Telescope Investing

Episode 153

Top 20 Stocks Are Now Over 50% of the S&P 500. Should You Be Worried? + $CRWD $NU $CIFR $ASTS (E153)

9 October 2026

Badger calls in from Crete after a week in which he trimmed $CRWD to 3% of his retirement portfolio and nearly sold $NU on a Monzo rumor. Monkey read a bear essay on AI spending and started talking himself out of $CIFR. The top 20 stocks were 38% of the S&P 500 at the dot-com peak and are over 50% now; Badger's argument, after ten bull and bear cycles, is that it may not matter which one we're in. With three weeks left in year three of King of the Jungle, the co-hosts are within 2% of each other (and kicking the market's butt).

🎓 Bill Gates on AI tutoring vs Monkey's classroom, where students outsource the struggle 📉 A bear essay on AI spend vs AI revenue, and Badger's case for hardware over the labs 🥧 S&P 500 concentration: top 20 were 38% of the index at the dot-com peak, over 50% now 📈 Ten bull and bear cycles, and why you should stay in the game regardless 🦍 Monkey's four AI data-center stocks, $IREN, $DGXX, $CIFR and $SLNH - which one is he selling? 🛑 $NU: the Monzo rumor, the sell Badger skipped, and why you have more time than you think 🛡️ $CRWD at $275B: why Badger trimmed 🤝 You owe it to your friends to teach them the power of long-term investing

SEGMENTS 00:00 Cold open and intro 02:29 Bill Gates on AI and education vs Monkey's classroom 07:27 The bear essay, half one: AI spend vs AI revenue 09:59 Luke's pushback: the labs have no moat, the hardware does 11:28 The bear essay, half two: 2008-style debt 15:03 S&P 500 concentration: top 20 at the dot-com peak vs now 17:08 Monkey's own exposure: $IREN, Anthropic and the domino risk 19:17 The S&P top 10 is one correlated trade 22:03 Ten bull and bear cycles: why you stay in the game regardless 24:00 Monkey's conundrum: four AI data-center stocks, sell $CIFR? 28:54 The laziness factor and number one vs number two 32:50 Where the money goes, and Monkey talks himself into selling 36:15 $NU: the Monzo rumor and the impulse sell Badger skipped 39:48 $CRWD: five years in, a $275B name, trimmed to 3% 44:07 Selling winners: earnings-call hours as goodwill 45:50 Bull or bear? Maybe it doesn't matter 47:57 King of the Jungle year four approaches 49:45 $ASTS: the one stock both portfolios share 53:09 Luke's brother launches a 120-day investing initiative for friends 55:26 The mission statement: point a friend to the show 56:41 Fiscal.ai and sign-off

********** SUPPORT THE SHOW AND BECOME A PATREON: wallstreetwildlife.com ********** Follow us at: ⁠⁠x.com/7LukeHallard ⁠x.com/7FlyingPlatypus ********** Fiscal.AI is the Complete Stock Research Platform for fundamental investors. With its beautiful design and institutional-quality data, Fiscal AI is incredibly powerful and easy to use. Get 15% off any premium plan with: fiscal.ai/wildlife ********** Monkey’s “Zen, Nietzsche, How to Live” Substack: firephilosophy.substack.com ********** To use the same portfolio tracking tool as Luke, check-out: portseido.com/?fpr=lukehallard ********** Disclosure: Wall Street Wildlife hosts and guests are not financial advisors, and nothing they say on this show is formal advice or a recommendation ********** Fed up with the stock market giving you a hard time?

- Invest like seasoned pros with over 40 years in the game - Discover the world's leading companies - Sharpen your best investing practices and ditch the worst - Learn how to start investing - Essential investing principles to boost your returns