Animal Spirits Podcast

On today's show, we are joined by Rahul Sharma, Portfolio Manager and Executive Director of Schafer Cullen Capital Management to discuss: China's effect on Emerging Markets, avoiding value-traps in EM, strong macro trends in India, passive vs. active management in Emerging Markets, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The...

On episode 354 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: inflation helping corporate profits, what's going on with chocolate, airport traffic hitting all-time highs, the new Robinhood credit card, the downfall of Jack Daniels, and much more! This episode is brought to you by YCharts and Kraneshares. Join thousands of users who rely on YCharts to easily answer those questions and...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined again by Jason Barsema, Co-Founder and President of Halo Investing to discuss: investing in notes structured around single stocks, the difference between hard and soft protection, what the Catapult Note is, Halo's annuity and annuity servicing capabilities for advisors, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s...

On episode 353 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why the elements are in place for a boom-time decade, why household allocations to stocks were so low in the past, how to lie with statistics, who keeps buying Treasury bonds, picking the AI winners in the stock market, some good news for homebuyers, and much more! This episode is brought to you by TBIL and the US Benchmark...

On this episode, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Jonathan Shelon, Chief Operating Officer of KraneShares to discuss: an economic update on China, China's buyer of last resort, what happened in Chinese real estate, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor Feel free to shoot us an email at a...

On this episode, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Corey Hoffstein of Newfound Research to discuss: managed futures, return stacking, using leverage effectively, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor Feel free to shoot us an email at animalspirits@thecompoundnews.com with any feedback, qu...

On episode 352 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: thoughts on Italy, consumers wall of cash, inflation at the grocery store, real estate agent commissions in trouble, the best airplane movie of all time, thoughts on Dune 2, and much more! Thanks to YCharts and Fabric for sponsoring this episode. Get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription when you start your...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Ryan McCormack, Factor and Core Equity Strategist and Paul Schroeder, QQQ Equity Product Strategist at Invesco to discuss: the creation of the Nasdaq 100, where the QQQ ticker comes from, the Nasdaq 100 special rebalance in 2023, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batn...

On episode 351 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: one of the most resilient stock rallies ever, money market funds vs. crypto, Americans are rich, the stock market has always been concentrated, inflation at the grocery store, the biggest reason the Fed needs to cut rates, some good news for first-time homebuyers, and much more! Thanks to the Texas Small Cap Equity Index ET...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Chris Kuiper, Director of Research, and Matt Horne, Head of Business Development for Fidelity Digital Asset Management to discuss: the new Bitcoin ETFs, how much news is priced into Bitcoin price, what the Bitcoin halving is, how crypto and macro economics fit together, institutional adoption of Bitcoin, and much more! Find complete sh...

On episode 350 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why the markets continue moving higher, why buy & hold is the best (and worst) strategy, how 401(k)s impact the stock market, billionaires can't complain about inflation, consumers keep consuming, the richest generation in history, crypto just won't die, why we keep seeing so many booms & busts, the best new show of 2024 an...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Jacob Miller, Co-Founder of Opto Investments to discuss: how difficult it is for RIAs to get private market exposure, the growth of private credit, and why that may be an issue, Opto's screening process for private investments, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnic...

On episode 349 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: where Ben stayed in the Keys, Michael's surreal experience with Eli Manning, the market needs a healthy correction, Japanese equities making a come back, good news for homebuyers, the new Costner trailer, and much more! Thanks to EZBC and Fabric for sponsoring this episode. To learn more about the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Josh Greco, Senior VP and Senior Institutional Portfolio Manager for Franklin Income Investors to discuss: asset allocation decisions within multi-asset funds, how rate changes affect portfolio yield, investors overallocation to cash, understanding convertible bonds, and much more! Learn more at: https://www.franklintempleton.com/ Lear...

On episode 348 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the people you see on every vacation, the cure for the loneliness epidemic, the biggest driver of stock market returns, the John Bogle expected returns formula, the best returning stock might surprise you, Bitcoin ETF flows, why there won't be a baby boomer retirement crisis, and much more! Thanks to YCharts for sponsoring...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Bruce Bond, Co-Founder and CEO of Innovator Capital Management to discuss: behavioral finance, and the popularity of defined outcome products during bull markets, how equity floor ETFs work, Innovator's latest defined income ETF solutions, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Mi...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Jared Dillian to discuss his new book No Worries: How To Live a Stress-Free Financial Life. Jared is the editor of The Daily Dirtnap, a daily market newsletter for investment professionals. Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor Feel free to shoot us an...

On episode 347 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why McDonald's is getting more expensive, the prospects for another bear market this year, fundamentals that drive stock returns, concentration in the S&P 500, Nvidia vs. China, tail risk strategies, consumer credit, commercial real estate, fixing youth sports, and more! Thanks to Spear Funds for sponsoring this episode. To...

On today's show recorded in person at the New York Stock Exchange, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Kay Herr and Rick Figuly of JP Morgan's Global Fixed Income, Currency, and Commodities group to discuss: JP Morgan's newest bond ETF offering, why JP Morgan chose the NYSE over other exchanges, what a securitized bond is and how they work, thoughts on interest rates, and much more! J.P....

On episode 346 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: concentration risk in the US stock market, economic dominance from the United States, when the Fed will cut rates, competing takes on the Apple Vision Pro, macro is hard, wage growth won't quit, why there are so many realtors, another investing book from Tony Robbins, and much more! Thanks to YCharts for sponsoring this epi...

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined again by Bob Long, CEO of StepStone to discuss: - What investments StepStone is making within Infrastructure - How liquidity works with infrastructure investments - The inner workings of interval funds, StepStones fees, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The Irr...

On episode 345 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the types of people you see on every flight in America, why new highs in the stock market are perfectly normal, why the Fed should cut rates even in a strong economy, this is more like the 1990s than the 1970s, young people are wealthier than you think, the biggest story about the economy no one is talking about, and much m...

On this episode of Talk Your Book, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Alex Morris, CIO of F/m Investments to discuss: 2024 rate cut possibilities, the difficulty of forecasting, and why everyone got 2023 so wrong, utilizing spreads as a forecasting tool, why solving for corporate duration can be a useful risk management tool, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben C...

On episode 344 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the average length of bull and bear markets, what's up with small cap stocks, $8.8 trillion in cash, no show China, the vibecession is over, the softening labor market, airline credit cards, 0% rate loans, the Bitcoin ETF, and much more! Thanks to YCharts for sponsoring this episode! Get 20% off your initial YCharts Profess...

On this episode, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are live at FARMCON to discuss: the macro economy and inflation in 2023 and 2024, commodity trading with legendary trader Andy Daniels, how behavioral finance affects investment decisions, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s The Irrelevant Investor Feel free to shoot us an...