Why the Smart Money Can’t Get Enough of Energy and AI
Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).
In This Digest:
- The smartest money on Wall Street is loading up on energy and AI
- Our AI is turning their money flows into clear trading ideas – get three of them at tomorrow’s event
- These three major market sectors are lighting up on our smart money options screen
AI insiders are betting big on energy…
If you’ve been following along in these pages for some time, you’ll know that the energy story and the AI story are joined at the hip.
That’s because AI data centers require enormous amounts of power.
Typical “hyperscale” AI data centers consume enough energy to power 100,000 U.S. homes for a year.
And globally, there are close to 1,000 new data centers just like this, either under construction or set to begin construction. That’s 100 million U.S. homes’ worth of power demand set to come online.
And last Monday, we found out that Peter Thiel, a cofounder of AI software and data analytics company Palantir, had quietly bought about $76 million worth of a shale producer called Vista Energy (VIST).
When the news broke, the stock jumped about 5% in a single day.
Turns out, Thiel had been building his stake since June. We only found out in mid-August, when the law finally forced him to show it.
This kind of thing happens all the time. The biggest, best-connected investors in the world quietly make their move… Then everyone else reads about it – and acts on it – weeks or even months later.
Warren Buffett is also making some interesting moves…
Every three months, professional investors have to file a form called a 13F showing what they’ve been buying. It’s the one time regular folks get to peek inside their portfolios.
The latest filing from Berkshire Hathaway out last week – the investment manager that, until recently, was helmed by Warren Buffett – had a surprise in it.
For years, the now 95-year-old investor had steered clear of big tech for the simple reason that he didn’t understand it. And for decades, he’s been telling his followers that he doesn’t invest in businesses he doesn’t understand.
But as the new 13F filing shows, Berkshire Hathaway has continued loading up on shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL).
In Q3 of 2025, Berkshire began with a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet. In the first quarter of 2026, it expanded its stake by another $12.3 billion. And in the most recent filing, it nearly doubled it to $37.8 billion.
Suddenly, Alphabet is now the third-largest holding in the Berkshire portfolio – making up about 11.6% of the whole thing.
When the most famous investor alive makes a move like that, people pay attention.
But there’s a catch – and it’s a big one.
By the time you and I get to read these disclosures, the news is stale.
Thiel had been buying VIST long before it ever hit the headlines.
And Buffett’s filing showed what he owned back in June – six weeks before we got to see it. The law gives these investors 45 days to report.
So by the time the smart money’s moves go public, the smart money has often moved on.
Which raises a question. Wouldn’t it be better to see what the big money is doing closer to real time?
You can – if you know where to look.
The smart money leaves tracks in one place most people never check…
It’s the options market.
Think of the regular stock market as the place people buy and hold.
The options market is where they place faster and more complex bets – on which way a stock will move, how soon, and often as ways to buy stocks at discounted prices if certain conditions are triggered.
It’s where the quickest, best-funded traders on Wall Street go to work.
Last year, 61 million of those bets changed hands on an average day. That’s 61 million clues about where the big money thinks stocks are headed.
The problem? No person could ever sift through all of them.
So we built a machine that can.
We call it Smart Money Edge.
It watches what the world’s most sophisticated investors are doing with their money in the options market and interprets these signals into clear trading ideas – up to 30 days ahead of schedule.
Why the options market?
It’s the best place to spot when deep-pocketed investors are placing big bets.
In our testing, the Smart Money Edge system has found big trades like:
- Oscar Health (OSCR) – flagged about a week before strong earnings sent shares up 15%
- Vista Energy (VIST) – flagged nine days before a surprise acquisition sent shares up 32%, even though the stock had been crashing right up until the news broke
- Rocket Lab (RKLB) – flagged the day before it beat earnings and jumped 50% in a single day
- GameStop (GME) – flagged before a single social media post sent shares up 70%
TradeSmith CEO Keith Kaplan will show you how Smart Money Edge tracks this activity, the current list of stocks it’s flagging, and the historical performance during his 30-Day Wealth Accelerator event.
It kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 10 a.m. ET. He’s also taking questions live on Sept. 4, so if you’re skeptical about any of this, you’ll have the chance to ask him yourself.
It’s free, and there’s no obligation to do anything with what you learn.
RSVP now, and you’ll get immediate access to the top stock our system is flagging right now — plus a chance to trial the software and see how it works for yourself.
In the meantime, here are some interesting calls from our Smart Money Edge system…
Smart Money Edge launched a couple of weeks back for our Platinum members, who have first access to every new piece of software and newsletter we publish.
This new tool is throwing a spotlight on three distinct areas today, and all of them are in assets that have just started moving again: energy stocks (XLE), silver (SLV), and long-term bonds (TLT).
Energy stocks are a big focus this year as the Iran War continues to shut down the world’s biggest oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz.
And the story with long-term bonds and silver is intertwined: The U.S. Treasury is promising further intervention in the bond markets to try to get Treasury yields down, and that’s driving the prices of hard assets like gold and silver higher.
Our Smart Money Edge system is calling for each of these major market sectors to be higher over the next 30 days. Keep them all on your watchlist.
And for three additional big ideas on how to trade the smart money’s biggest bets, be sure to tune in to the 30-Day Wealth Accelerator event with our CEO, Keith Kaplan, tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET.
There, he’ll share three stocks that our Smart Money Edge system is flashing the green light on right now.
Sign up right here if you haven’t already.
To building wealth beyond measure,
Michael Salvatore
Editor, TradeSmith Daily
Disclaimer: At the time of this writing, Michael Salvatore owned shares of GOOGL.