Wall Street Unplugged
Episode: 901June 1, 2022

How to trade the crypto bear market

crypto bear market

Daniel joins me to tackle your questions on the crypto bear market… and the box office blowout of Top Gun: Maverick.

We cover how to handle crypto volatility…. factors to help guide your selling decisions… and a strategy for exiting positions. Daniel also shares his thesis on digital asset financial services company Galaxy Digital Holdings (BRPHF)… how to deal with emotions when a position goes against you… and when he’ll sell BRPHF. 

Despite the bear market, money continues to pour into the crypto space. We discuss some key examples, including VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, which just raised $4.5 billion to take advantage of crypto bargains. And we’ve partnered with TCG World to buy a $5 million stake in metaverse real estate. (If you’re accredited and want to invest alongside us, go here.) 

Finally… Top Gun: Maverick made box office history Memorial Day weekend. We share whether we’d buy AMC or IMAX to benefit from the massive $156 million opening.

Inside this episode:
  • Is Daniel still bullish on Galaxy Digital? [3:55]
  • How to manage crypto losses and prepare for next bull market [14:25]
  • Will AMC or IMAX soar with Top Gun: Maverick? [24:25]
  • How accredited investors can get in on our historic metaverse deal [32:30]
Transcript

Wall Street Unplugged | 901

How to trade the crypto bear market

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines, heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on main street.

Frank Curzio: How’s it going out there? It’s Wednesday, June 1st. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast, where I break down the headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. So, it’s Wednesday, and I’m bringing in… Actually, I forgot your name. What’s your name again?

Daniel Creech: Listen to this.

Frank Curzio: What’s your name again? I forgot.

Daniel Creech: Hello, Frank.

Frank Curzio: Daniel Creech, senior research analyst. I forgot your name because you’ve been on vacation. How long? For a month? I haven’t seen you in a long time, man.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, it’s good to be back. I was gone a week, two weeks, on the podcast, but that was just for scheduling reasons and all that stuff. It’s fantastic to be back. It was good to unplug. I left the country, Frank. A little inside baseball here for those listening, it’s hilarious because Frank, he’s a genuine guy, don’t get me wrong. But I came back and I told him several times, “Hey, I’m going to be unplugged. I’m not going to be in contact.” It’s the first time I was taking time off without checking in. And he says, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” And we had the big deal going. Of course, I leave when the markets are volatile, you’re announcing this major deal. It’s all exciting. I get back and no shit, Frank looks at me and goes, “Where did you go again?”

Frank Curzio: No idea.

Daniel Creech: That’s the truth, people. That’s how close and how busy we are here. But honestly, it was great to unplug. If you can, if you’re fortunate enough to have a boss like me and you can unplug for that amount of days. I heard you talking about me on the podcast when I was catching up, but great to unplug. The market obviously missed me. It went down while I was away. It’s now rallying back.

Frank Curzio: Whoa, whoa. Before we go to the market, so your trip, you were on a sailboat, is that correct?

Daniel Creech: Yes. I got on a sailboat for the first time, was out in the ocean, went to Belize and then sailed around the different islands. It was awesome. It was a crazy experience. I was so far out of my element. It’s a good thing we were busy leading up to it. So, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about it. It went great. But when you go to a different area, I was with great people, but it’s just-

Frank Curzio: Who were you with?

Daniel Creech: I was with my girlfriend and her parents, Frank. And I’m a hell of a guy to put up with for a week. But everybody was fantastic. It was a lot of fun, it really was.

Frank Curzio: I was just curious. I’m just saying that you’re on a boat, no place to go, and if that works out, you know that’s a good thing.

Daniel Creech: I’m telling you, there’s islands around and you could go in and I wasn’t not on land at all. Don’t get me wrong. We would take this small dingy boat in. I will tell you though, I’m very fortunate because I didn’t get seasick or anything. But when I got back to Atlanta airport, I was land sick. And then the following day when I was back in here in the office on Wednesday, last Wednesday, even Frank made a few comments to me because I was standing in his doorway and I’m holding on. That was the most off balance I’d been. So, that is something. You get used to the rocking back and forth and all that, and then you hit land and it was goofy. I walked around like I was drunk a few days. Should have used it as an excuse, could have been drinking all day.

Frank Curzio: Could’ve took off two months instead of one.

Daniel Creech: Anyway, can we move on here and get to something valuable?

Frank Curzio: I’m just saying that’s a good thing because no place to go. So, I’m glad you didn’t swim to another island just to get off. So that’s a good thing.

Daniel Creech: No, nothing like that. It was great. It was a lot of fun. The only bad thing I could complain about is there was no clear morning, so I didn’t get a sunrise. I’m up at 4:30 every morning, because you’re on a boat. As soon as it starts getting light, what the hell else are you going to do? So, I was up having coffee, and that’s the only thing I complain about is that I didn’t have a clear morning where I was just on the water and all that. But thank goodness I’m spoiled and I live here on Amelia Island, and I go to the sunrises here often.

Frank Curzio: Good stuff, good stuff. That was much more than Danny wanted to explain, so I had to get that out.

Daniel Creech: Oh yeah, I hate talking about stuff like that.

Frank Curzio: We said we were going to take questions and stuff. So, I’m going to start here, Daniel, and thank you so much, frank@curzioresearch.com, and take a lot of questions. Over the past few weeks, in the market really coming down. It was nice to see a pretty good relief last week, a big relief for 6%. But let me go with this question, and Daniel, I’ll have you answer it because you know a lot about this. He say, “Oh, Frank, I’m excited to get confirmation on the closure of my investment in your private placement, investing in TCG World.” Thank you so much. I appreciate it. This is from Brian, and I got your credit card. I charged you for $3 million. Thank you so much for your investment. I’m just kidding. But yes, I did get your investment. I appreciate it. Because I came across this podcast this weekend and found it to be a pretty good listen, Web 3.0 NFTs in the metaverse.

Frank Curzio: It’s about two hours long, so Tim Blog, he sent a link, but his question is on Galaxy Digital and any foreign trade of stock for the matter. Is it better to wait to buy Galaxy when they list on the New York stock exchange, as they mention a press release due to dividend withhold, et cetera, or take the plunge now since stock is pretty beaten down? Thank you. You are an investor in Galaxy Digital, right? And this is a recommendation as well. We can’t buy recommendations until after our subscribers, but that’s one of the ones that really got hit hard along with all cryptos. Guys, if you’re looking at cryptos, everyone’s getting their ass kicked. Just in Q4 of 2021, 50% of cryptos were down 80%.

Frank Curzio: That was before pre-market crash, pre-deleveraging, pre-fed going crazy. November, they started, pre-Luna. So, you can imagine even the good names on a portfolio are down significantly, but you got to see the cream rise to the top and there’s a lot of good names, but Galaxy’s on that list of a stock that’s great that has gotten absolutely killed. But Daniel, why don’t you give that a shot because I know you’re very familiar with that and love Novogratz, at least listen to his calls and stuff like that.

Daniel Creech: I like everything they’re doing and that guy’s very kind on saying how it’s… What did he say? Getting smacked or just… The thing is down tremendously, and I’m down tremendously on this. So, I think I replied to everybody that emailed me, daniel@curzioresearch.com, while I was away, and yes, I still like it and there’s no sugar coating this. So, what I’m about to say is not to avoid the absolute egg on my face and a target on my back of any excuses of that nature. In hindsight, if you want to wait until it lists, because right now Galaxy Digital is on the Canadian exchange. They’re waiting for approval and that has gone slowly. I was hoping for that on the last quarter’s update. They just reported Q2 earnings. So now, we’re going to have to wait again until at least quarter three or quarter four, which is aggravating, don’t get me wrong.

Daniel Creech: That being said, the stock is down to, what, $6 in change. I started buying this in the high twenties and low thirties, and then I’ve bought it on the way down. So, that shows you how good I look right now. Couple of things about the thesis and overall, number one, it’s easy to say, “Hey, over the next three years, I’m bullish and here’s why,” when you’re first getting into it. Now emotions and reality set in, I was dead wrong. I’ve been dead early. I’ve been buying over time. Quick rabbit trail here, unless you have a Scrooge McDuck pile of money, you’re going to invest over time as you get paid or you have different investments come off or capital gains or whatever. So for me, I’m a one to $2,000 a month guy that I can allocate however I want to, depending on how tight I live to choose, IE going on vacation, stuff like that.

Daniel Creech: So, I’ve been buying, and now it’s great because if the thesis works out, Frank, I’m buying at lower cost lowering my dollar cost or dollar cost average in at a lower price. The flip of that emotion is the first few months when I’m starting to buy it, and it’s running up and you don’t have any more money to buy, so that’s just something you’re going to have to deal with. If you want to go ahead and take the plunge now before they get the US approval, which they’re still waiting on… Don’t get me wrong, the stock is down so much, I would definitely look into that. The other part of the thesis in addition to moving over and being traded on a US exchange is big, not only for the money that can flow into you because the US is the leader in capitalism, it’s the world markets.

Daniel Creech: Your stock trades here, it’s going to be easier to get funds to invest in you. So, I think that would be good from a macro standpoint. The other thing is their acquisition of BitGo, huge crypto custodian holder that does a lot of things across wallets, has a lot of users. They end up paying more for that, Galaxy Digital is, but they have to wait on the US approval listing to close that deal and issue shares. So, there’s a lot of moving pieces here. I say all that, yes, I’m still buying stock. What I like to see, Frank, is that when crap hits the fan, when you’re down, when you go through bear markets, just like you always say to our listeners, hey, we want to be there for you. Nobody cares when our recommendations go straight through the roof, everybody cares when they’re down, and a lot of them have gotten hit with broader markets.

Daniel Creech: So, what I like to see from Galaxy Digital, and again, this doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s good to see when you’re investing from a business perspective. They reported first quarter 2022 results on May 9th, Frank. On May 11th, a couple days later, they announced the board of approval for share repurchase program and that got approved and they were going to buy back about 10% of their shares. Frank, if you’re investing in somebody and a CEO and the stock starts tanking, what do you want to see? You want to see him step up and buy. So, that’s a good thing. Then on the 13th, two more days later, they provided an update capital liquidity position. Then on the 16th, they announced that, “Hey, we got this TSX approval to buy back shares.” And then Mike Novogratz put out a huge… Not huge, but a couple page letter on the 18th.

Daniel Creech: So, I say all that because that’s positive to see. It does make me feel better, I admit, as a shareholder and getting smacked on it. I just want to see this thesis play out. And if I’m wrong, if they don’t get listing, if they’re not going to do the acquisition with BitGo, if management doesn’t continue and be profitable across all these asset lines of revenue, then I’ll have to say, “Hey, I was wrong.” Take my lumps. And it’s a big loss. You can stop me here. I don’t know how much I want to go into why everybody just needs to be cautious with position sizing and stop loss on a personal basis. We can’t give that kind of advice. I can give you what I think, but Galaxy Digital, that’s it in a nutshell.

Frank Curzio: Look, it is crypto, guys, and we’re very clear when it comes to crypto. You even heard my reaction when I first heard, when you read about fidelity allowing 20% to be Bitcoin crypto, I thought that was an insane amount. I think it’s 5% allocation. But it is crypto, it’s a new industry, and we’re always clear on that. This is very, very risky. What I like is the risk you’re taking, the reward is definitely worth the risk compared to taking the same risk that you’re taking in NASDAQ and even some of those stocks down 77 plus, if you’re looking at SPACs and recent IPOs. So, now for your question, should you buy it now? New York Stock Exchange. That’s up to you. Really can’t tell you when to buy it. I will say this though, there’s a list in Toronto and also on over the counter.

Frank Curzio: I do see a lot of mining companies that I’ve dealt with over the past 20 years. As they get bigger, they’re like, “Yeah, we want to get on US exchanges and increase volatility. That adds more capital.” You got to be careful, it does. That’s the goal, but you have to realize in Toronto, you can’t short the way you can short in the US. In the US, you can make up a whole freaking story. We’ve seen it before. Some good short sales out there, you can make the whole story. They got lawyers. Before the story even breaks, the second it breaks, you got 40 lawyers suing you. This is a whole coordinated effort through so many different sites, Seeking Alpha, whatever, just a whole coordinated effort of the short report. And they’ll bring down the stock. And they even say in the disclaimer, we could be out of this position by the time you’re reading this.

Frank Curzio: So, you open up your door to that when you’re on New York Stock Exchange, when you open up to the larger US exchanges. So, you have to be careful and make sure that you’re not full of it. Well, when it comes to Galaxy Digital, these guys are not full of it. They’re the gatekeeper for big wall street investment banks. That’s why Goldman Sachs signed a deal with them, this is why Morgan Stanley signed a deal with them. They’re in so many different deals that I’ve seen early on within crypto. I know crypto’s gotten nailed lately, but I’m talking about for the last four or five years, the deals that they have access to, their network, getting in these things super early. These guys have an amazing network. If you’re a believer in crypto, that Bitcoin’s going to go to a hundred thousand, and I’m not talking about this year, next year, three years, even if it’s five years, these guys are going to benefit significantly.

Frank Curzio: They’re well-positioned, they know what they’re doing. They’re great, and that’s why the biggest banks in the world are going to them. Granted, Novogratz has that Goldman Sachs background, but they have the right connection to do this and they’ve been doing it perfectly, following regulatory structures that are so muddy right now and now they’re getting better. And Biden’s executive order and stuff to really start regulating the industry has helped tremendously, and even Novogratz said that. But this is a name that I like. It’s gotten killed. You can’t look at it and say, “This name is great.” It’s like looking at any stock that’s gotten killed. When you see leveraging, the whole industry is down 75, 80% in crypto. Everything’s getting murdered right now. With that said, there’s a lot of great names. This is where the greatest innovation’s coming from.

Frank Curzio: And now there’s 250 trillion in global assets, finally, that open up the door to crypto. You’re looking at a tiny percentage of that coming in. Just the Fidelities, the BlackRocks, the Vanguards, you’re talking about well over $10 trillion in assets that are opening this up. And there’s a reason why after Luna, after everything that’s happened, Bitcoin’s been holding pretty steady here at 31, 32,000. Yes, it went down to 23, 24 and down from 65, but it’s been holding pretty steady in the last month, which has really seen a downturn in stocks outside of last week. But this is one of the premier names in the industry, and I think you’re going to look back and see where it is now and be like, “Holy shit. I can’t believe that stock was trading at this price.”

Frank Curzio: You’ll look back two years from now and be like, “I cannot believe that three years from…” Just like when Devon was trading at five, $6. Devon was trading at $6 in COVID. So, that’s one of these opportunities I believe, but you have to be believer in crypto. And remember, it is risky. Crypto is crazy volatile, and you have to be willing to… This is speculative capital you should be using on this. I think we’re in agreement there. But another question too, and you have one question. Why don’t you read it because I have a similar question too. We’ll give both these guys a shout out. What was your question?

Daniel Creech: John asked, in addition to Galaxy Digital, he was asking about Voyager, Riot Blockchain, and a couple other… What I like, he says, “Crypto picks that have become shadows of their former selves.” And I also like this, he points out and says, “Just as an up river collapse has down river implication, what needs further crypto… Further wipe out in candidate?” I don’t know what he meant there. “What else do you need to see and to hold them, not fold them?” That’s the Kenny Rogers song, Frank. We reference songs here quite often. To his point, here’s how I would trade, and I know we have a couple of these in the CCI portfolio, so I’m not going against Frank here, what Frank just mentioned.

Daniel Creech: If this crash is causing you to lose faith in Bitcoin going to be over six figures at some point, or money flowing into the space is going to dry up, you’re going to see less people try to get jobs in this space. Crypto in general, across blockchain, across development, anything. If that’s shaken, then I would use the rallies to lighten up and/or sell positions, because the worst thing, and I’ve done this and I’m speaking from experience and I know Frank can touch on this too. One of the worst things is, and I feel bad for John here because I know what he’s saying, hey Frank, when you buy something and it’s a huge winner, and then it gets to be less of a winner or, heaven forbid, a loss, that’s just tough to manage. It’s like buying a great stock, getting out for a gain, getting back in. Even though the stock may sell off, it’s very difficult to go back and revisit that with a clear conscious, at least I’m admitting that is.

Frank Curzio: Most people, yeah.

Daniel Creech: You brought up Devon. I’ve been arguing… Not arguing. Frank hasn’t been disagreeing with me. I’ve been upset with us because I haven’t been saying that anymore. I say all that because that’s how I would do… There’s no way to me, even though Riot… I don’t know their break even with Bitcoin right off the top of my head with mining. But if Bitcoin makes in rally to an all new time high above 70,000 or a hundred thousand, I personally don’t see how all the crypto related, the minings, the MicroStrategy’s. Anybody with any exposure, Tesla, because they hold Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

Daniel Creech: All those, if you don’t think that euphoria is going to catch up and go off again, I disagree with that. I don’t know when that’s going to happen, but if you don’t feel like that’s in place again or that’s in the cards, then, like I said, use your rallies to lighten up positions. That’s as close as we can give personal advice. But again, know your thesis, know why you own it, and then just see if management is following through. I’m not trying to sound like it’s easy. I’m just simply saying you want to keep it simple and try to write those down and follow those.

Frank Curzio: Just to let you guys know, bringing it in here. So Bitcoin, this is normal. This is normal for most growth industries and innovative industries, these ups and downs. Actually, you go back technology 2000, you look at… And even with Bitcoin. So, Bitcoin in 2018 fell 85%, Daniel, 85% from 19k to 3000 before rocking 65,000. It was 2000% in, what, 24 months? So, less than two years. So, you’re going to see these massive up and downs. I love the fact that you’re going to see a washout because there’s so much shit. There is a lot of shit in this industry that needs to be washed out and these kids and these tokens have no ties. They don’t report anything. I think you’re going to see a lot of these deemed securities, which is great.

Frank Curzio: But the innovation is taking place here and it’s unbelievable. It’s impacting all the industries. If you look at the deal flow, the deal flow went from basically a little over a billion, like $55 billion last year, and now already it’s exceeded that in this freaking market. It’s not just coming from crypto funds or venture funds. It’s coming from corporations. It’s coming from across the board, just all across different industries. If you see the breakdown, and I read this today, but you’re seeing the breakdown where it’s all these industries, because you know it’s impacting all these industries. They have no choice but to invest and to hire people, hire more developers that are in the blockchain. Seth also says as many folks right now, so staggering losses of my non-tax advantage in crypto accounts would now be a good time to sell off the losers long enough to avoid the wash sale.

Frank Curzio: PS, I know if I do, the market is sure to bounce back big in the meantime. I hear you. Which is similar to that, but if you want to take loss for tax purposes, that makes sense. They’re down a lot, and I paid my biggest tax bill I’ve ever paid last year, which sucks because you paid in April when everything really was crashing, and that’s what really hurt. And what are you doing? Not for me, but I could see a lot of people selling a lot of their positions to pay that tax bill because outside November, December, the market did fantastic last year. It really just crashed the last couple of months. So that’s good advice, if you want to sell and, again, to avoid wash sale over 30 days before you buy it back or whatever.

Frank Curzio: But that’s a way to lock in losses against potential gains that you may have, that’s fine. But in crypto, these ups and downs are normal. I know it’s tough to say, especially when we’re sitting a lot of losers on our portfolio as well, loaded down. But these are same scenarios where if you look at the top six or seven of our crypto holdings, some of those are up 40x, 30x, they’re still up, 10x. Those names are down 40, 50% in 2018. And for us, we were adding a little bit on the way down, taking small positions. In this industry, when you have tight stops, you’re going to get stopped out immediately. And none of those gains that we have, which are monstrous gains, in some of the early positions would’ve never happened.

Frank Curzio: So on a flip side, you’re going to have to be willing to take bigger losses, which means this is speculative money. You have to understand this is money you could afford to lose. You’re saying, “Okay, I want the shot at making it 25x plus. All right, 10x plus, and I’m willing to lose.” So, you don’t have that case with some of our small-cap newsletters. I’ve fortunately never had a stock go down to zero or lose all money. We stop out of names and we have stops around 35%. Sometimes, I’ll extend to 30% if I think the upside potential is that much. But there’s limited amount there, but this, you have to be careful here because there is money, it is speculative that the gains are incredible and there’s massive ups and downs in this industry, there’s a lot of great things.

Frank Curzio: But I could tell you now people getting into crypto are going to be extremely, extremely well rewarded. I know it’s difficult. Nobody really invests at the bottom. Nobody likes that when you see a major sell off and people… Look, Bitcoin’s down, whatever, 55%. Most of these names are down 85%. A lot of these names, a lot of good names, a lot of really good names. If you look at a top 15, those names are down. Those are good names backed by great management teams, backed by big venture funds, amazing technologies, amazing blockchains, just great ideas. When you see a lot of the good names sell off, this is a great opportunity. But yeah, these are the questions we’re asking. These are the questions that we’re addressing too, we’re down on some of the crypto holdings, so I appreciate that.

Daniel Creech: And Bitcoin’s down 50%, not from its lows though. It’s rallied from what? Mid to low twenties up to basically 30 in just a couple days. And not to pile on, but just to not ignore the question I took was what do you need to see? You just need ultimate pain. You need people that are going to throw in the towel. You’re going to find out who is well capitalized, who’s going to have to sell off a big portion of their company. Think of the show Shark Tank. If you’re in dire need for cash right now, you’re going to have to give up a lot of percentage of equity for less money than you would’ve wanted during good times. I hate to pull this cliché so early, Frank, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Daniel Creech: Again, we’ve seen this through other bear markets. It’s not a guarantee that everything’s going to reverse and go up. But unless you think the industry is literally going away and money will stop flowing into the space, it’s going to take time for that spill to make its way through the ecosystem. But I think Galaxy Digital’s going to be there afterwards. I think a lot of other companies are going to be there, obviously the big dogs like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Tom Petty, waiting is the hardest part. But unless you think a fundamental thing has changed, then it’s just another bear market, unfortunately.

Frank Curzio: And guys, I don’t want to make it sound like, hey, we’re guessing this is going to happen. There’s a lot of data behind this. What I want to see is right now with the market crashing, where is the Metaverse, which is our deal. By the way, we’re getting a lot of emails, curzioequityowners.com if you want to learn more. You can go there, you can see our presentation, our video and everything. But I’m bringing that up not as talking about our company, but Andreessen Horowitz just last week raised four and a half billion dollars immediately for its new crypto fund. So, you’re seeing more and more money being put into the system where people want to invest in this. You’re seeing trillions in retired capital coming in, which I just mentioned. Fidelity, BlackRock, Vanguard allowing us percentage getting into alternative assets now, that includes Bitcoin and cryptos.

Frank Curzio: So, the money that’s flowing into here, it’s the clients that want it. That’s why they’re doing it. I mean, Jamie Dimon said it best. It’s the clients that want it, and you want proof of that, Andreessen Horowitz raising 4.5 billion with their eyes closed. They could do that regardless, but to do it in this kind of market, not just in crypto where the market’s selling off, and do it that fast at a meeting, and putting this into web three companies and early stage companies, again, Metaverse, defi, NFT, security tokens, things like that, which is, again, it’s blockchain impacting every single industry across the board, validating, providing proof without having a middleman having to do that with you and charge you massive fees. This is a game changer. This is a game changer with everything. So, I would invest so much in a metaverse, but this isn’t, oh, just hold on.

Frank Curzio: This is the data that I’m seeing. If I didn’t see the money coming in, I’d be like, “Okay, hold on.” You’re seeing money flow into this. They’re going to be flowing into the best deals with our network, especially now that we announced this deal. We have an incredible, incredible network of people just reaching out to us, which is awesome. But it’s going to allow us just to access more great names, less of the bullshit. And for Crypto Intelligence investors, you have a lot to look forward for, not just this deal. And I know it’s for credit investors only, but it’s the new recommendations that are coming out are recommendations that you’re not going to find any place else. The early stages before the trading on major exchanges, that’s when you want to buy them. And the upside is absolutely tremendous, tremendous.

Frank Curzio: We’re talking 25, 50x. These are the companies, that’s the potential if they get it right. And if they get it wrong, you’re going to lose your money. But that’s what you want to see in crypto. And just right now, people coming in, especially Crypto Intelligence, I think are going to be very, very, very happy over the next few years, because this is the future. This is the future. Everybody knows it. Everyone on Wall Street knows it. Finance knows it. They’re raising capital. You’ve seen Andreessen Horowitz, the biggest venture capitalist firm in the world. This is where they’re going. Everybody’s going here. All the big names are starting to push into here, and you need to be in it because this is where the gains are going to come. This is 1993, ’94 of the internet boom going to 1999 into 2000. That’s just my opinion.

Frank Curzio: So, I think we beat that to death. But I have another question for you, Daniel. This is from HC. So he addresses me, he goes, “Frank, did you see the new Top Gun yet?” I haven’t seen it. Have you seen the new Top Gun?

Daniel Creech: No.

Frank Curzio: He goes, “If not, you should see it. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. What are the best plays on this, AMC?” Just to let you know if you haven’t saw it. I don’t know if you looked at the stats, because you’ve been on a boat in the middle of nowhere.

Daniel Creech: I’ve been back a week. Listen to this. See the conditions I work under?

Frank Curzio: So Top Gun: Maverick grossed 156 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend.

Daniel Creech: I was going to guess that, I read that headline.

Frank Curzio: New record for Memorial Day, which is incredible. In four days, it’s up to 220 million now. So, I’ve heard from the people that saw it that people were crying coming out, they’re like, amazing. People are just, even on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s got one of the highest ratings. I haven’t seen it, but AMC, what are you thinking there? AMC is going to benefit though. They are going to benefit, and you’re seeing the slate of movies… This year, movies have been fantastic. You had the new Batman movie that did very well. Spider-Man: Homecoming, Dr. Strange came out, and you have Jurassic Park coming out pretty soon, and then you just had this release, which nobody knew was going to do this good, but this blew it out of the water. So, the movies are back laced here, but I don’t know if AMC’s the best… I wouldn’t touch AMC. There’s too much debt there and super, super expensive stock.

Daniel Creech: Well, you don’t want to get involved with the crypto crowd there. We’ve been talking about it too much. I would play IMAX. I’m giving away a… You’re probably going to be mad at me.

Frank Curzio: IMAX. No, no, no. That’s what I was going to say. If you’re going to play… I’m going to tell you something about IMAX.

Daniel Creech: You’re welcome, Curzio Research Advisory.

Frank Curzio: We didn’t go over this either beforehand. So, I’m going to give you a little stats on IMAX. So, IMAX brought in 32 million just through this movie, Top Gun: Maverick. So, just 32 million. Now, that’s more than half the revenue they generated for the entire Q1. They also generated 55 million for Dr. Strange a few weeks ago, which is part of this Q2. And you have Jurassic World: Dominion, it’s coming out in 10 days, and that’s probably going to be a monster, no pun intended, hit because they bring… Just like in Spiderman: Homecoming, they brought back all the old characters. It’s probably going to do extremely well.

Frank Curzio: So, you’re looking at close to 90 million already for the quarter without Jurassic Park. That’s 50% higher than last quarter. The stock was trading at 17 before the holiday weekend, and now it’s trading at $17 and 30 cents a closed, plus there’s a company that’s getting zero help from China that has a very big presence in China because of lockdowns. But as I shared in yesterday’s podcast, you’re seeing Shanghai pure track electricity statistics, industrial, it’s starting to open up. It’s back to about 80% capacity.

Daniel Creech: It goes in effect today, the first. They’re lifting stuff and all that kind of stuff.

Frank Curzio: That’s without China, and China’s going to come back, and they love their movies. And there’s just a huge slate on coming for the rest of the year. People are dying, they love the movies. It’s great. The theaters are better than ever. IMAX to be trading, I said, this stock should be trading north $22 a share. They’re going to blow out the numbers. No one’s really updated those numbers yet because so much has gone on. I just looked at the Alice reports before I actually came on here. They’re just got to blow out the numbers next quarter. They have to be raised significantly. And again, they were lowered into the quarter because of China being a big part, and they still did very well quarter without China. With China, holy cow. But again, you’re looking at 90 million for the quarter just right now without Jurassic Park, which is going to be another major, major hit.

Frank Curzio: That’s a big fan base there. Convey the 60 million. Man, IMAX is a steal right here. It’s an absolute steal. Listen, if the market is shitty, the stock’s going to go down along with everything else. I’m just saying if the market stays like this up and down, this is a stock that should be north of probably $25 a share. This is one of those names that we see, Daniel, in a market where you see the leveraging and everything coming down, the massive, massive growth, huge catalyst, getting it done. You’re seeing people go to theaters now. COVID getting lifted in China. COVID’s in the rear view mirror for most people in most countries, not China yet, but most people are just like, “I’m dealing with it. It’s okay, even though I got to go to the doctor to get the vaccine or get tested for the vaccine that’s supposed to prevent me from COVID,” which is a little weird when you think about it.

Daniel Creech: You still got to take a test. I still had to take a test to get back into the country.

Frank Curzio: I just think it’s funny we’re taking a test for a vaccine that’s supposed to prevent COVID. Anyway, we won’t get into that anymore. But IMAX, it’s a name that’s been unfairly punished. There’s a lot of names. This is an industry leader within its space. It has carved out its own little niche, however you want to say that word. I say it any other way. But these guys are getting it done and, man, they’re going to report blowout year, and I don’t think it’s factored into price right now.

Daniel Creech: I have never been to an IMAX theater.

Frank Curzio: It’s awesome.

Daniel Creech: I’ve heard really good things about it, and it was fun researching the stock when we recommend. But no, I’m not a big movie guy. And speaking of movies real quick, Jurassic Park, what number of Jurassic Park will that be? They got to be up to like six, right?

Frank Curzio: Maybe. I think it might be five.

Daniel Creech: For a dumb movie goer like me, whenever they quit counting… I was on one airplane, and I skim through. I’m the weird guy on the airplane that I usually don’t use headphones, I just skim through to the action scenes. There’s Fast and Furious 9. Nine, Frank.

Frank Curzio: And you know what? I’m going to see it because they’re all entertaining as hell. They’re all stupidly entertaining.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, they are. It’s just fun to let your mind go and all right, this guy’s going to catapult from this island to that island on a rope in a 3,000 pound car doing a hundred mile an hour. It’s easy, wonderful.

Frank Curzio: You’re talking about a guy who liked Armageddon.

Daniel Creech: I did too. Hey, I’m with you. I’m not against cheesy movies. I just laugh at the rinse, repeat model. I’m jealous of it, actually. I wish we could do it.

Frank Curzio: And look, whatever makes the money. All you’ve seen is remake after remake, you’re seeing the same Spiderman come out with the same thesis and they’re generating a billion dollars.

Daniel Creech: I don’t know which one it was from ZZ Top. Real quick here, sorry. But I remember seeing in an interview or something about MTV, and ZZ Top was taken off and MTV really boosted them. And one of them made the comment, was like, “Yeah, music videos. We didn’t know what music videos were, but we got great looking women, hot rods, music.” He’s like, “Yeah, we’ll do this as often as you want to. What the hell?” That’s kind of what Fast and Furious is just entertaining… Anyway.

Frank Curzio: People want to be entertained and they are being entertained. But the IMAX theater really quick, the thing that separates itself is you can really get… A good theater experience at AMC, the redone movie theaters, are amazing, but you could have surround sound and I’m very, very into this stuff. So, you could create your own theater, surround sound, speakers, amazing and create an awesome experience inside your house. You cannot do that with the IMAX theater. That’s a totally different showing that blows you away with 3D glasses, finally, that you don’t get dizzy and you don’t feel sick. And they changed that probably five years ago and made the technology a lot better. That’s a totally different experience. And with this type of movie and the movie, the Marvel movies and stuff like that, IMAX, they got it right.

Frank Curzio: They’re going to be around forever. There’s nobody else that’s doing this, but that’s a totally different experience where you can go to the movies, and there’s some great movies, and you get the surround sound, it’s loud, but you can get a lot of that now at home with the right theater setup. You’re not going to get the IMAX at home at all, which is a different experience. So, that’s going to be around forever, and those guys done a good job. So Daniel, thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it. Hopefully, I’ll see you again next month.

Daniel Creech: Unbelievable.

Frank Curzio: And if not, then we’ll go from there, buddy. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I got to bust Daniel’s… He’s in the office. I got to kick him out of the office. So, he’s there all the time, so he knows I’m going to bust his chop-

Daniel Creech: No, I appreciate that. No, it’s good to get heckled, even from your closest peers. But great to be back. This is what I miss most. This and then golf, I’m not going to lie. Miss playing golf.

Frank Curzio: Email frank@curzioresearch.com, any questions or comments, and…

Daniel Creech: Daniel@curzioresearch.com.

Frank Curzio: I always forget that. I don’t know why.

Daniel Creech: I’m back.

Frank Curzio: He’s back. All right, guys, that’s it for us. I really appreciate the support, frank@curzioresearch.com. Again, if you’re interested, I’m still getting emails for our Metaverse deal, where we are raising money for. So, you just go to curzioequityowners.com, you can see it on our website to watch our video pitch deck. It’s probably the only video pitch deck that you’ll see, but you’ll be able to get all the answers that you need. If not, you can call me personally if you’re serious about coming in. Again, curzioequityowners.com. Subscription agreements, everything is there. And anything else I can do for you, again, send us an email. So, that’s it for us, guys, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Take care.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curzio Research, one of the most respected financial media companies in the industry. The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its host and guests. You should not base your investment decisions solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility.

Frank Curzio
Frank Curzio, founder and CEO of Curzio Research, is one of America’s most respected stock experts. His research is regularly featured on media outlets like CNBC’s Kudlow Report, The Call, CNN Radio, ABC News, and Fox Business News. His Wall Street Unplugged podcast—ranked the No. 1 “most listened-to” financial podcast on iTunes—has been downloaded over 12 million times.

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