Sermons From the Free Market

Dan Koeppel, a banana connoisseur, joins The Big Trade Series for an interesting conversation on the most consumed fruit in the world. Peter and Dan start at the beginning with Adam and Eve and then bananas throughout history. Peter talks about the importance of bananas worldwide, and Dan shares his concerns about the Panama disease and its effects on the Cavendish banana – the world's most important commercial banana. The two then delve into the banana business model and the risk involved in mono-culture cultivation. This is followed by the interesting story of bananas in America and how it evolved from initially being avoided due to its shape, to becoming the most eaten fruit in this country. Dan then sheds light on investment opportunities involving bananas and shares some innovative industry growth ideas. This episode concludes by a discussion on ways to best enjoy bananas.

This week, Frank Curzio, a prominent voice in the markets, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast and the first ever guest of The Big Trade Series will join us for a second time. Frank begins by sharing anecdotes on his 10 years of experience with Wall Street Unplugged. They discuss featured guests including David Jacobson, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Alvin Roth, a winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, and the legendary investor Jim Rogers. The dialogue shifts to insights on the market. Frank mentions opportunities in General Electric (GE) stock as Peter raises concerns regarding their share buyback program. The two then delve into the technology industry, the potential of augmented reality and the dynamic growth of big players including Facebook, Netflix and Apple. Frank wraps up the conversation by describing the tools and resources he uses to discover investment opportunities.

David Jacobson, Vice Chairman of the Bank of Montreal's Financial Group and former U.S. Ambassador to Canada joins us on The Big Trade series for an insightful conversation on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). David begins the conversation with his experience in working with Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign. He gives a brief review on the North American Free Agreement (NAFTA) and its impact on its constituents. Followed by an in-depth discussion about aspects related to the TPP such as: 1) the negotiations 2) China 3) currency manipulation restrictions 4) the global labor market 5) global capital 6) benefits to Vietnam and 6) opportunities for foreign investors in emerging markets. David shares his experience as the Vice Chairman for one of North America's largest banks and concludes the conversation with an interesting story on Barack Obama.

Jeff Berwick, an entrepreneur, libertarian and author of The Dollar Vigilante joins us for a thought-provoking conversation on Shemitah year. Jeff begins by giving a synopsis of his crisis forecast. The conversation quickly shifts to the subject of the Shemitah year. Peter shares thoughts on the conflict between the Shemitah and election year. Jeff explains the myth behind the Jewish tradition and discusses the volatility of the worldwide financial market. After, the two delve into the Fed’s decision on the possibility of an interest rate hike while the US government is heavily indebted. They consider the Fed’s effort to counterbalance debt among other foreign debt owners to keep the reserve currency status of the US dollar. The conversation progresses to global currency performance. Peter shares his views on capital control around the world from a fund management perspective. Jeff concludes the episode while expressing his investment ideas for 2015 as a Jubilee year.

Becky Sheetz-Runkle and Mark McNeilly of Sun Tzu Strategies and the authors of several books, join us on The Big Trade series for a discussion on the basis of their views, Sun Tzu's Art of War. The conversation begins on the existence of Sun Tzu as Mark provides facts and Becky shares a bit on the mysterious story surrounding him. A wide interpretation on the prolific book follows as Becky discusses key strategies and tactics that may be applied to business and modern life, shedding light on which key strengths are needed for small businesses to beat the big players in a competitive environment. The dialogue shifts to Warren Buffett’s economic moat strategy. Peter then draws a parallel between sport strategies and business problems and provides a synopsis of Vietnam’s thousand-year war and his business strategies. The conversation ends with a discussion on Sun Tzu’s moral law in business and significant books on strategy shared by Mark and Becky.

Alvin Roth, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and Professor of Economics at Stanford University joins us on The Big Trade Series for an insightful conversation on market design. Alvin introduces his concepts on the commodity and matching markets. A discussion follows on which category the stock market falls into and its implications, as well as the impact of capital control and the role of high frequency trading. Peter shares his concerns regarding the TPP, particularly on protectionism and its impacts on multinational companies. The conversation then shifts to repugnant transactions as Alvin provides examples including Uber, same sex marriage, kidney transplants and more. The dialogue quickly progresses into the role of government intervention in the free market. The episode wraps up as Alvin shares some useful takeaways from his new book Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design.

Diego Parrilla, Fund Manager and Head of Business Development at Dymon Asia Capital and the co-author of "The Energy World is Flat", joins us on The Big Trade Series. Diego begins by speaking about his fund management experience in Singapore. Next, Peter and Diego discuss the flattening energy world and address the implications of rapid transformation and technological development in the oil and gas industry. Diego shares opportunities in the industry that concern investors. The discussion then progresses into geopolitical impacts on the overall energy complex, focusing on a case study on Gazprom’s growing presence in Asia. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the feasibility of Canadian oil sands production.

George Ure, founder of urbansurvival.com and peoplenomics.com and co-founder of Web Bot joins The Big Trade Series. George starts the conversation by talking about the story of his Web Bot project, his insights into forecasting and predicting the market and the evolution of aggregate indices in regards to both the global and the U.S. market. The two then delve into the parameters and merits of index construction. George quickly provides his thoughts on on-balance volume indicator by Joe Granville and Peter shares his approach to price and volume in trading and gives some examples of his work. The discussion progresses to psychology and linguistics analysis applied to financial markets. George concludes the conversation by sharing his ideas on the Shemitah as a human perception problem.

Tom Ruby sits down with Peter for another tactful conversation on strategic planning. To begin part two, Peter talks about how to cut out of the noise of bad information in decision-making. Tom then shares his experience with his consultant business. This is followed by a discussion on their mutual interest in the military science fiction novel, Ender’s Game, which was transformed into a movie in 2013. The discussion then progresses to cover social trends in regards to personal expertise. After that, Tom talks about his greatest strategists and their tactics used in warfare. The conversation concludes with few helpful strategy tidbits shared by Tom.

Tom Ruby, strategist and CEO of Bluegrass Critical Thinking Solutions joins The Big Trade Series for a two-part conversation. Peter and Tom start off by talking about strategies based on limited resources. The two then delve to various topics including strategies for startups, the difference in mind set between the East and the West, and various determinants of individual and business success. After that, Peter shares some tactics that he uses to do business in Vietnam, particularly relating to taking advantage of digital marketing. They then discuss how to use quantitative analysis in trading and how this method works in predicting market crises. Part one of the conversation concludes with a discussion on the OODA Loop and Sun Tzu strategy applied to business.