Three Money Trends You Shouldn’t Sleep On Going Into 2026

As we slide toward year-end, I’ve been watching three big money trends doing their own little dance — and honestly, the markets look like three siblings who grew up in the same house but turned out completely different.

Private credit is blowing up like it just discovered protein shakes, commodities are splitting into two totally different storylines, and momentum investing is acting like the friend who only shows up when things are going well.

Let’s break this down without the Wall Street dictionary.

Private credit used to be that mysterious corner of the market you only heard about during finance podcasts where everyone speaks in abbreviations. But suddenly… it’s everywhere.

It went from $310 billion in 2010 to $1.7 trillion today (Source: Lord Abbett). That’s not growth — that’s a glow-up. And in the last five years? It tripled again.

If you’re wondering what private credit actually is, here’s the simple version:

It’s just companies borrowing money from investment firms instead of banks.
Think “lending,” but without the bank logo, marble floors, or the pen with the weird chain attached.

Why it’s exploding:

1. Banks got stricter after 2008.
They couldn’t lend as freely, so borrowers said, “Okay, I’ll go over here instead.”

2. Big companies followed.
Like billion-dollar big. They want faster decisions, fewer hoops, and private lenders said, “Say less.”

3. The returns have been good — more stable than public credit.

And here’s the plot twist: regular people can now access this space through things like BDCs and interval funds (Source: Nuveen). It’s still not a “walk in whenever you want” situation, but the door is definitely less locked than before.

The only caution?
When too many people rush into a market, some start acting… reckless. A little loose. So who you pick as a manager matters more than ever.

The commodity world is basically living two separate lives right now.

On one side:
Oil prices are down about 13% this year and expected to drop another 7% in 2026 (Sources: AIInvest, World Bank).
Oversupply + slower demand = oil taking a nap.

On the other side:
Gold, silver, and metals?
Yeah, they’re having a glow-up.

The Bloomberg Commodity Total Return Index is up 15% in 2025 (Source: Markets Chronicle Journal).

Why this split?

Looking forward, Brent crude might sit around $60 in 2026 (Source: AIInvest), while demand for green metals may triple by 2030.

If you’re investing, this is not the time for those “all-in-one commodity baskets.”

This is the time for pickiness — the “select what you want like it’s a Chipotle order” approach.

Momentum sounds like that strategy where you just buy whatever’s going up.
But real momentum investing is more like:

“What’s going up because the company is actually doing well?”

According to Nasdaq (Source: Nasdaq), the strongest momentum stocks share three things:

1. Their price is actually rising.
Not shocking.

2. Analysts are raising their earnings expectations.
AKA: “We think this company is gonna make more money than we thought.”

3. The valuation still makes sense.
Translation: It hasn’t gotten too expensive for no reason.

The golden zone is usually companies within 20% of their 52-week highs — strong, but not stretched like yoga pants in the wrong size.

A good example?
Sanmina. Their earnings estimates shot up 39% for next year and 43% for the year after thanks to their AI infrastructure moves.

That’s momentum with muscle — not momentum with hype.

All three trends point to the same lesson:

Quality over chaos.
Selectivity over shortcuts.
Actual fundamentals over “someone on TikTok said so.”

Private credit is scaling.
Commodities are separating like oil and water (literally).
And momentum is winning when it’s built on real business strength.

The investors who do best next year won’t be the ones chasing everything.
It’ll be the ones paying attention — and adjusting early.