Unhedged
Episodes
Rethinking Tesla and Apple
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the last months, the stock market has been a joyride, but not for two of the biggest names in tech: Tesla and Apple. Today on the show we look at h...
Navigating the next super cycle
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, we’re taking the long view, the very long view. Our guest isPeter Oppenheimer, the head of macro research in Europe for Goldman S...
Wall Street bets on Reddit
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reddit has never had a profitable year. And yet its IPO this week saw its shares skyrocket on the first day of trading. Today on the show, we ask if R...
The great British bargain show
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The major stock index in the UK, the FTSE 100, includes some of the biggest and most profitable multinational companies in the world. But in recent ye...
Inside the crypto hype machine
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
FT correspondent Josh Oliver spent years covering crypto and the legal troubles of Sam Bankman-Fried. Last week, he published Hype Machine, a book abo...
Listener Questions
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You asked, we answered. Today on the show, we team up with our sibling podcast, Behind the Money, and answer questions from listeners. We’re tacklin...
Can the US stock market stand 3% US inflation?
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week's US inflation numbers came in and they’ve remained higher for longer than many expected, or wanted. How does this change the Federal Rese...
Does factor investing still work?
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Factor investing came out of academic work in the 1990s, and offered a way to pick stocks without relying on judgments about stories or sectors. It’...
Inside the traders’ black box
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Market watchers have wondered for years about what really goes on inside trading firms like Citadel Securities, Susquehanna and Virtu. A recent ruling...
Learning to love the boom
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rates are up and so are the markets, baffling the bears. Today on the show, FT correspondents Ethan Wu and Katie Martin look at five reasons the marke...
Is ESG over?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
ESG investing has been a dominant topic in finance for the past few years. But ESG seems to be taking a back seat. Today on the show, we talk about th...
Three markets, three highs
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the last few weeks, markets have hit highs in the US, Europe, and Japan. Today on the show, we try to understand what has powered the results. We t...
WeWork rework
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
WeWork, the co-working company founded by Adam Neumann, collapsed in bankruptcy last year. And since then, the commercial real estate market has only ...
Active investors! Assemble
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Of course we all know that passive investing delivers superior returns. But what if everyone is investing passively? Is there a case for active invest...
The dilemma of the supercompany
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We live in the age of supercompanies: massive, dominant players that seem to get better as they grow — for customers and investors. And they also ma...
Are dividends back?
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta just announced its first-ever dividend, which is something that rapidly growing tech companies rarely do. Dividends have been...
How not to pick stocks
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Each year the FT hosts a stockpicking contest. Today on the show, we go over our picks for 2023, which were brilliantly bad. We guessed wrong on housi...
High-yield bond bonanza
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Demand for riskier corporate bonds is intense. The spread between higher yielding (riskier) bonds and safer Treasuries is narrowing, and nearing long-...
Will commercial real estate hurt regional banks?
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York Community Bancorp shares fell 38% on Wednesday, partly on worries about the bank’s exposure to commercial real estate. Today on the show, E...
Can China rebound in 2024?
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While markets around the world took off last year, China continued to stumble. Will 2024 be any different? Today on the show, Ethan Wu and Katie Marti...
Boardroom games
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New rules about how board members are elected could change how corporate America is governed. In March, the Starbucks shareholder meeting may be a fir...
Two stock markets, two takes
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While the S&P 500 just hit a new high, the FTSE 100 is down about 3 per cent for the year. Today on the show, we talk about the two markets. First...
Is America overpriced?
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is an historically large premium on the S&P 500, when compared to markets in the rest of the world. That reflects strong outperformance in t...
Cash Rethink Energises Asset Markets
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As interest rates jumped, cash ruled for a lot of investors. The payment for doing absolutely nothing – in the form of money market funds and other ...
Introducing Untold: The Retreat
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage...
Today's inflation numbers
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, we dig into the latest inflation numbers, examining the results for shelter, goods and energy, and think about what it all means fo...
Tech stock winners
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In July, the FT’s Rob Armstrong and Elaine Moore went head-to-head in a stock-picking competition, drafting their favourite stocks from the Magnific...
Cool markets, hot takes
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After a roaring December, the markets cooled a bit in the first days of 2024. Today on the show, hosts Ethan Wu and Robert Armstrong think big thought...
The year ahead, according to AI, and humans
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, we’re looking at the year ahead, with AI by our side. Our colleague Bryce Elder at the FT built an online quiz that pits AI again...
The Unhedged Awards
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, hosts Ethan Wu, Katie Martin and Rob Armstrong dole out the first-ever Unhedgies, awards for categories such as the best overall de...
Markets gone wild
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week’s Fed statements revealed that its Open Market Committee was thinking about the possibility of interest rate cuts at some point, and the m...
Thirty-seven years of wisdom
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Guthrie has been covering finance for 37 years. Today on the show, he talks with hosts Ethan Wu and Robert Armstrong about what he’s learnt...
Central bank lookahead
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Inflation has slowed in the US, the UK, and the EU. Will this mean interest rate cuts next year? Markets seem to think so, but comments from central b...
The return of crypto
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin just hit $40,000, Coinbase is up 300 per cent this year, and French bank Société Générale is rolling out a stablecoin. All this frothy new...
Introducing Hot Money: The New Narcos
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Financial Times’ award-winning podcast series Hot Money is back. In this series our reporter Miles Johnson investigates a mysterious murder in a...
Gold just set a record. Why?
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The price of gold reached a record high last week. That’s surprising, because normally the price of gold goes down when interest rates go higher. To...
Down the liquidity hole
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Market watchers cannot help but notice how the stock market and money supply often track one another. But does liquidity in the financial sector matte...
Have rates peaked?
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Markets have rallied almost 11 percent in November, in part on expectations that the Fed is done raising rates. Today on the show, we look at the Fed’...
What the London Stock Exchange really trades
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The London Stock Exchange now makes most of its money selling data, and only a small percentage listing stocks. FT digital markets correspondent Nikou...
The zombie companies
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As interest rates rise, funding for a lot of marginally profitable companies is drying up. These corporate “zombies” are wandering the markets, lo...
What does Walmart know?
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s earning season, and the first big news might be from Walmart, whose stock dropped 7 per cent after it reported concerns about the health of the...
Big Tech roundup: Tesla, Nvidia, Apple and more
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Four months ago, the FT’s Rob Armstrong and Elaine Moore placed their bets on two portfolios of three stocks each picked from the “Magnificent Sev...
A drastic solution to exploding US government debt
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How many bears does it take to change a lightbulb? None, it will never happen. Join us today as we debrief reporter Jenn Hughes, recently back from a ...
Pub quiz showdown: Alphaville vs Unhedged
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, host Katie Martin pits two teams against one another in a historic finance trivia showdown, complete with trash talk, ridiculously ...
Sam Bankman-Fried takes the stand
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reporter Joshua Oliver joins us just hours after the closing arguments of the fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX crypto exchange. We...
Why so down, S&P 500?
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
GDP numbers are strong. Wages are strong. Household debt is relatively low. So why is the stock market so blue? Since July 31, it is down 10 percent –...
A massive GDP number
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the third quarter, the US economy, as measured by annualised GDP, grew 4.9%. In an environment of skyrocketing interest rates, that is an extraordi...
Is China a bargain right now?
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The CSI 300, which tracks the largest publicly traded companies in China, just fell to pre-pandemic lows, despite aggressive attempts by President Xi ...
FTX trial update
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, FT correspondent Josh Oliver joins us in the New York studio just minutes after leaving the courtroom. Oliver has been covering the...
Japan’s new direction
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Japanese stock market is on a tear, up 20% this year. Some of that may be due to a weakening yen, and maybe a flight to safety, but it is likely l...
Public problems for private equity
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years, low interest rates let private equity deliver huge returns to investors. But now rates are up, and private equity is struggling. Many PE fi...
Three markets we’re watching
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Conflict in the Middle East is dominating the news this week. Today on the show, we’re looking at three markets that traditionally respond to disrup...
The Biden scorecard
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We don’t really do politics, but with election season underway, candidates are arguing about the American economy. Incumbents say it’s terrific. C...
The increasingly odd bond market
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The 10- and 30- year Treasury yields just hit their highest levels since 2007, sending prices down. And at the same time, equities moved in the same d...
How high, and for how long?
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The markets tried denying that the Federal Reserve really would keep rates “higher for longer”. But in the past week, equities and debt finally se...
The strong US dollar gets stronger
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US dollar has been on a tear, just reaching a six-month high. It might be a sign investors and traders are getting used to the idea that US intere...
Well, actually: Our ‘Dumb Money’ movie review
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dumb Money, out this week, stars Seth Rogen, America Ferrera and several very tricky finance moves. We liked Seth and America, but we definitely have ...
Basis trade freakout (low key)
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hedge funds are piling into the basis trade — a bet on the difference between the price of Treasuries and the price of Treasury futures — and they...
Bonus Interview: Robyn Grew, Man Group CEO
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Robyn Grew is the new CEO of the Man Group, which manages more than $150 billion over multiple hedge funds. On September 3, she joined Katie Martin, t...
Three IPOs test the market
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As we recorded our show, Arm, the British chip designer, was finally going public in a much-watched IPO. Following in the next weeks are grocery picke...
A Tale of Two Housing Markets
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Inflation is hitting the US and the UK, but housing prices are going up in the US and down in the UK. Today on the show, we ask why, learn about two c...
Big win for Big Crypto
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Grayscale Investments manages funds of digital assets – cryptocurrency – for investors. They just won a case against the US Securities and Exchang...
Good job numbers and a bad attitude
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Summer’s nearly over, autumn is approaching, and the jobs numbers came in just right. So what are we worried about? Besides the slowdown in China, t...
The central bankers’ rodeo
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The central bankers of the world are just back from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they gathered to discuss the global economy. Two new papers dropped a...
It’s tough out there for Goldman Sachs
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The press has been savaging Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. And only the Unhedged Podcast is brave enough to defend him. A little bit. Well, we’re ...
Hot new bad idea
22 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zero-day options are now almost 50 percent of the options market. But what are they? And why would anyone take these bets? Today on the show, host Eth...
Disney’s Tragic Kingdom
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In an alternate corner of the multiverse, Disney is a family-friendly company that reliably puts out iconic films and turns them into billions of doll...
China slows down
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China’s economy has been growing faster than almost any other for a generation, so a slowdown is unfamiliar territory. Today on the show we look at ...
Icahn has problems?
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Carl Icahn is one of the most successful investors of all time, but his bet against the US economy has cost him billions of dollars. Now Hindenburg Re...
How bonds make — and break — nations
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bonds started as a tool of the state, but quickly came to determine its fortunes. Today on the show, FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth joins us ...
Uber finally delivers
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a decade, billions of dollars and almost five years on the public markets, Uber has at last turned a profit. In the previous quarter, it made $3...
The case for a soft landing
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bringing down inflation can cause massive recessions. But three indicators suggest that this time it might be coming down without there being a crash....
The billionaire charged with insider trading
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Lewis, 86, is a billionaire. He made his money trading currency, among other things. And he likes to keep a low profile. That could change with hi...
Big week for central banks
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Interest rates have driven the conversation about markets over the past year. And this week, the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the...
The private credit boom
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As regulators continue to worry about big and small banks, a lot of midsized companies are turning to private credit for loans. These loans are issued...
Getting inflation wrong
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week’s US inflation numbers were surprisingly low, a very moderate 3 per cent. That could be due to an increasing supply of workers and goods. ...
The 2023 Unhedged stock draft
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Seven stocks are powering the market: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. How will they do in the second half of this year? Et...
Why the bond market matters now
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The bond market dwarfs the stock market. But for more than a decade, equities have been the subject of conversation, and returns. Now that has flipped...
Harry Markowitz found a free lunch in finance
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Markowitz, a titan of finance who won the 1990 Nobel prize in economics, died last month. He showed, in a mathematically rigorous way, that diversific...
Will empty offices hurt the US economy?
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The persistence of working from home, the rise in interest rates, and job cuts in finance and tech all spell trouble for the owners of office building...
Does Japan’s stock market rally have legs?
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Japanese stocks have been on a tear this year. There are a few reasons for this: Japan looks better than lots of other places, Japanese monetary polic...
What’s going on with car insurance?
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Car insurance costs in the US have shot up by 23% in the past 18 months, dwarfing the overall rise in inflation. What exactly is happening? And what l...
Why investors hate this bull market
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On paper, it’s a strong market. The S&P 500 is up more than 14 per cent this year. But for professional investors, it’s confusing. Most of...
Is crypto a security, bro?
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Crypto is at a crossroads. As exchanges and currencies blow up, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is ready to step in. But is crypto a securit...
Where’s the recession?
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US economy remains confusing. Markets continue to predict a slowdown but unemployment remains low. Today on the show, we try t...
Introducing Unhedged
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ethan Wu, Katie Martin and other markets nerds at the Financial Times explain the big ideas behind what’s happening in finance right now. Every Tues...