Small Caps Are the Smart Contrarian Play Today

On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes value investor Tobias Carlisle back to the show. Tobias is the founder and portfolio manager of Acquirers Funds, a deep-value investment firm. He's also an author and host of the Acquirers Podcast. Tobias kicks things off by discussing the "happy hunting ground" in small-cap stocks, the market narrowing in the S&P 500 Index, and the massive amounts of capital flowing into AI. He also compares the AI mania today with the dot-com boom of the late '90s, questions how AI is making money, and notes that the bottom 490 stocks in the S&P 500 have been in a "little recession" since 2022. He says this gives value investors an opportunity right now to get great names for cheap before the inevitable rebound. After that, Tobias comments on passive investing, what could be in store for the top 10 large caps, and why fears of AI destroying the jobs market are overblown. (0:00) Next, Tobias talks about his company's two funds: the Acquirers Fund (ZIG) and Acquirers Small and Micro Deep Value Fund (DEEP). He explains what he looks for when picking stocks and how he determines valuations. He also name-drops many stocks and industries that he thinks have fantastic potential over the next decade. (21:01) Finally, Tobias discusses the significance of hedge-fund shorts of the small-cap Russell 2000 Index peaking recently, plus the extreme concentration of the top 10 stocks. He notes that Nvidia now accounts for 8% of the S&P 500's market cap – the highest in history. Tobias says that valuations will eventually come back down to Earth and that not all of the Mag Seven will be top performers in the future. Citing Tesla as the weakest in the group, he points out that Chinese electric vehicles beat Tesla cars in terms of price, design, and charging times. Tobias then closes things out with a conversation about an "echo boom" of 2021, cryptocurrencies being back in favor, and the unprecedented outperformance of large caps. (37:31)