I attended an event for retail investors to swap ideas. It showed just how bullish everyday traders are on the market.

• The Independent Investor Summit drew 500 retail traders to NYC on September 12.

• A lineup of retail investor icons delivered their thoughts on the market.

• Bullishness was running high, with the pros and everyday traders alike confident in the latest rally.

The animal spirits were running high at a meet-up for retail investors in New York City last Friday.

As I walked into the Independent Investor Summit in midtown Manhattan on September 12, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The crowd included people donning everything from signature hedge fund vests to bitcoin T-shirts that looked homemade.

Hosted by tech entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, the summit included interviews with some of the highest-profile figures in the retail investing community, including hedge fund manager Eric Jackson and Discord host Chris Camillo.

Watching speakers discuss the markets with Pompliano, the message was clear: this was a meetup for the bulls, hosted by the bulls, and the energy coursing through the halls suggested that everyone should be flocking to the market’s latest rally.

At roughly 10am, guests filed into the auditorium and the discussions began. Sitting behind a desk onstage, Pompliano kicked off the event by informing the audience, “The future of finance is being driven by a retail audience.”

Pompliano then began with a chat with macro investor and media personality Jordi Visser.

“Jordi’s videos are the reason I’m here. I watch him every week” a young retail trader told me as we watched the discussion.

Known for his tech expertise, Visser discussed the industry at length, making the case for why he thinks AI isn’t a bubble. Fairly quickly, though, the conversation shifted to his and Pompliano’s shared bullishness on the broader market.

When Visser described himself as an optimist, Pompliano quipped that he’s “a member of a club that is not very popular right now—the optimists club.”

The theme of optimism and continued bullishness for a market clouded by uncertainty was put on display over and over at the event, which drew about 500 attendees.

The host went on to describe his skepticism about a coming recession, with Visser jumping on board with a take that recessions might be a thing of the past entirely.

“A bunch of them are just posting on X, I’m not even sure they have jobs anymore,” he stated, referring to the pessimists who argue that darker days are ahead for the market and the economy.

Perhaps no one captured the zeitgeist of the moment better than Eric Jackson, the hedge funder who is the face of retail traders’ most beloved stock in recent months.