upper right. Below this main arrow, several smaller blue arrows indicate rising bars, forming a digital graph. The background is a dark blue with soft, blurred blue light orbs, creating a deep, professional atmosphere.

This Cybersecurity ETF Just Surged 39% in a Single Month. The YTD Is Even Better.

The headline number making the rounds on cybersecurity ETF Twitter is bigger than the one the tape actually printed, and that gap is the most useful place to start. WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund (NASDAQ:WCBR) closed…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

A complex financial graphic overlays a partially visible US hundred-dollar bill featuring Benjamin Franklin, and several dark, metallic oil barrels. Transparent candlestick and line graphs in shades of luminous blue and green, along with white grid lines and numeric values like '35.554' and '56.209', dominate the foreground. A faint American flag pattern is visible in the background, creating a visual representation of energy markets and economic trends.

Crude Oil’s $114 Spike Changes Everything

Crude oil is the loudest macro story of 2026, and the cleanest way to express a view on it without owning physical barrels is through exchange-traded funds. This piece focuses on four: the United…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

Four light-colored wooden blocks are arranged on a white surface. The first three blocks spell 'XRP' in dark, bold letters. A fair-skinned hand gently holds the fourth wooden block, which displays a prominent green upward arrow on its top face and a red downward arrow on its front face. In the blurred background, a digital screen shows colorful financial charts, possibly candlestick or line graphs, with numerical data against a dark grid pattern.

XXRP’s 91% Wipeout Reveals the Leverage Trap Crypto Investors Miss

If you held the Teucrium 2x Long Daily XRP ETF (NASDAQ:XXRP) into the close on Friday, you watched a 12% single-day drop turn an already grim year into something close to a wipeout. XXRP…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

After 11% Wipeout, XSD Investors Must Hate Broadcom

A $10,000 position in the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:XSD) at the close on Thursday was worth roughly $8,873 by Friday’s close, and the people who got there did not own a single share…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

Guidance Miss Becomes a Bloodbath: DRAM’s 15% Implosion is At The Center

The Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) closed Friday, June 5, 2026 at $55.79, down 15% on the day from a prior close of $65.70. Over the two-day window from June 3 through June 5, the…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago

An aerial shot showcasing an expansive field of dark blue solar panels in the foreground, with the sun casting a golden reflection on the panels to the left. In the midground, three tall, white wind turbines stand against a sky transitioning from warm hues on the left to cooler blues and whites with clouds on the right. Distant mountains and a faint city skyline are visible beneath the horizon.

The Overlooked Fidelity Fund That’s Already Up 84% Over Twelve Months on a Forgotten Thesis

A $10,000 position in Fidelity Clean Energy ETF (NYSEARCA:FRNW) on the last trading day of 2025 was worth about $13,330 by the close on June 4, 2026, a 33% run in a little over…

Austin Smith · 3 months ago