Animal Spirits: Small Caps Are Back

Posted January 21, 2026 by Ben Carlson Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by YCharts and ClearBridge Investments: This episode is sponsored by YCharts. Download Top 10 Visuals  here And start your free YCharts trial through Animal Spirits (new customers only) here. Today’s show is sponsored by ClearBridge Investments. International and emerging market stocks […]

4 mins read

Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Dangerous New Mideast Alliances

Recent reports of preliminary negotiations for a military alliance of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan raise underappreciated risks. Similar concerns arise from Israel’s growing security cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and its reported engagement with Somaliland, developments that have sharpened regional rivalries and prompted countervailing alignment efforts by Somalia involving Saudi Arabia and Egypt. […]

8 mins read

Bitcoin traders are dumping billions into insurance in case the price drops to $75k as June options expiry creates a high-stakes price trap

Bitcoin’s June 26 options expiry provides a clean snapshot of how risk is being framed several months out, and the picture that emerges is one of deliberate insurance. Total open interest for the expiry sits near $3.92 billion in notional terms as of Jan. 20, with puts outnumbering calls at roughly 23.28K versus 19.87K contracts. […]

5 mins read

Talk Your Book: Structured Notes in an ETF

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1 min read

Crypto markets experience $864M in liquidations in 24 hours

Key Takeaways Crypto markets experienced over $864 million in liquidations within 24 hours, affecting more than 241,000 traders. Bitcoin and Ethereum were heavily impacted, with $229 million and $153 million in liquidations, respectively. Share this article Crypto markets experienced sharp volatility in the last 24 hours, with liquidations exceeding $864 million, according to CoinGlass. The […]

1 min read

Ethereum may finally kill “trust me” wallets in 2026, and Vitalik says the fix is already shipping

Vitalik Buterin framed 2026 as the year Ethereum reverses a decade of convenience-first compromises. His thesis: the protocol stayed trustless, but the defaults drifted. Wallets outsourced verification to centralized RPCs. Decentralized applications became server-dependent behemoths that leak user data to dozens of endpoints. Block building is concentrated in the hands of a few sophisticated actors. […]

11 mins read