Excess Returns

Ian Cassel, founder of MicroCapClub and author of Stock Picker, joins Matt Zeigler to break down the mindset, temperament and core skills required to outperform as an active stock picker. They discuss microcap investing, position sizing, active patience, valuation, management quality, portfolio survival, benchmarking against the S&P 500 and how great investors evolve their edge over decades.
Stock Picker: How to Develop the Mindset, Temperament, and Strategy to Outperform Wall Street
https://amzn.to/4hU28ImTopics covered
How an investor's motivations change as ambition gives way to family, legacy and the scarcity of time

How Ian turned $20,000 into $120,000, then watched it fall to $8,000, and why that early win permanently shaped his risk tolerance

Ian's four-part survival framework: recession-resistant growth, strong balance sheets, conservative valuation and signs of intelligent fanaticism

Why balance-sheet strength is not just defensive and can let great companies act aggressively when competitors are forced to retreat

Why Ian targets roughly a 25 percent CAGR without relying on multiple expansion

The Judas goat lesson, talking your book on social media and why investors still have to do their own work

Why comparing short-term returns can corrupt an investing process and why Ian measures himself against the S&P 500 over a 10-year horizon

The five core stock-picking skills: identifying, analyzing, buying, selling and holding, plus why selling matters especially in microcaps

Why position sizing should account for initial excitement, and why Ian now starts much smaller than he did earlier in his career

Active patience, expanding your circle of competence and the difference between good, great and GOAT stock pickers

Why temperament evolves with experience, why leverage can destroy otherwise good investing, and why the best investors keep sharpening their edge

Why Ian is willing to back repeat-winner management teams before every piece of the business is fully in place

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
06:58 The $20,000 to $120,000 win and 90 percent loss
11:02 Ian Cassel's four-part survival framework
15:02 Why strong balance sheets create offensive optionality
19:03 The Judas goat and social media stock promotion
23:18 Why comparison is the enemy for stock pickers
29:39 The five core stock-picking skills
34:43 Active patience and knowing what you are looking for
39:28 Good, great and GOAT stock pickers
47:02 How investor temperament evolves over time
52:03 Leverage, situational awareness and surviving to compound
57:24 Betting on repeat-winner management before the numbers arrive
Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:
https://excessreturns.co
No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.

Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, joins us to explain why today's economy and stock market are increasingly defined by rotation, instability and a changing stock-bond relationship. We discuss AI capital spending and earnings concentration, Treasury yields and the deficit, immigration and labor supply, investor sentiment, market breadth, portfolio rebalancing, IPOs and the growing economic importance of the stock market wealth effect.
Topics covered:
Why the post-pandemic economy is moving through sector-level recessions and expansions instead of a traditional linear cycle

The return of a more temperamental market regime, inflation volatility and the changing correlation between stocks and bonds

Why volatility-based rebalancing may matter more than calendar-based rebalancing and why market leadership is broadening

Immigration, labor shortages and why slower population growth changes how investors should interpret payroll data

Federal deficits, entitlement spending, rising 30-year Treasury yields and why Treasury intervention cannot solve the underlying fundamentals

How the AI spending boom, imports and hyperscaler capital expenditures are affecting GDP, bond issuance and capital markets

Corporate profits versus labor compensation and why Liz Ann does not see an obvious near-term catalyst for convergence

Kevin Warsh, reduced Fed guidance and why less communication could create more market uncertainty

Attitudinal versus behavioral investor sentiment, the vibe session and why sentiment is becoming harder to use as a timing signal

The AI cascade beyond mega-cap tech, the Neural Nine, small caps and why rotation may be the new momentum trade

Margin debt, record household equity exposure and the risk that a future stock market decline feeds back into the economy

S&P 500 earnings concentration, sell-side versus buy-side expectations, AI depreciation risk and the return of a major IPO cycle

Timestamps:
00:00 Liz Ann Sonders on the unusual 2026 market and economic cycle
05:49 Portfolio construction, diversification and volatility-based rebalancing
11:39 Immigration, labor supply and the new payroll breakeven rate
17:38 Why long-term Treasury yields are rising and what the Treasury can and cannot fix
22:07 Corporate profits versus labor compensation as a share of GDP
27:37 Attitudinal versus behavioral sentiment and lessons from 2022
32:13 The vibe session, consumer confidence and conflicting investor expectations
37:14 The Neural Nine, widening stock dispersion and rotation as the new momentum
41:21 Margin debt, leveraged speculation and where the real risk may be
45:52 S&P 500 earnings growth, concentration and the sell-side versus buy-side gap
50:27 Hyperscaler AI capex, debt financing and signals from the corporate bond market
55:05 IPOs, FOMO and why investors should be careful about chasing new issues
60:05 Where to follow the real Liz Ann Sonders and avoid impersonator scams
Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:
https://excessreturns.co
No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.

Andy Constan is back on First Principles to explain why record stock prices, rising long-term Treasury yields and sticky inflation can all coexist, and why the next major market risk may come from the financing behind the AI CapEx boom rather than the eventual return on that investment. We discuss Kevin Warsh and Fed balance sheet policy, Treasury issuance and the quarterly refunding announcement, corporate bond and equity supply, Nvidia's $500 billion financing structure, and Andy's "not enough pie" framework for comparing AI earnings expectations with GDP and productivity growth.
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Topics covered
Why rising long-term interest rates can be consistent with strong economic growth and record stock prices

Why Andy does not see higher government interest costs creating an imminent U.S. debt crisis

The "script to kill inflation" and why reducing the wealth effect may require lower stock, bond and asset prices

How the Fed, Treasury and other policymakers have suppressed long-term interest rates and risk premiums

Why Kevin Warsh's comments about the Fed balance sheet and letting the bond market "do the work" could signal a policy shift

How Treasury bill issuance, coupon issuance and the quarterly refunding announcement can affect stocks, bonds and financial conditions

Why the AI CapEx boom is shifting from cash flow funding toward massive corporate debt and equity issuance

Andy's "hamburger thesis" and why the ability to finance AI infrastructure may matter before anyone knows the ultimate AI ROI

Why capital markets can suddenly close after issuance booms and what that could mean for the AI investment cycle

How Nvidia's $500 billion financing structure expands the pool of capital available to data center projects

The "not enough pie" problem: why projected corporate earnings may require extraordinary GDP growth, productivity gains or a larger corporate share of the economy

What Andy watches in new stock and bond deals for signs that investors are becoming unwilling to absorb more supply

Timestamps
00:00:08 Why stocks, long-term yields and inflation can all rise together
00:07:18 The "script to kill inflation" and why short-term rates may not be enough
00:12:48 How policymakers have suppressed long-term interest rates
00:16:53 The Warsh "drumbeat" and a possible shift in Fed balance sheet policy
00:21:56 Why markets may be underestimating Warsh's willingness to fight inflation
00:26:27 Treasury bills versus coupons and the limits of current financing policy
00:31:33 The "hamburger thesis" behind the massive AI CapEx funding shift
00:38:41 Why AI financing may matter more than AI ROI in the short run
00:42:55 Breaking down Nvidia's $500 billion data center financing structure
00:47:51 The "not enough pie" problem for AI earnings and economic growth
00:52:03 Demographics, productivity and the limits on future GDP growth
00:56:14 What issuance prices reveal about capital market stress
Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:
https://excessreturns.co
No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.

Bob Robotti, founder and CIO of Robotti & Company, joins Matt Zeigler and Bogumil Baranowski to explain why bottom-up value investing may be entering one of its best opportunity sets in decades. They discuss AI and reindustrialization, inflation and interest rates, passive investing, capital cycles, private equity, long-term ownership, and why today's neglected industrial businesses may offer opportunities that the market is missing.
Bob Robotti on X
https://x.com/BobRobotti
Robotti & Company
https://www.robotti.com
Topics covered
How Bob finds misunderstood businesses with latent earnings power

Why his "grassroots macro" process starts with company-level supply and demand

How AI spending is increasing demand for energy, copper, aluminum, cement and other physical assets

Why North America's natural gas advantage could support a long-term reindustrialization cycle

Why persistent inflation could force higher interest rates and lower valuation multiples

Why no competitive moat is permanent, even for today's dominant technology companies

How passive investing and shorter time horizons can create opportunities for fundamental stock pickers

Why prolonged downturns can improve industry economics through consolidation and reduced capacity

Why Bob views himself as an active owner rather than an activist investor

Why he is skeptical of today's private equity model and its expansion into retirement portfolios

The NewMarket investment that taught him the cost of selling a great business too early

Why he thinks individual company research can outperform indexing over the next decade

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
04:02 Grassroots macro and the search for latent earnings power
08:37 Why Bob started his own investment firm
13:00 How AI creates demand for the physical economy
17:59 Why Bob avoids the mega-cap technology companies
22:00 Inflation, interest rates and the valuation risk investors may be missing
26:07 Why no competitive moat is permanent
31:36 How passive investing creates opportunities for stock pickers
36:00 Why Bob believes the "fallen" areas of the market can rise again
40:06 How bad business conditions create better long-term investments
44:39 Active ownership, boards and understanding businesses from the inside
48:59 Why Bob is skeptical of modern private equity
55:15 The biggest loss of his career: selling a winner too early
01:03:32 The one investing lesson Bob would teach everyone
Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:
https://excessreturns.co
No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.

In this episode of The Jim Paulsen Show, Jim explains why weakening labor data, softening inflation, and lagged policy tightening could shift markets from inflation fears toward growth and recession fears. He also breaks down why the AI productivity boom may be overstated, how AI capital spending is supporting the economy, why Treasury yields look too high, and why investors may want to rebalance from new era technology stocks toward old era stocks and bonds.
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Topics Covered
Why weak jobs data and benign inflation have changed the outlook for the Federal Reserve

Labor force contraction, stalled job growth, and the risks facing consumer spending

Housing affordability, services activity, real income, savings, and signs of economic weakness

How the stock-bond correlation can reveal a shift from inflation fears to growth and recession fears

Why Jim expects Fed rate cuts before year-end and sees downside risk for Treasury yields

How higher oil prices, bond yields, and the dollar can hit stocks and the economy with a lag

Why today's AI productivity boom may be a mirage rather than a repeat of the 1960s or 1990s

How AI CapEx, core capital goods orders, and technology stocks are linked

Why the 10-year Treasury yield may be mispriced relative to growth and inflation

The widening divide between new era and old era stocks and what it could mean for portfolio allocation

Timestamps
00:00 Jim's outlook: weak jobs, benign inflation, and growth fears
04:11 Labor force rollover and consumer warning signs
09:06 Real income collapse and economic surprise data
13:06 Why bond yields could fall below 4 percent
17:45 Why Jim expects Fed cuts instead of hikes
22:07 How policy tightening hits the economy with a lag
26:16 Why productivity gains can be a recession mirage
30:20 What a true productivity boom looks like
34:38 AI stocks as a leading signal for capital spending
39:08 Why Treasury yields may be mispriced
44:31 Oil, core inflation, and the case for easing
48:32 New era versus old era correlation as a warning
52:54 Why today's AI economy may be more vulnerable than dot-com
57:22 Portfolio allocation takeaways: bonds, old era, and tech
Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:
https://excessreturns.co
No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.