The 16th episode of Read the Bull is a fascinating discussion with Zeke Faux, a Bloomberg investigative reporter and author of the best selling book, "Number Go Up."

Cryptocurrency is ubiquitous. You can't escape the endless news coverage on the price of crypto, or hearing your college friends talk about that one friend who made a killing buying DOGE coin. The slang associated with it seems juvenile, but people are making real money trading it, and its value is zooming once again on the heels of Donald Trump's victory, as investors anticipate a regulatory-friendly regime. But how does it really work and what are its real-world applications?

Zeke wanted out to answer those questions and sets out to explore the real-world uses of Crypto. His reporting takes him around the world to the Bahamas, Switzerland, El Salvador, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The book, published last year by Crown Publishing, is an exhaustive look at the world of cryptocurrency and the people behind it, but Stefan learns that the book has an auspicious genesis. Zeke's speciality is writing about financial fraud, but his interest in the topic is piqued when one of his friends starts bragging about making money in what he called Doggie coin. Zeke sets out to show his friend that DOGE coin and other cryptocurrencies

His journey into the crypto world starts by looking into the popular stable-coin Tether and its founders. Searching for the people who started Tether is easier said than done, but along the way Zeke is quickly introduced to crypto's world of oddball characters - scammers, zealots, an actor from the Mighty Ducks and the creator of Inspector Gadget.

It also includes Sam Bankman Fried, the founder of FTX and now convicted felon. Zeke was introduced to SBF early on and attended his star-studded Bahamas crypto conference. Later, when the FTX and Alameda Research fraud unwind, Zeke heads back to the Bahamas and scores an interview with SBF that spans 11 hours.

Zeke finds that Tether is heavily used by criminals and he follows the trail to Cambodia where he interviews people who have been lured to country with he promise of high-paying customer service jobs and then are trapped in pig butchering farms, where they're forced to scam unwitting targets around the world.

Stefan's impressed by Zeke's commitment to his subject, noting the time he had to tell his wife he had purchase a $20,000 mutant cartoon ape in order to get into a week-long the NFT event.

Zeke skepticism about cryptocurrency's use only grows after his investigations. While acknowledging that crypto prices have rebounded since the 2022 crash and FTX's collapse, he argues there's no real innovation justifying these higher values.

"Number Go Up" is a wild-ride that seems more like a science-fiction novel, but readers will learn more about cryptocurrency and how its used than any other book out there.

This is a conversation you don't want to miss.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.

The 15th episode of Read the Bull is the Fall 2024 Book Preview. Portfolio Wealth CIO Lee Munson joins host Stefan Prelog for an in-depth discussion about timeless investing classics, finance beach reads and a new slate books to watch for this fall.

Lee talks to Stefan about the recent market volatility and how he prepares clients for moments like this. Lee's clients are concerned about the 2024 Presidential election and what the potential outcomes means for their portfolios.

In addition to managing his clients' portfolios, Lee's been busy reading and he dives in to the books he's read over the summer. He's reread some investing classics including the third edition of Justin Mamis' 1977 book "When to Sell," the 1965 edition of Gerald Loeb's "The Battle for Investment Survival" and all of Peter Lynch's books, including "One Up on Wall Street," which Lee says has given his life new breath. Lee also touts "38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his Son," and notes investors can learn a lot by reading "The Science of Getting Rich," by Wallace Wattles and the early investment letters of Warren Buffett.

Lee also recounts some of the newer books he's read including Carrie Sun's "Private Equity" and the financial novel "The Vegan" by Andrew Lipstein. Lee also gained an appreciation for Bill Gross' impact on the bond market after reading Mary Childs' "The Bond King."

The 2024 Fall book preview highlights a slate of new titles including, "Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World" by J. Doyne Farmer, "She-Wolves: The Untold Story of the Women on Wall Street," by Paulina Bren, "The Little Investment That Beats the Market," by Joel Greenblatt, a new edition of "The Intelligent Investor," by Benjamin Graham that includes new commentaries for every chapter by Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig, and "Myth of Money: Breaking Out of the Failing Financial System" by Tatiana Koffman
who's a General Partner at the digital assets investment firm Moonwalker Capital.

Listen to the episode to hear what Stefan and Lee have to say about these new books and if they'll stand the test of time.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.

The 14th episode of Read the Bull is an unfiltered discussion with Scott Fearon, author of "Dead Companies Walking: How a Hedge Fund Manager Finds Opportunity in Unexpected Places," published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. If you want to know how a veteran long/short hedge fund manager approaches investing, this is the interview for you.

Scott started Crown Advisors Management, a long/short equity hedge fund, in 1990. He manages around $180 million and invests in small and mid-size public companies that have around a $200 - $300 million market cap. He invests on the long side in companies he finds that are undervalued, and also shorts companies that he believes are headed for zero.

Before Scott started his firm, he worked at Texas Commerce Bank in the 1980s. It's there he learned the value of face-to-face meetings, and he tells Stefan that he's visited and met with the management of every company he invests in on the long side. At the time of the book's publication, he had visited 1,400 companies. Now, almost 10 years later, that number is well north of 2,000 companies.

When he started to write "Dead Companies Walking," Scott looked back at the 200 companies he'd shorted and gone bankrupt and found they all made the same strategic mistakes. Scott distilled those mistakes into six themes for why a company fails - Historical Myopia, Getting too Attached to Formulas, Disregarding or Overlooking Your Customers, Madness and Manias, Failing to Recognize Tectonic Shifts, and Not Accepting Blame or Incorrectly Assigning Blame to External Forces.

Some of the stories are well known - Blockbuster's failure to recognize the shift to digital streaming or JC Penney's CEO Ron Johnson ignoring its customers by shifting to a no-sale strategy and bringing in more fashionable merchandise. Others are not as well known - Quokka Sports - a company that wanted to bring immersive viewing to Yacht Racing or First Team Sports, a company that went all in on inline skating. Scott also discusses some of his recent company visits and reveals a couple that he believes will ultimately go to zero. He also talks about why short selling is good for markets and notes that highlights three categories - fads, frauds and failures.

Scott's not immune to failure himself, and he walks Stefan through mistakes his made, including what led to the demise of his first restaurant.

Scott is not your typical hedge fund manager, or at least not the one you typically read about in the Wall Street Journal or see on CNBC. He stopped taking outside capital years ago and focuses solely on finding companies to invest in or to bet against. That means he doesn't have to market his fund or raise new capital to grow assets like many hedge funds out there. It also means he can also speak truth to power and pull the curtain back on some of the things that are wrong with the industry. For example, he criticizes hedge fund managers who chase assets, as well as the allocators who cheer them on.

Scott's book is timeless and there are lessons here for everyone - whether you own a business, work for one or are investing in them.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.