Market Performance: September 2025 was noted as one of the best months for stocks in years, despite a downturn in crypto and real estate sectors.
Precious Metals: Gold reached a new record high, with silver also performing well, highlighting a shift in investment focus towards precious metals.
Government and Policy: Discussion on the potential government shutdown and its implications, alongside Trump's controversial statements about firing Democrats.
Company Spotlight: Lithium Americas Corp. saw a 30% stock increase following a U.S. government stake announcement, emphasizing the strategic importance of lithium.
Market Volatility: October is historically volatile, with a 35% higher volatility than average, and predictions of a potential market correction or crash.
Investment Trends: Concerns about speculative mania in tech and AI sectors, drawing parallels to the 1999-2000 tech bubble.
Regulatory Changes: New rules for day traders, removing the $25,000 minimum equity requirement, potentially benefiting platforms like Robinhood.
Corporate Developments: Electronic Arts is nearing a $50 billion deal to go private, with significant involvement from Saudi Arabia's public investment fund.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to D'vorak Horowitz Unplugged, an hour-long discussion of activity in the financial markets around the world featuring columnist John C. D'vorak and money manager Andrew Horowitz. This conversation is casual and unrehearsed. Let's join John and Andrew now. >> I'm John C. D'vorak. >> And I'm Andrew Horowitz. And it's the 30th, the end of the month of September 2025. >> Yeah. Done. One of the best months uh of September in years. I think it's going back years and years and years. As a matter of fact, the month overall was great for stocks, which is kind of playbook. Yeah, it was pretty good. Picked up. >> It's also good for us. We had five shows. >> It's Everything's good. Everything's good. Life is good. But we saw some crypto pulling back. That was something that was interesting um this month against the grain and in fact uh one of the worst performers of the month the worst performer of the month out of the major asset classes was real estate which is also kind of interesting because you would have thought you would have thought that if the Fed reduces rates that you're going to have a better backdrop for things like real estate and interest sensitive products. Gold on the other hand hit a new record over 3,800 for the first time ever. Silver doing pretty good also. >> Yeah, silver is. >> So I told you I bought those bars from Costco, right? >> Yeah, you did. >> Was it No, was it Costco or is it? Yeah, Costco. >> Costco has stuff like that every so often. >> So, uh, but they limit it. You're only allowed to buy like like five or 10 bars a day. And the problem with the silver bars is I bought five of them 10 bars. They're not small. I mean, they're not they're not big. But, you know, after a while, that was only like $2,500. If I was to have bought, let's say, you know, you do that every do that on dollar cost averaging over, let's say, $500 a month, let's just say, after a year, you start getting a they'd get heavy. >> Yeah. >> You need a big save somewhere to hold them. >> Yeah. Go with gold. It's heavy, but it has more per ounce value. >> Exactly. Well, platinum or palladium. >> Yeah. Well, platinum's always been a good idea, it seems to me, because it's always being used. >> That would be cool if Costco sold some platinum. >> Yeah, maybe they should think about it. Maybe they'll listen to the show and sell platinum. I'd buy one of those. >> Costco platinum bars. Wait a second. Wait, you could buy it? Yeah, you can buy a platinum bar. The same one I have. The Pamp Swiss Lady Fortuna Veriscan limit one transaction per membership. Just hang on a second. Oh, member only. You can't see the price. I don't have it listed here. Sign in to see the price. You You Oh, I want this one ounce. I want that. I'm buying this. Just >> What's an ounce of platinum going for now? >> Uh, how much ounce of platinum? Uh, let's see. Platinum is going for 1,600 bucks an ounce. >> Huh? >> What? >> Time to buy platinum. >> Yeah, I'm going to buy it tomorrow. All right, let's see. Um, where are we? Okay, here. Uh, reminder, by the way, there's a new close to the pin for Lithium America's Corp., which by the way, you know, it's not enough that a stock goes up because there's an announcement. You gota announce the same thing multiple times so it goes up a lot. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. Isn't >> that true? You know, uh you have an announcement that uh that that the United States government is going to be taking a stake in lithium America because it's a strategic asset is of course a metal that's important and security related. You know, we have to have our lithium for our battery and our EVs and all that. Even though even though this administration is not that fond of EVs, they seem very fond of some of these things like uh the metals and materials, the minerals, maybe it's more so protecting our industry in in in total from the potential of being held back by China. I think that's a big issue. >> I would think that would be the main reason. >> So, Lithium America today there's an announcement that uh the government is going to be taking a stake. And I'm thinking to myself, wait, where did I read that before? Where have I heard that before? It was up 30% on the news. So that stock is we we thought you and I thought it was going to be a crazy wild one. >> And we were right. >> Yeah. So you have a few more days to actually Let's see. You have Well, here we are. It's 900 p.m. Eastern time on the 30th. You have 10 days, two hours, 54 minutes, and 52, 51, 50 seconds to get your your your your guess in for Lithium America Corporation. Now, October's right around the corner, one of the toughest trading months of the year. If you look at statistically, October has some of the worst things that go on. We talked about this last week, and we'll see what happens. We're starting off with a fresh round of government shutdowns. The last one we had was a long one. Wasn't the last one under Trump as well? Last like 31 days or something? Uh >> I don't remember. I don't remember the details, but I think so. >> They'll keep the the the Now Trump is is threatening uh that he's going to that that anybody who is in the he's going to fire Democrats. That's what he said. He's going to fire Democrats. >> Yeah. basically is what he said, >> you know, and and uh it's their fault and it's your fault and you just you don't need to be here anymore. So, there's a threat of having much greater uh I guess firings but not furls. There's a difference, right? So, the furls they come back, they get back pay, they basically get a vacation. >> Yeah. They're going to he's going to A lot of people see this as his opportunity. So, they think that this won't happen. What won't happen? >> They would the shutdown. It's not going to happen. >> Shut down. I just saw the news. It says it's shutting down. >> Sorry, what? >> I just saw US government will shut down after midnight as Congress fails to pass funding bills. >> Yeah, it fails if Congress fails to pass. They're still talking about it. >> I don't think you're going to do it within 3 hours. >> I think the I think the Republicans are out of session. How are they going to even vote on it? >> They can do it in three hours. I don't know how they're going to vote on it. >> I guess they'll do it virtually or something. We'll see. No, >> you can't. You have to make exceptions to do that, but it's possible. I don't know. All I It just seems suspic It seems dumb. If these guys let this happen, Trump is just going to take advantage of it and start firing people left and right. >> So where does that get him? >> It gets him shrinking the government is what he wants to do. >> Okay. So yeah, so that he get So it gives him an opportunity to do what he's looking to do anyway. >> Yeah. >> Which I have no problem with >> without any struggle. with less struggle, >> right? I have no problem with shrinking shrinking governments. I mean, it's bloated. We're bloated. And then, by the way, this week, I think, is the it's this week or next week? Maybe it's ne Well, maybe October 1st. Do you remember that there was a offering given to government workers that they can have an opportunity to retire and take a payout and go? I think it's like 80,000 are leaving next week. >> I heard a hundred. Okay, that's fine. It's point is it's a lot. It's the greatest exits I think >> what you want. >> Yeah, that's but but hopefully it's not in vital areas. That's the only thing. It's it's it's redundancy that's that's leaving. And day traders, we have some good news for you. There's a new law that's uh being re redone a little bit or an old law that's being redone a little bit. there was something uh that prevented small accounts from trading on certain ways. In other words, we'll talk about this a little bit more in depth, but but you had to meet certain criteria in order to trade um uh day trade, you know, in and out, in and out throughout the day. They would call you a pattern day trader if you had less than $25,000 in your account. Why? What's the rationale? I never understood it. really never understood it. So, you don't have to worry about that anymore. We'll talk about that. Uh, we have some new tariffs being announced. We have drugs, trucks, and oh my god, freakout zone. Kitchen cabinets. >> Get your K I'm getting kitchen cabinets. I have We've been doing this for months. I'm like, "All right, that's enough. Move on. Let's get them." And by the way, you know, kitchen cabinets. Uh, >> that was the meeting tonight I had with the wife. >> The wife? the wife, the one and only. And kitchen campus, you I you probably know can be very expensive. Like really expensive. Like she brought home a this course. She goes, "Look what this guy did." I'm like, "What what is that? >> Is that a is that a house? We're buying another house." >> It was unbelievable. >> And I said, "It's just a kitchen for God's sakes. It's just a kitchen." But I am going to um do something to freshen it up a little bit. We we've been there uh 11 years. The house is, you know, it was built in the 50s, 60s, late 50s. >> So, we've been doing the podcast longer than that. >> Yeah. So, we got >> Yeah. I remember when you moved to that house, >> right? Right. Exactly. So, we I mean, we did a lot of work on the house when we got there. Redid the whole house because it was really needed it. We had bamboo flooring in that house that was cupping. >> You got the place dirt cheap. >> Oh, yeah. That was on a short sale. Well, the guy before me was the short sale and um it was 2014. Prices still hadn't hadn't started really moving on the east side of Fort Lauderdale yet. So, we picked it up. I thought it was re reasonable. I mean, we've tripled our money in it since then. >> Yeah. Well, you can buy a place cheap. You can you have money left over to improve the place. It's it's win-win. >> Yeah. Uh Intel's new grow growth model. talk about quantum stocks rallying and Powell is setting the stage. >> Did you spend any time this weekend watching the Ryder Cup? >> No, not at all. Why would I? >> Fantastic. >> It's just a golf game. >> No, it was great. First of all, I played on that course, Beth Paige. Uh, the black course of Beth Page. the sign. I'm not even I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not telling you anything that you may not know, but this there's a sign on the black horse at Beth Page. And that sign itself is something to be nervous about. And I took a picture of it a long time ago and now I'm pulling as big red print. First hole, first tee, warning. The black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers. You step on that first tee and you're like, what is gonna h what's happening? You know, I mean, how what's going to happen here? >> Are you sinking? >> No, you just it's just it's very difficult. The the the rough is very long. The length is very long. The narrow fairways. It's just it's But these guys were unbelievable. And the thing that I'm talking about was that the Americans caught up to within one point on the final day in an unbelievable, you know, turnaround. >> Yeah. But they didn't win now, did they? >> They did not win. No, they did not. >> Well, I'm glad that was such a thrill. >> It was great. I don't usually watch that. It was great. Friday jobs report. You excited about it? Because don't be. Labor Department says we're not probably going to release the jobs report on Friday because we have a government shutdown. >> Oh, what a nice trick. >> Nice, huh? Like they couldn't bring themselves to TR since they're estimating and they're doing a crappy job anyway. Yeah. What difference does it make? >> Just pick a number. Pick a number and then revise it the next month. They couldn't do it two or three days earlier. They don't have the data in. That's the problem. If they knew there was going to be another issue, if they knew there was going to be a potential for government shutdown, do you think maybe, for example, if you think there's going to be a storm, do you think maybe you'll do a little preparation beforehand? No. Not this group, >> government workers. >> Not government workers, they're like, "Oh, we're going to shut down good news. We don't have to give the report." But seriously, we know they were off 900,000 over the last year. If they're off 25,000, 50,000, who give Do we Does anybody really care? Revisions have been gigantic anyway. Seriously, how's how how this is really This This irks me. >> I can tell. >> Does this bother you at all? >> No. I worked for the government. I know how how things go. >> Am I wrong about what with what I'm saying? >> You're not wrong from your perspective. But from the government workers perspective is what are we going to do? Why should we do this? We're supposed to do it on Friday. What are we I can just see the meeting. We're supposed this supposed When is this supposed to come out? Friday. Friday. Yeah, Friday, Bill. Friday. Yeah, Friday. Well, uh, well, if there's a shutdown. Well, then we won't do it. Well, why don't we do it earlier, Bill? We can do it like now. We can just throw it out there. Why? >> They could have it on a they could have it on what they always do is they uh they hold it back on a uh what is that called? Uh, you know, when when when news has to be held back. It's f not for a little. It's uh >> embargoed. >> Embargoed. It's embargoed, right? until >> why why should I be working in advance of when I'm supposed to do the job? It's just dumb. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I'm not being paid by the hour. Well, maybe I am, but it's beside the point. >> Red October nine red o the hunt. I watched that watched that movie this weekend. Did you see it? Uh the hunt for Red October. Sean Connor, >> the old movie. Yeah. >> Yeah. Great. Nine of the 20 >> Alligator Drive or whatever they called it. The Yeah, it was the What was that drive? That's right. It was >> alligator drive. >> Alligator crocodile. It was some other >> crocodile. >> Some kind of whisper drive or something where you wouldn't hear anything. >> Yeah, I suppose that's a good bit. >> Uh nine of the nine out of the 20 largest single day drops in the Dow Jones occurred in October historically. Nine of the 20th. So that's a what about half of them happened in October for some god-awful reason. There was a 19077 bank panic, the 1929 crash. We had Black Tuesday, 1987 crash, Black Monday, 22% in a day. That was riveting. >> Yeah, that was a good one. >> I was there for that. >> Yeah, that's the one where everyone keeps talking about all the people in at the in the lines at the bank cashing out thinking that the world's coming to an end. Y one. It was basically a one day crash. >> People threw themselves out of the buildings on that one. >> It's Yeah, because they freaked out. I mean, but this was the same. This was was a was a mirror an 80year mirror of the 1907 panic. It and I think in 80 more years it's going to be the same exact thing in 2067. >> We may not be around. >> Mark the calendars. >> Put it down on a on a reminder. Talk to Siri. Hey Siri, set a reminder. >> Set a reminder for77 October. >> Yep. Uh 2008 financial crisis. The S&P fell 17% in October alone. Now since 1950, the S&P has averaged gains of about actually.91% in October. So with all this fanfire fair and all this worry about all this, the average since 1950 is still October is a 1% month. over the past 20 years um the average has been >> gain the gain you have written down here is minus >> yeah minus oh yeah is it minus or it says approximate >> it's a minus it's a it's a small loss it's not even 1% but it's a minus >> oh yeah that's the point that that and now I remember writing this since let me refresh this since 1950 there's been a slight loss >> here go back and edit what you just said >> yeah so let me and then we have since 1950 50, the S&P 500 has averaged a loss of about 0.91% in October. Now, here's the interesting thing. That's since 1950. Over the past 20 years, October has been relatively favorable. Average gains uh between8% on the upside and 1.5% on the upside for the S&P, Dow, and NASDAQ. The other thing to note about October is that it's 35% more volatile than the average month. So, there's something to be said about October. >> Well, I'm thinking there's going to be a crash this month. October. Not this month, but in October. >> Really? When you say crash, you're talking about the kinds like a a 10. No, not a not a it's there's going to be a either a cor a correction that will be interpreted as a crash and all the all the naysayers will come out of the woodwork. That's my prediction for October. >> I don't think you're far off. I think a lot of things that have gone on, the speculative mania, there's a lot of talk right now. Oh my gosh, you put on the financial shows and there's so much talk about the comparison of where we are now to the bubble, the tech bubble of 1999 2000 and the discussion. I just wrote about this actually for a newsletter I put out um for clients and and and the whole idea is that well we may be in speculative mania we may be in a tech bubble but back then the difference was always this right this time >> there is no difference these bubbles are bubbles >> well they talked about this is their talking points the AI bubble combined with the crypto bubble >> yeah this is the AI bubble and what they're talking about though the difference is that back then there where a lot of companies most companies weren't making money. And I'm thinking to myself, wait, hold on. >> There were plenty of companies. >> That's that's so much different than today. >> You know, that's so much different because, okay, we had we all know the names, the web vans, the peepods. Even Amazon back then wasn't making money. We know that >> peepod. I forgot about them. >> Um, and you had uh there was loss and there was Alta Vista and there was all these crazy internet to me. >> There was all that, right? My my space didn't make any money. Tons of them. Tons of them. >> So all those some of them are most of them are gone right now. But what's really interesting is that the idea that people think that look at how much money Open AAI is making. They're not making money. They're losing tens of billions of dollars every single year. And the projection is over the next four or five years they're going to continue losing 10 to 10 to tens of billions of dollars per year. Meanwhile, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars somehow magically to the oracles, the Microsofts, the Nvidas of the world. I don't know about you, but if somebody was pledging all sorts of money to me that didn't have any money or that was losing money, I would not be very excited. >> Yeah, I agree. >> We talked about this last week, like, you know, if I said to you, John, >> yeah, John, I'm going to give you I'm going to give you 12 trillion dollars in five years from now. I just want to know. >> Yeah, I'm looking forward to that bit that that check coming in. >> So, um, but today is the same. There's a lot of the similarities to where they were then and every single time the this time is different comes up. It's not different. And in addition to that, it just has a different tone to it. And what breaks the market, you know, you're starting to hear all these things like, you know, I heard one of the old phrases today, uh, bull markets don't end of old age. They break they they end when it's broken by the Fed. That that's the that's the thesis, right? That a bull market will just continue going until there's nothing out there until something is uh of a force equal and opposing hits it like the Fed. Kind of like inertia. >> It also sounds like BS. >> That's true. Saudi Arabia for the win. Electronics arts rallying last Friday following a report that Wall Street uh by the Wall Street Journal that the video game company is nearing a roughly a $50 billion deal to go private. It's going to be the largest leverage buyout of all time. Another >> Electronic Arts. I didn't get this story. >> Yes. Being bought, done, gone. Private. It's confirmed today. Oh, yes. >> Well, that's the end of them. >> Well, there's another little subtext here that we need to pay attention to is once again, look at the speculative timing. the largest leverage buyout of all time. That That's something of a speculative nature. Investors include Saudi Arabia's public investment fund. Interesting how they're getting into all sorts of things, isn't it? All of a sudden. >> Yeah. I wonder what's triggering that. >> We got Silverlake in there and um uh Infinity Partners. >> Who? >> Oh. Oh, you Oh, you want to know who Infinity Partners is? They're going to be investing in this. They're That's the company run by a guy named Jared Kushner. >> Oh, he's the one who orchestrated the whole thing. >> With the uh wink and nod from daddy-in-law, >> right? >> Yeah, that's what I'd guess. >> So, there's a big Okay, they're going to I don't know how they're going to what they're going to do, but it sounds like um something fishy. >> They're going private. Now we have things that are going on real well. Here's something that was really I felt interesting. Shares of CarMax, listen to this. CarMax, you know these guys, Carmax, right? You know, they're on every corner. >> Yeah. Supposedly, >> fell to an all-time low on Thursday. Investors blew out positions after disappointing second quarter earnings results. Stock uh the retail unit uh sales declined 5.4%. comparable same source of sales declined by 6.3% which is kind of interesting because you would think that used cars should be doing well if there's going to be tariffs on all these new cars. So what the hell is going on? Seriously, is it Carvana? Everybody's buying through Carvana. Really? Seriously? >> I don't think so. It's kind of weird. Net income decline 28% from 132 million. >> Bad management. How about that? >> CarMax is pretty bad. >> Maybe this is not the way to go. Maybe not. >> Maybe there's a reason that you used car salesmen are used car salesmen and you need a salesman and I'll use that word again. Salesmen in the mix to move these products. Is that possible? >> But CarMax I I believe if I'm not mistaken about CarMax, their model is that the salespeople are on salary and there's there's really not negotiation on the price once it's presented. >> Yeah. Okay. Again, I think my point is still uh valid. That's not sales, right? It's it's it's order takers, right? But still, I I'm I'm finding it very fascinating that Carvana is going all the way up. Its numbers are they they projected crazy numbers. And think about Carvana, right? They don't have the showrooms. They have those weird what do they call those things? Uh they're like PEZ machines for cars. >> Yeah, those giant vending machines for cars. >> And uh without that they deliver them right to your door. But are people that dumb to look at prices? I will tell you that I uh I had two different friends and they were selling their car and they put it on Carvana. Carvana was paying way over everybody else. Sight unseen. >> That's not good. >> Right. Meanwhile, >> it's good for your guys selling the cars. >> Sure. >> That's a short. That's a short. I sure >> short. It sounds like a Sounds like a classic short. >> Yep. >> It's a very thin float. It's owned by It's run by a father and a son. There's a multitude of companies that intertwine on this deal. Debt and money goes back and forth for weird reasons. It's a very one. >> There's a lot there. I would recommend if people are thinking about shorting or buying going long on that company uh to go online to YouTube and look at the videos that are about Carvana specifically. >> Yeah, it's pretty crazy, right? >> Yeah, they're not flattering. >> Bringing back an old name, the Security Exchange Commission is accusing the men who bought bankrupt chains Radio Shack, Modell Sporting Goods, and Tier One Imports of running Ponzi schemes that duped investors out of tens of millions. >> I saw this story. I cracked up. >> What? Who is Radio Shack? I mean, there are still some legitimate, you know, some people bought their stores and they're independents, but it says Radio Shack, and I guess I get a bad rep because of this, but this is a a a kind of a ignoble ending to a great company. >> Yep. Uh, Radio Shack was we all we we all bought stuff and supplies and loved going there for a while, right? >> Yeah. I was a I was always a fan of Radio Shack. I mean the later years they basically just sold nothing but cell phones but which I wasn't interested in but the earlier days when they had the computers uh when John Roach was running it >> the parts you can get you know oh I need this go to Radio Shack I need this part go to Radio Shack >> and go and there's usually one in every little town >> right but then they also started selling a lot of their own branded stuff you know like their like radios for example, or uh Walkie Talk. There's all this own but and their stuff was crap. >> Yeah. The realistic brand. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's bring back a name. I love that. So, the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleged the co-founders of the Miami based retail e-commerce ventures. Couple of names there, together with the company's chief executive officer raised approximately $12 million combined from hundreds of US investors by selling investments in eight companies they created and controlled under this one venture. Between uh April 2020 and November 22, they raised money blah blah blah. They sold and secured notes that promise returns of 25% a year. Hello, anybody listening? 25% per year note and you're going to be buying that. You think that what is going to happen? >> You know what's going to happen? >> I mean why why do people what is it? Is it greed? Is it stupidity? What is it? >> It's it's a combination. >> Too good to be true is usually too good to be true. The number there's a lot of numbers. For example, the number 33, an important number that signals a signal. It's a signal of a signal. And that is what's talked about oftentimes by yourself and Adam Curry on the no agenda twice a week. >> Yep. No agenda. 33 comes up all the time, right? >> Yeah. It's a classic. >> And there's these signals, you know, 25% 15%. These are all numbers to pay attention to. 15% was always the classic number that I've always said. If you're offering a guaranteed 15%, get the hell out and run. This was the tactic of uh a lot of the cryptocurrency deals that went sour, but also um for example, it was um the famous one from for maid off, Bernie Maid off, >> 15% per year. >> I had people come up to me, they got a bunch of money like, "Andrew, what do you think about this maid off thing?" I'm like, "What do you mean?" >> He said, "Well, it's for 15%. He's been paying that every year and he pretty much guarantees it." I'm like, dude, uh, I don't know much about this level because it's beyond my understanding, but I can tell you that I did a little research. I don't under not only I understand it, I don't see how it's possible. They were doing these option plays and if he was doing at the level that he was doing it, I look in the paper to find the options that should have been traded and it trades like, you know, 12 when it was then. So, what I mean by that is the volume was 12. I'm like, if he's got multiple billions >> volume is 12. Yeah, that's a kind of a a kind of a red red flag. >> How did the SEC or any other regulatory body not pick up on this? Unbelievable. Did I ever tell you I got one of his statements? >> Sorry. >> Did I ever tell you I got one of his statements from a client? >> I think you may have mentioned it on the show sometime way long ago. The statement was essentially a typed statement by hand with like white out and stuff on it and it would show all the different trades and all that. He must have somehow I don't know how he did it but he probably had a stack of these things they typed every month. That must have taken a whole month or a quarter, whatever it was. It was crazy. It had like a dropped letter here and there. It was it was an old >> They're all done by hand. >> Yep. All of it. >> Moving along. Fizer is playing bowl. Donald Trump, president of the United States, announced agreement with Fiser to voluntarily sell its medicines at lower prices in the US as uh the administration pushes to link the national drug prices to cheaper prices paid abroad. So Fizer, they they really had no choice. They were just dying. Uh I put this on the game a few weeks ago saying it's hated. Something got to pop here. They agreed to take measures to lower US drug prices, including selling its existing drugs to Medicaid patients at the lowest price offered in other developed nations on a website the administration is calling trumprx.gov. Have you ever seen such uh what is this called? Uh tribute. I know we had the Obamacare, but that was I don't think the government called it Obamacare. I think everybody called >> was a nickname that the media gave it, >> right? But the government's calling it Trump rx.gov. >> Yeah. They have a bunch of these websites they're putting up. They're pretty slick. >> So that's the government doing that. As part of the deal, uh, Fiser's also agreed agreed to a three-year grace period during which the company's products won't face pharmaceutical specific tariffs as long as the drug drug maker further invests in US manufacturing. So, they'll be able to do all that stock up 7% today. >> Yeah, that was good. Good move. >> Yep. Bite Dance is going to retain ownership of Tik Tok's US business operations sources say all of a sudden the Tik Tok story is nowhere to be found. It was big excitement last week. Oh my god. This week it's like okay that was last week. Let's move on. The joint venture is going to handle the US user data and algorithm. Bite dance is control the revenue generating operations like e-commerce and advertising. So sourc say the new US Tik Tok will be invited to two companies. The joint venture was announced by Trump and the backend operations to the US company to handle US data. Okay. Bite dance is going to be the single largest minority shareholder. The US um in this deal supposedly valued it at 14 billion. That's what Vice President JD Vance said. 14 billion. Huh. This is the greatest social media platform out there and they're valuing this at 14 billion. Even if that is a subset of the totality of what the global is worth, that seems really low. >> Yeah. Considering that uh Twitter or now X is worth 50 billion maybe or more depending on how they they finagle it. >> Yep. Nuts. >> Yeah. Makes no sense at all. >> I don't know why they're valuing at these low levels. >> There's something going on. There's a reason. >> Maybe they don't want to look. I Maybe they giving Maybe they're giving it to everybody at these values once again at a discount and then everybody gets to make all sorts of money. >> Oh, that could be just a scam. I know some of this stuff is fishy. Holy economics GDP now expects um the the GDP in the coming quarter to be somewhere between 3.8% and 3.9% annualized. Home sales sore 20% on a month-over-month basis to a three-year high. >> Sales were 15% higher than in August 2024. That's despite mortgage rates actually being higher. So maybe they got it wrong. Maybe we got to raise interest rates and more houses will sell. >> Who knows? I mean, these cycles are just impossible to keep up with with all the us with all the uh underlying scamming, but all the whining about home the home market. Look, I know for a fact I have a few friends that are in businesses that are either in the home sales, home construction related, for example. Who would you want to talk to to understand the most about home sales? Well, it would be for home sales that are happening right now, someone in the title business, right? How is your business, sir? Sucks. Well, okay. How's it been? How's it? Terrible. Got like one closing a week. It's not going to feed the family. So, that's who you talk to if you want to hear about what's happening now. You want to hear about like future orders and things. You talk about you talk to people in the um in the sales business in the new home sales. You want to talk about what the backlog is. You talk about construction. How's that going? So, right now there's multitude of different opinions on that. And uh I can tell you that people I know in the industry that are also related to building construction construction, they say it's cooled off considerably, but it's still pretty good. The median home price. >> Yeah. Well, that would be the logical thing going on. >> Yeah. The median price of new homes sold in August was 413%. 413,000. Uh, an increase of 2% year-over-year. Still good. Initial claims last week came in at 218,000. Now, you tell me. Tell me why do we need to drop rates? I don't understand. >> Well, so we can be competitive with the rest of the world who has their rates down to next to nothing. But because our economy is moving so so well, it seems >> I don't think it's moving that well. I think that's a myth. >> The myth I just read to you all the stuff that's going on. Where's the myth? >> I know you did, but I don't see that being like hot, like boiling hot. >> Okay, Kelly control. I mean, I'm in the California real estate market and I can see that it's just it's down a bit. >> You're in Florida where it's different. So, and you're you're seeing things from the Floridaidian perspective where it's nuts and I'm seeing things from the biggest state in the country where it's uh it's it's not quite as uh as as hot the real estate game. I don't not not a lot of homes are for sale. >> People are kind of settled. >> But forget about me and you. I'm talking about the numbers I just gave you. Forget about what anecdotally we're seeing here or there. >> Yeah, I know. But you brought in the anecdotal stuff with the title guy saying you're right about that. >> They don't see anything going on and I then you just ignored your own observations. >> Well, I'm allowed to. >> Powell hinting that stocks are overvalued. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a commentary said, >> "Gee, that takes a genius." >> Yep. Equity prices are fairly highly valued. Now, what's interesting about this though is the obvious obvious point, right? but that he said something about it. He doesn't usually talk about these things. So I think that's interesting where he said that the rate cutting path wasn't clear and it was a challenging situation. Stocks sold off a bit during that period for the two two or three days. Nothing major. Came back every single day to a higher level than it started. But still there's concerns about stubborn inflation leading to a decision back to lower the central bank rates. Dow setting up potential cuts and ignoring inflation pressures may be something but we're not sure. There's a whole thing going on. Uh quick update on quantum quantum last week big week I on Q on Tuesday said it achieved a significant quantum internet milestone. What does that mean? I don't know. >> Shares are 3% higher. >> Explain this milestone at all. No, it's just it's too technical for you, sir. You wouldn't understand. >> Yeah. Uhhuh. >> Shares of Regetti Computers gained 10%. Now, uh, D-Wave Quantum added 6% and Quantum Comput rose 4%. Year-to- date, check this out. Regetti Computers up 100%. In Q up 65%, CQIT up 25% and CQITS QBTS up 218%. We flagged this a long time ago for our listeners. I'm sure somebody's making some money on it. >> Intel, I don't follow. Good luck. >> Yeah, I know you're not a big fan. Uh because as you said, there is no quantum computing >> yet. >> I see no evidence. >> Nope. I understand. Intel. Now, Intel is asking Apple to make an investment. So, this is a new growth model for Intel. Basically, it's it's kind of uh CEO of Intel standing on a corner with a cup. uh you want you want to give me a little I'll you know if you give me uh $3 less than the value I'll sell you a chunk of my company did it with the government did it with Nvidia uh now is looking to do with Apple but I don't think Apple is uh >> well Apple's not going to buy into this >> no uh let's see here this development we talked about uh national security round of tariffs we talked about that 100% tariffs on branded drugs. That's why Fizer is getting in the group there. About 60% of the 2.5 billion in US furniture imports came into Vietnam and China according to furniture today. I don't know what are we looking at for Wayfair there. Uh new heavyduty truck tariffs will benefit companies such as Packer opens new new um opportunities for Peterbuilt Kenworth and Freightlininer. You ever drive one of those trucks? I want to drive like a big Peterbuilt. I I drove I never drove one on the road, but I used to work at an international harvester >> and the drove a big combine the plant. No, no, I there's nothing hooked to it. >> So, what did you drive? You just looked at him. >> The big giant big international harvester tractor. >> Oh, that must have been fun. >> Well, yeah. I guess if you want you think moving something 100 yards is is hilarious fun. But yeah, it's just being inside of those. I used to stop on the side of the roads when I saw a bunch of the Caterpillar trucks and all that when I was uh driving with my son. We'd stop. I'd be like, "Hey, hey, hey." You know, nobody's there. Let's go. I'd pull to the side of the road, get out, and I'd have them sit in it and I'd make all the engine noises myself and pretend to be driving these things. >> Well, you know, you could always have, you know, gotten your license and driven a big rig, >> I guess. It was fun. Good times. Um, but when we look at these tariffs that are going on right now, these things uh with uh the issues of of of trucks of of big trucks, of uh drugs, of kitchen cabinets, new duties of 50% on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, as well as a 30% levy on upholstered phone upholstered furniture. So, I sent this note out to a friend of mine who's in the um furniture. Well, he's in bathroom fixtures, home remodeling, and kitchen stuff, we'll call it. Okay. Bathroom, kitchen. I sent this to him. He goes, "That's great. It'll help out our, you know, US-based manufacturers." >> And I wrote him back. What about the consumer? Well, they'll have to pay a little more. So why is it that the consumer is always it's always okay if the consumer pays more but it's not okay if a manufacturer makes less. Companies have become much more important than the the average Joe, haven't they? >> Well, yeah. I think that's always been the case though. Is that because the thesis is that because the average Joe works for the company and therefore will keep their job or is it just because there's some other power play going on that the corporate America is much more important than any one person. >> You think they would latter what you just said? >> I guess that's why there's unions these days, right? or always just to protect everybody. Yeah, maybe >> pattern day traders dumb rule that was out there. Regulators are moving to dismantle one of the most controversial barriers for active retail traders. The $25,000 minimum equity rule for patterned day trading. So, what the hell does that mean? Used to mean that you had to have $25,000 in an account. Not $24,900. Not 24,999. Not 25,000 that you lost a worth 24. because now you're under. You have to have $25,000 and then you could trade your your your brains out. You just trade trade trade trade trade trade trade. You go below your pattern day trader and I think there's a couple of like All right, you got one warning that you traded in and out that day. Another one and then they shut your account down. So, >> but now they've dropped it. Now, it's it's it's um they're replacing the mandate with an intraday margin rule that applies the existing margin maintenance rules to intraday exposure blah blah blah. Basically, what they're saying is that the intraday buying power will be based on the margin requirements for the positions they take during the day, not affect fix fixed equity minimum. So if some positions are less volatile and require less margin if you're trading on them then that probably you could trade them more often and have a uh the opportunity to do so. Whereas if it has a much higher margin you may not be able to trade or do you have to trade a much lower amount. So if you have to have um if there's a margin requirement of let's say 200% or something like that where you know you could you can't for example some stocks you could do like a four times leverage. So if you $25,000 account you can you know leverage it up to whatever whatever it may be for an intraday trade. Not a hold overnight. I'm talking about intraday. You could possibly trade two 300%. So if you have 25,000, you can put on a $75,000 trade, but sell it before the gavvel comes down on the close of the markets, which is going to lead to a little bit of a problem if we ever go to 24-hour trading because then you have to wonder when the margin numbers are open and closed. Like when what is the what's the day right now? The day technically is 9:30 to 4 Eastern Standard Time. That's the day. What happens when we go extended hours? >> That's a good question. It seems to me. >> Yeah, but these knuckleheads won't think of it, >> I guess. Well, they didn't. That's for sure. >> No, they're not going to think of it. Um, now this is good for stocks like Robin Hood. I looked I I can't because of the Let's just say that I looked at the basis we have in Robin Hood as a stock for our clients. I was shocked how low it is. That's all I'm going to say. It was I was surprised. Not shocked. I was surprised because the the point is not that that oh my god, you know, we had it so long ago, one of the early ones. No, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying it's run up like a crazy lunatic stock. That stock is is on fire. And uh it's up uh 5% today. Year to date, it's up 263%. >> Yeah, that was a winner. >> One year. You want to take a number? 500. >> Oh, you know what? I hate when you guess right on. Why is that? How do you do that? >> 511%. So, pretty impressive. 41% for the month. And again, the five days, that's the one where it came out. 12 and a half% on the five days. But, but a lot more people. This this is was a oh, nice game to a, you know, sign. I know a lot of players, especially younger traders. I should probably get myself a Robin Hood account just to mess with just to see what it's all I mean I've I've seen it and I've you know >> uh you probably should. >> I think you should now that you mention it. >> Yep. All right. Uh docuign. This is weird and we should think about this. I need to see where this finished. Docuine finished um about 11% lower today. It was 12 and a half% lower today to be exact. Why? There was an announcement that a open AAI introduced DOC G docu GPT an agent that converts contracts into structured searchable data. I had a long conversation with somebody about this that AI would be good to utilize. For example, you have a just a a you're a real realy company and you have huge amounts of contracts that deal with all sorts of different items with HOAs and you know the different contracts that come along and you have all this well how do you need know when to search maybe for some rent increases or maybe some other things related to a particular HOA or an easement issue whatever it is right this is a great tool for AI if you can shove it all in there and it can organize it for you well that's what this is It's going to organize your contracts. I don't understand from what I read about this and I went into the OpenAI blog and read everything about this. I don't see exactly how that's going to hurt docuign. >> That doesn't make sense. >> I don't I don't understand unless they've got something some schema foot to actually take over the Docusine business underneath it all. this and people in the know know about it. >> It's not a direct So I'm reading this right now. I just put this into an AI uh engine. This is what I I looked at this myself today. Didn't I didn't do this earlier. I I was like I don't understand. It's not a direct competitor to docuine but a separate tool using AI to generate process documents offering features like version history tracking accessibility but not direct e signature solutions like docysine. I is what I'm saying? I don't understand. >> Well, I I'll say it again. There may be lurking exactly what you you what they say isn't there. It may be ready to they may be ready to pounce on the signature side of things. They may be working on it with with extra security features using AI. >> I'm just suggesting the possibility. >> Well, if you're going to work with contracts, you might as well go all the way. It it may be, but it it could be a filing, but then again, it could attach Why not just Why not just attach yourself to Docu Sign? Make life easier. So, you have an added price of $10 a month or whatever it is for the full indexing of all your contracts you've ever done and feeding in the rest of it. So, you have both sides. Then, Docuine can then take the then then it takes the documents that you fed in create and and can recall them and utilize them for future signatures automat automatically. That would be that would be a good idea, >> right? >> Yeah. >> You got to renew the list. >> Do you sign's a good long? Maybe that's what Maybe that's a foot. >> That's what I'm trying to say. >> Well, I'd go for that. >> Doc, >> you want to do a purple on Docu Sign? >> I just I don't It's not I don't think it's purple worthy. >> Okay. So, I'm I'm going to go long on Docu Sign. Okay. >> Okay. >> We'll talk about that in a minute. Firefly Firefly Aerospace crashes to post IPO lows after disclosing that the booster stage of its Alpha rocket was destroyed during a testing mishap, meaning it blew up. Big setback is being talked about. >> It was It's called a uh what was it? What's the term that they use at SpaceX? An un uh an unexpected disassembly. the setback had delay this delay the company's commercial launch schedule. This was like a came up uh recently as an IPO and I'm like, "Oh, okay. I'll wait." I It went up to like 70 or something. I picked it up when it came right way back down. Um I'm still lower now because of this 20%. But basically, uh I didn't buy a big position. It was pretty small. But this is one of those that was, you know, an interesting play of the aerospace area. in um aerospace space. Charlie J Charlie Javis, founder of startup that was acquired by JP Morgan in 21 for 175 million, sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for defrauding the bank. Now, I don't even know if you remember this story. There was a company, I believe it was called Frank, I think it was called Frank. They said, >> I do not remember this story. >> They had millions of customers in the mortgage business and they did something with the something with the technology, with the something blah blah blah blah blah. JP Morgan comes in and buys them. Basically, what the company was doing, their business, they had a few hundred thousand customers that were doing something, not in the multi-millions. They were just sitting there beefing up the numbers, creating fake accounts, and then sold it to JP Morgan, not thinking that JP Morgan would figure this out. I mean, can you imagine? >> That's insane. >> Totally crazy. The uh >> that is that's insanity. >> Yep. Javvis and her uh chief. That's Charlie Javvis's wife. >> And you do you think people are that stupid is what it amounts to. >> Unbelievable. And she's crying. Oh my god. >> I vaguely remember the story now that you mention it. >> Yeah. And but but >> what kind of due diligence was done by JP Morgan? That's another question. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's probably what what lured the whole deal to come to fruition. >> Yep. >> The lack of oversight at the beginning. But they uh >> these guys are so stupid. Let's just sell it to them. >> Yeah. >> So the founder and chief growth officer, Olivia Amar, guilty. Three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. I think seven years in jail. Bye. Seven years. Bye. Crying. Oh, what a bad mistake. I made a terrible mistake. So, um let's see what else we have here. I think we had one other piece on this. I want to mention the close to the pin. We talked about the top, but uh go to Lithium America's um over on dhplug.com. And while you're there, by the way, just for a moment, entering the fourth quarter of the year, we've talked about a lot of things that we've brought to your attention this year, right? We talked about quantum, whether you believe it or not, the stocks are doing well. We've talked about the Palunteers, we talked about the Robin Hoods, we talked about all of this. We talk about it because we like like the thesis we're uh flushing out today, whether we're wrong or right, on docuign. some things that make you think, some things that make you hopefully uh um maybe make some money. I don't know. It's not we're not smarter. >> We're not Yeah, we're not recommending anything, but just things that you can do something with with the little tidbits. Go over to DH Unplugged, donate to the show. We got that new great server that is just bleeding us dry. And uh big payment was made on that. By the way, um the way these service companies work, they either charge you monthly or or yearly. And the the differential monthly versus yearly is the yearly is much cheaper well than the monthlyies. >> That's what they do it. That's why they do it. They're all everyone does that same gambit. >> Yep. So, um we did have that going. If you want to continue listening uh to the really fast server that is making all sorts of strides in in in podcast excellence to help us along here. Uh please donate to the show. We really appreciate that. Last thing on the list here today before we get to the the uh stocks. Beyond Bad. Now, you knew this, you called this, you were all over this. On September 29th, 2025, Beyond Meat announced the commencement of an exchange offer and consent solicitation aimed at eliminating $800 million of debt. Who's giving these kind of loans to these companies? Hi. I have a product that is made from organic pea mucus that tastes lousy, but we put a little bit of smoke in it. We rub it on the ground and it we're going to convince people that it's a burger substitute. Well, the uh initiative involves exchanging ex existing convertible nodes for new ones, which is basically to blow out the holders that have that with the support of holders where, you know, the move is intended to reduce leverage, extend maturity, supporting Beyond Meat's long-term vision, which is they don't have a long-term v. Um, hello. Hi, CEO of Beyond Meat. Just uh your long-term vision if it was 10 years, just to let you know, you're up. Time's up. Thank you. It's It's over, man. Stock was down 30% on this news to an all-time low. There's no currency to do anything with anymore. The reality is this is this is going going by the way of the windmill. People don't want this. Even the people that want it, >> people don't want it. >> Yeah. >> When's the last time you were out to dinner and you're talking to somebody? Hey, uh, Mimi and I want to go out to dinner. Listen, you know a good Beyond Meat restaurant around. Does that happen very often? >> No. >> God, am I in the mood for a fake hamburger? I'd kill I'd kill for a fake hamburger right now with fake cheese. Fake cheese on the fake hamburger. >> Oh, yeah. You want the fake cheese, too? >> Yeah. So, this is uh I don't know where the stock is. Should we look where the stock is? I think it's BY ND. Stock was up a little bit today. Year-to date down 50%. One year down 72%. Fiveyear down 98.86%. >> Heading to zero. >> Just kidding. Now, the good news about this is if you want to short it, there's still the opportunity to for it to drop another 50% from where it is. >> Yeah, of course. That's the thing about shorting stuff. >> So, there you go. This is a game that we play. It's not a solicitation to buy or sell any security. It's not a recommendation of any kind. Nothing on the show should be considered investment advice or a recommendation. If you choose to invest in any of the stocks mentioned, you should know that it may carry risk along with the risk of a loss of principle. You should also seek out professional financial advice for your particular situation. We assume no risk as these are not to be considered recommendations. Horowitz company, myself, or John Cavor may invest in any of the securities mentioned and we'll disclose that on the website under the weekly stock pick section. You can go to dhunplug.com and see all the names we discussed in the segment along with the performance information from the date discussed as well as any additional important disclosures. >> You got kicked on AP Molar Merk and Iridex was kicked. You got kicked on AP Mhler Marsk. >> Yeah, I saw that. I guess it's because of the until things settle out with China. >> Yep. Um >> but it's still a good good product. >> Yep. I give you that. Uh, Primo Band Brands, you're short up 30%. Um, you also uh picked Chevron as a buy of 15%. Those are starting to come back a little bit. Nvidia, of course, your pick up 31. Unusual. Well, Subversive, that's the Nancy. Uh, who was that? Who was that? Was that Nancy? Um, oh, what's what's the name? The Senator >> Pelosi. >> Pelosi. Sorry about that. I kept thinking Pulson. I don't know why. Nancy Pelosi. Uh her picks 10.59. Uh Fresh Works up. You're doing pretty good. No, your short is up 13% on Fresh Works. Eli Liy is your pick. Actually up 5% today. So you're up there. It's not really moved around very much. Um but Lyft is up 18%. Oracle up. >> Fiser Fiser moved. >> Fizer. Yeah. Is up 6.83% today. So that's moving up. Um I'm picking two stocks. I got the two >> I think Lyft is your pick by the way. >> Lift is my pick. Yeah. Did I say yours? Yeah. 18.97. Tesla's also mine. I don't know how it's still going up. I don't understand. >> Tesla is going up. Yeah, I know. That was unfortunate. But the other short, which is my short, which is the Oracle, which I based on what we've talked about on this show, Yeah. >> which is all this fake money, >> fake money, >> alternative facts, >> talking about, oh, we're going to be so big in 2030. Okay. Well, the Chinese are going to stop their emissions, too. >> I need Kelly and Conway coming out every time one of these stories is fake money. Fake money. fake news and fake money. I have two picks. Firefly Aerospace, which is the the one that crashed and burned today. We talked about that. Uh just one failure. They may overlook it in a few days. Uh and docuign. >> We'll pick that up. Uh for the Docu GPT, >> I have a couple of pharmas or medicals. Medicals first. I want to go with Bax Baxter. >> Boy, Dane, that's a dame from the past. >> Yeah, it is. B AX. Then the reason this is one of these I'm doing this this is the second attempt at this. Starbucks was the other one which hasn't paid off yet. Um new CEO that has quite the track record for turnarounds and and pumping up a company. >> So new CEO would be the rationale. And the other one is let me go get the thing here is uh insiders. >> Let me just write down new CEO. Okay, got it. Insiders for MBX MBX biosciences in put insiders and peculiar chart. This is one of those charts that is like wait a minute something happened here. >> Is it your old dipsy doodle? >> No, it's the it's the all of a sudden the thing skyrockets and then kind of settles down and relaxes a little bit because somebody knows something. >> Oh, >> and this guy bought $11 million. tip his hand. >> A director bought $11 million worth of the stock at 18 and it is now trading at 1750 which is settled back. Something's up the way I see it. >> So wait, >> too much too many coincidences. >> This is a >> I think this is a winner. >> Pecul peculiar and and and and insiders. Okay, I got that. I got that. I got that. $17. All right. Well, uh, with that, I bid you the old ado and I'll talk to you very soon, sir. >> Okay. Talk to you later. All right. Bye. >> You've been listening in on a conversation with John C. D'vorak and Andrew Horowitz. Hope to be with you again soon. Bye-bye. >> Now, I'm not broke, but badly bent. I'm not down to my last scent cuz I got a dollar, but it's my last dollar bill. Yes, sir. In my pocket there's a D. All my dough is nearly spent, but I got a dollar and it's my last dollar bill. Oh, I'd love just one more buck fortune left me by chance. Now, here's a hint. I'll feel like a men. You can hardly tell by a glance. I don't care. No millionaire can give me the Isis stack cuz I got a dollar. My last dollar bill. This podcast is intended forformational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Investing involves risk including the possible loss of principle and past performance is not indicative of future results. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and the guests and may not necessarily reflect those of Horowis Company Inc. an investment advisor registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Horowits Company is properly registered or is excluded from registration requirements. Any mention of thirdparty companies, products, or services is provided forformational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement. Hypothetical scenarios or forward-looking statements are for illustrated purposes only and should be viewed only as that and not as guarantees. Content is intended for US residents only and may not be applicable in other jurisdictions. Listeners should consult a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decision. Please visit our website for additional information, disclosures, as well as a copy of our form CRS.
DHUnplugged #771: Red October?
Summary
Transcript
Hello and welcome to D'vorak Horowitz Unplugged, an hour-long discussion of activity in the financial markets around the world featuring columnist John C. D'vorak and money manager Andrew Horowitz. This conversation is casual and unrehearsed. Let's join John and Andrew now. >> I'm John C. D'vorak. >> And I'm Andrew Horowitz. And it's the 30th, the end of the month of September 2025. >> Yeah. Done. One of the best months uh of September in years. I think it's going back years and years and years. As a matter of fact, the month overall was great for stocks, which is kind of playbook. Yeah, it was pretty good. Picked up. >> It's also good for us. We had five shows. >> It's Everything's good. Everything's good. Life is good. But we saw some crypto pulling back. That was something that was interesting um this month against the grain and in fact uh one of the worst performers of the month the worst performer of the month out of the major asset classes was real estate which is also kind of interesting because you would have thought you would have thought that if the Fed reduces rates that you're going to have a better backdrop for things like real estate and interest sensitive products. Gold on the other hand hit a new record over 3,800 for the first time ever. Silver doing pretty good also. >> Yeah, silver is. >> So I told you I bought those bars from Costco, right? >> Yeah, you did. >> Was it No, was it Costco or is it? Yeah, Costco. >> Costco has stuff like that every so often. >> So, uh, but they limit it. You're only allowed to buy like like five or 10 bars a day. And the problem with the silver bars is I bought five of them 10 bars. They're not small. I mean, they're not they're not big. But, you know, after a while, that was only like $2,500. If I was to have bought, let's say, you know, you do that every do that on dollar cost averaging over, let's say, $500 a month, let's just say, after a year, you start getting a they'd get heavy. >> Yeah. >> You need a big save somewhere to hold them. >> Yeah. Go with gold. It's heavy, but it has more per ounce value. >> Exactly. Well, platinum or palladium. >> Yeah. Well, platinum's always been a good idea, it seems to me, because it's always being used. >> That would be cool if Costco sold some platinum. >> Yeah, maybe they should think about it. Maybe they'll listen to the show and sell platinum. I'd buy one of those. >> Costco platinum bars. Wait a second. Wait, you could buy it? Yeah, you can buy a platinum bar. The same one I have. The Pamp Swiss Lady Fortuna Veriscan limit one transaction per membership. Just hang on a second. Oh, member only. You can't see the price. I don't have it listed here. Sign in to see the price. You You Oh, I want this one ounce. I want that. I'm buying this. Just >> What's an ounce of platinum going for now? >> Uh, how much ounce of platinum? Uh, let's see. Platinum is going for 1,600 bucks an ounce. >> Huh? >> What? >> Time to buy platinum. >> Yeah, I'm going to buy it tomorrow. All right, let's see. Um, where are we? Okay, here. Uh, reminder, by the way, there's a new close to the pin for Lithium America's Corp., which by the way, you know, it's not enough that a stock goes up because there's an announcement. You gota announce the same thing multiple times so it goes up a lot. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. Isn't >> that true? You know, uh you have an announcement that uh that that the United States government is going to be taking a stake in lithium America because it's a strategic asset is of course a metal that's important and security related. You know, we have to have our lithium for our battery and our EVs and all that. Even though even though this administration is not that fond of EVs, they seem very fond of some of these things like uh the metals and materials, the minerals, maybe it's more so protecting our industry in in in total from the potential of being held back by China. I think that's a big issue. >> I would think that would be the main reason. >> So, Lithium America today there's an announcement that uh the government is going to be taking a stake. And I'm thinking to myself, wait, where did I read that before? Where have I heard that before? It was up 30% on the news. So that stock is we we thought you and I thought it was going to be a crazy wild one. >> And we were right. >> Yeah. So you have a few more days to actually Let's see. You have Well, here we are. It's 900 p.m. Eastern time on the 30th. You have 10 days, two hours, 54 minutes, and 52, 51, 50 seconds to get your your your your guess in for Lithium America Corporation. Now, October's right around the corner, one of the toughest trading months of the year. If you look at statistically, October has some of the worst things that go on. We talked about this last week, and we'll see what happens. We're starting off with a fresh round of government shutdowns. The last one we had was a long one. Wasn't the last one under Trump as well? Last like 31 days or something? Uh >> I don't remember. I don't remember the details, but I think so. >> They'll keep the the the Now Trump is is threatening uh that he's going to that that anybody who is in the he's going to fire Democrats. That's what he said. He's going to fire Democrats. >> Yeah. basically is what he said, >> you know, and and uh it's their fault and it's your fault and you just you don't need to be here anymore. So, there's a threat of having much greater uh I guess firings but not furls. There's a difference, right? So, the furls they come back, they get back pay, they basically get a vacation. >> Yeah. They're going to he's going to A lot of people see this as his opportunity. So, they think that this won't happen. What won't happen? >> They would the shutdown. It's not going to happen. >> Shut down. I just saw the news. It says it's shutting down. >> Sorry, what? >> I just saw US government will shut down after midnight as Congress fails to pass funding bills. >> Yeah, it fails if Congress fails to pass. They're still talking about it. >> I don't think you're going to do it within 3 hours. >> I think the I think the Republicans are out of session. How are they going to even vote on it? >> They can do it in three hours. I don't know how they're going to vote on it. >> I guess they'll do it virtually or something. We'll see. No, >> you can't. You have to make exceptions to do that, but it's possible. I don't know. All I It just seems suspic It seems dumb. If these guys let this happen, Trump is just going to take advantage of it and start firing people left and right. >> So where does that get him? >> It gets him shrinking the government is what he wants to do. >> Okay. So yeah, so that he get So it gives him an opportunity to do what he's looking to do anyway. >> Yeah. >> Which I have no problem with >> without any struggle. with less struggle, >> right? I have no problem with shrinking shrinking governments. I mean, it's bloated. We're bloated. And then, by the way, this week, I think, is the it's this week or next week? Maybe it's ne Well, maybe October 1st. Do you remember that there was a offering given to government workers that they can have an opportunity to retire and take a payout and go? I think it's like 80,000 are leaving next week. >> I heard a hundred. Okay, that's fine. It's point is it's a lot. It's the greatest exits I think >> what you want. >> Yeah, that's but but hopefully it's not in vital areas. That's the only thing. It's it's it's redundancy that's that's leaving. And day traders, we have some good news for you. There's a new law that's uh being re redone a little bit or an old law that's being redone a little bit. there was something uh that prevented small accounts from trading on certain ways. In other words, we'll talk about this a little bit more in depth, but but you had to meet certain criteria in order to trade um uh day trade, you know, in and out, in and out throughout the day. They would call you a pattern day trader if you had less than $25,000 in your account. Why? What's the rationale? I never understood it. really never understood it. So, you don't have to worry about that anymore. We'll talk about that. Uh, we have some new tariffs being announced. We have drugs, trucks, and oh my god, freakout zone. Kitchen cabinets. >> Get your K I'm getting kitchen cabinets. I have We've been doing this for months. I'm like, "All right, that's enough. Move on. Let's get them." And by the way, you know, kitchen cabinets. Uh, >> that was the meeting tonight I had with the wife. >> The wife? the wife, the one and only. And kitchen campus, you I you probably know can be very expensive. Like really expensive. Like she brought home a this course. She goes, "Look what this guy did." I'm like, "What what is that? >> Is that a is that a house? We're buying another house." >> It was unbelievable. >> And I said, "It's just a kitchen for God's sakes. It's just a kitchen." But I am going to um do something to freshen it up a little bit. We we've been there uh 11 years. The house is, you know, it was built in the 50s, 60s, late 50s. >> So, we've been doing the podcast longer than that. >> Yeah. So, we got >> Yeah. I remember when you moved to that house, >> right? Right. Exactly. So, we I mean, we did a lot of work on the house when we got there. Redid the whole house because it was really needed it. We had bamboo flooring in that house that was cupping. >> You got the place dirt cheap. >> Oh, yeah. That was on a short sale. Well, the guy before me was the short sale and um it was 2014. Prices still hadn't hadn't started really moving on the east side of Fort Lauderdale yet. So, we picked it up. I thought it was re reasonable. I mean, we've tripled our money in it since then. >> Yeah. Well, you can buy a place cheap. You can you have money left over to improve the place. It's it's win-win. >> Yeah. Uh Intel's new grow growth model. talk about quantum stocks rallying and Powell is setting the stage. >> Did you spend any time this weekend watching the Ryder Cup? >> No, not at all. Why would I? >> Fantastic. >> It's just a golf game. >> No, it was great. First of all, I played on that course, Beth Paige. Uh, the black course of Beth Page. the sign. I'm not even I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not telling you anything that you may not know, but this there's a sign on the black horse at Beth Page. And that sign itself is something to be nervous about. And I took a picture of it a long time ago and now I'm pulling as big red print. First hole, first tee, warning. The black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers. You step on that first tee and you're like, what is gonna h what's happening? You know, I mean, how what's going to happen here? >> Are you sinking? >> No, you just it's just it's very difficult. The the the rough is very long. The length is very long. The narrow fairways. It's just it's But these guys were unbelievable. And the thing that I'm talking about was that the Americans caught up to within one point on the final day in an unbelievable, you know, turnaround. >> Yeah. But they didn't win now, did they? >> They did not win. No, they did not. >> Well, I'm glad that was such a thrill. >> It was great. I don't usually watch that. It was great. Friday jobs report. You excited about it? Because don't be. Labor Department says we're not probably going to release the jobs report on Friday because we have a government shutdown. >> Oh, what a nice trick. >> Nice, huh? Like they couldn't bring themselves to TR since they're estimating and they're doing a crappy job anyway. Yeah. What difference does it make? >> Just pick a number. Pick a number and then revise it the next month. They couldn't do it two or three days earlier. They don't have the data in. That's the problem. If they knew there was going to be another issue, if they knew there was going to be a potential for government shutdown, do you think maybe, for example, if you think there's going to be a storm, do you think maybe you'll do a little preparation beforehand? No. Not this group, >> government workers. >> Not government workers, they're like, "Oh, we're going to shut down good news. We don't have to give the report." But seriously, we know they were off 900,000 over the last year. If they're off 25,000, 50,000, who give Do we Does anybody really care? Revisions have been gigantic anyway. Seriously, how's how how this is really This This irks me. >> I can tell. >> Does this bother you at all? >> No. I worked for the government. I know how how things go. >> Am I wrong about what with what I'm saying? >> You're not wrong from your perspective. But from the government workers perspective is what are we going to do? Why should we do this? We're supposed to do it on Friday. What are we I can just see the meeting. We're supposed this supposed When is this supposed to come out? Friday. Friday. Yeah, Friday, Bill. Friday. Yeah, Friday. Well, uh, well, if there's a shutdown. Well, then we won't do it. Well, why don't we do it earlier, Bill? We can do it like now. We can just throw it out there. Why? >> They could have it on a they could have it on what they always do is they uh they hold it back on a uh what is that called? Uh, you know, when when when news has to be held back. It's f not for a little. It's uh >> embargoed. >> Embargoed. It's embargoed, right? until >> why why should I be working in advance of when I'm supposed to do the job? It's just dumb. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I'm not being paid by the hour. Well, maybe I am, but it's beside the point. >> Red October nine red o the hunt. I watched that watched that movie this weekend. Did you see it? Uh the hunt for Red October. Sean Connor, >> the old movie. Yeah. >> Yeah. Great. Nine of the 20 >> Alligator Drive or whatever they called it. The Yeah, it was the What was that drive? That's right. It was >> alligator drive. >> Alligator crocodile. It was some other >> crocodile. >> Some kind of whisper drive or something where you wouldn't hear anything. >> Yeah, I suppose that's a good bit. >> Uh nine of the nine out of the 20 largest single day drops in the Dow Jones occurred in October historically. Nine of the 20th. So that's a what about half of them happened in October for some god-awful reason. There was a 19077 bank panic, the 1929 crash. We had Black Tuesday, 1987 crash, Black Monday, 22% in a day. That was riveting. >> Yeah, that was a good one. >> I was there for that. >> Yeah, that's the one where everyone keeps talking about all the people in at the in the lines at the bank cashing out thinking that the world's coming to an end. Y one. It was basically a one day crash. >> People threw themselves out of the buildings on that one. >> It's Yeah, because they freaked out. I mean, but this was the same. This was was a was a mirror an 80year mirror of the 1907 panic. It and I think in 80 more years it's going to be the same exact thing in 2067. >> We may not be around. >> Mark the calendars. >> Put it down on a on a reminder. Talk to Siri. Hey Siri, set a reminder. >> Set a reminder for77 October. >> Yep. Uh 2008 financial crisis. The S&P fell 17% in October alone. Now since 1950, the S&P has averaged gains of about actually.91% in October. So with all this fanfire fair and all this worry about all this, the average since 1950 is still October is a 1% month. over the past 20 years um the average has been >> gain the gain you have written down here is minus >> yeah minus oh yeah is it minus or it says approximate >> it's a minus it's a it's a small loss it's not even 1% but it's a minus >> oh yeah that's the point that that and now I remember writing this since let me refresh this since 1950 there's been a slight loss >> here go back and edit what you just said >> yeah so let me and then we have since 1950 50, the S&P 500 has averaged a loss of about 0.91% in October. Now, here's the interesting thing. That's since 1950. Over the past 20 years, October has been relatively favorable. Average gains uh between8% on the upside and 1.5% on the upside for the S&P, Dow, and NASDAQ. The other thing to note about October is that it's 35% more volatile than the average month. So, there's something to be said about October. >> Well, I'm thinking there's going to be a crash this month. October. Not this month, but in October. >> Really? When you say crash, you're talking about the kinds like a a 10. No, not a not a it's there's going to be a either a cor a correction that will be interpreted as a crash and all the all the naysayers will come out of the woodwork. That's my prediction for October. >> I don't think you're far off. I think a lot of things that have gone on, the speculative mania, there's a lot of talk right now. Oh my gosh, you put on the financial shows and there's so much talk about the comparison of where we are now to the bubble, the tech bubble of 1999 2000 and the discussion. I just wrote about this actually for a newsletter I put out um for clients and and and the whole idea is that well we may be in speculative mania we may be in a tech bubble but back then the difference was always this right this time >> there is no difference these bubbles are bubbles >> well they talked about this is their talking points the AI bubble combined with the crypto bubble >> yeah this is the AI bubble and what they're talking about though the difference is that back then there where a lot of companies most companies weren't making money. And I'm thinking to myself, wait, hold on. >> There were plenty of companies. >> That's that's so much different than today. >> You know, that's so much different because, okay, we had we all know the names, the web vans, the peepods. Even Amazon back then wasn't making money. We know that >> peepod. I forgot about them. >> Um, and you had uh there was loss and there was Alta Vista and there was all these crazy internet to me. >> There was all that, right? My my space didn't make any money. Tons of them. Tons of them. >> So all those some of them are most of them are gone right now. But what's really interesting is that the idea that people think that look at how much money Open AAI is making. They're not making money. They're losing tens of billions of dollars every single year. And the projection is over the next four or five years they're going to continue losing 10 to 10 to tens of billions of dollars per year. Meanwhile, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars somehow magically to the oracles, the Microsofts, the Nvidas of the world. I don't know about you, but if somebody was pledging all sorts of money to me that didn't have any money or that was losing money, I would not be very excited. >> Yeah, I agree. >> We talked about this last week, like, you know, if I said to you, John, >> yeah, John, I'm going to give you I'm going to give you 12 trillion dollars in five years from now. I just want to know. >> Yeah, I'm looking forward to that bit that that check coming in. >> So, um, but today is the same. There's a lot of the similarities to where they were then and every single time the this time is different comes up. It's not different. And in addition to that, it just has a different tone to it. And what breaks the market, you know, you're starting to hear all these things like, you know, I heard one of the old phrases today, uh, bull markets don't end of old age. They break they they end when it's broken by the Fed. That that's the that's the thesis, right? That a bull market will just continue going until there's nothing out there until something is uh of a force equal and opposing hits it like the Fed. Kind of like inertia. >> It also sounds like BS. >> That's true. Saudi Arabia for the win. Electronics arts rallying last Friday following a report that Wall Street uh by the Wall Street Journal that the video game company is nearing a roughly a $50 billion deal to go private. It's going to be the largest leverage buyout of all time. Another >> Electronic Arts. I didn't get this story. >> Yes. Being bought, done, gone. Private. It's confirmed today. Oh, yes. >> Well, that's the end of them. >> Well, there's another little subtext here that we need to pay attention to is once again, look at the speculative timing. the largest leverage buyout of all time. That That's something of a speculative nature. Investors include Saudi Arabia's public investment fund. Interesting how they're getting into all sorts of things, isn't it? All of a sudden. >> Yeah. I wonder what's triggering that. >> We got Silverlake in there and um uh Infinity Partners. >> Who? >> Oh. Oh, you Oh, you want to know who Infinity Partners is? They're going to be investing in this. They're That's the company run by a guy named Jared Kushner. >> Oh, he's the one who orchestrated the whole thing. >> With the uh wink and nod from daddy-in-law, >> right? >> Yeah, that's what I'd guess. >> So, there's a big Okay, they're going to I don't know how they're going to what they're going to do, but it sounds like um something fishy. >> They're going private. Now we have things that are going on real well. Here's something that was really I felt interesting. Shares of CarMax, listen to this. CarMax, you know these guys, Carmax, right? You know, they're on every corner. >> Yeah. Supposedly, >> fell to an all-time low on Thursday. Investors blew out positions after disappointing second quarter earnings results. Stock uh the retail unit uh sales declined 5.4%. comparable same source of sales declined by 6.3% which is kind of interesting because you would think that used cars should be doing well if there's going to be tariffs on all these new cars. So what the hell is going on? Seriously, is it Carvana? Everybody's buying through Carvana. Really? Seriously? >> I don't think so. It's kind of weird. Net income decline 28% from 132 million. >> Bad management. How about that? >> CarMax is pretty bad. >> Maybe this is not the way to go. Maybe not. >> Maybe there's a reason that you used car salesmen are used car salesmen and you need a salesman and I'll use that word again. Salesmen in the mix to move these products. Is that possible? >> But CarMax I I believe if I'm not mistaken about CarMax, their model is that the salespeople are on salary and there's there's really not negotiation on the price once it's presented. >> Yeah. Okay. Again, I think my point is still uh valid. That's not sales, right? It's it's it's order takers, right? But still, I I'm I'm finding it very fascinating that Carvana is going all the way up. Its numbers are they they projected crazy numbers. And think about Carvana, right? They don't have the showrooms. They have those weird what do they call those things? Uh they're like PEZ machines for cars. >> Yeah, those giant vending machines for cars. >> And uh without that they deliver them right to your door. But are people that dumb to look at prices? I will tell you that I uh I had two different friends and they were selling their car and they put it on Carvana. Carvana was paying way over everybody else. Sight unseen. >> That's not good. >> Right. Meanwhile, >> it's good for your guys selling the cars. >> Sure. >> That's a short. That's a short. I sure >> short. It sounds like a Sounds like a classic short. >> Yep. >> It's a very thin float. It's owned by It's run by a father and a son. There's a multitude of companies that intertwine on this deal. Debt and money goes back and forth for weird reasons. It's a very one. >> There's a lot there. I would recommend if people are thinking about shorting or buying going long on that company uh to go online to YouTube and look at the videos that are about Carvana specifically. >> Yeah, it's pretty crazy, right? >> Yeah, they're not flattering. >> Bringing back an old name, the Security Exchange Commission is accusing the men who bought bankrupt chains Radio Shack, Modell Sporting Goods, and Tier One Imports of running Ponzi schemes that duped investors out of tens of millions. >> I saw this story. I cracked up. >> What? Who is Radio Shack? I mean, there are still some legitimate, you know, some people bought their stores and they're independents, but it says Radio Shack, and I guess I get a bad rep because of this, but this is a a a kind of a ignoble ending to a great company. >> Yep. Uh, Radio Shack was we all we we all bought stuff and supplies and loved going there for a while, right? >> Yeah. I was a I was always a fan of Radio Shack. I mean the later years they basically just sold nothing but cell phones but which I wasn't interested in but the earlier days when they had the computers uh when John Roach was running it >> the parts you can get you know oh I need this go to Radio Shack I need this part go to Radio Shack >> and go and there's usually one in every little town >> right but then they also started selling a lot of their own branded stuff you know like their like radios for example, or uh Walkie Talk. There's all this own but and their stuff was crap. >> Yeah. The realistic brand. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's bring back a name. I love that. So, the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleged the co-founders of the Miami based retail e-commerce ventures. Couple of names there, together with the company's chief executive officer raised approximately $12 million combined from hundreds of US investors by selling investments in eight companies they created and controlled under this one venture. Between uh April 2020 and November 22, they raised money blah blah blah. They sold and secured notes that promise returns of 25% a year. Hello, anybody listening? 25% per year note and you're going to be buying that. You think that what is going to happen? >> You know what's going to happen? >> I mean why why do people what is it? Is it greed? Is it stupidity? What is it? >> It's it's a combination. >> Too good to be true is usually too good to be true. The number there's a lot of numbers. For example, the number 33, an important number that signals a signal. It's a signal of a signal. And that is what's talked about oftentimes by yourself and Adam Curry on the no agenda twice a week. >> Yep. No agenda. 33 comes up all the time, right? >> Yeah. It's a classic. >> And there's these signals, you know, 25% 15%. These are all numbers to pay attention to. 15% was always the classic number that I've always said. If you're offering a guaranteed 15%, get the hell out and run. This was the tactic of uh a lot of the cryptocurrency deals that went sour, but also um for example, it was um the famous one from for maid off, Bernie Maid off, >> 15% per year. >> I had people come up to me, they got a bunch of money like, "Andrew, what do you think about this maid off thing?" I'm like, "What do you mean?" >> He said, "Well, it's for 15%. He's been paying that every year and he pretty much guarantees it." I'm like, dude, uh, I don't know much about this level because it's beyond my understanding, but I can tell you that I did a little research. I don't under not only I understand it, I don't see how it's possible. They were doing these option plays and if he was doing at the level that he was doing it, I look in the paper to find the options that should have been traded and it trades like, you know, 12 when it was then. So, what I mean by that is the volume was 12. I'm like, if he's got multiple billions >> volume is 12. Yeah, that's a kind of a a kind of a red red flag. >> How did the SEC or any other regulatory body not pick up on this? Unbelievable. Did I ever tell you I got one of his statements? >> Sorry. >> Did I ever tell you I got one of his statements from a client? >> I think you may have mentioned it on the show sometime way long ago. The statement was essentially a typed statement by hand with like white out and stuff on it and it would show all the different trades and all that. He must have somehow I don't know how he did it but he probably had a stack of these things they typed every month. That must have taken a whole month or a quarter, whatever it was. It was crazy. It had like a dropped letter here and there. It was it was an old >> They're all done by hand. >> Yep. All of it. >> Moving along. Fizer is playing bowl. Donald Trump, president of the United States, announced agreement with Fiser to voluntarily sell its medicines at lower prices in the US as uh the administration pushes to link the national drug prices to cheaper prices paid abroad. So Fizer, they they really had no choice. They were just dying. Uh I put this on the game a few weeks ago saying it's hated. Something got to pop here. They agreed to take measures to lower US drug prices, including selling its existing drugs to Medicaid patients at the lowest price offered in other developed nations on a website the administration is calling trumprx.gov. Have you ever seen such uh what is this called? Uh tribute. I know we had the Obamacare, but that was I don't think the government called it Obamacare. I think everybody called >> was a nickname that the media gave it, >> right? But the government's calling it Trump rx.gov. >> Yeah. They have a bunch of these websites they're putting up. They're pretty slick. >> So that's the government doing that. As part of the deal, uh, Fiser's also agreed agreed to a three-year grace period during which the company's products won't face pharmaceutical specific tariffs as long as the drug drug maker further invests in US manufacturing. So, they'll be able to do all that stock up 7% today. >> Yeah, that was good. Good move. >> Yep. Bite Dance is going to retain ownership of Tik Tok's US business operations sources say all of a sudden the Tik Tok story is nowhere to be found. It was big excitement last week. Oh my god. This week it's like okay that was last week. Let's move on. The joint venture is going to handle the US user data and algorithm. Bite dance is control the revenue generating operations like e-commerce and advertising. So sourc say the new US Tik Tok will be invited to two companies. The joint venture was announced by Trump and the backend operations to the US company to handle US data. Okay. Bite dance is going to be the single largest minority shareholder. The US um in this deal supposedly valued it at 14 billion. That's what Vice President JD Vance said. 14 billion. Huh. This is the greatest social media platform out there and they're valuing this at 14 billion. Even if that is a subset of the totality of what the global is worth, that seems really low. >> Yeah. Considering that uh Twitter or now X is worth 50 billion maybe or more depending on how they they finagle it. >> Yep. Nuts. >> Yeah. Makes no sense at all. >> I don't know why they're valuing at these low levels. >> There's something going on. There's a reason. >> Maybe they don't want to look. I Maybe they giving Maybe they're giving it to everybody at these values once again at a discount and then everybody gets to make all sorts of money. >> Oh, that could be just a scam. I know some of this stuff is fishy. Holy economics GDP now expects um the the GDP in the coming quarter to be somewhere between 3.8% and 3.9% annualized. Home sales sore 20% on a month-over-month basis to a three-year high. >> Sales were 15% higher than in August 2024. That's despite mortgage rates actually being higher. So maybe they got it wrong. Maybe we got to raise interest rates and more houses will sell. >> Who knows? I mean, these cycles are just impossible to keep up with with all the us with all the uh underlying scamming, but all the whining about home the home market. Look, I know for a fact I have a few friends that are in businesses that are either in the home sales, home construction related, for example. Who would you want to talk to to understand the most about home sales? Well, it would be for home sales that are happening right now, someone in the title business, right? How is your business, sir? Sucks. Well, okay. How's it been? How's it? Terrible. Got like one closing a week. It's not going to feed the family. So, that's who you talk to if you want to hear about what's happening now. You want to hear about like future orders and things. You talk about you talk to people in the um in the sales business in the new home sales. You want to talk about what the backlog is. You talk about construction. How's that going? So, right now there's multitude of different opinions on that. And uh I can tell you that people I know in the industry that are also related to building construction construction, they say it's cooled off considerably, but it's still pretty good. The median home price. >> Yeah. Well, that would be the logical thing going on. >> Yeah. The median price of new homes sold in August was 413%. 413,000. Uh, an increase of 2% year-over-year. Still good. Initial claims last week came in at 218,000. Now, you tell me. Tell me why do we need to drop rates? I don't understand. >> Well, so we can be competitive with the rest of the world who has their rates down to next to nothing. But because our economy is moving so so well, it seems >> I don't think it's moving that well. I think that's a myth. >> The myth I just read to you all the stuff that's going on. Where's the myth? >> I know you did, but I don't see that being like hot, like boiling hot. >> Okay, Kelly control. I mean, I'm in the California real estate market and I can see that it's just it's down a bit. >> You're in Florida where it's different. So, and you're you're seeing things from the Floridaidian perspective where it's nuts and I'm seeing things from the biggest state in the country where it's uh it's it's not quite as uh as as hot the real estate game. I don't not not a lot of homes are for sale. >> People are kind of settled. >> But forget about me and you. I'm talking about the numbers I just gave you. Forget about what anecdotally we're seeing here or there. >> Yeah, I know. But you brought in the anecdotal stuff with the title guy saying you're right about that. >> They don't see anything going on and I then you just ignored your own observations. >> Well, I'm allowed to. >> Powell hinting that stocks are overvalued. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a commentary said, >> "Gee, that takes a genius." >> Yep. Equity prices are fairly highly valued. Now, what's interesting about this though is the obvious obvious point, right? but that he said something about it. He doesn't usually talk about these things. So I think that's interesting where he said that the rate cutting path wasn't clear and it was a challenging situation. Stocks sold off a bit during that period for the two two or three days. Nothing major. Came back every single day to a higher level than it started. But still there's concerns about stubborn inflation leading to a decision back to lower the central bank rates. Dow setting up potential cuts and ignoring inflation pressures may be something but we're not sure. There's a whole thing going on. Uh quick update on quantum quantum last week big week I on Q on Tuesday said it achieved a significant quantum internet milestone. What does that mean? I don't know. >> Shares are 3% higher. >> Explain this milestone at all. No, it's just it's too technical for you, sir. You wouldn't understand. >> Yeah. Uhhuh. >> Shares of Regetti Computers gained 10%. Now, uh, D-Wave Quantum added 6% and Quantum Comput rose 4%. Year-to- date, check this out. Regetti Computers up 100%. In Q up 65%, CQIT up 25% and CQITS QBTS up 218%. We flagged this a long time ago for our listeners. I'm sure somebody's making some money on it. >> Intel, I don't follow. Good luck. >> Yeah, I know you're not a big fan. Uh because as you said, there is no quantum computing >> yet. >> I see no evidence. >> Nope. I understand. Intel. Now, Intel is asking Apple to make an investment. So, this is a new growth model for Intel. Basically, it's it's kind of uh CEO of Intel standing on a corner with a cup. uh you want you want to give me a little I'll you know if you give me uh $3 less than the value I'll sell you a chunk of my company did it with the government did it with Nvidia uh now is looking to do with Apple but I don't think Apple is uh >> well Apple's not going to buy into this >> no uh let's see here this development we talked about uh national security round of tariffs we talked about that 100% tariffs on branded drugs. That's why Fizer is getting in the group there. About 60% of the 2.5 billion in US furniture imports came into Vietnam and China according to furniture today. I don't know what are we looking at for Wayfair there. Uh new heavyduty truck tariffs will benefit companies such as Packer opens new new um opportunities for Peterbuilt Kenworth and Freightlininer. You ever drive one of those trucks? I want to drive like a big Peterbuilt. I I drove I never drove one on the road, but I used to work at an international harvester >> and the drove a big combine the plant. No, no, I there's nothing hooked to it. >> So, what did you drive? You just looked at him. >> The big giant big international harvester tractor. >> Oh, that must have been fun. >> Well, yeah. I guess if you want you think moving something 100 yards is is hilarious fun. But yeah, it's just being inside of those. I used to stop on the side of the roads when I saw a bunch of the Caterpillar trucks and all that when I was uh driving with my son. We'd stop. I'd be like, "Hey, hey, hey." You know, nobody's there. Let's go. I'd pull to the side of the road, get out, and I'd have them sit in it and I'd make all the engine noises myself and pretend to be driving these things. >> Well, you know, you could always have, you know, gotten your license and driven a big rig, >> I guess. It was fun. Good times. Um, but when we look at these tariffs that are going on right now, these things uh with uh the issues of of of trucks of of big trucks, of uh drugs, of kitchen cabinets, new duties of 50% on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, as well as a 30% levy on upholstered phone upholstered furniture. So, I sent this note out to a friend of mine who's in the um furniture. Well, he's in bathroom fixtures, home remodeling, and kitchen stuff, we'll call it. Okay. Bathroom, kitchen. I sent this to him. He goes, "That's great. It'll help out our, you know, US-based manufacturers." >> And I wrote him back. What about the consumer? Well, they'll have to pay a little more. So why is it that the consumer is always it's always okay if the consumer pays more but it's not okay if a manufacturer makes less. Companies have become much more important than the the average Joe, haven't they? >> Well, yeah. I think that's always been the case though. Is that because the thesis is that because the average Joe works for the company and therefore will keep their job or is it just because there's some other power play going on that the corporate America is much more important than any one person. >> You think they would latter what you just said? >> I guess that's why there's unions these days, right? or always just to protect everybody. Yeah, maybe >> pattern day traders dumb rule that was out there. Regulators are moving to dismantle one of the most controversial barriers for active retail traders. The $25,000 minimum equity rule for patterned day trading. So, what the hell does that mean? Used to mean that you had to have $25,000 in an account. Not $24,900. Not 24,999. Not 25,000 that you lost a worth 24. because now you're under. You have to have $25,000 and then you could trade your your your brains out. You just trade trade trade trade trade trade trade. You go below your pattern day trader and I think there's a couple of like All right, you got one warning that you traded in and out that day. Another one and then they shut your account down. So, >> but now they've dropped it. Now, it's it's it's um they're replacing the mandate with an intraday margin rule that applies the existing margin maintenance rules to intraday exposure blah blah blah. Basically, what they're saying is that the intraday buying power will be based on the margin requirements for the positions they take during the day, not affect fix fixed equity minimum. So if some positions are less volatile and require less margin if you're trading on them then that probably you could trade them more often and have a uh the opportunity to do so. Whereas if it has a much higher margin you may not be able to trade or do you have to trade a much lower amount. So if you have to have um if there's a margin requirement of let's say 200% or something like that where you know you could you can't for example some stocks you could do like a four times leverage. So if you $25,000 account you can you know leverage it up to whatever whatever it may be for an intraday trade. Not a hold overnight. I'm talking about intraday. You could possibly trade two 300%. So if you have 25,000, you can put on a $75,000 trade, but sell it before the gavvel comes down on the close of the markets, which is going to lead to a little bit of a problem if we ever go to 24-hour trading because then you have to wonder when the margin numbers are open and closed. Like when what is the what's the day right now? The day technically is 9:30 to 4 Eastern Standard Time. That's the day. What happens when we go extended hours? >> That's a good question. It seems to me. >> Yeah, but these knuckleheads won't think of it, >> I guess. Well, they didn't. That's for sure. >> No, they're not going to think of it. Um, now this is good for stocks like Robin Hood. I looked I I can't because of the Let's just say that I looked at the basis we have in Robin Hood as a stock for our clients. I was shocked how low it is. That's all I'm going to say. It was I was surprised. Not shocked. I was surprised because the the point is not that that oh my god, you know, we had it so long ago, one of the early ones. No, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying it's run up like a crazy lunatic stock. That stock is is on fire. And uh it's up uh 5% today. Year to date, it's up 263%. >> Yeah, that was a winner. >> One year. You want to take a number? 500. >> Oh, you know what? I hate when you guess right on. Why is that? How do you do that? >> 511%. So, pretty impressive. 41% for the month. And again, the five days, that's the one where it came out. 12 and a half% on the five days. But, but a lot more people. This this is was a oh, nice game to a, you know, sign. I know a lot of players, especially younger traders. I should probably get myself a Robin Hood account just to mess with just to see what it's all I mean I've I've seen it and I've you know >> uh you probably should. >> I think you should now that you mention it. >> Yep. All right. Uh docuign. This is weird and we should think about this. I need to see where this finished. Docuine finished um about 11% lower today. It was 12 and a half% lower today to be exact. Why? There was an announcement that a open AAI introduced DOC G docu GPT an agent that converts contracts into structured searchable data. I had a long conversation with somebody about this that AI would be good to utilize. For example, you have a just a a you're a real realy company and you have huge amounts of contracts that deal with all sorts of different items with HOAs and you know the different contracts that come along and you have all this well how do you need know when to search maybe for some rent increases or maybe some other things related to a particular HOA or an easement issue whatever it is right this is a great tool for AI if you can shove it all in there and it can organize it for you well that's what this is It's going to organize your contracts. I don't understand from what I read about this and I went into the OpenAI blog and read everything about this. I don't see exactly how that's going to hurt docuign. >> That doesn't make sense. >> I don't I don't understand unless they've got something some schema foot to actually take over the Docusine business underneath it all. this and people in the know know about it. >> It's not a direct So I'm reading this right now. I just put this into an AI uh engine. This is what I I looked at this myself today. Didn't I didn't do this earlier. I I was like I don't understand. It's not a direct competitor to docuine but a separate tool using AI to generate process documents offering features like version history tracking accessibility but not direct e signature solutions like docysine. I is what I'm saying? I don't understand. >> Well, I I'll say it again. There may be lurking exactly what you you what they say isn't there. It may be ready to they may be ready to pounce on the signature side of things. They may be working on it with with extra security features using AI. >> I'm just suggesting the possibility. >> Well, if you're going to work with contracts, you might as well go all the way. It it may be, but it it could be a filing, but then again, it could attach Why not just Why not just attach yourself to Docu Sign? Make life easier. So, you have an added price of $10 a month or whatever it is for the full indexing of all your contracts you've ever done and feeding in the rest of it. So, you have both sides. Then, Docuine can then take the then then it takes the documents that you fed in create and and can recall them and utilize them for future signatures automat automatically. That would be that would be a good idea, >> right? >> Yeah. >> You got to renew the list. >> Do you sign's a good long? Maybe that's what Maybe that's a foot. >> That's what I'm trying to say. >> Well, I'd go for that. >> Doc, >> you want to do a purple on Docu Sign? >> I just I don't It's not I don't think it's purple worthy. >> Okay. So, I'm I'm going to go long on Docu Sign. Okay. >> Okay. >> We'll talk about that in a minute. Firefly Firefly Aerospace crashes to post IPO lows after disclosing that the booster stage of its Alpha rocket was destroyed during a testing mishap, meaning it blew up. Big setback is being talked about. >> It was It's called a uh what was it? What's the term that they use at SpaceX? An un uh an unexpected disassembly. the setback had delay this delay the company's commercial launch schedule. This was like a came up uh recently as an IPO and I'm like, "Oh, okay. I'll wait." I It went up to like 70 or something. I picked it up when it came right way back down. Um I'm still lower now because of this 20%. But basically, uh I didn't buy a big position. It was pretty small. But this is one of those that was, you know, an interesting play of the aerospace area. in um aerospace space. Charlie J Charlie Javis, founder of startup that was acquired by JP Morgan in 21 for 175 million, sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for defrauding the bank. Now, I don't even know if you remember this story. There was a company, I believe it was called Frank, I think it was called Frank. They said, >> I do not remember this story. >> They had millions of customers in the mortgage business and they did something with the something with the technology, with the something blah blah blah blah blah. JP Morgan comes in and buys them. Basically, what the company was doing, their business, they had a few hundred thousand customers that were doing something, not in the multi-millions. They were just sitting there beefing up the numbers, creating fake accounts, and then sold it to JP Morgan, not thinking that JP Morgan would figure this out. I mean, can you imagine? >> That's insane. >> Totally crazy. The uh >> that is that's insanity. >> Yep. Javvis and her uh chief. That's Charlie Javvis's wife. >> And you do you think people are that stupid is what it amounts to. >> Unbelievable. And she's crying. Oh my god. >> I vaguely remember the story now that you mention it. >> Yeah. And but but >> what kind of due diligence was done by JP Morgan? That's another question. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's probably what what lured the whole deal to come to fruition. >> Yep. >> The lack of oversight at the beginning. But they uh >> these guys are so stupid. Let's just sell it to them. >> Yeah. >> So the founder and chief growth officer, Olivia Amar, guilty. Three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. I think seven years in jail. Bye. Seven years. Bye. Crying. Oh, what a bad mistake. I made a terrible mistake. So, um let's see what else we have here. I think we had one other piece on this. I want to mention the close to the pin. We talked about the top, but uh go to Lithium America's um over on dhplug.com. And while you're there, by the way, just for a moment, entering the fourth quarter of the year, we've talked about a lot of things that we've brought to your attention this year, right? We talked about quantum, whether you believe it or not, the stocks are doing well. We've talked about the Palunteers, we talked about the Robin Hoods, we talked about all of this. We talk about it because we like like the thesis we're uh flushing out today, whether we're wrong or right, on docuign. some things that make you think, some things that make you hopefully uh um maybe make some money. I don't know. It's not we're not smarter. >> We're not Yeah, we're not recommending anything, but just things that you can do something with with the little tidbits. Go over to DH Unplugged, donate to the show. We got that new great server that is just bleeding us dry. And uh big payment was made on that. By the way, um the way these service companies work, they either charge you monthly or or yearly. And the the differential monthly versus yearly is the yearly is much cheaper well than the monthlyies. >> That's what they do it. That's why they do it. They're all everyone does that same gambit. >> Yep. So, um we did have that going. If you want to continue listening uh to the really fast server that is making all sorts of strides in in in podcast excellence to help us along here. Uh please donate to the show. We really appreciate that. Last thing on the list here today before we get to the the uh stocks. Beyond Bad. Now, you knew this, you called this, you were all over this. On September 29th, 2025, Beyond Meat announced the commencement of an exchange offer and consent solicitation aimed at eliminating $800 million of debt. Who's giving these kind of loans to these companies? Hi. I have a product that is made from organic pea mucus that tastes lousy, but we put a little bit of smoke in it. We rub it on the ground and it we're going to convince people that it's a burger substitute. Well, the uh initiative involves exchanging ex existing convertible nodes for new ones, which is basically to blow out the holders that have that with the support of holders where, you know, the move is intended to reduce leverage, extend maturity, supporting Beyond Meat's long-term vision, which is they don't have a long-term v. Um, hello. Hi, CEO of Beyond Meat. Just uh your long-term vision if it was 10 years, just to let you know, you're up. Time's up. Thank you. It's It's over, man. Stock was down 30% on this news to an all-time low. There's no currency to do anything with anymore. The reality is this is this is going going by the way of the windmill. People don't want this. Even the people that want it, >> people don't want it. >> Yeah. >> When's the last time you were out to dinner and you're talking to somebody? Hey, uh, Mimi and I want to go out to dinner. Listen, you know a good Beyond Meat restaurant around. Does that happen very often? >> No. >> God, am I in the mood for a fake hamburger? I'd kill I'd kill for a fake hamburger right now with fake cheese. Fake cheese on the fake hamburger. >> Oh, yeah. You want the fake cheese, too? >> Yeah. So, this is uh I don't know where the stock is. Should we look where the stock is? I think it's BY ND. Stock was up a little bit today. Year-to date down 50%. One year down 72%. Fiveyear down 98.86%. >> Heading to zero. >> Just kidding. Now, the good news about this is if you want to short it, there's still the opportunity to for it to drop another 50% from where it is. >> Yeah, of course. That's the thing about shorting stuff. >> So, there you go. This is a game that we play. It's not a solicitation to buy or sell any security. It's not a recommendation of any kind. Nothing on the show should be considered investment advice or a recommendation. If you choose to invest in any of the stocks mentioned, you should know that it may carry risk along with the risk of a loss of principle. You should also seek out professional financial advice for your particular situation. We assume no risk as these are not to be considered recommendations. Horowitz company, myself, or John Cavor may invest in any of the securities mentioned and we'll disclose that on the website under the weekly stock pick section. You can go to dhunplug.com and see all the names we discussed in the segment along with the performance information from the date discussed as well as any additional important disclosures. >> You got kicked on AP Molar Merk and Iridex was kicked. You got kicked on AP Mhler Marsk. >> Yeah, I saw that. I guess it's because of the until things settle out with China. >> Yep. Um >> but it's still a good good product. >> Yep. I give you that. Uh, Primo Band Brands, you're short up 30%. Um, you also uh picked Chevron as a buy of 15%. Those are starting to come back a little bit. Nvidia, of course, your pick up 31. Unusual. Well, Subversive, that's the Nancy. Uh, who was that? Who was that? Was that Nancy? Um, oh, what's what's the name? The Senator >> Pelosi. >> Pelosi. Sorry about that. I kept thinking Pulson. I don't know why. Nancy Pelosi. Uh her picks 10.59. Uh Fresh Works up. You're doing pretty good. No, your short is up 13% on Fresh Works. Eli Liy is your pick. Actually up 5% today. So you're up there. It's not really moved around very much. Um but Lyft is up 18%. Oracle up. >> Fiser Fiser moved. >> Fizer. Yeah. Is up 6.83% today. So that's moving up. Um I'm picking two stocks. I got the two >> I think Lyft is your pick by the way. >> Lift is my pick. Yeah. Did I say yours? Yeah. 18.97. Tesla's also mine. I don't know how it's still going up. I don't understand. >> Tesla is going up. Yeah, I know. That was unfortunate. But the other short, which is my short, which is the Oracle, which I based on what we've talked about on this show, Yeah. >> which is all this fake money, >> fake money, >> alternative facts, >> talking about, oh, we're going to be so big in 2030. Okay. Well, the Chinese are going to stop their emissions, too. >> I need Kelly and Conway coming out every time one of these stories is fake money. Fake money. fake news and fake money. I have two picks. Firefly Aerospace, which is the the one that crashed and burned today. We talked about that. Uh just one failure. They may overlook it in a few days. Uh and docuign. >> We'll pick that up. Uh for the Docu GPT, >> I have a couple of pharmas or medicals. Medicals first. I want to go with Bax Baxter. >> Boy, Dane, that's a dame from the past. >> Yeah, it is. B AX. Then the reason this is one of these I'm doing this this is the second attempt at this. Starbucks was the other one which hasn't paid off yet. Um new CEO that has quite the track record for turnarounds and and pumping up a company. >> So new CEO would be the rationale. And the other one is let me go get the thing here is uh insiders. >> Let me just write down new CEO. Okay, got it. Insiders for MBX MBX biosciences in put insiders and peculiar chart. This is one of those charts that is like wait a minute something happened here. >> Is it your old dipsy doodle? >> No, it's the it's the all of a sudden the thing skyrockets and then kind of settles down and relaxes a little bit because somebody knows something. >> Oh, >> and this guy bought $11 million. tip his hand. >> A director bought $11 million worth of the stock at 18 and it is now trading at 1750 which is settled back. Something's up the way I see it. >> So wait, >> too much too many coincidences. >> This is a >> I think this is a winner. >> Pecul peculiar and and and and insiders. Okay, I got that. I got that. I got that. $17. All right. Well, uh, with that, I bid you the old ado and I'll talk to you very soon, sir. >> Okay. Talk to you later. All right. Bye. >> You've been listening in on a conversation with John C. D'vorak and Andrew Horowitz. Hope to be with you again soon. Bye-bye. >> Now, I'm not broke, but badly bent. I'm not down to my last scent cuz I got a dollar, but it's my last dollar bill. Yes, sir. In my pocket there's a D. All my dough is nearly spent, but I got a dollar and it's my last dollar bill. Oh, I'd love just one more buck fortune left me by chance. Now, here's a hint. I'll feel like a men. You can hardly tell by a glance. I don't care. No millionaire can give me the Isis stack cuz I got a dollar. My last dollar bill. This podcast is intended forformational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Investing involves risk including the possible loss of principle and past performance is not indicative of future results. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and the guests and may not necessarily reflect those of Horowis Company Inc. an investment advisor registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Horowits Company is properly registered or is excluded from registration requirements. Any mention of thirdparty companies, products, or services is provided forformational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement. Hypothetical scenarios or forward-looking statements are for illustrated purposes only and should be viewed only as that and not as guarantees. Content is intended for US residents only and may not be applicable in other jurisdictions. Listeners should consult a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decision. Please visit our website for additional information, disclosures, as well as a copy of our form CRS.