Episodes
July 10, 2024
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 fu…
July 9, 2024
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 w…
July 6, 2024
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, …
July 3, 2024
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…
July 1, 2024
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 optio…
June 26, 2024
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 m…
June 24, 2024
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, ho…
June 19, 2024
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 ho…
June 17, 2024
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 …
June 16, 2024
Bankless & Animal Spirits
On this special episode of Animal Spirits, Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are joined by Ryan Sean Adams and Adam Hoffman, of the Bankless podcast, to discuss: crypto cycles, Bitcoin vs Ethereum, crypto entering politics, an…
June 12, 2024
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 tra…
June 10, 2024
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, utilizi…
June 5, 2024
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 …
June 3, 2024
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 Teucri…
May 29, 2024
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 …
May 27, 2024
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 execut…
May 22, 2024
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 inf…
May 20, 2024
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 b…
May 15, 2024
When Will Houses Be Affordable Again? (EP.360)
On episode 359 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, an…
May 13, 2024
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 protec…
May 8, 2024
Fighting Inflation (EP.359)
On today's show we 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…
May 6, 2024
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 globa…
May 1, 2024
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…
April 29, 2024
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 ma…