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🍋 The $95k Gap Year

🍋 The $95k Gap Year

Plus: Hedge funds had their worst month relative to the S&P in two decades, JPMorgan is cutting at the fastest pace since 2015, and the mayor of Como banned bikes after getting hit by one.

Short Squeez
August 24, 2026

Together With

"Your unhappiest customers are your greatest source of learning." — Bill Gates

Good Morning! Citadel has already offloaded more than 80% of the risk associated with the Situational Awareness stock portfolio it acquired. Apollo says hackers accessed personal data in the latest Wall Street breach. And the mayor of Como banned bicycles in parts of the historic Italian city after being hit by an electric one.

Hedge funds suffered their worst underperformance vs. the S&P 500 in July in more than 20 years of data. Higher-nicotine Zyn pouches, including 9 and 11 mg, got FDA authorization. And JPMorgan layoffs hit their highest level since 2015.

Plus: US business activity expanded at its fastest pace since 2022, how index funds went from being mocked to feared in 50 years, and why alignment beats work-life balance.

After leveling off at the start of the year, car insurance rates are ticking back up. Compare coverage now to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

The $95k Gap Year

The latest trend in the arms race to get teenagers into Wharton, Goldman, or McKinsey is paying up to $95,000 for a high-end gap year. This isn't backpacking through Europe. The 2026 version looks like a corporate rotational program: organized travel, a work placement, and skills training, sold to parents who doubt a degree alone will make their kid stand out.

Gap years took off during the pandemic, but they are no longer a 2020 trend. The Gap Year Association now has nearly 90 member programs, roughly double the number from six years ago, and demand is surging at the expensive end of the market. One of the priciest options, Baret Scholars, costs $94,500 for the year. Students spend eight months traveling the world, with stops that can include bungee jumping and even coding an app.

Baret received roughly 750 applications for its next class, nearly double the year before. And Tilting Futures, which charges $21,000 per semester, attracted more than 18,000 applicants. At this point, the gap year is starting to look like a second admissions cycle with applications, essays, and waitlists.

But while parents are signing their kids up for gap years to try and offer a leg up for jobs and college admissions, most of the return on investment is really just anecdotal. Gap-year students earned higher GPAs in some studies, but they also tend to come from wealthier families and stronger high schools.

Takeaway: In a highly competitive world, parents are willing to do whatever it takes to make their kids successful, and the market is happily delivering higher-end solutions. What's telling is that almost none of the impact from gap years is measurable. Nearly six-figure gap years today, what could be next?

PRESENTED BY MONEY

See How Your Car Insurance Rate Stacks Up

After years of nonstop increases, car insurance costs seemed to finally start leveling off in the first half of the year. However, the honeymoon period seems to be coming to an end, as some states are now expected to see up to a 15% rate increase by the end of the year.

Who said your current rate is your only option, though? Money’s matching tool asks a few quick questions about you, your vehicle, and your coverage needs, then connects you with insurers that may fit your profile… saving you from checking multiple sites one by one.

Even if you’re happy with your insurer, it never hurts to see how your rate stacks up. Take Money’s short survey and explore your car insurance matches today.

Compare your coverage.

HEADLINES

Markets Rundown

Market Update

Stocks rebounded, led by the Dow, following a near 2.0% sell-off in the S&P 500 earlier this week.
The 10-year Treasury yield stood near 4.73% and the 30-year near 5.27%, both close to year-to-date highs.
Treasury Secretary Bessent said the Treasury would at least double longer-dated buybacks, from roughly $2 billion to at least $4 billion.

Earnings Season

The Citi U.S. Economic Surprise Index fell to around 21 from a June peak near 63, signaling cooling economic momentum.
The decline reflects weaker nonfarm payrolls along with softer retail sales and inflation readings.
The 30-year Treasury yield remains near its highest level since 2007.

Movers & Shakers

(+) Strategy ($MSTR) +6% after Bitcoin rebounded sharply on strong spot ETF inflows.
(+) Tesla ($TSLA) +5% because Clark County, Nevada, approved Tesla to run driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas.
(–) Marvell ($MRVL) -6% after the chipmaker’s investors carefully consider the latest Google deal.

Prediction Markets

Don’t get your hopes up. Cramer said Bitcoin is a “buy”.
Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

Cityblock, an urban primary care provider, raised $116 million
Rillet, an AI accounting startup, raised $100 million
Point2 Technology, a maker of data center interconnect solutions, raised $60 million
Math Magic, a Beijing-based 3D creation platform, raised $50 million
QuantHealth, an Israeli provider of clinical trial simulation software, raised $45 million
DataBahn, a data pipeline platform, raised $40 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Hooked

Description:
A revealing investigation from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss into the science, psychology, and business strategies behind America's processed-food industry. Moss examines how major food companies engineer products to maximize cravings and repeat consumption, using carefully calibrated combinations of sugar, salt, fat, flavor, texture, and convenience. He also explores the industry's marketing tactics and the ways these companies have used scientific research to understand, and exploit, human behavior. The result is a compelling look at the intersection of food, corporate incentives, consumer psychology, and free will.

Book Length: 368 pages
Release Date: March 10, 2026

Ideal For:
Readers interested in business, consumer psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, nutrition, and understanding how major corporations influence consumer behavior.

The most powerful products aren't necessarily the ones we need, they're the ones companies have learned how to make us crave.

DAILY VISUAL

No AI Jobs Shock in India or Philippines

Source: Apollo

PRESENTED BY DILIGENCESQUARED

Five of the Ten Largest PE Funds Use the Same New CDD Firm

DiligenceSquared is what happens when two former Principals, one from Blackstone’s PE team and one from BCG, decide the consulting model they grew up in deserves a rebuild. Their firm delivers investment-grade market research and commercial due diligence, with both senior ex-MBB consultants leading every engagement (and signing off on every finding) and AI agents gathering evidence at a scale no human team could staff.

The work runs the whole deal funnel: industry assessment, market sizing, competitive landscape, voice of customer, and live-deal diligence. DiligenceSquared’s reports land in one to two weeks, make every claim clickable back to the evidence behind it, and they do it at a fraction of what the big three charge.

Five of the ten largest PE funds in the world are already clients. Anyone who signs off on deals should know this firm exists.

See how it works.

DAILY ACUMEN

Above Average

Ask a room full of drivers to rate their own skill, and most will say they are better than average, which is mathematically impossible for the group as a whole. The same pattern shows up in investors rating their own picks and executives rating their own judgment.

This is not arrogance in the usual sense. It happens quietly, because people weigh their own effort and intention more heavily than everyone else's. Your own mistakes come with context and explanation. Everyone else's mistakes just look like mistakes.

The correction is not humility as performance. It is genuinely seeking the base rate for people in your exact position, then asking honestly whether you have real evidence of being the exception, or just the same quiet bias that convinces almost everyone they are.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

Why alignment beats work-life balance
How to wake up with more energy
How to drink water better
3 unmistakable signs of bad leadership
Why your life outside of work matters

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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