Welcome to the mailbag edition of The Daily Cut.
As regular readers know, this premium e-letter is where you’ll find the best “curated” ideas from Teeka Tiwari, Jeff Brown, Dave Forest, Nick Giambruno, Jason Bodner, Dan Denning… and the rest of the Legacy Research team.
And each Friday, we do our best to answer some of the many questions your fellow readers have for the team. (Write us at [email protected].)
Coming up… Legacy’s globetrotting geologist, Dave Forest, reveals why “tech metals” are the commodities megatrend of the future…
World-renowned crypto investor Teeka Tiwari reveals why quantum computing poses no threat to blockchain technology and crypto…
Our go-to tech expert, Jeff Brown, explores the possibility of extraterrestrial life…
And we bring you the latest reader comments in a debate concerning an impending breakup of the United States.
Plus, stay tuned until the end to find out how you can become a member of the Legacy team.
Let’s dive right into our first topic…
As I (Chris Lowe) have been showing you, we believe one of the best places for your money to be over the next decade is “tech metals.”
That’s the investment sweet spot where geology and technology meet.
Most investors know technology is advancing at a record pace. What few know is these breakthroughs require raw materials to “fuel” them.
Take lithium.
It’s a silvery-white metal that’s No. 3 on the periodic table. It’s a key component of the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs).
These batteries – and the metals that go into them – are also critical to power 5G internet towers. Old lead-acid batteries don’t cut it.
Dave Forest is our resident commodities investing expert. He’s a trained geologist. He’s also a mining entrepreneur.
He founded his own mineral exploration and development companies, raising over $80 million in equity financing from some of the most well-known resource investors in North America. Other successes of his include developing a 10-million-ounce gold deposit in Colombia, as well as serving as Managing Director of Notela Resource Advisors, an advisory firm analyzing and designing global investment opportunities in the natural resource sector.
Dave sees lithium and other tech metals as great “backdoor” plays on the 5G and EV megatrends. Already, he’s given his readers the chance to make gains as high as 135%… 169%… and even 514% on his top tech metal picks.
Recently, one of Dave’s readers at our Strategic Investor advisory got in touch about another battery metal…
Reader question: You have written about lithium and nickel. How about looking at graphite, as it is a main ingredient in the batteries?
– Drew E.
Dave’s answer: We do look at graphite constantly… and the entire universe of critical metals. I believe there are big gains coming in many of these specialty sectors. Especially now that the Biden administration is aggressively pushing green energy.
The thing with graphite that puts me off as an investment is it’s not that rare. There are numerous projects around the world waiting to come online if prices rise. In the past, this has capped rallies in this commodity.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be big profits from graphite companies. We have seen big gains in sector stocks before.
I’m monitoring these companies. If I find one that has an industry-leading project – and the right team to develop it – it could still be a compelling investment as graphite demand for EVs rises.
Next up, we tackle a question that keeps popping up in the Legacy mailbag. Will the next generation of supercomputers – aka quantum computers – allow hackers to hijack the blockchain?
As longtime readers know, blockchain is the decentralized ledger technology that powers bitcoin and other cryptos.
Quantum computers can perform calculations based on the laws of quantum physics. This allows them to process exponentially more data than regular computers… and potentially crack even the most sophisticated encryption.
Readers regularly get in touch to ask what this means for bitcoin and other cryptos. Standing by with an answer is one of the world’s most closely followed crypto experts, Teeka Tiwari…
Reader question: Teeka, would you please tell us how much of a threat to crypto the new quantum supercomputers are and will be?
– Rosalind F.
Teeka’s answer: Thanks for your message, Rosalind.
I’ve gotten endless emails asking, “Will quantum computing break the blockchain?”
So let me be clear… Once quantum computers get powerful enough to break blockchain encryption – and the best guess is that’s many years away – they will be able to break any encryption.
That includes the encryption used by the Federal Reserve, your brokerage firm, the Depository Trust Company (which records who owns what stocks)… and any online database that holds titles to assets such as real estate.
They ALL use encryption that quantum computers could, someday, break in an instant.
I’m more concerned about quantum computing’s impact on traditional assets. There’s just much more money in traditional assets than there is in cryptocurrency.
Some blockchain developers are already taking steps to create quantum-resistant algorithms in their blockchains. And as technology improves, security improves, too.
Do you think the custodians of global capital are going to stand by and let quantum computing get to the point where it can make their encryption worthless?
No. They’re going to create quantum-resistant encryption. In the pantheon of concerns you can lose sleep over, shift this one all the way over to the level of, “What happens if I walk out of my house tomorrow and a meteor kills me?”
It’s possible. But it’s highly unlikely.
Switching gears, your fellow readers have alien life forms on their minds.
Now, our beat here at the Cut is helping you make life-changing wealth in the markets. Whether there’s life on other planets isn’t the kind of question we’re typically concerned with. But it’s a fun topic. It’s also topical right now…
As colleague and tech expert Jeff Brown revealed to readers of his Bleeding Edge e-letter, tucked away in December’s COVID-19 omnibus bill was a provision to declassify all CIA documents about UFOs.
This has generated renewed interest in UFOs. And one of Jeff’s readers got in touch with some thoughts on these objects…
Reader comment: I worked in aerospace for over 50 years and have a lot of friends high up in NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Over beers, we would sometimes discuss UFOs, and universally our opinion was that they were a hoax. The best data point is the total drop-off in local sightings once phones with cameras became universal.
– Dana A.
Jeff’s answer: Hi, Dana. Thanks for writing in with your insight. I always appreciate that kind of boots-on-the-ground perspective. And I tend to agree with you.
The bigger issue to me is not whether there is extraterrestrial life. I’m certain there is.
Last November, a team of astrophysicists released some fascinating research.
It went through all existing data on exoplanets in our galaxy. An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun.
Prior to this research, astronomers thought there were about 4,300 exoplanets in the Milky Way. But they didn’t know how many were rocky, likely to have water, and capable of supporting life.
This new research revealed the existence of at least 300 million sunlike stars with habitable planets orbiting them in our galaxy. That’s astonishing.
What’s more, the researchers estimate there could be as many as 4.1 billion sunlike stars in the galaxy. When they widened their parameters, they estimated up to 2 billion of these stars may have a habitable, Earth-like planet orbiting them.
There are far more habitable planets in our galaxy than we ever dreamed. This doesn’t mean we’ll find humanlike aliens on them… or these aliens have flown in spacecraft to Earth.
But there’s a strong chance we’ll find plants or bacteria living on an extraterrestrial object.
I believe this decade will be the most exciting period for space exploration in history. We’re sending more probes out to Mars. We’ll have our first manned mission to Mars this decade. We’ll have a manned presence on the Moon in just a few years. We’ll see the launch of a new space station. We’ll see the world’s first commercial space station… and with it, the birth of space tourism.
Perhaps we’ll even find intelligent life out there…
Now to a controversy that’s been raging in The Daily Cut mailbag since January 7.
That was one day after the sacking of the Capitol Building. And we published an insight from Legacy cofounder Doug Casey that ruffled more than a few feathers.
You see, Doug believes the U.S. is on the edge of an all-out culture war. He sees the breakup of the U.S. as inevitable as a result. And he reckons this means we’re in for one of the most turbulent decades in history…
Really deep philosophical differences divide Americans about moral issues, and the way the world should work. We’re now looking at irreconcilable differences. The best way to solve them is for people to go their separate ways, as opposed to fight for control of the central government, and then impose their views on the losers.
I expect the U.S. is going to change form radically over the next few generations – much more even than over the last 50 years. Allow me to make another seemingly outrageous prediction: The U.S. will probably break up into different regions.
Here’s a selection of the latest reactions from your fellow readers…
So we split America up. Then what? Let’s say I’m a conservative living in a liberal sub-America. Will I be forced to move? Will I have no voice if I stay? How long until we again have big differences and haven’t yet learned to work together? Then will there be four sub-Americas? Eight? Sixteen?
I know I am probably a dreamer, but I still believe differences are generally a good thing. We have always had differences. We will always have differences. When will we learn to put our selfish ambitions aside and talk to each other?
When will we learn that those who don’t think as we do are not idiots or evil? When will we learn to have mutual respect? And when will the powers in Washington start considering the good of the people, of the nation – rather than only their own or their party’s good?
We are slow learners, aren’t we?!
– Wilbur M.
I’m surprised by Doug’s suggestion and reader support for dividing the U.S. into separate regions. We already have separate regions in the U.S. They’re called states.
We don’t need to split into different countries. We just need to recalibrate the balance of power closer to the original text of the Constitution. That is, the federal government is responsible for very few things. Everything else is handled by the states or the people.
This conversation shows just how wise the founders were.
– Gary A.
The breakup won’t happen. The federal taxes collected from coastal states, like California, subsidize central states that depend on federal help, like Mississippi. The industrial and technological states subsidize farming states through farm subsidies. Money trumps religion, Second Amendment rights, and other divisive issues.
– Aiden O.
We have serious problems to resolve. Let’s work with people across the aisle to resolve our conflicts and start making this country great for all.
Let’s make an effort to listen, understand, and converse. We can agree to disagree without resorting to conflict, anarchism, and secession.
We are wasting our energy hollering across the divide. That never accomplishes anything. Our energy would be better spent working hard to fix the things we believe are broken.
People who talk about secession just because their team didn’t win are no better than the five-year-old that gets angry, takes his toys, and goes home. Can we all please grow up?
– Jon A.
Finally… we have an invitation for you. We want to see if you have what it takes to be our next investment guru.
Someone who can rub shoulders with Teeka Tiwari, Jeff Brown, or Doug Casey. Someone who, after latching onto a big trend, researches and studies everything there is to know about it… and makes sure friends, family, and colleagues know about it too.
Right now, you may be working on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley. You’re disillusioned with the way the firm you work for treats its customers and clients (and maybe staff too). You’ve had ideas about how your firm can help investors make money, but the people at the top don’t want to hear them.
Maybe you’ve read our research and wondered why we haven’t covered the ideas you’re thinking about.
If any of what I just said is true about you, we want to hear from you. You’ll need to satisfy the following criteria:
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Have a minimum of 12 years’ experience in a senior role in the financial services industry (e.g., trader, stockbroker, analyst, fund manager, etc.) OR a minimum of 12 years in a senior technical role in any industry (e.g., chief scientist, senior programmer, senior engineer, etc.).
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Hold a bachelor’s degree relevant to your industry experience, and a postgraduate degree and/or industry-specific qualifications relevant to your industry experience.
If you’re the right candidate with the right idea, this could be your chance to join the Legacy Research team.
Of course, it won’t be easy. There will be a multistage application process. You’ll need to take analytical and writing tests, pitch ideas, and attend several interviews.
If you’re up for the challenge, here’s the first step… Describe in no more than 1,000 words your current best big investment idea, and the one investment you would advise people to make today to profit from that trend. Include this with a detailed resume and a cover letter explaining more about your background.
Send your application to [email protected]. If we believe you have the potential to join our team, we’ll be in touch.
And for all our readers, as always, send your questions for your favorite gurus to [email protected].
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
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Chris Lowe
February 5, 2021
Bray, Ireland