The Bond Pivot: Jim Bianco on Why it’s Time to Start Buying Bonds

What evidence do you use when weighing up an investing decision? In this masterclass on capital cycle investing, Wilf sits down with Django Davidson, founding partner and portfolio manager at Hosking Partners – an $8 billion global investment firm focused on the capital cycle approach, an investing philosophy which has led their firm to significant outperformance in recent years. Django breaks down their methodology; how high profits actually attract devastating competition, and in contrast why low returns on capital can provide fantastic entry points to stocks. The key is knowing how to spot the turning points before the crowd catches on. Moving beyond Wall Street's obsession with demand forecasts and growth narratives, Django shares why true contrarian outperformance relies on measuring supply, tracking replacement costs, and understanding industry consolidation. He explains why the era of zero interest rates was an aberration and how the return of a real cost of capital has revived two powerful forces: mean reversion and creative destruction. Wilf and Django discuss Hosking’s early investment in memory chip stocks – Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix – and how the capital cycle investing framework drew them into the space a decade ago, but is also leading them to sell today as a key warning sign – enterprise value to replacement cost – flashes red. They also cover why acute supply shortages in copper and platinum make both metals a core holding for Hosking; why his “Death Of The Brand” thesis a decade ago predicted Nike’s current fall from grace; and why the company’s biggest country bet is on Japan, which they feel is at the start of a long upswing. Recorded 12th October 2026

In this rare extended interview, Wilf sits down with the famed market contrarian and man who coined the phrase "Magnificent Seven", Bank of America’s Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett. Hartnett unpacks the structural forces reshaping markets this decade, from ballooning fiscal spending and nominal growth, to the massive rotation away from sovereign debt. He explains why the AI trade now faces a twin threat: bond market discipline on Wall Street and pushback from voters on Main Street. From the Mag 7 shifting from cash-flow machines to spending $1.2 trillion on CapEx, to the historical warning signs from the 1880s railroad boom and the 1990s dot-com bubble, Hartnett provides an unvarnished playbook for navigating today's market regime. Hartnett breaks down the reasons why the equity market has not yet collapsed in the face of spiking bond yields and the importance of the Fed reestablishing its credibility. “Central Banks never run out of ammunition, but they can run out of credibility. The Fed has now been forced to do things to restore its credibility. I think that they're panicking and I think that they'll win.” He reflects on the lessons learned from past stock market bubbles – with particular focus on the Railroad and Nifty50 bubbles which he feels have similarities to today – and answers the question of what pops a bubble? Bonds and social upheaval – which is why he is so focused on the midterms which he feels could derail the AI trade. Finally – the ultimate contrarian – he explains why he lives by the mantra "Buy Humiliation, Sell Hubris" – revealing and explaining the contrarian trades you should have exposure to – certain bonds, China, small caps and real estate.

What happens if the invisible system feeding and fuelling our planet suddenly breaks down? In this episode of The Master Investor Podcast, Wilfred Frost sits down with Ed Conway, Economics & Data Editor at Sky News and bestselling author of Material World and Trade World. Drawing on Ed’s latest book, Trade World, they explore the enormous importance - and growing fragility - of global trade, and why the hyper-efficient, just-in-time supply chains that have delivered decades of cheap goods are increasingly vulnerable to tariffs, geopolitical friction and war. Ed offers some stark warnings about what could happen if the global trading system begins to break down: “So if we were to have a kind of breakdown in global trading system, God forbid, it would make the Global Financial Crisis look like a walk in the park because this is everything.” And, looking at the growing tensions between major powers: “It's not implausible that if things go south from here, people will look back and say this was the foothills for another world war.” At the same time, the fact that the stakes are so high and the world is so integrated encourages him that the cost of escalating conflicts and diminishing trade would far outweigh the upside for world leaders. He also unpacks the ingenuity of trade middlemen who have ensured a resilience to world trade such that while oil prices have risen this year, they haven’t risen as much as worst estimates. “Trade doesn't just stop when a trade barrier is put in place. It adapts and it evolves - it’s like water - it’s very difficult to stop it from finding a level.” They also explore why established industries so often push back against new technologies and innovation; the extraordinary moment in history when technological progress delivered an even greater economic transformation than AI; and why global yields have reached multi-decade highs, how hedge funds are driving the gilt market, and the mechanics behind ending QT. #EdConway ’s new book, Trade World, is available now in the UK and will be released in the US next May.

Thomas Peterffy is worth well over $100bn, making him one of the 20 wealthiest people in the world. He is a markets titan and the founder of Interactive Brokers, and joins Wilf on this week’s episode of The Master Investor Podcast. He breaks down how Interactive Brokers has grown both earnings and its share price by around 40% per year over the past five years, driven by its focus on building the products its customers want. He explains why he remains calm about the rise in bond yields, believes the Fed will hike rates, and disagrees with that decision. Peterffy is optimistic about AI, arguing that fears of a Hindenburg moment are overstated and that AI will overwhelmingly boost the economy and stock market. He points to companies such as Nvidia, which he believes are “cheap” when their earnings growth is taken into account. Wilf and Thomas also discuss prediction markets at length. Peterffy boldly predicts that they will eventually account for the majority of Interactive Brokers’ earnings, explaining the decade-long thinking behind his forecast, including his attempt to buy Kalshi five years ago. Most strikingly, Peterffy reveals the deeply personal rationale behind his massive land holdings across the United States. Drawing on his childhood in communist Hungary, he puts the probability of capitalism faltering in America at 20% and explains why he sees physical land - rather than gold - as the ultimate generational hedge.

This week on The Master Investor Podcast, Wilfred Frost sits down with one of the world’s foremost commodities experts, Jeff Currie. After nearly three decades building and leading commodities research at Goldman Sachs, Currie shares an unvarnished masterclass on why we are only in the "second or third inning of nine" of a generational commodity supercycle that will see hard assets crush tech and the dollar this decade. At the heart of Currie’s thesis is a simple but radical shift: mounting sovereign debt, financial repression and the debasement of currencies will drive investors away from traditional financial assets and towards gold, energy, agriculture and other hard assets. Currie explains his bold $10,000 gold forecast, why he would rather own gold than the dollar or pound sterling, and why central banks - particularly in emerging markets - are continuing to de-dollarize and accumulate gold. He reveals why he favours his “Munificent Seven” energy giants over tech’s Magnificent Seven - Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell, Total and Saudi Aramco - and explains why agriculture, uranium, critical minerals and other physical assets could all benefit from the same structural forces. He also offers a sharp critique of Bitcoin and crypto, and explains why he believes digital ledger technology is better suited to AI agents than humans. From the Iran War and extreme weather to droughts, El Niño and intervention in the bond market, Currie explains why the events of 2026 have only strengthened his conviction - and why he believes the great rotation into hard assets is still in its early stages. 0:00 Intro 2:23 Yields rising 4:00 Bessent intervention is financial repression 7:36 OWN GOLD 13:08 Not worried about gold pullback 18:36 Energy over Tech 23:30 Watch Diesel 27:02 China buying crude again 29:23 Crude reserves low 30:19 Recession risk underpriced 34:53 “Munificent 7” 36:53 Ag commods exploding 41:22 Buy any commod pullback 44:20 Recession risk to commods? 47:00 History suggests still early for commods 49:10 Iran hugely boosts commods bull case 52:43 Bearish Bitcoin 55:28 Post Goldman - Real Macro 56:50 Conclusion - Own all commodities