In 2003, Apple was just another tech company trying to stay relevant. The iPod had some buzz, but the company’s market value sat under $10 billion, smaller than many mid-sized banks. Most retail investors barely noticed. It looked like a fading brand in a crowded personal computer market.
Two decades later, Apple has briefly surpassed $3 trillion in value. The same pattern played out with Amazon after the dot-com crash and Tesla before it built its first Model S. These companies were hiding in plain sight, yet most investors didn’t act until the biggest gains had already passed.
For Darold Trinh., founder of Long Wealth Capital, the pattern is alive and well in 2025. “We’ve just come through a period where high interest rates compressed valuations across the board,” he says. “Now that the Fed has started cutting rates, the market is repricing. There are companies trading well below their intrinsic value because sentiment hasn’t caught up to the new environment.”
Trinh’s mission is not about promising quick wins or guaranteeing results. Instead, his work at Long Wealth Capital focuses on teaching everyday people how to think like disciplined investors — building skills, frameworks, and habits that last a lifetime.
Why the Post-Rate-Hike Environment Creates Opportunity
Higher interest rates in 2023 and early 2024 put pressure on growth stocks and made defensive assets like bonds more appealing. As rates began to fall in late 2024, the cost of borrowing dropped, boosting the outlook for sectors from industrials to tech. Yet investor caution lingers, leaving some quality companies overlooked.
“Markets don’t adjust overnight,” Trinh explains. “There’s a lag between the macro shift and investor behavior. That’s when undervaluation shows up — and where patient, informed investors can benefit.”
The Psychology of Missing Out
Even in a favorable environment, human behavior gets in the way. Research in behavioral finance shows that fear of loss, herd mentality, and the comfort of following the crowd often outweigh logic.
“It’s not the fear of losing money that holds people back,” Trinh says. “It’s the fear of looking wrong while everyone else is on the sidelines.”
At Long Wealth Capital, a key part of mentorship is helping clients break this cycle through education and guided decision-making.
AI Hype vs. Quiet Value Plays
While headlines continue to spotlight big-name AI leaders like Nvidia and Microsoft, Trinh believes some of the best opportunities lie in the less obvious beneficiaries of the AI boom. These include semiconductor suppliers, data storage providers, and cybersecurity firms whose fundamentals remain strong but whose valuations have not yet caught up to their role in the AI economy.
“Some of the most attractive stocks right now aren’t the ones making the AI headlines,” he says. “They’re the companies quietly building the infrastructure that makes AI possible.”
Cutting Through the Noise
Today’s investors have no shortage of information. The challenge is knowing what matters. A 2023 Morningstar study found that active retail traders relying heavily on unvetted online sources underperformed passive index investors by more than five percent annually over a decade.
Trinh teaches clients to focus on a few critical signals:
– A price-to-earnings ratio below the industry average.
– Steady free cash flow growth.
– A catalyst such as a product launch, strategic pivot, or policy shift.
These markers are timeless, but in today’s environment, they are especially effective for finding stocks the market has been slow to revalue.
Patience as the Real Edge
A J.P. Morgan Asset Management study showed that missing the ten best days in the market over a 20-year period can cut returns in half. Most of those days occur during volatility, when many investors hesitate to act.
“The market isn’t for gambling or chasing fads,” Trinh says. “It’s for amplifying income and building wealth over time. That’s a skill anyone can learn, but it takes patience and discipline.”
Avoiding Value Traps
Not every cheap stock is a bargain. Companies like Sears, Kodak, and Blockbuster once looked undervalued but were in terminal decline. This is why Long Wealth Capital’s approach pairs fundamental analysis with an understanding of industry health and disruption risk.
The Bottom Line
The post-rate-hike market of 2025 is full of stocks trading below their long-term potential. Some are in plain sight. Others are buried under outdated sentiment or overshadowed by hype cycles.
For Trinh, the opportunity is not just to invest in these companies but to teach everyday people how to spot them, evaluate them, and hold them with confidence. “When you have the right framework,” he says, “you’re not guessing anymore. You’re building wealth the right way.”
