Money Stuff: The Podcast

Ahead of Midnight Madness 2026, we revisit our May 2025 episode, when Katie and Matt spoke with Ryan Patch and Jon Seale of Great Gotham Challenge about building puzzle hunts for the hedge fund manager who has everything. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and guest co-host Silvia Killingsworth discuss late-summer nostalgia, Susquehanna's 100 Johns Doe, hedging options market making, nervously walking back and forth at the frontier, the economic and/or human extinction benefits of slowing AI training, writing about AI vs. AI writing, psychological liquidity mismatches and putting pensions back into 401(k)s. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and guest host Max Abelson discuss money and power, Kawhi Leonard, independent investigations, the DAT trade, why anyone talks to us, the aesthetic appreciation of finance, Robinhood vs. AMC, meme-stock bazaars, Cede & Co., stock ledgers on the blockchain, Grayson Moorhead Securities, heists of bearer securities, the Apollo premium, geniality league tables and contextually appropriate “oohs.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and guest host Mary Childs discuss CDS gossip, suboptimal mortgage refinancing, cheap options, shopping for savings accounts, billing by the hour, AI and the apprenticeship model, second-price auctions, chandelier bidding, the IVV to VOO pipeline, rich person trades vs. hedge fund trades and how much we all miss Katie. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie talked in March to Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management about his tenders for OBDC II and SREIT, semi-liquid fund liquidity, reflexivity, the lure of permanent capital, private credit NAVs, public vs. private BDC discounts, preserving brand value, volatility laundering, howling at the moon, bowling and, why not, DATs. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and guest co-host Silvia Killingsworth discuss the Situational Awareness situation, record dates, CVRs, and sourcing weird volatility risk from retail customers to sell to hedge funds. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss 351 exchanges, the Gabe Plotkin ETF, the two laws of tax, tax code is not quite law, Gary Gensler’s cell phone, crypto vs. the SEC, the Truth API, nuclear fusion, sports indexes and ETFs of 351 ETFs of ETFs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Katie’s animals’ feelings, sports gambling ETFs, Matt’s SEC comment, active ETF management, South Korean regulatory regrets, perfect distilled margin debt, Strategy’s software business and SpaceX’s stock price. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Katie's baby shower, No Elon ETFs, index preferences, ETFs as performance art, index rebalancing, liquidity provision, averaging into the index, lockup supply vs. index demand, egg manipulation, bird flu and everything-is-securities-fraud lawsuits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss sports, the weather, lobster cake, getting picked off by insider traders, the retail options casino, limiting sharp bettors, sports gambling ETFs, weird ETFs generally, bad vibes at Strategy, Bitcoin leverage and ChatGPT security design. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss summer vacation, SpaceX/Tesla, Elon Musk re-conglomeration, MacroHard, Meta prediction markets, human social behavior, Farmville, AI engagement, base revealed preferences, private credit redemptions, monthly liquidity and BDC arbitrage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss sports, mostly not SpaceX, alien capital markets, blinking, quality of earnings, hedge fund heroes, keeping a stegosaurus in your living room, the Book of Souls, capacity constraints, ruthless self-examination, market structure sickos, the trade-through rule, speed bumps and tokenization. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the pricing of the SpaceX IPO, cash-settled derivatives gambling, S&P’s no-fast-tracking decision, index divergence, active-management benchmarking, SpaceX ESG, federal sports gambling regulation, Matt’s future coaching Little League, market integrity, brawls, everything is an assassination market, Boaz Weinstein’s day in the Supreme Court and not the trade-through rule. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the Knicks, the Jeffrey, hedging sports bets with sports bets, Google selling some stock, net equity issuance, taxes on stock vesting, Andrew Left, how long you have to be short, the decline of activist short selling and not saying dumb stuff in email. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the SpaceX IPO, enterprise AI, Mars colonies, the Elon Musk premium, consternation about indexes, a no-Elon index, closet indexing, price-insensitive IPO demand, unconstrained Elon Musk, Robinhood AI agents, the universal wrapper for trade ideas, invisible transaction costs, the Drug Olympics, 10% of Fernando Tatis Jr., a venture portfolio of minor leaguers, hedging career risk and hitting two grand slams in the same inning. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss GameStop buying (?) eBay, authorized shares, socks, activism, negging, CDOs, CLOs, structured finance innovations, trading private credit, daily pricing, bad ways to own Anthropic stock, suing dentists and human assembly lines. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss financial advisers, a little scooch of private credit, finance book recommendations, call options on time, expected returns, seating charts, rain creating liquidity, E and S vs. G, the church of capital allocation, the market for corporate control and corporate vs. human life cycles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the downsides of home ownership, hedge fund managers who had a somewhat disappointing week, Pershing Square USA, the physics of closed-end funds, publicly listed hedge fund firms, the pod shop business, the psychology of investors in non-traded BDCs, the Avis short squeeze, Section 16 short-swing profits and earnings call body language. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss bringing children to work, the weather in one corner of Charles de Gaulle airport, an infinite surface for market manipulation, bespoke parametric insurance, the Avis Budget short squeeze (maybe), the meme-stock playbook, SpaceX buying Cursor (maybe), SpaceX buying Tesla (maybe???), dual-class stock, robot armies annihilating each other off the shoulder of Orion, the word “gazumping” and the hedge fund hiring market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the weather, NewBird AI, Long Blockchain, floating-strike convertible financing, meme AI diversification, dot AI, the meme ETF, public listing option value, shareholder voting, Exxon’s grudges, comptroller trolling, the horrifying sounds of coffee grading, spot vs. futures commodity quality and banks foreclosing on shrimp to eat it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Satoshi Nakamoto, spotting liars, Katie being a witch, Bill Ackman doing stuff, Universal Music Group, SPARCs, asymmetric derivatives trades, Matt’s dream money management career, doomsday funds, Elon Musk’s big thing, the SpaceX IPO, Grok for bankers, humiliating IPO pitches and some ETF stuff for the ETF fans. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss conferences, baby names, private credit redemption requests, liquidity confusion, private credit inflows, Larry Fink’s annual letter, AI taking all the jobs, universal basic index funds, podcasters and fund managers being displaced by AI, shorting the consumer economy, owning everything, the coming SpaceX IPO, lockups, index fast-tracking, a SpaceX treasury company and Elon Musk no longer being amused by 420. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie talk to Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management about his tenders for OBDC II and SREIT, semi-liquid fund liquidity, reflexivity, the lure of permanent capital, private credit NAVs, public vs. private BDC discounts, preserving brand value, volatility laundering, howling at the moon, bowling and, why not, DATs. You can also watch this episode on YouTube See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss high school quiz bowl, Bill Ackman’s closed-end fund again, the rich history of CEFs trading at a discount, economically attractive places to work, preferred performance fees, private credit vibes, accepting illiquidity for high returns, marking private credit to market, NAV arbitrage, assassination markets, fine print and resistance to innovation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss a legendary lost Money Stuff podcast episode, Paramount buying Warner Bros., rights offerings, LBO risks, deal discipline, breakup fees, BCRED, OBDC II, twisting arms at Blackstone, Credit Suisse toxic asset bonuses, liquidity premiums, short memories, XOVR and SpaceX liquidity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie are on vacation! There will be a new episode of Money Stuff in your feeds on March 6th. In this episode from June 2025, Matt and Katie talk with their guest, Cliff Asness of AQR, about momentum, meme stocks, value, market timing, publishing, academics, explaining factors, how much to charge for alpha, private assets and machine learning. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the SpaceX/xAI merger, the Kardashev scale, Twitter debt, index fast-tracking, people not being worried about SpaceX liquidity, closed-end fund activism, DAT discounts, the Bitcoin crash, Strategy, the week that software died, SaaS private equity, AI disruption and private credit funding stability. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Morgan’s Pub, SpaceX/xAI merger talks, a $1.5 trillion valuation for Twitter, astrology, numerology, the Year of the Horse, Tether’s mountain lair, gold vault tourism, how to make a few more billion dollars, LMEs, law-firm conflicts and investment banking pep talks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the weather, Jamie Dimon’s whereabouts, Guinness latte art at the JPMorgan pub, debanking, memecoin logic, Gas Town, horses as a unit of money, memecoin IP, moonshot pay incentives, 24ish/7ish trading, blockchain blockchain blockchain, and supervising the computers on the cozy night shift. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Beast Industries, immersion in cool liquids, crypto treasury pivots, credit card rate caps, PowerPoint tips and drug trial insider trading. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Wyclef Jean, the backlash against proxy advisers, AI proxy voting, writing proxies for LLMs, things that annoy Jamie Dimon, private equity recruiting, banking loyalty oaths, the long path to private equity, home ownership, housing affordability, brownstones in Hoboken and stock buybacks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt answer listener questions about performative earnings calls, hedge funds as a calling, favorite quotes, proxy advisers, ETF mechanics, sports betting market structure, 10b5-1 plans and the thrill of horse dancing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt do not discuss themes for 2026 but do discuss closing certainty in merger agreements, revocable trusts, personal guarantees, doing deals over the holidays, double-pledging, amortization of past-due subprime auto loans, angling for cooperation agreements, Enron as a role model, nuclear fusion, access to significant capital and leveraged ETF training videos. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the Warner Bros. bidding war, negotiating against yourself, having your dad buy companies for you, Bleenberg, breakup fees, trillion-dollar IPOs, getting in on the third floor, orbiting data centers, tech capex, rocket explosion securities fraud lawsuits, alternative consumer lending and private credit regulation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie discuss corporate holiday parties, shareholder meetings, the Strategy narrative arc, Strategy's dollar reserve, an ouroboros of newsletters, digital asset treasury companies in indexes, the brief beautiful life of Katie's bird, Bill Ackman's closed-end fund plans, CEFs vs. ETFs, Howard Hughes, buffer ETFs and the ETFization of structured notes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an episode from July, Katie and Matt talk with Gappy Paleologo of Balyasny Asset Management about gardening leave, what makes a good quant researcher, factor models, the social function of hedge funds, AI and journalists as portfolio managers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Batman, Labubu binary options, sneaker manipulation, publicly traded private credit, OBDC, OBDC II, private credit marks, Frank's email list, indemnification and cellulite butter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss ASMR, 50-year mortgages, Fannie and Freddie, housing as a positional good, indentured servitude, assumable and/or portable mortgages, Matt’s mortgage rate, optimal exercise of prepayment options, proxy adviser competition, shareholder proposals, good governance, index fund voting, hedge fund talent constraints, gardening leave, the Black Death and the AI Ph.D. pipeline. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss tariffs, skeptical questions, nondelegation, major questions, reimbursement, the Metsera deal, amylin targeting, Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal, alleged fraud at First Brands, factoring due diligence, the blockchain and short memories in the credit market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss Halloween costumes, AI capital spending, hybrid financing, K-cup JVs, investment grade private credit, the metaverse (?!?), the OpenAI reorganization, OpenAI capital needs and governance, Elon Musk’s pay package, Tesla succession and getting cut off at the JPMorgan office pub. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss JPMorgan’s new headquarters, in-office pubs, in-office gyms, the JPMorgan District, specialist fine-tuning of AI models, pls fix memes, crushing investment banking analysts’ hopes and dreams, the craft of building LBO models, credit cockroaches and indirect lending. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss late-cycle credit accidents, dancing while the music plays, banks vs. private credit, the Nobel Peace Prize, institutional-grade prediction markets, 23-hour-a-day stock trading, picking off drunks at 3 a.m., digesting news outside of market hours, windows of liquidity and the rhythm of being a human. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss finance book parties, the ICE/Polymarket deal, understanding and pricing the future, the Grossman-Stiglitz paradox, prediction-market spillovers, sports quants, tokenization, the OpenAI/AMD deal, discounting the AI future, AI pricing power, Cathie Wood’s emotional maturity, the ETF ecosystem and the Midnight Madness puzzle hunt. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie discuss multistrategy hedge funds, talent sieves, agents vs. headhunters, hedge fund managers' sense of their market value, agents for AI researchers, same-game parlays, sportsbook market structure and football betting ETFs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie discuss reader mail about tungsten cubes, monthly financial reporting, long-term levered ETFs, the shrinking public markets, betting on onion prices, betting on stock prices, limiting sharp bets, missing expectations and bonds being stupid. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.