This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Scott Martin, head of research at Kramer Capital Research. What might have been an episode focusing on the ramifications of last week's elections instead was dominated by Monday morning's vaccine update - Pfizer and BioNTech announcing positive preliminary data for their Covid-19 candidate. That news sent the Dow higher by more than 5% and the S&P 500 more than 3.5% at the time of recording. The Nasdaq...
Nov 10, 2020•25 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking the day before the election with Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. There's at least a modest amount of conventional wisdom out there that volatility (VIX) - which has been elevated for several weeks and spiked dramatically higher during last week's big market selloff - will return to normal levels after the election. After all, despite a lot of dramatic chatter, there's every reason to bel...
Nov 03, 2020•44 min
This week's Alpha Trader features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Scott Bauer, CEO of Prosper Trading Academy, and Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Investor Alliance. First up is Bauer, who in two previous appearances on Alpha Trader made prescient bullish calls on gold (last November) and mega-cap tech (last July). He remains bullish on both, though cognizant that Covid and election news could provide some volatility. Try to look past that, says Bauer, ...
Oct 27, 2020•53 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking (mostly) tech with Jon Markman, founder and president of Markman Capital Insight. Before getting into individual stock picks, Markman first looks at the big picture: Going back about 80 years, whenever the Fed steps in to put the brakes on a bear market, one should expect the averages to go up five times over the following ten years. The Fed helped end the bear market, says Markman, on March 23 this year. Apply...
Oct 20, 2020•39 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Randy Frederick, VP of derivatives and trading at Schwab. Frederick previously saw little-to-no resistance to the S&P 500 (SP500) returning to its previous high of 3,580, but things are moving quickly. Thanks to last week's big rally (which continued on Monday), the index has already moved back to within a stone's throw of that level. Maybe most interesting about Frederick's expectation of higher share...
Oct 13, 2020•43 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Jeff Saut, formerly chief investment strategist at Raymond James, the founder of Saut Strategy, and currently chief investment officer at Capital Wealth Planning. Now on its 52nd episode, Alpha Trader has had a large number of bullish prognosticators on the program, but perhaps none as bullish as Saut. His advice in a nutshell: Stop focusing on the day-to-day news and market gyrations, and instead recogniz...
Oct 06, 2020•26 min
This bonus episode of Alpha Trader features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Jim Iuorio, director at TJM Institutional Services and a CNBC contributor. The reversal in the dollar ([[USDOLLAR]], [[UUP]], [[UDN]]) bear market over the last few weeks has been notable. While some believe money has flowed into the greenback because stocks got shaky, Iuorio thinks the opposite. The dollar, he says, is the "dog," and most everything else is the "tail." When the dollar rose past 94.00, s...
Sep 30, 2020•29 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking markets with Bob Iaccino, who is making a return appearance to the show. Bob is co-founder of PureXposure Growth Series, as well as Chief Strategist at Path Trading Partners. September wasn't the best month for stocks, and last week was a volatile one, but Iaccino notes the market as having shaken off a lot of the negativity by last Friday. It doesn't necessarily make him bullish over the near term, but the pri...
Sep 29, 2020•41 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the markets and more with Market Rebellion co-founder, and longtime CNBC contributor Jon Najarian. Do you even remember the fight over oil in March between Saudi Arabia and Russia that helped send crude prices into negative territory? In any other year, it may have been the top markets-related and geopolitical news story, but in 2020 it's just another headline. The point of this, says Najarian, is not to ...
Sep 22, 2020•41 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Morgan Housel, partner at Collaborative Capital, and author of recently-published The Psychology of Money. There's a cost of admission to the stock market, says Housel, and that's putting up with uncertainty and volatility. In order for the market to give an you - an investor - strong returns over time, you need to be able to put up with that cost. It's very common, says Housel, for the market to not "make...
Sep 15, 2020•43 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the economy with Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US. Politicians and market participants can't get complacent about the economy despite a string of positive reports, says Brusuelas. The economy is only operating at 80% capacity. While there have been "V-shaped" recoveries in financial services (markets), manufacturing, and housing, the service sector remains highly impaired. The result is a "K-shape...
Sep 08, 2020•27 min
Canaccord Genuity Chief Market Strategist Tony Dwyer for a second time joins hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher on the Alpha Trader podcast. "There is no precedent to how high valuations can go," said Dwyer, making some news on Monday by pulling his 3,300 target for the S&P 500 (SP500). I have no idea what multiple you pay for an "unlimited" Fed, says Dwyer. 20x? 24x? 30x? 100x? Dwyer is bullish, but not just because the Fed's new framework and massive U.S. debt loads likely mean 0% policy ...
Sep 01, 2020•35 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the markets with Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co. A bull on long-dated Treasurys since 1981, Shilling remains so today, not scared away by a 30-year yield at just above 1%. Helped along by very narrow number of names, the S&P 500 is at a record-high, but the economic scene remains quite troubling, says Shilling. What the bond market really cares about, he says, is inflation, and ...
Aug 25, 2020•29 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Seeking Alpha contributor and editor of The Lead-Lag Report, Michael Gayed. Gayed is also portfolio manager of the ATAC Rotation Fund, which has managed to walk between the raindrops in 2020, returning about 60% year-to-date. Prior to the wide-ranging interview with Gayed, Task and Alpher mull Friday afternoon's big news - the disclosure of a $500M stake in Barrick Gold (GOLD) by Berkshire Hathaway ([[BRK....
Aug 18, 2020•57 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with CMEGroup Chief Economist Blu Putnam. The big news over the weekend was the president signing a number of executive orders to keep stimulus monies flowing, but Putnam is wary of the legality, and notes it's the states that have to pay at least some of the extra unemployment money, and they're currently tapped out. He suggests viewing the president's actions as less the final word on the stimulus, and more a...
Aug 11, 2020•31 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the Fed, gold, the dollar, and the big bull move in stocks with Quoth the Raven himself, Chris Irons of QTR Research. "The Fed is running the biggest long con in human history," Irons has previously said. By that he means the U.S. central bank for years has chosen the path of attempting to paper over any economic difficulties, rather than allowing markets to clear. The Fed's actions in response to the pan...
Aug 04, 2020•47 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Lyn Alden Schwartzer and Chris DeMuth. Lyn is the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, and co-author of the Stock Waves service on Seeking Alpha. Chris is the founder of Rangeley Capital and author of the Sifting the World service on Seeking Alpha. First up is DeMuth to talk about Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, otherwise known as SPACs or blank-check companies. SPACs have been around for some...
Jul 28, 2020•52 min
This week's Alpha Trader features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking equities and gold with Scott Bauer, CEO of Prosper Trading Academy. The S&P 500 (SP500) has been attempting and failing to bust through the June 8 post-crash high of about 3,230. Bauer fully expects the S&P to not just break out above that level, but to soon challenge the all-time high just shy of 3,400 (the podcast was recorded on Friday morning - the S&P did make it through 3,230, closing at 3,251 on Mond...
Jul 21, 2020•28 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Marc Chaikin, founder and CEO of Chaikin Analytics. Prior to the chat with Chaikin, Task and Alpher discuss the remarkable run in Tesla (TSLA), and the beginning of Q2 earnings season, with many of the country's largest banks set to report results this week. For Tesla, it appears poised to enter the S&P 500 as soon as this month, and at its current capitalization north of $300B, it would be a top ten m...
Jul 14, 2020•32 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the second-half outlook with Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. Prior to the chat with McMillan, Task and Alpher talk about recent market action. Among the items - a bull run that appears to be getting its legs again, and a pickup in dealmaking. Of the bull run, Task notes that an equal-weighted S&P 500 is down 9% since June 8. The move higher in the headline in...
Jul 07, 2020•25 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO & Chief Strategist at Quill Intelligence, and a former advisor to the president of the Dallas Fed. The Fed is "winning" (for the moment), says Booth, but that doesn't mean she approves of the central bank's massive interventions into the markets. Booth wasn't surprised by Jay Powell's quick action as markets disintegrated earlier this year, but what did take her back was t...
Jun 30, 2020•32 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Jim Bianco, president of Bianco research. Prior to the chat with Bianco, Task and Alpher note that equities continue to march higher (or at least hold their ground) in the face of a batch of disquieting headlines pointing to a renewed surge in COVID-19 infections. Task wonders if the so-called "second wave" and the upcoming election might keep the market in a trading range for a few months. Jim Bianco was...
Jun 23, 2020•32 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher chatting first with Avi Gilburt, founder of ElliottWaveTrader.net and author of The Market Pinball Wizard serviceon Seeking Alpha. After that, the hosts talk with Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Banncokburn Global Forex, and a longtime Seeking Alpha contributor. Gilburt wasn't too surprised by last week's pullback, but the key question is what type of correction are we in. By his calculation, if the S&P 5...
Jun 16, 2020•37 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Jack Bouroudjian, chief economist, co-founder and director of the Universal Compute Exchange, and chairman of the Global Smart Commodity Group. Prior to chatting with Bouroudjian, Task and Alpher discuss this remarkable rally which has sent the Nasdaq to a new all-time high and brought the S&P 500 back to green for the year. Stan Druckenmiller less than one month ago said the risk-reward was the worst ...
Jun 09, 2020•32 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with David Trainer, CEO of independent research firm New Constructs, and the author of Value Investing 2.0, a newsletter available on Seeking Alpha's Marketplace service. While Trainer doesn't see a ton of upside to the averages after their big rally from the March bottom, more important to him is what might be a topping out in the passive investing trend. That doesn't necessarily mean a bear market if he's rig...
Jun 02, 2020•28 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking first with Jeff Kilburg, the founder and CEO of KKM Financial and a CNBC contributor, and then with investor, entrepreneur, and host of his own podcast, James Altucher. Kilburg sees the risk in the market now being with those overweight cash, and expects the S&P 500 (SPY) to soon test the 3,000 level (it closed at 2,955 on Friday). What might throw the market off is what we saw a bit of last week, and that'...
May 26, 2020•40 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Rick Bensignor, president of In The Know Trader, and a former chief market strategist at Morgan Stanley. Bensignor's thesis for now is that the market has seen both its high and low for the year. He's inclined to be a seller of S&P 500 (SPY) rallies above 3,000, and a buyer below about 2,650. For bulls, the potential for more bad news, i.e. a possible 2nd wave of infections as the economy reopens, like...
May 19, 2020•39 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Cullen Roche, the founder and chief investment officer at Orcam Financial Group, and author of the Pragmatic Capitalism blog. First up for discussion is Friday's employment report, the massive numbers of jobs lost, and stock investors reacting by continuing to buy low and sell high. Roche isn't expecting another Great Depression for a couple of reasons ... 1) Today's U.S. economy is so much more diverse, a...
May 12, 2020•39 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the markets with fund manager and Behavioral Macro blog author Mark Dow. Prior to chatting with Dow, Task and Alpher consider that we might be entering a new phase for markets. Phase one was the panicky crash from late February into mid-to-late March, and phase two was the straight from central casting big bounce. The "hard" part may be starting now. The idea of a re-opening economy may seemingly have the...
May 05, 2020•32 min
This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking COVID-19 treatments and vaccinations with Adam Feuerstein of Stat News. Much of the treatment talk has been about Gilead's (GILD) remdesivir, and Feuerstein - who has been at the center of much of the reporting - takes us through those ups and downs. First, there was anecdotal evidence on April 16 out of Chicago which suggested the drug as being almost miraculously effective - the news set off a nice move highe...
Apr 28, 2020•28 min
