When in doubt, zoom out
The Sandbox Daily (1.9.2026)
Welcome, Sandbox friends.
Today’s Daily discusses:
when in doubt, zoom out
Let’s dig in.
Blake
Markets in review
EQUITIES: Nasdaq 100 +1.02% | Russell 2000 +0.78% | S&P 500 +0.65% | Dow +0.48%
FIXED INCOME: Barclays Agg Bond +0.22% | High Yield +0.07% | 2yr UST 3.536% | 10yr UST 4.165%
COMMODITIES: Brent Crude +3.89% to $63.06/barrel. Gold +1.30% to $4,518.9/oz.
BITCOIN: -0.70% to $90,367
US DOLLAR INDEX: +0.21% to 99.137
CBOE TOTAL PUT/CALL RATIO: 0.83
VIX: -6.21% to 14.49
Quote of the day
“Search reveals things that escape an inattentive man.”
- Oedipus Rex
2026 drivers of mid-cycle growth acceleration
When in doubt, zoom out.
Often times investors are caught chasing the mythical holy grail – the failsafe signal, the bag of magic beans, the singular data point that tells you when to buy and when to sell.
In fact, many people spend an extraordinary amount of time on this exercise and yield little results.
Unfortunately, investing doesn’t work that way.
Nor does the economy.
Regardless of your time horizon, the most reliable edge comes from stepping back and letting long-term trends speak for themselves.
Big-picture frameworks strip away the noise – the headlines, the narratives, the day-to-day whipsaws – and leave you with the only thing that truly matters: direction.
Get the primary underlying trends directionally right and you’ll find yourself in money-making mode more often than not.
This week, Sandbox held our monthly review of economic conditions, market trends, and the risks and opportunities shaping investor portfolios.
Below are the key themes we’re watching as we head into 2026.
Source: Sandbox Financial Partners
That’s all for today.
Blake
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Welcome to The Sandbox Daily, a daily curation of relevant research at the intersection of markets, economics, and lifestyle. We are committed to delivering high-quality and timely content to help investors make sense of capital markets.
Blake Millard is the Director of Investments at Sandbox Financial Partners, a Registered Investment Advisor. All opinions expressed here are solely his opinion and do not express or reflect the opinion of Sandbox Financial Partners. This Substack channel is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. The information and opinions provided within should not be taken as specific advice on the merits of any investment decision by the reader. Investors should conduct their own due diligence regarding the prospects of any security discussed herein based on such investors’ own review of publicly available information. Clients of Sandbox Financial Partners may maintain positions in the markets, indexes, corporations, and/or securities discussed within The Sandbox Daily. Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates stated here are forward looking statements and are inherently unreliable; they are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed to be indicative of the actual events that will occur.
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