Some things and ideas: September 2025

My monthly overview (Monthly recurring piece)

• I consider YAVB my “empire” with four core pieces: this blog / substack (the free side), the premium side of this blog, my podcast (also on Spotify, iTunes, or YouTube), and my twitter account. You can see my 2025 vision and goals for the empire here. If you like the blog / free site, I’d encourage you to check out the pod, follow me on twitter, and maybe even subscribe to the premium site!

• A bonus note: I get asked from lots of people about how to break into the finance industry. I’ve done an entire podcast on how to get a job in investing I’d encourage you to listen to…. but my top advice would be to go out and start a substack yourself! If you do launch a substack, please let me know so I can try to be helpful.

Alphasense webinar

• I’ve mentioned this a few times, but AlphaSense was kind enough to sponsor a free webinar with a payments expert (a Mastercard former) on how Stablecoins could impact the sector; it was a really interesting conversation, and it goes live today (you can find an early peek at a discussion on stablecoins here). If you’re interested, you can sign up using this link

State of markets (Monthly recurring piece)

• It’s not a perfect indicator, but I like to use the CNN “Fear & Greed” Index just to quickly quantify where the markets are.

• Last month, we were firmly in greed territory. This month, the indicator is firmly in neutral territory….

• …But I have to tell you I think the indicator is broken. There is simply no way we’re in neutral territory right now. I’m not saying we’re in extreme greed, but when Chamath is launching oversubscribed SPACs and NVDA is riding a string of circular deals on its way to an almost $5 trillion market cap, there’s no way we’re in full out neutral!

• I continue to find the market and world a weird place. To me, volatility and downside risk seem much higher than the market is pricing in, and there are headlines daily where I think “o, that’s weird” where the market just yawns / keeps on climbing higher. That said, there are all sorts of fascinating events out there, and a lot of “old economy” stocks continue to trade at interesting valuations (in part driven by continued lackluster results). To put it bluntly, I find the whole market mystifying right now.

Nerd Corner (Monthly recurring piece)

• There’s no hiding it; I’m a massive nerd. I read 3-4 fantasy books a month, my favorite pastime is playing board games with my wife and friends, and I was an eager supporter of the Brandon Sanderson (original) Kickstarter (yes, I splurged and went for the hardcover books).

  • I didn’t support Sanderson’s DND-style board game…. but only because my wife would murder me if I bought another board game when I have a whole Dungeon Master kit collecting dust. Still, I wanted to highlight it because between the two Kickstarters Sanderson will have raised >$50m for new projects; if you’re a fan of fantasy and that type of fan enthusiasm doesn’t encourage you to give him a try, I don’t know what will! As I mention below, if you’re trying him out, I’d probably start with Mistborn, though Tress and the Emerald Sea is basically a standalone book and might be my favorite book he’s written

• This month, I kind of dug some dry holes. Really enjoyed Malone’s Memoirs, but nothing fantasy wise I’d recommend as everything else I started wasn’t that great…. and I’d kind of include Brandon Sanderson’s new book in that list. Incredibly disappointing. Hopefully next month will be better!

• PS- outside of my monthly recs, I constantly get asked what my favorite fantasy books are. So I’m just going to throw this list out monthly:

  • Anything Brandon Sanderson writes; he’s by far the best fantasy author out there. I’d probably start with Mistborn, though Tess and the Emerald Sea is basically a standalone book and might be my favorite book he’s written. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England is also a standalone book and a very fun and fast read. Most of his works are interconnected through something called “the cosmere;” if you’re feeling crazy, here’s how to read the cosmere in order.

  • Kingkiller is probably the best series I’ve ever read; waiting for the third is agony.

  • Gentleman Bastards is right up there with Kingkiller; the mix of fun and world building is outstanding.

  • Red Rising series is more sci-fi, but my god is it good. I would literally stay up all night to read every book the day they came out (note: I’ve only read the first trilogy; I’m going to read the second when the last book comes out later this year).

  • If you’re looking for something a little more under the radar (most of the books above are widely regarded as some of the best fantasy books / series ever), the Licanius Trilogy was fantastic.

  • First Law trilogy is excellent. It can get a little brutal / graphic though; there are a bunch of sequels and spins, but I’ve never been able to finish them because one of them got so brutal I just put the book down and never picked it up again. But the first trilogy is really, really great.

  • The Cradle series probably isn’t as “good” as the books above, but I binged them and every fantasy fan I’ve recommended them to has said something along the line of “I read all ten books in two months after I opened the first one.”

    • I’ve also really enjoyed that author’s newest series, Last Horizon!

  • The Wandering Inn series isn’t for everyone, and the first ~150 pages of the first book need to get powered through…. but, if you can power through them, the world building here is incredible, and I’ve had so many friends get hooked by this series. If you like hard fantasy, I can near guarantee you’ll like it.

  • Similarly, Dungeon Crawler Carl won’t be for everyone, but it’s probably the most fun series of books I’ve ever read, and some of the scenes in the later books carry a surprising amount of emotional weight.

  • The Silvers Epic (Flight of the Silvers, Song of the Orphans, War of the Givens) is more sci-fi than fantasy, but it’s one of my favorite series I’ve ever read and I think is wildly creative in how they use time travel / multiverse as a plot point (the last book was a little slow, but the ending wrapped everything up beautifully / it got a little dusty in the room I was reading).

Other things that caught my eye (monthly recurring piece)

• The mysterious, massively lucrative, multibillion dollar ARKK trade

• Making your own magic

  • I loved this post