'The Walrus' Is Coming for Mark Zuckerberg

'The Walrus' is coming for Mark Zuckerberg... 'The biggest fight ever in the history of the world'... It's all about business, of course... Reporting live from the annual VALUEx Vail conference... ChatGPT's attempt 'in the style of Dan Ferris'... Finding value in the banking sector... One of the greatest things about this event... [Stansberry Research Logo] Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999 [Stansberry Digest] 'The Walrus' is coming for Mark Zuckerberg... 'The biggest fight ever in the history of the world'... It's all about business, of course... Reporting live from the annual VALUEx Vail conference... ChatGPT's attempt 'in the style of Dan Ferris'... Finding value in the banking sector... One of the greatest things about this event... --------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Zuckerberg better watch out for 'The Walrus'... I (Dan Ferris) am on assignment at a value-investing conference this week. It's a gathering of folks who make a living from finding the market's best deals. And yet, even here, [the newest "new era" investment mania of artificial intelligence ("AI")]( came up. We can't avoid AI anywhere these days. I'll get to all the details in today's Digest. You'll see how we put generative-AI platform ChatGPT to the test. And let's just say that I don't need to worry about losing my job yet. But first, we need to talk about the biggest news of the week... Zuckerberg accepted a challenge to fight Elon Musk in a "cage match." Yes, you read that right. On Tuesday, Musk issued a challenge on his social media website Twitter... In case you're not familiar, "lol" stands for "laughing out loud." So it seems like Musk might have been joking. But it's 2023. And in our news-travels-fast world, it didn't take long for Zuckerberg to respond... The next day, the Meta Platforms co-founder and CEO posted a "story" on Instagram – one of the social media platforms he owns. In the message, he said, "Send me location." At that point, Musk wasn't backing down from the challenge. He replied again on Twitter... Vegas Octagon... I have this great move that I call "The Walrus", where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing Quick, someone get UFC president Dana White on the phone... Oh, wait. Someone already did do that. White told TMZ Sports that he spoke to both Zuckerberg and Musk – and they're "deadly serious" about meeting in UFC's Octagon. Here's what he told the media outlet... This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that's ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. You don't have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it. White also noted that both billionaires have fighting experience. Zuckerberg practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu, while Musk has done martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu as well. So maybe this fight isn't as far-fetched as I first thought. Before this week, it sounded like a clever joke. When presented with any doubtful scenario in life, you could've said, "That's about as likely as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg fighting a cage match in the Octagon!" You can't say that anymore. It seems like it might actually happen. Still, a Reuters report expressed doubts... The odds that such a fight will really take place appear slim, though. The two CEOs have a history of drawing attention to themselves: In 2021, Zuckerberg rode a motorized surfboard while waving an American flag; Musk has generated headlines with his controversial tweets. Two attention-seeking billionaires with nothing better to do. Who would've thought that? Speaking of odds, Owain Flanders of VegasSlotsOnline.com believes Musk's training for space flights and "notorious work ethic" give him an edge in the potential fight. He puts the odds at 3-to-2 in Musk's favor. Perhaps you'd like to know how two grown men could get so carried away... Well, it's all about business, of course. Joking or not, Musk made the initial cage-match challenge in response to an article about the launch of Meta Platforms' new Threads product. It's viewed as competition for Twitter. In most cases, I believe the widely used incumbent product can resist competition. But I'm not going to make any guesses today about whether or not Threads will unseat Twitter. I'm too scared of The Walrus. A recent Fortune article pointed out that several 'celebrity fights' have started on social media... I've never heard of most of the people mentioned. But YouTube star Jake Paul supposedly made $30 million from his most recent fight in February – even though he lost for the first time to British boxer and social media influencer Tommy Fury. So maybe Reuters is right. Perhaps it's just one giant publicity stunt that both men believe they could benefit from. After all, as the saying goes, "All publicity is good publicity." And here I am talking about it. I couldn't avoid it. It's so bizarre that it's perfect Friday Digest fodder. Plus, keep in mind... These two guys run companies with more than $1.5 trillion in market value combined (Tesla and Meta Platforms). So who knows how investors will react to this kind of stunt. It makes me wonder... Will Musk's instigation of the cage match matter at all to would-be Tesla buyers? Will Zuckerberg's willingness to fight bother Facebook and Instagram users? And what if Musk actually uses The Walrus on Zuckerberg? If nothing else, I can already hear the wailing about "toxic masculinity" and the glorification of violence. But that's enough about the potential "biggest fight ever in the history of the world." I'm actually inundated with dozens of new investing ideas – as I am every year at this time. So before you begin your weekend, let me tell you a little bit more about that... As I said earlier, I'm reporting this week from the Rocky Mountains in Vail, Colorado... I'm here for the annual VALUEx Vail conference. It's a 40-person, invitation-only event in which everyone is expected to contribute. No one can just hide in the back of the room. Each year, about half of the attendees make formal presentations. The rest of us wind up chiming in here and there on various topics throughout the three days. Investor, friend, and four-time Stansberry Investor Hour podcast guest Vitaliy Katsenelson organizes the event each year. (You can hear our most recent interview [right here]( All the attendees have breakfast as a group, do fun things during the day, then get together for a few hours' worth of presentations in the early evening. Then, we eat dinner, listen to another presenter or two, and call it a night (or head to a nearby bar). The casual atmosphere leads to a constant exchange of ideas. For example, everybody took turns at one point yesterday talking about how they use AI products like ChatGPT... Regular Digest readers know I've tested it before. I told the group at VALUEx Vail that I've found little use for it – except as a search engine that writes its results in prose. I also asked ChatGPT if it had ever heard of me... Yes, it has. It described me as the editor of Extreme Value, co-host (with Corey McLaughlin) of the Stansberry Investor Hour podcast, and all the ways Digest readers already know me. Then came the moment of truth, when I would find out if I was about to lose my job... I asked ChatGPT to write an investment recommendation "in the style of Dan Ferris." It quickly spit out a general suggestion to invest in renewable-energy technologies. Regular readers know that doesn't fit into my current strategy at all. I'm still an oil and gas guy. We're not going to get away from those essential products in this world any time soon. Even worse, ChatGPT's writing was stilted and about what you'd expect from a machine. Well, so much for that. My job is safe for now. I'm not worried about an AI bot yet. Another attendee suggested that AI could be like Lotus 1-2-3, the original spreadsheet software... He talked about how everyone feared that Lotus 1-2-3 would put half the finance industry out of work. But of course, that didn't happen... Lotus 1-2-3 (and later, Microsoft Excel) actually made finance professionals more productive. After all, that's what often happens with technological breakthroughs. A third attendee compared ChatGPT with another computer-related technology. He said he heard more people lost money due to the invention of the laser printer than anything else. We all had puzzled looks on our faces. He continued on about dot matrix printers. You might recall that their output wasn't easy to read. But then, in the 1980s, laser printers revolutionized the printing game... Suddenly, anything could be printed in a highly attractive and more readable font. Then, the attendee reasoned, folks started believing the numbers and data more than they believed them before – when they were just a bunch of dots. And it happened simply because everything was more attractive and easier to read. In other words, intentional or not, humans like us put a lot of emphasis on appearance. By making numbers and other data better looking, laser printers also made us more gullible when it came to analyzing them. But just because it looks good doesn't mean it's all good. As this shift happened, (mostly institutional) investors started trusting financial data more because it looked better. However, healthy skepticism about all published data is an essential trait of any good investment analyst. I don't know if the attendee who told this story is right or not, of course. As far as I know, nobody has studied the full effect of laser-printed reports on investment returns. But whether he's right or not, his comments are full of wisdom. His analysis demonstrated a great understanding of human nature – appearance matters to a lot of people. So while I chuckled at the attendee's story, I also nodded my head as he tied AI into it... In short, he suggested that AI might generate the same effect. A lot of folks might treat its output as gospel because it's so easy to ask a question and get a detailed, well-written response. But that doesn't mean every response is good or accurate. I hope the majority of folks don't start treating ChatGPT as gospel any time soon. That's because at least a dozen folks who spoke up yesterday talked about the extremely low quality of its output... One investor said he read some ChatGPT output, then asked it, "Are you sure?" ChatGPT responded, "No, I'm not sure. In fact, I was wrong. I made a mistake." Look, generative-AI platforms like ChatGPT could revolutionize the world one day. They could make things a lot easier – just like Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Excel, and laser printers. But I'm not worried about ChatGPT taking over too many existing jobs in the near future. The most interesting and potentially productive way I heard about using AI yesterday was to analyze companies' conference calls... A couple of folks said they fed conference-call transcripts into ChatGPT (or Google's Bard). Then, they asked it how the CEO had changed his views over the past several months. That seems like a quick, efficient way to make things more productive – if it gives you a correct answer. But AI could also be steering you toward losses if it doesn't give you the correct answer. It's always exciting to be in a roomful of smart, value-oriented contrarians... The banking sector got clobbered earlier this year. [And three major U.S. banks failed](. So it makes sense that financial stocks dominated the presentation lineup at VALUEx Vail this year. When a crisis happens and share prices suffer, a good contrarian looks around and says, "I know some great company out there is getting unfairly punished along with all the others, and I'm going to find it." That's what a bunch of folks did this week... They know that many well-run banks' share prices were beaten down alongside the other banks in recent months. But ultimately, those well-run banks will do well in the long term. Buying those well-run banks when there's "blood in the streets" is an excellent idea. It's what a good value investor should do. It's what any rational long-term investor should do. Heck, Enrique Abeyta from our corporate affiliate Empire Financial Research says he's not a value investor at all. But even he told me in a recent interview that he's currently making a huge bet on regional banks. It doesn't take a dyed-in-the-wool value investor to see value in that space today. One of my favorite speakers was former Bridgewater Associates analyst and author Paul Podolsky... Podolsky gave an interesting talk after dinner Wednesday night. He said he worked closely with Ray Dalio at Bridgewater. And he shared a story about Dalio's herculean work ethic... Many years ago, when Podolsky was a young, ambitious analyst, the two men took a flight back from Asia. Podolsky was exhausted. All he wanted to do was sleep. But he was seated next to Dalio. And Dalio wasn't sleeping. He spent four hours writing a stack of Christmas cards. And Podolsky said Dalio didn't just write a few words. He filled each card with text – inside and outside, front and back. Podolsky said Dalio is always studying deeply and always takes four to five books with him when he travels. That's just what you would expect from the man at the top of the world's biggest hedge fund (with something like $150 billion under management). Dalio is also intensely curious about how the world works. And he's capable of switching from a macro view encompassing hundreds of years of history one minute to the intricate details of a particular investment the next. Most people do one or the other well, not both. Bridgewater folks tend to be very well-informed macro investors – and Podolsky didn't disappoint... For example, he spoke at length about China. Podolsky asked us not to repeat some of his comments because he still has some ties to Bridgewater. The firm does some business with China. And Chinese politicians are touchy. Overall, though, Podolsky believes we should think similarly about China and Russia... In both countries, one guy is running the show – Xi Jinping in China and Vladimir Putin in Russia. And both of them will likely remain in charge until they die. Everything flows downward from that one unalterable fact. Xi and Putin will get what they want – whether it's good for their country economically or not. I'll leave you this week with one of the greatest things about VALUEx Vail... It pays dividends even after the event itself is over. For example, four of this year's attendees have already agreed to appear on the Stansberry Investor Hour podcast (including Podolsky). So be on the lookout for those interviews in the months ahead. If you don't already get our podcast e-mails, [sign up for FREE right here](. And in past years, I've found excellent investment ideas at VALUEx Vail as well... One of them was Starbucks (SBUX). My colleague Mike Barrett and I recommended the coffee giant to our Extreme Value subscribers in August 2018. And about four years later, we booked a 50% profit. Our Extreme Value subscribers will likely soon reap the benefits of my attendance at VALUEx Vail this year as well. Mike and I have already kicked around a few ideas. Speaking of sharing valuable investing ideas at conferences... The 21st annual Stansberry Research Conference & Alliance Meeting is fast approaching. This year, we're returning to the Encore at Wynn resort in Las Vegas from October 16 to 18. Like VALUEx Vail, it's a gathering of some of the brightest minds in finance and beyond... You'll hear from me at this year's event. As always, many of your other favorites from Stansberry Research will also speak – like Doc Eifrig, Eric Wade, Greg Diamond, and more. And of course, our all-star lineup includes folks from outside our business as well. For example, former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong is scheduled to appear at the event. Tickets are already selling fast. But I'd love for you to join us. And I think you'll see that it's worth it if you do... As we do every year, we shared dozens of stock recommendations on stage during the multiday event in 2022. And many of them went on to shoot higher in the ensuing months. For example, Stansberry Venture Value editor Bryan Beach talked about a small health care payments company. It went on to soar as much as 90% following last year's conference. Put simply, it pays to be in the room to hear what our editors and guest speakers say. And for a limited time, you'll get a $1,000 gift when you claim your ticket. [Learn more here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Links: # [NEW: Beginning July 1, the U.S. Dollar Is 'Going Crypto']( The U.S. government will take the first step toward creating its own cryptocurrency by releasing a new financial system called FedNow. If you get positioned BEFORE the release in July, you could make 3,050% on the U.S. dollar's biggest innovation in 51 years. [Click here for the full details (including a free recommendation)](. --------------------------------------------------------------- # [The FDA Could Approve the Most Important Drug of Our Lifetime on June 26]( As soon as June 26, an FDA announcement could enable ONE company to dominate an emerging health market set to grow 842% while treating more than 70 diseases. This is the kind of rare moneymaking situation we've seen turn a $10,000 stake into $75,800 in just four years. [The full story is exposed here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- New 52-week highs (as of 6/22/23): Apple (AAPL), Copart (CPRT), D.R. Horton (DHI), Dice Therapeutics (DICE), Eli Lilly (LLY), Meta Platforms (META), McCormick (MKC), MasTec (MTZ), NVR (NVR), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), PulteGroup (PHM), Roper Technologies (ROP), Vericel (VCEL), Verisk Analytics (VRSK), and Zimmer Biomet (ZBH). In today's mailbag, a thought about [yesterday's Digest]( on rising interest rates in the U.S. and around the world... plus a "real world" observation about the economy. Do you have a comment? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com. We also still want to hear your questions for a special Stansberry Investor Hour podcast mailbag episode. Corey and I are recording the episode on Monday. If you have any specific questions you'd like us to answer, send them over the weekend to feedback@investorhour.com. "Geez, to try to make forecasts on rates controlled by idiots at an institution that should not exist is a bigger challenge than I'd ever try to muster." – Paid-up subscriber David C. "Those of us who are fortunate enough to read your emails should count ourselves lucky or blessed if you're so inclined... "I caught a headline on Bloomberg recently about 'Greedflation,' which is unfortunately accurate. When gold no longer acts as an inflation hedge, it's a warning. I found it interesting that Doc & Co. calls it a 'Chaos Hedge' instead. It seems we're on the path towards chaos... "It seems that the S&P has come back to its exact level prior to [its] rally which began last fall just to face the exact same headwinds we were facing last year. Unfortunately, our starting point now is with interest rates in the 5.5% range. "Inflation is still raging, which will give central banks the green light to keep raising rates. In response, higher rates are now becoming a driver of higher prices, which is certainly not solving the inflation problem." – Paid-up subscriber Rodger G. "Just an observation on inflation that struck me recently in the grocery store. I don't consider myself badly off, but I stopped buying the 'name brand' milk some time ago as it is running over $6 a gallon (and my kids drink a LOT) vs. about $3.50 for the 'store brand.' "Two days ago, I went to get another gallon and they were completely out of the store brand but the name brand was fully stocked. This was the first time I've seen this. "If families can't or are unwilling to spend the extra money for MILK, it seems to me something has got to break with the average consumer spending, and probably sooner rather than later." – Paid-up subscriber Geoff B. Good investing, Dan Ferris Vail, Colorado June 23, 2023 --------------------------------------------------------------- Stansberry Research Top 10 Open Recommendations Top 10 highest-returning open positions across all Stansberry Research portfolios Stock Buy Date Return Publication Analyst MSFT Microsoft 11/11/10 1,235.4% Retirement Millionaire Doc MSFT Microsoft 02/10/12 1,066.4% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter ADP Automatic Data 10/09/08 795.6% Extreme Value Ferris wstETH Wrapped Staked Ethereum 02/21/20 634.1% Stansberry Innovations Report Wade HSY Hershey 12/07/07 630.5% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter WRB W.R. Berkley 03/16/12 513.2% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway 04/01/09 497.4% Retirement Millionaire Doc AFG American Financial 10/12/12 401.1% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter TTD The Trade Desk 10/17/19 322.7% Stansberry Innovations Report Engel FSMEX Fidelity Sel Med 09/03/08 317.3% Retirement Millionaire Doc Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any Stansberry Research publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio. --------------------------------------------------------------- Top 10 Totals 4 Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter 3 Retirement Millionaire Doc 2 Stansberry Innovations Report Engel/Wade 1 Extreme Value Ferris --------------------------------------------------------------- Top 5 Crypto Capital Open Recommendations Top 5 highest-returning open positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolio Stock Buy Date Return Publication Analyst wstETH Wrapped Staked Ethereum 12/07/18 1,500.1% Crypto Capital Wade ONE-USD Harmony 12/16/19 1,072.8% Crypto Capital Wade POLY/USD Polymath 05/19/20 1,023.8% Crypto Capital Wade MATIC/USD Polygon 02/25/21 797.0% Crypto Capital Wade BTC/USD Bitcoin 11/27/18 696.1% Crypto Capital Wade Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 5 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the Crypto Capital model portfolio. The buy date reflects when the recommendation was made, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if it's still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber and refer to the most recent portfolio. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stansberry Research Hall of Fame Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all Stansberry portfolios Investment Symbol Duration Gain Publication Analyst Nvidia^* NVDA 5.96 years 1,466% Venture Tech. Lashmet Band Protocol crypto 0.32 years 1,169% Crypto Capital Wade Terra crypto 0.41 years 1,164% Crypto Capital Wade Inovio Pharma.^ INO 1.01 years 1,139% Venture Tech. Lashmet Seabridge Gold^ SA 4.20 years 995% Sjug Conf. Sjuggerud Frontier crypto 0.08 years 978% Crypto Capital Wade Binance Coin crypto 1.78 years 963% Crypto Capital Wade Nvidia^* NVDA 4.12 years 777% Venture Tech. Lashmet Intellia Therapeutics NTLA 1.95 years 775% Amer. Moonshots Root Rite Aid 8.5% bond 4.97 years 773% True Income Williams ^ These gains occurred with a partial position in the respective stocks. * The two partial positions in Nvidia were part of a single recommendation. Editor Dave Lashmet closed the first leg of the position in November 2016 for a gain of about 108%. Then, he closed the second leg in July 2020 for a 777% return. And finally, in May 2022, he booked a 1,466% return on the final leg. Subscribers who followed his advice on Nvidia could've recorded a total weighted average gain of more than 600%. You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to Stansberry Digest. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from Stansberry Digest [click here](. Published by Stansberry Research. You’re receiving this e-mail at {EMAIL}. Stansberry Research welcomes comments or suggestions at feedback@stansberryresearch.com. This address is for feedback only. 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