Lloyd Blankfein Trades Stocks Daily From an iPad, With No Computer

Lloyd Blankfein, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, told the “My First Million” podcast that he treats day trading the way other people treat music. “Normal people are listening to music while they’re doing other stuff,” Blankfein said. “To me, the market is like music.”

The billionaire ex-investment banker, 71, also told co-host Sam Parr that he does it every day from an iPad and a phone, and does not own a computer. Forbes estimates his net worth at about $1.8 billion.

A Portfolio Built on Concentration

Blankfein used the appearance to lay out how he invests his own money, and the numbers are unusually concentrated. The 71-year-old said 98% of his portfolio is in risky assets, with 10% in exchange-traded funds and between 75% and 90% in single stocks. That leaves essentially no room for bonds, cash, or other defensive holdings. “It’s because of where I focus,” Blankfein said, when asked about the bet.

• 98% of holdings in risky assets
• 10% in exchange-traded funds
• Between 75% and 90% in single stocks
• Net worth: $1.8 billion (Forbes)
• Led Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2018

The focus is tech, and it is heavy. “Right now, I’m very heavily focused in tech and have been for a long time, for good reasons,” Blankfein said, naming “hyperscalers” including Microsoft and Nvidia and “second-tier versions” of the major tech giants, with Oracle as his example. He also listed energy and financial services as the other main sectors in the portfolio, citing his professional background. He still holds a considerable amount of Goldman Sachs stock.

The tech bet is the loudest part of the book, but Blankfein’s framing of it is almost professional. He called out Microsoft and Nvidia as the hyperscaler core, then used Oracle to illustrate what he meant by “second-tier versions” of the major tech giants, a phrase that places the database and cloud company in the same trading universe as the two much larger names. For Blankfein, who led Goldman from 2006 to 2018, the concentrated tech bet is the whole point. He framed the allocation not as a retirement portfolio but as a continuation of the work he did inside the bank.

No Computer, No Team

Asked by Parr if he has a team of people to help with his trading, Blankfein answered with two words: “Just me.” He explained that he trades every day using his iPad and phone, and does not own a computer. His information flow runs through people, not terminals.

• No computer at home
• No dedicated trading team
• iPad and phone as the daily setup
• Texts first, then calls if needed
• Reads the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times

“I chat with people,” Blankfein said, describing how he sources trades. He will text someone back and forth before resorting to calling them. He also reads the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, among other publications, to follow current affairs and business news. The method is closer to a small-scale information network than a research desk. A former Goldman CEO still has the address book, which is the part of the routine that the iPad-and-no-computer framing tends to obscure.

The Outperformance Claim

Blankfein also made a claim that most former CEOs are careful not to make in public: he said he has beaten the market. “For a while,” he added, saying the result came from where he focuses, not from cleverness. The claim is unverifiable from the outside, and he offered no benchmark, no track record, and no audited numbers. It is a claim made on a podcast from a man with a long Goldman track record and a self-described concentrated portfolio, and investors and journalists have no way to confirm or refute it from the available evidence.

His own framing of the claim leans on his career. He said his interest in financial services comes from almost 40 years at the investment bank, beginning at the commodities-trading firm J. Aron in 1982, which Goldman had acquired. He pointed to tech, energy, and financial services as the sectors he understands best. That is a long enough career that the sector knowledge is at least plausible, even if the outperformance is not.

That kind of self-attribution is the kind of thing Blankfein himself used to warn clients about. At Goldman, the firm built its reputation on disciplined risk frameworks, stress tests, and the careful separation of conviction from position sizing. A 98% allocation to risky assets, concentrated in a handful of tech names and run from an iPad, sits at the other end of that spectrum. Blankfein does not appear to feel the need to resolve the gap.

From Brooklyn to Goldman

Blankfein’s path to the corner office is well-documented, and he returned to it on the podcast. He grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn, the son of a postal worker, and has said publicly that he found it difficult for a long time to think of himself as wealthy, even with a fortune behind him. He joined J. Aron in 1982 and rose through Goldman’s trading and risk ranks.

He ran Goldman from 2006 to 2018, a stretch that included the 2008 financial crisis and the firm’s conversion to a bank holding company. His tenure covered the post-crisis regulatory rebuild and a long stretch of growth in trading and investment banking. He stepped aside in favor of Solomon’s appointment as Blankfein’s Goldman successor, who, the MarketWatch piece notes, has deejaying as a sideline.

Solomon’s side gig is part of what makes the podcast line feel almost designed. The man who ran the firm for twelve years now trades from an iPad with no team, and his successor, by his own account, moonlights as a DJ. Solomon built a parallel identity as a DJ performing under the name DJ D-Sol, with a public Instagram of club dates and a discography on streaming services. Blankfein’s version of a post-Goldman life is the iPad and the texts, and Blankfein’s legacy as a headache for Solomon has been analyzed as a continuing drag on the bank’s strategy.

That background also explains the part of the portfolio Blankfein did not dwell on. He still owns a considerable amount of Goldman stock, which he tied to his time at the firm. That holding sits inside the 75%-to-90% single-stock sleeve, alongside his tech bets. For a man who says he chats his way to trades, the largest single position in his book is the company he used to run.

Why He Treats It Like Music

Blankfein’s framing of trading as a hobby is the most surprising line in the conversation, partly because of who is saying it. The ex-CEO of a firm that built a business on advising clients to diversify and hedge is now telling a podcast audience that he keeps 98% of his own money in risky assets and treats the daily moves of the market as background. The reasoning, as he gave it, is that nothing “hugely positive or negative” from the practice can affect his life, given his existing wealth. Blankfein is not the only former Wall Street chief with strong views on risk discipline in 2026; Blankfein’s May 2026 warning about AI agents in trading ran along similar lines.

To me, the market is like music.

That framing is itself a kind of disclosure. The whole point of risk management, as Goldman taught it to clients for decades, is that the size of the bet should be sized to the consequences of being wrong. Blankfein is essentially saying the size of the bet does not matter, because the consequences do not matter to him personally.

For most retail investors, that calculus is the opposite. A 98% risky-asset allocation from a 71-year-old is closer to a venture-style bet than a retirement portfolio, and Blankfein is open about why: he can afford to be wrong. He said his interest in financial services is “professional,” and that his sector picks reflect what he knows from his Goldman years. The market is what he pays attention to, and the iPad is how he pays attention to it. The full conversation is on the My First Million episode where Blankfein spoke.