As Shane Dorian dukes it out with surf fan, "Owning an asset is racist! Stay broke forever! It’s righteous!"
Although the physical resemblance might be slight, paper-thin skin ravaged by the sun, a robust fragility etc, Nathan Florence is being hailed tonight as the Nancy Pelosi of stock trading after tripling the performance of Standard & Poor’s 500.
As you may, or may not, know, the S&P 500 is one of the most important and widely followed stock market indexes in the world. It tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the US Investors. Fund managers, financial news outlets and casual pundits use the S&P 500 as a quick way to gauge whether the market is rising or falling on any given day.
For the past six years, Nathan Florence, Shane Dorian, Kelly Slater, John John Florence and a few others, have competed against each other to see who will be crowned trader of the year.
And this year, thanks to investments in Elon Musk’s futuristic Tesla and Peter Thiel’s tech company, Palantir, Nathan Florence was an easy winner, making a 50 percent return on his cash and easily outstripping the S&P500’s seventeen percent.
Comparisons to former house speaker and congress gal for 39 years Nancy Pelosi are obvious. Her portfolio’s crushed the market for years—returns like 700-800% over the last decade, beating the S&P 500 by hundreds of points. In 2024 alone, she pulled 50-70% while the index did ~25%. Long calls on NVDA, AVGO, Tempus AI, Alphabet—big tech bets timed perfectly. Over decades in Congress, estimates say $130M+ in profits, 16,000%+ ROI.
A shocking year for Kelly Slater, however, the investor in wavepool tech, sustainable clothing, turtle thongs and real estate, finishing dead last alongside tour photographer and New Jersey ice cream kiosk owner Ryan Miller.
Florence writes:
Year 6 in our investing competition i finally got a win! 50% YTD in 2025 with the largest account ive had of any year. I believe it finally gave me the risk control i needed! We have had some crazy years in the markets with @shanedorian and @badboyryry_ trading Ws, this year we had a good January then the tarrif dip into a raging bull market and another strong correction into year end! I managed to start the year good then be in all cash into tarrif dip, then traded names like HOOD, PLTR, TSLA, CELH off the bottom, through out year and back into cash at year end after taking some heat on the BTC correction! Kept risk tight and rode the winners alot like surfing slabs investing is a dangerous game but if u pick em right and know when to kick out you can have the ride of your life! Thanks @shanedorian for the epic trophy and recommending Bill Oneills books all those years ago! 2026 is on! So fun to learn, study and talk finance all year with the group! Money is something all athletes know can have abrupt changes at any time in a career good to be well learned in the subject! This group started as a friendly challenge between john and i and grew into this awesome group! Going in year 7 So fun! As always dinner is on bottom two % of the year Thanks for dinner @badboyryry_ @kellyslater !
All good times etc but, meanwhile, below the line at Shane Dorian’s post of the event, a storm brewed, surf fans angered by the buying of Palantir shares.
“You guys do know what PLTR does? I wouldnt buy no much how much money it made me , I don’t invest in the death of children,” writes Andrew Black.
Dorian responds, “You know you don’t actually own the company when you buy shares right? I buy stuff that I think is going up. If you think you’re better than someone because you don’t buy a certain stock you’re tripping balls buddy buy you do you.”
Another fan, Kev, dives in, “By buying their stock you affect the price up (albeit in a small way) and thereby increase the value of that company incentivising them to keep doing what they are doing.”
Dorian: “Jeeze dude. Don’t buy stocks! Don’t buy a house, you’re supporting the evil banks! Owning an asset is racist! Stay broke forever! It’s righteous!”
Andrew Black: “I’m all for investing and making money 💵 . I don’t think I’m better than anyone, but I do believe as humans it’s important to know who we are giving our money to and what the companies we invest in do. No company is perfect just like us , but a company that actively helps genicide and builds the tools for mass surveillance of our society lies outside my moral compass.”
Etc.
Question: is buying shares in a company like Palentir, which serves the mighty IDF, as well as ICE, not far off putting bullets in children, as posited by Andrew Black? Is owning an asset racist? And is staying broke forever righteous?
top signal if ive ever seen one
Cant wait to watch the next youtube edit Nathan & Co do a strike mission to Wall Street.
AND….. NEW!!! 🏆 2025 Stock Group Winner
This year didn’t feel like winning.
It felt like understanding the machine a little better.
@nathan_florence finished on top with a 50.17% return—more than 3× the S&P 500—by aligning himself with systems that don’t blink, don’t apologize, and don’t care who’s watching.
He timed companies like Palantir, Robinhood, and Tesla the way you’d time tides or weather patterns—not because you love them, but because ignoring them is expensive.
These are not products.
They are infrastructures.
They don’t just sell things—they observe, record, model, and anticipate behavior. Movement becomes data. Choice becomes signal. Freedom becomes a variable.
Nate went 100% cash the moment the tariff narrative cracked. No speeches. No attachment. When momentum crested, he sold into strength while the crowd debated what it meant. The market doesn’t ask what it means. It only asks who’s early and who’s late.
Do I feel better about the world because of these returns?
No.
Do returns care about how anyone feels?
Also no.
Markets don’t reward innocence. They reward clarity.
They don’t punish power—they compound it.
This group is why I keep showing up. We argue, talk shit, sharpen each other, and occasionally stare straight at the uncomfortable truth: you don’t have to like the system to profit from understanding it—but you should probably understand what it’s becoming.
Congrats to Nate 🍾
Thanks for the ridiculously epic dinner @badboyryry_ @kellyslater
No one asked, but I finished runner-up at +30%.
Still watching. Still learning
AND….. NEW!!! 🏆 2025 Stock Group Winner
We called it a win. The numbers say it was.
But if you listened closely this year, the market was saying something else too.
@nathan_florence finished on top with a 50.17% return—over 3× the S&P 500—by syncing up with companies that have quietly become part of the background noise of modern life: Palantir, Robinhood, Tesla. Not brands so much as systems—the kind you don’t opt into anymore, you just wake up inside of.
This wasn’t about conviction. It was about recognition.
Recognizing where attention flows. Where data settles. Where leverage accumulates. Nate went 100% cash the moment the tariff story fractured, then sold strength without nostalgia while the rest of the world argued about intent and impact. The tape kept moving.
That’s the lesson, if there is one.
Markets don’t pause for ethics debates. They don’t slow down for discomfort. They reward those who notice patterns early—and punish those who confuse concern with positioning.
Did this year feel triumphant?
Sure.
Did it also feel like watching the future lock into place one candle at a time?
A little.
That’s why this group matters. We talk shit, we compete, we sharpen each other—and sometimes we admit, quietly, that making money and liking the direction things are heading aren’t the same thing.
Congrats to Nate 🍾
Thanks for the ridiculously epic dinner @badboyryry_ @kellyslater
No one asked, but I finished runner-up at +30%.
Winning feels different when you’re paying attention.
>You know you don’t actually own the company when you buy shares right?
Just learning this for the first time. Thank you Mr. Dorian.
You have to invest in on a super villain company like Palentir. Everything is transactional and morality is for Sunday mornings.
If I was a chick I would want to marry Nathan.
you, are an incurable romantic
Stock Grit , sounds like a new frontier for surf adjacent content
Stocks can’t be making them much money considering they all have subscription services so other men can watch them workout.
YAWN! The cocktail bragging phenomenon is real with these heroes! As the great stock trader Dirk the Butcher once shouted out-
“One year doth not a trader make”
Prove it for a few years, a few decades in good and bad markets with big money and then I’ll be impressed!
Everyone’s a genius in a bull market.
Especially the so-called industry professionals
So fuckin bizarre to put this shit on social media.
Things are going to get very entertaining when the USMCA comes up for review.
Volatility ramping up is a certainty as nations figure out that financial leveraging is the only thing that keeps orange TACO boy in line and realizing now instead of later is the time to absorb the pain. Never mind the fact that our blatantly corrupt leadership, armed to the teeth with insider information, thrives on volatility, fear and uncertainty.
Volatility provides the best opportunity to those, like myself, who are not risk adverse, so bring it on.
Interesting! Some might suggest that leadership doesn’t like Vol while they indeed love inside information.
Pelosi is our trading queen!
In theory leadership and business alike should hate volatility, but that doesn’t appear to be the world we live in as our dollar eats crow and gold and silver reach all time highs.
Watching Hawley’s proposal get stuffed into the circular file spoke volumes.
Very true. At least Hawley appeared to put up a valiant effort. As for Vol, we haven’t seen much recently other than last April. Is it time for it to kick up? https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Crazy how this chart illustrates how fast everything went from greed to fear every time.
Like somehow no one seems it coming.
Almost like you should be fearful when others are greedy and vice versa.
Also I noticed the effect of quantative easing in 2008 and 2020 compared to 2000
Seeing as this is reactionary the trick seems to be one step ahead of it.
Fair to say we are still feeling the lingering effects of QE and other gov’t infused economy smoothing manipulations such as the cheap money hangover that fueled inflation, consumer spending and the housing bubble. Many of the smart people(pick your favorites as they’ll all tell you how smart they are) believe we are headed into a stock and sector picking market with more losers than winners.
Your sage philosophy is greatly appreciated. At one point I feel people will be expecting QE that isn’t going to come, bringing on the great reckoning.
But for now holding chips….
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Bad enough to see these bastards living the easy life, now you get them rubbing in your face how much they made playing the casino.
Also, 50% of 10$ is 5$ . For the sake of clarity, be interesting to know how much money those 50% actually mean.
When hookers and surfers are offering trading advice, it’s time to short the market.
Some have suggested that paying close attention to the Lipstick Index and the Stripper Index is critical to making money in equity markets. Now we have the Kook Index to add to the madness!
Nothing says core surfer like trading stocks with your buddies.
I’ve no problem with it, as it’s the “modern” way to make money off of money. What I find bizarre is publicising it to people outside of your friend group. In money they trust.
We do kinda vote with our money..
One step above playing golf
The most core investment strategy is obviously just throwing everything into low cost mutual funds.
I just realized I fucked up and have been trying to trade socks…must have TDS…missed the T…..ouch!
Selling my coffee can of silver quarters…. gonna treat myself to Sizzler.
that well done sirloin swimming in A-1 hits just right
I got 10 bucks for one quarter so sizzler might be selling yourself short….
Hahahahahaha ahhhh Dez here we go again mate……..
You forgot yeeeeeeeeeeeew!
That’s reserved for moments of genuine stoke mate, not a pack of seppos acting like a pack of seppo cunts haha
Im up 13% in 5 days on my uranium play, data centres will have private reactors.
That’d be right… mini china crisis
But no C02!!
Ha! reversing “climate change” one retarded baby at a time
Yeah, theyll fit in well.
Never pegged you as a uranus play kind of guy, more up Dogsnuts alley
Anyone can make money in the stock market during a 3 year perpetual bull market. Try doing the same when the overall market is down 20-30%.
And to correct Backdorian, you do own part of a company when you buy shares of stock as the equity holder now has a claim on a portion of the company’s assets and earnings. Maybe that chapter was skipped in William O’neil’s book.
I wonder what he thinks owning a share means – wait i know it’s just numbers on a screen.
And if your stakes are high enough you even get to call the shots.
Those pricks at Elliot are a prime example of that.
Everyone is a hero these days… until they’re not.
know a guy who was very early into crypto, like pre $5k BC early , nowadays spends his time wandering around finding new gf’s every few months and collecting Porsche’s … just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how much $$ you collect, if you don’t surf your life will be cosplay shit regardless
I LOVE THIS! Tell me more about his Porsche collection and the typical age of the gfs. New or old cars? The only challenge I see is the new gf every few months as the onboarding/offboarding surely becomes draining although I appreciate the sport of it all. I found Mrs Madeoff in a ski town bar, right out of college, in the late 80s. She already knew how to drive a manual(Camry) so she drives a manual Porsche with mostly appropriate skills these days, couldn’t ski worth a shit then(she can now), didn’t surf then while she surfs better than me now which doesn’t say much about me.
newer – he likes to tote them to private race tracks, so right now mainly into an RS, but he flips them like trading cards. The gf’s aren’t too wild, hung out w/ him a couple months ago at a wedding and he was with a therapist in her 30s.
What a great life-Porsches and 30 something yr olds!
not much of a car guy , but the lovely ms rocks is still in her 30s so can confirm that part is pretty great
Dozza Triggered