ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Bitcoin's been cut in half — is the crypto winter just getting started? Charlie Gasparino and S3 Partners founder Bob Sloan break down the data behind the selloff, and why S3's positioning numbers on Strategy (MSTR) signal more pain ahead: a dilution spiral where the company issued shares, converts and then preferred shares, forcing an endless hunt for funding to hold the price up. Bob ties it to David Einhorn's classic Allied Capital short — you can't fight a stock while the money keeps flowing, in either direction.
Away from the data desk, Charlie gets into why Europe is at war with air conditioning, Comcast's NBCUniversal spinoff and the failure of the media-conglomerate model, and why independent media is eating legacy TV's lunch.
On the S3 side, four names are on the radar: Wendy's (WEN), a meme and battleground stock on ten-year-high short interest and a Reddit-fueled surge; the memory/DRAM sector, where shorts and passive money pile in as active investors flee; healthcare, the most crowded hedge-fund long. All capped with a July 4th case for American optimism!
Risk & Return with Charlie Gasparino and Bob Sloan. Data drives news. News drives markets.
00:00 Intro — Bob Sloan, S3, and the "data drives news" ethos
04:57 Crypto winter: Bitcoin halves from $120K
09:23 Crypto infrastructure and the long-term bull case
10:15 MSTR: dilution death spiral?
16:13 Einhorn's Allied Capital — you can't short the funding
18:09 IBIT short interest: watching for the bottom
19:35 Europe's war on air conditioning
25:59 Comcast spins off NBCUniversal
30:41 Why the media-conglomerate model keeps failing
35:20 Independent media is winning — a million views on positioning
40:20 Wendy's (WEN): meme stock & battleground setup
43:26 Memory/DRAM sector: shorts and passive money surge
44:44 Healthcare: the most crowded hedge-fund long since 2021
53:33 July 4th sign-off: the case for American optimism
