SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO INVESTING

Steve Davenport, Clement Miller
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Investing
  • Updated Bimonthly

Straight Talk for All, Nonsense for NoneAbout - Our podcast looks to help improve investing IQ.  We share 15-30 minutes on finance, market and investment ideas. We bring experience and empathy to the complex process of financial wellness.  Every journey is unique, so we look for ways our insights can help listeners. Also, we want to have fun😎Your Hosts - Meet Steve Davenport, CFA and Clem Miller, CFA as they discus the latest in news, markets and investments.  They each bring over 25 years in the investment industry to their discussions.  Steve brings a domestic stock and quantitative emphasis, Clem has a more fundamental and international perspective. They hope to bring experience, honesty and humility to these podcasts. There are a lot of acronyms and financial terms which confuse more than they help. There are many entertainers versus analysts promoting get rich quick ideas. Let’s cut through the nonsense with straight talk!Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  1. 6d ago

    SK Hynix Vs Micron

    Please text and tell us what you like Micron has become the default “AI memory” ticker for many US investors, but we’ve been asking a different question: what happens when a Korean heavyweight like SK Hynix becomes easier to buy through a US-traded ADR, and why has it often traded at a discount in the first place? We take that curiosity and turn it into a practical investor framework: compare the businesses, compare the market structure around them, and then decide whether the price gap is a gift or a warning label. We talk through what we know and what we still need to verify, including how “pure play” exposure differs between conglomerates and focused memory companies, and why valuation metrics like PE, price to sales, and price to book can look attractive while still hiding real risks. We also zoom out to the AI supply chain and explain why high bandwidth memory, DRAM demand, and data movement constraints matter, not just GPUs and CPUs. Then we pressure-test the optimistic narratives: can eye-popping margins persist, and are future growth assumptions creeping into fantasy territory? A big part of the conversation is the part many investors skip: ADR mechanics. We break down sponsored versus unsponsored ADRs, why US GAAP reporting requirements can change transparency, and why an ADR does not protect you from currency risk. We also cover Korea’s market access constraints and why MSCI still treats Korea as an emerging market, which can influence liquidity, investor participation, and ultimately valuation. If you’re considering SK Hynix vs Micron, or you simply want to understand how foreign stocks trade in US wrappers, listen along and challenge your assumptions with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s chasing AI stocks, and leave a review with your take: is the discount opportunity real, or is it the market pricing in something you can’t ignore? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  2. Jul 14

    Insider Ownership Beats Chasing Last Year’s Earnings

    Please text and tell us what you like OWN Explainer Video: https://youtu.be/MSD8Msi7qcY The S&P 500 is supposed to be “the market,” but what if its biggest blind spot is the people actually running the companies? We bring on Haran Bakta, CFA, founder behind the OWN ETF, to walk through a different way to build an index: weight companies by insider ownership so leadership has real skin in the game. Along the way, we stay skeptical and press on the uncomfortable parts: when ownership helps, when it doesn’t, and how to avoid turning a smart idea into a cult of personality.  We unpack why free-float adjusted indexes can behave in ways most investors never notice, including the strange reality that an index may effectively buy more of a company when a controlling insider sells or passes away. Haran explains the origin story, the painful work of collecting ownership data through years of proxy filings, and the rules behind the inside ownership index: starting from the S&P 500, selecting the top names by dollar value of insider ownership, and capping inputs to avoid a portfolio dominated by a handful of extreme holdings.  From there we debate founders versus professional managers, culture versus control, and why last year’s earnings can be a misleading compass when innovation cycles shift fast, especially in technology and AI. We also cover performance claims, risk and drawdowns, the Sharpe ratio angle, fees and scaling, and why index construction matters as much as any headline narrative. If you care about index investing, corporate governance, founder-led companies, and long-term investing discipline, this conversation will give you a sharper framework and a few strong counterpoints to test it against.  If this helped you think more clearly about incentives and leadership in your portfolio, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review. What’s your take: should insider ownership change how we index the market? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  3. Jul 10

    The Four AI Gates Investors Need To Watch

    Please text and tell us what you like AI is sucking up the oxygen in markets, but the real question for investors is simpler and tougher: what has to go right for trillions in spending to turn into durable profits? We sit down with Steve Gattuso, CIO at Courier Capital and longtime CFA leader, to map the “AI gates” we’re watching so we can tell the difference between real progress and a story that’s getting ahead of itself. We dig into the first gate, funding, because even the most profitable hyperscalers may not be able to self-fund capital expenditures at today’s scale without issuing debt, selling stock, or slowing buybacks. From there we move to bottlenecks: chips, materials, engineers, data center construction, power generation, grid upgrades, and even local resistance to new builds. These constraints don’t just affect tech stocks, they ripple through utilities, energy, industrials, and the broader economy, with real implications for short-term inflation and long-term productivity. Then we tackle the gates that decide who wins: returns on invested capital and willingness to pay. Token costs, enterprise budgets, and consumer price sensitivity can make or break business models, and that uncertainty matters even more when index concentration is high and so many 401(k)s sit inside market cap-weighted funds. We close with a grounded take on timing, risk, and how we think about options hedging as “insurance” when markets price perfection. If this helped you think more clearly about AI investing, subscribe, share it with a fellow investor, and leave a review. What’s your biggest AI risk: funding, bottlenecks, profitability, or demand? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  4. Jul 9

    Is Cash A Safety Net Or A Silent Drag

    Please text and tell us what you like Cash is the one asset everybody thinks they understand and it’s also the one most people never size on purpose. We sit down as skeptics and ask a simple question with expensive consequences: how much cash should you hold in a portfolio, and when should that number change? Steve Davenport argues that raising cash can be a rational planning move, especially when you’re funding a known near term purchase like a home or car and you want to protect that money from the whims of the market. Then we get into the classic investing debate: staying invested vs “timing,” and why a small cash slice can be a practical buffer for retirees. We talk through the logic of keeping roughly 2% to 4% in cash to support a 4% style withdrawal plan without being forced to sell equities after a drop. Clem Miller shares a personal story about Treasury bonds losing value when rates move, which shaped his skepticism about bonds and pushed him toward a cash and stocks approach. From there, we explore what cash is really for: optionality when good opportunities show up, and a way to dampen volatility when you still own risky names like AI stocks. Clem also lays out the kind of stock signals he watches, including short interest, forward PEG ratios, and Sharpe ratio, while Steve flags a detail many investors miss: money market sweep accounts can carry meaningful fees, so “safe cash” can still be quietly expensive. We close with a broader takeaway: don’t build your portfolio to look like a Wall Street template or an institutional pension plan. Build it to serve your life, your taxes, and your comfort with risk. If this helped you think more clearly about cash allocation, money market funds, retirement planning, and portfolio risk management, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review, and tell us what percentage of cash you keep right now. Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  5. Jul 9

    When Peace Talks Sound Like War

    Please text and tell us what you like “We’re getting close to peace” is one of the most dangerous sentences in politics, especially when the next headline is about more missiles, more strikes, and more promises to hit harder. We take a hard look at how the word peace gets used today and why it can feel like a mirage, with leaders describing escalation as a “road to peace” while people keep dying on the ground. We talk through two arenas where the language flips fast: the Ukraine Russia war and the US Iran conflict within the broader Middle East. From long range weapons and infrastructure attacks to the real world choke point of the Strait of Hormuz, we dig into what would actually need to change for stability to be more than a talking point. If ships are “about to flow,” who clears mines, who sets the rules, and who enforces them when tensions rise again? Then we step back and ask why peacekeeping and accountability are so limited. The UN Security Council veto makes classic UN peacekeeping nearly impossible when major powers are parties to the conflict. On war crimes, we explore how the Geneva Conventions and the International Criminal Court focus on narrow standards like intent and clear humanitarian violations, which leaves huge gray zones that frustrate anyone looking for simple moral math. We even try to quantify peace, percentage style, and the exercise exposes the real point: peace is not a binary, and propaganda thrives in the ambiguity. If this helps you think more clearly about war, diplomacy, and risk, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review. What percentage of peace do you think exists right now? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  6. Jun 24

    Memory Is The New Bottleneck

    Please text and tell us what you like Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  7. Jun 24

    SpaceX After The IPO

    Please text and tell us what you like SpaceX’s IPO didn’t just light up the charts, it raised a harder question: are you buying a business, or buying belief. We look at the spike after the debut, the slide back toward the offering price, and why that pattern can lure long-term investors into making a short-term decision without a risk plan. From there, we get practical about fundamentals. We put profitability at the center of the debate, compare SpaceX’s earnings profile to companies like NVIDIA and Microsoft, and ask what it means when a company can trade at a sky-high valuation while still lacking real profits. We also dig into the “dumb money versus smart money” dynamic of IPOs: insiders and early investors finally get liquidity, while the public often shows up with the least access and the most enthusiasm. The biggest red flags, though, are structural. We talk about Elon Musk’s control, special voting rights, potential cross-company maneuvers, dilution risk, and why a one-person power structure can be dangerous for junior shareholders even if the technology is real. We also cover index inclusion and forced buying through Russell-style products and QQQ exposure, plus the lockup timeline that could change the supply-demand picture fast. If you’re tempted to own SpaceX for the mission, we offer a clear framework for separating inspiration from investability. Subscribe, share the episode with a skeptical friend, leave a review, and tell us where you land: would you ever buy SpaceX at any price? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

  8. Jun 24

    The Memo Of Misunderstanding

    Please text and tell us what you like “The Strait is open” is a comforting headline, but we don’t think it’s an investing thesis. We dig into the new US-Iran memorandum that’s being sold as a breakthrough and explain why the fine print, the missing signatures, and the political incentives make it look more like a memo of misunderstanding than a real peace agreement. We talk through the biggest fault lines: Israel and Hezbollah aren’t bound by the document, election pressures can reward hardline behavior, and public threats can sabotage the quiet diplomacy that usually moves negotiations forward. We also unpack why a 60-day clock and a 14-point checklist feel designed for extensions and messaging rather than completion and enforcement. Then we bring it back to markets. Oil prices, inflation, and economic confidence all hinge on what actually happens in the Strait of Hormuz: whether ships sail, whether insurers price the risk down, whether mines are truly cleared, and whose definition of “open” wins out. We also examine the impact of sanctions relief and released assets, and we end with a bigger warning for anyone who follows geopolitics and portfolios: if chokepoint coercion becomes normalized, copycat blockades in other critical lanes, including Taiwan, could turn volatility into the baseline. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the show with someone who follows markets, and leave a review. What signal would convince you that the risk in Hormuz is genuinely fading? Straight Talk for All - Nonsense for None Please check out our other podcasts: https://skepticsguidetoinvesting.buzzsprout.com Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

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Straight Talk for All, Nonsense for NoneAbout - Our podcast looks to help improve investing IQ.  We share 15-30 minutes on finance, market and investment ideas. We bring experience and empathy to the complex process of financial wellness.  Every journey is unique, so we look for ways our insights can help listeners. Also, we want to have fun😎Your Hosts - Meet Steve Davenport, CFA and Clem Miller, CFA as they discus the latest in news, markets and investments.  They each bring over 25 years in the investment industry to their discussions.  Steve brings a domestic stock and quantitative emphasis, Clem has a more fundamental and international perspective. They hope to bring experience, honesty and humility to these podcasts. There are a lot of acronyms and financial terms which confuse more than they help. There are many entertainers versus analysts promoting get rich quick ideas. Let’s cut through the nonsense with straight talk!Disclaimer - These podcasts are not intended as investment advice. Individuals please consult your own investment, tax and legal advisors. They provide these insights for educational purposes only.

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  • Creator
    Steve Davenport, Clement Miller
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    155
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO INVESTING
  • Show Website
    SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO INVESTING