1 00:00:03,970 --> 00:00:06,450 Sean Aylmer: Welcome to the Fear and Greed daily interview. I'm Sean 2 00:00:06,450 --> 00:00:11,310 Sean Aylmer: Aylmer. We love talking about US stocks, particularly because Australians 3 00:00:11,310 --> 00:00:13,880 Sean Aylmer: can now invest in them and we're investing in tech 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,360 Sean Aylmer: stocks more than anything else. They're so big the companies, 5 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:19,520 Sean Aylmer: but they've also taken investors on a bit of a 6 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,410 Sean Aylmer: ride recently. Brent Kochuba is the founder of SpotGamma, a 7 00:00:23,410 --> 00:00:26,900 Sean Aylmer: financial insights company based in the US and joins me 8 00:00:26,900 --> 00:00:30,050 Sean Aylmer: from New York, or Connecticut, more specifically I think. Brent, 9 00:00:30,050 --> 00:00:31,330 Sean Aylmer: how are you? Welcome to Fear and Greed. 10 00:00:31,710 --> 00:00:32,849 Brent Kochuba: I'm doing great thanks. How are you doing? 11 00:00:33,470 --> 00:00:36,190 Sean Aylmer: Very well. I want to get to specific stocks in 12 00:00:36,190 --> 00:00:39,970 Sean Aylmer: a moment, but first, why have we seen what's gone 13 00:00:39,970 --> 00:00:42,659 Sean Aylmer: on in the tech sector in the last few months? 14 00:00:42,659 --> 00:00:45,790 Sean Aylmer: And in fact, there's sort of been a bit of a reversal only in 15 00:00:45,790 --> 00:00:48,770 Sean Aylmer: the last week or two, but certainly they've been sold off. 16 00:00:49,450 --> 00:00:52,430 Brent Kochuba: Yeah, that's right. I think the main theme here obviously 17 00:00:52,430 --> 00:00:55,220 Brent Kochuba: is higher interest rates and that obviously hits the tech 18 00:00:55,220 --> 00:01:00,430 Brent Kochuba: sector disproportionately. So we've seen a general rotation in equities 19 00:01:00,430 --> 00:01:02,970 Brent Kochuba: to more defensive names and names that are less sensitive 20 00:01:02,970 --> 00:01:04,780 Brent Kochuba: to interest rates. But if you look at sort of 21 00:01:04,780 --> 00:01:08,410 Brent Kochuba: the tech sector or the QQQ ETF in general, this obviously 22 00:01:08,410 --> 00:01:11,369 Brent Kochuba: performed quite a bit worse than the S& P. So 23 00:01:11,430 --> 00:01:14,679 Brent Kochuba: that is the primary catalyst we believe for the tech weakness. 24 00:01:15,530 --> 00:01:17,699 Sean Aylmer: Okay. Now 10 years ago, it was actually very difficult 25 00:01:17,700 --> 00:01:22,160 Sean Aylmer: for an Australian retail investor to invest in a US 26 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,110 Sean Aylmer: tech stock. Now it's much, much easier. You can do 27 00:01:25,110 --> 00:01:27,490 Sean Aylmer: that specifically, or you can do it through ETFs. There's 28 00:01:27,490 --> 00:01:30,880 Sean Aylmer: plenty of options. I just want to run through your 29 00:01:30,890 --> 00:01:33,170 Sean Aylmer: views on some of the big guys, and these are the ones 30 00:01:33,170 --> 00:01:37,440 Sean Aylmer: who are obvious to many people, but very popular in 31 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,890 Sean Aylmer: Australia, Apple being the biggest of the lot. What's your 32 00:01:40,890 --> 00:01:41,729 Sean Aylmer: take on Apple? 33 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,410 Brent Kochuba: Sure. So Apple's an interesting stock here in the United 34 00:01:45,410 --> 00:01:48,540 Brent Kochuba: States because it's almost considered something like an ETF in 35 00:01:48,540 --> 00:01:52,100 Brent Kochuba: and of itself. It's such a large company. It's obviously one of 36 00:01:52,350 --> 00:01:54,680 Brent Kochuba: the largest in terms of market cap. It has a 37 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,140 Brent Kochuba: tremendously solid balance sheet. And what we see from an 38 00:01:58,140 --> 00:02:01,740 Brent Kochuba: options perspective is consistent call overriding. So in the United 39 00:02:01,740 --> 00:02:03,440 Brent Kochuba: States here, we get a lot of people who own 40 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,820 Brent Kochuba: Apple stock and they'll consistently sell calls. Every month they'll 41 00:02:06,820 --> 00:02:09,160 Brent Kochuba: roll it out to try to bring some extra income 42 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:10,959 Brent Kochuba: against one of their core holdings. 43 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:13,380 Sean Aylmer: I was just going to say, for the mom and dad, just break that 44 00:02:13,380 --> 00:02:16,120 Sean Aylmer: down when you're talking about call options there. 45 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:19,639 Brent Kochuba: Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that you can 46 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,220 Brent Kochuba: do, as you know, along with owning the stock of 47 00:02:22,220 --> 00:02:24,250 Brent Kochuba: Apple or Tesla or something like that, you can obviously 48 00:02:24,260 --> 00:02:26,930 Brent Kochuba: buy an option. You could buy a call option, in 49 00:02:26,930 --> 00:02:28,440 Brent Kochuba: general if you think the market's going to go up, 50 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:29,940 Brent Kochuba: or you could buy a put option, if you think 51 00:02:29,940 --> 00:02:32,290 Brent Kochuba: the market or stock will go lower. But you can 52 00:02:32,290 --> 00:02:35,010 Brent Kochuba: also sell those options. And so if I owned a 53 00:02:35,010 --> 00:02:37,950 Brent Kochuba: hundred shares of Apple stock, I collect the dividend, quarterly 54 00:02:37,950 --> 00:02:40,669 Brent Kochuba: dividend, and that's great. But if I'm a retiree or 55 00:02:40,669 --> 00:02:42,910 Brent Kochuba: just someone looking for a bit of extra income, I 56 00:02:42,910 --> 00:02:46,760 Brent Kochuba: may think that selling calls against my stock position could 57 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:50,049 Brent Kochuba: bring in some money. So for example, every third Friday 58 00:02:50,050 --> 00:02:53,079 Brent Kochuba: of the month, there's a new options expiration. So I could 59 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,070 Brent Kochuba: look out to May and say, look, I don't think 60 00:02:56,070 --> 00:02:58,250 Brent Kochuba: Apple's really going to get up into the 200 level. 61 00:02:58,250 --> 00:03:00,940 Brent Kochuba: So maybe I'm going to sell one 200 call against 62 00:03:00,950 --> 00:03:03,540 Brent Kochuba: the hundred shares of Apple stock that I own, and maybe I 63 00:03:03,540 --> 00:03:06,010 Brent Kochuba: bring in an extra hundred bucks or something for doing that. 64 00:03:06,020 --> 00:03:10,419 Sean Aylmer: Okay. And Apple, there's a lot of that activity around Apple? 65 00:03:10,630 --> 00:03:13,239 Brent Kochuba: Yeah. A lot of these core stocks that are core 66 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,300 Brent Kochuba: holdings, if you own Apple, you likely have owned it 67 00:03:16,300 --> 00:03:18,519 Brent Kochuba: for a long time. It's one of the biggest constituents 68 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,579 Brent Kochuba: in the S& P 500. It is the bellwether stock, 69 00:03:22,580 --> 00:03:24,270 Brent Kochuba: I think kind of in the world you could argue. 70 00:03:24,870 --> 00:03:27,000 Brent Kochuba: And so you'll see this in a lot of stocks 71 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,020 Brent Kochuba: that pay a good dividend. When Apple was having its 72 00:03:30,020 --> 00:03:32,970 Brent Kochuba: surge towards last year, that yield really went down quite 73 00:03:32,970 --> 00:03:35,080 Brent Kochuba: a bit. But you'll see a lot of, we call 74 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,220 Brent Kochuba: it call overriding, which is the idea of bringing an 75 00:03:37,220 --> 00:03:39,680 Brent Kochuba: income. It's quite a popular strategy here, at least in 76 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:41,680 Brent Kochuba: the US. And you'll see this in a lot of 77 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,130 Brent Kochuba: the stocks that pay a high dividend or pay a 78 00:03:44,130 --> 00:03:48,790 Brent Kochuba: decent yield in general, that people will systematically sell calls 79 00:03:49,220 --> 00:03:51,480 Brent Kochuba: every month or every quarter. And they'll continuously just keep 80 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:54,370 Brent Kochuba: rolling to try to collect that extra yield. 81 00:03:54,900 --> 00:03:56,670 Sean Aylmer: Stay with me Brent, we'll be back in a minute. 82 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:07,510 Sean Aylmer: My guest this morning is Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma. 83 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:09,800 Sean Aylmer: Now I hate to think that Apple is actually a 84 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:11,850 Sean Aylmer: boring stock, but in a sense, because it is so 85 00:04:11,850 --> 00:04:15,779 Sean Aylmer: big, it's sort of as a bellwether, it doesn't quite 86 00:04:16,060 --> 00:04:19,489 Sean Aylmer: enthuse people as much as something like Tesla. Tesla is 87 00:04:19,490 --> 00:04:20,609 Sean Aylmer: quite a phenomenon. 88 00:04:21,290 --> 00:04:24,940 Brent Kochuba: It's an amazing stock to watch. And I don't know 89 00:04:24,940 --> 00:04:26,990 Brent Kochuba: if you all are familiar with the idea of the 90 00:04:26,990 --> 00:04:29,760 Brent Kochuba: game of squeeze and it was sort of the phenomenon 91 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:34,010 Brent Kochuba: that broke out here in early of 2021 with GameStop and AMC, 92 00:04:34,010 --> 00:04:38,060 Brent Kochuba: you saw just these unbelievable launch in stock prices in 93 00:04:38,060 --> 00:04:41,260 Brent Kochuba: these names that you could argue, the fundamentals didn't really 94 00:04:41,260 --> 00:04:43,849 Brent Kochuba: support some of the price action in the stock. And 95 00:04:44,020 --> 00:04:48,650 Brent Kochuba: the original meme stock was Tesla. And before you got 96 00:04:48,650 --> 00:04:51,260 Brent Kochuba: the big sort of short squeeze or call game of 97 00:04:51,260 --> 00:04:53,060 Brent Kochuba: squeezes, whatever you may want to call it in AMC and GameStop, 98 00:04:53,620 --> 00:04:55,990 Brent Kochuba: about six or eight months before that it was Tesla. 99 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,420 Brent Kochuba: And the most avid supporters of a stock I've ever 100 00:04:59,420 --> 00:05:02,170 Brent Kochuba: come across are in Tesla. They believe that it is 101 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:06,640 Brent Kochuba: the savior of all mankind many of them. No joking. 102 00:05:07,020 --> 00:05:10,130 Brent Kochuba: And they have a very active options complex. And I 103 00:05:10,130 --> 00:05:11,500 Brent Kochuba: think part of that is the reason is that it's 104 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:13,870 Brent Kochuba: a fairly expensive stock. It's a thousand dollars a share. 105 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,339 Brent Kochuba: But you can play in the options market. Obviously the 106 00:05:16,339 --> 00:05:17,770 Brent Kochuba: options give you a little bit of leverage. So you 107 00:05:17,770 --> 00:05:19,830 Brent Kochuba: can spend a few hundred dollars to buy a call option 108 00:05:20,180 --> 00:05:23,359 Brent Kochuba: and get exposure to the upside movement in that stock. 109 00:05:23,980 --> 00:05:26,720 Brent Kochuba: And what's interesting about that is that when traders buy 110 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:28,620 Brent Kochuba: call options and when they buy a lot of them, 111 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:33,160 Brent Kochuba: that's essentially leverage. When a lot of people buy calls, 112 00:05:33,490 --> 00:05:36,070 Brent Kochuba: there are dealers or market makers that sit on the 113 00:05:36,070 --> 00:05:38,620 Brent Kochuba: other side of those positions and they must hedge themselves. 114 00:05:38,950 --> 00:05:41,810 Brent Kochuba: And their hedging can drive the stock price up or 115 00:05:41,810 --> 00:05:45,210 Brent Kochuba: down. So effectively you may spend just a few hundred 116 00:05:45,210 --> 00:05:48,240 Brent Kochuba: dollars on a call option, and that could foist the obligation 117 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,570 Brent Kochuba: of a market maker or somebody like that to buy 118 00:05:50,570 --> 00:05:53,839 Brent Kochuba: several thousand dollars worth of Tesla shares. So it's kind 119 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,390 Brent Kochuba: of a unique situation there for Tesla and that's why 120 00:05:56,390 --> 00:05:57,810 Brent Kochuba: I think you get a lot more volatility there. 121 00:05:58,660 --> 00:06:03,170 Sean Aylmer: So there's lots of trading action on it, but fundamentally, is it a 122 00:06:03,170 --> 00:06:04,900 Sean Aylmer: good buy or not Tesla? 123 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,600 Brent Kochuba: It's a very interesting stock to look at because so 124 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,500 Brent Kochuba: much of it is priced obviously with future expectations. And one of 125 00:06:13,970 --> 00:06:16,760 Brent Kochuba: the interesting things that's happened here through the pandemic is 126 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,669 Brent Kochuba: that they have somehow been able to keep producing cars 127 00:06:20,670 --> 00:06:22,510 Brent Kochuba: and keep selling cars I think at a rate that 128 00:06:22,730 --> 00:06:24,810 Brent Kochuba: you could argue that some of the other key manufacturers 129 00:06:24,810 --> 00:06:27,460 Brent Kochuba: here have been unable to do so. They've been able 130 00:06:27,460 --> 00:06:30,190 Brent Kochuba: to open some factories quite quickly here. They just opened 131 00:06:30,190 --> 00:06:33,010 Brent Kochuba: one down in Texas, and obviously they have the Shanghai, 132 00:06:33,010 --> 00:06:34,529 Brent Kochuba: which is getting a lot of attention right now with 133 00:06:34,529 --> 00:06:37,410 Brent Kochuba: the situation going on there. But they also have now 134 00:06:37,410 --> 00:06:40,370 Brent Kochuba: the plant in Germany. And so they appear to be 135 00:06:40,370 --> 00:06:43,420 Brent Kochuba: at this moment where they're scaling and kind of getting 136 00:06:43,420 --> 00:06:46,170 Brent Kochuba: this critical mass together. And not only that, you have 137 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,180 Brent Kochuba: this charismatic leader in Elon Musk who he can just 138 00:06:50,180 --> 00:06:52,240 Brent Kochuba: will things to happen in a way that I don't 139 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:54,400 Brent Kochuba: think a lot of other leaders can. And I say that- 140 00:06:54,529 --> 00:06:56,960 Sean Aylmer: Tweet things to happen, Brent. Tweet things to happen I think. 141 00:06:59,370 --> 00:07:02,779 Brent Kochuba: That's right, but there's a weight that comes with it. 142 00:07:02,779 --> 00:07:05,630 Brent Kochuba: I think that he can compel people to do things 143 00:07:05,630 --> 00:07:07,669 Brent Kochuba: in a way that a lot of other people can't. 144 00:07:08,029 --> 00:07:09,950 Brent Kochuba: They have this position now that they are starting to 145 00:07:09,950 --> 00:07:14,210 Brent Kochuba: generate income, that they maybe have finally sort of the 146 00:07:14,210 --> 00:07:16,940 Brent Kochuba: manufacturing piece worked out, that they're building a lot of 147 00:07:16,940 --> 00:07:19,530 Brent Kochuba: their own components. And arguably, they're not as dependent on 148 00:07:19,810 --> 00:07:22,830 Brent Kochuba: a lot of other suppliers in a way that a 149 00:07:22,830 --> 00:07:25,700 Brent Kochuba: lot of other manufacturers are dependent on different suppliers. So 150 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:27,830 Brent Kochuba: this could be a real turning point for the company. 151 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:30,790 Sean Aylmer: Brent, what about Meta, owner of Facebook? 152 00:07:32,060 --> 00:07:36,210 Brent Kochuba: It's a challenging situation for them because there was a 153 00:07:36,210 --> 00:07:40,200 Brent Kochuba: big change recently in the way that Apple in particular 154 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,520 Brent Kochuba: was posting or sharing data that hurt the ad revenue 155 00:07:44,660 --> 00:07:49,020 Brent Kochuba: of Facebook. And they sort of pivoted here to switch 156 00:07:49,020 --> 00:07:51,270 Brent Kochuba: into the metaverse. In the United States, and I'm sure 157 00:07:51,270 --> 00:07:53,350 Brent Kochuba: it's a similar situation there, they're caught up in a 158 00:07:53,350 --> 00:07:56,820 Brent Kochuba: lot of issues around what are they displaying and what 159 00:07:56,820 --> 00:07:59,210 Brent Kochuba: are they not displaying and what's real and what's a 160 00:07:59,210 --> 00:08:03,470 Brent Kochuba: lie? And it's a jumbled sort of spider's web, so 161 00:08:03,470 --> 00:08:04,930 Brent Kochuba: to speak for them. And I think a lot of 162 00:08:04,930 --> 00:08:07,750 Brent Kochuba: people are unsure of what the future of this new 163 00:08:07,990 --> 00:08:13,050 Brent Kochuba: Meta platform is. Clearly it's an issue where growth is 164 00:08:13,050 --> 00:08:15,430 Brent Kochuba: a challenge for them. They have obviously Instagram which is 165 00:08:15,430 --> 00:08:18,260 Brent Kochuba: doing pretty well, but TikTok I think is what a 166 00:08:18,260 --> 00:08:20,850 Brent Kochuba: lot of people seem to like these days. And so 167 00:08:21,180 --> 00:08:24,410 Brent Kochuba: there are some I think growth concerns in general with meta. 168 00:08:25,020 --> 00:08:26,610 Sean Aylmer: And Alphabet, owner of Google? 169 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,090 Brent Kochuba: Alphabet is another interesting one from that ad revenue perspective 170 00:08:30,090 --> 00:08:32,699 Brent Kochuba: and some of the things that are happening there. They're 171 00:08:32,700 --> 00:08:35,900 Brent Kochuba: obviously going through the stock split. And what's interesting here, 172 00:08:36,330 --> 00:08:38,790 Brent Kochuba: stock splits shouldn't change the value of a company at 173 00:08:38,790 --> 00:08:42,370 Brent Kochuba: all, but there is this underlying idea that it makes 174 00:08:42,370 --> 00:08:46,300 Brent Kochuba: the stock more accessible to more traders. And so that 175 00:08:47,179 --> 00:08:50,840 Brent Kochuba: did give a quick boost to the stock. But in 176 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,179 Brent Kochuba: and amongst it's like, as Apple is sort of a 177 00:08:53,179 --> 00:08:56,490 Brent Kochuba: bellwether here, Google has such a solid position. They have 178 00:08:56,490 --> 00:08:59,470 Brent Kochuba: so much information and data that they can control that 179 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,090 Brent Kochuba: it almost doesn't trade like a typical tech stock I 180 00:09:02,090 --> 00:09:05,309 Brent Kochuba: think as much as some of the smaller cap or 181 00:09:05,309 --> 00:09:06,689 Brent Kochuba: more medium cap needs to. 182 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:10,309 Sean Aylmer: Okay. Netflix is one that many people buy here, and I think that's 183 00:09:10,309 --> 00:09:12,559 Sean Aylmer: primarily because we all watch it. 184 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:18,510 Brent Kochuba: Yeah. Netflix had a fairly poor earnings in January and 185 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:21,900 Brent Kochuba: that really dropped the stock about 20%. And we could 186 00:09:21,900 --> 00:09:24,510 Brent Kochuba: just see that the flows that came into the name, 187 00:09:24,510 --> 00:09:27,330 Brent Kochuba: and this is true for Meta, or Facebook as well, 188 00:09:27,330 --> 00:09:30,140 Brent Kochuba: that for the last two years, we had this sort 189 00:09:30,140 --> 00:09:33,730 Brent Kochuba: of reflexive buying of any dip that came along. If 190 00:09:33,730 --> 00:09:35,959 Brent Kochuba: a stock dropped at all, you would just buy the 191 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,250 Brent Kochuba: dip and we would get a rally. And now what's 192 00:09:39,250 --> 00:09:42,540 Brent Kochuba: happening is companies that don't seem to have a clear 193 00:09:42,540 --> 00:09:47,210 Brent Kochuba: edge or clear path forward, that reflexive buyback is not 194 00:09:47,210 --> 00:09:49,200 Brent Kochuba: there. And you can see that in Netflix in the 195 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:51,080 Brent Kochuba: same way you can see in Facebook where if you've 196 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,370 Brent Kochuba: got a 20% or 30% draw down again last year, 197 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:56,760 Brent Kochuba: that would've been bought right up. But in this case, 198 00:09:56,890 --> 00:09:59,929 Brent Kochuba: we have Netflix and Facebook, they just can't attract that 199 00:09:59,929 --> 00:10:04,309 Brent Kochuba: same investor enthusiasm anymore. That buy the debt mentality is 200 00:10:04,309 --> 00:10:06,949 Brent Kochuba: just not there in general in the US stocks, but 201 00:10:06,950 --> 00:10:10,260 Brent Kochuba: particularly in these names that it's not clear, there's a 202 00:10:10,260 --> 00:10:12,650 Brent Kochuba: lot of competition, it's a little murkier in terms of 203 00:10:12,650 --> 00:10:16,429 Brent Kochuba: the business environment here, interest rate environment, et cetera. They 204 00:10:16,429 --> 00:10:18,700 Brent Kochuba: obviously have a lot of debt. And so when you 205 00:10:18,770 --> 00:10:21,429 Brent Kochuba: add in all these factors, it's just a more challenging 206 00:10:21,809 --> 00:10:23,760 Brent Kochuba: stock. It has a little bit less appeal. The path 207 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,339 Brent Kochuba: is a little less clear versus some of the other 208 00:10:26,740 --> 00:10:29,160 Brent Kochuba: large cap names that are holding up pretty well. 209 00:10:30,250 --> 00:10:32,410 Sean Aylmer: Okay. And then finally, you mentioned the meme stocks, things 210 00:10:32,410 --> 00:10:35,679 Sean Aylmer: like GameStop, AMC Entertainment, where do they go? 211 00:10:36,330 --> 00:10:38,670 Brent Kochuba: Sure. We actually wrote a little piece on our blog 212 00:10:38,670 --> 00:10:42,250 Brent Kochuba: about this at spotgamma. com. And what's interesting, and I 213 00:10:42,250 --> 00:10:45,870 Brent Kochuba: love to analyze these because if you talk about investors 214 00:10:45,870 --> 00:10:50,340 Brent Kochuba: that are supportive of their stock like Tesla, GameStop and AMC, 215 00:10:50,660 --> 00:10:53,209 Brent Kochuba: there are people who are just ardent supporters and they 216 00:10:53,210 --> 00:10:55,640 Brent Kochuba: are going to sort of stand there till the end. 217 00:10:55,950 --> 00:10:59,670 Brent Kochuba: And what's fascinating to watch is you have GameStop, which 218 00:10:59,670 --> 00:11:04,300 Brent Kochuba: has Ryan Cohen, who is of Chewy fame, and he's 219 00:11:04,300 --> 00:11:06,720 Brent Kochuba: been buying shares. He just bought a hundred thousand shares 220 00:11:07,170 --> 00:11:10,470 Brent Kochuba: fairly recently. And they seem to have a plan there. 221 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,520 Brent Kochuba: They're going to now split the stock. It's $ 150 stock, 222 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:17,309 Brent Kochuba: roughly, as we're talking here, and they plan to split 223 00:11:17,309 --> 00:11:20,370 Brent Kochuba: the stock. And they seem to be putting forward a 224 00:11:20,370 --> 00:11:22,589 Brent Kochuba: good business plan. And by splitting the stock again, it's 225 00:11:22,590 --> 00:11:24,840 Brent Kochuba: going to make it accessible to more of the retail 226 00:11:24,850 --> 00:11:27,369 Brent Kochuba: public here. And we think that unlocks a lot of 227 00:11:27,370 --> 00:11:30,110 Brent Kochuba: the options activity in that name as well, which is 228 00:11:30,110 --> 00:11:33,000 Brent Kochuba: an important catalyst for some of these meme names. Now, 229 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,160 Brent Kochuba: if you contrast that versus AMC, in AMC you have 230 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,809 Brent Kochuba: the insiders who have sold I believe somewhere around $ 500 231 00:11:38,809 --> 00:11:42,500 Brent Kochuba: million worth of stock over the last year. AMC CEO, 232 00:11:42,500 --> 00:11:45,040 Brent Kochuba: they just bought a gold mine. They're big in trying 233 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,610 Brent Kochuba: to come up with NFTs and things like that. They 234 00:11:47,610 --> 00:11:52,760 Brent Kochuba: just seem to be flailing about and not being arguably 235 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:57,969 Brent Kochuba: proper stewards of their investors capital and resources. And it's 236 00:11:57,970 --> 00:12:02,070 Brent Kochuba: a real dichotomy there, the GameStop management versus the AMC 237 00:12:02,070 --> 00:12:04,349 Brent Kochuba: management. And I think that a lot of the flow 238 00:12:04,350 --> 00:12:06,290 Brent Kochuba: after the stock split, but a lot of the flow that's in 239 00:12:06,290 --> 00:12:09,280 Brent Kochuba: AMC is going to shift over to GameStop, because again, 240 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:12,230 Brent Kochuba: simply as a function of share price and having a 241 00:12:12,230 --> 00:12:15,520 Brent Kochuba: low price makes it more accessible, makes GameStop that is more 242 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:17,390 Brent Kochuba: accessible to more retail traders. 243 00:12:18,020 --> 00:12:21,559 Sean Aylmer: Okay Brent, here's the $ 64 question. And we're not at 244 00:12:21,559 --> 00:12:24,880 Sean Aylmer: financial advice show. So listeners, go and find a financial 245 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:27,349 Sean Aylmer: advisor and get some help. But where are the biggest 246 00:12:27,350 --> 00:12:29,150 Sean Aylmer: opportunities in the tech sector in the US? 247 00:12:30,550 --> 00:12:33,100 Brent Kochuba: So I think you need to stick with the large 248 00:12:33,100 --> 00:12:36,809 Brent Kochuba: companies with solid balance sheets. It's clear here that the 249 00:12:36,809 --> 00:12:39,550 Brent Kochuba: interest rates are going to continue to go higher. And 250 00:12:39,550 --> 00:12:41,679 Brent Kochuba: a lot of people here are concerned about some of 251 00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:46,679 Brent Kochuba: the possible recessionary... There's some recessionary signals here in the 252 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:49,300 Brent Kochuba: United States. And so companies that have a lot of 253 00:12:49,300 --> 00:12:51,700 Brent Kochuba: debt and aren't able to sort of continue to finance 254 00:12:51,700 --> 00:12:54,110 Brent Kochuba: that debt at the low levels that they've been able 255 00:12:54,110 --> 00:12:56,449 Brent Kochuba: to for many years are going to start to have 256 00:12:56,450 --> 00:12:59,790 Brent Kochuba: a problem. And that sort of extra capital that could 257 00:12:59,790 --> 00:13:01,760 Brent Kochuba: just rush in and buy dips is no longer there. 258 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:05,910 Brent Kochuba: So we think that sticking with the bellwethers, like the 259 00:13:06,050 --> 00:13:08,540 Brent Kochuba: Apples, and even in this case, I think Tesla's a 260 00:13:08,540 --> 00:13:11,530 Brent Kochuba: strong stock, but sticking with those names like Google that 261 00:13:11,530 --> 00:13:14,220 Brent Kochuba: everybody knows, it's a household name with strong balance sheets. 262 00:13:14,670 --> 00:13:17,520 Brent Kochuba: They're names that everybody knows, they're well established. They don't 263 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:19,209 Brent Kochuba: have those same debt problems. I mean, if you look 264 00:13:19,210 --> 00:13:21,190 Brent Kochuba: at Amazon, Amazon is just able to raise a bunch 265 00:13:21,190 --> 00:13:23,559 Brent Kochuba: of debt for very cheap for an extended period of 266 00:13:23,559 --> 00:13:26,780 Brent Kochuba: time. And they also have a good foothold on automation 267 00:13:26,780 --> 00:13:29,800 Brent Kochuba: and a lot of what's in the future. So these conglomerates are 268 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,979 Brent Kochuba: getting we think more attractive in price as the market 269 00:13:32,980 --> 00:13:34,800 Brent Kochuba: sort of has a little bit of weakness, and they 270 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,750 Brent Kochuba: will be likely the ones that are able to rebound 271 00:13:37,750 --> 00:13:40,850 Brent Kochuba: better if there is a further weakness ahead in the 272 00:13:40,940 --> 00:13:41,900 Brent Kochuba: market in general. 273 00:13:42,550 --> 00:13:44,410 Sean Aylmer: Brent, thank you for talking to Fear and Greed. 274 00:13:44,809 --> 00:13:46,020 Brent Kochuba: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. 275 00:13:46,510 --> 00:13:49,929 Sean Aylmer: That was Brent Kochuba, founder of SpotGamma. This is a 276 00:13:49,929 --> 00:13:52,260 Sean Aylmer: Fear and Greed daily interview. Join us every morning for 277 00:13:52,260 --> 00:13:55,440 Sean Aylmer: the full episode of Fear and Greed, Australia's most popular 278 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,130 Sean Aylmer: business podcast. I'm Sean Aylmer, enjoy your day.