More exciting things are happening inside the market than Nvidia stock (NVDA) going up almost every day.

Veteran New York Stock Exchange floor trader and co-founder of Wall Street Global Trading Academy Peter Tuchman pointed to the bull market in stocks ushering 40 million new retail investors into the market over the past few years as very "exciting."

As a result of this influx, household net worth remains on the ascent.

US household wealth rose to a record of more than $160 trillion in the first quarter, according to the latest data out of the Federal Reserve. During that time, household net worth rose by 3.2%, or $5.1 trillion, with the appreciation in stock prices accounting for $3.8 trillion of the gain.

“We are at the crossroads,” Tuchman said on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast (see video above or listen here). “We are in an extraordinary time in history."

These new retail investors have broadened their exposure beyond popular meme names such as GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC), which dominated Robinhood (HOOD) trading accounts in 2021.

The latest Robinhood Investor Index, which tracks the performance of the top 100 most-owned investments on the trading platform, shows that retail investors have plowed into companies they understand and that impact their daily lives, such as Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

And, yes, Nvidia.

Making investing more accessible to more people is a good thing to see, Tuchman added.

“All those barriers to entry that were really significant and kept this a very exclusive place, those days are over,” he said. “I think that’s a really great thing. Suddenly, everyone’s been invited to this party.”

Tuchman has traded through a lot of market parties through the decades. He is known for iconic images taken of him on the NYSE trading floor, and his wild hairstyles and savvy ways garnered him the nickname “Einstein of Wall Street."

His résumé includes guarding the velvet ropes and being Mr. “No” outside the door of Studio 54, owning a jazz record store, and working at a jazz club.

“My approach to the market was different than your normal person analyzing the market,” he said.

In the mid-1980s, he took a summer job as a teletypist on the exchange floor and eventually worked his way up to broker.

“The energy, the adrenaline, for me, the minute I walked onto the floor, I knew this was for me,” he reflected.

Tuchman’s career overlapped with many significant down-market events, including Black Monday, 9/11, and the Great Recession. “You saw people losing futures,” he said. “But I also saw the capacity and resilience of human beings in the workplace.”

This past week, plenty of resilience, energy, and adrenaline were on hand as markets hit new highs.

Investors saw Nvidia rise to a $3.34 trillion market cap, making it briefly the most valuable company in the world above Apple's $3.29 trillion and Microsoft's $3.32 trillion, before the stock lost ground.

This enthusiasm for Nvidia points to its sound position in artificial intelligence going forward — something for 40 million new investors to consider.

Despite the market being hot, it's still important to do your homework and seek out value. Noted value investor Jonathan Boyar of Boyar Research shares his approach on an episode of Opening Bid. Listen in below:

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