The markets continue their choppy ways, with the major benchmarks all waffling this week. As bond yields edged higher, growth stocks took a beating on Thursday before leveling out on Friday.

This despite Jerry Powell demolishing the Fed's Emergency capital relief for banks, which will expire at the end of March. And with it the promise of more volatility when major Financials dump their treasuries. What should we do?

But as the rotational trade puts near term pressure on the Technology sector, we must not forget that Google, Amazon & Facebook now control over half of all US ad spending. 

And the Boeing Moon Rocket passed a crucial test for NASA, securing the return of people-powered missions by the middle of the decade. In the context of the new cold war with China, is the space race back on? 

The rotation out of Tech pauses...for now. Growth stocks bounce off the floor as we with diamond hands buy the dip. ETF dollars flow back to QQQ and ARK. And Tesla rallied 16% on the week. Bobby and I also doubled up on Chinese Tech.

In the words of Cathy, we are seeing the rally of ages now broaden out to all sectors, with value finally catching up. But not to be outdone, the Bond Market kept up its bout of volatility on Friday with yields spiking up.

What's more, the Fed must make a decision in the coming days about whether it should extend a provision that allowed banks to exclude treasuries in its leverage ratios. 

Finally we discuss NFTs. What's an NFT?

We live in unprecedented times!

This week we witness the third consecutive week of punishing declines in the Nasdaq, and with it a mighty correction for the ARK Funds. Yet again bond yields surged in a so-called tantrum after Jerry Powell said the Fed would do nothing to manage the rate increase. And what can we look forward to on the auction block? With the economy set to surge, the Fed is sanguine about the state of play. 

But hope springs eternal. I have earned roughly 79 cents in BlockFi interest. And I'm ready to buy the dip with whatever dry powder I have left. 

And we ask the question. What is Jack Dorsey doing buying Jay Z's music streaming platform?

A rapid rise in bond yields made mincemeat of the Nasdaq, overseas equities & Catherine Wood's innovation stocks. Tough news for the Degenerate Portfolio again. We now live in a world where the choreography between bond yields and the Nasdaq is predictable. Rates rise and the future earnings of technology giants take a beating. 

So what keeps pushing bond yields higher? The Wall Street Journal says fears of inflation spurred by a rapid economic recovery. Which has the knock-on effect of the Fed having to raise rates in the future...maybe. But James explains the real reason. A liquidity crisis near miss in 7-year treasuries that was unforeseen.

As a bonus, we discuss the rise of SPACS! What's a SPAC? And are they driving a speculative bubble? Or are they truly a financial innovation spurring real innovation.

The Nasdaq and Emerging Markets lose steam with bond yields jolting higher. This driven by expectations for higher inflation, more treasure supply and fears the Fed will shrink its balance sheet earlier than forecasted. James helps us understand. 

To boot, PLUG announced the sale of $1.8B in common stock to the public, sending our crown jewel down double digits. All in all, a bit of a rough patch for the Degenerate Portfolio.

However hope springs eternal with TIGR, the so-called Robinhood of China, drumming up unusual call activity. This could bode well for Chinese equities overall.

In other news, the Congress of America yelled at the CEO of Robinhood and DFV. The only bipartisan issue: a distaste for short-selling. But in the end, it was merely theater.

The Markets march on, with the S&P and Nasdaq seeing modest gains and Emerging Markets outperforming. Expect more of this until ~April when those savvy enough to have bought the dip last year harvest their gains.

Elon Musk gamestonks the crypto market as Tesla buys $1.5B worth of Bitcoin, sending prices up to all time highs. So what is Elon's goal here? ARK suggests the cult leader is pushing a savvy form of treasury management. But is it really just an elevated form of Wall Street Betting? And are people like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban who can drive speculative bubbles with their Twitter followings too powerful?

Not to be outdone the CFO of Twitter said he has also considered using crypto to pay employees. 

Are we now seeing the advent of Business crypto currency speculation. And could this give rise to a future contagion like 2008?

In other news, the irrational IPO market rages on with Bumble picking up 14%. So what's a Bumble?

The S&P bounces back, all but proving Gamestop mania was a story far in excess of its actual implications for the broader markets. 

But to put a postscript on the Wall Street Bets frenzy, if you had diamond hands on a GME call option, you are now bag-holding. See...we can learn. And for good measure, Robert and James took a flier on silver which had a moment in the sun.

Another thing we discovered in the wake of all this, Cathy Wood of the meteoric ARK fund is a cult figure on reddit. Which means our bullishness on ARK ETFs is all but assured as millennial degenerates try to replicate the innovation portfolio. 

In other news, Jeffrey Bezos steps aside as CEO of Amazon while retaining Chairmanship. What's next for him? Working on rockets and news. Nice. Will anything really change for the everything store he created.

Also, Kia proposes a partnership with Apple to build knockoff Teslas in Georgia. Really? 

All of our combined experience has prepared us for this moment.

This week degenerate speculation reached its pinnacle, with a community of subreddit RobinHood millennials pumping up the valuation of erstwhile zombie store Gamestop. So what the devil happened? Plus, we discuss the real reason Robinhood throttled its trades, to the chagrin of Teddy Cruz. And we zoom out on the market in the age of commission free trades and social media.

All of this led to the major indices dropping this week, allegedly spurred on by fears of exuberant "froth." Doubtless we are living in irrational times (see zombie WeWork combining with a SPAC). But will we see a correction right now? Or is the Gamestop mania contained to a few select stocks?

DBS is back for Season 3!

James joins the 10x club! PLUG has surged from a measly $4.28 in June to $64.50 today. He tells us why.

And we move to a broader re-cap of the year so far. What did we get right?

Well in general terms the bull market has continued. And the market has shown a predictable indifference to political turbulence in the US. Despite its political incompetence, structural forces keep American assets and the American dollar in command of global financial markets.

But in the last month, emerging markets have outperformed the S&P and Nasdaq. What's more, that overperformance has been spearheaded by China, supporting our hypothesis that men on Bloomberg are searching for "bargains" in Asia. And doubtless the appearance of Captain Jack Ma after a period of imprisonment and re-education gave some heft to the rally. 

But while we focused on old white man stocks, BITCOIN has topped them all (for now). So what the devil is a BITCOIN really, and what shall it become in the future? We discuss.

We offer up our 2021 predictions!

But first, in the spirit of transparency, we assess our 2020 predictions. How did we fare? Some right, some wrong. 

Next year (2021):

In general, 2021 will be a bull year, as central bank intervention continues, the vaccine is distributed and corporate earnings are compared to a deflated 2020.

Within that general trend, we expect:

-A 10-15% correction post Memorial Day, as opportunistic buyers from March 2020 harvest some capital gains

-Emerging Market Outperformance; We set our sights on IEMG, EEM, BRZU & MELI

-Risk of corporate debt pressure, but only in certain sectors

The 2020s:

-Central bank printing presses rumble on, subsidizing equities as the bull market continues

-Emerging Market stocks outperform, as fund managers look for better prices on long positions

-Genomics become the new FAANGS. See ARKG

The 2030s:

-We worry that the age of printing money eventually leads to inflation, particularly in commodities, leading to a potential crisis 

-But probably the TECH sector continues it's long march of dominating our lives and our portfolios

-The Genomics revolution continues

-East Asian equities begin to overtake America