Investment Trends For 2026: What's In, What's Out

Market trends are evolving, as they always do, and some of 2025's hottest trends are being replaced with the "next big thing." Read on to learn which themes are getting cold and which are just starting to heat up in 2026. MU stock is climbing. See the chart and price action here. While 2025 was marked by the fever of an early-stage AI boom, 2026 is emerging as a year of broadening in the market. Investors are looking for gains outside of the Magnificent 7 in other tech companies like Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and AI infrastructure names like GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV). Read Next: Retail Investors’ Historic 2025 Streak: Record Inflows, Record Influence Prediction markets are popping up everywhere as brokerages from Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) to Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) integrate the feature directly into their digital platforms. Sport-betting is taking a hit and so are shares of legacy sportsbooks like DraftKings, Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) and FanDuel by Flutter Entertainment Plc (NYSE:FLUT). Crypto ETFs are old news, while the tokenization of real-world assets and stable coins like USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) are becoming mainstream. Standalone LLMs and chatbots are out, while agentic AI platforms from leaders like Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) are the next big thing. Gold and silver futures, and their related ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV), are rallying while many analysts have a bearish view for crude oil futures in 2026 due to oversupply. Overall, financial analysts overwhelmingly agree that 2026 will be another strong year for U.S. markets. “There will be some bumps along the way, but we believe that the bull market is intact,” said Serena Tang, Morgan Stanley chief global cross-asset strategist 2026 INs & OUTs What's IN What's OUT Agentic AI: Systems that execute tasks.LLMs: General-purpose chat models.Tokenization: Real-world assets (RWA) and on-chain utility.Crypto ETFs: Passive wrapper fatigue.IPOs: The return of public exits.Venture Capital: Speculative late-stage rounds.Prediction Markets: Event-based hedging.Sports Betting: Pure gambling. Stablecoins: Real-time settlement rails.Alt-coins: High-volatility meme assets.Diversification: Cross-sector balance.Mag 7: Over-concentrated tech giants.Gold and Base Metals: Gold, silver, copper and other metals.Energy commodities: Crude oil oversupply. Read Next: Metals Acting Like Meme Stocks—Unconfirmed Rumor Of Major Silver Margin Call Photo: Shutterstock