John Arnold and Stanley Druckenmiller threw money at geothermal energy and brain implants in September. Their family offices invested in technology that either drills into the earth's core or drills into your skull. Both sound pleasant.
Geothermal energy converts heat from beneath the earth's surface into electricity. Brain implants let paralyzed people move robotic arms or check email with their thoughts. One addresses climate change. The other addresses the fact that your body stopped working. Billionaires looked at both and said yes.
You know what retail traders invested in during September? Whatever showed up on their TikTok feed between 11 PM and 2 AM. Probably a token named after a cartoon frog or a company that pivoted to AI after selling mattresses for six years. The mattress company is now called NeuroSleep Intelligence and the stock moved 340% on volume so thin you could read through it.
Arnold made his fortune in natural gas trading. Druckenmiller made his with George Soros betting against the British pound. They survived long enough to become the guys funding volcanic electricity and cyborg interfaces. Their portfolio managers wake up and ask what technology sounds like science fiction. Then they wire eight figures to Stanford dropouts in Palos Alto.
The family office model exists so rich people can invest in decade-long moonshots without explaining quarterly results to pension funds. No earnings calls. No investor relations. Just a quiet room where someone points at a geothermal startup and someone else nods.
Retail traders do not have family offices. They have Robinhood accounts with $1,847 in buying power and a watch list containing 63 tickers. None of those tickers drill into volcanoes. None of them wire brains to computers. They all expire worthless on the third Friday of the month.
Arnold and Druckenmiller are betting on the future. You are betting on whether a semiconductor stock gaps up before your calls decay to zero. One of these strategies involves geothermal energy. The other involves refreshing your brokerage app until you disassociate.
Photo by Amelia Ailema on Unsplash
Leave a Comment