Listener Questions

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Ethan Wu (1:00)

On this show, we have been asking for your questions, and you, the listeners, delivered. We got an absolute boatload of questions, way too many to ask them all. But today on the show, we try to answer as many as we possibly can. This is Unhedged, the markets and finance show from the Financial Times and Pushkin. I'm reporter Ethan Wu here in New York. And for this special listener question episode, I am joined today by the host of the FT's excellent narrative finance and business show, Behind the Money, Michele Itzandera.

Michele Itzandera (1:13)

Hey, Ethan, great to be here.

Ethan Wu (1:14)

So Michele and I are going to be co-hosting today, asking questions to our two esteemed Unhedged panelists. That would be markets columnist Katie Martin and US financial commentator Robert Armstrong.

Robert Armstrong (1:26)

Greetings.

Katie Martin (1:27)

I hope we're gonna know the answer to these things because listeners should be aware we haven't been given any cheats here.

Robert Armstrong (1:32)

This could be acutely embarrassing, Katie.

Ethan Wu (1:36)

Well, Rob, for my part, I believe in your collective wisdom. Let's get started. So this first question comes from Joe Yao, who asked a bit of a curve ball.

He says, have you noticed that as the tech chip stocks have been booming, the snack chip stocks have also been booming, namely, Oots, Utts? Do you guys know this company? It's like, Utts?

Robert Armstrong (1:57)

Okay, let me ask Katie. Katie, as a person from the United Kingdom, do you know what an Utts is?

Katie Martin (2:03)

I have precisely zero idea what you're talking about, so this question is 100% one for you.

Robert Armstrong (2:10)

Oots is a very New York-y company that makes salty snacks.

Until hearing this question, I was unaware that it was a publicly traded stock. I thought it was a kind of a regional snack brand here, but they make a very nice potato chip. They make pretzels and things like that.

Michele Itzandera (2:27)

They also make Zapp's potato chips, which is a favorite in New Orleans.

Ethan Wu (2:31)

Oh, right on.

Michele Itzandera (2:32)

Maybe some listeners might know those chips as well.

Robert Armstrong (2:35)

And the idea is that this stock has been going up lately. Is that right?

Ethan Wu (2:38)

Yeah, this UTZ stock since October of 2023, it's up about 56%. So Joe's absolutely right. There is a little bit of a snack chip boom.

Robert Armstrong (2:47)

Okay, is this because people have been listening to the Unhedged podcast and hearing us talk about chips? And so they run out and buy the only pure play chips company they could find, which was UTZ.

Katie Martin (2:59)

You mock Rob Armstrong, but as you are well aware, this literally happens all the time. People mix up company names and buy stocks effectively by accident.

Robert Armstrong (3:10)

Yes, Cisco and Cisco being a classic example from the 2000s.

Katie Martin (3:14)

Fill us in Rob on the Cisco Cisco confusion.

Robert Armstrong (3:16)

Well, there's two companies. One is Cisco and it makes computer networking equipment. It was a super hot stock in the.com boom. And the other is Cisco, a company that supplies restaurants and industrial kitchens with like huge cans of tomato sauce.

And during the heyday of the C Cisco company that makes like routers and what have you, a lot of people by mistake ended up investing in huge cans of tomato sauce, which is hilarious.

Ethan Wu (3:43)

Well, so Rob, money where your mouth is, long uts or short uts?

Robert Armstrong (3:48)

Well, knowing nothing about the stock other than that I like to eat its product. If you owned it from the bottom from, and you're up 50% on a potato chip company, knowing nothing, my totally irresponsible answer to that question is sell.

Ethan Wu (4:02)

High conviction calls here on the Unhedged podcast.

Katie Martin (4:05)

But at the same time, you know what Warren Buffett says, right? Buy stocks that you love. And if you love these salty snacks, stick with them.