The Inner Monologue

If you had a time machine and could send just one message to your past self, what would it say?

December 28, 1978

Dear Me,

You’re going to think this is a joke.

It isn’t.

I am writing to you from 2026.

I could tell you who becomes president. I could tell you about the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall, September 11, COVID, the Internet, smartphones, electric cars and something called artificial intelligence.

None of that is what this letter is about.

You have $100.

I’m going to tell you what to do with it.

There are three rules.

First, don’t ask why.

Second, never sell early because something looks impossibly expensive.

Third, when I give you a date, do exactly what I say on that date.

We’re going to turn your $100 into an amount of money that stops being sensible.

January 1979 — Kulicke & Soffa

Put the entire $100 into Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) at the beginning of 1979.

It’s a semiconductor-equipment company. You don’t care.

By the end of 1979 it will have risen roughly 244%.

Your $100 is now approximately:

$344

Don’t celebrate.

Sell it.

January 1980 — Frequency Electronics

Put everything into Frequency Electronics (FEIM).

Again, don’t ask.

During 1980 it will rise approximately 685%.

Your $344 becomes roughly:

$2,700

You have multiplied your original money about 27-fold in two years.

We’re just getting started.

March 13, 1986 — Microsoft

Between 1981 and early 1986, preserve the money and make no heroic bets. What matters is being ready for this date.

On March 13, 1986, a little software company in Redmond, Washington goes public.

Its name is Microsoft.

Buy as much MSFT as your money will purchase.

Do not sell because it doubles.

Do not sell because it doubles again.

Ignore everyone who tells you IBM will crush it.

Ignore everyone who thinks personal computers are toys.

Hold through the end of 1996.

Microsoft’s extraordinary sequence of gains during these years turns roughly $2,700 into approximately:

$287,000

Now comes one of the hardest instructions in this entire letter.

Sell Microsoft.

Microsoft isn’t finished.

Not remotely.

But something else is about to move faster.

May 15, 1997 — Amazon

On May 15, 1997, buy Amazon.com (AMZN).

Yes, the Internet bookstore.

No, I’m not kidding.

Put everything into it.

Hold until December 1999.

Amazon’s rise from its IPO through the end of 1999 is roughly thirtyfold.

Your approximately $287,000 becomes roughly:

$9 million.

Now sell.

This is extremely important.

Do not become sentimental about Amazon.

The stock is about to collapse by more than 90%.

You’ll eventually hear people saying the Internet was a fad.

They’re wrong.

But they’re going to be right about the stock market for a little while.

Sit on your hands.

2003 — Hansen Natural

Now we’re going to do something that will sound ridiculous.

Buy a sleepy little beverage company called Hansen Natural.

Years from now it will be called Monster Beverage (MNST).

Buy in early 2003.

Hold through 2007.

Energy drinks are about to become enormous.

Across those years, Hansen/Monster produces a cumulative gain of roughly 80-fold.

Your approximately $9 million becomes approximately:

$720 million.

Sell before the financial crisis does its worst.

You are now absurdly wealthy.

Try not to behave like it.

March 2009 — Apple

When the financial world looks as if it is ending, get ready.

In March 2009, start buying Apple (AAPL).

The company makes computers, but that’s no longer the important part.

It has something called the iPhone.

You’re going to see people staring at these things for the rest of your life.

Hold Apple through 2015.

Your money grows by roughly another eight to nine times.

Call it:

$6.2 billion.

Now sell.

Apple will continue doing wonderfully.

We simply have another appointment.

January 2016 — NVIDIA

Buy NVIDIA (NVDA).

All of it.

NVIDIA makes graphics processors. People currently associate them primarily with computer games.

Forget the games.

The important words for your future are:

artificial intelligence.

Hold through the end of 2021.

Over this stretch NVIDIA compounds at an extraordinary rate.

Your roughly $6.2 billion becomes approximately:

$220 billion.

Now sell it.

Yes, sell NVIDIA.

Trust me.

January 2022 — Occidental Petroleum

For one year, get out of NVIDIA.

Buy Occidental Petroleum (OXY) near the beginning of 2022.

Russia will invade Ukraine. Energy markets will convulse. Occidental will have an extraordinary year while technology stocks collapse.

By year’s end, your fortune is approximately:

$475 billion.

Sell Occidental.

And go straight back to the company we just left.

January 2023 — NVIDIA Again

Buy NVIDIA again.

Don’t worry about the price.

Something called ChatGPT has just demonstrated to the world that artificial intelligence has crossed an important threshold.

Everyone is going to need computing power.

NVIDIA is selling the shovels during the gold rush.

Hold.

NVIDIA rises roughly 239% in 2023.

Then roughly 171% in 2024.

It rises again in 2025.

Remain aboard into 2026.

By the time this letter catches up with the person who wrote it, our original $100 has theoretically become something on the order of:

$6.5 trillion

Yes.

Trillion.

Not million.

Not billion.

Approximately $6,500,000,000,000.

And that’s using a relatively restrained version of the strategy rather than hopping among obscure microcaps every few weeks.

Obviously, reality will eventually interfere.

Long before reaching trillions, your own buying and selling will move markets. You can’t quietly put $200 billion into a company whose entire market capitalization is smaller than that. Taxes will matter. Liquidity will matter. Regulators will notice. People will notice. At some point you’ll stop being an investor participating in the market and become one of the forces determining what the market does.

So here is the final instruction.

Once the money becomes large enough that following this letter would change the prices upon which the letter is based, stop.

You have won.

Diversify.

Give most of it away.

And whatever you do, do not use your knowledge of the future to try to improve the instructions.

That’s how time-travel movies get complicated.

One final thing.

In 1978, $100 doesn’t seem like very much money.

Don’t spend it.

You’ll understand later.

Yours,

You

August 2026