Newsletters

January. 2021

Your Unique Advantage for Finding Multi-Bagger Investment Opportunities

By Enrique Abeyta

Empire Financial Daily,
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Before joining Empire Financial Research in 2019, I spent more than 20 years on Wall Street. Along the way, I grew my first fund from $585,000 to more than $800 million in just four years… made money through the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis, 9/11, you name it. I don’t say […]

The Update Issue: Cameo, Alibaba, and IPOs

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, January 15, 2021
Cameo: It’s not just for birthdays anymore… Cameo – the startup I wrote about in September, which allows you to purchase personalized videos from celebrities – is going corporate. Adweek reports that about 5% of Cameo’s revenues come from small- and medium-sized businesses (“SMBs”), and that this happened organically – without the company marketing specifically […]

My interview; Short report on Triterras; Andrew Left's Citron Capital ends 2020 up 155%; Muddy Waters Pulls Off Big Gains; Get a COVID-19 vaccine ASAP if you qualify

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Friday, January 15, 2021
1) I did a 40-minute interview recently with Siddharth Singhai, CIO of IronHold Capital, for his Leaders in Business and Investing podcast. You can listen to it here or watch the video of it here. In it, we discussed my forthcoming book, The Art of Playing Defense, current events, rational investing, and what it means […]

Six Big Takeaways From 28 Meetings and Presentations

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, January 14, 2021
► I’m back after a few days away attending the virtual ICR conference… In January, strategic communications and advisory firm ICR puts on its big annual event. Historically, the companies in attendance were primarily retailers, restaurant chains, and other consumer firms – reflecting the investor relations customer base of ICR. With the firm’s expansion to […]

Grantham, Kass, and Rocker on a stock market bubble

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Veteran investors Jeremy Grantham of GMO, my friend Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners, and David Rocker, formerly of Rocker Partners, have all argued in recent days (see below) that the stock market is in a bubble that will soon burst. I think they’re right… but just early. 1) Here’s Grantham’s provocative essay: Waiting for the […]

How to Invest Like a Venture Capitalist

By Jeff Brown

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Editor’s note: Today, we’re concluding our guest series as Empire Financial Daily editor Berna Barshay finishes attending the annual ICR Conference in search of investment ideas for our paid newsletters. In this essay, Brownstone Research founder Jeff Brown shares more details behind tonight’s Pre-IPO Code Event… You probably saw the news… 2020 was a big […]

My analyst Kevin DeCamp's views on Tesla's future

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
In my December 29 e-mail, I shared my analyst Kevin DeCamp’s essay on his 100-bagger with Tesla (TSLA). It’s a great story with many important insights, but it didn’t include Kevin’s views on the stock today and what the future holds for the company… so I asked him to write a follow-up essay, which you […]

Here's the Secret to Angel Investing

By Jeff Brown

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Editor’s note: As we mentioned yesterday, Empire Financial Daily editor Berna Barshay is currently attending the annual ICR Conference. So, for the next two days, we’re sharing guest essays from our friend and Brownstone Research founder Jeff Brown, who is super-bullish on an emerging asset class… So you want to be an angel investor… I […]

Why Markets Boomed in a Year of Human Misery; Two Worlds: So Much Prosperity, So Much Skepticism; My dad on hearing aids

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
1) To understand where markets are likely to go from here, it’s critical to understand Why Markets Boomed in a Year of Human Misery, which is also the title of a fascinating recent New York Times article. My colleague Berna Barshay wrote about this in her Empire Financial Daily on Thursday: How the Pandemic Chose […]

Apple's Quiet $100 Billion Business

By Alex Griese

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, January 11, 2021
Editor’s note: This week, Empire Financial Daily editor Berna Barshay is attending the annual ICR Conference in search of potential investment ideas for our paid newsletters. For the next three days, we’ll be featuring guest essays. Today’s comes from Empire Financial Research analyst Alex Griese… When Apple’s (AAPL) AirPods Max over-the-ear headphones dropped last month, […]

We were right on the liberal landslide; Scott Galloway's predictions for 2021; Tiny Changes Can Help You Achieve Savings Goals for Retirement; Home from Kenya

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, January 11, 2021
1) Eight months ago, in my e-mails on May 13 and May 14, I told my readers, “It has become increasingly clear to me that we’re going to see a liberal landslide on November 3.” (Little did I know that it would take until January 6 for it to actually take place!) In mid-September, my […]

IPOs Just Aren't What They Used to Be

By Jeff Brown

Empire Financial Daily,
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Editor’s note: Regular Empire Financial Daily readers are familiar with our friend and colleague Jeff Brown over at Brownstone Research… He has an aeronautical and astronautical engineering background and earned his master’s degree from the London Business School. He’s also an angel investor who has personally invested his own capital in dozens of private deals, […]

The Update Issue: The IPO-Palooza Continues, A Quibi Postmortem

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Friday, January 8, 2021
► Several long-anticipated initial public offerings (‘IPOs’) are scheduled to make their debuts next week… The filings really started flooding in right after the New Year, setting up next week to be a busy one for equity capital markets desks across Wall Street. After delaying its IPO from the fourth quarter, “buy now/pay later” company […]

National COVID data; Joe Golton's comments; Scott Galloway on getting vaccinated; Vaccination data (U.S. vs. world)

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Friday, January 8, 2021
I continue to closely follow the pandemic, sending lengthy e-mails to my coronavirus e-mail list roughly once a week. If you’d like to receive them, simply send a blank e-mail to: [email protected] Below is an excerpt from the e-mail I sent to my readers yesterday (you can read the entire e-mail here)… 1) Here’s the […]

How the Pandemic Chose Its Haves and Have-Nots

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Thursday, January 7, 2021
► Much has been written about the stark contrast between the stock market and the ‘real economy’… The market offered stellar returns in 2020. Meanwhile, the “real economy” saw many people suffer and entire sectors pushed to the brink of complete collapse. In an article on New Year’s Day, the New York Times did a […]

I'm an artist, not an entrepreneur; Thoughts on starting your own business versus working for someone else

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Thursday, January 7, 2021
In the summer of 2018, my investing seminar business, Kase Learning, was struggling. My friend and former partner in the hedge-fund business, Glenn Tongue, and I were teaching great content and getting superb feedback, but we hadn’t figured out the marketing – we just didn’t have enough “butts in seats” to generate a profit. In […]

A Strange Week for Chinese Business Headlines

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
► It started when Yahoo News published an article early Monday morning questioning the whereabouts of Alibaba (BABA) founder Jack Ma… In a story that seemed better suited for a tabloid or perhaps the plot of an evening soap opera, Yahoo highlighted that the founder of the Chinese Internet giant hadn’t been seen in public […]

Don't panic; Update on Empire Financial Research; Berna Barshay's Empire Financial Daily; I was once a speculator; E-mail from a reader; Dancing robots

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
1) Given that Democrats appear to have taken control of the Senate – and therefore both the Executive and Legislative branches of government – many investors are dumping stocks out of concern that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will now be able to pass legislation that they believe will be negative for stocks […]

Checking In on the Airlines

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
► Over the holidays, it felt like my social media feeds were full of people traveling by air… That prompted me to check how much airline usage levels had rebounded. And my hunch was right – air traffic has meaningfully improved since the holiday period began. Looking at Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) checkpoint passenger crossings […]

Freedom Holding: After 'Borat,' the Silliest Kazakh Import of the Century; Would You Pay a 22-Year-Old Stanford Grad to Expose Wrongdoing?; DoorDash: 'The Most Ridiculous IPO of 2020'; My letter from a Zimbabwe jail

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
1) My friend Roddy Boyd at the Foundation for Financial Journalism recently exposed one of the most obvious promotions I’ve seen in quite some time – which has a $3 billion market cap! Freedom Holding: After ‘Borat,’ the Silliest Kazakh Import of the Century. Excerpt: This Las Vegas–incorporated bank and securities brokerage has its principal […]

New Year's Resolutions? There's an App for That

By Berna Barshay

Empire Financial Daily,
Monday, January 4, 2021
► If you’ve struggled to keep your New Year’s resolutions in the past, technology is here to help… As the calendar turns to January, many of us inevitably come up with a list of self-improvement initiatives for the next year. According to data and analytics firm YouGov – which maintains a panel of more than […]

Jack Ma Suspected to Be Missing; 2020 in 12 Stunning Charts; Enrique Abeyta's bullish outlook; Great News Quiz of 2020

By Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson's Daily,
Monday, January 4, 2021
1) Wow, what a reminder about the type of government we’re dealing with in China… Jack Ma Suspected to Be Missing. Excerpt: Mystery has deepened about the whereabouts of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma following reports that the Alibaba founder has not made any public appearance in the last two months… The entire episode is further […]

Four Steps to Take Before Investing in 2021

By Austin Root

Empire Financial Daily,
Saturday, January 2, 2021
Editor’s note: Our friend Austin Root, director of research at our corporate affiliate Stansberry Research, has one of the best resumés in our industry. After getting his MBA from Stanford, he spent decades on Wall Street studying under some of the world’s best investors, including Julian Robertson, Steve Cohen, and George Soros. In today’s essay, […]
Whitney Tilson
Get Whitney Tilson’s Daily delivered straight to your inbox.

About Whitney Tilson

Prior to creating Empire Financial Research, Whitney Tilson founded and ran Kase Capital Management, which managed three value-oriented hedge funds and two mutual funds. Starting out of his bedroom with only $1 million, Tilson grew assets under management to nearly $200 million.

Tilson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1989. After college, he helped Wendy Kopp launch Teach for America and then spent two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he graduated in the top 5% of his class and was named a Baker Scholar.

Click here for the full bio.