WTFinance

Interview recorded - 23rd of April, 2025 On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on James Lavish. James is the Managing Partner at The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and writer at the Informationist newsletter. During our conversation we spoke about his thoughts on the markets, economic uncertainty, higher interest rates & inflation, debt challenges, Bitcoin federal reserve and more. I hope you enjoy! 0:00 - Introduction 1:39 - What is James seeing in markets? 3:35 - Economic uncertainty 10:28 - Higher interest rates inflationary 13:01 - Tariffs 14:43 - Resolution to debt issues? 17:38 - Debt challenges 24:18 - Realignment away from US Dollar 26:12 - Eurodollar market 27:28 - Swap lines 29:12 - Bitcoin federal reserve 33:50 - BRICS buying gold 37:35 - One message to takeaway from our conversation James Lavish has over 25 years of institutional investing experience and is Managing Partner of the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, a hybrid investment fund that makes public and private investments in the Bitcoin ecosystem. He is also the author of The Informationist, a newsletter with over 35K subscribers that simplifies one financial concept weekly. James graduated Yale University in 1993, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). James Lavish: X - https://x.com/jameslavish Newsletter - https://www.jameslavish.com/ Bitcoin Opportunity Fund - https://www.bitcoinopportunity.fund/ WTFinance - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 21st of April, 2025 On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I have the pleasure of welcoming on Brent Johnson. Brent is the CEO of Santiago Capital, has twenty years experience in financial markets and is well known for coining the “Milkshake theory”. During our conversation we touched on the Milkshake theory, the risk of a sovereign crisis, what this means for the markets currently, realignment of the world worder, who are the losers and more. I hope you enjoy! 0:00 - Introduction 1:22 - Milkshake theory 4:15 - Sovereign crisis 7:20 - All things link back to debt & dollar? 9:14 - China worse than the West? 11:28 - Misallocation of capital? 16:40 - Swap lines 20:31 - What is happening in the economy? 24:16 - Foreigners selling US assets? 26:31 - Dollar shortage 28:39 - Realignment of world order 32:09 - Who is the loser? 35:31 - Impact investment approach? 38:56 - One message to takeaway? Brent Johnson brings over twenty years of experience in the financial markets to his position as CEO of Santiago Capital. Prior to that, Brent enjoyed more than nine years as a Managing Director at BakerAvenue Asset Management, a multi-billion dollar asset manager and wealth management firm. He was the lead advisor for several of the firm’s largest clients. Before joining BakerAvenue, Brent spent nine years at Credit Suisse in their private client group. He got his start as part of the training program at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) which became part of Credit Suisse in the fall of 2000. Brent regularly gives interviews and speaks at conferences regarding financial markets & macroeconomic trends. His views have been quoted in numerous print, online and television outlets. Brent Johnson - Fund - https://santiagocapital.com/ X - https://x.com/SantiagoAuFund Newsletter - https://macroalchemist.com/ YouTube -  @MilkshakesPod [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UChvlmVy6Q0a9uC1jRFRpp8Q] WTFinance - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 17th of April, 2025 On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Matthew Piepenburg. Matthew is a Partner of Von Greyerz AG. During our conversation we spoke about the current state of the economy, tariffs, why all problems lead to debt and liquidity, a complete shift in the world order, collapse of the FIAT currency and more. I hope you enjoy! 0:00 - Introduction 0:57 - What are you seeing in the economy? 8:39 - Tariffs impact on liquidity 20:14 - Complete shift in the world order? 29:49 - Collapse of FIAT currencies 41:14 - One message to takeaway from our conversation? Matt began his finance career as a transactional attorney before launching his first hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble of 1999-2001 Thereafter, he began investing his own and other HNW family funds into alternative investment vehicles while operating as a General Counsel, CIO and later Managing Director of a single and multi-family office. Matthew worked closely as well with Morgan Stanley’s hedge fund platform in building a multi-strat/multi-manager fund to better manage risk in a market backdrop of extreme central bank intervention/support. The conviction that precious metals provides the most reliable and longer-term protection against potential systemic risk led Matt to join VON GREYERZ. The author of the Amazon No#1 Release, Rigged to Fail, Matt is fluent in French, German and English; he is a graduate of Brown (BA), Harvard (MA) and the University of Michigan (JD). Along with Egon von Greyerz, Matthew is the co-author of Gold Matters, which offers an extensive examination of gold as an historically-confirmed wealth-preservation asset. Matthew Piepenburg -  LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/matthewpiepenburg Website - https://vongreyerz.gold/ WTFinance - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 7th of April, 2025 On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Jason Shapiro. Jason is a hedge fund manager and trading legend with 30+ years of trading experience. He was also featured in the book "Unknown Market Wizards".  0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - What are we seeing? 3:12 - Comparison to other periods? 7:53 - Who is selling? 12:30 - Contrarian investors. 16:03 - Current investor positioning 17:08 - Markets more volatile? 19:46 - Assets Jason is watching? 22:43 - Long time to learn trading 26:08 - Largest mistakes traders make 28:13 - What is a bad decision? 30:08 - What would make you change your strategy? 32:38 - Human nature 34:12 - Bad news, no reaction 36:48 - One message to takeaway? With over 30 years of trading experience, Jason has gone through most markets a trader should see in their career.  From the crazy rallies during the 90s, the tech bubble pop in early 2000s, the 2008 market crash and the latest bull run starting in 2009.  Through the last 20 years of his career, he has used a contrarian approach which has been very successful to him and his clients, as verified by Jack D. Schwager in his latest MARKET WIZARDS BOOK.  Jason has managed large sums of money from a few million to several hundred million and learned a great deal about the Futures markets, from Equities, Currencies and Fixed Income to Currencies and Precious Metals. Jason Shapiro -  Website - https://www.crowdedmarketreport.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/Crowded_Mkt_Rpt LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-shapiro-53674994/ YouTube -  @crowdedmarketreport  WTFinance -  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 14th of April, 2025 On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Peter Boockvar. Peter is a CNBC Contributor, Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group & Editor of the Boock Report.  During our conversation we spoke about what he is watching, Tariffs, DOGE, impact on the stock market, inflation, a bifurcating world, assets to perform and more. I hope you enjoy! 0:00 - Introduction 0:45 - What is Peter watching? 1:26 - Tariffs 3:53 - DOGE 7:27 - MAG7 impacted 9:01 - Inflation 14:29 - Bonds 14:48 - Bifurcation of global world? 18:21 - Wealth divide 22:39 - Commodities 24:16 - One message to takeaway? Peter Boockvar is an independent economist and market strategist. The Boock Report is independently produced by Peter Boockvar. Peter Boockvar is also the Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group, LLC a Registered Investment Adviser. The Boock Report and Bleakley Financial Group, LLC are separate entities. Content contained in The Boock Report newsletters should not be construed as investment advice offered by Bleakley Financial Group, LLC or Peter Boockvar. This market commentary is for informational purposes only and is not meant to constitute a recommendation of any particular investment, security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy. The views expressed in this commentary should not be taken as advice to buy, sell or hold any security. To the extent any of the content published as part of this commentary may be deemed to be investment advice, such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. No chart, graph, or other figure provided should be used to determine which securities to buy or sell. Consult your advisor about what is best for you. Peter Boockvar -  X - https://x.com/pboockvar?lang=en Substack - https://peterboockvar.substack.com/ WTFinance - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas