Bizarro World Podcast,
with Nick and Gerardo
Dec. 27, 2021
A look at the macro picture headed into the end of the year, including stocks, gold, and the dollar.
We held through crypto’s recent pullback and now are looking to what’s next.
Several year-end stock ideas in the resource space.
Plus another installment of our ongoing look at the state of justice in America through the lens of three cases: Kim Potter, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, Matthew Greene.
0:00 Intro
1:55 Year-End Macro: Gold, Record Stocks, Dollar
5:50 Crypto Comments: Still Hodling
14:21 End of Year Stock Ideas
21:58 Police Accountability: Kim Potter
26:28 Uneven Justice: 110-Year Sentence in Brake Fail Accident
35:15 Proud Boy Pleads Guilty in January 6 Case
37:40 Dancing Into the New Year
Gerardo Del Real: Gold still teasing but back up above $1,800. The dollar's still holding that 96 level, energy's back up. Turkish lira was down some 70% before rebounding some 50%. Some currency volatility in the markets, the complete opposite of short interest which is dropping in the overall indices. Three straight days of gains as omicron fears abate. That's the new narrative, everybody. We'll talk Kim Potter and the Daunte Wright case, we'll talk about a man who was sentenced to 110 years because his brakes failed and it caused four deaths and we'll talk about law enforcement and white supremacist, a whole heck of a lot to get to as always. I am Gerardo Del Real, along with my co-host, Mr. Nick Hodge, this is therapy session/episode 149 of Bizarro World. Mr. Hodge, how goes you? It's been a busy week, it's been a busy month, it's been a busy year. How are you doing, sir?
Nick Hodge: It's been a crazy year. The storming of the Capitol was this year, it feels like a lifetime ago. I don't know about a recap of the year, there's so much that happened but I'm doing well, Gerardo, anxious to get into the holidays. Hope everyone had a good Christmas who is listening to this because, of course, it'll be published after the 25th. How are you doing?
Year-End Macro: Gold, Record Stocks, Dollar
Gerardo Del Real: I am well, I'm excited for 2022, I'm excited for next week's episode where we'll hand out some awards. 2021, for the most part, was a fantastic year for pretty much everything except for the gold names. There were some winners there for sure but, for the most part, I think this 15, 16, 17-month long consolidation has a lot of people bored with gold despite the equities holding up halfway decently here to end the year. There's some names showing significant weakness that we can get into here in a little bit that, I think, present pretty compelling bargains but, frankly, they've presented pretty compelling bargains for the bulk of the year. So, I think there's a heck of an opportunity there. Long-winded way of saying I'm excited for 2022 and very thankful for 2021 and hope that everybody had a great Christmas, a great holiday and that everybody has a great New Year.
Nick Hodge: Well, gold showing actually a little bit of strength once everyone gets bored with it is typically when it goes right, once it's faked everybody out. Actually, above $1,800 now and worth sifting through the ashes to see what's available in that space from top to bottom. I was running screens today doing just that, looking to see names that were, I guess, we'll start with the liquid names. Names that were liquid in the gold space that were one to 10 or 15% off their lows that had good share structures or low PE ratios and Barrick came up in one of those screens, for example. So, there's things to like in the gold space. Even Franco-Nevada is in one of my publications and has been dipping under the value underprice we have on that recently.
So, things to like in the gold space but I think it points more broadly to people wanting to be defensive or relatively defensive in the market. Sorry, this is a rambling answer. You mentioned there's no volatility and you mentioned stocks going back to near all-time highs but that being led by different things now. If I look at the S&P sectors that are up the most over the past week, it's consumer staples and utilities and real estate. Tech is not doing as well, energy has fallen off and lead, earlier in the year, aren't doing as well and things are changing in the currency market.
You wanted to talk about the lira, you can talk more about that. I don't know much about that but the dollar has certainly been strengthening and, when you see these bigger moves in the currency market, I think it portends coming moves in the other markets, other assets, equities and things like that because currencies are, obviously, much bigger. And so, I just think we're in a transitory period right now which is, and going back to gold, one of the reasons it's doing well, one of the reasons utilities are doing well in the S&P and one of the reasons that, well, two other reasons. One of the reasons that the dollar is strengthening and people moving to dollars as a form of safety or defensiveness and same with yields not being as strong as they were. As people buy bonds for safety, the yield goes down. So, all those things make sense and I don't know how long that's going to last and so that's why I, too, am anxious to get into 2022 and get some real direction in this market that isn't based on low volume and things like that.
Gerardo Del Real: I thought that was a great answer. Bitcoin's catching a bit back up to the 51,000 level. Any thoughts there? You hodling still? I know I ask you every week, it's my way to keep my finger on the pulse. I know we're waiting to launch Mr. Chris Curl's service, that delay hasn't been our doing, it has been the doing of one of the major platforms that we are waiting on but excited to launch that here soon. Thoughts on the crypto space, Mr. Hodge?
Crypto Comments: Still Hodling
Nick Hodge: I'm not going to wait much longer. Still hodling. Told you I had bought a little bit more Ethereum, learning more about the sector. So, had talked to Chris last week, we'll have an interview out with him this week, the week you hear this podcast. Not really an interview, more a discussion actually about the sector, the dip, he talks about the leverage that unwound post-Thanksgiving and in early December and how it's been. Bitcoin, at least, has been range bound and we talked about how it needs to get out of that range. We even mentioned it on the podcast here recently, 53,000 to really make a move northward. What's interesting is that the sector is evolving and so there's new things to learn about. I saw this week that an NFT had sold for, I think, over $200 million or something like that. Yeah, real number, three digits millions.
Well, I guess I'll just talk about it for a second because all of these themes have been recurring on this podcast, digital real estate and NFTs and Decentraland and I'm learning more about it and Chris is, obviously, teaching me. So, a lot of money went into NFTs and digital real estate this year, that's been the new hot flavor in the market but that's all still crypto driven. And so, I'm actually glad you asked about it because I've been thinking and reading a bit more about it. Some of these NFTs you see, let's take those expensive ones, those gorilla heads, the crypto punks, the ones that are selling for tens of-
Gerardo Del Real: The ones that are taking all the pretty pictures of all the pretty crypto babes away.
Nick Hodge: Yes, that are selling for, at a minimum now, I think tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on the upside, like I just said, tens or hundreds of millions which is crazy. But the point I wanted to make or the main thing that was, at least, fascinating to me is that those are all made, obviously stored, but also transacted in certain blockchains. So, different NFT's are on different blockchains. The crypto punks are on the Ethereum blockchain, for example. And so, when you're buying those, you're also paying fees that are associated with the Ethereum that has to be mined to create those things. And so, it furthers the market, that's one of the ways that new crypto is created. And so, the thing I was talking to him about was think about it this way, just think about it like hard assets. I use the example of copper but you could do real estate or whatever.
If the copper price is going up, in this case, if the NFT price or the price of digital real estate is going up and you can't buy copper because you're not a commodity trader, you don't have an account on the CME or the LME or whatever it is, there's other ways to get exposure to that. You can buy copper ETF or you can buy companies that mine that. Same thing is now happening with crypto. I might not want to plop down a couple of hundred grand for a crypto punk NFT but you can buy Ethereum because the bullishness of the NFT market and the money that's sloshing around in those Ethereum-based NFTs is generating more volume and more interest in that particular blockchain. And so, getting long-winded again, but there's different NFTs on different blockchains. There's ones that are on Solana and there's ones that are on Avalanche and ones that I don't even know about.
And so, you can buy those coins, which is easy to do on Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), as opposed to plopping down more money, you're figuring out how to store an NFT in an external wallet or things like that. So, anyway, we had a long discussion about it and why that's the natural evolution and how the next evolution of that is fractional ownership of real assets. How we can each own a piece of whatever we want. A painting, a baseball card, whatever. So, anyway, keep an eye out for that discussion and, yes, in 2022, for sure, the launch of his publication, Crypto Cycle.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, no interesting. And look, it's a fascinating space. I had an acquaintance of mine shoot me over an article. I'll just read the text. He said, "Check this out. I tried to buy two wearables," he's talking about ICE NFT wearables. I don't know if you've heard of this, this is the first that I've heard of this. He said, "I was only able to get one due to launch issues and they sold out in 10 minutes. I bought in for $1,000 then I sold it the next day for $3,000. If you keep the item, it's a form of passive income. If you play poker yourself, because it's called ICE Poker, or delegate your item to someone else, you can earn 30%. I'll send you some links." And so, then, when I click on the link, it's a link to ICE NFT wearables, which enable players to earn ICE by completing daily challenges playing poker with chips. Players may view, buy and delegate their ICE NFT wearables on the Decentral Games account page and then it's got all these wearables that you can buy. You can buy a suit and tie, you can buy suit bottoms, you can buy money shades.
And, I got to admit, Nick, this shit sounds like something from fucking Mars. Clearly, people are making money with this, clearly there's a demand, clearly it's speaking to a different, younger generation. But like you mentioned, there's also some real money, real wealth chasing some of these things. When we're talking about NFTs selling for hundreds of millions of dollars, that's a pretty substantial investment no matter how much money you got. I don't care if you're Elon Musk and you paid $11 billion in taxes and trolling Elizabeth Warren, which was hilarious by the way, that's still a pretty substantial purchase. So, have you heard of ICE NFT wearables?
Nick Hodge: I have not but I can almost guarantee you that Chris has and does some of those things and will be writing about some of those things where, like you say, you can perform certain tasks to earn either more crypto or interest on your crypto or you can loan it out to in some respects. No, I don't know about the ICE in particular but that's why we have an expert. And there's a whole, like you say, a ton of different avenues like that. Thousands of cryptocurrencies, each with their own, obviously, blockchains and each with their own NFTs and subcultures and things like that. So, getting to be where you need someone who is well-versed in that to parse it out for you to help you avoid missteps and explain it and show you how to do it. One of the other things we talked about is how we're going to be doing screen grab videos just to simply show people how to do this stuff because it can get real jargony. So, maybe we'll have to do one about how to buy skins with the ICE.
End of Year Stock Ideas
Gerardo Del Real: I like it, I like it. Any thoughts on energy? I know that you've been more cautious about the energy space. You had a great run for the past year. I think, I want to say, maybe three weeks ago, four weeks ago, your tone changed as it related to the oil space. Any thoughts there? Still cautious? Still waiting and seeing?
Nick Hodge: Still cautious, still dollar strengthening so, yeah, tough in that space, all kinds of other issues there. Still volatility in the oil space, relatively mild winter, turning more towards natural gas, divergence in the natural gas market with low prices in the US and much higher prices in Europe. So, just not something I'm touching at the moment. Then, on the clean side of things, solar had a rough week of it. There was a proposed bill out of California to add a surcharge to solar homeowners and the market didn't like that and all the solar names sold off hard. So, tough in the energy space and that's why, I think, the market is just in defensive mode or wait and see mode here for the next couple of weeks. And I point back to defensive things like cash and utilities and I was starting to look at transports this week, like railroads and things like that. So, that's where I am.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, in true high risk, high reward mode. I'm the complete opposite. I loaded up last week, the past month actually, on Patriot Battery Metals (CSE: PMET)(OTC: RGDCF). That worked out well, it was up some 50% here over the last seven days. I've added some Aldebaran (TSX-V: ALDE)(OTC: ADBRF) and a couple of other names that I won't share because it's not fair to paying subscribers. But a lot of the stuff that just isn't being recognized by the market, it's almost like printing money. I'll give you all one free one, you can get your money's worth today. CopAur Minerals (TSX-V: CPAU)(OTC: COPAF) agreed to buy New Placer Dome Gold (TSX-V: NGLD)(OTC: NPDCF) and the details of the deal basically have it to where New Placer Dome Gold shareholders would receive, I believe, it was 0.112 CopAur shares, CopAur Mineral shares for every New Placer Dome Gold share. 0.1182, there you go. Let me get the exact number.
So, if I do the math and I look at CopAur and I see that it's trading for C$1.20 today and I multiply that, because I'm a simple guy, times 0.1182, I get 14 cents which is where you would think New Placer Dome Gold shares would be trading. New Placer Dome Gold shares are trading at eight and a half cents. So, there's a 60% arbitrage there. If people believe that CopAur will be able to raise the money, and I absolutely do because the group that's behind it, the metals group that's behind it has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last several years multiple times and take in companies like this from a market cap of 25, 30 $35 million to hundreds of millions of dollars, they got a track record of this. If you believe they'll raise the money and this deal will close, then you either believe CopAur is going to drop another 30, 40, 50% or this is free money that's just waiting for you out there, everyone. So, go look it up. CopAur Minerals, New Placer Dome Gold. Pretty solid little arbitrage there, I think. Good opportunity for year end.
Nick Hodge: Other names could be added to that list as well. Probably should mention Revival Gold here which have traded down to 52-week lows on significant volume this week as a fun look to exit. No shortage of resources there, no shortage of opportunity ahead given both open pit and underground components there and a larger resource to come. So, Revival's one you should be looking at as well here headed into the end of the year.
Gerardo Del Real: Agreed, agreed. One more name just for kicks. Again, you'll get your money's worth on this one, Almaden Minerals (TSX: AMM)(NYSE: AAU). They had a news release that was part positive, part negative. The negative part was they drilled three wildcat exploration holes far away from the main deposit and didn't hit a thing. It's undercover, its exploration, it's three holes and they own their own drill so not a big deal. But the part of the release that was really interesting to me and another company that's trading at just a ridiculous valuation and at 52-week lows is the part where they announced that they're going to resubmit their MIA, they're going to resubmit their application for their mining permit.
Now, this follows the addition to the board of several very important and prominent Mexican nationals that know how to navigate the politics that is permitting in Mexico. And, I have to believe, Nick, that there's no way in hell that the Almaden team risks getting denied a second time all within a year or a year and a half's time if they don't have a high level of confidence that that permit application will be embraced, accepted and approved.
And, if it is embraced, accepted and approved, that little 35, 40 cent stock is going to be a two, $3 stock really, really quick because that's a project begging to be built that already has a mill but the replacement costs greater than the entire market cap of the company. And yeah, you get a couple of million ounces of gold and almost a hundred million ounces of silver for your troubles to go along with that mill. So, there's another one for you all. So, if you get Revival Gold, Patriot's on to what I think is a significant discovery, the market seems to be waking up to that, they just raised $11 million in flow through financing that will go in the ground. They also cut out a small, small president's list, hard dollar financing, small portion of it. Mr. Hodge, I believe you wrote a check. I most definitely wrote a check and I hope the next check I write is at C$1.50 and C$2.00.
Nick Hodge: I did. I had bought a tiny bit on the open market as well and that worked out pretty good. So-
Gerardo Del Real: Not a bad week.
Nick Hodge: ... thank you.
Gerardo Del Real: Yup. Hey, it's early, I think assays probably post new year and if they're anything like the first hole and hole three is the one. Hole two is just an offset but hole three is the one that's a step out, a pretty significant step out. I believe 500 meters, top of mind. And, if that hits any similar grades and widths as that first hole, then I think it's going to be off to the races as the lithium sector has seen a lot, a lot of activity here in the past month. I think Argentina alone has seen over $1.4 billion in investments in Argentine assets. And so, that's just one part of the world, I could continue with GM, we talked about GE. I'll be writing about it in this month's issue of Junior Resource Monthly. So, I'll save it for the publication but, yeah, a lot to like on that front.
Nick Hodge: Got to love a quality third hole.
Gerardo Del Real: Got to love a quality third hole, especially when it delivers, Nick.
Nick Hodge: Mm-hmm.
Police Accountability: Kim Potter
Gerardo Del Real: Let's switch gears a little bit. We talked about the Officer Kim Potter about a year ago, if I'm not mistaken, on this podcast and we talked about just how flagrant the lies from the seedier part of law enforcement officials that use their power for shooting practice and abuse citizen's rights. We talked about that about a year or so ago. For those that are not familiar, she pulled over a gentleman by the name of Daunte Wright, you can guess his color, not to play the race card but this is what is in the media and it's also a fact. The gentleman was Black, the officer was White. She allegedly saw a ... What's that little deodorizer things that you hang? What are those called, Nick? I'm drawing a blank on that one.
Nick Hodge: The air freshener.
Gerardo Del Real: The air freshener, that thing, yeah. Supposedly, as she was driving, sees this man with an illegal air freshener, check this out, an illegal air freshener and immediately believes it's her police duty to pull them over. See what's going on with this suspicious activity? The fuck are you doing with an air freshener in your car? And so, she pulls him over, in the midst of the discussion, she informs Mr. Wright that he has a warrant for his arrest. He doesn't want to get arrested and takes off, he tries to drive off. And so, Ms. Potter says she reached for her Taser to tase him but accidentally grabbed her gun and pulled the trigger.
And so, the jury didn't buy it. She was found guilty of first and second degree manslaughter for the shooting. We'll see what that sentence is but this is the last few verdicts I've actually agreed with. Everything from the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict which, if you look at the facts, I think it was self-defense despite the fact that, I believe, he was out to cause trouble and he was out hoping to be able to pop somebody to get his kicks.
But in this case, he was hit with a skateboard and he was attacked with someone that had a gun and, in both those instances, you do have the right in this country and in that state to defend yourself with the use of force. In this case, yes, Mr. Wright tried to flee but there was nothing that would have allowed, under the law, Ms. Potter to justify shooting him in the chest. And the jury didn't buy the fact that she said she reached for her taser and so, that's that. Also, the illegal air freshener, there was also an expired tag allegedly, according to the article that I'll put up as a link. Any thoughts on this, Nick? It's seems pretty open and shut, she'll likely do six to nine years, it's the sentencing range for first and second degree manslaughter. I think manslaughter is the right charge, I don't think murder would be the right charge in this instance. But any thoughts there?
Nick Hodge: It's nuanced. You hit on the expired license plate and I think that's important because it wasn't like the gentleman shouldn't have been pulled over, right? He did have an expired license-
Gerardo Del Real: Correct.
Nick Hodge: ... so throw the air freshener out the window and he did have a warrant. And nonetheless, he didn't deserve to die in the manner in which he did. And so, I don't have to make it long-
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah.
Nick Hodge: ... I guess it's just good to see growing police accountability. Because in the past, where there's nuance like that, where the stop was valid, where he did try to flee, you would assume that the ruling, whether by judge or jury, is going to be in the police's favor because it typically always is. So, it's good to see that even in the face of a nuanced case that police can be held accountable. Hope to see more of that and less situations where it needs to be applied.
Uneven Justice: 110-Year Sentence in Brake Fail Accident
Gerardo Del Real: So, she'll do, likely, six to nine years. Meanwhile, a gentleman in Colorado, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, was sentenced in December, he was convicted in October of this year, to 110 years in prison for an accident where his brakes failed that resulted in the unfortunate death of four people and injured six others. So, let me give people a brief recap. Mr. Mederos was hauling lumber when the brakes on his semi failed. He was descending on a steep grade of interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountain Foothills. Now, he was speeding, they testified that he was traveling, at least, 85 miles an hour on a part of the interstate where truckers are limited to 45 miles an hour. So, let's assume it was 85 miles an hour, let's assume everybody takes those extra 10 miles, in general, you're still 20 miles per hour over which should be reasonable if you're hauling lumber, especially if the grade is steep and you have a semi.
So, definitely a mistake in judgment. His brakes failed and it caused the chain reaction where 28 vehicles were involved and there were ruptured gas tanks and, again, unfortunately, four people lost their lives and six people were injured. Now, Mr. Mederos testified that he was struggling to avoid traffic and he was also struggling to shift his truck into the lower gears to lower it down. So, he goes to court and he's offered a deal and he says, "No, I admit that I was speeding. I miscalculated and I am extremely sorry for what happened but I'm not a murderer, I'm not a killer. I'm not taking a plea deal for murder." His exact words were, "I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life." Again, doesn't diminish the fact that people lost their lives and it doesn't diminish the fact that people were injured because of his negligence, but 110 years seems a bit excessive. Any ... yeah.
Nick Hodge: Well, yeah, I don't want to get too political but ... Well, no but. I mean-
Gerardo Del Real: It should be factual, yeah.
Nick Hodge: A few weeks ago, we had a gentleman drive into a parade through multiple barriers without failed brakes and that was positioned in the media as the car did it, the car did it.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, we talked about it.
Nick Hodge: Right?
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah.
Nick Hodge: And in the first sentence of this article, it's a truck driver killed four people. So, the driver who had failed brakes which aren't mentioned in the first sentence.
Gerardo Del Real: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Nick Hodge: And so, you can just see how the framing is different and this is classic. If you're not red pilled, you don't know how to read things but they do this with Middle Easterners all the time where it's militants and separatists and opposition and they just use phrasing words like that to trick your mind into reading articles in a certain light. I think you get what I'm getting at with the distinction here with Mr. Aguilera-Mederos. The other things-
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah.
Nick Hodge: ... I'd say is it's probably being sensationalized a little bit as a lot of things are because the sentence was mandated by state law which had the multiple counts for the deceased people and 27 counts for something else.
Gerardo Del Real: Vehicular assault, yeah.
Nick Hodge: Right. They had to be a stacked on top of one another and so the judge admitted in the sentencing that, if the judge had discretion, I don't know if it was a female or a male judge, sorry. If he or her had discretion, they wouldn't compound them on top of each other and, also, I think the state allows for a re-looking at it. There's this quote here, it says, "The law also permits the court to reconsider its sentence in an exceptional case involving unusual and extenuating circumstances," which you would assume this is. So, all that said, hopefully, the sentencing gets another look. Obviously, he was speeding and has to be held to account for that. But I think you'll see this get another look given the judge addressed it during the initial sentencing itself.
Gerardo Del Real: Agreed. It should be noted that the review came after four and a half million people signed a change.org petition. So, I've long said that if you can afford a lobbyist or the best legal advice money can buy, then, you're usually ahead of the game. And in this case, it was actually the public outcry that led to a review of the sentencing and you hit on a very key point and I don't want to let that go yet. The reason that he was sentenced to 110 years is because, under state law, there's mandatory minimum sentencing laws in Colorado that take discretion away from the judge which I am extremely against. There should be discretion, in all cases from the judge that is hearing the entire case, the case in its totality. Everything from the discovery, to the pretrial motions, to the pretrial hearings, to the behind the scenes conversations that prosecutors and defense attorneys have, there's a reason why there's a judge that decides the sentence. And the reason is no one has as much information about the case from both the prosecution and the defense side as the judge.
To take away the discretion from the judge's hands and say, "You have to do this," it seems so ass backwards, excuse the technical term, to me. And so, here, instead of charges running concurrently, which basically means if you were sentenced to 15 years on 20 counts, then, you could do the 15 years concurrently, all at the same time and, in 15 years, you would have served your crime. You don't do 15 years 20 times which is how these charges ended up leading to 110-year sentence. And so, the fact that these laws are on the books, these mandatory minimum sentencing laws are on the books and the fact that there's, and I've seen it in real life with people that I'm close to, where the judge says, "Yes, I wouldn't sentence you to this. However, I have no discretion. The very least that I could do is give you this sentence and then good luck appealing and hope you can get a change.org petition with four and a half million people to sign."
So, yeah, that absolutely has to change. There has to be a rewrite of our, pun intended, criminal justice system and our criminal justice laws and the way that they're enforced because it seems, and you touched on it earlier, pretty selective which laws fall under mandatory minimum sentencing. This became really popular in the '80s during the crack epidemic. If you were doing coke and it was one whole set of rules for you but, oh, God forbid that you were doing some crack, then you know what, you're going to get sentenced to a hundred times the amount of time as the people doing coke and we know why, it was a class issue. It was broke Black and Brown and broke White people mostly get crack and all the celebrities and the porn stars were doing coke. So, it's a class thing but a lot of these mandatory minimum laws come as a result of the war on drugs in the '80s and, again, it just leads to a dilution of citizen rights and to take discretion away from a judge just doesn't feel right to me.
Nick Hodge: You got it. I would have said all that about the crack. So, you got it.
Proud Boy Pleads Guilty in January 6 Case
Gerardo Del Real: I like it. I won't say the organization, I'll just say this. A white supremacist organization that builds itself as a very upstanding and proud group sure does like to tell on each other. We talked about this months and months ago and it just keeps going. Mr. Matthew Greene of Syracuse, New York who is a self-proclaimed part of a group that is running around and describes itself as a Western chauvinist group that's designed to keep the Western masculine influence and culture alive has pleaded guilty as one of the participants, one of the primary participants on January the 6th, the insurrection on January the 6th. And so, not only did he plead guilty, but you guessed it, he decided that he will be cooperating now because he wants to atone for the wrong that he did now that he's been caught.
So, he will now be facing up to 51 months in prison. That sentence would have been much, much more severe had he not decided to cooperate. It'll be really interesting to see how he lives the rest of his life and it'll also be interesting to see the fallout from the information that he provides. Now, I say that these groups tend to have an influx of people that turn informants because, again, I think there's a lot of these people that watch a lot of TV and play a lot of video games and have their little insecurities tickled and decide to put on some camouflage and get some guns and get out there and stir shit up and talk real tough and maybe even hit a couple of people and maybe even shoot a couple for their first time ever and it's a rush until they get caught and that door closes and the food's not the greatest and then, all of a sudden, they want to atone for their mistakes, they want to get right with God. And so, hey, accountability to everybody, curious to see the information and the fallout that comes from Mr. Greene's cooperation.
Nick Hodge: I wonder what kind of coffee he drinks.
Dancing Into the New Year
Gerardo Del Real: What else is on your mind this week, Mr. Hodge? You got anything else on your mind? What else should we get into? Do we want to talk about the infiltration of law enforcement and white supremacists in law enforcement? Let's save that one for another day. I want to leave that one alone, I think. We talked January the 6th, we talked 110-year sentence, we talked Kim Potter and the Daunte Wright case, I think that's enough social commentary for one day. What are you doing in the markets this next week? I know we have, obviously, shortened trading weeks for two weeks in a row, this week and next, but anything in particular that you're using to your advantage? Anything you're looking to buy? Anything you got some dry powder set aside for or are you just dancing into 2022?
Nick Hodge: A lot of all that, I guess, a little bit of all that to make parts of the whole. Sitting on a bit of cash, you mentioned I was out of energy earlier this month, got out of technology just today before we recorded and light on the, let's call it, macro side of things. If I typically keep a 20-position portfolio, it's got 15 positions in it and I'm only in one or two sectors. So, yes to holding a bit of cash. Hold most of my positions that I've held for a while so, in that respect, dancing into the new year and then really trying to figure out what the new sectors are going to be. So, the answer is a bit of an I don't know. But going into 2022 when I was writing the classic ... Or, excuse me, going into 2021 writing the classic top sectors for 2021, it was clear that it was going to be energy and materials. And so, it's not as clear what the top sectors are going to be for 2022 right now.
I think, despite the Fed's positioning that it's going to raise rates, interest rates are still very low and I think you have to look at things that do well in a low interest rate environment. I've been writing about that recently. I think real estate still looks really good and so I'm looking for more exposure to that and, generally, just reflecting on the mistakes I've made in the past year and how I can not make them again and looking to set a plan and a path forward for the new year. What about you, Gerardo?
Gerardo Del Real: A couple things. Taking profits. I think I got at least one and maybe two positions in Junior Resource Monthly that will happen in the next week. We've added a position here recently, I'll be looking to add, possibly, one or two new positions after the new year. I think there's still some trades to be made. Again, as I said in the beginning, I'm really excited about 2022 but definitely using the extra day or two off to reflect on where we can sharpen the blade. I think the one trading mistake that I found myself consistently making is I'm real good at the big picture, usually, but gun shy to take profits quick because I see the big picture which sometimes ends up meaning that we end up in positions a little bit longer than is ideal.
So, looking to get better at that without giving up the gains because the worst thing in the world to me is to sell something at a 50% profit and then miss out on a 200% run. So, just learning how to balance that out and, no, look, other than that, it was an extremely, extremely fun and good year. I'm looking forward to 2022, I'm looking forward to Bizarro World awards. I got a comment on it right before we leave because I think it's hilarious. Did you see that Trump got booed at a crowd when he told people that he had taken the vaccine and the booster?
Nick Hodge: No, I did not.
Gerardo Del Real: So, he did that, he got booed and he didn't like it. So, he went on and did an interview with Candace Owens who is the smartest stupid person I've ever listened to. She does stupid very well, very articulate with her stupid. And so, Trump goes on the show and the Trumpster be the Trumpster. I know it's been a bit since he's been in the headlines but he hasn't changed. He got on there and he started taking credit for how quick the vaccines were developed which, hey, he was there and they were developed quickly, so kudos, and the partnership with private pharmaceutical companies. And he said, "I came up with the vaccine, I came up with three vaccines. They're all very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months, it was supposed to take five to 12 years."
So, then, Candace Owens says to Trump that more people have died from the virus in 2021 and 2020 even with the vaccine and he says, "Oh, no, the vaccines work but the ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine but it's still their choice and, if you take the vaccine, you're protected." So, I bring this up because I find it hilarious that we're ending the year with Donald Trump getting booed by his own people and he's on the Candace Owens Show defending the vaccine and sounding somewhat logical about this whole thing. And again, it seems like the fringe part of the Republican base still refuses to have even a factual conversation about who, why, what, where and how. We can have a long debate about vaccine efficacy and mask and is omicron really just a cold. Hey, we can do that another day but I found this amusing so I thought I'd leave us with that.
Nick Hodge: It was the perfect end to a bizarro year and a bizarro world-
Gerardo Del Real: Yup.
Nick Hodge: ... and it highlights how the whole thing is a dog and pony show filled with smoke and mirrors, so just a couple of things. It's amazing how, yes, the vaccines were ushered in under Trump and it's the Conservatives or the "Trumpsters" that are against the vaccine as shown by the booing that you just talked about. It's also amazing that Fox News hosts will entertain that crowd knowing damn well that they are vaccinated themselves. And so, it's just amazing that a vaccine can be politicized to just the way a bean that grows on a tree and is roasted can have two political factions. I'm talking about the Black Rifle Coffee Company I talked about last week. And so, sorry, my reply is a little bit long but, and then turn to the other side.
And you see how that it's like a snake that's eating its tail. It's just like you say, Trump introduced the vaccines. They're all vaccinated but their base is somehow against it because, now, the guy that's in control is pro-vaccine and so they use it as a dividing mechanism. Anyway, on to Biden... the tweet that was going around from him while he was on the campaign trail was anybody who presided over this many deaths shouldn't be allowed to be the President of the United States. And of course, there were more deaths from COVID in 2021 than there were in 2020, and Biden, of course, will not mention that he said that and will remain, President of the United States, even though there was more deaths under his watch. And so, anyway, you can see why everybody is or should be just frustrated with both sides because they're all just full of shit. Merry Christmas.
Gerardo Del Real: Merry Christmas, everybody. Have a great New Year, excited for 2022. This is Gerardo Del Real along with Mr. Nick Hodge. This was episode 149 of Bizarro World. Thanks for listening, everybody.
Nick Hodge: See you.
This transcript is unedited. Please excuse grammatical errors and run-on sentences.