David Schwartz, the former chief technology officer of Ripple, took a sharp jab this week at viral advice urging retail investors to funnel spare cash into the S&P 500 while the index sits near record levels. In a sarcastic three-step breakdown posted on X, Schwartz wrote: '1) Buy high. 2) ??? 3) Profit.' The post racked up nearly five million views.
The sarcastic breakdown
Schwartz didn't mince words. His critique zeroed in on the lack of reasoning behind the original advice — a post that encouraged regular folks to pour whatever leftover cash they had into the S&P 500. Schwartz's point wasn't that equities are bad. It was that telling people to buy at record highs without explaining why is just momentum-chasing dressed up as wisdom.
The timing matters. The S&P 500 has been on a tear in 2026, nearing a fresh all-time high after a $6 trillion rally in just ten days. That kind of move tends to attract FOMO-driven advice, and Schwartz called it out.
Who's talking
Schwartz has long been seen as a risk-aware voice in crypto. He's called digital assets a once-in-a-generation wealth opportunity — but he's careful to flag the risks, too. He still holds more than one million XRP, so he's hardly anti-crypto. But his critique this week wasn't about defending Bitcoin or XRP. It was about calling bad logic what it is.
The original post on X didn't come from a major fund manager or a regulator. It was a generic piece of viral content. But it caught Schwartz's eye precisely because of its reach — and its emptiness.
Not anti-stocks, anti-lazy advice
Schwartz made clear he wasn't telling anyone to avoid equities. He was pushing back against advice that substitutes price momentum for actual investment reasoning. The '???'' step in his sarcastic breakdown says it all: the advice skips the hard part — why this makes sense — and jumps straight to 'profit.'
For retail investors watching a market that's already climbed hard, the question is whether the next step is a pullback or a continuation. Schwartz isn't offering a prediction. He's just saying: don't buy because someone told you to buy at the top.
