Great Ones,

I can’t get this Muse AI out of my mind.

It’s like some kind of AI madness has started to evolve.

M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m, mad, mad, madness?

Exactly. I knew y’all were still with me.

Matthew Bellamy’s dulcet tones provide a not-so-subtle soundtrack to the hype surrounding Muse AI, Meta Platform’s (NASDAQ: META) big splash into the AI betting pool.

Ditto.

The fact is, Muse AI appears to be on fire, at least for the moment. Even analysts have taken note, with Evercore ISI Mark Mahaney weighing in with this insightful take: “Lots can and will change in the future, but the key, simple point is that Meta has a hit on its hands with Muse.”

Way to take a stand, Mark. Love that conviction…

Is what I would like to say, but apparently a milquetoast (mmm, toast…) stand on downloads is all that Wall Street needs these days. META stock surged nearly 14% in the wake of Muse’s release. Investors apparently believe Muse is the answer to Meta’s 34% decline in earnings over the past four quarters.

And that really is the rub here, isn’t it?

Can Muse AI have a big enough impact to improve Meta’s earnings struggles?

Revenue may be up about 13.6% from last year, but net income is down nearly 5% and operating expenses have soared 20%.

Alas, the AI market was once a Field of Dreams, so to speak, where if you built it, they would come … and so would money. But it’s not that simple anymore, as anyone reading the headlines this year knows.

Still. Meta built it. They came.

But will they spend?

M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m, mooh, moola!

I’m not buying it, and I’m betting Wall Street won’t for long either.

MARK ZUCKERBERG!

And now, this…

Everyone else:

Welcome to Greater Stuff!

After reading that opening, I know you need to know … is this real love, or is it just madness?

I get it. The song lyrics. The questionable punctuation. Talking to people that don’t exist. I get it, especially for those of you who are new to the Greater Stuff family.

So, today I’m going to give you the full Monte.

Dude, nobody wants that…

The whole shebang? Why do I sound like my grandfather?

In honor of the inaugural Greater Stuff edition of Thursday Throwdown I’m going to give you a full on technical, sentiment, and fundamental breakdown with potential short-term trading targets that could be prime for any aggressive options traders out there.

If you like it. Stick around.

If you make money off it … really, really, stick around. I’ve got more coming down the pike, so to speak…

That said: Keep in mind that trading is dangerous … options trading, doubly so. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, don’t make the trade. And, read the disclaimer at the bottom.

Sorry, I’m all independent now. Gotta be cautious.

Having sucked all the joy out of the room, let’s dive right into the META Muse madness.

I already touched on most of this above, but to clarify: META has received what I believe to be excessively bullish headlines surrounding Muse AI. Early in the AI boom, this wouldn’t be all that big of a deal.

Right now, when Meta is struggling with income growth, and some AI CEOs are pulling back, and other AI infrastructure companies are nearing their debt capacities … need I go on?

It doesn’t matter if Muse lives up to the hype or not. What it’s capable of is already priced into the stock, and this recent surge higher is mostly hype that will quickly die off as Wall Street once again realizes it’s worried about investing in AI stocks.

Buy the rumor, sell the news.

Before I get started:

Laugh at this “Oh he looks at squiggly lines!!! They go up!” stuff all you want, but never forget this one fact: The only reason anything on Wall Street matters is because enough people out there think it does.

(It’s also the only reason crypto has any value at all. Let that one sink in…)

Enough people, often people with a lot of money, think these lines matter. So, they can matter, if you know what you’re looking for…

For instance … Last week, META issued a bullish technical “buy” signal when it broke out above a descending highs trendline dating back a full year. You can see that the breach happened on low, seemingly bearish volume, hinting that a bigger move higher was potentially coming.

The Muse AI news was the catalyst for META buyers, who were already coiled and ready to go following the technical signal. The shares even extended their rally today, testing $780 and potentially establishing a short-term area of support near $760 – the highs just before META crashed following its Oct. 2025 earnings report.

Those bag holders want their money back, and they’re getting it right now.

The problem is that META is very close to its all-time highs near $800. Once there, the shares will have gone on a 50%+ rally in roughly one-month’s time. In this market, any trader worth his salt is taking at least short-term profits on META following this blistering surge.

Now’s the time to ask yourself, do you feel lucky?

Well, do ya?

Is META’s nearly 50%+ rally over the past month and the Muse AI hype strong enough to overcome the current state of the AI market, bag-holders getting out, and bottom feeders cashing in?

I don’t think so.

I believe this rally is unsustainable in the current market environment.

This Muse AI news feels like another flash in the pan for the moment – regardless of Muse’s actual long-term impact on Meta’s bottom line.

I believe a much more likely scenario is that META will reverse course somewhere between $780 and $800.

After buying support collapses, and profits have been taken, META is set to quickly retest $720, which has been an area of both buying and selling support in the past.

Furthermore, a breach of $720 would tell me that the Muse AI rally was, in fact, a flash in the pan, and that META is likely to retest $660 and potentially struggle to avoid reentering that long-term descending pattern.

So, if you’re like me and you like the odds of META breaking down and resuming its previous downtrend, you can consider a short-term, Oct. or Nov. monthly put option (or weekly, if you’re crazy like that). Just make sure you have confirmation of either a rejection at $800 or a firm break below $760 (for more conservative traders).

Final Reminder: Never trade or invest with money you can’t afford to lose! This goes triple with options!

So, Great Ones, how’d the first independent issue go?

Are we still into stock market memes?

You know the drill: Drop me a line and let me know!

Oh, before I go…

Tomorrow is the inaugural edition of Friday Feedback … so you know what that means:

Email me your market questions, your rants, your stock review requests, and I’ll do my best to respond to all serious, or extremely un-serious, questions.

I can’t promise to get to all of you, and I definitely CAN NOT provide individual advice.

For instance:

I can answer: “What do you think of NVDA right now?”

I can not answer: “I have a $10k portfolio, how many shares of NVDA should I buy?”

That, Great Ones, is personal investing advice, and it’s the quickest way to get any financial newsletter shutdown. I will not do it.

Otherwise, if you ever have a stock or investing idea you’d like to see Greater Stuff cover, let us know at: [email protected].

Until next time, stay Great!

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Greater Stuff

Founder, Greater Stuff Publishing LLC

All content published by Greater Stuff Publishing LLC is for informational and educational purposes only and constitutes impersonal financial commentary. It does not constitute personalized financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing in securities and options trading involves significant risk, including the potential loss of your invested capital. Greater Stuff LLC is not a registered financial advisor or broker-dealer. All trading and investment decisions are your sole responsibility based on your personal financial situation and risk tolerance. Past performance is not indicative of future results.