I've never been more excited about crypto,
but, you know, I also think that stocks are a core piece of any portfolio,
- so-- and ownership of real companies. - Yeah.
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Welcome to BitBoy Crypto! The largest crypto channel in all the Interwebs.
My name is Ben.
Everyday on this channel, I show you how to make money in cryptocurrency.
Except for Friday.
This is now stonks day,
where we're going to be showing you guys how to make money in stocks.
Today, I brought on a special guest, Justin, from A Couple Cents on YouTube
to discuss stocks and the world of Wall Street.
We're going to be looking at how we, as crypto investors, can hedge our bets
by other investments over this bull run as we go eventually into a bear market.
So pay attention as we go on a journey from not knowing that much about stocks
into becoming stock experts.
Let's jump into the interview.
Hey, guys! I'm joined today by Justin O from A Couple Cents on YouTube.
He is going to be playing a big role as we transition Fridays here on BitBoy Crypto to stonks day.
Friday is stonks day.
That's the new catchphrase.
Justin has got a lot of experience. He's got a great YouTube channel talking a lot about stocks.
He's covered a lot of crypto-centric stocks.
He's also invested in cryptocurrency, so he's got a lot of stuff to offer us.
Justin, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me, Ben.
Yeah, absolutely. Very excited. So to set this up for everybody, what we're going to be doing is
I don't know that much about the stock market.
I want to know about the stock market.
I want to get more invested in the stock market. I definitely have some stuff on Webull.
By the way, if anybody wants to try out,
we'll have a link down below for you where you get some free stocks.
But I want to go on a journey where we go from not being super in depth knowledge-wise about stocks
to where we have a large portion of our, you know, portfolio allocated there,
and we're very knowledgeable and we're making money and everybody can kind of reproduce that.
So, Justin, let's go over your experience first. So you could kind of tell everybody what you do
and a little bit about your channel.
Yeah, for sure. So,
I'm kind of a Pan American guy, grew up in Southern California,
went to school in the Midwest, did the classic investment banking route in New York City.
So I actually worked on 60 Wall Street. Some of you would know some of the investment banks there.
And after that, I went to a kind of a $2 billion hedge fund to work as investment analyst,
and after that, I went to an even bigger-- one of the biggest hedge funds in the world
- that starts with a C related to the GameStop saga, - Okay.
so a lot of you will know that name.
I worked there as an investment analyst as well.
After that, you know, I've been serving the last three or four years as a technology CFO,
so a little bit more on the Silicon Valley side.
I've been growing that business as the kind of the finance lead and strategy--
helps with strategy as well.
I'm kind of growing that business 10X over the last three or four years.
So I kind of have a wide swath of space across corporate finance, corporate investing,
and along the way, you know, I bought my first Bitcoin at $300 in 2013, I believe,
- kind of on that run up to $1000, $1200. - Yeah.
As, you know, as we can all relate.
And, you know, I didn't really go all-in then,
really got the bug like a lot of us back in kind of 2016, but mostly 2017.
I was lucky enough to get in before the big, you know, but I bought a lot on the way up,
so I've made money, I've lost a lot of money, and we've, you know, I think--
gone through the same ups and downs,
but I've never been more excited about crypto,
but, you know, I also think that stocks are a core piece of any portfolio,
- so-- and ownership of real companies. - Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I think that's, you know, that's definitely a good thing.
And I recently did a video where we talked about my crypto exit strategy for this year,
which I won't be exiting crypto fully, of course,
definitely not for content,
but we will be moving a lot of our portfolio over as the bear market does kick in at some point,
most likely at the end of this year,
and we want to get more invested into the stock market,
and we're so glad to have you on the show, and by the way, guys, make sure
to go down below in the video description and go check out A Couple Cents on YouTube.
He's got over 65,000 subscribers.
Let's see if we can get him over 75k here in the next couple of days.
And I know you're going to see your channel grow, you know, coming here every Friday on stonks day.
But let's just get into the nitty gritty.
People like me this year in crypto are going to make a lot of money.
And the question is
what do they do with that money?
How can you hedge against a bear market with other kinds of investments?
And so, what is your advice to someone who, like me, got in crypto all-in?
Or maybe they just flirted a little bit with the stock market but never really put a heavy emphasis on it.
What's your advice?
How do we go about getting into stocks?
Yeah, just as a kind of disclaimer, everything is just analysis and opinions from us, right?
- So not financial advise-- - Right. Correct. Not financial advisors.
- Yeah, we're not financial advisors. - Yeah.
We're just kind of putting that on the table.
I just do my own. Do your own research.
These are all just from educated folks and from all the research that I do as a, you know,
as a professional and just someone who also, like, is bent towards the crypto space.
A lot of professionals on Wall Street, even my colleagues who are really smart, really high earning,
they're still not in crypto, right?
- So I sit somewhere in between. - Another way to say that is lame.
- They are lame. Yes. - I think too.
It's hard to--
- People tend to be very tribal on either end, right? - Yeah.
So I tend to sit in the middle. I'm just intellectually curious.
So, when you have made a lot of money in the kind of crypto space,
when, you know, like--
- I'm just going to use me as a pronoun. - Right.
If I've done that, right?
First of all, let's see-- you know, I think there's something from Warren Buffett
that like he said decades ago.
Every time you don't--
Every time you hold a stock or crypto, you buy it again that day.
So every time you choose not to sell, you're buying it again.
Right? Because, at every given point, you have the chance to sell.
Like, you could sell now.
Crypto trades 24/7. You can sell it at any time.
So, with every second that you don't sell it, you're buying it again.
So, now, we have to look at what do you think happens to crypto from here.
From-- I'm looking at the chart right now, $55.7K on CoinMarketCap, on Bitcoin.
Personally, I'm super bullish on Bitcoin from here,
but to your point, you know,
- if you kind of follow PlanB 100 trillion USD, - Right.
like stock-to-flow ratio types of predictions,
you know, we are getting towards the end--
There will be an end to the bull cycle, right?
And I think the--
The biggest power we have before predicting it really is dollar-cost averaging in and out.
So I think it makes a lot of sense to start dollar-cost averaging out as we go up and up and up, right?
So--
But I don't think like you sell out your crypto or meaningful part of your crypto
all in one swoop right now, right?
So a lot of us have gone from, hopefully, $3500 in Bitcoin to $56,000.
- Kind of crazy to say, right? - Yeah.
And I would say, like, we are in the middle of the bull cycle, wouldn't you agree?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we're probably in about inning four out of nine, I think here.
Four out of nine.
But the weird thing about I would say, like, exponential growth types of viral networks
is the innings five through nine seem to move so much faster if you remember the 20--
The eight and ninth inning-- I just had this conversation with someone yesterday.
They were like, "Oh, we're already in the fourth inning? That's like really concerning."
Like, no, all the runs get scored in the eighth and ninth inning.
- You know? And that's what makes it difficult to get out. - Yeah, yeah.
It's because that's when the things are the best.
Yeah, exactly. Like, we could see a flatline Bitcoin and then they pumped to 200,
- and then crashing-- Like, - Yeah.
In all in a span-- if you remember 2017 or like late 2017 or late what?
- I think it was early 2017-- Yeah, early 2017. - Or late 2017, early 2018.
- You know, it went up and down in like a matter of six weeks, right? - Yeah.
It was very, very quick.
So, alwa-- you kind of want to be selling on the way up. Dollar-cost averaging, right?
Everyone loves dollar-cost averaging down on Bitcoin and kind of using your paycheck,
- but the concept works on the way up to dollar-cost selling, right? - Yeah.
So, that's what I would consider doing.
And then the other question is "Where do you go?"
- Right? /- Right.
So you can go to cash,
but we can all agree,
both stock people and crypto people can all agree that we want to own real tangible assets,
not assets that the Fed is, you know, money printer go brrrr, right?
- So, I mean, one point I-- - Did you just hold the money gun?
Was that what that was?
- You just held the money gun? - The money printer go brrrr, you know?
- The money printer gun? Yeah, I love that. - This is a--
- It's when you have a very dovish Fed - Yeah.
that's very apt to lowering interest rates and printing money,
and you have a government that just passes $1.9 trillion of free money that's printed out of nowhere.
So where does that come from?
- That's actually tax on your dollars that you have in your bank. - Absolutely.
So, the good thing about US dollars is its legal tender, legal liquidity, so it's very quick,
that you can act very quickly.
You can act quicker conceptually with cash than you can with Bitcoin
because, you know, transfers between your Coinbase account or your Binance account
to like TD Ameritrade or Schwab or something,
it's just better when you have US dollars because, right?
So, well, all I had to say, right? Is you have to decide
do you think that you want to start dollar-cost averaging out of the crypto space?
I would say it's starting to make sense,
but not yet but soon,
very, very soon starting to make sense.
- I think now is not a dumb time to start doing that. - Yeah.
Well, I think that depends. And--
I started to make this point in my exit strategy video a couple days ago,
and I don't think I've ever actually got back around to it.
Who would have thought? I have ADD.
But the thing is
is that it depends on when you got in.
If you got in Bitcoin at $50,000,
you probably should not start dollar-cost averaging out right now, you know?
But if you got into Bitcoin below,
especially below $10,000,
if you got into Bitcoin below $20,000,
even if you got into Bitcoin below $30,000,
it's not a bad idea to start slowly taking money off the table.
We actually take about 1% of our portfolio a day and move it over.
And that is a pretty big amount.
Sometimes, it's less. Sometimes, it's more.
We have a steady amount we move over every day no matter what
because we know the prices are continuing to go up,
so it's not like, in 100 days, we'll withdraw it all.
We're taking 1% a day,
and the money is growing,
so we usually, by the end of the day, or at least by the end of the week,
we've actually grown more than we've taken out every single week consistently.
But we're moving money out because we run a business,
and it's a little bit different situation than a lot of people.
Like, we have costs. We have bills.
I have 20 employees.
Like, and everybody's got to get paid.
And we want to make sure that we have this business for, you know, 10 years to come at least,
not just, you know, during the bull run.
So I don't think it's a bad idea. I think it depends on where you got in at.
And the question is, you know, if cash is in, you know, where people should be putting money,
and they should be exiting and trying to hedge their bets a little bit, you know,
where do people start looking for, you know, those hedges at?
We are at a point, a historic point.
Interest rates have never been this low.
I wish I could-- actually, I think we're on Zoom,
- so I can probably share my screen. - Yeah, sure.
If I just find this Fed funds rate over time,
and, guys, I did, I talk about this all the time on my channel.
So, for those of you coming from there, I'm sorry for belaboring the point.
Oh. Welcome, viewers of A Couple Cents!
Okay, so this is the interest rate for the past 70 years, right?
We are at a point where after the great financial crisis
- where Bitcoin was birthed, right? - Yeah.
We hit zero interest rates.
This is the first time this has ever happened, right?
And so, finally, the economy "recovered" because we went off for the gold peg on the dollar
- in 1970s-- like, in early 1970s, right? - Yeah.
And so we're in this new regime where we're flirting with negative interest rates.
- We're at zero interest rates. - Yeah.
And all we can do is print money.
So, like I was saying, we're in an unprecedented time.
The government is printing so much money.
And we've never seen the amount of liquidity just be printed like this.
I mean, we're dwarfing the amount that we had post World War II.
So, in that sense, your dollar is going to weaken and get debased and debased and debased,
and the Fed can't do anything because they can't lower interest rates much lower than this, right?
We're already at zero.
And all you can do is print money, print money, print money.
- And all you can do is hope the economy recovers, - Yeah.
which I think we are,
but the question is
have we done enough damage?
And so, I think inflation is going to--
We're going to have an inflation problem.
The Fed is going to have to raise interest rates and, you know, possibly stop printing money,
but the value of your dollar is going to go down,
so you don't want to be in dollars,
and you don't want to be in bonds because rates are low.
Like, why do you want to tie up money just for a 2% annual rate?
- Yeah. That's old mentality, you know? - I mean, that's not what we're in it for, right?
- That's old mentality. Ever been-- - "2% gains! Yay!"
- No, I would not. - Yeah, exactly.
So, I think crypto is-- like, Bitcoin, everyone here on this channel is already in Bitcoin, I would hope,
and--
That means corporate securities and real estate.
The problem with real estate right now, especially for residential real estate that I have, is--
well, everyone, because of COVID, is buying homes.
Nobody's selling homes.
So that means supply is down,
demand is up,
and rents are down because people are buying,
and vacancies are up,
so returns are just down across the board in residential real estate.
I do like real estate for, like, things like out there like Fundrise, which is one sponsor of mine.
- Like, I really do like that - Yeah.
because it's diversified in private,
and the REITs that are publicly traded usually trade kind of like bonds,
like very, very sensitive around interest rates.
Unless you have a clear view around retail and office.
So that leaves corporates.
So crypto and meaningfully Bitcoin
because I think there's a huge difference between Bitcoin, Ethereum and everything else.
Right.
- I'm not a maxi, but-- - Well, I think you touched on an interesting point there,
which is, you know, the institutions which, I mean, you kind of represent.
That's what you've been doing for a long time.
You get more into YouTube now and I think be a little more free of what you can say,
but I think that the stock world, the Wall Street, the institutions, the big funds,
they look at Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- They're not really looking at the other things yet. - Yup.
And I think that's a statement on the speculation of Ethereum as well, you know.
That's one reason why I think it's going to continue to move for sure, but-- you can continue.
- I just want to make that point. - Yeah, yeah.
So I would say the two things I really like, right?
Are corporate, so you own a company,
and two,
you own transformational growth viral network,
and the strongest network there is the network of money,
- which is Bitcoin. - Yeah.
And so, I would say--
also, one thing to consider is I probably--
We're not at the prices yet where I would say if you were holding your crypto for less than a year,
and you're in the US,
it's probably not the be-- I mean, unless you have, like, we're all--
I'm speaking towards the individual investor, not someone who has to sell for cash flow.
So if you don't need to sell,
I don't think we're necessarily-- we're getting closer, right? But necessarily at the point
where you have to sell and take that short-term capital gains tax.
- Yeah. - Right.
So, if you bought a year ago,
and a year ago was 30-some-100, yeah,
it makes sense to take.
I mean, you 15X'ed your money.
- You almost 20X'ed your money, right? - Yeah.
Since just a year ago when it was at $3800.
As of today.
That makes sense to maybe start selling to diversifying into corporate, corporate securities,
which is owning a piece of a company.
- Which is really great, right? - Yeah.
And I would say we haven't gone through what I believe is the follow on "altcoin cycle"
where the money pours into Bitcoin which is the on-ramp.
And then when Bitcoin kind of reaches the eighth, ninth inning, as you remember, of its bull cycle,
a lot of that pumps into the hype or speculative stuff which, you know,
that's where you get the pump-- I mean,
Ethereum really hasn't risen, if you kind of zoom out, in tandem with Bitcoin.
So I wouldn't be selling Ethereum if you believe in Ethereum or anything lower than Bitcoin.
I think you can kind of-- I would say,
follow the funds flow.
So it's Bitcoin first and then whatever's after that.
Yeah, exactly. And let's--
so when you say buying literal ownership of a corporation,
I mean, when you-- of a corporate security, like, you're talking about stocks, right?
- Yes, stocks. - That is just stocks.
When we say the corporate security, you're talking about stocks.
Yes, so when you buy a stock of Tesla, when you buy a stock of Apple,
when you buy a stock of something sleepy like the Widget Maker or whatever,
- you own piece of the business forever, right? - Yeah.
It's like, if you could, like, BitBoy, Ben, you could take your company public,
and people could buy a share and own a little bit of your company if you chooses,
- you know what I mean? - Yeah.
Really, you have to think about it as literal ownership of a company forever.
Yeah.
And people treat it like a gambling tool,
which is fine, right?
But I'm an investor and I look through like accounting, financials and, you know, all that stuff,
and it's really literal ownership.
Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it. And for a lot of people in crypto,
I think it's very interesting to look at the crossover if you believe in crypto, you believe in blockchain,
then there are companies out there like the Coinbase IPO coming up for example,
Voyager as a publicly traded company,
you know, there are a lot of different companies in the blockchain crossover including, you know,
the Grayscale stocks for the Bitcoin and Ethereum.
You can get those sometimes in a cheaper price.
You can actually get Bitcoin.
Most of time, it's a premium, but sometimes, you know, I think you get negative on that,
which is kind of cool.
It just happened last week.
So there's a lot of crossover with crypto stocks.
And as we start this journey into crypto-- or into stocks from crypto in my portfolio,
and I think, you know, maybe it would be good if we show our stock portfolio in the future
so people can follow along and track what we're doing.
I think that'll probably be a good place for us to, you know, continue to dive in
looking at what are the crypto crossover companies with stocks
that if you believe in crypto, you also would believe in these stocks.
I think that's kind of an interesting angle for us to go.
So, yeah, we're going to continue this.
I know Justin's not going to be here with us next week, but either the following week or the week after that,
we're going to kind of continue on this journey.
Next week for Friday as stonks day, we're going to be covering Webull.
We're going to be looking at full review of Webull,
where you can get free stocks if you sign up and things like that.
Justin, thank you so much for joining us today.
I look forward to having you in the future. Is there anything else you want to add for today's show?
No, I just thank you so much for having me on the show
- and, yeah, I do have my own channel and find me over there too if you want more. - Yeah.
You guys can subscribe down below.
And also, guys, make sure-- if you like Friday as stonks day,
make sure to smash the like button so that way we know to continue this series,
but we're going to continue it whether you like it or not.
Alright, guys, that's all I got.
Drop us some comments down below.
Let us know what you want us to cover.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.