About this podcast
Investing is the best way to build wealth, but comes with risk and uncertainty.
Want to grow a portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs and more? This is the show to boost your knowledge and build your confidence.
Join us on the journey through bull markets, bubbles and crashes. Bring snacks and a steady hand; we're in it for the long haul...
Hosted by Ramin Nakisa (YouTube @PensionCraft) and Michael Pugh.
Contact us: [email protected]
Episodes
The newest 20 of 242 episodes
- Canary in the Data Centre: Is Credit Calling Time on AI? · 35 min · Episode 242The cost of insuring against Big Tech defaults has hit record highs, as massive data centre spending eats up free cashflow. Further down the AI food chain, markets are pricing in…
- Picking Winners: Can Concentration Keep Paying Off? with Stephen Yiu · 51 min · Episode 241The Blue Whale Growth Fund has delivered outsized returns since its inception nine years ago. Recently those returns have come from concentrated bets on the picks and shovels…
- Is Now the Time to Bet Big on Small-cap Value? · 42 min · Episode 240After a decade in the doghouse, small-cap value has had its best run in years, but almost nobody noticed. So is this a real premium that’s finally paying out, or just a good year…
- The High Life: Would You Rather Live in a High or Low-Yield Country? · 35 min · Episode 239A Swiss government bond pays half a percent a year. A British one pays more than five. Easy choice, you'd think. But yields can cut both ways. A low yield can mean the world…
- Cancel Culture: What Happens When AI Agents Do Your Admin? · 37 min · Episode 238Many companies make their money from friction — forgotten subscriptions, tricky cancellations, loyalty penalties. Now AI agents promise to do all the tedious admin and save you…
- Central Bank Dilemma: Would You Vote to Hike Rates? · 37 min · Episode 237Three hikes and a hold in eight days, all in answer to the same energy shock. So why did the Fed, the ECB and the Bank of Japan raise rates, while the Bank of England sat tight…
- The Madness of Markets, with Alex Edmans · 52 min · Episode 236Markets are meant to be efficient, yet somehow they keep producing meme-stock frenzies, CEO vanity projects, and wild booms and busts. We're joined by Alex Edmans — Professor of…
- Will AI Hack My Accounts and Steal All My Money? · 38 min · Episode 235The Financial Stability Board says frontier AI is the most immediate threat to the financial system — above sovereign debt, private credit and equity valuations. As AI learns to…
- Mind Your Step: Before You Build a Bond Ladder · 44 min · Episode 234Bond ladders are a great way to feel in control of your money. A neat row of gilts maturing year after year, each one handing back its capital right on schedule. But before you…
- Zero Sum: Investing in a World Without Growth · 48 min · Episode 233Humanity has just fallen below replacement fertility for the first time in history. A new paper challenges everything we thought we knew about population decline and economic…
- Defending the Yen: Can Governments Beat Currency Markets? · 42 min · Episode 232The Japanese and US governments just spent an estimated $80 billion propping up the yen — and within a fortnight, the market had pocketed half of it. We ask whether politicians…
- Record Profits: The Importance of Beating Earnings · 39 min · Episode 231Corporate America has just delivered its best earnings season in years — record beats, record margins, and growth numbers that look almost too good to be true. Which is…
- Senior Management: Who Looks After Your Money When You Can't? · 39 min · Episode 230Your ability to manage money declines steadily after sixty. Yet your confidence in that ability doesn't decline at all, so mistakes get made with total conviction and go…
- Beta Noire: Unsolved Mysteries of the Market · 39 min · Episode 229Economists have spent half a century building elegant models of how markets work, and the markets have spent half a century ignoring them. We investigate the great unsolved…
- Gilt Complex: Is Britain in Hock to the Bond Market? · 40 min · Episode 228Andy Burnham once said Britain had to “get beyond being in hock to the bond market”. That’s easier said than done when gilt yields are 5%, debt interest is running above £100bn a…
- The Declaration of Outperformance: Is America Still Exceptional? · 46 min · Episode 227Warren Buffett says “never bet against America”. But plenty of people spent the last eighteen months doing exactly that — betting the dollar would be dethroned and the "Sell…
- Portfolio Positions: Your Starting XI of Asset Classes · 41 min · Episode 226As the World Cup reaches the quarter finals, we name our starting XI of asset classes. From the goalkeeper who does nothing for eighty-nine minutes to the super-sub you should…
- Your Career is a High-Yield Bond (And It’s Probably Junk) · 36 min · Episode 225Your "Human Capital" might be the largest asset you own, and it behaves like a bond. Seeing your career as a volatile asset might change how you think about saving, investing…
- Sequence and Sensibility: Is Now a Good Time to Retire? · 42 min · Episode 224On paper, now looks like a fine time to retire. Annuity rates are generous, gilts finally pay a real return, and even cash earns its keep. But retire into a richly-valued market…
- How the AI Investment Boom Ends, with Tom Stevenson · 35 min · Episode 223The AI boom has all the signs of a bubble. An exciting new technology, stretched valuations, extreme concentration, circular financing, and uncertain cash flows. But how does it…
