This transcript was automatically generated.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on Main Street.

How’s it going out there? It’s May 15th.

I’m Frank Curzio.

This is the Wall Street Unplugged podcast where I break down the headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets.

On today’s show.

Nasdaq quietly closes at all time highs.

So can this momentum continue? The meme craze is back, and it’s not just about GameStop and AMC, don’t worry.

I’m gonna share a list of meme stocks that could see 100% gains in the coming days.

Let’s have some fun with this.

And we have Jamie Powell.

Does the Fed chair really care about elections? ’cause based on a speech yesterday? This answer seems pretty clear.

Also on today’s show, we are including the one and only, which we usually only include this one brilliant, amazing professional person on our Wall Street Club premium podcast today.

I’m gonna have him join us ’cause we have a lot of topics to talk about.

It’s got some great opinions.

And that’s Daniel Creech Day.

What’s going on? Man’s Everything.

Not necessarily in that order.

Frank, thank you for that, wonderful intro, but we’re trying to strive for all of those.

Yeah, things are going great.

Happy, happy Wednesday everybody.

Yeah.

I should have put you in the first bullet.

Yeah.

In today’s show.

Daniel’s joining us right off the bat.

Right? So, um, let’s start off Daniel, because we have the, the CPI.

The big news today came in low unexpected.

Everyone’s cheering at yields lower stocks, higher gold popping here, over 2,400 Bitcoin up Uh, simple question.

Does this change the Fed’s position of no rate cuts anytime soon? Does it change? Well, currently the position is I’m still in the camp of cutting this year.

I don’t think it changes that because Fed Chair pow in his brilliance, and I must give credit where credit is due, has used the word bumpy Frank, that could be a fun drinking game.

Uh, data point bumpy.

And he’s getting exactly what he wants.

You had the PPI coming a little hotter, Christopher Walken, hotter Frank than expected yesterday.

CPI comes in a little cooler like cold today.

That is a mixed messages, mixed bag of messages.

And that is good for overall markets and creatures opinion.

And it’s good for the Fed because they have so much optionality.

Fred, let me quickly rant.

They can use national security, they can use anything they want as a reason to justify rates.

You can say you’re worried about wars escalating and supply chains getting disrupted.

You can say you’re worried and you guys are doing all you can here in America, but it’s a global problem.

Have you seen the bird flu or whatever that they’re talking about the next COVID.

Don’t you gotta be prepared? Everything is on the table for an election year.

So I think the mixed messages is good for Jerome Powell.

I think they can use and twist and turn this data any way they see fit as we get closer to the election and give the market what it wants.

And that is a rate cut.

What do you think about this data? I I I love the word bumpy.

It, it’s, it means I have no clue.

It’s almost like saying, what do people say instead of saying that that they’re wrong Is, I was early.

I was early, Early Our business.

I was early.

I was early to this trade.

I was early.

I was early shorting GameStop, and it’s up 1000000% now, and I got blown out.

I’m early on this.

It’s going to crash.

It’s going to happen eventually, right? So just the way we’re in a world where no one admits when they’re wrong anymore, you’re not allowed to.

I don’t know.

It’s just, especially in politics, right? Never ever do you say that, Hey, you know what? I made this mistake even though Americans would identify with that in a heartbeat and love it.

Instead of, instead of just ignoring it, when I look at this reading, it was, it was what, 3.

6% and lower, a little bit lower than expected.

This is come coming from PPI yesterday on top of PPI, which showed higher inflation.

But we’re cheering this number, right? Obviously with, with the markets, up early today as we tape this and, and yields lower.

But the headlines are reading this, right? They say it’s the smallest year over year increase since April, 2021.

It’s a headline and it’s a fact, but it’s misleading because when I look at the past 12 months, so when we say year over year, that means compare to last year’s month.

And this is April’s reading, right? So April’s reading, right? Even though we’re in May, it, it, it comes out in, in, you know, whatever the second week, whatever it is.

But it in in May, right? We’re gonna get May and June.

So when we look at these numbers, 3.6%, they’re right.

It’s the smallest year via increase in April, 2021.

And we’re gonna see that happen probably again.

They’re gonna say that again.

Uh, because, you know, in May, if we look at the CPI, the CPI was 4% last May very, very high.

Very, very high, right? However, when we look at June, July, if we look at June, 2023, this is important, guys, okay? This is very important when it looks to year over year.

’cause when you see increases in sales, even for companies running the report, when you see, increase or decrease in earnings, they’re doing it year by year over year.

So from last year’s comparable period to this year, right? So last quarter compared to this quarter, this happens to be monthly.

If you look at it June, 2023 last year, okay? May, like I just said, Daniel was over 4% the CPI mm-Hmm.

You know what, it was in June, 2023 last year, what? It was under 3%.

Who, there’s no way this number’s coming under 3%.

So we’re gonna see a, you know, a, a huge gain of very, very high gain year over year in June.

And in July was 3.1%.

Those are the two lowest readings almost for the entire year.

You know, we have a few of them going back, but I pulled all the readings from May, 2023 to April, 2024, which is this reading, right? So in June and July after the Fed, this is important.

I’m telling you, because this is where year over, this is where same store sales comes, comes from, right? So same store sales year over year.

How do they increase? You know, if you see a decrease year over year, a lot of times they say you have tough comps coming, right? And that’s what Chipotle actually said and said, look, these numbers are good, but we’re gonna go against tougher comps because we did really good in these, in this quarter, these several months, June, July.

Be careful.

’cause now, June, July, that means in July we’re gonna be, we’re gonna have that number in the first couple weeks of August.

And it’s gonna be ugly year over year.

No matter what that number comes in at.

It’s gonna show that inflation is, is still, you know, rising year over year.

’cause we’re not gonna come in below 3.1.

And when that happens, it’s gonna lead to the Fed saying, Hey, could we cut rates or not? Very big deal, guys.

So if you’re looking for them to cut on this news, I would say that that’s not going to happen.

But more importantly, I think we just have to start listening to what Powell says.

No, you know, he’s been saying this all along, right? You gotta give the guy credit.

He’s like, we’re not cutting other than the the pivot quick.

And then immediately he got all the governors in a room and wrote him a paper and said, this is what you need to say over the next couple months.

Say, this is what, and they all said the same exact thing.

It’s kind of like when, when they have that in, in mainstream media, this is a threat to international security threat.

That democracy, debt to democracy, it’s almost like word for word.

They all say it this like the very next day on whatever, if it’s TikTok or whatever topic they’re talking about.

Uh, but he spoke yesterday, right? And wherever he spoke doesn’t matter.

I don’t even know.

But he spoken and for the first time since fed meeting, and he knew this CPI was coming out today, right? He knows he knew what it was and he didn’t blink.

So he said this, and I pulled some of the notes from this.

Does this sound like a guy? Remember Powell’s job is to control inflation.

And how do you control inflation? You raise rates significantly, which is almost like forcing a recession.

That’s how you really run away inflation.

And we haven’t had that.

We still see strong growth.

So he said restricted policy may take longer than expected to bring inflation down, but we will get inflation back to 2%.

If he’s looking to get inflation really back to 2%, you know, it, I, I can’t see him cutting rates.

He goes, he expects GDP to grow 2% or better.

Labor market remains strong.

Consumer spending and business investment is strong.

Households in good shape financially.

This doesn’t sound like a guy that’s actually looking to cut rates.

Okay? Now, and forget about if we take out the election year, it might be different because maybe they raise rates and maybe he’s a little more hawkish.

But he is definitely not dovish.

And, and you know, I wouldn’t take that.

This doesn’t mean anything really, right? Because we’re supposed to, I mean, Dan, you, we talked about this offline, but, how long have we been saying this that the Fed, like the market’s gonna go higher ’cause the Fed’s gonna cut, right? This, this has been, yeah, at least it’s been the bull narrative since January, right? Since January, 2022, there’s been, and it hasn’t happened and the market has still gone up in anticipation of this.

So the fact that you have this long catalyst like this, this long serving catalyst, like, oh, they’re gonna lower, they’re gonna start lower and they’re gonna start lower and they’re gonna, so as long as they keep ’em like this and you have that catalyst, it’s hard to see like stocks really pulling back since this is the main catalyst and stocks have gone up anyway.

It doesn’t matter.

They go up no matter what.

Uh, but it’s interesting because I, it doesn’t matter whether they lower or they raise or whatever, the market has gone higher and, and for them to be, what now we’re into May, and we’ve been talking about this being a catalyst.

Everyone who had a bullish thesis on, on in 2023 say the mark’s gonna go higher.

If you look at anyone that called it in 2022, late in 22, the mark’s gonna go up a lot.

’cause the Fed’s got lower rates and they didn’t.

And you had a blockbuster year, and we’re having a blockbuster start to this year as well with the Nasdaq hitting new high.

So, um, I will look at Powell and say, look, I I, I don’t see him.

I mean, it doesn’t, he doesn’t say his cutting.

I joked around and said, listen, all these guys are on the same page.

Or the Fed governors when they speak, and they’re all speaking, there’s three speaking today.

I’ve never, I can’t remember the last time that they’ve all been saying the exact same thing.

Usually it’s like two or three to dissent and no, they’re all on the same page.

Which kind of makes me think, will they, will they actually, I mean, I don’t know.

It’s, it’s a coin flip.

But from an investment point of view, I think it’s good that they don’t, and they leave it alone for now because it’s like this longstanding catalyst that’s really driving stocks.

Hey, they’re gonna cut.

Hey, they’re gonna cut.

Hey, they’re gonna cut.

And inflation’s getting tiny bit better here and there, which it should, where interest rates are.

It just has, hasn’t happened quick enough.

But I think this is kind of bullish for stocks in this election year right now.

Yeah, I mean, if you’re a politician and I like to make fun of everybody in politics, you can take this number and run with it.

So if I was President Biden, I would say, listen, this is good news because over the last year, as you saying, comparing year over year, this is according to briefing, the CPI index is now 3.4.

Well, that’s still way too high, but it’s better than 3.5 core, which when you think of core stripping out food and energy, which is a joke, but let’s just go there and have a joke.

Core is 3.6, Frank, that’s still too high, but guess what? That’s better than 3.8.

So you can use the data in however you want to.

What stood out, stood out to me, excuse me, is that when you go to the, bls.

gov to look at this, you had the index for Shelter Rosen, April as did index for gasoline combined.

These two indexes contributed more than 70% of the monthly increase for the index over time.

Now, we’ve been on this theme a long time, and Frank, this I’m, I’m early on this, as we say in our business, I’m early, I’m not wrong yet, Frank, but when gasoline and food and insurance continues to remain high, and when I say remain high, I mean higher versus, the last few years.

Or if you wanna say, you know, COVID and such, that is going to continue to weigh on investors.

So we’re not, we’re not saying you should be perma bulls from this, or, I’m certainly not saying that, but I do think that this is all incredibly bullish, these tailwinds combined with what the Fed’s doing and buying bonds again, and slowing the pace of the balance sheet.

I, frank, talk me off the ledge of thinking that this is just, um, all indexes are gonna go to new highs, this year and probably more than once.

I, I don’t, again, I don’t wanna be a permeable, but when you look at the momentum right now leading up to the election, the big reason, and there’s always risk, but the consumer, Frank, is going to be stretched.

The higher prices stay higher is going to just, you’re gonna have to cut back some point.

And we’ve seen credit card debt and all that kinda stuff.

You’ve talked about that in the past, but people are still paying, delinquencies aren’t through the roof yet, but they will be at some point.

The sky, the sky will fall Frank, but it’s not anytime soon compared with this momentum and money sloshing around.

And let’s cover that too, because you, you know, I, I could cite things and, and I could show you charts.

If you follow me at Twitter, I post a lot of these things @FrankCurzio.

I post a lot of things where, where, you know, there’s these charts of stuff that you haven’t seen.

Yeah.

It since, you know, CO and then you go back to the credit crisis and then you go back to 2001.

There’s so many charts like that, the money supply you could look at, you look at so many different things, that, that show this.

and I post again, I post a lot.

So there’s a lot of negatives out there and positive.

I wanna cover some of those because, you know, if you’re incredibly, this is, we wanna get it right, right? You wanna make money.

You, you could have, we’re all gonna be biased in our approach and somehow, ’cause sometimes you lean bullish or bearish, and that’s okay, right? You should, for me, you should always have caution.

Like if you’re really super bull, you should always be looking at, at certain things that, that are going to like ring you in a little bit.

And if you are incredibly bearish, you should always look at some bullish things that, you know, may change your mind, right? Because you wanna have a balanced approach to this and, and that what’s the end result? You wanna make money.

That’s what we’re here for, right? So there’s a lot of s**t going on under the hood.

I mean, rates are up.

You’re seeing delinquency rates surge, for credit cards, for auto loans.

It, it’s pretty crazy right now.

Uh, auto loans, how many are under waters? Incredible.

Meaning that if you buy a new car in order to pay off your loan, you’re gonna have to actually pay more money, right? You’re gonna have to roll that loan over probably at a higher rate now, right? Yeah.

So, which you never thought you’d have to do with an auto loan because you can’t just sell the car ’cause you’re underwater on it.

Uh, so yeah.

And rates staying high for longer is not good, right? We know that hurts the consumer.

But look, the NASDAQ can record highs is, is a serious deal.

Uh, you know, momentum.

You, you never wanna short a stock or, or go against a market that’s showing this type of momentum right? In your face.

You don’t wanna try to top it.

I mean, if there’s a catalyst of something that pushes down, it’s better to, you know, come if you’re gonna short the market or buy puts or whatever you do by inverse ETFs on the market, it’s better to do it.

When you see the market kind of trending lower now it’s clearly trending higher.

And now with inflation rate, you know, that was pretty good in CPI, you know, better than expected.

Uh, you know, there’s a lot of positives, right? I mean, you have these tailwinds and now you have even Biden Biden’s pushing tariffs, right? .

On, on imports, which is gonna be good for us companies and, and you know, like you covered this right? In, in, in, in certain industries.

But, you know, there are lots of tailwinds.

Uh, again, stocks are record high.

You’ve got this constant government spending and, and also, you know, the tariffs, the tariffs are a pretty big deal.

I mean, that’s, you have to look at different companies and who’s gonna impact, right? Yeah, absolutely.

And it’s infrastructure week.

Frank, I don’t know if you’re a fan of infrastructure week, but I did see that headline.

Is there like a geologist week, like infrastructure week or a mining week or anything? Well, If not, there should be.

There’s everything in there.

You got Donuts day.

I mean, there, there’s some day for everybody out there, I guess.

And if not, you’re probably a racist.

So let’s not go there.

And I don’t know, There’s a, for geo, there should be a day for geologists because I was thinking about ge.

I have a lot of friends and then they listen to this podcast.

And I have to tell you, I think, you know why I might go with this? ’cause I might Have mentioned, I really don’t, that’s why I’m giggling geologist day.

Think about, think about geologists.

Like when you’re a kid, there’s a billion things that you can get into.

A billion things that are so exciting and you chose, I wanna look at rocks.

Like that’s your future.

Like, you wanna look like.

What’s the con Like what’s the exci like that I, I can’t picture what type of person.

I mean, it’s, it’s this genre make a lot of money.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not, and a lot of listening, I’m gonna get lots of meals out, Frank.

I just, you know, when I think about the ge You alienated the entire sector.

When, When I just look at geologists and, and that’s like your dream job is to look at rocks.

I don’t know if you didn’t get outta the house a little bit.

I don’t know if you, I mean, seriously, that is your full-time job.

Like what’s the conversation with someone else? I mean, you talk, well look at this rock.

It’s quartz instead of limestone.

Like what do you, what do you I just, I never got that.

And I always tell people, and I’m going way off, way off way outta bounds on this because thinking about this, but, but I always tell in mining companies, they ask me advice, you know, ’cause they wanna market their companies a little better.

I say, get the geologist, unlock ’em in a room, make sure it doesn’t talk to anybody.

’cause if that guy’s doing your speech and your presentation, you’re done.

’cause he’s gonna be talking about the grades.

He’s gonna be talking about the intercepts.

You’re gonna lose everyone.

They just wanna know, you know, are are you gonna produce this mine? Is it gonna be a lot of shitload of gold that can make money on? That’s all they wanna know.

But geologists kind of, I don’t know.

I don’t even know why I went there, but geologists it is.

Well everybody has a day.

I I started that.

But I’m, you know what I’m gonna, I’m gonna lobby for geologists day for a lot of my friends, even though they’re gonna kill me and be p****d that I said that.

You know, he’s probably not a geologist in the movie, but is it Steve Bini? He’s in the headlines.

’cause he got punched in your hometown.

Yeah, He, yep.

In New York.

And he’s a what a Oc gon that place is turning into, you know, it’s Funny.

But he played a great role in Armageddon.

Wasn’t he a geologist in Armageddon? Yeah, he was great Writer.

Rocket on flying on the, that was the best, that was the best movie ever.

When he is they on the actual asteroid and he’s riding the nuclear rocket.

I mean, it doesn’t get better than that.

Wants to feel the power between his legs.

And I love people like that can’t happen.

Yeah, it’s Hollywood.

Have fun with it.

Entertainment.

Everybody wants to be entertained even when it comes to their money.

People wanna be entertained more than they make money.

Let’s hope so.

Isn’t isn’t that crazy? We’re trying, let’s hope so, Isn’t it? No, but not the, the entertainment part.

It’s so funny ’cause people are like this.

That’s not true.

That is true.

I know.

I recommend stocks.

Believe me.

The more entertainment the story is, the more entertaining it is.

The more people get involved and the more people wanna buy it compared.

That’s why no one wants to buy Microsoft.

And, and, and some of the fang names on Amazon hold ’em forever, even though that was the greatest strategy ever over the past 20 years.

Yeah.

But yeah, everything’s entertainment, which is cool.

But yes, I’m gonna lobby for that Anyway.

Nasdaq, let’s get back on track here since I, I just went way off the rails.

Uh, lots of positives, Dan.

Lots of positives.

I mean, the tariffs, when you look at it, it’s, it’s like you said, ev steel, aluminum, semi solar powers, right? Yep.

Uh, what I love about this is back in 2019, how Biden slammed Trump’s move to impose terrorists.

I think it was like $300 billion on, on China.

And said, Trump doesn’t get the basics.

He thinks tariffs are being paid by China and you know, it’s gonna be paid by American people or whatever.

And, and he also vowed we gotta remove Trump’s tariff.

Not only did he not, that was one thing he didn’t Yeah.

He removed all the border policies, right? Every single one of the border policies, we know that.

Uh, but he vow to move Trump’s tariffs.

He didn’t.

And now not only that, he, he’s actually building on them.

But either way or wherever you are on the spectrum when it comes to politics, if you hate the guy, you love the guy, you hate Trump, you love Trump.

Again, this is about making money.

And that’s going to provide a competitive advantage for those producers who produce this stuff in the us right? So, so, you know, pay attention again, another driver of, of us stocks, especially in certain sectors, which we said aluminum, semi solar power, steel, EVs, very, very big, right? Battery making and stuff like that.

So, you know, there’s a lot of companies within there that, that you should be looking at and, and you know, these tariffs are definitely gonna last until the election.

A lot of this s**t that he’s saying is just about the election, right? Just to get votes.

That’s what any president’s gonna do.

That’s why he’s, he’s relieving student loan debt right now as much as he can to try to win over the young voters, even though that’s illegal to do.

Uh, but you know, who cares? Right? So, but what, what’s gonna happen? The point is this spending Daniel, it’s not gonna stop during the election year, right? So it really doesn’t matter if you’re looking at valuations, if you’re looking at, at wow, the consumer is stretched or you know, the, the savings are dwindling, right? Which you talked about.

It really doesn’t matter if you have this government, this underlying current that was supposed to stop spending, that keeps spending and spending and spending to where deficits are so bad that you see Jamie Dimon came out.

But can I talk about the, can we, I want your opinion on these tariffs real quick.

Yeah.

Got, ’cause there’s two parts to the tariffs in my opinion.

There’s the first part where you have the anou announcement.

You have the knee jerk reaction, whether good or bad, to, hey, he’s doing something, we’re taking action, we’re not gonna let it stand anymore.

We’re gonna stand up and fight, blah blah, blah, blah, blah.

Alright? And then you have the time where it takes to fall into effect.

So Frank, 25% on steel and aluminum products, and this is coming from China, let’s be honest.

There we are pinpointing China.

So this is from President Biden’s Twitter feed or X feeded.

Do you think Biden actually controls his X feed, Frank? No.

Okay.

They know, they prove that he doesn’t know.

And I’m sure, I think Trump might though.

I mean, he’s just like insane with some of things.

That’s So funny.

If anybody else rattles off that he does word for word, let’s hope it’s him.

Yeah.

I don’t, you know, it seems like it is him, because I don’t know if anyone would be that crazy to say something in his voice.

Exactly.

That’s why it has to be him.

But yeah.

For, for no, it’s, and and they proved that it was a couple of tweets that came out that was just funny.

Yeah.

But 25% on steel and aluminum products.

Okay.

So, so think Taiwan, semi semi, think Nvidia, think, um, all kinds of the big AI and demand chips, that is the ultimate driver.

So 50% on semiconductors is a big deal.

A hundred percent Frank, a hundred percent on EVs and 50% on solar panels.

So this is definitely in the same, um, ballpark, the same momentum, the same driving lane as the climate change policies, the pro green energy, the electrification, the transition and stuff on the tweet, tweet, excuse me.

He said this after the, um, tariffs were listed, China is determined to dominate these industries.

Steel, aluminum, semiconductors, EVs, and solar panels.

I’m determined to ensure America leads the world in them.

So the first part you have is the announcement, the reaction to that.

Now Frank, what we can look at over the next couple months, next couple of earnings seasons, .

Is how do these steel, aluminum, EVs, semiconductor, you know, ’cause now you’re gonna have to see that play out.

You wanna see the results.

These are great trading opportunities now, but you must pay attention as what does it do to sales? What does it do to demand, depending on from Asia and such? And then the other thing is, what is China going to do in retaliation? Are they just gonna say, oh, Mr.

Biden, boy, he’s a tough tiger, you don’t wanna mess with him.

Or are they gonna impose some sort of tariffs or restrictions on trade or anything like that? Reuters was already out saying, Frank, that China is saying this is not good for bilateral trade talks.

They’re gonna be, have to pound their chest ahead of our election as well to talk tough.

My point is, is that this is gonna take long to play out, but that’s actually good for investors to see what’s happening.

But make no mistake, these are huge momentum tailwinds for these sectors.

They are huge momentum tailwinds for this sectors.

And, and I did a, a piece on this and it was great because we got a lot of new names on our list.

I gave away free report it like 10, 12 pages that I did on Trump’s tariffs, right? And everyone was like, you know, the trade’s gonna be eliminated and what are they, you know, remember like you, the far left media went crazy on Trump for tariffs and, and how, you know, you destroying global trade and all this crap.

And I said, look, you know, when you really go over the, the numbers of how much it was, it was really very little.

And I said, and the markets got hit from this news.

Right? It was like a three month stretch towards the end of one of the years.

I forgot when Trump announced this, maybe 2018 or 17, where, where the market got hit pretty hard, right? I think, but you know, when you, they really, they’re gonna matter in certain sectors, especially these tariffs.

But overall to the economy and the global trade, I mean, look, you know, China and us need each other.

Now we could put the foot on the gas, which we haven’t done because China has been a disaster.

And they’re willing to do anything.

But just remember, I mean, the fact that they could produce.

So, and I, I also did this before China got before, remember when Trump first announced he was running for president, it was a joke.

And then all of a sudden he started getting momentum outta, outta nowhere.

And this was late, right? He started getting, they were like, holy s**t, this guy’s actually gonna win the nominee.

They thought they were crazy for the re Republican party.

Once he did that, if you can, if you could still find it, pull up those imports out of steel and even aluminum from China and you get a, this massive, massive amount that all of a sudden as you got to about six months before he got elected, and it was very real that he could, that he was not, he he could be elected.

Uh, it, they just stopped dumping the steel onto our markets.

Right? And this is massive, right? So that’s, it’s funny how they’re able to produce everything that we can produce here at probably, you know, a 70% discount of what it costs us, especially with employees, right? And, and, and, and labor costs.

Uh, so the fact they can produce everything and at much cheaper means they have to be a trading partner for us, right? And, and, you know, this is just, you know, the tariffs is just, you know, again, pounding your chest a little bit.

It’s not that big of a deal.

But when you’re looking at these specifically, it, it is definitely gonna help the steel companies.

It is definitely gonna help, you know, just some of the mining companies as well.

You’re looking at, I mean, copper continues to take off, right? Which, which is on fire, but also steel, and, and aluminum, it’s definitely going to help.

But in terms of people looking at this saying it’s gonna hurt the economy, reme, you know, you don’t remember last time we announced tariffs with Trump, everyone was like, you know, you’re an idiot.

You’re gonna lose, the global trade is gonna be dead.

No, it, it’s just putting a little pressure on them and nothing happened.

The markets went higher.

I said, buy on this and everybody wind up doing very well.

It turned out to be a massive bull market.

And the markets pulled back, I think 20% on this news.

Or 18%.

So I, I don’t think it’s, If I’m not mistaken, your overall theory, which was correct, was, hey, the US China needs us more than we need them.

Yes, that’s still true today, in my opinion.

That’s still true today.

Absolutely, yes.

You’re gonna have, you could have a knee jerk reaction, you could have pullbacks, but if the market, if you think the market is falling over tariff threats, you ought to be a buyer on those because your point still stands true.

They need us more than we need them, and we have more optionality with reshoring industries and such like that and printing money.

Do you see the headline where the treasury’s printing minting about 2 million per minute to keep up with treasuries? Yeah, that’s a fantastic operation.

People, even though it’s a s**t show, you gotta give credit.

That’s incredible.

But anyway, moving on from territory About that.

I mean, just really quick with the ta, if you really think this is a big deal.

I mean, if you would China, you could just invade Taiwan right now, you control the whole AI trade, which is the main driver of this market over the past year and a half and gonna continue to be the driver for many, many years, right? ’cause you’ve got Taiwan Semi who is the largest producer of these things.

That’s why we’re trying to open up plants.

I dunno why you’d give that money to Intel still who’s dead last in making this stuff.

Uh, I think you can give it to other companies.

Uh, and also you could stop the, the, the, you know, importing rare earth Metals.

I, I mean, which go into basically every single device that we use, right? Which they have a monopoly on.

So, you know, if things are really serious, that’s where we would go.

We don’t wanna provoke because it’s gonna hurt both of us.

But, you know, I wouldn’t really worry this from an economic standpoint of this is gonna hurt, you know, one or the other.

It’s just, you know, paning your chest.

It is an election year, but it should result in a bid on a lot of these companies that should see earnings go higher because you’re gonna see less imports and more production of these things, happen in the us.

But, you know, you, you talked about, you know, deficits and where they are, right? The best banks Are around.

I mean, JB Diamond came out, I mean, and, and really, you know, in a p****d off speech again and said, you know, we, enough, enough, we need to pay this s**t down.

I it 6% of deficits right now, because we have a hundred percent debt to GDP, we’re at 34 trillion, that’s going up a trillion dollars every four months.

I mean, a trillion in just in interest.

We’re paying more an interest on our national debt than we are, than we pay for to fund defense spending now.

And it’s getting close to, to healthcare, also student loan debt, right? So, so how does this stop? Because it, it’s, you know, guys, you have credit cards.

If you’re paying 25% interest on credit cards, there’s no way you’re paying it down.

I mean, it’s so hard to pay it down and get ahead if it’s like $10,000, I mean, 20, $2,500, you know, at at 25%.

So if you’re paying off 25, if you’re paying off $2,500, that’s just the interest payments that you’re paying on your debt.

It’s hard to get ahead.

And that’s where we are right now.

And it’s even a big concern of why I agree with Jamie Dimon is because we’re a, we’re a f*****g full employment right now, right? We’re not supposed to have these massive deficits.

When you have massive employees, you should be getting more tax receipts in, right? You should be getting more revenue coming into the government.

So this is at a time where you usually see seven, six, and then you have the government spending to stimulate the economy.

Then employment goes lower, the economy gets stimulated, and they make the money back.

When the economy gets stimulated, the economy stimulated.

Right now it’s more stimulated and it’s ever been in the history of the markets and you still running these massive deficits, which is really, really, really scary.

So you better do it now because if we do fall into a recession, which can really happen and would happen once we stop spending, then what’s gonna happen? You’re gonna see less revenue coming in.

You’re hoping rates are going to come down.

Maybe you can cut.

But still that effect takes a long, long time to play out much longer.

Again, when you’re raising rates, it, it happens a lot faster and a lot quicker when you get to lowering rates.

It’s a very, very sole process.

It happens over many years, which haven’t we learned that the last 18 months we’re supposed to cut and we haven’t cut.

So, you know, it’s very scary.

Not just the deficits, but how high they are and how we’re running this at, at full employment within economy.

It’s grown more than 2%.

And which Powell says the the economy’s in good shape.

We’re doing good consumer spending strong and all this stuff.

You know, I agree with Jamie Dimon here, man, enough’s enough.

But you’re not gonna see any of this during election year, are we? No, you’re not gonna see anything.

And let me remind, let me point out the obvious that most people are missing.

When I read these articles about how, and even Jamie Dimon’s talking and he’s missing a glaring huge fact, Frank, we need to have him on the podcast.

Oftentimes they point to the deficits we’re running during peaceful times and such like that they go back to World War II and those deficits.

And then you look at COVID or something has to be happening on a national secure level to justify the massive deficits.

If you look at CNBC, evidently last year we spent 1.7 trillion more than we brought in through tax receipts.

But that’s all wrong because Frank, we are in a World war, we’re fighting climate change right now.

And that is important.

And you need to get in line and understand that.

And that’s how you can justify these massive deficits.

Nobody can fathom with their calculators or anything else, the impact of 1.5 to $2 trillion deficits per year as you like to rant and rave about.

Point out, it took, what, 400 billion, Save the world that was top.

No Way.

Oh yeah.

It was seven 50, but at the end, exactly, it turned out to be about four 80.

So let’s just round, we’re doing three times that every single year during peace times other than fighting the most dangerous threat, you know, according to President Biden, which is climate change.

Now that’s crazy, but deficits aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

And my point is, and I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just simply saying, it’s the world we live in.

And if you think, and if you think that the deficit is a reason to get outta the market right now, I just complete, I I just agree to disagree.

The momentum is clearly up for stock prices.

And the more BS that they do, the higher the deficit spending is, the more inflation that causes is going to hurt certain pockets.

But it’s gonna help equities because equities and commodities and such rise during higher inflation because those are gonna be priced with worthless and more worthless dollars.

So yes, we are a runaway deficits.

It will come to roost at some point.

It’s going to hit the younger generation.

I’m not being funny here, me a lot harder than anybody else, but that’s the way it should be and it will unfold.

It’s just not going to unfold overnight or before this election.

So unfortunately, it, it’s a great topic to talk about.

It’s a great educational and piece of value, but it’s not worth, trading investments on, in my opinion right now.

No.

But, but, but with, with the markets, with the spending, right?

Well let’s talk about what’s working, right? Because we saw, even with the inflation, you know, CPI, coming along CPI wasn’t that good.

CPI was good today.

Uh, what do we see? We saw, you know, stocks pop, but gold is over 2,400, right? Yeah.

And people think, I hate gold ’cause I’ve been posting a lot of stuff on gold.

I posted a uranium company.

A lot Of people do think you hate Gold.

A uranium company that went to zero.

What I hate about gold is the lies that everybody tells you, of why it’s gonna go higher, right? And this whole, this 30 year lie, right? Because it goes higher from inflation or it’s a store of value and the government deficits and all this, you know, our deficit at the, the highest they’ve ever been.

Okay, fine.

You can say, well, Gold’s high pretty much.

But, but you know, we are really what up 13% of the year.

And if you look at any single asset class, I mean, Bitcoin’s up I think 50% of the year.

Uh, if you look at any other asset class over the last 10 years, I mean, everything has outperformed gold, right? In, in an environment that should have been great.

Well, it’s low interest.

The, when someone paints an asset, and they’re bullish on it, no matter what the market conditions, you know, they’re full of s**t, okay? Because there’s gotta be some reason why you wouldn’t buy gold.

Because people say, well, interest rates are lower.

So when they’re lower, that’s great, right? But is it great? Because when they’re lower, gold doesn’t pay anything.

But yet we had lower interest rates for 10 years and gold did absolutely s**t right? During that period since credit crisis, the, you know, she holds a store of value where interest rates go high.

Well, interest rates went higher and they surged.

Now it took the 2024, but if you look, when we started raising rates 20, 21 to 20 to the end of 2022, so a 24 month period, gold did nothing.

Yeah, gold was at 18 50, 1900 and it was at 1900.

And then finally in 2024, it started breaking higher.

But it’s breaking higher as you notice what inflation’s coming down, not going higher, right? So, so it didn’t surge when we went 9% like we expected gold going higher from central bank buying, which is great.

Buy the producers, they’re gonna make a shitload of money finally, because, you know, their margins used to be great, but inflation hit this industry the the most, which hurt their margins.

But now they’re finally seeing the benefits you’re looking at, at some of the royalty companies.

Make sense? But if you’re looking at juniors, guys, be very careful because I read a post yesterday, which is amazing.

I didn’t know, is this, I think it was the CEO from Franco Nevada, I think it is.

Uh, and Frank Holmes posted this on Twitter, and I retweeted, you know, @FrankCurzio.

So it said that 40 years ago in all the regulations, it used to take seven years to get a mine to production.

Now it takes 30, 30 years to get a mine.

That’s not a misprint.

No.

30 years.

And look at it.

That’s why there’s been no, if you look at major discoveries, you look at discover, there’s, there’s been nothing.

There’s really has been nothing.

It’s not just they, they cut back because it was a s****y market, you know? And they, they went, you know, bolstered a wall in, in And a lot of these big miners almost went outta business before, you know, they got new CEOs and stuff and, and, you know, manage to, to lower their debt.

Now they’re in, you know, they have great margins.

But these juniors, if you think they’re gonna produce it better be a super high grade mine, near another mine.

That has been that, that produced with a great management team that has brought a mind to production because it’s, it’s not even their fault.

It’s the permitting process in the US is an absolute joke.

The regulations are an absolute joke.

And it takes a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time to do, especially in the US and even a lot of places in the world.

So if you’re owning juniors, be careful, be selective.

These are companies.

If you think for 30 years, what you’re saying is you’re buying a company that’s not gonna generate any revenue for 30 years.

’cause they don’t generate revenue unless they’re producing.

Maybe they could sell off a piece of their asset.

That’s not revenue, right? That’s investments.

Uh, so, you know, be careful.

But goal going high is very good for producers.

Very good.

If you own, you know, gold bars, if you own coins, I own all this stuff.

I have access, you know, I, I have, exposure to gold, but it’s, I’m just telling the stories that nobody wants to tell.

It’s not like, close your eyes and buy everything.

’cause there’s a lot of b******t in this industry.

If you think crypto, if you think crypto is full of fraud, I mean, at least these guys got caught.

You wanna talk about fraud, you go to the mining industry, especially in the junior miners, I mean, that’s a nightmare.

And these guys are getting free stock.

They don’t really care.

They know it’s not gonna get developed.

They’re putting out news.

They’re gonna be able to, you know, to sell their shares or whatever.

But a lot of these things, I don’t even see them being bought as gold prices go higher.

’cause it doesn’t make sense.

It really doesn’t make sense, even for the larger ones.

They’re merging.

If you notice that they’re, they’re buying bigger, bigger producers.

They’re buying mid-tier producers.

It’s the producers that are gonna do very, very well in this industry.

That, and then you see Bitcoin surging as well, which is going through the roof now.

So 4% back up to 64,000, again, up 50% from the year, bears will say, well, it’s down from 73,000.

It’s up tremendously this year.

It’s a best performing asset this year.

But you see the underlying bid when inflation goes down because this is push into risk assets, right? Yep.

Absolutely.

I mean, eight 30, the CPI print came out and I believe Bitcoin went up 4%, about 10 minutes within the next 10 minutes.

And it does signal a risk on trade because again, the market and sentiment is so powerful when it’s heavy about, hey, the rate cut is coming.

What, what I think we’re gonna about to talk to here with the meme stocks is what I wanna talk about with Bitcoin is you already have a lot of momentum.

What’s driving it? There’s so much optionality behind both Bitcoin and gold.

And I know you don’t hate gold, Frank, I just like hearing how people interpret different things.

There was, and I don’t wanna get into this right now, Frank, and I don’t even know if you’ve seen it, but Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.

Robert Kennedy Jr.

Sat down, dang it, I can’t remember who he sat down with, but anyway, he talked about treasuries being backed by gold and or Bitcoin.

So there is a ton of momentum on, and when the sky is falling and all the deficit warnings and things like that, just don’t, don’t get to the point of upset.

Don’t get to the point where you’re so upset that you don’t think there is a solution or a fix.

Everything that’s so screwed up in this Florida world we live in is fixable.

So let’s just go there and we can talk about that later.

But Bitcoin and gold are working frank because of the momentum.

And when people get a certain mindset and they want to take action on that.

Now we’ll do, we will talk about that with meme stocks.

But with Bitcoin and gold, gold is a oh s**t moment.

I think people are getting more and more scared the more you hear about deficits and such like that.

I think that’s a little bit of reason why gold prices are moving higher.

Bitcoin has had several different hats.

It’s, hedge against crazy money printing.

It’s, it’s own asset class.

But what if people get under the mind the mindset of its momentum trade with a saving grace, or it could be used in politics like treasuries or such like that.

That just to your point, as you’ve been saying, the total addressable market with the amount of money and just small percentage of money that could flow into Bitcoin and or gold.

Once investors get to a certain point of nervousness or scared regarding silly policies around the globe, um, I just think both assets I the world is plenty big enough for them to both go sky high.

I know you’ve lived through some amazing Gold Bull runs where junior mining stocks basically look like crypto stocks.

Yeah, I mean, you wanna talk about two, 300, a thousand percent returns.

You can get those in mining stocks you just haven’t in a long time.

So people kind of forget that.

But it’s incredible to what things can get with in, excuse me.

It’s incredible how the momentum can get attached to something and really send things higher.

The narrative on Bitcoin has not changed at all other than the price.

And if you believe that, or unless you’ve really had a change of heart, I don’t know why you would be selling Bitcoin anywhere near around these levels.

No, and, and we, we made it clear, Bitcoin’s a long term holding.

We would tell everyone to buy it below 40,000.

We buy at 6,000 in our newsletter.

But, you know, that’s when we put out and said, now’s the time to, to invest in crypto.

Because, you know, if you’re looking at the dy the dynamics, even, you know, the amount that Bitcoin surges after the halving, and the reason why I explain, I won’t go to it again.

You just cut that supply growth in half.

But you know, after 18 months, you usually see the market come down because you know, the demand kind of wanes it.

But this, the demand’s not gonna stop, right? ’cause you have these ETFs, constant flow coming in.

Yes, you’ll have the ups and downs and some people will, will get in and outta Bitcoin and trade it.

But now that you have that institutional access, now he’s talking trillions, right? Went from hundreds of billions to trillions, in potential money coming into this industry, which is fascinating.

Uh, but now you could see, which is interesting, right? ’cause you’re seeing these rates, you’re seeing these, you know, rates go a lot higher.

or the rates stay higher longer.

So the inflation rate, when the inflation rate does come out, and it’s lower than expected, what happens? We see like these speculative names go higher, and that’s Bitcoin, right? And gold.

But I, I’ve been pounding the table on this theme guys, when it comes to speculative investment, every one of you listening to this, I don’t care if you’re 103 years old and, and good for you, if you are, everyone should have exposure to speculative investments, okay? If you’re older, it should be a lower percentage of your portfolio.

And if you’re younger, it should be a higher percentage of your portfolio.

You should have a lot more working power.

You could afford to lose a little bit of money, but you wanna have the reason why we invest, right? All of us invest I is, is the possibility of making an absolute freaking fortune.

We wanna, we have our dividend stocks, we have S&P 500, we have a 401Ks.

But you wanna have the possibility.

And when I look at speculation, it’s not that I hate, you know, the junior gold miners and you’re waiting for them to come up.

It’s just what are the other avenues that you could do instead of that, just like I said, instead of buying Disney, why buy Disney here at 23, 24 times voter orange when you could buy Google who’s cheaper? You have exposure to streaming and you have exposure to AI and cloud and, and everything else, right? It, it’s, you know, what’s the best bang for your buck? For me, one, if you’re looking at the alt coins, which some people dumb s**t coins, but there’s a at least a hundred, 200 really, really good name cryptos that have gone up tens of thousands of percent.

Some of ’em a hundred thousand percent.

And, and you don’t even have cherry pick.

So when you see a bull market in all speculative assets, I would think Bitcoin is one area you want to go in.

Uh, you know, and, and some of these alt coins, some small caps, right? Uh, are gonna outperform.

But now look at what’s happened with meme stocks, right? So now we have Roaring Kitty coming back.

Uh, a k you know, Keith Gill, if you’re not familiar with that story, you should dumb money, right? It’s great, great.

It’s really, really great movie.

I really enjoy that movie A lot.

Just shows the power of community and how people are dying to follow someone that they trust.

Regardless if you, you know, he had the position, he kept the position, he was reported to YouTube.

He is just 2019, posted on sub sub Reddit, wall Street bets, who I interviewed both of those guys right through Wall Streete bets on this podcast.

I should have ’em back on.

Uh, but he bought 50,000 shares and 500 call absence and gave stop.

It cost him 53,000.

Think he turned into 30 million.

I think he cut that by like, you know, 15% because, you know, the, the government went after him.

And then on Robin Hood, they suspended trading.

You know, again, it’s the government.

And they’re like, okay, everyone’s losing money.

Melbourne Capital lost like 5 billion.

They were forced, you know, they would’ve went outta business, but they, they, got a capital injection, but he bought this thing.

And this is split adjusted.

’cause I have four for one split at a dollar A dollar 25.

That’s awesome.

So anyway, he’s, it was such a big deal and it was a great start.

Definitely see the movie guys, the movie’s entertaining as hell.

But, so, so Roaring Kitty posted on Twitter the first time in three years and, and GameStop went nuts again.

It was 11 to start the month and it went to 40 in like two days, three days.

Uh, AMC also surged.

Incredibly.

But you know, these are the speculative, if you look at speculative investments, and making money again, money that you could afford to lose, where do you wanna put it? I’m not gonna tell you not to buy these things ’cause you might make money, just like if you meme coins were up 10000% in a three month period early this year.

I’m not kidding you.

I mean, I, I’ll give you 20 of ’em that were up tremendously.

So, you know, and people are gonna say, well, you’re an idiot for buying that, but you are you idiot for buying because, you know, does that make me an idiot? Because I bought stocks like AMD and AMD’s down 35% in two months.

What about Snowflake? Snowflake the greatest company or not? That’s down 32% in four months.

You know, are you an idiot? Because I’d rather put my money in one of these other things with a chance money.

I’m going to lose that.

It could absolutely change my life.

And now you see ’em, GameStop search, they’re down today, they’re pulling back.

Last I look is 20%, but they, it’s still up tremendously in AMC.

You know, any meme stocks you like here, you buy into this industry because now with the inflate, I’m surprised with the positive CPI number.

You see speculative assets go higher today.

I’m surprised you’re not seeing this momentum continue, but maybe it’s just because these things popped a hundred percent plus in two days.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, that, that has to be, I mean, these things have just absolutely skyrocketed.

I took a screenshot yesterday at 10 0 1, Frank and AMC and GameStop were both up over 200% at that point on that day.

Now, maybe that’s a mispricing I was using Seeking Alpha, but I mean, I was laughing out loud.

Quick rant on the meme stops, stocks I’ve seen a few CNBC has put on, like, and I’m not even gonna name ’em because it’s not important and it’s no disrespect to them, but there’s a hedge fund manager on CNBC headline yesterday, webpage yesterday that was saying how the meme stock craze and GameStop and AMC is just showing how ridiculous how broken markets are.

Uh, people have taken to X and posted about how there needs to be just a complete wipe out of all this stuff across markets.

Jimmy, Jimmy Cramer’s on there reminding investors the GameStop is not an earning story and all that kind of stuff.

In addition to watching dumb money, go watch again the movie Tommy Boy, because there’s a scene in there where they’re taking an airplane trip and Tommy Boy has to be the stewardess and his partner is on the intercom.

Frank, if you need to be reminded that GameStop or AMC is not an earning story, then you need to hold up your hand just like we need to tell you how to use a seatbelt because you are a retard.

And so Tommy will come by with a hammer and hit you on the head’s, a quote from a movie.

Frank, don’t, Man, you said, you said, Don’t get on me about that.

It’s a quote from Tommy.

Boy.

Holy cow, I can go look it up.

We’re gonna get canceled.

My point, We’re gonna get canceled now.

Well, I thought you said cancer.

I thought, wow, that’s dark.

Cancel.

No, no, no.

Canceled, cancel York.

So my point is with all this is that anybody that is taking the time to point out about GameStop and AMC being ridiculous or whatever, or a complete waste of your time, and you should ignore them on this specific subject.

What is really interesting about GameStop and AMC is it is the story of how people can bind together and they have a narrative that they are trying.

I’m not saying right or wrong, I’m not saying good or bad, I’m simply saying what’s going on.

They are buying into the mindset that David is going to beat Goliath.

The individual investor is going to knock out the big, dirty, mean hedge funds.

Then the little guy is gonna walk up to Wall Street, Frank and knock it over.

They’re penalizing, they’re hurting people.

They feel like this kind of reverse Robinhood narrative, and that’s fine.

People can buy into anything.

But for those of you that are out there warning about how GameStop is showing how ridiculous the markets are, I have something to ask you.

What do you think about the system in place right now? We have $30 trillion plus in debt.

We have trillion dollar deficits every year.

You have money sloshing around.

Look at how government bonds are sold and issued.

Look at how gold is traded from JPMorgan Trace and all that kind of stuff.

If you’re picking GameStop and AMC as your, narratives to point to absurdity and ridiculousness in markets, you are so down the rabbit hole that you shouldn’t even be taken serious on this because we have so much more bigger things.

This is the Wizard of Oz and the Willy Wonka, like I’ve talked about from the highest level of the Fed.

And people get upset about two stocks that a lot of people are making money on, and a lot of people are losing money on they’re lottery tickets.

But if you need to be told that you’re in the wrong game in general, but I welcome you and you can continue to do what you want because nobody has a gun to your head.

And this is still a free country in the most part.

Frank, that’s my meme stock thing.

Rand, You know, I’m gonna say something here, and if you have kids, listen in the car, just shut the radio off.

Wall Street is built on f*****g retail investors.

And I’m saying it like that.

I’m sorry to say it like that, but it’s true.

And, and it’s a powerful word by cursing.

And I’m, and I’m, I’m making my point.

Okay? This is what Wall Street does, okay? They do it with the banking system.

As you get charged fees, the less money you have at the bank, the higher the fees you’re going to get charged.

It’s amazing that interest rates are so high.

What’s the, the, the, what is the average account from the four largest banks pay in interest for savings? What is it? Point zero, whatever, right? So, so you know when we have rates where you can get interest rates and put an interactive brokers account and, and you can just have it sit there and you’re gonna generate four point a half percent, 4%.

Uh, you look at what happened with GameStop last time, here’s a stock that surge and what happened? Some of the biggest names on Wall Street was short, right? So what, what happened? They halted trading and then when they restarted trading, what did Robinhood do? Which air all these accounts that were buying in this group together, what did Robinhood do? Robinhood suspended trade on GameStop and amc.

So as this thing crashed, they didn’t allow people to buy it, right? And, and a lot of that was across different platforms as well.

Uh, you know, brokerage platforms.

So these people could not buy it.

Their accounts were shut down, they couldn’t transfer money, couldn’t do anything, yet they’re watching the stock crash, which is borderline illegal, right? So what happened? They got f****d there.

Look at SPACs.

Is there a reason? I mean, the reason why, the only reason why 2021, you saw this massive boom right in, in speculation.

Now, well like, wow, we have these retail investors.

We could actually sell ’em a story of buying a stock on the private market that’s trading at a $1 billion valuation and put a 10, 12, $13 billion valuation on it.

We are gonna get stock at like 10 cents, 15 cents, 20 cents.

We’ll do do some pipe deals.

They’ll get it a dollar or $2, it’s gonna come out at 10.

They’re gonna drive the liquidity, which is what they want.

’cause when that drives the liquidity, what’s gonna happen, you’re gonna see them sell into that market.

So that’s why every single hedge fund was like, holy s**t, this is the easiest way to make money in my life.

Let’s launch 2, 3, 400 of these, right? And they all crashed right in the face of retail’s investors.

They lied about the reasons why they created these companies.

They lied about going to space.

They lied about being the greatest AI company, the greatest cloud computing company, all the buzz orders that they need to put in it, right? The companies that went public, most of them, You know? And even if you fast forward to today, um, what’s going on at the market of how the government is targeting crypto, crypto and Bitcoin specifically is a legit threat to our banking system.

And most people hate Wall Street.

And I think that’s what Jamie Dimon doesn’t understand.

I think a lot of people don’t understand is the power of how p****d off we are as retail investors.

That we get f****d every time that, you know, that’s why you’re seeing this revolution where, you know, with GameStop at AMC and everyone’s calling it out like this, you’re, you’re an idiot.

You’re stupid for doing this.

Yet these are the same people calling us stupid that make money off of us all the time.

And I’ve been doing this for 30 years, guys.

I know s**t that forget it.

The stories that I could tell you o of of how much they’re gonna screw you and how much they don’t care about you, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter to them.

To them, it’s about them making money personally and they don’t care about anyone else.

So the fact that they’re rallying around this, I i is really cool.

You’re seeing GameStop surge again, again, it’s down 20% AMC.

Did you see what happened to AMC AMC went up a lot.

And then they, they use the rise in their stock price to raise money and they were gonna raise, I think it was like 160 million raised, 250 million and they’re paying off, it’s like a debt to equity.

So paying off the bonds that mature in 2026, the shares that they sold, listen to this, the stock was at seven and change, I think it’s at whatever it might be like five now.

Uh, but after this, the stock, the shares are sold at 3040 5 cents with stock trading over seven.

Geez.

So they use this money to pay down some of their debt.

They have 8.3 billion in debt.

And 2.8 billion of that is due in three years.

Okay? This is not a company that generates a ton of revenue, only has about a one $1 billion in liquidity.

So they paid down 1.4 billion of this debt.

You know what the coupon on this debt was for the 1.4 billion had to be high 12%.

Good job by then to pay it down.

I said AMC could be a play on AI because now instead of one two Marvel movies coming out, you’re gonna see five six, right of Marvel, DC comics and all this stuff maybe that, that that could translate into, you know, more revenue, more earnings later on.

But just the structure of this company where it is right now, it looks like it could go outta business in three years.

But it’s nice to see this thing, you know, move higher.

They took advantage of it.

Now you’re looking at a lot of other stocks and how does the world see the retail investor fight back? Is they’re looking at all the stocks that have the high short position.

’cause when you have a high short position, you’re betting for the betting against the stock, you think it’s gonna go down.

Okay? Just like when you buy a stock, you buy it low, you sell high.

When you sell a stock, you’re selling it at these levels, you’re thinking it’s gonna go lower, then you’re gonna buy it back.

Okay? You have to go do that on margin.

Uh, and when you do that and you have, you’re taking on unlimited risk.

So if you buy a stock at $10 and it goes to zero, you lose the amount of money you put in.

If you short a stock at 10, you have unlimited risk because it can go to, to 50, a hundred, 3000, 4,000.

So what are we seeing here? And, and you’re looking at, at who? Short stocks.

These are institutions.

So now you have this whole massive retail audience that’s looking at these stocks and looking at specific ones that they could make money on that have high short positions and people, including these names in the meme craze.

I don’t think it’s the meme craze.

Michael Cloud holograms surge 90% in two days.

SunPower surge close to a hundred percent in two days.

Cost.

Co-op, Blackberry, Maxon, solar plug power.

I don’t think this is retail investors buying.

I think these are the institutions.

The short sell is saying, holy s**t man, we better lighten up our positions.

’cause if these guys come after this, we’re gonna get freaking annihilated.

Like Melvin Capital.

Uh, if you’re looking for other speculative names, I’m not talking about GameStop and AMC.

Do I think you should be involved in this? I think maybe a tiny bit of your speculative money.

I mean if, I mean this is trading.

I mean your point, it lottery, Not this is trading, but, but I’d be an idiot to tell you that some of these things go up a hundred percent in two days.

And if, if you could buy them, you know, again, fundamentally and from what I do for 30 years, I’m not talking about putting money in here that you, you can’t afford to lose.

But if you have specular portfolio of say, $5,000, maybe put 500 bucks in some of these because that could be worth more than the 5,000 worth Just watch it closely And just watch it.

And there’s some names, some bigger names I think that could do well because the retail traders coming back, which means you’re gonna see more, more trading, more options, which could be, you know, CBOE.

You can look at UEX, Intercontinental Exchange, which owns a New York Stock Exchange.

Robinhood, Coinbase Interactive Brokers you could see trading up considerably at, at these places, especially Robinhood and Coinbase that can move the needle.

Yep.

But I wanted to point this out before I go back to you because Goldman Sachs has a short basket that they have.

Uh, and I’m gonna show you this really quick and this short basket, if you’re watching on our YouTube channel, there is getting annihilated because people are like, okay, we, we, we gotta worry about this, right? There’s a short squeeze that means that people are buying, it’s gonna drive the stock higher, but now the shorts are forced to cover their positions, meaning they have to buy the stock, which makes this, that’s what a short squeeze in.

It’s go higher and higher and higher and higher.

’cause in order for the shorts to get out, they have to buy the stock.

So they have names on this list.

They have GameStop, um, IMU, immunity, bio Carvana, they have on this list.

I dunno if you saw what Carvana did lately.

It’s of a thousand percent in last year.

I mean, give or take, right? Uh, Is the one, yeah.

One of the heaviest weight stocks in this basket, very high short.

And they climb, they’re up 125% this year.

And this follows being up a thousand percent last year.

A thousand.

Okay.

Okay.

And, and again, I remember headline 22, it fell 98% almost went outta business.

Now it’s on fire.

Uh, NO Vix, Wayfair Twist Biosciences, SoundHound AI, which again, a company I I highlighted at $9 to stay away from a lot of company.

If you’re a publicly traded company, you have AI, you name, chances are you’re not a good AI play, concept therapeutics.

So these are some of the names that you’re looking at that could get hit pretty hard just because if I’m short this as an institution and you’re seeing this retail investor crowd say, Hey, this is a name we just have to buy a little bit and then we’re gonna force this short covering, which can result in the short squeeze, pay attention to this.

But this is more bigger than just doing that.

This is could Get hit hard meaning rally hard though.

You Don’t mean they could, they could rally tremendously.

Yeah, They’re gonna be volatile, but they couldn’t See up the person who short could get nailed pretty hard.

But this is more than that.

Daniel, like you explained, this is the retail investor hating on Wall Street.

And that’s the power behind Bitcoin because this is the first time the banking industry has the power to disrupt the bank industry in hundreds of years.

Right? It it’s a boys club, right? You can’t have this, you can’t have, a mid-tier bank come into and become one of the largest four.

They don’t allow it.

Your capital ratios are high.

And, and again, I saw New York Community Bank, it’s a why New York Community Bank, it got got destroyed ’cause their assets went over a hundred billion.

And then they were forced to keep higher capital ratios, which report? They reported losses and everybody got nervous and they started, withdrawing their money.

And then it, it is just a free fall.

And that’s what happens every single time.

The government only allows four large banks here and their control.

And every time a bank goes out, those are the guys that get the assets most of the time.

So I understand the retail crowd, I get it and good for them.

But these are names that could be targeted and you’re probably gonna see ’em go higher.

’cause if you’re short these names, you better watch out.

’cause they get part of that community and they’re like, Hey, this is the next name we’re going after.

These things could pop a hundred percent in a couple of days and maybe have a tiny bit of exposure.

Again, I’m, I’m a season analyst fundamental.

I would tell you no way you, when you, when you put money, your speculative money into something, you want the opportunity to have gains that are gonna change your life gains that are gonna be massive.

It doesn’t mean all your speculative money goes in there, but maybe a tiny portion goes into some of this stuff.

Because if you did that with GameStop, and I’m the idiot saying don’t buy GameStop because it’s not a earnings play, right? GameStop went from a dollar 25 to $125.

Okay, that’s a car.

A couple of new houses for you.

Your kids go to college.

I’d be an idiot to sit here and say don’t have any exposure at all to that compared to saying, you know what, maybe put 2% of your speculative capital in it.

And I think that’s what you should do that.

And I’ve been clearing that with Bitcoin.

’cause areas of speculation are gonna do good, especially with inflation coming down.

The market’s momentum’s higher.

Usually it’s the s**t names that are gonna go a lot higher, right? Yeah.

Just to wrap up, ooh, that was a good segue.

S**t names, it’s total coincidence.

One stock is down 15.72% right now to a dollar oh seven Frank.

And it is Virgin Galactic Holdings.

What Is it? Virgin Galactic.

What’s the price? What’s The price? It’s a buck seven.

It’s down from almost looks like it touched one to zero.

Zero.

It’s a Zero.

It’s, that’s the point.

This thing could rally real well and if you make any money on it, you should sell immediately.

You take a victory lap with Chamath and Richard Branson cash in 300 million and retail Investors.

Yeah, I knew you couldn’t resist F*****g annihilated annihilated on that.

And it’s not just buying a speculative name and it didn’t work out.

Go back and listen to what these guys said when that thing went public.

Listen to what they said.

It’s a long term holding.

This is a value play.

Everyone’s gonna space.

This is a name we’re behind.

This is great new technology.

This is the greatest thing we’re gonna be around.

I mean, they, they actually lied to investors.

They lied to investors and pumped this thing up.

Got out and completely dumped now, and now it’s gonna zero.

And you know what, where do you have Gary Gensler? He’s talking about, you know, roaring Kitty.

Why don’t you come on TV and disclose these positions.

And he’s talking about why Bitcoin, why, why you shouldn’t own Bitcoin and why it’s dangerous.

This is what he’s going after.

Like that’s hurt.

Investors like Roaring Kitty has hurt investors.

We All have, has That guy hurt investors? Yeah, that guy has.

That guy has bought GameStop and said, I own it.

I still own it.

Here’s my positions.

I never sold it.

And, and then you have Bitcoin, which is through the roof, which created so many young millionaires.

Is that really hurting investors? Because that’s what you’re going after.

Where I see SPACs are destroying investors, you know, the banking industry and what they’re doing, destroying people, destroying investors, making it difficult to make ends meet, especially for low income consumers and investors.

But yet are wonderful.

SEC focuses on other things.

Elmer FUD is a wonderful character.

Frank watch the cartoon since May we’re only a couple weeks into May.

Space, SPCE was trading around 85 cents a share at rallied to a dollar 40 ish and now it’s back to 1 0 7.

Yeah, it’s a zero.

Just a couple weeks.

It’s a zero.

They can’t produce anything.

They’re gonna bleed money.

They have no revenue coming in.

What about all those people that sign up for space? Are they, are they gonna go? They gonna like just, I dunno, maybe they can get one of Elon Musk ships when it lands and they could hijack it and throw a bunch of people in there and charge ’em for it.

I don’t know.

We’ll see.

Anyway, we’ll See what a mic drop moment that is.

We’ll see what happens.

Okay guys, that’s it for us.

A lot of topics there.

Uh, thank you so much Daniel for joining me on Wall Street Unplug.

Hey, great to be here.

Thank you.

Yeah, We’re gonna have more interviews on Wall Street Unplug going forward.

I have Daniel on too.

Make it a lot of fun.

So we debate different topics and stuff.

So, um, but tomorrow’s Wall Street Unplugged Premium I’m gonna give away where we give away a pick and we put it in our Dollar Stock Club portfolio and that’s a trading portfolio, which we’re doing very, very well on.

But this pick tomorrow that we’re gonna do is actually short on maybe the best momentum name.

Definitely the best momentum name, the most positive rated name in this sector that everybody knows.

And I’m gonna tell you why I think it’s gonna report horrible earnings.

And it’s not just horrible earnings, it’s gonna be difficult for this company to get really back on track because of something, a catalyst that happened.

Uh, again, you’re gonna be surprised ’cause you won’t hear one person ever that that says that they don’t like this stock.

Everyone likes this stock and that just quick hint, it’s not a technology stock.

So it’s not Nvidia, it’s not technology stock, it’s not Microsoft or any of them.

It’s in a different sector that everyone loves right now and I think it’s going lower.

And we’ll provide a position that you could benefit when it does.

Uh, but Wall Street Unplugged Premium, if you’re interested guys, you could try just for a dollar.

It’s $10 a month.

Again, you can cancel after the first month.

You go www.wsupremium.com to find out more information.

But you get that full portfolio too.

Uh, how many picks do we have in that portfolio, Daniel? Too many we gotta sell from.

It’s hard to cover.

I think there’s like 23 1 Going in almost every week and it’s a good idea.

It’s usually relevant to what’s going on in the markets and stuff like that.

So it’s really cool.

Dollar Stock Club.

I really like that portfolio doing well, which is cool.

And you also get live portfolio updates every couple weeks from Daniel.

So guys, questions, comments, email me, frank@curzioresearch.com.

Dan, what’s your email? Daniel@Curzioresearch.com.

Good stuff.

And guys, we’ll see you tomorrow.

We show up.

Wall Street Unplugged Premium.

Take care.

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