This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Blu Putnam, chief economist at CME Group. Among the topics covered: Making sense of the continued decline in long-term yields even as inflation surges Why we’ve probably already seen the peak in economic growth for this recovery cycle A defense of the Fed’s “transitory” inflation argument Alternative data sources like international travel numbers, sports attendance, and restaurant seating might give...

This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Fari Hamzei, the founder of Hamzei Analytics and Timer's Digest's Top Timer for the past three, five, eight, and ten year periods. Among the topics covered: Any number of indicators clearly point to stocks in need of at least a modest correction (5%-7%), but the market continues to grind to new records Hamzei is on the lookout for a catalyst that might give the all-clear signal for an aggressive...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Nancy Davis, founder and CIO of Quadratic Capital, and manager of the Quadratic Interest Rate Volatility and Inflation Hedge ETF (IVOL). Among the topics discussed: No one can be certain of the inflation outlook - be it the Fed’s “transitory,” or somewhat more persistent than that, or of the runaway type No matter the outlook, we’re all naturally “short” inflation, so should look to have at least some...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Scott Redler, chief strategist at T3 Live and the T3 Trading Group. Among the topics discussed: Don’t get hurt with opinions, says Redler, a pure technical trader. He keeps his eye on the 8- and 21-day moving averages for the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000. When above, says Redler, that means “risk on,” and he’ll look to buy individual names with the best technical setups. Redler is...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking first with Jim Iuorio, director at TJM Institutional Services, and then with Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management. Among the topics covered: Why Iuorio believes China’s crackdown on Bitcoin (and Beijing seems to mean it this time) makes the long-term thesis even more compelling, even as the bulls are likely to experience more pain in the near-term. Last...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Sylvia Jablonski, co-founder and CIO of Defiance ETFs. Among the topics covered: The conundrum of falling long-term Treasury yields as inflation moves higher Jablonski’s expectation that the inflation scare will be transitory, and won’t derail the continuation of the reopening trade Why the recent underperformance of FAANG names like Apple and Amazon provides a great buying opportunity for long-term...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research. It doesn’t take too long of a memory to remember the days when then-Fed Chair Janet Yellen was none too pleased about President Trump sticking his nose into monetary policy. Now that Yellen has moved to the Executive Branch (as Treasury Secretary), why does she think it’s okay to continue to opine on Jay Powell’s business, asks Bianco. Of her latest comments...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Bob Iaccino, co-portfolio manager of The Stock Think Tank, and host of The Market Think Tank. Talking as oil (CL1:COM) jumps 3% to a new cycle high, a bullish Bob Iaccino says demand for crude is rising a lot faster than OPEC is willing to supply it. With the American shale boom not coming back anytime soon, the cartel knows it’s the marginal supplier, and is only going to drip out as much oil as is...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Henry Blodget, co-founder and CEO of Insider, Inc., and a former top-ranked Internet stock analyst. Blodget was pitched an investment in Bitcoin (BTC-USD) all the way back in 2011 (price then was about $80 per coin). His conclusion then was that Bitcoin was the perfect asset for a speculative bubble - finite supply, complicated, hard to understand, and with price determined not by any normal valuation...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with David Lebovtiz, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. With the market coming off its worst week in three months, the inflation question is atop many investors’ minds. Lebovitz is willing to agree at least in part with the Fed that the current inflation scare is transitory - a supply/demand “mismatch” as the economy rapidly emerges from the pandemic - but he believes the wage pressures...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with David Bahnsen, founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group. Speaking shortly after the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, Bahnsen says the news speaks to the need for a robust, voluminous, highly effective, and technologized pipeline system to transport oil and gas in the U.S. He notes that the publicly traded pipeline owners are catching a bid on the Monday morning...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. “The risk of a larger pullback is growing even though [sentiment] indicators remain mostly neutral,” says Frederick, who has taken notice of the remarkable similarities between the post-Covid and post-financial crisis bull runs. If form holds, we’re very close to the same point in 2010 at which a 16%...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher chatting first with Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro, and then with stock trader Mark Minervini, author of best-selling books Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard and Think and Trade Like a Champion, among them. Markets continue to underestimate the growth surprise in the U.S., says Laidler. Continual surprises on the upside for the economy should be good for earnings, and good for stock prices moving...

This week’s Alpha Trader features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Jim Iurio - director at TJM Institutional Services and a CNBC contributor - making a return appearance on the podcast. It’s time to start measuring the dollar (USDOLLAR) differently, says Iurio, noting most forms of the dollar index more or less gauge the greenback vs. other flawed currencies like the yen or euro. Nobody would be talking about dollar strength, he says, if the dollar index had a significant...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking asset allocation with Phil Camporeale, portfolio manager with JPMorgan Asset Management. Fed Chair Jay Powell has been “unbelievably consistent” in his dovishness amid the panic, says Camporeale, expecting no imminent policy - or even communication - changes out of the central bank despite what’s been a raft of strong economic prints of late, and what’s likely to be whopping 9% GDP growth in Q2. Wage...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Peter McNally, Global Sector Lead, Industrials, Materials & Energy at Third Bridge. Speaking a few hours after the OPEC decision to gradually boost production in coming months, McNally notes oil (CL1:COM) inventories have been falling since early last fall, thus making the OPEC move a logical one. Even with the boosted production, McNally expects inventories to continue to fall through Q2. As for...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking current market events and the outlook going forward with Jeff Kilburg, founder and CEO of KKM Financial. Topping the news during recording was the blowup in Archegos Capital Management, and the losses possibly to be inflicted upon several of the banks that dealt with that family office. Most notable, says Kilburg, is the broader market’s ability to shrug off these hiccups and continue to move forward. If...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Sam Stovall and Todd Rosenbluth. Sam is chief investment strategist at CFRA, and Todd is CFRA’s head of ETF and mutual fund research. On the one-year anniversary of the bottom of the market crash, Stovall and Rosenbluth detail the numbers behind how we got to today’s near-euphoric market conditions and where we might go from here. If you don’t have a perfect market timing tool, you are better buying...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking about the Fed, interest rates, inflation, Bitcoin, and more with David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. The FOMC meets this week, and while Kelly agrees with the consensus that there won’t be any policy moves, he believes the central bank - sooner, rather than later - is going to have to acknowledge that the economy has performed stronger than expected. Look for a few more “dots”...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking cannabis investing with Todd Harrison, founding partner and CIO of CB1 Capital. “2021 will be remembered as the year [cannabis] emerged as a legitimate and powerful asset class,” wrote Harrison recently. The bull case for U.S. cannabis, he says, rests with the legalization wave - not just in the states, but at the federal level where the Blue Wave means a far more favorable regulatory environment.  If...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. The biggest issue on many market-watchers’ attention right now is the rise in long-term interest rates, which last week sped up to a gallop. Keeping it simple, Sosnick says to pay attention to the Fed, which has tied its extraordinary accommodation to the return of a combination of full employment and inflation. In normal times, the move higher in...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Jon Markman, president and founder of Markman Capital, and Greg King, CEO and founder of Osprey Funds. Markman (who previously appeared on Alpha Trader in October) continues to believe the Fed ignited what’s going to be a decade-long bull run in stocks with their actions in response to the Covid crisis last year. With the Fed continuing to provide plenty of liquidity to the system, he’s targeting 92K...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher speaking with Jack Bouroudjian, chief economist and co-founder at UCX, and chairman of the Global Smart Commodity Group. The Fed is attempting to force-feed at least a modest level of inflation into the economy, says Bouroudjian, and so far it’s clearly been beneficial for stocks, commodities, and other assets like housing prices and cryptocurrencies. Worrying though is what if the Fed;s project doesn’t work as...

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking markets in general with Randy Frederick, VP of trading and derivatives at Schwab, and SPACs with Chris DeMuth, founder of Rangeley Capital, and editor of Seeking Alpha Marketplace service, Sifting the World. While Frederick believes things are looking frothy right now, he reminds that frothiness doesn’t necessarily mean a market downturn is in store, but instead that markets are vulnerable to a sizable dip....

This week’s Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking first with Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings (BRPHF), and then with Howard Lindzon, co-founder of StockTwits and general partner at Social Leverage. “This GameStop (GME) squeeze is deeper than a squeeze,” tweeted Novogratz last week. “It is a revolution that started with people not trusting central authority; it is a call for transparency and fairness. It makes my more bullish crypto...