Before we dive in, happy New Year from all of us here at Capitalist Exploits. 

Here’s to a year of thinking differently (and independently), positioning ahead of the crowd, and capitalizing on the biggest asymmetric opportunities out there.

🎙️ CHRIS ON THE MARKET SNIPER PODCAST

We’ve been sitting on this conversation between Chris and Francis Hunt (aka The Market Sniper) like the Trump government on the Epstein Files. 

But unlike those heavily redacted, conveniently sanitized documents we’re releasing the entire thing. Originally recorded during gold’s earlier surge, it’s now even more timely as the yellow metal just notched another fresh all-time high (now at $4,540).

As we head into 2026, the topics Chris and Francis discuss feel less like academic predictions and more like a practical roadmap for what’s unfolding in the markets:

• After a monster run in 2025, is now the time to exit gold, silver, and platinum? Chris tackles the timing paradox that many investors never spend enough time thinking about.
• Return OF capital vs. return ON capital. Right now, getting your capital back intact matters more than chasing a few percentage points into overpriced garbage. 
• Why every price spike — whether it’s gold, stocks, real estate, or crypto — triggers your inner caveman. There’s a primal mechanism at work that turns otherwise rational investors into panicked herd animals.
• Western markets are priced as if risk has been permanently abolished (spoiler: it hasn’t). Meanwhile, emerging markets sit mispriced in the opposite direction. Chris points to a few specific jurisdictions where the asymmetry lives.
• The “batisht crazy” years weren’t the main event. They were the prologue. Political restructuring, monetary experiments gone completely mental… and the real show is now just warming up.
• Why we should be grateful for living through “interesting times.” It might sound “woo woo,” but most people won’t see the opportunities embedded in the chaos (though, admittedly, the fact that you’re reading this means you’re probably not like most people).
• “We are risk managers, not risk eliminators.” This mental framework keeps you productive, solvent, and surprisingly happy while others panic. It applies not only to your portfolio, but every facet of your life.
• And mucho mas.

Listen to the entire conversation here.

🤯 WHEN 10 STOCKS > THREE CONTINENTS

Speaking of living in interesting times…

The top 10 US companies are now worth more than thousands of listed companies across China, Europe, and Japan put together.

Nvidia alone eclipses the combined value of more than 2,100 publicly traded companies in Japan.

And while on the topic of Japan…

It wasn’t that long ago when Japanese companies were the Magnificent 7 of their time. This post perfectly captures how it all played out:

History has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Not identically, but in rhyme. And right now, the rhythm is starting to sound awfully familiar.

🚀 ORBITAL COMPUTE… AND ORBITAL VALUATION

Sticking with the topic of market extremes…

The coming SpaceX IPO is already being billed as the market event of 2026. With the projected valuation of $1.5 trillion, Musk’s baby would be worth more than Alibaba, Mastercard, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s put together… with some spare change left over.

And here’s the pitch…

Elon is going to build data centers in — wait for it — outer space (“orbital compute” they’re calling it). 

Because apparently we can’t get enough energy here on earth to power all this AI nonsense, so naturally the solution is doing it in space. Who believes this isht?

There’s always some catchy name to act as the lube for the extremely uncomfortable experience retail investors are about to endure.

To be clear: we take our hat off to what Elon has been able to achieve. We use Starlink ourselves. It’s genuinely impressive technology. But impressive technology and solid investments are two entirely different things.

We’ve been around long enough to know that big name IPOs occur on the back of popular investment themes. 

And when the exit window opens for insiders at a $1.5 trillion valuation… and retail investors are being handed the bag with promises of orbital data centers, history suggests you’re closer to the end than the beginning.

🎲 LEVERED AND LOVING IT (UNTIL YOU’RE NOT

We’re not fans of leverage here at Capitalist Exploits HQ. It’s a double edged sword. It works beautifully when the trend is in your favor. But boy, it gets ugly once that trend reverses itself.

Case in point, MicroStrategy…

For a good chunk of 2025, it was one of the hottest stocks out there. Understandably so. With Bitcoin hitting record after record, MicroStrategy became the sexier bet on Bitcoin. So why even bother holding anything else?

Take this guy from LA who sold his Bitcoin and Tesla and went all in on MicroStrategy. A “very sophisticated trade,” as he called it. 

Call us unsophisticated rubes, but we’re left scratching our heads. Why bother with the middleman when you can just buy the underlying asset? But then again, everyone’s a genius in a bull market. Doubly so when you have what’s essentially a leveraged bet on an already yuugely volatile asset like Bitcoin.

Fast forward to today…

MicroStrategy is a lesson in mean reversion playing out in real time. Stocks have a nasty habit of returning to the precise point where they went parabolic. 

And you know what’s ironic? Looking at the list of MicroStrategy’s top shareholders, it’s the most “conservative” suit-and-tie institutions that have been piling into the stock. Supposedly as a proxy for Bitcoin. 

Because, you know, buying the actual asset (Bitcoin in this case) is “too risky…” but loading up on a leveraged corporate vehicle wrapped around that same asset? Perfectly prudent! 

This is the kind of logic that only makes sense inside the echo chambers of institutional risk committees and compliance departments.

The lesson here isn’t complicated: leverage amplifies everything. Your gains. Your losses. And most importantly, your mistakes. When the music stops, it’s the leveraged players who get taken out first… usually right after they’ve convinced themselves nothing could go wrong.

We’ll stick with boring, out-of-favor trades and the actual underlying assets, thanks very much.

🤣 WEEKLY HUMOUR

Turns out betting on Jesus Christ NOT returning in 2025 was more lucrative than lending money to the US government. What a time to be alive!

Have a great weekend!