As summer sets in, Cem Karsan joins Niels Kaastrup-Larsen to trace the contours of a market that feels calm but isn’t. What looks like low vol masks a crowded hedge fund ecosystem and a structural vol compression regime few understand. From a VIX spike driven by unexpected Call activity to the slow-motion political pressure on Powell, the signals are subtle but mounting. They cover China’s resource diplomacy, AI’s quiet dislocation of white-collar work, and the rising fragility from concentration across assets, brokers, and narratives. This is a conversation about setup, not outcome... and the traps hiding in plain sight.
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Episode TimeStamps:
01:19 - What has been on our radar recently?
03:30 - Stay tuned for the latest UGO episode!
05:04 - China is taking the long view - and succeeding with it
07:04 - Tech companies are starting to buy into rare earth
08:30 - The risk of high stock trading firm concentration
11:01 - Industry performance update
13:33 - Q1, Rick: What other asset class volatilites besides gold are mispriced at the moment?
24:59 - Karsan's thoughts on the current macro environment
30:33 - What could trigger a deleveraging/degrossing event?
32:28 - The impact of tariffs - what do the numbers tell us?
41:21 - Is a firing on the horizon for Powell?
46:53 - Inflation is becoming hard to hedge
56:15 - The Emperor's New
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