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Another TACO Tuesday?
Daily š„H.E.A.T.š„ Your Financial GPS

I am traveling Wednesday and Thursday so may not have time to get a newsletter out one or both days. Either way back on Friday
In Todayās Issue:
Rareview 2X Bull Cryptocurrency & Precious Metals ETF
Our Next Webinarā-Cash from Corruption: Profiting Off Washingtonās Grift Machine
Another TACO Tuesday?
Why Preferreds Donāt Stink (and Most Bonds Do)
P&C Insurers: Wall Streetās Overlooked Portfolio Theme
Banking is Being Rewritten in Code
The Time Will Never Be Right For Smart Beta
and moreā¦ā¦..
Cash from Corruption: Profiting Off Washingtonās Grift Machine
Thu, Jun 26, 2025 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT |
- Two strategies to tap into Washington's grift with limited risk and unlimited upside
- How to use AI to recognize the next top themes before the "smart money" does.
- My simple hedging strategy that takes advantage of the real "dumb money" on Wall Street
To register:
Another TACO Tuesday?
SPY closed almost where it was Thursday night on rumors of easing tensions. Futures are in the red slightly on Trumpās tweet about everyone leaving Tehran. You also have to wonder what this isā¦.
āIsrael's ambassador to Washington: Expect a surprise this week regarding the attack on Iran.ā
ā Special Situations š Research Newsletter (Jay) (@SpecialSitsNews)
9:37 AM ⢠Jun 17, 2025
Saw multiple āsourcesā on X last night either claiming the US had already joined the war or that Trumpās tweet and him leaving the G7 meant we were about to. As of yet not seeing anything showing we have though.
At this point though it looks like we are back to macro concerns and the FOMC this weekā¦..
We expect Powell to try to be as non-commital as possible. With the current uncertainty around tariffs and geopolitics, the Fed just doesn't have sufficient information to lean one way or ther other. It would be prudent to wait for more incoming data and decide on the future course of action.
Our base case remains for the next cut in September and two rate cuts this year. Our view is driven by our expectation that the employment picture will weaken over the summer months due to tariff impact and SMEs facing a big wave of refinancing towards year end. However, we are not in a recession camp and expect the unemployment rate to peak close to 4.5%-4.6% in this business cycle. On a 20Y chart, 4.5% unemployment rate actually looks great.
šØ HEAT Formula Playbook: Themes
I still have no interest in investing in Europe, except for European defense names. UBS Global Strategy seems to agree on EU defense spendingā¦.
Top themes and Top stocks
EU Defense Spending remains the top scoring thematic basket in our rankings despite stretched valuations.Large fiscal announcementsearlier this year have supported the theme and driven positive earnings revisions momentum. However, we do see risk of these revisions slowing, which could place the valuation overhang at the forefront for investors. Dassault Aviation and Thales SA are both among the higher ranking names that still appear attractive on our Valuation score.
Timing is everything for theme ETFs and @TuttleCapital nailed it with $EUAD, European Defense ETF, which launched a month bf election and is up 60% since and has $900m (a ginormous amt for theme ETF in Year One). Has theme all to his self in US too.
ā Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas)
12:35 PM ⢠Jun 16, 2025
This stuff is always stupid, they have no way of knowing this. Iāll continue buying gold and the miners as long as the charts continue to tell me tooā¦ā¦
šØ HEAT Formula Playbook: Asymmetry
Queue the SPAC rumors for Trump Mobile
ā Odd Diligence (@OddDiligence)
12:03 PM ⢠Jun 16, 2025
šØ SPACs are back! šØ
With rates stabilizing and risk appetite returning, special purpose acquisition companies are front and center once again.
Gain exposure with SPCX: The SPAC and New Issue ETF.
$SPCX
spcxetf.com
For a Prospectus and other importantā Matthew Tuttle (@TuttleCapital)
2:10 PM ⢠May 28, 2025
šØ HEAT Formula Playbook: New Permanent Portfolio
Why Preferreds Donāt Stink (and Most Bonds Do)
I am working on a new white paper using the HEAT Formula concepts to modernize and potentially improve the Permanent Portfolio. A lot more to be said about that, but the original version had 25% in bonds. Itās no secret I think bonds suck, they arenāt a reliable hedge and they donāt provide asymmetric returns. The one exception to the rule is preferred shares, which I will be adding as a sleeve to my new Permanent Portfolio. I had GPT produce a very basic primerā¦.
Preferred shares are the hybrid lovechild of stocks and bonds. They sit above common equity in the capital stack, usually pay a fixed dividend, and often offer yields of 6ā8% in todayās market. They donāt get the attention they deserveāand thatās exactly why they might be the smartest place to park capital in a broken bond market.
š§ How They Work:
Fixed Dividends: Like a bond coupon, typically paid quarterly.
Seniority: Ranked above common stock, below debt.
Callable: Issuer can redeem themāusually at par ($25)āafter a call date.
Perpetual or Long-Term: Many donāt have maturity dates (but trade like long-duration assets).
Tax Advantages: Most U.S. preferred dividends are āqualified,ā taxed at lower rates than bond interest.
š© The Problem with Traditional Bonds
Letās be honest: most bonds suck right now.
Treasuries? Still yield less than inflation after taxes.
Long-duration? Killed when rates spike.
Corporate bonds? Offer 5%ā6% with far more credit risk and zero upside.
If youāre going to tie up capital in fixed income, you need to be paid. Preferreds do thatāwith equity-like upside and bond-like stability.
I prefer buying individual bonds, but only if you have the expertise. One of our traders manages a preferred hedge fund so we may do a preferred ETF at some point, until them PFFA seems like a decent alternative. From a performance perspective itās crushed HYG and AGG since inception and has a yield over 9%. Itās more correlated to SPY over the past 5 years (weekly) than AGG .629 vs .397 (source: Bloomberg) but less correlated than HYG .679 (source: Bloomberg).
šØ HEAT Formula Playbook: Themes
I wrote about P&C a few weeks ago and have the only P&C ETF in the model portfolio. I think these companies offer a unique exposure and belong in a buy and hold portfolio. Jefferies just wrote a piece on hurricane season which caused me to want to revisit the sectorā¦..
P&C Insurers: Wall Streetās Overlooked Portfolio Theme
Why selling hurricane insurance can outperform owning Treasurys during a storm
š Executive Summary
While most investors ignore the insurance sector until disaster strikes, P&C insurers quietly compound capital in a way few other sectors can matchābalancing defensive income, upside optionality, and inflation sensitivity.
The 2025 hurricane setupāpaired with a maturing reinsurance cycleāgives us a rare entry point. As Jefferies notes, pricing power is likely to re-accelerate after any landfall, favoring select underwriters and brokers.
š§ Why P&C Belongs in Every Portfolio
Feature | Why It Matters |
---|---|
Natural Hedge to Crisis | Disasters drive premiums up, not down. While markets sell off, insurers re-price. |
Float = Free Leverage | Insurers earn yield on other peopleās moneyācollected before claims are paid. |
Rate Sensitive Assets | Rising interest rates increase investment income. |
Underwriting Cycle Alpha | Smart management can grow earnings via pricing cycles, even without more customers. |
Low Correlation to Equities | Especially true during inflation spikes or bond-market stress. |
P&C firms donāt sell protectionāthey sell volatility insurance, and when the world panics, they get paid more. This is structurally asymmetricāexactly what the HEAT Formula is designed to capture.
šŖļø 2025 Hurricane Season: Setup & Strategy
Jefferies expects another active storm season, with elevated sea temperatures and a 51% chance of major U.S. landfall. But 2025 is still moderate vs. 2024, and that matters:
Landfall tends to trigger short-term pullbacks in P&C names on loss fears.
But post-storm, stocks re-rate higher as losses are smaller than feared and premiums rise.
āThe āhurricane tradeā is real. Buy select P&C reinsurers and brokers near landfall. The greater the pricing power after, the higher the upside.ā ā Jefferies
š§© Portfolio Construction: How P&C Fits
Risk Profile: Low-beta + convex earnings exposure to catastrophe cycles
Best Use Case: In a 60/40 portfolio or a rates-sensitive ETF, P&C acts as a volatility buffer and inflation hedge
Options Strategy: Sell cash-covered puts on top P&C names during storm panic; buy long-dated calls post-landfall
Reinsurance vs. Primary:
If no storm, primary insurers win
If storm hits, reinsurers win on back-end pricing power
š Top P&C Picks (Based on Combined Ratio, CAT Strategy, and Market Position)
Ticker | Name | Strategy Strength | Rating (1ā10) |
---|---|---|---|
RNR | RenaissanceRe | CAT-focused, clean balance sheet, capital discipline | 9 |
ACGL | Arch Capital Group | Deep Florida exposure but best-in-class underwriting | 8 |
EG | Everest Group | Higher CAT leverage but upside optionality | 7 |
WRB | WR Berkley | Strong U.S. commercial presence, consistent margins | 8 |
CNA | CNA Financial | Conservative, dividend payer, steady underwriter | 7 |
BRK.B | Berkshire Hathaway | Float king with exposure via GEICO + GenRe | 9 |
Note: RNR, ACGL, and EG are the three Jefferies highlights based on Southeast positioning and CAT leverage.
š§ What the Smart Money Is Watching
CAT Bond Flows: Capital is returning to reinsurance markets (esp. ILS) ā firms with cleaner loss ratios will benefit most.
FL Insurance Reform: Legal reforms are making Florida insurable again. Underwriters who leaned in (ACGL, EG) may win long-term.
Reinsurance Cycle Compression: A benign 2025 would soften reinsurance prices, helping primary insurers like WRB, CNA, and TRV.
šÆ Trade Ideas for HEAT Readers
Strategy | When to Use | Example |
---|---|---|
Buy post-landfall panic | Storm forecast spooks market but landfall not yet | RNR, EG, ACGL |
Sell puts during storm panic | Volatility spikes, quality names get hammered | WRB, ACGL |
Buy primary insurers post-season | No major landfall ā rates soften, margin expands | CNA, WRB |
Buy LEAPS on RNR | Long-duration pricing power on CAT risk re-firming | Jan '26 $250 calls |
š§® Summary
In a storm-driven pricing cycle, P&C companies become volatility extraction machines. They sell financial āinsuranceā in literal and metaphorical waysāand when panic rises, their embedded optionality pays off. By using float, underwriting discipline, and catastrophe cycles, they deliver:
Equity-like returns with bond-like risk,
Inflation sensitivity, and
Systematic crisis hedging.
Thatās the holy trinity of uncorrelated return generation. And itās why every institutional-quality portfolio should have P&C exposure.
Bottom Line for HEAT Readers:
Property & casualty insurers arenāt just a niche sectorātheyāre a strategic hedge with asymmetric upside. Whether the hurricane hits or misses, the opportunity lies in the reaction, not the event. And thatās where real money gets made.
š¦ Banking is Being Rewritten in Code
Why Stablecoins Could Trigger the Biggest Financial Shift Since the ATMāand Who Wins When It Does
This article caught my attention as Iām always looking for massive structural shifts and I think stablecoins is going to qualifyā¦ā¦..
US Senate likely to pass stablecoin legislation tomorrow & most people still donāt know what ether isā¦
So early.
ā Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci)
2:40 AM ⢠Jun 17, 2025
I had GPT take a deep dive on this, and interestingly it brought up regional banks. I have a lot of reasons I started an inverse regional bank ETF but this wasnāt one of themā¦ā¦.
āļø The Setup: Stablecoins Arenāt Stealing Money⦠Theyāre Rewriting Where It Lives
Letās be clear: stablecoins arenāt vaporizing bank deposits. Theyāre transforming themāfrom FDIC-insured retail accounts into uninsured wholesale liabilities, often pooled in mega-banks or shifted into T-bills and repo agreements.
The WSJ piece nails this nuance: deposits donāt vanish. But the way they behave changes radically.
Your paycheck used to go into a small regional bank account.
In 2026? It might land directly in a Circle-issued stablecoin, backed by 1ā3 month T-bills, and held in a wallet you control.
The cash never hits a regional bankās retail deposit baseāit loops through primary dealers, into money markets, or directly into JPMorganās wholesale vault.
The ādepositā hasnāt left the financial systemābut itās now:
Harder for banks to lend against
More flighty
And no longer free capital banks can skim interest off of
š§ Why Stablecoins Are Disruptive (Even If Theyāre āStill Dollarsā)
Think of stablecoins as digital money-market funds on steroids.
They:
Offer yield (e.g., Figureās YLDS at 3.85%)
Are programmable (you can embed payments, rules, limits)
Settle instantly
Travel globally
Are non-bank, non-card-network dependent
You donāt need to route payments through the Visa-Mastercard cartel. And you donāt need to lend your dollars to Bank of America to earn 0.03% while they blow it on bond trades.
This is Blockbuster vs. Netflix all over again. But the theater this time is banking infrastructure, and stablecoins are the streaming platform.
š Who Wins and Loses from the Stablecoin Boom
Category | Winners | Losers |
---|---|---|
Consumers | Anyone earning >0.03% yield on cash, with custody over their own money | Anyone stuck in a low-yield bank account or unaware of stablecoins |
Stablecoin Issuers | Circle (CRCL), Figure (YLDS), Tether, eventually Visa/Amex | Shadow issuers who canāt prove 1:1 backing |
Mega Banks | JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC)āfor now, they get large deposit flows from stablecoin reserve accounts | Regional banks like NYCB, ZION, or SVB-style tech lendersāthese lose sticky retail deposits |
Brokerages/Platforms | Coinbase (COIN) becomes the new āchecking accountā for many | Legacy retail brokers not integrating stablecoin rails |
Payments | Visa (V) and AmEx (AXP) if they tokenize their brands | Discover, PayPal, Mastercard if they resist adaptation |
Treasury | Massive new demand for T-bills = lower funding costs | May face duration mismatches or systemic risks if stablecoin redemptions surge suddenly |
š§Ø But Hereās the Real Rubā¦
Stablecoins are draining the cheap deposits that regional banks rely on to fund loans. And theyāre replacing them with volatile, high-balance, uninsured corporate accounts.
Thatās exactly what triggered the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
And the irony? Circle, one of the largest stablecoin issuers, had billions at SVB before the collapse. It got lucky when the government stepped in. But what happens next time?
š® Implications: What Happens Over the Next 36 Months?
1. Regional banks get squeezed
They canāt compete on yield, tech, or convenience. They lose depositors to:
Money market funds
T-bill ETFs
Stablecoins
And theyāre left with higher cost of capital and reduced lending capacity.
2. Payment rails get disintermediated
Visa and Mastercard become less relevant as money settles directly over wallets and protocols. Unless they tokenize themselves (which they will), they risk Blockbuster status.
3. Treasury gets hooked
Stablecoins are backed by T-bills. Thatās greatāfor now. But if everyoneās liquidity sits in 90-day government paper, what happens in a panic? Who buys when the sell wave hits?
4. Banks get bigger, riskier
Ironically, JPM and BAC may āwinā on the surfaceācollecting larger balances. But these are hot-money deposits that can evaporate in a single blockchain-confirmed transaction.
š Deep Dive: Public Company Exposure
š¼ Potential Winners
CRCL (Circle) ā IPOād with massive traction, its USDC is regulatory friendly and transparently managed
COIN (Coinbase) ā Gains from custody, trading, and stablecoin velocity; itās becoming the new āretail bankā for Gen Z
V / AXP / JPM ā If they issue their own stablecoins early
FIGURE ā First to launch a yield-bearing stablecoin (YLDS), with built-in distribution
š½ Likely Losers
BAC / WFC / ZION / KEY / NYCB ā Retail banking is their lifeblood; without sticky deposits, their model breaks
DFS / MA / PYPL ā All at risk if they donāt adopt token-based systems for digital payments
Unregulated or offshore stablecoins ā Will face heavy scrutiny once U.S. regulation passes (GENIUS Act)
š§ What This Means
Youāve always bet on themes with asymmetric upside and misunderstood timelines.
This is that momentājust like you saw with Tesla, DeepSeek AI, and anti-ARK ETF themes.
Stablecoins arenāt a footnote. They are the new financial OS.
š„ Positioning Strategy for Readers:
Long Circle (CRCL) and Figure, if available
Long COIN ā becomes the modern retail interface to money
Short undercapitalized regional banks or buy puts
Long U.S. T-bill funds and brokers that benefit from demand
Track GENIUS Act progress closely ā catalyst-driven opportunity
Monitor any announcement from Visa, AmEx, or JPM on token launches
š§ Final Take
Porter Stansberryās ābanks are f***edā thesis may be bombasticābut directionally, heās spot on. The same way you don't buy DVDs anymore, you won't ādepositā money at a retail bank in five years. Youāll just move capital between wallets, platforms, and protocolsāwith no middleman and with interest.
Thatās not a fintech fadāitās the future of monetary architecture.
If the dollar is going to stay dominant globally, it wonāt be because of the Fed or the banks. It will be because stablecoins make the dollar usable anywhere, by anyone, in real timeāand because Treasury debt is quietly being monetized through it.
This is a once-in-a-generation financial dislocation. Letās play it accordingly.
šØ HEAT Formula Playbook: Edges
The Time Will Never Be Right For Smart Beta
Smart-beta strategies simulated by Research Affiliates lagged behind benchmarks by up to roughly 6 percentage points annually from 2017 to 2024, the new paper found.
Hereās the problem. Edges do exist in markets, but once you discover āsmart betaā type edges like low volatility, value, etc they get arbed outā¦..
Research Affiliates and Arnott, known as āthe godfather of smart beta,ā also produced a contentious article in 2016 titled, āHow Can āSmart Betaā Go Horribly Wrong?ā It questioned the prospects of one popular smart-beta investment, low-volatility funds, which seek to fluctuate less than the market. Arnott and his colleagues argued that a deluge of money from investors had sent valuations soaring and dimmed the outlook for future returns.
The edges you want to look for are structural or behavioral, or are so intensive that they canāt be arbed out. For example, a structural edge is being short VIX ETPs (through puts please) as with the built in contango they are designed to go to zero. A behavioral edge is something like 2-4 period RSI which has been around since the early 90s but still works just about as well today as it did then. We also have ETFs like BWTG that have a process thatās so intensive that nobody has the infrastructure to match it.
How Did You Like Today's Newsletter |
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