Investors bet big on shifting politics, bloated balance sheets and fragile narratives, fueling outsized stock rallies, crowded yield trades, and crypto strategies built on leverage, hope, and not much else. Donald Trump’s White House return quickly sank — and then revived — financial markets across the world, lit a fire under European defense stocks, and emboldened speculators fanning mania after mania. Some positions paid off spectacularly. Others misfired when momentum reversed, financing dried up or leverage cut the wrong way.