The Fed is days away. AI leaders areswinging wildly. And 2025 is ending with markets sitting right near all-timehighs — despite a year FULL of reasons they “should have” cracked.

In this episode of MarketsUnscripted, Matt Caruso and Jason Shapiro break down what actuallymatters heading into the final Fed meeting of the year — and why so many widelydiscussed narratives (“priced in,” “bubble risk,” “seasonality,” “AIexhaustion”) continue to mislead traders.

This week’s deep-dive includes:

opics We Cover

• Why the Fed’s December meeting may be Powell’s last major decision that matters

• The real question traders should ask: What’s the next upside catalyst?

• Why “everything is known” — yet inflows keep powering the market higher

• Tape-reading vs technical analysis: how both methods arrive at the same truth

• The danger of assuming news → market outcomes

• Why the market climbs a wall of worry

• New leadership trends: AMAT, TER, VIAVI, testing equipment names

• How to spot the next Amazon — and avoid the fate of Carvana

• The psychology & danger of shorting (Jason’s “heroin analogy”)

• Cotton, soybeans, the WASDE report, and the next big catalyst in currencies

• How a rising dollar or steepening yield curve can give stock traders an edge

• Viewer question: What does it really take to become a full-time trader?

If you’re serious about improving yourdecision-making heading into 2026, this one is essential