Gold Is Down 20%. So Why Is the Smart Money Still Buying?

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Andy Schectman to the show. Andy is the founder and CEO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals, a company dedicated to transparency, ethics, and long-term wealth preservation.   Andy kicks things off by explaining why gold prices breaking down isn't as bad as many people believe. He says that while the paper price of gold is going down, the physical asset has been going strong. In fact, since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, billions of physical gold bars in contracts have been delivered to CME Group's Commodity Exchange ("COMEX"). Silver also had strong deliveries to COMEX, with December 2025 seeing a record 65 million ounces in contracts delivered. Andy also says that one reason why gold exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") have experienced increased outflows is because large firms are redeeming their shares in exchange for gold to fulfill delivery contracts. And some of these contracts are for foreign countries that have lost trust in the central banks. (0:00)   Next, Andy shares his thoughts on bitcoin (BTC) and gold. Contrary to the stances supporters of either asset have, he doesn't believe investors need to be in only one of them and opposed to the other. He believes it's best if you invest in both. Andy personally invested in 1 BTC early on so he could have some exposure to the development of bitcoin. Andy then talks about the country's debt problem. With the U.S. in debt by more than $39 trillion, our country needs a way to pay it off. Andy says we have no way of selling products to other countries in the hopes of being paid in dollars, and other countries have established their own methods of trade without relying on the U.S. dollar. And with a trifecta of worse education rates, a lack of at-home manufacturing, and AI replacing certain jobs, the future outlook is grim. (19:14)   Finally, Andy says that Trump does have a plan to address this problem. The key is to bring manufacturing back home and sell that to the world. The U.S. cannot afford to be reliant on other countries. Also, the U.S. needs to aggressively buy gold. That would go straight into the Treasurys and help pay off our debt. While in the short-to-mid term this will be painful for Americans as certain services might need to be withheld, in the long term, Andy says it would be worth it. He ends the interview by warning investors to not save their money in dollars due to its dwindling value but to put their money into hard assets instead. (39:46)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Stansberry Research's Director of Research Matt Weinschenk back to the show in a special crossover episode with Top Stocks. In this collaborative episode, the two discuss diesel, and Matt shakes things up by asking Dan most of the questions.   Matt and Dan kick things off by discussing the current state of diesel. The reserve diesel supply is now low enough that it's being measured in days instead of the usual months. The most recent report says that America only has 20 days' worth in reserve. This doesn't bode well for AI data centers since they cannot afford to have long downtimes, and at least 90% of their backup generators run on diesel. Another issue is that the fuel has a limited shelf life. If it's being stored, it can only last for so long, and if it's sitting in a generator, it has to be used or switched out so the generator isn't filled with gunk. And Dan says that even if global issues suddenly got better, diesel's current predicament wouldn't be resolved for a while. (0:00)   Next, the two explain how difficult it is to get a permit to build a new diesel refinery in the U.S., along with the pressure of building one near residential areas. Diesel costs around $100 per barrel and between $5.45 and $5.50 per gallon on average. Folks will adopt a "not in my backyard" mentality even if the price of diesel is higher. And even if the stakes are high enough, Matt says that no one is going to step up and compete with established oil and gas companies to build a new refinery. (10:46)   Finally, Matt and Dan detail all the industries and segments that rely on diesel. And with data centers having high demand, in the event of a power outage, they'll pay to have top priority for the available supply. But despite the worry around the potential diesel shortages, there are ways that you can profit from it. Dan shares the names of several companies that he believes will continue to perform well and return value to shareholders. These are companies that he has recommended to his subscribers in the past during "buy the dip" scenarios, and he still recommends them. And Dan teases a new group of "Magnificent Seven" stocks that will serve the "hard asset" needs of AI. (20:16)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Dave Collum back to the show. He's the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. He's outspoken about many topics and issues ranging from finance to politics and everything in between. And he brings this same no-holds-barred attitude to today's podcast.   Dave kicks things off by discussing the "everything bubble," or as he prefers to call it, the "complacency bubble." According to him, previous market bubbles had logic behind their euphoria, but he says the current one does not follow logic because the companies' earnings are not as good as they appear. He then says that based on a report he received, passive investing could be reversing. The problem with this is that folks could build a passive portfolio and sell individual stocks if a company gave reason for fear. With index funds, investors are holding all the stocks and will sell the stocks they might like while trying to remove a stock they dislike. And Dave warns that the wave of trillion-dollar IPOs could be the breaking point due to passive investors not being able to support them. (0:00)   Next, Dave explains how the market is overvalued and says that while many folks won't mind a correction, they should be concerned. As an example, he says that the average Boomer-generation investor has $300,000 in their retirement savings account. And if the market collapses, that will halve their income flow. Dave shifts the focus to interest rates. Folks aren't quite certain what to make of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and whether he'll raise or lower rates. Dave believes that he could be a "Paul Volcker 2.0" who makes America "take its medicine" and start things over despite the short-term pain. But regardless of how things are handled, if the market bubble bursts, it will cause a "multidecade secular bear market." (21:57)   Finally, Dave shares what kinds of stocks he owns. He says that he bought gold after selling off platinum. While he initially had a rocky period with the precious metal, it has served him well over the past few years. Energy has also been doing decently in recent times. Dave also says that he has given up on sentiment indicators because he was dissatisfied with them. But he says that engaging in reading outside of your comfort zone and the markets is a great way to get insight into multiple areas and learn about developments in the world. (47:21)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Dave Lashmet back to the show. Dave is the editor of Stansberry Venture Technology, an advisory that takes a "venture capitalist" look at the market. Dave scours the market looking for little-known small-cap companies that are potentially producing the next wonder drug or technology.   Dave kicks things off by discussing the SpaceX IPO. He calls the company a "Tower of Babel," saying the best use case for Starlink is to replace cell phone towers. However, Starlink's satellites can only provide service for up to 1,000 people. In rural areas, this is fine, but larger cities and the surrounding areas would have higher demand. Additionally, Dave says that there's a 10-year gap between Earth-based and space-based communications. Unlike cell phone towers, satellites have to go through additional processes to ensure that they will function properly while they're in orbit. But in the midst of the IPO, Dave says that Alphabet subsidiary Google will be a major winner. (0:00)   Next, Dave shares how the SpaceX IPO will result in many folks investing in 401(k)s to be holding shares of the company unintentionally and how that happens. And they'll have an unreasonable percentage of their portfolio owning a stock that isn't gushing cash. Dave then talks about how cameras will be the future of space. Sony's research and development division created a "four-color camera" that operates on the red, green, blue, and shortwave infrared spectrums. Infrared doesn't currently work in any functional capacity for everyday users, but for the companies that build telescopes, the next breakthrough was evident. And this technology can help with "seeing" better than other cameras. (19:52)   Finally, Dave breaks down "near space," the region of the atmosphere between the stratosphere and space. It's tricky to station anything there due to the high amount of air resistance and insufficient amount of air that could support the lift needed for wings, so there's little interest in going there. But one company Dave is looking at is developing the "basking shark" capable of enduring in near space. And if the U.S. government wants its "golden dome," it needs to go to this company. And Dave marvels at how space is able to improve many things on Earth that wouldn't be possible otherwise. (39:45)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Matthew Tuttle to the show. Matthew is the CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, a firm that focuses on breaking away from conventional Wall Street wisdom by using its own ETFs that target new investment opportunities.   Matthew kicks things off by discussing the "death of value investing" and what he believes is contributing to it. First, with the advent of the Internet, information was more accessible to ordinary people, so a lot of the edge from learning crucial details was lost. Second, folks lost interest in value investing. When COVID-19 struck, a lot of new investors spent their stimulus checks on meme stocks instead of solid companies. But while Matthew thinks it's dead, he says the new value stocks are in heavy assets, low obsolescence ("HALO") investing. These are stocks with physical assets, so it's unlikely that even AI could disrupt them. (0:00)   Next, Matthew shares his disdain for exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"). He believes the majority of them "stink" and that if investors want to invest in a theme, they should completely invest in that theme. The problem, he says, is that Magnificent Seven companies are added to an ETF with the businesses having little relation to the theme, and you're probably holding them in several places. Additionally, there are "way too many ETFs, way too many indexes, [and] way too many... investment ideas" that folks are buying into. But one of the bigger problems is that ETFs are being advertised to individual investors using "marketable" people rather than proven and tested portfolio managers. (13:03)   Finally, Matthew shares the framework behind his hedging and asymmetry strategy. With hedging, you want to limit your tailing risk. However, Matthew says that bonds are not a proper hedge, and points out how "Liberation Day" and the Iran conflict saw bonds sell in tandem with stocks. With asymmetry, the idea is to limit your losses instead of your gains. Matthew says that all the top investors he has spoken with had their own methods that made them lots of money when their ideas were correct, but they only lost a little bit of money when they were wrong. It's important that you also set up your strategy work the same way. And Matthew says that going down the supply chain of breakthrough companies helps you find the best investing opportunities. (33:40)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Bryan Beach back to the show. Bryan is the editor of Stansberry Venture Value and a senior analyst on Stansberry's Investment Advisory.   Bryan kicks things off by discussing the idea of passive investing and how it has changed the way the market is valuated. He says that folks are relentlessly buying the biggest stocks every time they invest in their retirement funds, and they don't even know it. This "irrational indifference" could result in such a high level of volatility that it leads to mass liquidation of stocks. Bryan then talks about Software as a Service ("SaaS") and why artificial intelligence ("AI") isn't going to kill the companies that focus on it. (0:00)   Next, Bryan does a deep dive into Salesforce (CRM) and its business model. Investors thought that AI was going to undermine the company and similar businesses because it offers better efficiency and can be cheaper. However, its software is so embedded in its customers' operations that they don't want to leave it, even if they aren't in love with it. Bryan says that "sticky" companies with models like that are ones you want to look at. (20:14)   Finally, Bryan shares the market sectors he's most interested in right now. He says investors should keep an eye on the conflict in the Middle East. This has created multiple energy investment opportunities in North America, especially in Canada. But in general, it pays to frequently brush up on what's going on in the world to see what new opportunities could arise. And contrary to what you might think, investing isn't an "either/or" matter. If you're focused on long-term investing, you can take advantage of volatility and make options trades. (33:37)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes James Weatherall to the show. Unlike most of our guests, James does not come from a finance background. However, he has found interesting ways in which physics can change investing. You can check out his book The Physics of Wall Street here.   James kicks things off by sharing his background in physics and philosophy. He's interested in mathematics and how it can be applied to the markets. He's a firm believer in using mathematical models to assist in investing but says that it's important to examine your models and check your assumptions that result from them. If one model is good for a particular use case, trying to use it in a different area or within a larger scope than it was originally intended can yield different results than expected. James discusses the models that Louis Bachelier and Edward Thorp (whom he writes about in his book The Physics of Wall Street) created that would have a major impact on investing. (0:00)   Next, James mentions extreme events similar to Black Monday and their probability of occurring. He notes that in the long term, investors with 401(k)s would be able to survive and even recover after major crashes. However, anyone who overleverages a trade or invests heavily in the short term is at a greater risk of having their portfolios be wiped out. James also mentions the Kelly criterion, a strategy developed by mathematician John Kelly. In short, this method involves having an understanding of what could happen with stocks better than the markets and using that to your advantage to make the optimized trades possible. And when asked if he would change anything about his ideas in The Physics of Wall Street, he remains adamant that his argument still holds up. (19:01)   Finally, James mentions passive trading and volatility and how, over time, the addition of new passive investors will gradually increase market volatility. He adds that there's a scalability problem in the markets. In one example, he says that private markets "worked great 20 years ago" but only "worked OK" 10 years ago. Private markets are slowly becoming less able to sustain the growth they have. And James wraps things up by sharing his personal use cases of AI and his fears with the technology. (34:44)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes George Noble to the show. George is the managing partner of Noble Capital Advisors. He's also the author of The Noble Update on Substack, which has more than 13,000 subscribers.   George kicks things off by expressing his skepticism about Tesla. He says that despite the company branching out into different areas, the majority of its revenue comes from car sales and should therefore be treated as a car company. He also believes that investors are improperly valuating the stock, ignoring the fundamentals in favor of "charts" and "the narrative." And his sentiment extends further out into SpaceX. Due to the Nasdaq Composite Index altering the rules for listing stocks, George thinks that the company's upcoming IPO is not going as well as people might think if it couldn't meet the previous requirements for entry. (0:00)   Next, George discusses semiconductor capital expenditures. He says that folks are too caught up in the current boom and aren't looking at whether a company has a price to earnings that warrants buying a company's stock. Then he shifts the conversation briefly to bonds, saying that the market is so focused on energy due to tension surrounding the Strait of Hormuz that it hasn't noticed that bond rates have gone up, which normally go down during war. And his concern with that is what happens when we face a deflation bust. Additionally, investors aren't even aware of how hyperscalers have been hurting their portfolios, thinking that they hold a diversified collection of stocks. (13:26)   Finally, George shares how U.S. bonds are losing their worth due to the weakening dollar and warns that folks should "run, not walk" from their bonds. While bond coupons are enticing, the value of the money you receive is not worth it in the long term. George believes that the value of the dollar is currently pegged to U.S. expenses and payments, and just like when it was removed from the gold standard, he says that we need to cut it loose to end the continuing downward spiral. And he leaves listeners with a word of encouragement – and caution for newer investors. (27:41)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Jonathan Rose to the show. Jonathan is the editor of Masters in Trading at our corporate affiliate InvestorPlace. He has a presentation where he's showing how he's tracking 20 stocks that have strong, unusual market bets right now. You can view this presentation here.   Jonathan kicks things off by sharing how his livestream show operates and how his Discord community has become a resource for newcomers. He then gives his trading background by explaining how he made 1,000 trades a day for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and how that launched his career. He also mentions what's new on the market floor due to technology changing the way we invest. Jonathan next states what he looks for in his trades. He says the best traders should be able to explain why they're making a particular trade. For him, valuation is one of the things he looks for. And he likes to search for groups of five stocks that can rise together even if one is lagging. (0:00)   Next, Jonathan discusses owning multiple ideas and having "relative trading" between stocks. He also believes that stocks aren't "expensive" or "inexpensive" in isolation – rather, they can be high or low, correlating to similar stocks. One of the things that Jonathan does when looking for new trades is following "unusual options activity" set by the biggest traders. It suggests that they know something about companies that most folks don't, and paying attention tends to pay off. And Jonathan cautions against making too many trades. (13:26)   Finally, Jonathan advises treating trading like any other business and earn the right to buy more shares or place bigger trades. If you track your portfolio's performance and see that it's strong, it's fine to add risk. But if your portfolio is pulling back, you should be controlling your risk instead. Jonathan then shares four tickers and will explain why he's looking at them in his upcoming presentation. And he wants investors to understand that everything in the financial world is a derivative of something else and that you should find a way to express your opinion in whichever area you choose to invest in. (29:00)

In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Pete Carmasino back to the show. Pete is the chief market strategist at our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics. He's also editor of the Chaikin PowerTactics and Chaikin Power Portfolio newsletters.   Pete kicks things off by discussing the current trends he's seeing. He says that you can't focus on just one area because there are many moving parts that shape the market, including other investors. The goal, he states, is to react to the movements, not predict where things are headed. Predictions can be wrong, and folks who don't react wind up missing out on new opportunities. Pete then shares his investing process. He understands that sectors rotate, and when he sees a shift from one sector to another, he follows the signal on where to start moving money. He also looks at fundamentals and technicals to determine whether the stocks he's looking at are good buys at the moment. And he shares his thoughts on the Strait of Hormuz tension and how things might play out. (0:00)   Next, Pete shares his thoughts on the energy crisis. He says the root cause is less of a supply issue and more of a distribution problem. He believes that properly equipping refineries will encourage miners to produce more oil. According to him, if the supply can increase while conflict tensions decrease, we can have an equilibrium where consumers are comfortable with gas prices and miners are content to continue drilling. Then, he talks about the producers that he finds most promising in several different sectors. (17:05)   Finally, Pete explains how his portfolio works. Using a "top-down analysis," he looks at themes throughout the year to find the best names in the strongest market sectors. He then shifts to the market corrections we've seen since the sell-off from last year's "Liberation Day." But he notes that the big names in the Magnificent Seven didn't recover with the rest of the broader market last November. And that implies that the baton could be getting passed from tech to energy. So he adjusted his portfolio to prepare for a sector rotation. He then wraps things up by stressing the importance of handling risk management in your portfolio. (35:48)