The Trading Post | 10.03.25

Good morning,

Government shutdown drags into Day 3 but markets don’t care, AI valuations keep inflating, Tesla prints record Q3 deliveries but stock dips, Goldman’s CEO sees animal spirits and M&A revival, and Bitcoin lounges above $120K with ETFs sucking up billions.

Master futures spread trading with Brandon Wendell's Wealth With Spreads—the strategy that delivers consistent returns with dramatically lower risk and margin requirements. 

Let’s jump in.

Pre-Market Performance

As of 10.02.25 market close.

Market News

• Shutdown, Shmutdown: Stocks keep ripping to record highs despite Washington gridlock. WSJ

• AI Bubble Watch: OpenAI hits $500B valuation, deals with Hitachi and Fujitsu fuel semis. Reuters

• Tesla Pops and Drops: 497K deliveries crush estimates, but shares sink on Europe weakness. CNBC

• Goldman’s Gospel: CEO David Solomon predicts M&A surge, “animal spirits,” and $6B tech spend. Yahoo Finance

• Crypto Party: Bitcoin holds above $120K as ETFs pull in $900M weekly. Benzinga

• Yields Check: Bonds rally as Fed cut odds rise with data blackout. Reuters

• Gold Shines: 7th straight weekly gain on safe-haven flows. CNBC

• Global Flows: Asia mixed, Europe steady, U.S. leads risk rally. US News

• ETF Madness: Retail piling into levered AI and crypto funds — what could go wrong? MarketWatch

• Manic Zone: S&P rally enters “excessive confidence” territory. Bloomberg

A Message From Wealth Builders HQ

Trade Smarter, Not Harder: Unlock the Power of Futures Spreads 

Most retail traders don't know about one of Wall Street's best-kept secrets: futures spread trading. 

Wealth With Spreads, led by veteran trader Brandon Wendell, CMT, teaches you how to profit from the price differences between related futures contracts—whether markets go up, down, or sideways. 

Here's what makes spread trading so powerful: 

• Dramatically lower margins: Trade positions for $300-$500 instead of $10,000+

• Reduced risk: You're long and short simultaneously, providing downside protection 

• Direction-neutral profits: Make money regardless of overall market direction 

• High rate of return: Achieve 50-100%+ returns on minimal capital deployment 

Brandon provides real-time spread alerts as trades are opened, managed, adjusted, and closed, plus quarterly live Q&A sessions and foundational training to help you understand both intramarket spreads (same security, different months) and intermarket spreads (related securities). 

Whether you're looking to diversify your trading strategies, reduce your margin requirements, or trade with less directional risk, Wealth With Spreads gives you a professional-grade approach that institutions have used for decades. 

Ready to add spread trading to your arsenal? Check out Wealth With Spreads and start trading like the pros. 

Trade Ideas

Want to learn how we trade these? Learn the setup we call the “High Volatility Switchback” trade.

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Daily Moment of Zen

Why It Matters:

Adam Smith basically called out cartels, guilds, and today’s equivalent—OPEC meetings, central banker “working lunches,” and every investment bank conference where the bar tab mysteriously adds 20% to your grocery bill six months later.

For traders, this is a reminder: markets aren’t always “free.” Price action often reflects boardroom handshakes, supply squeezes, and whispered agreements at golf outings. Oil spikes? OPEC brunch. Semiconductor prices mooning? Executives “aligning” at a summit. Even the AI boom has a whiff of synchronized storytelling to keep valuations frothy.

Translation for us: Don’t fight the cartel—trade with it. If a sector’s “coincidental” price hike suddenly looks coordinated, that’s not conspiracy theory, that’s opportunity. Just remember, the public pays retail…traders clip the spread.