Joe Tigay There is something electric about a live trading floor. When I appeared on Schwab Network’s Opening Bell with Nicole Petallides this week, what struck me first wasn’t the cameras or the questions — it was the energy coming through that floor. That ambient hum of capital moving, of decisions being made in real time, of a market that never stops breathing. It’s a sound you don’t forget once it’s in your bones, and hearing it again reminded me exactly why I fell in love with this business.
Now, I watch a lot of television. A lot of financial television, specifically. And one thing you notice quickly is that there is no shortage of certainty on your screen. Talking heads from coast to coast who will tell you — with complete conviction — exactly what the market is going to do next week, next month, next quarter. They have targets. They have timelines. They speak with the confidence of someone holding a map to a destination they’ve already visited.
I am not one of those people.
“I don’t have a crystal ball. I cannot predict the immediate future — and I think anyone who says they can is selling you something.”
What I have instead is something I believe is more durable: a framework built on two things I do know with genuine conviction. Not guesses. Not predictions. Truths that have held across every market cycle I’ve witnessed as a trader and as a VIX market maker on the floor.
The Two Things I Know
- Over the long term, stocks go higher. This isn’t optimism. It’s history. Through recessions, pandemics, rate shocks, and geopolitical crises — the long arc of equity markets bends upward. That doesn’t mean every year, every month, or every week. But over time, it is the most reliable truth in finance.
- Volatility reverts to the mean. It spikes. It crashes. It spikes again. But it always, always comes back. If you know that truth in your gut — not just intellectually, but in the way you make decisions — it changes everything about how you trade.
So How Do I Play the Market?
If those are the two bedrock truths, then the strategy that flows from them isn’t complicated. It’s actually elegantly simple — though executing it takes discipline.
On the equity side, I buy and hold. Not because I’m passive or unengaged, but because I genuinely believe in the long-term trajectory of stocks. Trying to time the market, jumping in and out chasing headlines, reacting to every tariff tweet and Fed whisper — that’s a game that costs most players more than it rewards them. The S&P 500 steadying near recovery highs, supported by strong bank earnings and resilient consumer spending, is exactly the kind of environment that rewards patience over prediction.
But on the volatility side? That’s where I get active. As a former VIX market maker, volatility isn’t something I fear — it’s something I understand as an asset class in its own right. When the VIX spikes dramatically, as it has in recent months, that’s not just a signal of fear. It’s an opportunity. Because I know what volatility always does eventually: it mean reverts. And when you can position around that with discipline, the swings in the fear gauge become a source of alpha rather than anxiety.
Equities
Buy and hold for the long run. Let compounding and the structural upward drift of markets do the work. Don’t let short-term noise shake long-term conviction.
Volatility
Trade it actively. Use the VIX as a risk-management tool during volatile swings. Mean reversion is the edge — and it’s one the market hands you repeatedly if you’re patient enough to wait for it.
Where Else Are the Opportunities?
Beyond the AI and semiconductor names that have dominated the conversation, I flagged something I think deserves more attention: industrial and infrastructure companies tied to the physical build-out of the next technology cycle. Everyone talks about the software and chips that power AI — fewer people are focused on the steel, the power, the cooling, the physical infrastructure that makes it all possible. That’s where I see growing opportunity that the market hasn’t fully priced.
The next leg of the tech cycle isn’t just digital. It’s deeply, unavoidably physical. And the companies building that foundation may be the quiet winners of the decade ahead.
“Everyone wants to know what happens next. I’d rather know what’s true always — and build a strategy around that.”
That’s the approach I brought to Schwab Network, and it’s the one I’ll keep bringing — whether markets are soaring or the VIX is telling you the world is ending. Because the world isn’t ending. Volatility reverts. Stocks go higher. And the floor keeps humming.
