Our 2024 stock picks

Katie Martin (0:06)

Pushkin. One thing that happens a lot if you write about financial markets for a living is that people ask, ooh, what stock should I buy? Have you got any tips? And when people ask me that, I always say no, which my husband says is very boring of me. Now, there's a couple of reasons I say no. One is that if a tip comes from non-public information, then it's unethical and probably illegal. So it sounds bad. I don't intend to test that theory.

Robert Armstrong (0:34)

I'll visit you in jail, Katie. You don't have to worry about that.

Katie Martin (0:38)

The other reason, well, listen on. As a teaser, I will tell you, you seriously do not want to listen to my stock picking ideas. This is Unhedged, the markets and finance podcast from the Financial Times and Pushkin. And while everyone else is talking Trump, Trump, Trump, we have a little palate cleanser for you. We're going to pass all this Trump stuff at a later date very shortly. I'm Katie Martin, a markets columnist and huge idiot here at the FT in London. And I'm joined by my usual co-pilot, His Excellency, Mr. Robert Armstrong, from the Unhedged newsletter in New York. Rob, say hello.

Robert Armstrong (1:14)

Katie, I would have described you as like a medium-sized idiot. I think you're selling yourself short.

Katie Martin (1:23)

Then also, Rob and I are joined by an Unhedged podcast newbie, our very own UK news editor, Kadhim Shubber, who usually concerns himself with the ins and outs of UK politics and policy, but today, he joins us as a super genius markets guru. Kadhim, welcome to the show. We are truly not worthy.

Kadhim Shubber (1:42)

I am very excited to be here to have my victory lap.

Katie Martin (1:48)

Right then, if you're listening, you're probably wondering what on earth we're all talking about. So every year, the FT's money section, which is all about how to manage your money, unsurprisingly, runs a stock picking competition. It's just a bit of fun. It's fun. It's not serious. You should definitely not take it seriously if someone does really, really, really, really, really badly in it. So you pick five stocks and you bet on them or against them. Your bets stay the same all year and at the end, you see who's done the best. And it started off as a bit of a kind of little jokey thing between people at the FT. And then it became like a big thing that readers can play. And this weekend, the results for 2024 will be out.

And so, listeners, you're getting a sneaky early steer on the results. Kadhim over here had-

Kadhim Shubber (2:36)

Winner.

Katie Martin (2:37)

Winner, winner.

Kadhim Shubber (2:38)

Two years running.

Robert Armstrong (2:39)

Did he win of all entries or just the FT?

Kadhim Shubber (2:42)

No, just at the FT.

Robert Armstrong (2:43)

He's the FT winner two years in a row.

Kadhim Shubber (2:46)

I'm the best FT journalist.

Katie Martin (2:48)

Yeah, all right, Kadhim, reel it in. So first of all, the best FT journalist two years in a row. Although there was someone from commercial FT apparently who beat you this year, so ninky, ninky, nurner.

Kadhim Shubber (2:58)

Oh, really?

Katie Martin (2:59)

But twice in a row out of FT editorials not to be sniffed at.

Robert Armstrong (3:04)

I cannot wait to hear what Kadhim's theory is, how it works, what his process is.

Katie Martin (3:09)

He was 12th in the competition overall out of something like 1,364 people.

Kadhim Shubber (3:17)

Pretty good.

Katie Martin (3:17)

Kadhim, the floor is yours. Please tell us how you managed to be so clever.

Kadhim Shubber (3:22)

So have you heard of a little thing called crypto? Turns out, it's a great, great buy. Last year, I went long crypto. When I came first among FT journalists, they asked me, what are you going to do next year? I said, I'm going long crypto again.

Robert Armstrong (3:40)

But you can't just buy Bitcoin. What particular vehicles did you use?

Kadhim Shubber (3:46)

Last year, I went mining stocks. When I was asked, are you going to do this again? I said, yes. And it was written up very snarkily as he claims he will do the same strategy for the second year in a row. But I did. So this year, I went to Bitcoin mining stocks, Marathon and Riot. Admittedly, they did not do that well. But then I went Coinbase. Boom, that did great. I went MicroStrategy, which went all the way to the moon. And then I had a little AI amuse-bouche with Nvidia.