Animal Spirits Podcast - podcast cover

Animal Spirits Podcast

Animal Spirits is a show about markets, life, and investing. Join Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson as they talk about what they're reading, writing, listening to and watching. Look for new episodes every Wednesday morning. See our disclosures here - https://ritholtzwealth.com/podcast-youtube-disclosures/

Episodes

Talk Your Book: Trend Following with Eric Crittenden

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick spoke with Eric Crittenden, CIO of Standpoint Asset Management to discuss adjusting for bias within data analysis, defining holding periods for trend following strategies, multi-asset strategies vs managed futures, simplifying the trading process when trend following, 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 animalspiri...

Jul 15, 202436 min

Buying a House at the Top of the Market (EP.368)

On episode 368 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why the stock market never really changes, why this is the hardest it's ever been to beat the market, the travel boom rolls on, Boomers are having fun in retirement, young people are making money, the economy is slowing, Bitcoin ETFs are like 401k plans, people love guaranteed income, the new season of The Bear, and much more! This episode is sponsored by NEOS Investments and Fabric by Gerber Life. NEOS has set out to enh...

Jul 10, 20241 hr 3 min

Talk Your Book: Public and Private Market Credit Opportunities

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Ben Santonelli, Lead Portfolio Manager of Polen Capital's Credit Opportunities Strategy to discuss how interval funds work, navigating interest rate increases within your bond allocation, how Polen Capital is actively managing bonds, the biggest risk to high yield bonds, how Polen Capital values businesses, thoughts on why spreads have remained tight, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of C...

Jul 09, 202429 min

Talk Your Book: Why We Don't Build Enough Houses

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Coby Lefkowitz, Partner at Backyard to discuss why homebuilding has slowed, why building houses has become such a complex process, thoughts on start-up cities, Private Equity is not buying up all single family units, solutions to the housing crisis, 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@th...

Jul 06, 202440 min

Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck (EP.367)

On episode 367 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: U.S. domination of the world stock market, how credit spreads work, how the 401k revolution changed the stock market, Americans are rich, an economic slowdown is here, the U.S. labor force is huge, everyone wants to travel, the $5 meal deal inflation indicator, and much more! This episode is sponsored by YCharts and CME Group. Get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription when you start your free YCharts tria...

Jul 03, 202452 min

Talk Your Book: Income Outcome Investing

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Hamilton Reiner, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and Head of US Equity Derivatives at JPM Asset Management to discuss active strategies combined with option overlays, why limiting outcomes improves investor experience, how J.P. Morgan constructs option strategies, how volatility affects yield for income strategies, and much more! Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense Michael Batnick’s T...

Jul 01, 202434 min

Who Owns the Stock Market? (EP.366)

On episode 366 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the biggest difference between bull and bear markets, cyclical vs. secular bull markets, what's wrong with Europe, Gen Z is obsessed with the stock market, spending on concerts, everyone is moving to the south, how the Fed can help the housing market, when to honk your horn, spending on groceries, and much more! This episode is sponsored by Global X and CME Group. Visit https://www.globalxetfs.com/ to explore a lineup of ...

Jun 26, 202454 min

Talk Your Book: Growth Stock Concentration

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are live from Charleston, joined by Kathleen McCarragher, a Portfolio Manager for Jennison Associates and Harbor Capital to discuss market concentration within the S&P 500, how growth managers combat high-flying stocks within the index, how interest rates affect valuation, 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 animal...

Jun 24, 202439 min

The Fed Needs to Cut (EP.365)

On episode 365 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why it's finally time for the Fed to cut rates, when valuations will matter again, the best hedges against an AI boom-bust cycle, what would cause housing prices to fall, no one moves anymore, how tragedy can provide some perspective on your finances, bull markets lead to lower crime rates, bad drivers, and much more! This episode is sponsored by YCharts and CME Group. Get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscri...

Jun 19, 20241 hr

Talk Your Book: A $20 Trillion Dollar Market Opportunity

On today's show, we are joined again by Bob Long, CEO of StepStone Private Wealth to discuss the basics of private credit, how the Dodd-Frank Act affected the banking industry, what types of deals StepStone is pursuing, why private credit earns higher yields, 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 [email protected] with any feedback, questions, recom...

Jun 17, 202443 min

Bankless & Animal Spirits

On this special episode of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman, of the Bankless podcast, to discuss: crypto cycles, Bitcoin vs Ethereum, crypto entering politics, and much more! This episode is sponsored by Public. Make your savings work harder and earn an industry-leading 5.1% APY with a high-yield cash account on Public. Visit https://public.com/ to learn more! Sign up for The Compound newsletter and never miss out: thecompoundnews.co...

Jun 16, 20241 hr 1 min

Addicted to Trading (EP.364)

On episode 364 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: our trip to Charleston, slowing vs. normalization of the economy, the loneliness of the American worker, Fed rate cuts, getting rich fast, degens trading options, car deals are coming back, the true cost of home ownership, in defense of credit card reward hunting, the poor man's Tom Cruise, and much more! This episode is sponsored by Nasdaq and Fabric by Gerber Life. To learn more about Nasdaq's ETF listing process, visit...

Jun 12, 202458 min

Talk Your Book: Utilizing Dividends for Income

On today's show, we spoke with Chris Floyd, VP and Portfolio Manager for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions to discuss how rates affect high-dividend paying companies, the low volatility aspect of the portfolio, utilizing REITs as an income driver, systematic approaches to screening out negative factors vs concentrating on positive factors, 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 sh...

Jun 10, 202430 min

The Consumer is Slowing Down (EP.363)

On episode 363 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: what happens if the AI bubble bursts, 200 years of stock market concentration, how to find lower insurance premiums, the bottom 50%, the fentanyl of private markets, assets & debt across generations, middle age conversation starters, and more! This episode is sponsored by YCharts and CME Group. Get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription when you start your free YCharts trial through Animal Spirits (new cus...

Jun 05, 202456 min

Talk Your Book: Supply and Demand Always Wins

On today's show Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Sal Gilbertie, CEO of Teucrium to discuss the cost of production and commodities, how inflation affects the cost of production, how investors are utilizing Teucrium products, what's going on in cocoa, 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 [email protected] with any feedback, questions, re...

Jun 03, 202433 min

Has the World Gone Crazy? (EP.362)

On episode 362 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the great Bill Walton, how many people own stocks and houses in America, how the internet and outrage culture broke surveys, 401k millionaires, what inflation means now, the Home Alone house is on the market, the best personal finance traits, and more! This episode is sponsored by Franklin Templeton. To learn more about the Franklin Income Focus ETF (INCM), please visit: https://www.franklintempleton.com/investments/optio...

May 29, 20241 hr 4 min

Talk Your Book: Growth Stage Debt Investing

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Kyle Brown, CEO, President, and CIO of Trinity Capital to discuss how the Trinity Capital structure works, how venture debt investing works, understanding execution risk vs technology risk, Trinity's 5 income-generating businesses, risks involved, 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@thec...

May 27, 202433 min

Wages Are Beating Inflation (EP.361)

On episode 361 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: losing a family pet, the S&P 500 is not the economy, everything is up this year, the stock market is NOT a casino, wages are cumulative just like inflation, consumers keep consuming, ETH ETFs, the Ben Carlson streaming bundle, and more! This episode is sponsored by Franklin Templeton. To learn more about the Franklin International Core Dividend Tilt Index ETF (DIVI), please visit: https://www.franklintempleton.com/investm...

May 22, 202459 min

Talk Your Book: Higher For Longer

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Alex Morris, President and Chief Investment Officer of F/m Investments to discuss what duration, maturity, and convexity mean to a bond, the psychology of bond bear markets, why TIPS did not perform as expected in 2022, differences between yield to maturity and the 30-day SEC yield, 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 sho...

May 20, 202436 min

When Will Houses Be Affordable Again? (EP.360)

On episode 360 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: pullbacks in bull markets, the legend of Jim Simons, if 401(k)s were a mistake, what a car says about its driver, hotel movies vs airplane movies, and much more! This episode is brought to you by YCharts and Fabric by Gerber Life. YCharts is always one step ahead of the game with free resources and this time is no different. Check out their election guide and get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription when...

May 15, 20241 hr 8 min

Talk Your Book: Defining Risk with Structured Protection ETFs

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick spoke with Matt Kaufman, SVP and Head of ETFs at Calamos Investments to discuss: why embedding options within ETF wrappers has gotten so popular, how Calamos structures protection ETFs, why timing can matter with structured protection ETFs, demographic tailwinds for structured protection products, 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 sh...

May 13, 202432 min

Fighting Inflation (EP.359)

On episode 359 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: the suffocating bull market, the other side of government debt, Jerry Seinfeld on when money changed everything, consumers are finally fighting back against inflation, Wall Street translations, who is buying Bitcoin ETFs, the bear case against housing and much more! This episode is brought to you by Simplify. Simplify Your Access to Alternative ETFs. Visit https://www.simplify.us/ to learn more. Sign up for The Compound n...

May 08, 20241 hr 10 min

Talk Your Book: Bitcoin Flows

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Christopher Jensen, Director of Digital Assets Research for Franklin's Digital Asset Investment Strategies Group to discuss, the resiliency of Bitcoin, the global casino vs global computer use-case theories, understanding the Bitcoin halving, 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@thecompou...

May 06, 202434 min

Negative Arbitrage (EP.358)

On episode 358 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: Michael vs. StubHub, inflation at Disney is undefeated, 30 years of stock market returns, the bond market correction rolls on, ARKK is finally seeing an exodus, corporations are taking advantage of consumers, the biggest AI winners, the new normal of housing prices, and much more! This episode is brought to you by YCharts. Check out the Report Builder for yourself and click the link in the show notes to get 20% off your i...

May 01, 20241 hr 12 min

Talk Your Book: Hedging Your Portfolio with Options

On today's show, Ben Carlson and Michael Batnick are joined by Eric Metz, President, and Chief Investment Officer of SpiderRock Advisors to discuss, the pending acquisition by BlackRock, covered call performance in a bull market, tax benefits when utilizing options, what's driving option-overlay growth in todays market, 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 animals...

Apr 29, 202432 min

A Healthy Pullback (EP.357)

On episode 357 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why the stock market needed a correction, why the 1990s is an outlier (in more ways than one), economic growth is a policy choice, Gen Z is doing better than you think, living in the U.S. vs. Europe, the number of households with a paid off mortgage, the renovation boom, and much more! This episode is brought to you by Franklin Templeton. To learn more about the Franklin High Yield Corporate ETF (FLHY) visit: https://www....

Apr 24, 20241 hr

Talk Your Book: The Bull Case for India

On today's show, we are joined by Anupam Ghose, Managing Partner at System Two Advisors to discuss: why the China story is different than the India of today, India's macro tailwinds, how GDP growth translates to higher stock prices, risks involved when investing in India, 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 [email protected] with any feedback, que...

Apr 22, 202433 min

The Yeah But Bull Market (EP.356)

On episode 356 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: why the stock market isn't down more, why the price of oil isn't up more, improvements in investor behavior, the auto insurance crisis, why home insurance is rising, why rich people don't feel rich, millennials and boomers powering the economy, higher for longer mortgage rates, customer service nightmares, and much more! This episode is brought to you by YCharts. Grab your copy of the Quarterly Economic Update Slide Deck,...

Apr 17, 20241 hr 7 min

Talk Your Book: Diversifying Away From the Magnificent 7

On today's show, we spoke with Ed Egilinsky, Managing Director, Head of Alternatives, and Head of Sales and Distribution at Direxion to discuss: flows into bullish and bearish levered funds, diversifying away from large-cap tech, utilizing the Nasdaq equal-weight ETF, the appropriate time period to hold leveraged products, 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 anim...

Apr 15, 202439 min

Enjoy the Bull Market While it Lasts (EP.355)

On episode 355 of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson discuss: how we prioritize our spending, 1987 vs. the Covid Crash, crazy index fund flows, stock market concentration, panic about government debt, the tech recession in California, will millennials move to Florida in retirement, the most streamed shows, and much more! This episode is brought to you by Pacer ETFs and Fabric by Gerber Life. To learn more about the COWG and CAFG ETFs, visit: https://www.paceretfs.com/ Join the thous...

Apr 10, 20241 hr 6 min