2026 1st Quarter (Q1) Performance
How well you do with your stock market operations depends entirely on your decision-makings skills. If you doubt it, just consider these facts.
Most people have the same stocks on their watchlists.
Yet not everybody’s accounts show the same performance.
Most people read the same stuff, have the same research, and have access to the same data.
Yet not everybody’s accounts show the same performance.
Most people have the same screening programs, same or similar methods, the internet and all trading platforms regurgitate the same nonsense.
Yet not everybody’s accounts show the same performance.
This was the screenshot of the stock dartboard and a chimpanzee trying to select the best stocks as of January 2026 for the 2026 calendar year. I had this as the calendar changed from 2025 to 2026, on January 4, 2026. Clearly most had the same or similar stocks on their lists. It only takes one nice run to make your year.
But the key decision-making skills that separate the winners from the also-rans are:
- Did I pick the right stock at the right time?
- And once I picked the right stock at the right time, did I make the right decisions trading it at its every twist and turn?
As an experiment, suppose we do a simple decision-making exercise. What if you journey your way along a stock’s rising move, day by day, week by week, month by month?
I was going to write about a couple stocks (AXTI and PL) from the above dartboard of stocks that have made a move since January 2026. Before I could move on with my article, a friend of mine sent me a link to an article about Michael Burry having a short position on Palantir (PLTR). Michael Burry trades under Scion Capital and for those who are not aware of who he is, go watch the movie “The Big Short.” I am not one who pays much attention to what others do. I listen to stocks and no one else as should you.
However, I have been watching Palantir (PLTR) for a topping action for weeks and I observed the turn in PLTR trend. All you need is a just a simple chart and I bet you can observe what I observe as well.
Take a look at this chart below.
At its simplest, despite the low at 153.11 undercutting its prior low at 153.11, Palantir (PLTR) had not confirmed a reversal of its uptrend as of October 2025. Since nothing was confirmed, you would have stayed put and done nothing.
Then a reaction to 154.85 still does not confirm a downtrend. And then Palantir acts as shown below:
The recovery to 193.38 does not offer any confirmation. Which means a shorting fund would sit tight. And a long would most probably have been sold out or come close to selling out.
And this finally confirms the change of trend as Palantir goes to 146.59, a low below the prior low of 153.11. While the insiders and the smart people find some reason or other to sell out of Palantir (PLTR), a fool like me just looks at the chart and comes to the same conclusion as Michael Burry.
A couple of weeks ago I had prepared a short video for YouTube and deduced that ORCL had been in a downtrend and that perhaps PLTR had joined ORCL in the same downward trend.
Palantir went to log a low at 131.41 as shown above. The reaction came to this downward leg as shown below.
But the reaction high was pegged at 157.16, well below the prior high of 200.47. Thus, the downward trend was not in any danger of ending.
As of close this past week, Palantir (PLTR) closed at 128.06 and reaffirmed its downtrend. The new top or resistance to any reaction or recovery would now be pegged at 157.16. PLTR and the market are both in a volatile phase now. So, a reaction to shakeout out weak short-sellers would not be surprising. Come to think of it, nothing in the market would be surprising. As we all know, any stock can do anything at any time.
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