Uranium deficit is here today, masked by depleted Japanese stockpiles
βPeople ask me all the time, you know, when does this really become a problem? How many years out until you really hit a severe deficit in the world's uranium market? And I tell people it's here already. It has been largely obfuscated by these massive Japanese stockpiles that were accumulated post Fukushima. Those are now gone. Those are all into the market. And so the market is trading pretty much heads up supply and demand. That's why prices just keep creeping higher and higher and higher.β
Stock markets reached record highs following Iran de-escalation
βThe highs that it painted in January 28th of this year was the highest that the S&P had, was at which was exactly 7,000. And Ryan, as of today, we are at 7,036 on the S&P 500 So we are up into new all-time high territories as of today, the day of recording the 16th and also the 15th, two all-time highs in a row.β
Fertilizer disruption could break agriculture's razor-thin yield margins
βAnd so today, we approach every year, every growing season, almost like we're going down this razor's edge. On the one hand, demand is off the charts. On the other hand, yields are off the charts. And we said to ourselves every year, if anything happens to disrupt that growing season, if anything happens to impact the yields, this market will be very tight in a hurry. And I think that this fertilizer issue could be that. You've needed perfection in your crop year in and year out to meet demand. And I'm worried that finally, with this impact on fertilizer supply, we're not going to be able to get another record yield.β
Trump's DeFi project faces scrutiny over onchain shenanigans
βAlso, World Liberty Finance had some drama in the week. This is, remember Trump's DeFi project. It was caught doing some on-chain shenanigans. We're going to explore that and ask the question, is this the new cycle FTX? Did World Liberty just pull a sandbag, McFreed? We got Justin Sun weighing in on that.β
Gold's next leg up requires an insolvency trade, not just debasement
βBut we've had so far what has been called the debasement trade. I think the next shoe to drop, which to be clear, I don't think is gonna happen for a year or two or three, will be the insolvency trade, the fact that a lot of these governments are in really, really tough shape. That hasn't happened yet. We've had a debasement trade. I think the next step is the insolvency trade, and that'll be good for gold.β
The Fed chairman is now just one of twelve independent voters
βGone are the days where we look at the chairman's words, parse every comma and every syllable that the chairman says to divine what policy is gonna be. Chairman is now one of 12 voters. And right now, what you're seeing out of this is confusion as to what this means in terms of whether or not the Fed should be cutting rates because it might be slowing down the real economy or they should be raising rates because it might be adding to inflation.β
βTrump did something that I don't really think anyone saw coming, at least most people did not see coming. He just blocks the Strait of Hormuz. It's like, oh, you guys are going to block it, we're going to block it. And now we are securing the Strait to allow for ships who are not going to Iran. So any country going to the UAE, to Saudi Arabia, those ships can go to those ports so long as they are not going to Iranian ports.β
Buy oil equities over December 2026 futures for upside exposure
βI think the best investments right now remain in the oil equities, believe it or not, because many of them have moved, but they've moved, like, 30 or 40%. They haven't had the kinda two to three x move that the spot price of oil has had. I think you can buy oil stocks, and you can get that same exposure, essentially, the same type of exposure as trying to play for a move higher in the $75 December dated contract. You know, if December contract goes from 75 up to 100, a basket of oil stocks, certainly offshore drilling stocks, will do very, very, very well.β
The IEA's claimed oil surplus never actually existed
βThe reason everyone was so pessimistic on the oil markets right up until this conflict started, was that people like the IEA and others, but most notably the International Energy Agency or the IEA, were saying that the global crude market was in the biggest surplus in oil market history. It had never been in a bigger surplus. And in fact, they were saying that supply was running about two and a half to 3,000,000 barrels ahead of demand. There's only one problem. We weren't seeing any evidence of that surplus. Notably, if in fact supply was running so much ahead of demand, inventories around the world should be surging.β
βWe are five years without the Fed hitting their 2% inflation target. So I've been of the case of the opinion that we're not in a 2% inflation world. We're in a three ish percent inflation world. As I like to joke with you and others, I like to say, I didn't say eight times in Zimbabwe. I don't think I'm saying it's gonna be runaway inflation. But if we're in a three ish percent inflation world and a world of greater uncertainty, I would still argue that interest rates are probably going to go higher just to hit their fair value, maybe closer to 5%.β
SEC provides major win with DeFi broker exemptions
βThe SEC just gave DeFi a broker exemption, very material for a lot of the company's protocols, apps that we know and love. We'll talk about the significance of that and what we can do now. And also, the Bitcoin community taking quantum seriously, putting forward a quantum plan to free Satoshi's Bitcoins.β
Strait of Hormuz disruption is the largest physical oil dislocation ever
βSo first of all, you're absolutely right that from a physical dislocation perspective, what we're seeing right now is pretty clearly the largest disruption in the global energy markets that we've ever seen. But we're not necessarily feeling or experiencing all of that dislocation just yet. As everyone now knows, about 20% of the world's crude market passes through the Strait Of Hormuz and about 20% of the LNG trade as well. By most estimates, you're talking about somewhere between at the absolute low end, 10,000,000 and the absolute high end, 15. Split the difference, call it 12,000,000 barrels a day of impacted oil that's essentially not making it to market, which is huge.β
Ukraine is winning via drones while Russia fails to adapt
βBack late last year, NATO had some exercises. They were called Operation Hedgehog. It was with UK and Estonia. And they were simulations of two brigades. That's 2,000 soldiers. They invited 10 Ukrainian drone operators to simulate battle against 2,000 NATO soldiers using NATO techniques, which is the same techniques The US uses. The 10 Ukrainian soldiers wiped them all out. They're killing about 30 to 35,000 Russians a month this year. 90% of the casualties are being caused by drones right now. The war has changed.β
Hedge tail risk with a September WTI 100/130 call spread
βThe reason I chose the September contract rather than June is I think that the excessive backwardation that we've seen so far during this crisis has been rooted in the market's assumption that this would be a short lived conflict. My view is that it's likely to drag on longer than most people think. So I have a 15 to one maximum payoff for my entry price below $2. I was looking for an extreme right tail risk hedge. And while it sounds like a speculation on oil prices, it's actually much more of a risk hedge for my equity and gold portfolio.β
Saylor's STRC project generates billions in Bitcoin bids
βMeanwhile, Saylor's stretch is new STRC, not that new, but new into the zeitgeist is printing billions of dollars. The market clearly likes it. It's putting a very healthy bid on Bitcoin. Is this the best instrument Saylor has ever created? Will it be the catalyst to send Bitcoin to all-time highs, or alternatively, will it be our demise?β