Many Happy Returns
PensionCraft
Investing is the best way to build wealth, but comes with risk and uncertainty.
Want to grow a portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs and more? This is the show to boost your knowledge and build your confidence.
Join us on the journey through bull markets, bubbles and crashes. Bring snacks and a steady hand; we're in it for the long haul...
Hosted by Ramin Nakisa (YouTube @PensionCraft) and Michael Pugh.
Contact us: mhr@pensioncraft.com
Want to grow a portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs and more? This is the show to boost your knowledge and build your confidence.
Join us on the journey through bull markets, bubbles and crashes. Bring snacks and a steady hand; we're in it for the long haul...
Hosted by Ramin Nakisa (YouTube @PensionCraft) and Michael Pugh.
Contact us: mhr@pensioncraft.com
Episodes
Mentioned books
31 snips
Apr 29, 2026 • 34min
Britain's Slow-Motion House Price Crash
A deep dive into the UK’s slow-motion housing correction and why nominal prices hide real-term falls. They explore regional splits with London diverging from the rest of the country. Mortgage refinancing risks and the wave of short-term fixes get close scrutiny. Builders, leasehold and flat-specific problems are examined alongside shifting landlord behaviour and construction pullbacks.
21 snips
Apr 22, 2026 • 35min
Making Sense of a Weird Market: Record Highs, Sticky Inflation, and Silent Alarms
Markets have hit record highs even as geopolitical risk and high oil linger. The bond market signals caution about sticky inflation and debt. Discussion covers narrow stock leadership, private credit vulnerabilities, and what could trigger a big sell-off. Energy dynamics, oil flows, and why refiners profit from the crack spread are also explored.
15 snips
Apr 15, 2026 • 46min
Do Your Own Research: What Real Investment Research Actually Looks Like
They unpack what rigorous retail investment research looks like versus clickbait disclaimers. They explore analyst routines, modelling tradeoffs like DCFs, and practical checklists for business, balance sheet and cashflow. They flag red flags such as auditor changes and accounting divergence. They debate contrarian investing, psychology, and when to act versus model first.
13 snips
Apr 8, 2026 • 40min
Statistical Sleight of Hand: How Good Numbers Hide Bad Investments
They unpack statistical tricks that make weak investments look strong. Topics include backtesting overfitting, look-ahead bias, and the factor zoo of spurious findings. They cover survivorship bias, mark-to-model smoothing of illiquid returns, IRR manipulation, and misleading charts and averages. They also tackle p-hacking, p-values, and why reported returns can hide real risks.
56 snips
Apr 1, 2026 • 36min
Shopping the Drop: Is Anything Actually Cheap?
They go bargain hunting across stocks, bonds, commodities and countries to see what looks cheap after recent market falls. Conversation covers tech concentration, NVIDIA risks, energy’s rally, and sector rotation. They also weigh gilt yields, inflation expectations, commodities as hedges, and how valuation tools like CAPE and FCF yield behave during stress.
21 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 46min
Your Portfolio Wasn't Built for This
They argue many portfolios were built for falling rates and cheap oil, which no longer applies. They explore why 60/40 can fail when stocks and bonds fall together and revisit 2022’s historic drawdown. They weigh short-duration cash, inflation-linked bonds, commodities, gold, and trend funds as potential hedges. They also discuss energy’s small index weight, tech’s energy vulnerability, and the costs of commodity hedging.
25 snips
Mar 18, 2026 • 45min
The War of Unintended Consequences: Oil, Inflation, and Interest Rates
A deep dive into why oil jumped after the Iran conflict and how Strait of Hormuz risks ripple through LNG, fertilizer, helium and other commodities. Discussion of how regional flows and tapped buffers can make global shortages worse. Conversation on inflation, shifting interest rate expectations, stagflation risk, and what that means for portfolio positioning and tactical themes.
40 snips
Mar 11, 2026 • 52min
Damien Talks Money: What Investors Click vs. What They Need
Damien Jordan, YouTuber behind Damien Talks Money who makes practical long-term finance videos. He dissects why sensational crash clips get clicks, why evergreen beginner content endures, and how comparison-driven searches shape viewers. They cover UK savers’ cash bias, creators’ influence on policy debates, under-covered topics like protection, and the tensions of making content under analytics pressure.
57 snips
Mar 4, 2026 • 49min
Capital Preservation: The Art of Not Losing Money, with Jasmine Yeo from Ruffer
Jasmine Yeo, a fund manager at Ruffer focused on capital preservation and unconstrained strategies, walks through the art of not losing money. She discusses Ruffer’s defensive mindset, how derivatives and commodities are used as insurance, the limits of bonds as hedges, and the behavioural benefits of smoother returns. Expect candid takes on risks, regime shifts, and staying patient when you’re early.
28 snips
Feb 25, 2026 • 30min
The Tariffs Are Dead. Long Live the Tariffs.
A Supreme Court ruling overturned tariffs while the administration raced to impose new ones under a different law. They unpack which tariffs still stand, who ultimately bears the cost, and the messy legal and refund fight ahead. The conversation also covers how markets shrugged, potential fiscal and bond market fallout, and the spaghetti bowl effect in overlapping trade deals.
