WEBVTT - Todd Harrison Discusses Biopharmaceutical Investments 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.800 This is Masters in Business with very Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:12.760 This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.720 His name is Todd Harrison, and as you will be 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.040 able to tell from the listening, he and I know 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.279 each other for a more than a few years. We 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.200 go way back. Todd has really a fascinating career in finance, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:34.200 and and a very atypical one. It began fairly uh reasonably. Um. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.400 He ends up on Morgan Stanley's derivative desk, He goes 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.720 to Gallant, he goes to Kramer Berkowitz, and then he 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:44.320 starts doing some really really unusual, interesting different things. I 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:49.400 think you will find the space he's carved out presently 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:55.960 to be both very very interesting and somewhat unique. He 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.920 runs a hedge funds that focuses on health and whelming 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:06.520 us specifically through CBD and cannabinoids. That is, um, the 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.640 proper pronunciation of what I was messing up. I was 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.399 calling it cannaboids, but apparently that's wrong. Uh. It is 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:19.559 one of the many um active medical ingredients in marijuana. 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:24.280 He believes this is a space that is uniquely situated 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.720 to benefit from a number of waves uh, the changes 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.360 in demographics that are taking place with the aging of 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:40.080 American society, how expensive American healthcare and pharmaceuticals have become. Uh, 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.920 not only that, but the the huge change in the 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.840 science of what we're learning about the various molecules and 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:53.000 chemicals within marijuana and all of its medicinal applications. And 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.880 at the same time, he looks at this as a 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:01.160 wildly underserved space in the investment world. You know, when 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.040 I think about legalization, I think about people who are 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.000 gonna go get a PAXs pen or a vape and 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.839 and basically, you know, have a little bit of fun 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.200 on a Saturday night. He's looking at this completely differently. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.520 This isn't about UM recreational weed. This is about the 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:23.720 application of science to the compounds in marijuana and everything 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.520 at all. That plus the opioid crisis, which UM there's 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.720 a huge overlap in UM helping to solve that and 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:36.080 some of the applications of cannabinoids and marijuana, and you 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.280 end up with what is really a fascinating conversation about 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.639 a fairly unique niche in in investing. And if you're 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.480 at all interested in this, I think you're gonna find 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.359 it fascinating. So, with no further ado, my conversation with 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:59.440 CB one Capital Partners Todd Harrison. This week I have 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.400 an extra special guest. His name is Todd Harrison, and 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:07.080 he has quite the career uh in finance. He spent 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.600 seven years on the worldwide equity derivative desk at Morgan 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.200 Stanley before leaving to manage derivatives at the Galleon Group. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.600 He became president and chief trader at the four hundred 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:25.320 million dollar hedge fund Kramer Berkowitz. At the Street dot Com, 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.360 he created the Trading Diary, which, for my money, was 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.400 the first real time financial blog ever. He founded the 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.640 investor education site Minionville, author of the book The Other 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.080 Side of Wall Street. He currently is the founding partner 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.960 and chief investment officer of CB one Capital Management, a 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:54.400 healthcare fund focusing on medical canniboyds. Todd Harrison, Welcome to Bloomberg. 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.240 Thank you for having me, Barry, and I've been looking 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.640 forward to having a conversation with you on air for forever. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.120 There's so much stuff to talk about. Let's start in 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.480 the nineties. You go from Morgan Stanley, where you're on 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.880 the derivative desk, to Galleon to Cramer Berkowitz. What was 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.919 that side of trading like during that sort of crazy 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.680 time the es Well, I think it's everything everybody hates 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.240 about trading now and the Wall Street persona, it was. 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.440 It was a lot looser, it was a lot more 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.160 maverick um, and I think the industry was a lot 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.200 more fun back then. You remember, we actually believed we 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.920 were doing uh, real utility in our work. We believe 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.280 we were facilitating the mechanism of the capital market structure, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.880 and that was noble work. Back then, it was it 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.760 was God's work and so else. I stayed away from 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.600 that by design, but certainly I think there was there 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.360 was a lot, a lot of meaning in that. Back 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.400 before this we all became algorithmic and certainly dominated by 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.640 the computer world, and and also before it became less profitable, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:04.960 less volatile, less um, less interesting as a career. So so, 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.240 Morgan Stanley, you're just a derivative trader. Are you trading 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.039 on your own behalf? You're trading on behalf of the 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.640 firm's clients. What are you actually doing on the desk? Well, 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.159 I was trading on the equity derivative desk, So I 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:21.160 was facilitating customer orderflow, but we also traded proprietarily back then, 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.640 So I had the biotech book, I had the financials 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.160 that I took as my own. But it was an 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.359 interesting journey to Morgan Stanley. I know, I didn't always 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.960 plan to be on Wall Street. When I went to Syracuse, 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.919 I was proficient in accounting and finance, and it was 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.719 really a jump ball back then. But uh, I was 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.440 accused of cheating on my UH my advanced finance class 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.480 mid term UH in my junior year, and as I 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.160 got pulled to the professor's office, he asked me a 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.760 number of questions and when I realized what the dynamic was, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.279 you know, long story short, he ended up placing me 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.560 at Morgan Stanley in one in between my junior and 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.080 senior year of college. And that was really the beginning 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.240 of of really watching the energy and seeing the the 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.360 way this business worked. And I was hooked from from 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.200 the word go. So, so you dropped into the middle 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.960 of that sentence I was accused of cheating. I'm gonna 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.080 assume it wasn't. Oh, I have this ethicless kid who 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.760 was a cheat, or let me send them to London. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.799 That's where they go he figured out, obviously you weren't cheating, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.039 and what was the basis of the accusation? Were you 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.200 scoring too high on the test? Yes, I blew the 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.159 bell curve. So I think I got like a hundred 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.719 and fifty something on the mid term. And I thought 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.000 he was going to congratulate me. But you know, as 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.240 it turns out, he's Uh, he's a good man. And 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.560 I was actually in a fraternity with his brother, with 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.240 his with his son. Uh. It was. It turned into 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:45.920 a good story. But at the time it was an 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.200 interesting dynamic to go to London while you're in college 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.880 and to sit there. I was in operations control. I 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.279 brought the trade breaks to all the traders. I was 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.159 screamed at, yelled at, uh, completely demoralized, and I was hooked. 0:06:58.200 --> 0:06:59.560 I said, that's where I want to be one day. 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.120 I want to be, not seat. I want to be 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.159 the screamer and not the scream a. So so Morgan 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.040 Stanley to the Galleon Group, which was then a huge 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.880 and very successful UM hedge fund prior to that little 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.800 hiccup towards the later years. What did you do with Galleon? Well, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.880 I had two I had two roles there I traded 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.080 my own book, but really my primary role was to 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.840 manage the derivative book. Galley On when I started was 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.679 five hundred million. That grew to about five billion UM, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.200 and it was it was a lot tougher than I expected, 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.640 without the infrastructure and the franchise behind me of Morgan Stanley. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.080 But I think maybe some of that had to do 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.240 with the environment. Now, you know, I worked there for 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.480 two years only, and I think, you know, the writing 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.560 was on the wall after the first year, when there 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.120 was about a hundred million to whack up between five partners. 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.560 There were five partners in me, I was shut out 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.840 and and and subsequently the next year something very similar 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:50.520 happened and I was told that I didn't have what 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.119 it takes to make partner, which I was actually upset 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.680 about for some time. But that that that has passed, 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.080 I would imagine, So how do you end up going 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.600 from Galleon to Kramer Berkewitz. Well, Jeff Berkelewitz was always 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.360 a friend of mine and I knew they had a 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.440 tough year year prior. Uh So we had started a 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.720 conversation once the writing was on the wall at Galleon, 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:13.440 and he asked me to come over and that's where 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:15.680 I met Jim and and Jeff and it was a 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.440 good dynamic there. So I came in um and I 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.080 took control of the trading operation. I turned the desk 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.160 over and implemented risk protocols and uh, you know, it's 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.240 a terrific year that that was y two k So 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.680 that was the one year that Jim and I actually overlapped. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.760 We did quite well that year, and I ended up 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.719 staying there for another couple of years after. And to 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.200 put for those people who may not be familiar with 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.880 Kramer Berkelewitz, you know, Jim Kramer, the talking head, but 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:42.319 I want to say their long time track record was 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.560 something like year compounded. Is that about right? That's a 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.040 very respectable track record. And you're gonna take credit for 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.120 how much of it? Very little? Very little. So from 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.440 that trading background at Kramer Berkowitz, Jim Kramer decides to 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.800 launch the Street dot com. And we'll talk more about 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:04.000 that later, but you decide to start writing for the Street, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.160 a real time online trading diary. What what was the 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.680 motivation behind that? It wasn't my decision. This was Jim 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.840 going on vacation in July of two thousand and asking 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.480 me if I would fill in for a day, and 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.599 never having written before, but certainly Jim being Jim is 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.760 hard to say no to. And uh, it was something 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.840 that I had fun with. I was using pop culture 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.839 references in double entendres uh and and musical lyrics and 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.199 I happened to be extremely barished. This was the spring 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.320 or summer of of two thousands the case maybe uh, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.360 and it just it just took and developed quite a 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.920 community out of that. So I think a lot of 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.800 people here in New York might be surprised to know 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:50.120 that New York has a legal medical marijuana uh set 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:55.440 of statutes that allows, on an extremely limited basis, the 0:09:55.679 --> 0:10:01.720 prescription approachase and consumption by people UM who have very 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.960 specific diseases. New York is nothing like California. Just say, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.120 you know Oregon or Colorado or any of the other 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.320 places that have really moved from the criminalization to um 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.400 full on legalization. What what is the New York situation? Well, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.920 they actually just expanded the access to include PTSD and 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.720 that's actually how I got my cannabis card in New York. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.240 Is true? That is true, UM, And it wasn't going 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.760 to talk about this, but certainly as a as a 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.880 bit of a context for the card. Uh. Nine eleven 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:36.719 was very profound for all of us. So I was 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.800 going to say, anyone who worked with Cramer is Jim's 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.920 a good man. Uh. So you know nine eleven, we 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.520 were down there, that's where our office was. And and certainly, uh, 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.520 you were right on Fulton, so we you know, certainly 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.200 you know, heard the bang and saw people holding hands 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.840 and jumping, and saw the second plane entering the building, 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:00.800 and um, you know, it was a pretty horrow experience. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.800 But I remember that I refused to really let myself 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.280 feel bad because I felt guilty because so many people 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.160 lost so much more. And I thought, and although it 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.520 is doesn't seem to be the healthiest way to well clearly, 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.280 but what ended up happening is over the course of 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:22.920 the treatment protocol, I was I was um prescribed a 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:28.240 numerous different medications anti anxiety, anti depression. Uh, and before 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:29.839 I knew what I was stocked on four or five 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.960 different medications. That was really just it changed who I 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.920 was as a person and really changed how I was 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.280 able to think and act um. And it was during 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.839 a time that that significant and impact Ye and it's 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.040 not this is not a this is not a solo story. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:43.600 There's a lot of people out there that I think 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.920 are are going through this right now and they become 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.800 dependent on these prescription drugs. And you know, that was 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.839 really one of the catalysts for me to really start 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.040 to dive down into the Canada space. I started to 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.679 invest in a company called GW Pharmaceuticals a number of 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.600 years ago, and you know, they're studying the plant right there, 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.160 taking a not a noise out of the plant and 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.000 studying it for efficacy. So these are people rolling up 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.520 joints and striking weeds. These are people who are actually 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.320 either consuming it in a pill form or or some 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.959 other assumption like traditional pharmaceuticals. Sure, and that's really what 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.199 what UH really enlightened me because for a long time, 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.800 and I remember going on TV about eight years ago 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.040 talking about cannabis is my single best investment idea for 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.360 the next decade. And I was a little early, but 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.520 certainly I was also wrong, and that I was looking 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.080 at the job growth to tax revenue, the prison population, 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.680 crime rate and saying this makes sense. I failed to 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.839 realize the coordinated agenda by the big pharmaceutical companies to 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.640 keep this illegal, and all of that that I studied 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:40.840 and look back on it really what I think is 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.440 criminal activities on the part of the government to really 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.559 suppress this given what they knew at the time in 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.960 terms of efficacy. So here's the question on that. Years 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.480 and years and years ago, like the eighties and nineties, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.760 I always heard weed is going to be legal because 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.320 all the big tobacco companies know that their products killing people, 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:03.280 and they know how to grow, and they know how 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:04.679 to roll, and they know how to do all this, 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.280 and one day the switch is gonna flip and you know, 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.640 Philip Morris and Brown and Williamson and all those companies 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.400 are going to go from selling cigarettes to selling joints. 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.200 That never happens. That's not true. It actually is happening now. 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.600 It is now. I mean that never happened where where 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.560 I certainly didn't happen on my timeline to be to 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:29.280 be um precise, how much is that actually happening? And 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.040 what I'm trying to tee up is how much is 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.319 that same pivot going to take place with the pharmaceutical 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.520 industry that's been fighting what appears to be a losing battle. Well, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.760 We've been saying for some time that the by build 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.240 was going to migrate across for spaces by build by build, 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.319 So it's not as easy as dropping seeds in the 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.199 ground and growing a cannabis plant. There's a lot of 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:51.960 science and we're gonna talk a little bit about the 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:56.280 frontier science the endocannabinoid system, UH and what the science 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.120 behind this is. And it's really fascinating. It's it's for 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.319 those who are intellect really curious. This is a rabbit 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.360 hole that I still haven't climbed out of, but we've 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.559 seen it. We saw Constellation Brands take a stake in 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.680 Canopy that was on the beverage side. We saw a 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.960 oy by a Canadian growers, so that's on the tobacco side. Uh. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:16.599 And we think the next phase is going to be 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.800 biopharmaceutical and then ultimately consumer goods because if you think 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.120 about it, as more supply comes on, the prices will decline. 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.880 That's going to help people who use cannabis as an ingredient. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:27.800 That's going to help their margins on the back end. 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.680 That's quite fascinating. You mentioned an investment in Canada. Last year, 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:39.000 Canada passed the law that essentially says they're decriminalizing marijuana 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.320 as a country, the first G seven country to do. So, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:47.600 what what's gonna happen with that? Well, there, that's gonna happen, clearly. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.640 But I think part of part of the mist perception 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.280 about Canadian cultivators is people are extrapolating that to the 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.000 Canadian population, but in actuality, what they are going to 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.320 be is a service station to the world. So they 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.240 have deals with Germany, they have deals all over the 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.760 all over the world, and you're seeing this sweeping across 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.560 the world, whether it's followed the money, whether it's people 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.760 are understanding for the first time the efficacy. What's interesting 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.320 is the morning that Jeff Sessions revoked the Coal Memorandum 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.920 the Australian and then explain that for people who may 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.800 not the Cole Memorandum effectively protected the States from government 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.600 interference under President Obama, correct, all right, and then under 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:28.560 President Trump Sessions Sessions provoked that And then didn't we 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.080 just here a deal with Corey Booker and who was 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.680 blocking some of the President's appointments and President Trump it 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.440 was Corey Gardner in in Colorado. But um, you know, 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.360 when we've been saying for some time now that we 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.400 think that the foremost dangerous words in finance, this time 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.280 is different. That this time is in fact different because 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.560 it's an election year and you have of the constituency 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.400 that's supportive of medical cannabis. That's amazing, And the only 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.880 thing that politicians like more than lobby money is being reelected. 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.200 So we actually have been saying for some time that 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.320 we thought that you're gonna see a pretty significant pivot 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.200 this year. And sure enough, you saw Mitch McDonald, Mitch 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.440 McConnell with the Hemp bill. You saw John Bayner. Now, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.200 by the way, Bayner was rapidly anti hot when he 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.960 was Speaker of the House. And what happened He saw 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.000 a little bit of that no pun intended leafy green 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.720 stuff and suddenly he changed his view. Well, there's that, 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.920 but there's also what I think the real You know, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.200 when we talk about this investment in our strategy really 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.120 through the lens of four arbitrages, right, arbitrage of time 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.400 versus policy. Right, we do believe this is efficacious and oh, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.240 by the way, the only way the US government can 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.680 tax this as if it's through the FDA. Right, we 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.040 believe it's an arbitrage of of price versus UH the 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.960 high net worth individuals and the US institutions that are 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.240 going to be on boarding to the space. Vanguard very 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.560 quietly has become a top five holder in all of 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.920 the Canadian majors. Now is that is that within their 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.520 indexes or is that within the one and a half 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.600 two trillion that's active. I don't know the answer to that, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.080 but I know that. But I do know that when 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.240 I've gone to these conferences, I've seen Fidelity, Vanguard, Putnam, 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.920 Goldman all walking around. These barbarians are massing at the gate. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.560 If if if institutions don't chase growth, it'll be the 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.359 first time in my thirty years that it hasn't happened that. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.040 That's so. So here's the question. How big can the 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.760 market for medical marijuana become? Well, Gallup right now is 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.000 saying it's about a three and twenty billion dollar annual 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.200 market all in. What is that comparable to? I mean, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.000 you know we have talked, You and I have talked 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.520 about the parallel with prohibition and alcohol coming on. I 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.760 think that's a non linear comparison because alcohol never killed 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.439 cancer cells, alcohol never reduced epileptic seizures. We think that 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.400 the third arbitrage I alluded to is perception getting well 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.720 versus getting high. We think this is about getting well, 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.240 and we talked about earlier with the coal memorandum. The 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.080 health ministers of Australia and Canada came out that morning 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.119 and said they wanted to dominate the world in cannabis. Now. 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.480 Their health ministers said this, now, unless they want a 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.800 nation full of stoners. We're betting that they see what 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.040 we see in terms of the efficacy. And this is 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.480 the untold story here. This is why it's so powerful 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.199 right the people. There are people on the right thing 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.359 that think this is the devil's weed. There are people 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.199 on the left that like to smoke a vaporizer on 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.240 a Saturday night. But all of us, if somebody that 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.439 we love is suffering, we want the best care with 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.080 the least amount of side effects. And that's the story here. 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.520 This is a wellness story I know, and full disclosure, 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.280 I know Todd for a couple of decades. We both 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.560 wrote at the Street dot com back in the day. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.080 I have to talk a little bit about that. We 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.440 mentioned the trading diary that you filled in for a day. 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.920 How did that become a daily routine. Interestingly, I found 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:43.440 that it helps synthesize my thought process. And I've always 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.160 looked at the market and said, there's always a bear 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:46.840 case and there's always a bowl case. And if you 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.440 could you know that that friction between those opinions is 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.440 where both education is found, but it's also where profitability lies, right, um. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.440 And so I I took to it, uh the online platform, 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.320 and keep in mind this is before blogs and social media, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.359 so it was still, um, a bit of a pedestal, 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.840 I guess, but I enjoyed it because it allowed me 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.439 an opportunity to uh synthesize my thoughts and really lay 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.640 it out there in a way that held me accountable 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.240 to really following my own my own thought process. That 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.280 that's a very um astute insight. Daniel Burston was the 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:25.080 Librarian of Congress and his famous line was, uh, I 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.960 write to figure out what I think, and besides, the 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.760 bars aren't open at that hour. And uh, you pretty 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:35.760 much said something similar. So the trading diary continues, and 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.520 you did that for a long time. I recall you 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.520 mentioned there's always a bull and bear case. You came 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.919 up with a great metaphor for your putting on your 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.119 bullsuit or your bear suit. I have one one hoof in, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.040 I have two hoofs in. You you literally explained for 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:56.560 readers not just I'm bullish, embars hey, I'm se bullish 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.439 or how did the process of writing help with your 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.440 own trade? Well, as I said, I think it held 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.800 me accountable, but it also it also allowed for more 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.080 sequencing in my thought process. So, uh, you know, certainly, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.520 and we talked a lot about you know, there's always 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.159 this bowl case and the always this bearcase, and we 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.879 sort of brought them to life with the characters that 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.880 we invented and animated and ultimately, you know, they won 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.639 an Emmy Award for their work, and Huffy and Booch certainly, 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.560 and you know, the perfect media prize, right, an Emmy award. 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.320 It looks nice on the mantel, it's nice and shiny, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.480 but the zero revenue attached, you know. So but that 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.400 was but that was you know, the idea behind Minonville 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:35.240 was really to create a vertical from the A, B 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.159 C s to the four one case. You know, we 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:43.800 identified financial awareness, financial empowerment, financial literacy by another name. Uh, 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.800 you know, through my writing at the Street Dot com 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:47.760 realized that there's a lot of people out there that 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:49.680 need the help, that want the help, that are good 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:51.880 people who deserve the help. And I sort of took 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.080 that upon myself to to do that. And for fifteen 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.240 years that was a very meaningful way to spend my day. 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.760 Not a very profitable way to spend my Uh you know, 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.480 I traded my own account throughout the al but uh, 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:05.600 you know, certainly, I think psychic income was at an 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.000 all time high. So my colleague Josh Brown called the 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.879 Street dot com the motown records of the financial web. 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:19.960 And I could point to just about every institution that 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:26.760 covers trading economy, markets, media UM from from from Bloomberg 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:28.560 to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal to 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.800 you name it, and there's a huge pro publica, a 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:37.080 huge swath of people um that trace their roots back 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:40.080 to the Street dot Com. So I have two questions 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.760 for you about that. What was the feeling like inside 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:49.200 the Street when this new idea of democratizing research rolled out? 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:54.240 And then what was the leaping off aha moment Frommingonville 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:58.720 as a as an educational outlet. Sure, so I think 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.840 they were the original on on community and financial media 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.600