Opinion: Saad Naja, PiP World CEO
For decades, retail investors have been fed the lie to diversify, track benchmarks, and play it safe. The only result of that lie is eternal mediocrity. Diversification is what Wall Street has tied the masses to, a clever ploy to keep households tied to the “average.” Sure it protects you from ruin, but it also guarantees you’ll never be free.
The super-rich have never played by those rules. They are focusing capital on paradigm shifts across AI, cryptocurrencies, and biotech, with asymmetric upside.
They don’t waste time on price-to-earnings ratios or dividends. They focus on network effects, distribution moats, and winner-take-all dynamics.
That’s why the rich get richer. It’s not about prudence, it’s about faith.
Diversification is outdated
Diversification was born in the 1950s, when information was scarce and trade was slow. At the time, it made sense to spread your bets across dozens of holdings. In today’s hyper-connected world, that’s outdated.
Today’s markets are characterized by power-law dynamics, with a small number of players controlling the majority of profits. Diversification in this environment does not protect you, it disempowers you.
Hedge fund stars are hiring Hollywood agents to strengthen their brands and attract more money. The system is so skewed that multi-billion dollar quant desks double as celebrities. And what about individual investors? I’m still being told to quietly diversify into 60 stocks. The truth is simple. Passive diversification is no match for a superstar economy.
AI blew up Wall Street’s safes
The market is already changing. In August 2025, value stocks outperformed growth by 460 basis points. Mega-cap technologies now make up nearly 40% of the S&P 500. Finding this rotation is a matter of life and death for portfolios, and for the first time, retail investors have the tools to do so.
Nearly half of retail investors are willing to use AI tools such as ChatGPT to pick stocks, and 13% have already done so, according to a Reuters survey. Cointelegraph reported that a similar trend is occurring with cryptocurrencies. Regular investors are hiring AI bots and co-pilots that were once reserved for hedge funds. Agentic AI is eroding Wall Street’s outer moat in real time.
Related: How to set up and use an AI-powered cryptocurrency trading bot
Instead of sitting on an index fund, you can now deploy AI agents that scan markets around the world 24/7, instantly model thousands of scenarios, and identify conviction trades that align with exponential changes. This isn’t about chasing meme stocks. It’s about revealing plays that matter over decades, not days.
massive conviction
Humans are prone to fear, greed, and hesitation. AI doesn’t care. The real power of agent AI lies in its ability to scale confidence. Imagine a personal swarm of AI agents constantly monitoring every market, identifying risks, discussing strategies, and surfacing and executing confident trades without hesitation. What once required a multi-billion dollar quant desk is now compressed into your mobile phone without the 20% fund manager fee.
AI is not coming to market. here it is. BlackRock drove $14 billion in inflows into crypto exchange-traded funds in the second quarter, while analysts predict a $1 trillion market for agent AI services. Institutions are already making preparations. Retail investors face a choice: adapt or lose.
new playbook
Diversification is safe, but safety comes at a price. Not only do investors need to be protected from financial ruin, they also need to be protected from rapid profits. Wall Street wants you to be diverse, conformist, and stick to the “average.” AI rewrites that script.
This is not a get-rich-quick story. It’s about fighting with the same weapon elites have been using all along: asymmetric stakes backed by conviction. AI gives retail investors access to that power for the first time ever.
Diversification is a constraint. AI is a breakout tool. The only question is, while institutional investors take the lead, will individual investors take advantage or remain locked into mediocre investing? If you insist on diversification in 2025, you will lose. If you leverage AI and stick to your guns, you will ultimately have a chance to win.
Opinion: Saad Naja, PiP World CEO.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, and should not be taken as, legal or investment advice. The views, ideas, and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.