This week, ByteTree held a must-watch conversation with none other than Chris Wood, the Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies. He is the author of the widely renowned “Greed and Fear” weekly newsletter, est 1996, as well as three acclaimed books. He accurately foresaw landmark events such as Japan’s credit bubble in the late 1980s, the Asia crisis in the late 90s, the dotcom bust in 2000, and the credit crisis in 2008.
He’s a market god, no less, who specialises in Asia. His contrarian views often highlight excessive leverage, speculation, and policy risks, earning top rankings in Asia broker polls for decades. He has had a model portfolio for US pension funds since the early 2000s, and his current recommendation is 45% gold, 25% gold miners, and 30% Asian equities. That is punchy and puts me to shame.
We discussed Bitcoin and Gold, and of course, BOLD. Chris recently made headlines after he announced that he had tactically removed Bitcoin from his asset allocation. He stresses that his Bitcoin sale was tactical as the four-year cycle is undergoing a negative patch, as we are seeing with the general downturn in technology stocks. He also sees fears over quantum computing but acknowledges that the fears are being addressed. Crucially, he’s hung on to Bitcoin in his personal account, and we hope he reallocates Bitcoin in his pension fund model later this year, when the cycle is due to turn up again. He admits that recent capitulation may have already marked the bottom.
He’s a true Gold bug and sees it as the natural replacement for a bond market that has passed its best. Naturally, if they hiked rates and stopped printing money, Gold would no longer be attractive, but with the state of democracy as it is, there’s little chance of that for a leader who wants to be reelected.
It was a pleasure to share an hour with Chris, supported by Kit. I started with the BOLD pitch, which Chris enjoyed, or maybe he was being polite. We then went into a conversation on Bitcoin and Gold. If you have seen my BOLD pitch before, feel free to start 12 minutes in.
Many thanks,
Charlie Morris
Founder, ByteTree
