In this episode, we go over what a Special Purpose Acquisition Company is, how they manage to take private companies public without going through the IPO process, why it is gaining so much popularity recently and some of the flaws that this investment vehicle has. In 2020, SPACs have raised over $82 billion in capital, more money than the past 10 years combined. A total of 248 SPACs went public last year. Popular SPACs that you may have heard of recently include Draft Kings, Virgin Galactic and the Tesla challenger Nikola. Even celebrities like Jay-Z and Shaquille O'Neal are planning to launch a SPAC. These investment vehicles have already raised more than $38 billion in 2021, with an average of $296 million for 128 SPAC IPOs, according to SPACInsider. All of this and more in today's episode. 

Welcome to this new section of Audio Investing where we'll be reviewing stocks. In this new format I will be analyzing stocks with the use of fundamental and qualitative analysis so that we can have a clear overview of a company. I will also rate the company based on my judgement on whether or not its a good moment to buy and the future potential that it may have. As I always say, make sure to do your own due diligence when investing and see whether or not stock picking really suits your financial goals. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this new format and that you learn something new about Facebook. 

Last year lots of headlines were occupied in wall street with IPO listings. Surprisingly, 70% of the companies who listed their shares last year were not run profitably. Ever wondered how the process for filing an IPO works? Where were the biggest companies today when they went public? What companies that went public are worth taking a closer look at? What awaits for 2021? All of these questions and more are answered in today's podcast. 

In today's episode, we learn about Modern Portfolio theory, how it works and how to optimize our portfolio using risk and return analysis. There are however, some downsides towards the use of MPT, as it categorizes risk as volatility, but it doesn't take into account the downside risk. In this episode, you will also learn about why diversification is a concept that is widely accepted in the world of investing and portfolio management.

Financial technology is providing us with new apps that facilitate the way we make payments, get access to credit, manage our finances and invest. This simply adds more competition within the financial industry, which is a threat to the big banks. Now we can get mortgages within 24 hours, get access to credit anytime, use apps to improve our credit scores, trade with 0 fees, lower interest rates, etc. Fintech managed to take advantage of the accessibility of mobile and improve the user experience, and hence, provide services better than the way banks would. It's an industry with tons of future growth potential and has seen accelerated growth because of COVID-19. This and more in today's episode!!

The first podcast after re-branding from The Audio Class Experience to The Audio Investing Podcast. Exchange Traded Funds are some of the most popular financial assets because of the liquidity and the accessibility to a whole basket of securities  without having to buy a whole bunch of assets separately. You can invest in gold ETFs, the S&P 500 index and numerous government bond ETFs as well that tend to be considered as low risk assets. Then, we look into the All-Weather portfolio, an investment strategy invented by one of the most well-known fund managers in the world, Ray Dalio. I explain how this strategy manages to recover quickly during times of recession and the time it takes to double the investment. I go on explaining how Ray Dalio allocates his capital, in what proportions and why. Don't miss out on this episode packed with great info!!!

The Buffet indicator, according to the oracle himself, “probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment”. Calculated by simply dividing the total market capitalization (shares x price) by the GDP or GNP (which is the same as GDP but it includes everything produced by residents of a country abroad). This indicator has reached all-time highs in terms of how overvalued the stock market is, which is a warning for all investors since it tells us that valuations are trading above their actual value. During the past summer, Warren Buffet decided to sell many of his shares. In this episode, I’m going to tell you how this indicator works and how it helped Warren buffet to avoid massive losses in the stock market. Furthermore, we’ll see how the future of the markets can be predicted thanks to this indicator, and the potential annual returns in global markets. 

Today Pedram is back on the show to discuss some ideas on how to tackle this fundamental issue.  Over the course of the last generation more than a billion people left the most destitute living conditions behind, with the number of people living in extreme poverty being reduced from 1.9 billion in 1990 to about 650 million in 2018. Whats more, according to projections from the World Data Lab, the number of people living in extreme poverty is expected to decline. However, we are going through a period of stagnation, where the number of people living in extreme poverty doesn't change much, with projections predicting that 500 million will remain in the same condition by 2030. 

We discuss about the tradeoff between equity and equality, where equity is the equal access to opportunity and equality is the 'fair' distribution of income. We also talk about how education is a key tool to lift people out of poverty, and also, what educational systems can do to improve regarding inequality. 

All this and more in today's episode!

In today's episode we have a special guest. The Audio Class Experience and The Race Rat podcast decided to join forces to talk about our views on the current state of the world economy and capital markets, the major role of central banks, the problem of increasing inequality that we are facing and possible investments to look out for. Make sure to check of The Race Rat podcast as well!!

So why do the rich get better tax benefits than the average employee or self employed? The truth is, the benefits that the rich have are actually tools provided by the government as a way to incentivize people to start corporations and invest in Real Estate. If you can provide food, clothes, water, energy, services, technology, housing and anything that people may need, the government will give you tax breaks if you can help them out by giving jobs and helping GDP grow. Find out more in today's episode on the reasons why there are greater tax benefits for corporations and real Estate investors rather than for employees and self-employers.