Postcards: Why I Sold The Florida Republic

I want to watch my daughter grow up and experience her childhood with her... and I can't do it from five feet away, hovering behind a laptop computer screen. ͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­ Forwarded this email? [Subscribe here]() for more You are a free subscriber to Postcards from the Florida Republic. To upgrade to paid and receive the daily Republic Risk Letter, [subscribe here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Postcards: Why I Sold The Florida Republic]( I want to watch my daughter grow up and experience her childhood with her... and I can't do it from five feet away, hovering behind a laptop computer screen. [Garrett {NAME}]( Jun 1   [READ IN APP](   Dear Fellow Expat: The Florida Republic is a 1.25-acre slab of weeds, mud, and grass in the middle of a Bonita Springs swamp. Atop it sits a 2,390-foot home patched together in the 1990s. When we bought it, multiple rooms weren’t up to code on an attachment to the house. Lisa and I bought this house at the onset of COVID-19, eager to build an above-ground pool so my wife could teach survival swimming to children aged six months to six years. We spent a fortune “inside the walls” on an air conditioner, new water lines, and ventilation. It was a money pit. We had to build a secure pool deck and bring it up to code. My wife still doesn’t have the hardwood floors she wants so badly. At the time, I thought it’d be our forever home, a place Amelia would inherit in a few decades. A place she’d grow up. A place she’d drive away from in 12 years on her way to the University of Florida or, gulp, Florida State. How we’d look back at this 2023 picture… in 2035. Well, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans… On Monday, June 3, the land called The Florida Republic will no longer be mine. I’ve sold this tract and will officially take refuge in Maryland starting in July. This may come as a shock to many. It’s even a shock to me. How can the Editor of the Florida Republic push north to the Mason-Dixon Line? What is his mindset? I’ll tell you… [Upgrade to paid]( To the North There are many reasons for this decision – all personal. My parents are older. I’ve been gone from Maryland for about 80% of my adult life. They left Florida last year, selling their place after about 25 years in Naples. I want to experience more baseball and card games with my father and lunches with my mother. Since she's a tennis fan, we could revisit the US Open in New York sometime soon. I’d like that. My brother lives there. My sister, too. It’d be good to get the band back together. Florida wasn’t a very social place for me, which affected my quality of life. Most of my high school friends still live in the Baltimore area. They all married much earlier than me. Now I can join them for dinner, not as a seventh wheel. Next, I didn’t do well with the local healthcare system, either. I have a slew of issues—spinal matters, arthritic conditions, and the like. Proximity to Johns Hopkins will help because I’m an alum, and the hospital system has been wonderful for my family—especially my daughter when we had a scare after her birth. I also have a new opportunity: arching through Maryland's farmland and working with Marketwise and Porter Stansberry’s team. Plus a chance to expand the European battery company into the United States. The former opportunity humbles me. I hope that the quality and quantity of my writing accelerate in my readers’ favor. I have very good editors… and they’re very blunt. Many great ideas are on the horizon, and I arrive with a much fresher, freer mindset to achieve the vision Porter laid out just a few weeks ago to Marketwise… To make our financial research and our financial tools indispensable for investors, while transforming our customers’ experience to create a passion for our products. When you’re on a new ship, you want a mission to sail. This one speaks well to me. But most of all – I want my daughter to have the best education possible and my wife to have the best teaching opportunities available. We didn’t have that in Lee County. I hope that Baltimore County will provide them over the next 12 years. College is paid for… it’s getting there that was the problem. My daughter’s now in a great school next year. I hope my wife finds one as well. Spending Time With Dags Rather than parking under the lone palm in the Republic backyard (off to the right of the pool in the picture above), I sit to the front near the shell garden my daughter created for our first dog, Dagny, who passed away three years ago near this spot. I sit nearby on a warped plastic chair—the only piece left outside the house—reflecting on this stage of the journey. What began as a literary joke four years ago with the Florida Republic has hopefully elevated into some of the best market commentary you read all day. Postcards from the Florida Republic. Initially, It was a gag column that became a market education piece for my former company’s employees. Only a handful ever read the damn thing - even though I wrote 10 to 15 pages every weekend on macroeconomics and market predictions. What can you do? I’ve decided on one last letter from this specific outpost. Dagny is here somewhere, floating on the occasional breeze, saying hello, a reminder of what is good in life. The second she passed away right here, the breeze picked up instantly, carrying her away. I miss this dog. Letting Go It’s been a difficult last 15 months. I haven’t discussed it much. After inheriting a struggling business where I’d worked for half my career, I stood at the front of the ship as the face of a brand. As that man on the camera, I was the target of much anger when it went sideways. The bullets and cannon fire from every direction were relentless, and it didn’t stop for five months until it was suddenly over. Stupid me, I recently hoped for a small public “thank you” from a few people for whom I took bullets while there—bled their colors every day. But that never came. That’s a shame but not unexpected. I know now… I look at this move home optimistically, hoping, again, this time, it will be different. I can’t have that life-work imbalance I experienced for the last four years. It’s easy to feel like I’ve already missed too much… If I squint toward the sun today, I can still see my then-four-year-old daughter flying down this driveway on her scooter or playing “guard the gate” with a soccer ball during lockdowns… or climbing on what she called her “trick tree” - a tree growing diagonally out of the ground over the carport. “Daddy… watch this…” she’d say. And I did, from a familiar… pointless view - over the screen of this laptop. A knife will make you bleed red, but life seems to carve even deeper, draining out the one commodity that my body can’t replenish: Time. As I pack up the last of this house’s contents, I can’t help but feel like I’m packing up her childhood… trying to box and bottle whatever I can, but many of these memories feel like sand through my fingers. When I found her beach toys in a bag in the garage, I had to sit down for a while… For years… I watched her in this yard while I argued ideas with coworkers that “copper prices would move much higher,” “why liquidity and momentum matter more than ever,” or “how you can build a portfolio that crushes the market with a Casio calculator” (the basis of our Risk Model Portfolio.) I rarely won those pitches… They just knew more about the market, it seemed. During a meeting in Maryland last year, a senior team member, who'd been there for years, said he was excited that we were adding another executive-level editor because we didn’t have anyone who “regularly talks about economics.” Rarely am I left speechless. That was the most recent time it happened. But the man rarely read Postcards… or my CV when I walked in the door. All I could do was laugh… That and have one… or eleventy drinks in response. That’s all I’ll say about that… So, how about a better memory? Memories on the Farm To my right, I see my wife teaching children “survival swimming” in this backyard pool. Then, a week later, she burst into the room to tell me that a client found their child safely floating in a pool after falling in (using the skills Lisa taught him), thus saving his life. I see my daughter and me driving around in a golf cart, only for me to be called back for an emergency broadcast around the Federal Reserve minutes on a Wednesday. I’d miss meetings and sometimes live shows because I chased the dog after Elsie dug under the fence. Amelia and I would go hunt them down… Then Amelia would ask for [clue boxes from Dagny…]( [Oh… the wonder of childhood]( There are so many more. My daughter’s baptism dinner at Molino’s… dinner with my parents at Molino’s… my bachelor party at Molino’s (featuring a two-hour roast of me)… drinks and advice from my father at Molino’s… We ate a lot of pasta and drank a lot of Smirnoff, I guess. Sunsets at Doc’s Beach House… [watching Doc’s rebuild]( after the hurricane… visiting Doc’s one last time on Friday night, with just the wind in the air. And no one will allow us to forget [Thanksgiving with Tim…]( In the end… COVID couldn’t break us here… Hurricane Ian tried. But this is sturdy land, where I hope the new owners, a family, build a wonderful life… So… here I sit – one last time… erasing the bad and remembering the good – just a boy and his ghost dog – looking out and forecasting what comes next. What Else Comes Next? Let’s start with this… Postcards will remain entrenched in my routine, as will Republic Research products. There’s plenty ahead as we thrust our engines up I-95 toward Baltimore. First, Porter and his team handpicked a few special projects for me to handle. Then, a long-awaited trip with my wife and daughter – time to think and enjoy time with two people I love more than my financial research and education career. Then, we're focusing on a macro-product with a structured equity portfolio… and an active investing letter for our Reversion strategy… I’m hoping for an August launch. Plus… more proximity to Washington D.C. and New York City – where I can put all this training to use, look analysts and economists in the eyes, and bring some of the most unique analysis and ideas to our readers. Postcards and Republic Research live on. I’m building with Porter & Company and Marketwise first and foremost, and that won’t change. We’ll do what we’re good at… This is currently a free product… Or… I can hammer the S&P 500. Change of heart. Michael Clayton on the Republic flag… I told you… “[We coming.”]( The funny thing is that I already give away my core strategy, and we’re up 800 basis points on the S&P 500 this year, murdering the weighted average. As of Friday, we were up 18.5% year-to-date, compared to 10. And the other strategy is so obvious that people should be ripping it off and replicating it. Even trying to sell it. This isn’t that complicated… It’s ——— math. You’re Here. I’m leaving this swamp. Moving forward, I’ll be 45 miles from a different Swamp. And if you didn’t know Washington D.C. enough, wait until I start burrowing into it again. No matter what… The Florida Republic represents an idea—a state of mind that none of us should forget, especially in a time when it feels so intrusive, invasive, and utterly extractive. We are the bearers of our fortune and must learn how to properly navigate these markets and the rules set by that Swamp – since no one else is coming to save us. It doesn’t matter what your politics…whom you love…what you worship…what you look like…or where you are… It only matters that you’re here. [Adopt this state of mind]( learn what drives the markets… learn the anomalies that dominate our world… and use all this macro and micro information daily. Focus on yourself… your health… and your wealth. Everything else is a distraction. But, most importantly, when the markets close… go and enjoy your damn life. I don’t know how much taxation I can take in Maryland over the long term. But I do recognize the shrinking window I have with my family—and the opportunities I never had before in my career—now sit north—in the very place where I grew up. The ____ Republic? Should it still be the Florida Republic? Postcards from the Edge? Postcards from the Banana Republic? Postcards from the Brink? I leave that decision to the readership. You can offer your thoughts below. In my conversations with Porter, he’s argued that it remains the same - as have Bill Bonner and Mark Ford - since it embodies not a physical place… but a true state of mind. And that serves me well in a place like Maryland. I’ve been traveling around my hometown in 2024, and I feel like a stranger. Something is refreshing about that fact. All past sins have washed away. All my bias has dissolved. It’s a blank slate in the Old Line state for once. This gives me even more ammunition for what lies ahead and what I can do for this audience and anyone else willing to listen. Pay close attention… A financial storm is coming… and soon enough, it will be time to close the shutters and go inside. Funny [how much you can equate to a Jimmy Buffett song.]( So, I’m heading back to Maryland, where I started as a lacrosse goalie and wound up a market goalie for investors and traders. Here, we’ll always provide honest insight into how the market works and how to defend yourself while knowing the precise times to attack the markets. Here, we discuss liquidity… momentum… insider buying… reversion potential… and major macro trends and opportunities long before they appear in Barrons. I’ll be back in the air tomorrow, and we’ll release our latest pick for the Model Portfolio on Monday. There’s still time to sign up. [Upgrade to paid]( Now… if you’ll excuse me… I have one last goodbye conversation before I drive away… But first… I need a little breeze, Dags. Stay positive, Garrett {NAME} --------------------------------------------------------------- As of Friday, we were up 18.5% year-to-date, compared to 10.2% for the S&P 500. See for yourself. I’ll be over here. We’ll look to continue our performance. On Monday, our new pick arrives. Postcards from the Florida Republic are awesome. Republic Risk is even better. [Upgrade to paid]( Disclaimer Nothing in this email should be considered personalized financial advice. While we may answer your general customer questions, we are not licensed under securities laws to guide your investment situation. Do not consider any communication between you and Florida Republic employees as financial advice. Under company rules, editors and writers cannot recommend their positions. The communication in this letter is for information and educational purposes unless otherwise strictly worded as a recommendation. Model portfolios are tracked to showcase a variety of academic, fundamental, and technical tools, and insight is provided to help readers gain knowledge and experience. Readers should not trade if they cannot handle a loss and should not trade more than they can afford to lose. There are large amounts of risk in the equity markets. Consider consulting with a professional before making decisions with your money.   [Like]( [Comment]( [Restack](   © 2024 Garrett {NAME} 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing]()