On this episode of Protect the Pile, R. Patrick Kent, Sam Rahman and Brooks Cutright break down a summer market that keeps defying the noise. With the S&P 500 up double digits, small caps suddenly outperforming and the Mag 7 barely positive on the year, the group debates whether the market’s leadership is truly broadening or just rotating through crowded trades. 

They dig into early earnings season signals from banks, healthcare, semiconductors and AI infrastructure, including the warning sign of stocks failing to rally on strong numbers. The conversation also tackles global dollar liquidity, Korea’s leverage unwind, Meta’s AI strategy, hyperscaler spending, model commoditization and whether AI’s real value will show up in applications rather than raw compute. It’s a timely check-in on what’s working, what’s crowded and what could crack next. 

• 00:00 Welcome to Protect the Pile 
• 01:21 Summer Market Level Set: S&P, Mag 7 & Small Caps 
• 03:33 Global Dollar Liquidity Warning Signs 
• 05:26 Early Earnings Season: Banks, Healthcare & Semis 
• 07:02 Big Banks Start Strong 07:29 Healthcare Utilization Risks 
• 13:40 AI’s Potential Impact on Drug Development 
• 17:34 Strong Earnings, Weak Reactions & the Semi Trade 
• 25:13 Korea, Leverage & Margin Call Risk 
• 31:59 Meta, Hyperscalers & the AI Compute Debate 
• 49:42 Netflix, Streaming & Lessons for the AI Buildout 

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

On this episode of Protect the Pile, R. Patrick Kent, John McNamara and Brooks Cutright sit down with Dan Rasmussen, Founder and Managing Partner of Verdad Advisers, for a sharp, skeptical look at private markets, Japan, small caps and the AI boom. Rasmussen explains why private equity may be less of a magic asset class and more like “levered microcaps” with delayed marks, inflated valuations and growing liquidity risks. The group digs into private credit, zombie funds, roll-ups, venture capital, Japan’s corporate governance reforms and why cheap markets getting better can create opportunity. They also debate whether AI’s biggest winners may not be the mega-cap companies spending the most, but smaller businesses that can use the technology to improve margins. It’s a candid, practitioner-level conversation about risk hiding in plain sight.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

On this episode of Protect the Pile, R. Patrick Kent, Sam Rahman and David Salem sit down with Meb Faber, Co-Founder and CIO of Cambria Investment Management, for a wide-ranging conversation on America’s 250-year market story, the power of long-term equity ownership and the risks hiding beneath today’s bull market.

Faber discusses his new book, Investing in America, and explains why the U.S. stock market has compounded through wars, depressions, crashes and political dysfunction — but also why valuation, governance and speculative excess still matter.

The group covers AI, SpaceX, market-cap concentration, zero-day options, financial literacy, endowment investing and whether the next generation is being pulled toward capitalism or casino-style speculation. It’s a thoughtful, entertaining look at what history can teach investors trying to protect and grow their pile.

About Meb Faber:

Faber is a co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management. Faber is the manager of Cambria’s ETFs and separate accounts. Mr. Faber is the host of The Meb Faber Show podcast and has authored numerous white papers and leather-bound books. He is a frequent speaker and writer on investment strategies and has been featured in Barron’s, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Mr. Faber graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in Engineering Science and Biology.

Faber's new book Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market is available to order now.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Visit HedgeyeAM.com for more info

00:00 - Welcome to Protect the Pile
01:18 - Market Setup: S&P, Rates, Dollar and Credit Spreads
02:02 - Leyla Kunimoto’s Background and Accredited Investor Insights
04:38 - RPK’s Top 5 Market Notes
08:26 - Redemption Gates and “Semi-Liquid” Funds
12:01 - David Salem on the Yale Model vs. Democratized Alternatives
20:17 - The Problem With Retail Access to Private Equity
26:16 - Evergreen Funds, Secondaries and Liquidity Mismatch
32:24 - Valuation Markups and Day-One Gains
39:46 - Why IRR Can Mislead Investors
47:19 - How Private Market Stress Could Play Out
49:31 - Private Credit vs. Private Equity: Where Is the Bigger Risk

This week on Protect the Pile, HAM Portfolio Managers R. Patrick Kent, David Salem and Sam Rahman dig into the growing risks and complexities inside private markets with special guest Leyla Kunimoto, founder and chief editor of Accredited Investor Insights.

The discussion examines how private equity and private credit products have evolved from institutional, long-lockup vehicles into “semi-liquid” evergreen funds increasingly aimed at retail investors. The group breaks down redemption caps, liquidity mismatches, secondary transactions, valuation markups, IRR reporting, and why “democratized access” may come with tradeoffs investors do not fully see.

They also debate whether private credit or private equity poses the bigger risk, how fund structures can obscure price discovery, and what happens when the music stops in a $15 trillion private markets ecosystem.

About Leyla Kunimoto:

Leyla Kunimoto is the founder and chief editor of Accredited Investor Insights, an independent newsletter focused on private markets from the limited partner perspective. With a background in finance and more than two decades of experience investing in public markets, she began researching private markets after expanding into real estate, private credit, and private equity in 2020.

Frustrated by the lack of independent, investor-focused resources on alternative investments, Leyla launched Accredited Investor Insights in 2024 to examine the structures, valuations, mechanics, and fine print that often receive too little scrutiny. Her work covers private equity, private credit, and real estate, with a focus on how returns are calculated, reported, and understood by end investors.

Accredited Investor Insights is read by major asset managers, ratings agencies, and financial publications. Leyla has been quoted in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and other leading outlets.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

In this episode of Protect the Pile, the RPK, Sam & Brooks discuss the market’s hidden flow machine. Brooks breaks down the June quarterly rebalance, explaining how Marvell, Flextronics, SpaceX, and major index changes forced large-scale buying, selling, and completion-index redistribution beneath the surface. The panel connects those mechanics to small-cap outperformance, mega-cap pressure, sector distortion, and the danger of fading a flow-driven trade too early. They also frame the backdrop of dollar strength, Fed balance-sheet risk, easing oil prices, financials, private credit, semis, software, Accenture’s AI-driven selloff, and Micron earnings.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

"Rooster Reacts" returns after a long break with Ryan “Rooster” Ricci evaluating Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as the new Fed chair. Ricci frames Warsh as “the new sheriff in town” and focuses on whether he can restore Fed credibility after years of missed inflation targets. He reacts positively to Warsh’s emphasis on price stability, accountability, better data, and less reliance on stale Fed projections, while remaining skeptical of repeated “task force” language and bureaucratic delay. The key takeaway: Warsh is saying the right things about inflation, real-time data, and market signals, but Ricci will be watching whether his actions match the rhetoric. 

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

In this episode of Protect the Pile, Hedgeye Asset Management portfolio managers R. Patrick Kent, Sam Rahman, Brooks Cutright, and Neil Howe unpack whether today’s AI frenzy looks more like 1999, the railroad bubble, or something entirely new. The group debates market concentration, hyperscaler CapEx, AI commoditization, private-market excess, and how practitioners should navigate momentum without ignoring bubble risk. They also dive into SpaceX’s IPO, Starlink’s real business value, and the far-out promises embedded in the space economy.

00:00 Welcome & episode setup
01:00 Market backdrop: SpaceX IPO day, Iran deal chatter, and risk ranges
02:16 Patrick’s macro notebook: quads, healthcare, rates, energy, and Mag 7
05:37 SpaceX IPO vibes and late-’90s market flashbacks
10:47 Neil Howe on AI as a utility and historical bubble parallels
15:03 Is this 1999? Valuations, IPO mania, and private-market excess
23:04 Why today’s AI bubble is different: incumbents, backlash, and politics
28:02 AI, railroads, monopolies, and the race to build the “God model”
34:16 How practitioners manage AI exposure, momentum, and exit signals
37:36 AI bottlenecks: networking, foundries, hyperscalers, and picks-and-shovels
47:06 IP risk, web content, real-world AI models, and the bullish compute case
52:08 SpaceX IPO deep dive: Starlink, lunar mass drivers, space data centers, and lockups
01:01:05 Final thoughts

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

***This webcast originally aired live on Hedgeye.com on June 9, 2026***

Markets may look chaotic. But are they truly random?

In this special Real Conversation, Hedgeye Founder and CEO Keith McCullough sits down with Richard Brennan, author of The Fractals of Finance: Determinism, Adaptation and the Geometry of Markets, for a fascinating discussion on the deeper structure driving financial markets.

Brennan’s work challenges the conventional view that markets are clean, efficient machines. Instead, he argues they behave more like complex adaptive systems, shaped by feedback loops, human behavior, volatility clustering, regime change and recurring fractal patterns.

That makes this a must-watch conversation for investors trying to understand what really drives trends, crashes, inflections and outlier moves.

Keith has long been fascinated by fractals and the non-linear nature of markets. In this conversation, he and Brennan will explore why price action often rhymes across timeframes, why extreme events happen far more often than traditional models suggest and why the market’s apparent noise may reveal a deeper geometry.

They’ll also discuss what fractals can teach investors about risk, trend formation, adaptability and the discipline required to navigate markets that are constantly changing.

If you want to better understand how markets move, why patterns repeat and what investors can learn from the hidden architecture of price, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Visit Hedgeye.com for more great investing content.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

In the latest episode of Protect the Pile, RPK and Sam break down a volatile market setup: strong U.S. growth data, tightening dollar liquidity, tech factor reversals, and continued strength in semiconductors despite a sharp pullback. Patrick and Sam debate whether current conditions remain Quad 2 or are drifting toward Quad 1 or Quad 3, with health care showing early relative strength. They also dig into the oil supply shock, China’s inventory drawdowns, fuel-shortage risks, Bitcoin’s weakening use case, and how stablecoins could reshape payments and challenge legacy financial rails.

00:00 — Welcome
00:57 — Market setup: tech pressure, semis strength, and global leaders
02:59 — Dollar liquidity, crypto weakness, and the “weak zebra”
04:21 — Strong U.S. data and the Quad 2 backdrop
08:10 — Tech whiplash, momentum unwinds, and breadth
12:13 — Sector rotation: health care, financials, and small caps
17:42 — Quad 1, Quad 2, and the risk of Quad 3 ahead
19:25 — Memory stocks, DRAM pricing, and AI demand
29:18 — Macro risks: dollar strength, Fed pressure, and oil
30:18 — The oil shock hiding in plain sight
35:29 — Inventory drawdowns, tanker flows, and refinery risks
39:07 — Could fuel shortages hit the U.S.?
43:35 — Bitcoin, stablecoins, and the future of payments
49:09 — Big Tech, peer-to-peer payments, and stablecoin networks
53:24 — Closing thoughts

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

In this episode of Protect the Pile, the team covers liquidity-driven market strength, record S&P levels, resilient global equities, and oil’s strange weakness despite tightening inventories. Patrick Kent, Sam Rahman, David Salem, and new HAM portfolio manager Brooks Cutright discuss index mechanics, free-float rules, profitability tests, and how massive IPOs could reshape passive buying. Sam shares takeaways from Bernstein’s conference, including AI data-center delays, power constraints, and semiconductor momentum. The panel also debates whether energy markets are mispricing crude shortages, potential demand destruction, and late-summer fuel risks. Brooks introduces his index-rebalance background and explains why index inclusion matters. 

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

Turn off that tired “Old Wall” TV and tune into The Macro Show, Hedgeye’s live daily broadcast featuring key market and economic insights, investing implications and interactive viewer Q&A. See for yourself why more and more investors in the U.S. and abroad have made this “must-see” market TV. We are live online every weekday morning at 9:00am ET. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.

We hosted a powerful "Real Conversation" between Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough and Sam Goodwin — bestselling author, keynote speaker, and global traveler turned hostage survivor.

In 2019, Sam's quest to visit every country on Earth took a violent detour.

He was abducted by the Syrian regime, accused of being a CIA spy, and threatened with being handed to ISIS for beheading.

He survived, wrote about it, and turned the experience into a framework for thriving in chaos.

In Sam's own words from Saving Sam:

"After a twenty-minute ride, a Syrian military compound lined with barbed wire and concrete fences appeared out of nowhere in a field. We pulled in… As I got out, it dawned on me that they had all been waiting just for me." (pg. 30)

Perspective matters. Markets will always test your comfort level — that’s how resilience is built.

The best investors, like the strongest people, don’t fight uncertainty; they embrace it, adapt, and come out stronger on the other side.

That is the heartbeat of Hedgeye's process, and it is the foundation of Sam's signature program, "Winning Through Uncertainty."

In this timely conversation, Keith and Sam draw a straight line from surviving captivity to surviving markets.

Hedgeye Founder & CEO Keith McCullough's long-awaited new book, “Master The Market” is available now! In this 52-page e-book, Keith McCullough distills decades of Wall Street experience into actionable insights. Discover how to navigate market cycles, avoid major losses, and invest with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Download your free copy right now. Go to Hedgeye.com/book. That’s Hedgeye.com/book.

Get an investing edge on the enormous amount of money flowing into options every day, what they’re signaling, and the structural and behavioral trends driving markets higher or lower. The Market Situation Report™ includes access to a daily newsletter and weekly webcast featuring analysis of the Tier 1 Alpha team's proprietary models. CLICK HERE to check out our product page.