Their Golden Age. Our Opportunity.

As corporate profits soar and AI reshapes the economy, the case for becoming an owner has rarely felt more important.

Dear friends,

We’ve arrived at one of the more important junctures of the fourth quarter: the beginning of the final major earnings season of the year.

And this one could be historic.

According to FactSet, third-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 are expected to grow nearly 30% over last year. And if companies exceed expectations by their usual margins, actual earnings growth could surpass 35%.

That would mark an extraordinary eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth for the index.

Is it any wonder we’ve enjoyed such a powerful bull market?

In fact, Monday, October 12th marks the fourth anniversary of the market bottom that launched this bull market!

Feel like celebrating? Probably, especially if you’ve remained consistently invested throughout those four years, despite all the scares, setbacks, and seemingly endless reasons we’ve been given to sell our stocks and run for cover.

But there’s something about this remarkable period of wealth creation that I’ve been thinking about lately.

These may be the golden years for corporate America. But are they the golden years for everyone else?

After decades of increasing political influence, favorable tax treatment, substantial government support, and an extraordinary ability to improve profitability, many of America’s largest corporations have arguably never had it better.

And neither have many of their executives and shareholders.

But the average American worker? That’s another story entirely.

Unless you’re fortunate enough to occupy the upper levels of the corporate ladder, where enormous compensation packages and stock options can generate life-changing wealth, or you own a successful business capable of passing rising costs along to customers, the experience has often been considerably different.

For millions of Americans, the rising costs of housing, healthcare, insurance, and everyday necessities continue to make getting ahead a struggle. Even those earning decent incomes increasingly wonder whether they’re making any real progress.

And now comes the AI revolution, promising extraordinary advances in productivity and corporate profitability while simultaneously raising legitimate concerns about job security, wages, and the future of work itself.

Meanwhile, some of America’s largest and most influential corporations are committing staggering amounts of money to AI development and infrastructure, making enormous bets on a future that, for all its promise, remains extraordinarily uncertain.

And I can’t help wondering whether some of this risk-taking is being encouraged by the belief that these companies have become too big, too important, and too interconnected with our financial system to be allowed to fail.

After all, it’s not just their money at risk. It’s ours, too.

Millions of Americans have exposure to these companies, whether they realize it or not, through their index funds, 401(k)s, retirement accounts, and pension investments. Even those who have never deliberately invested a dime in AI may discover that a meaningful portion of their financial future is tied to the success of this enormous experiment.

And if things go wrong, who ultimately bears the consequences? Will it be the executives collecting enormous compensation packages today, or the millions of investors, workers, and retirees whose financial futures have become increasingly tied to these corporate bets?

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe AI has the potential to create extraordinary new businesses, industries, opportunities, and wealth. That’s precisely why I want to participate in this revolution, while remaining mindful of the risks.

But there’s an important distinction that investors should never forget.

AI can change the world without every investment made in its name turning out to be a good one.

History is full of revolutionary technologies that changed our lives while destroying enormous amounts of investors’ money along the way.

And that’s something worth remembering as we enter what could be one of the most consequential periods of corporate investment in our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, there’s a striking disconnect between what we’re seeing in corporate earnings reports and what we’re hearing from ordinary Americans about their financial circumstances.

Wall Street is celebrating record profits while too many on Main Street are wondering how to keep up.

And frankly, I’ve grown tired of being told that if we simply give corporations and the wealthiest Americans more favorable treatment, the benefits will eventually trickle down to everyone else.

We’ve been hearing some version of that promise for most of my life. Meanwhile, wealth and political influence have become increasingly concentrated, leaving many Americans wondering whether the system still works for them.

I sometimes think about Ronald Reagan’s famous observation that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

Whatever your politics, I’ve never been particularly comfortable leaving my financial future in someone else’s hands.

And that’s really the point I’m trying to make.

I’m not waiting. I’m investing.

I’ve worked hard for decades, first in pursuit of the American Dream and now, just as importantly, in keeping it.

And I have no intention of leaving my financial future dependent on the promises of politicians, the generosity of corporate America, or the hope that prosperity will somehow trickle down to me.

If American corporations are enjoying a golden age of wealth creation, then I want to participate in it. Not simply as a worker or consumer, but as an owner.

And I want to help as many others as I can learn to do the same.

Because while we may have little control over the decisions made in Washington or corporate boardrooms, we have considerably more control over how we save, invest, manage risk, and position ourselves to benefit from the opportunities those decisions create.

Now, I recognize I’m making some broad generalizations here. Not every corporation is thriving, and certainly not every American worker is struggling. There are plenty of exceptions. I’m simply sharing what I’ve observed, what I’ve experienced, and what I continue to hear from people around me.

But there’s one exception to this story that I think deserves far more attention.

Those who have consistently owned stocks and participated in the growth of American businesses have had an opportunity to experience this economy very differently.

They’ve participated in the enormous wealth creation taking place around us, not because they somehow avoided every market correction, economic scare, or political crisis, but because they refused to let those events permanently knock them off course.

And that brings me back to something I’ve believed for a very long time.

For the little guy, owning a piece of America’s most successful businesses remains one of the best opportunities we have to build wealth and achieve financial independence.

That doesn’t mean investing blindly, staying fully invested regardless of conditions, or ignoring the very real risks that come with owning stocks.

Quite the opposite.

It means learning how markets work, recognizing opportunities when they appear, managing our risks, and having the discipline to act aggressively when the price action and probabilities justify doing so.

Just as importantly, it means knowing when to de-risk, protect what we’ve worked so hard to build, and patiently wait for better opportunities.

After all, building wealth is one challenge. Keeping it is another.

This philosophy is one of the primary reasons I started The Kirk Report back in 2003.

I remembered what it was like to be the little guy a decade earlier, trying to figure out how to save, invest, and create a better financial future without knowing where to begin. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, and I knew there had to be others trying to figure out many of the same things.

I wanted to share what I was learning, what was working, what wasn’t, and hopefully help others avoid some of the expensive lessons I’d learned firsthand.

It was my way of giving something back.

More than 23 years later, the name has changed, but the mission hasn’t.

It’s why I’m still here, doing what I do through Kirk’s Opportunities.

To share what I’m seeing, what I’m learning, what I’m doing with my own money, and most importantly, where I believe opportunities exist and why.

Not because I’ll always be right. I certainly won’t. But because I believe that with the right knowledge, preparation, patience, and discipline, ordinary investors can give themselves a fighting chance to build better financial futures.

And perhaps achieve something even more valuable than a successful investment portfolio.

The freedom to live more of our lives on our own terms.

That’s what this has always been about for me. First, building a better life. Now, protecting it. And along the way, hopefully helping others do the same.

So, as we enter what could be another historic earnings season, I’d rather spend less time worrying about whether someone else is going to make our financial lives better and more time focusing on what we can actually do for ourselves.

That means paying attention to what companies are actually earning, how investors respond to those results, where leadership is emerging, and whether the price action continues to support the opportunities in front of us.

Not predicting every headline or reacting to every scare, but preparing ourselves to recognize meaningful changes and act when the evidence and probabilities are in our favor.

Because while we can’t control what the market gives us, we can control how prepared we are to take advantage of it. And ultimately, that’s what I hope we can accomplish together here.

C.E. Kirk

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.” — Bob Moawad