Peter Tuchman knows a thing or two about Wall Street. The silver-haired New York Stock Exchange trader has spent 40 years navigating market crashes, bull runs and everything in between, earning him the nickname “Einstein of Wall Street” and a reputation as Wall Street’s most photographed trader. Now he shares advice for the new generation: stop buying things that lose value the moment you buy them, and start investing in the companies that make them.
“One of the most important things is to invest in stocks, not things,” Tuchman said in a video posted by The School of Hard Knocks, a TikTok channel with more than 5 million followers. “Almost most of the things we buy depreciate in value the minute you buy them
Tuchman, who says he trades between half a billion and a billion dollars a day in stocks, says young people are the “biggest consumer generation in the world,” spending money on products that depreciate immediately rather than assets that appreciate over time. His solution? Turn this knowledge into an investment strategy
“Go back to high school, walk down the hall and see what sneakers everyone is wearing, what phones they’re using, what computers they’re using, what they’re doing in their free time and what social media they’re using,” Tuchman advised. “Buy a little bit of each of those companies.”
This approach echoes legendary investor Peter Lynch’s philosophy of buying what you know, but adapted for today’s digital generation. Instead of just buying the latest iPhone or sneakers, Tuchman suggests young people invest in Apple, Nike, or any other company that makes products they already buy.
Tuchman also emphasized the power of passive investing through index funds.
“There’s a number that says if you put $250 a month into the S&P 500, which is a basket of 500 stocks, at 18, you’ll have over $1 million by the time you’re 60,” he said in the video.
The math checks out. Historically, the S&P 500 has averaged an annual return of about 10% since its inception, with more recent 30-year averages hovering around 10.3%. Financial projections show that investing $250 every month from age 18 to age 60 can actually grow to more than $1 million. USD on compound interest, assuming historical market returns continue.
At the heart of Tuchman’s advice is the concept of compound interest—earning a return. “It puts your money to work for you,” he said.
Tuchman began working as a teletyper at the New York Stock Exchange in 1985. on May 23, aiming to become a broker by 1988. It withstood Black Monday in 1987 as well as the dot-com bubble burst in 2008. the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic that nearly killed him.