On January 4th, 2021, GameStop was a $1.3 billion market cap company with $1 billion in quarterly revenue and $295 million in losses over the previous 9 months.  It was also the subject of discussion on a Reddit forum called "Wallstreetbets" and as near as I can tell, this is the post that laid out the case for what COULD happen.  It was a sleepy story, little noticed, but potentially explosive, if only the entire world knew about it. The...

The point of a business is to make money.  Full stop.  At least, if you are a private, family owned company, that's what you do.  The big public companies... I'm not so sure anymore.  But, given that base goal, today I address the following question: "If U.S. E&P's stop shrink production and let supply-demand dynamics drive prices higher so that our marginal U.S. barrel is economic, isn't that anti-trust/cartel like?"  No.  No, it's not.  Here's why. Exhibit A.  We don't...

This week, Mike Chism, CEO of Mile High Psychiatry joins me to talk mental health. I don’t think I’m alone when I say 2020 was an emotional rollercoaster and I know I - for one - for sure experienced depression, anxiety, fear and hopelessness. So I wanted to invite someone on the show that was a professional to help ground us, bring us back to earth, give us context and make us more aware. So. This is that show....

New presidential administrations bring drastic policy changes, especially in a partisan era such as ours, and crypto currency may be an early victim of those changes. Janet Yellen, the newly confirmed Treasury Secretary and former head of the Federal Reserve, hinted during her confirmation hearing that addressing Bitcoin is on the Biden administration’s agenda. It makes sense that the government is not happy about crypto currencies, and it is well within the government’s power to deal Bitcoin and crypto...

This week in Technical Tuesday, I'll take "Companies that fired me for $200, Alex" as we visit the Canadian company, Enerplus, with a little help from the late, great Alex Trebek. Alex: "This acquisition was announced yesterday and grows the Enerplus position in the Bakken." Bzzzzz! DRW:  "What is their acquisition of Bruin E&P Partners?" Yes! In all seriousness, I really like the folks at Enerplus and I have a warm spot in my heart for the Bakken asset we put together in 2009...

In December of 2020, 3500 homes and businesses in Aspen, Colorado were impacted by an act of sabotage that caused 2 days of downtime and stopped the flow of natural gas. Black Hills Energy leapt into action, and with temperatures at 2 F, they distributed space heaters, went door to door and ensured that food could continue to be cooked, homes continue to heated, fires continue to be had, pools continue to be warmed and pipes continue to be...

If you went into a coma on this day in 2020, you would wake up to a world different, but quite similar, except you don’t see a lot of teeth everyday. For our 100th episode, we invited Art Berman back to refresh our views with his outlook on oil and natural gas prices. Things have changed a lot since the vaccine news in November and prices have moved from a low of $1.74 and $35 to where we sit...

In September of 2020,  Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) filed for permission to cancel a solar power purchase agreement, which given the current climate for renewable energy projects, it seemed like a strange thing to do.  When you do a little digging, it isn't strange at all.  And that's the problem.  Here's the background. In June of 2010, Xcel Energy, a publicly traded company which serves 3.3 million electric customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers in the U.S., entered into...

Today, we have a two-fer #hottakeoftheday. The first was on President Biden’s executive order yesterday. It’s long, and if you aren’t a subscriber to the newsletter, you can find it on our website. This one is about China. I remember giving speeches last year at this exact time saying “45 deaths a day?? From a country of 1.3 billion.” Please. This isn’t even a thing. Well, it turns out China lies about their numbers. My good friend Mark Rossano and I now do a...

Bubbles are defined by taking risks that aren’t justified by the rewards, and even though you know that, you buy anyway. In November, I shook my head as the Democrats won the Presidency, and mark to market capital gains seemed likely. No, no, I was told. It’s a split congress. And the market rallied alongside the vaccine excitement. When I openly asked later in the month “is it just me or does it look like the Democrats win the senate...