Note from Marc: I started on Wall Street in 1966, at the start of a very volatile market. So I probably have a very unique perspective on this year's market compared to some folks. Fact is, I've seen volatility come and go, and still made money for my clients. You can too, as long as you always know where the opportunity is. My friend Rob Spivey at Altimetry – our corporate affiliate – understands this on a deep level. He cut his teeth at an elite hedge fund in 2008, where he specialized in a very special investing strategy that had his wealthy clients clamoring for him any time the market got volatile. It's a strategy he's now recommending every Main Street investor know about for the foreseeable future. Please see below for details...
A Unicorn of InvestingRob Spivey here, director of research at Altimetry. I've made a lot of money investing in stocks. And I've shown thousands of our readers how to do the same. But few people know that I spent 15-plus years mastering another investing strategy that made a lot of money for my wealthy institutional clients, especially in volatile markets (much like we're seeing today). This strategy is straightforward (no options, no hedging, nothing like that)... and dependable. And for many reasons you're about to discover, I suspect it's going to crush the returns of many stocks over the next few years (at least). (By the end of this video, you'll not only understand why, but probably be rushing to tell your friends and relatives.) In this e-mail, I'm going to explain why... You see, a massive crisis has started to unfold in America's credit markets. Don't let the fancy terminology throw you – "credit" and "debt" are the same thing. It just means borrowed money, and our economy and country grind to a halt without it. This credit crisis has been brewing for years... Fueled by reckless borrowing and near-zero interest rates... and accelerated by the tidal wave of borrowing to keep households and businesses afloat during the early days of COVID. (Please don't think a few rate cuts can fix this. This problem has ballooned beyond the Fed's control.) We're seeing the ramifications everywhere right now... Record debt levels, for one. Credit cards, auto loans, you name it. In the last year, 1 out of almost every 10 credit card balances has now gone into delinquency. If you're like most folks though, you probably aren't thinking about corporations not being able to pay their bills... or what happens when many of them collapse at the same time. But you absolutely should, because when they do, it can trigger a tidal wave of panic across the U.S. economy. (Just like it did in 2008.) Our team has spent the past year closely monitoring a similar storm brewing in the market right now... My Altimetry co-founder Joel Litman (who correctly called 2008 in advance) and I lay out all the proof here. Like 2008, when it happens, it will happen very quickly – popping the bubble of today's "can't lose" bullish sentiment. And there are always warning signs if you're paying attention. You might be seeing a few of them right now... For example, just weeks ago, U.S. corporate bankruptcies soared to new levels – even higher than they did in 2020. Or how about last month, when a $332 million office building in Manhattan sold for just $8.5 million? That's a discount of 97.5% – in one of the most expensive real estate markets on Earth. Stories like this should be a huge warning bell to anyone paying attention – and it doesn't take much for a situation like this to spiral out of control very quickly. A collapse could lead to even more corporate bankruptcies, as companies are unable to either pay or refinance their massive debts at today's higher interest rates. (Even if the Fed cuts more in a few months.) Many companies that don't go bankrupt could see their earnings wiped out by interest expenses, and their stocks will plummet. During this time, bonds may be – by far – one of the best investments in the world. Please, don't let the word "bond" scare you away. I'm not talking about Treasury bonds, or "bond" mutual funds, or ETFs. I'm talking about individual corporate bonds – debt issued by nearly every company in America – which you can buy and sell in your standard brokerage account the same way as stocks. And which, during this crisis, I expect you'll be able to buy for as little as 50 cents on the dollar. Sometimes less. When all the ingredients are right, the result is the chance to double your money (or more) while also collecting annual returns that could be 10%... 15%... even 20% or more along the way. This is the reason we dropped everything to focus on this strategy in our firm's first new research letter in more than three years, called Credit Cashflow Investor. It's a way of investing that has so many built-in advantages that many folks who try it swear by it. Heck, I loved it so much, I decided to specialize in it for over a decade. Keep in mind: Bonds are very different from stocks – they're a form of debt and a legally binding contract. - They represent a legal obligation for the company that issued them to pay you the full value of the bond (usually $1,000) plus interest.
- The company can't change the payment terms... interest... or payout dates without breaking the contract – and having to make the situation right in court.
- In the (rare) case that something "goes wrong," it's called a "default" – and your debt is typically backed by all the company's assets, like its merchandise and real estate. But Joel and I have never recommended a bond that defaulted.
There are so many more advantages that I simply can't name in this note... I explain much more in this presentation. The part I like best? Bond math is simple. It's like a pass-fail test in school. When you own a bond, you only care about one question: Can the company pay its debt? You don't have to care about the company's long-term prospects... its new products... its race with competitors – any of that. You don't have to care what happens to its stock at all... Or to the stock market in general. Which is a pretty great way to feel in a market crisis. Stock analysis can be like "11-dimensional chess." Even in the best conditions, it's a complicated analysis of what share price is a reasonable reflection of a company's future profits, years from now, and how individual investors feel about that. But again, on the contrary, bond analysis is just simple math. Can the company pay us? Even if we make conservative assumptions? Even if the market falls or real estate prices fall or fewer customers walk through its doors? Does it have the money to cover its legally owed debts no matter what? If it does, bond "nerds" like me call it "money-good." We only want to buy bonds that we're sure are money-good. And at Altimetry, we have the tools to know that with near certainty. To know that the bonds we recommend are "money-good" – beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt – even with very, very conservative assumptions. When you can do that, guess what? You have a unicorn of investing. Because at that point... a bond is like a stock whose future price you know for certain. That's why many of the smartest investors in the world do this one type of investing – and nothing else – in every type of market. But soon, it will become not just good – but extraordinary – thanks to the "fire sale" opportunities we'll see in the credit crisis. I've just taught you (nearly) everything you need to know about one of the greatest secrets in all of finance – which is also, personally, my favorite strategy on Earth. And which I've spent most of the last 15 years of my professional life mastering. Now, I'm inviting you to join me... At least today, you can still get full details on the strategy and membership right here. Regards, Rob Spivey
Director of Research, Altimetry | 
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