Palisades Gold Radio

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Trader Ferg to the show. Trader Ferg is a Full-time Trader and the Author of the Trader Ferg Substack. Trader Ferg shares his current market views, highlighting several contrarian opportunities built around long-term, underappreciated assets. He remains bullish on scarce resources like thermal coal, where tight supply and Asian demand support high-quality names, though pure-play options are limited.

In energy, he sees an asymmetric upside and prefers long-dated options on integrated trading houses like Shell, leveraging torque to Brent and LNG while benefiting from volatility through their opaque but highly profitable trading arms. He also points to offshore engineering and oil services as an underinvested niche with rock-bottom valuations, already showing outperformance and strong earnings visibility. A key theme is the shift toward resilient, capital-light business models.

Trader Ferg is particularly enthusiastic about emerging market exchange operators, which he views as inflation-protected, high-margin plays that have been out of favor due to a strong US dollar but are poised for a decade of growth as global capital flows rotate. In gold, he sees a structural bull market driven by de-dollarization and central bank buying, though near-term consolidation is likely after flushing out speculative tourists.

He advocates a patient, long-horizon approach, cautioning against short-term futures and binary geopolitical bets, which have historically been unprofitable for him. Instead, he emphasizes buying cheap, hated assets with robust free cash flow and letting time and volatility work in his favor. Throughout the discussion, he stresses the importance of stress-testing assumptions, learning from mistakes, and focusing on durable trends rather than short-term noise, insights he regularly shares through his Substack.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:52 – Current Market Opportunities

00:02:44 – Exchange Operators Theme

00:04:27 – Oil Services and Offshore

00:08:24 – Oil Market Supply Dynamics

00:17:19 – China Flexibility in Energy

00:25:45 – Hormuz & Concerning Timlines

00:27:07 – Fertilizers Agriculture and Sulfur

00:29:08 – Sulphur Supply Thoughts

00:32:37 – Thermal Coal Supply Demand

00:44:00 – Gold Market and Producers

00:45:55 – Long Term Inflation Strategies

00:50:33 – Exchange Operations

00:52:50 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest Links:

Substack: https://traderferg.substack.com/

X: https://x.com/trader_ferg

Trader Ferg is a Full-time trader for going on 8+ years now. He has a habit of hanging out in hated corners of the market that are considered uninvestable. He enjoys sharing his research and thoughts about possible trades and markets.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes back Colonel Douglas Macgregor to the show. Douglas is a Retired U.S. Army Colonel and a Decorated Combat Veteran. In their discussion, Macgregor assesses the leaked 14-point MOU between Iran and the United States as an admission of strategic defeat, signaling that Iran has emerged victorious from the conflict. He emphasizes that the war is not over, predicting Israel will soon resume its offensive, prompting an Iranian counterattack and forcing President Trump to reengage militarily, albeit briefly, before ultimately disengaging. Macgregor argues that the United States was doomed to lose due to Iran’s mastery of integrated surveillance and strike capabilities, which render traditional naval and air superiority ineffective without robust ground forces, a capability he claims the U.S. currently lacks.

Shifting to economic implications, Macgregor advises a focus on energy, metals, minerals, fertilizer, and food as the only secure investments in the current climate, dismissing AI and SpaceX as speculative bubbles. He warns that the Strait of Hormuz remains at risk, ensuring oil prices will surge again as global demand outpaces supply, with countries racing to build strategic reserves. The depletion of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the potential for further conflict will drive inflation and economic instability, likening the coming effects to a tsunami. He foresees a structural reset where American military hegemony retreats, leading to the collapse of artificial state boundaries in the Middle East and the rise of Iran and Turkey as dominant regional powers, which will reshape alliances and likely end Israel’s long-term viability.

Macgregor also discusses the financial front, projecting that gold will reemerge as the ultimate reserve currency, with prices potentially reaching $10,000, while Bitcoin may serve as a transactional alternative to the dollar. He underscores that the geopolitical shifts will redirect American focus inward, forcing a painful but necessary reorientation toward domestic prosperity and core industries. Overall, his analysis presents a bleak near-term outlook marked by military defeat, economic disruption, and profound global realignment.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:45 – Iran US MOU Assessment

00:06:00 – Energy Metals Commodity Focus

00:08:50 – Oil Prices and Reserves

00:11:50 – Rise of Iran & Turkey

00:20:14 – Trump Pressures & MOU

00:23:30 – Gold and Bitcoin Outlook

00:27:56 – U.S. Strategic Petro Reserve

00:31:38 – Sulphuric Acid, Urea, & Ag.

00:34:47 – Use of Ground Forces?

00:37:08 – Gold In A Tsunami

00:38:50 – Purchasing Power Gold & BTC

00:40:01 – Substack and Final Remarks

00:42:11 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest Links:

Website: https://douglasmacgregor.com

X: https://x.com/DougAMacgregor

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasmacgregorTV

Articles: https://breakingdefense.com/author/doug-macgregor/

Substack: https://substack.com/@coloneldoug

Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, an author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant.

Macgregor was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until President Trump left office. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia.

Macgregor is widely known inside the U.S., Europe, Israel, Russia, China and Korea for both his leadership in the Battle of 73 Easting, the U.S. Army’s largest tank battle since World War II, and for his ground breaking books on military transformation: Breaking the Phalanx (Praeger, 1997) and Transformation under Fire (Praeger, 2003). Macgregor’s recommendations for change in Force Design and “integrated all arms-all effects” operations have profoundly influenced force development in Israel, Russia and China. In 2010, Macgregor traveled to Seoul, Korea to advise the ROK Ministry of Defense on force design. In 2019, Transformation under Fire was selected by Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Chief of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), as the intellectual basis for IDF transformation. His fifth book, Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War from Naval Institute Press is available in Chinese, as well as, English and will soon appear in Hebrew.

In 28 years of service Macgregor taught in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, commanded the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, and served as the Director of the Joint Operations Center at SHAPE during the 1999 Kosovo Air Campaign for which he was awarded the Defense Superior Service medal. In January 2002, at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s insistence the USCENTCOM Commander listened to Colonel Macgregor’s concept for the offensive to seize Baghdad. The plan was largely adopted, but assumed no occupation of Iraq by U.S. Forces.

Macgregor has also testified as an expert witness before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and appeared as a defense analyst on Fox News, CNN, BBC, Sky News and public radio. He is fluent in German.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes back Bill Holter to the show. Bill is a Precious Metals Expert and a metals Broker. Holter warns that the global economy faces a unique and dangerous combination of hyperinflation and deflation occurring simultaneously, a scenario where the cost of living rises rapidly while asset prices fall. He attributes this to the world’s unprecedented debt levels and rising interest rates, which reduce borrowing capacity and crush asset values. Central banks, he argues, cannot allow deflation given the massive debt overhang and will eventually devalue fiat currencies, much like the U.S. did in the 1930s. This environment makes gold uniquely valuable, as it preserves purchasing power during both inflation and deflation.

Holter sees recent weakness in gold as partly driven by its use as a funding source for major IPOs, including SpaceX, and by emerging market economies selling gold for liquidity. Despite the pullback, he views current prices as an attractive entry point, particularly for silver, which he believes is heavily manipulated through paper contracts and naked shorts. He expects a failure to deliver in silver, citing a six-year structural deficit and soaring demand, which would then shatter trust in gold futures and the entire derivatives complex.

On portfolio strategy, Holter advises a heavier allocation to silver due to the elevated gold-to-silver ratio, suggesting it will outperform on a percentage basis. His core recommendation is to hold whatever amount one cannot afford to lose in physical gold and silver, emphasizing their lack of counterparty risk. He also advocates owning mining stocks for leverage, noting they are now more profitable than ever as gold prices rise faster than input costs. However, he cautions investors to take physical possession of share certificates to avoid broker insolvency risk and to diversify geographically across majors, intermediates, and juniors. Holter dismisses platinum group metals as too industrial and not monetary, urging a focus solely on gold and silver for the turbulent times ahead.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:56 – Monitoring interest rates

00:01:34 – IPOs draining gold liquidity

00:03:04 – Higher rates causing deflation

00:05:17 – Debt service crisis emerging

00:09:08 – Melt-up scenario discussion

00:11:01 – Gold correction and entry

00:13:44 – Strait of Hormuz disruption

00:15:00 – Food supply and price risks

00:15:50 – Equity market overvaluation

00:20:45 – Silver failure to deliver risk

00:23:30 – Portfolio allocation advice

00:26:25 – Gold, Miners, and Leverage

00:28:14 – Platinum Metals & Rhodium

Guest Links:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/jsmineset/

Website: https://billholter.com

E-Mail: mailto:bholter@proton.me

Bill was a stockbroker for 23 years and a branch manager for 12. He retired and moved his family out of the U.S. to Costa Rica in late 2006. He returned to Texas in 2011. He was a contributor to GATA since 2007 and began writing for Miles Franklin from 2012 to 2015. He then joined with Jim Sinclair and the Holter/Sinclair collaboration from 2015-2022.

Bill is a precious metals expert and broker, he clears through Miles Franklin.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Florian Grummes to the show. Florian Grummes is the Founder and Managing Director of Midas Touch Consulting. Florian remains bullish on oil and gas, viewing energy equities as still undervalued despite recent price consolidation. He anticipates a severe oil price shock by late summer or early autumn, driven by ongoing supply disruptions from Middle East tensions, critically low inventories, and a disconnect between Western paper markets and physical demand. He notes that while demand destruction may eventually occur, the immediate risk is a sharp price spike as shortages intensify.

Florian also warns that the AI-driven stock market bubble is nearing a peak, comparing it to past speculative manias, and expects a significant correction that could trigger a liquidity crunch. This environment complicates the Federal Reserve’s position, as it cannot easily lower interest rates amid persistent inflation and may even be forced to raise them, further stressing the economy. In precious metals, Florian sees gold in a secular bull market, driven by its role as a neutral reserve asset and ongoing central bank buying.

However, he notes that gold and silver are currently in a correction phase, with silver potentially pulling back toward the $50 level before the next leg up. He remains a long-term silver bull due to its industrial and monetary demand, but cautions that short-term pain is likely. Mining stocks have sold off sharply, with sentiment extremely bearish. Florian advises patience, waiting for signs of capitulation and contrarian buy signals before aggressively adding positions. He emphasizes the importance of quality companies and recommends holding cash-flow-generating dividend payers, particularly in oil, to weather potential market turmoil. Overall, he sees a complex, volatile period ahead, but believes the longer-term trends for commodities and precious metals remain intact.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:20 – Oil and Gas Equities Outlook

00:03:45 – Oil Bull Market Analysis

00:06:10 – Middle East Supply Disruptions

00:10:05 – Impending Oil Price Shock

00:13:50 – Energy Market Resilience?

00:15:00 – Specific Interesting Plays

00:17:20 – AI Bubble and Market Risks

00:21:52 – Fed Rates and Inflation Pressures

00:27:08 – Gold Role in Debasement

00:36:00 – Remonitization of Metals?

00:39:45 – Thesis Around Silver

00:43:05 – Gold Miners & GDX

00:48:42 – Quality Miners & Uncertainty

00:51:05 – Midas Touch Consulting

Guest Links:

Website: https://www.midastouch-consulting.com

X: https://twitter.com/FlorianGrummes

Substack: https://substack.com/@midastouchconsulting

Telegram: https://t.me/MidasTouchConsulting

Free Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/d5Euf

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/floriangrummes/

Seeking Alpha: https://seekingalpha.com/author/florian-grummes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Midastouchconsulting

Florian Grummes is an independent financial analyst, advisor, consultant, mentor, trader & investor as well as an international speaker with more than 30 years of experience in financial markets. 

Florian is the founder and managing director of his company Midas Touch Consulting, which is specialized in trading & investments as well as consulting, analysis & research with a focus on precious metals, commodities and digital assets.

Via Midas Touch Consulting he is publishing daily and weekly gold, silver, bitcoin & cryptocurrency analysis for his numerous international readers. Florian is well known for combining technical, fundamental/macro and sentiment analysis into one often accurate conclusion about the markets.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Francis Hunt back to the show. Francis Hunt is known as a Renegade Trader, Analyst, and Founder of The Market Sniper. Hunt observes that the South Korean KOSPI index has surged an extreme 291% in just over a year, driven almost entirely by two stocks—Samsung and SK Hynix—amid the AI boom. This narrow advance mirrors the concentrated gains in the NASDAQ but is even more pronounced. Despite the export revenues from these tech giants, the Korean won is weakening, which Hunt attributes to foreign investors withdrawing profits and domestic retail investors piling in on record margin, a classic “Shushan boy” setup. He believes a currency crisis looms for South Korea, exacerbated by higher energy import costs that deplete dollar reserves.

These energy cost pressures are part of a broader stagflationary environment that Hunt argues is intentionally manufactured.

He contends stagflation enriches billionaires who hold assets while impoverishing the middle class and blue-collar workers through higher living costs and eventual job losses. This, he says, socializes costs and devalues debt for the wealthy, while governments later turn to predatory taxation, such as capital gains levies, to strip further value from citizens. In this context, Hunt maintains that precious metals—gold, silver, and platinum—are the prime beneficiaries. While gold and silver have experienced a corrective pause after an enormous run-up, he views the three-wave selling pattern as a healthy reset within a long-term bullish structure. His technical target for silver stands at $333, derived from a falling wedge pattern on the quarterly chart, which he expects will resume once the current consolidation resolves.

Hunt advises concentrating wealth in monetary metals rather than diversifying across commodities like copper or lithium, which may rise nominally but lag in real gold-ounce terms. He notes the gold-silver ratio could see a short-term squeeze upward but remains structurally bearish long-term. For miners, he suggests selectivity, as rising energy costs have pressured some, though those with growing ounce profiles remain attractive.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:40 – World Volatility and Market Trends

00:01:40 – South Korea AI Trade Setup

00:08:47 – South Korea Currency and Charts

00:25:09 – Long-Term Silver Thesis

00:27:33 – Precious Metals Market State

00:30:03 – Sectors and Inflationary Pressure

00:32:03 – Nasdaq Vs. Gold Predictions

00:35:00 – Equity Valuation Setup

00:36:10 – Short-Term Gold Outlook

00:44:30 – Gold & Silver Long-Term Thesis

00:55:40 – Copper & Other Commodities

01:00:30 – Market Sniper Wrap Up

Guest Links:

X: https://x.com/themarketsniper

X: https://x.com/thecryptosniper

Website: https://themarketsniper.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMarketSniper

Francis is a trader, first and foremost. Unlike most educators in the trading space, Francis walks the walk and talks the talk, with 30 years of experience trading his personal capital on various markets and instruments. Through this passion for trading and his relentless study of markets and economic theory, he uses the Hunt Volatility Funnel trading methodology, a systemized approach, to answer the critical question: What is the next most profitable trade?

He believes the actual price of an asset is the most accurate reflection of all the factors that influence it. Practical technical analysis, the study of price action over time, is needed to formulate profitable trade ideas. Indeed, with all the market manipulation and high-frequency trading operations currently in play, technical analysis is all that can be relied upon when it comes to formulating future price trends. A trained eye can often spot such manipulative practices, as is the case with HVF traders. Therefore, the HVF methodology is based purely on technical analysis.

Francis is passionate about sharing his knowledge and understanding of markets by utilizing his HVF trading methodology. With entertaining anecdotes and the careful guidance of his students, he has already trained a large community of hundreds of traders and helped them transform from complete newbies to seasoned trading professionals.

He genuinely loves sharing his knowledge and strategies with others who are committed to finding freedom through trading. Plus, teaching strengthens his trading abilities while helping to build a vibrant community of successful traders.