The stock market's biggest joke is on the people too scared to play
Quick gut-check. If I told you one stock returned 2,423% over five years — more than doubling NVIDIA's already-legendary 1,100% run — you'd picture some secret AI chip startup, right? Some rocket you needed a hedge-fund badge to touch.
It's Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW). The teddy-bear place from the mall. The one where you stuff a plush animal and press a fabric heart inside it.
That's the whole point. The market is not the rigged casino you've been told it is. Let's kill a few myths that have quietly cost you thousands.
Myth #1: "You need to pick genius stocks to win."
Build-A-Bear isn't a genius stock. As of September 3, 2025, it traded at a P/E of just 13.34 — cheaper than the average boring blue chip — with analysts slapping a $66.80 price target on it against a 52-week high of $60.81. No hype. No 400 CNBC segments. Just a profitable business that quietly compounded.
And here's the part nobody tells beginners: you don't even have to find the next BBW. If you'd just bought the entire market, you'd be up big. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed at a record 6,932.05 on December 24, 2025 — up roughly 18% for the year, its third straight year of double-digit gains. Owning "everything" was a winning strategy. Twice over.
Myth #2: "I'll wait until the market calms down."
It never calms down. And that's exactly why the people who wait keep losing.
Look at what 2025 threw at investors:
- Q1 tanked 4.6% as tariff panic gripped the headlines.
- An "April bottom" wiped out roughly $18 trillion in market cap at the lows.
- The U.S. suffered the longest government shutdown in history — 43 days — resolved only in mid-November 2025.
Recession. Tariffs. Shutdown. The perfect excuse buffet. And the S&P 500 not only survived — it went on to notch 39 record closes in 2025, the fifth-most in any year since 2000. The people who "waited for calm" waited themselves out of an 18% year.
Myth #3: "New highs mean I already missed it."
This is the myth that quietly does the most damage — it feels smart. "It's at a record, so it must be about to crash."
The data says the opposite. BNY's research shows that forward returns after new all-time highs are historically higher on average than returns on ordinary days. New highs aren't a ceiling — they're often a launchpad. Markets that are winning tend to keep winning, because records are what a healthy, growing economy produces, not a warning it flashes.
It helps that the Fed has the market's back. Across its final three meetings of 2025, the Fed cut rates by a total of 75 basis points to 3.50%–3.75%, with a divided December 9–10 vote fueling the year-end "soft landing" optimism. Lower rates = cheaper money = a tailwind for stocks.
Myth #4: "The market is only for rich Wall Street insiders."
Then explain this. According to a new Goldman Sachs note, everyday retail traders now hold $12 trillion in stocks. Strategist Daniel Chavez put it plainly: "The retail investor is having a good year." Retail trading volumes jumped 28% since mid-April 2025, and a basket of retail-favorite stocks rallied 29% over the same stretch.
Translation: normal people — not just suits — made real money in 2025. The only difference between them and you is that they clicked Buy and you didn't.
So what does a skeptic actually do with this?
You start small, and you start now. You don't need $10,000 or a finance degree. On AlphaEx, you can buy real shares of the exact companies in this story — Build-A-Bear (BBW), NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla — with any amount, and watch your position move in real time. Whether you want a boring index-style bet on the market's third double-digit year or a scrappy underdog like BBW, you can own a piece today.
How to buy your first stock on AlphaEx
- 1. Create your account — free, a couple of minutes, at AlphaEx.
- 2. Deposit any amount you're comfortable with — there's no "minimum to be taken seriously."
- 3. Search the ticker — type BBW, NVDA, AAPL, or TSLA.
- 4. Tap Buy — own a real share (or a slice of one).
- 5. Track your live profit on your dashboard as the market moves.
- 6. Sell to your balance whenever you want to lock in gains.
Don't do it alone — trade alongside people who get it
Still not sure whether to grab a market-tracking position or a comeback story like BBW? That's exactly the debate happening every day in the AlphaEx Telegram community. It's free to join, the team and other investors share fresh trade ideas daily, and moves like this teddy-bear-beats-NVIDIA setup are the kind of thing we break down together in real time. Come lurk, ask your "dumb" first-timer questions, and watch how normal people actually build positions.
The bottom line
A mall teddy-bear stock outran NVIDIA. The market climbed a wall of tariffs, a 43-day shutdown, and constant "it's too high" chatter to hit 39 record closes. Retail investors made $12 trillion look easy. Every excuse you've been holding just got dismantled — one by one.
The scariest part of investing isn't a crash. It's looking back in five years and realizing you watched the whole thing from the sidelines. Open your AlphaEx account and buy your first real share today.