Making Markets

My guest today is Adam Abbas , Portfolio Manager and Head of Fixed Income at Oakmark. After recording over a hundred podcasts, I was thrilled to finally chat with another Fixed Income manager. We start with some valuable lessons from investing in the TMT sector, the impact of zero interest rates, and the role of monetary policy in the credit markets. We then explore today’s opportunities in fixed...

My guest this week is Eric Seufert . In the words of Ben Thompson from Stratecherry, Eric is arguably the best writer and commentator on digital advertising, and today, he gives us a masterclass on the subject. We start by talking about Apple’s ATT framework, Meta’s recovery, and what the current ecosystem looks like. We also talk about X, advertising on the open web, and clearing many common misc...

My guest this week is Sam Rines , economist, author and Macro Strategist at WisdomTree. Sam was the first guest on Making Markets one year ago, where a lot of his takes proved to be highly accurate. So we decided to record part II one week before the election. We start with his base case for the election, the potential scenarios, and what has and hasn’t been priced in. We then move onto a wider di...

This week again, I’m again on the other side of the mic, as I’m interviewed by Joe Magyer, the founder of Seaplane Ventures. This is a wide-ranging conversation where we talk about the Fed rate cut, cover different asset classes including VC, PE, Fixed Income, and Public Equities, and my journey in building Canopy Capital. This episode first appeared on the Investing in Startups podcast hosted by...

Eric and Matt share insights on the market's performance through the third quarter of 2024, highlighting the S&P rising by 6% and a significant 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve, the first since the pandemic. Eric reflects on market sentiment and the complexities of predicting Fed actions, addressing the contrasts between past and present credit cycles, and emphasizing the importa...

My guest this week is Robbie Cannon . Robbie founded Horizon Investments in 1999 and grew the company to $7B in AUM before selling in 2021. Today, he takes us on a tour of the asset management industry.  We cover many fascinating topics, such as the industry's evolution over 25 years, the blurring of lines between wealth and asset management, oligopolies in finance, the impact of private equity, t...

My guest today is Jerry Derevyanny , a partner at Bengal Capital, a cannabis investing firm. Jerry has been a part of the regulated Cannabis industry since 2014, and today he shares the nuances of investing in this growing and unique industry. I enjoyed listening to Jerry’s frameworks for the industry, such as Ants versus Locusts, the similarities and differences between Alcohol and Cannabis, capi...

My guest this week is David Nadig . David is the Financial Futurist for ETF Trends and ETF Database and has had over 25 years of ETF experience. We start off by acknowledging the debate over active and passive investing. David and I discuss the potential dangers of passive funds on market discovery, the inelastic markets hypothesis, and the effects of massive inflows into index funds. This episode...

My guest today is Nir Kaissar . Nir is the founder and portfolio manager at Unison Advisors and one of my favorite economic commentators/columnists at Bloomberg. Today, he joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on the US economy. We start with the disconnect between the strong economic numbers and the sentiment amongst the population. We then cover indicators of recessions, the potential for a sys...

My guest this week is Mark Dow . Mark started his career as an economist with the US Treasury and the IMF before he joined Wall Street. Today, he is the founder of behavourialmacro.com and runs a fund that combines his skillsets as a trader and an economist. In this discussion, we talk about why economists are usually bad investors, how Mark approaches markets, and we cover some provocative ideas...

Today, we're replaying my episode with Nik “The Carny” Lentz. It's not every day you talk to a UFC fighter turned trader. And this conversation is both intense and insightful. We start by talking about Nik's journey from a difficult childhood to a UFC career and his philosophy on fighting, parenting, and life. We then cover his move to trading derivatives full-time and his approach to position siz...

My guest today is Saurabh Mukherjea , the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marcellus Investment Managers. Saurabh is one of the most articulate fund managers in India, and today, he lays out a compelling case for investing in the country. We start by contrasting India with China and explaining why China receives all the attention despite the much better results from the Indian market. We al...

My guest this week is Herman Narula , the CEO of Improbable. Improbable is an ambitious company that is building the infrastructure for an open metaverse. We dive into his vision for the metaverse, the technical requirements, the economic model, the role of blockchain, and more. We also cover the issues with AI regulations and the gaming industry. Please enjoy this conversation with Herman Narula....

My guest today is Sajith Pai , a VC at Blume Ventures. Sajith is one of the leading thinkers on India, and today he takes us on a journey to understand this massive, fast-growing, and challenging market. We cover many of the unique features that define the country, such as the lack of trust and the low levels of debt. We also talk about segmenting the Indian consumer, the business models that work...

In this quarterly recap, Matt turns the mic on Eric to delve into the remarkable performance of Q2, with the S&P up 4% and NASDAQ up 8%. They discuss the ongoing market strength, particularly driven by mega-cap growth companies and AI investment. The conversation covers the complexities active managers face, the unique AI spending cycle, the role of big balance sheets, and significant capital...

My guest today is Nat Eliason , an internet creator and writer of the new book Crypto Confidential. Nat takes us on his wild journey in Crypto, where he made and lost millions, worked on exciting projects, and suffered through hacks and scams. We also talk about the Olympus project, how he’s built a career on being early and why he’s devoting the next phase to writing. Please enjoy this wide-rangi...

My guest today is Richard Teng , the CEO of Binance. As a former regulator in Abu Dhabi, Richard was instrumental in making the city one of the world’s friendliest places for crypto. Today, he leads the world's largest crypto exchange into the post-CZ era. We talk about the painful lesson of the past year, working with regulators and putting the customer first. We also cover the Nigeria incident,...

My guest this week is Phil Huber , the Head of Portfolio Solutions at Cliffwater. The private credit market has exploded recently, with Assets under management reaching a staggering $1.2T last year. I’ve been a little skeptical of this asset class, so I asked Phil to come on and convince me otherwise. We talk about the demand side of the equation, whether we are in a bubble, downside protection, d...

My guest this week is B.B. Abbott . Over the past 25 years, BB has represented some of the generation’s biggest baseball stars, including Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, and past guest Corey Kluber. This was a short but action-packed episode, where we talked about the increasing intensity of childhood athletics, the economics of the player-agent model, and the impact of Name, Image, and Likeness, or...

My guest this week is Bob Elliott , the CIO of Unlimited Funds. Before Unlimited, Bob was on the investment committee at Bridgewater and led Ray Dalio’s personal research team for a decade. I’m a big fan of Bob’s work and his twitter account and was excited to talk to him on all things Macro. We start by diving into the current market cycle and the US deficit, inflation and bond yields. Bob then e...

My guest this week is Ben Gordon , the CEO of Fractal. At Fractal, Ben runs a unique strategy, providing farmers with equity capital and investors exposure to a differentiated and uncorrelated asset class. Ben starts by making the case for investing in farmland and explaining why institutional ownership remains low in the category. We then dive into Fractal’s business model, what a typical deal lo...

My guest this week is Adam Terry , the co-founder and CEO of Cantrip. A few weeks ago, Aaron Edelheit came on the show and made the pitch for investing in Cannabis Beverages. Today, we talk to one of the leading operators in this space. This was a fun conversation where we really got into the weeds, pun intended, into the science of a very complicated plant and an equally complex regulatory landsc...

My guest today is Tony Cappell , the Founding Partner at Chicago Atlantic. In 2018, Tony saw an opportunity to do private credit in Cannabis and has since built Chicago Atlantic is the largest lender in the space. We start by talking about the early days of Chicago Atlantic. We then move on to the challenges of underwriting in Cannabis, his views on the industry and on competition from other lende...

My guest today is Tom Dunleavy . Tom spent a decade in traditional finance before moving onto Web3. Today he is the Managing Director of the Crypto VC firm MV Global. We start this conversation by exploring the current state of public and private crypto investing. Tom then outlines the process of raising capital, the role of Key Opinion Leaders, the meta-use case of crypto and the implications of...

My guest today is Corey Kluber. For those who don’t follow baseball, Corey Kluber was a 3-time MLB all star and one of the great pitchers of the last decade. Today, he takes us on quick tour through his career and what it takes to succeed as an elite athlete. We also talk about the market for athletes, his strong views on childhood athletics, his plans for the future and more. As a Boston resident...