The Big Short’s Porter Collins Is Betting on Gold Miners

Trevor Hall (0:05)

Good morning, happy Friday, everybody. Welcome to this week's long form episode on Mining Stock Daily as we get you into the last trading day of the week, into the weekend, and then obviously traveling, most of you up to the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit here in Colorado. The best time of year for us is everybody comes our way. So look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

We're closing out the week with a great conversation with the one and only Porter Collins, value investor, short seller, two-time Olympian, and as what he says on his ex feed, always looking for the next big short. But he talks a lot about diving into the mining and metals sector. Big conversation, also general conversation, what he's seeing in markets right now, specifically following the federate hike this week. So it's great conversation, wonderful opportunity to listen in on your travels to Colorado. Special thank you to Revival Gold, Integra Resources, Equinox Gold, and Visa Silver for their continued support of Mining Stock Daily. I'm looking forward to catching up with all of them next week. Also note, Terrahutton, if you are interested in your online presence and digital format of a site visit, Terrahutton helps make the Invisible investible. They are going to be here in Colorado over the next couple of weeks. If you are interested in learning more about that platform, which is incredible and it's really awesome to see it all work together, shoot me a message or I'm happy to get you in touch with that team over at Terrahutton. The team will be here willing to give you a deep dive into that platform. All right, let's jump into my conversations with the one and only Porter Collins. Have a great weekend.

This might be a first here on Mining Stock Daily. In the many years we've been publishing long form episodes, not only is it a first that we've had Mr. Porter Collins onto the podcast to talk all things macro and how he is approaching markets, but it's also the first time I think we've had somebody whose character has actually been represented in a Hollywood film. So Porter, it's a pleasure to have you on. I mean, obviously you've really embraced this over the last number of years. I mean, your picture on your ex feed is from the film. It seems like you've never shied away from it. You've just used it and accepted it.

Porter Collins (2:29)

Well, thanks for having me. It's a first for me as well. I'm not sure I'm an expert here on your show, but I'm going to have fun with it. Yeah, no, it's been good.

If you go back to the book, not that many people read the book, but everyone sees the movie. Kids these days, almost every high school or college, they're out for TV shows, for classrooms, they're watching the movie. So it's been fun.

Trevor Hall (3:00)

Yeah. I mean, I have seen that film so many times.

Porter Collins (3:06)

And it's 99 percent accurate. So it's great. They did a really good job with it.

Trevor Hall (3:11)

Very good. Well, I'm glad we can really embrace it because I didn't go back and watch the film the entirety in preparation for the interview, but I did go back and watch a few just clips from the film. It's interesting because you guys are formerly from FrontPoint, now SeaWolf Capital.

It's like you're hitting the band back together, and you've done so in the last couple of years.

Porter Collins (3:40)

Well, Vinnie and I have been working together since FrontPoint started, which is 2001 So we've never not been working together since then. Steve, we got on a podcast with Steve the other day, and it's always fun to talk with Steve, because we have such a shared history together, and we think similarly, and at least understand each other similarly, and Danny is always in the mix with it as well.

Danny is our partner with a new sub-stack we have, and so that's been fun.

Trevor Hall (4:18)

Well, the reason I had brought it up, because watching moments in the film, it was obvious that the four of you always pushed each other and provided ideas that maybe Steve didn't always agree with. Actually, it hit home because I'm actually reading, I'm going to pull this up, Annie Duke's Thinking in Bats.

Have you ever read this book?

Porter Collins (4:43)

I have not, but I know of it, yes.

Trevor Hall (4:45)

Yeah. Part of the book is she's talks about forming a group of people that you know do not share one's own bias, and you create better decisions by understanding the other side. It really hit home watching some of those segments in the film and really understanding and seeing you guys actually communicate recently that you did provide a really, you continue to provide a really good platform of pushing back ideas, sharing ideas that maybe others within that group are not necessarily thinking about. But that's incredibly important, especially on a contrarian investor standpoint, to understand the other side of the argument.