The Grant Williams Podcast Ep. 127 - Rick Rule FULL EPISODE

**Grant Williams** (0:10)
Before we get going, here's the bit where I remind you that nothing we discuss should be considered as investment advice. This conversation is for informational and hopefully entertainment purposes only. So while we hope you find it both informative and entertaining, please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor before putting a dime of your money into these crazy markets. And now on with the show.
Welcome, everybody, to another edition of The Grant Williams Podcast. Joining me in a moment, my dear friend, the great Rick Rule. I'm looking forward to seeing Rick at his conference, which is coming up. We will talk about that for sure. If you're not already registered for that, and you're interested remotely in the commodity space, I cannot endorse this conference highly enough. It is a spectacular event every year, and I suspect this year it's gonna be even more so. It's a sold out event, but you can still sign up for virtual admission. You can do that by going to opportunitytravel.com/rule-symposium. That's a bit of a mouthful, but it will be in the transcript. And as I said, I would urge you, if you can't get there in person, you're not already going, at least take a look at the virtual conference, because there is so much information in that conference, and every company that is worth your time investigating will be there, and a panel of truly great commodity investors headed by the one and only Rick Rule. And we're about to talk to Rick about the conference, about the art, skill and pitfalls of commodity investing, and there really is nobody finer to have this conversation with. So without further ado, here is my conversation with my friend Rick Rule.
Rick Rule, welcome to the podcast, my friend. It is an absolute joy, as always, to see your beaming face. How are you?

**Rick Rule** (2:02)
I'm delighted to be visiting with you. We've had many fine conversations. I look forward to many more, including, of course, Shameless Plug, hosting you in Boca Raton, Florida, July 6th through 10th.

**Grant Williams** (2:13)
Now, it's got a very fancy title these days, the Rule Symposium on Natural Resource Investing, which is a bit of a mouthful, but the conference is so full of fantastic speakers. Every year, this is always the first date in my diary. I always look forward to coming, and I always just hope I get the invite, because I put it in my diary anyway, and I figure, you know what, if he doesn't invite me back, then I'm just going to gate crash anyway. So for people that haven't been, Rick, just give them a little taste of what they can expect, because it's a fantastic conference every year.

**Rick Rule** (2:36)
Well, sadly, the first thing that they can expect is that this guy, Grant Williams, outpolls Rick Rule as best speaker at Rick Rule's conference. It's always a disappointment to me, and it's always something that elates the customers. Seriousness, we do a few things better than other people. You know me to be a fairly competitive person. The first thing that we do is we have absolutely superb macro commentators, including Grant Williams, not people who give you the world view of the BBC or Fox, but rather people who propose an alternative world view that, in my last 50 years on earth, has proven to be more right than wrong.
Typical of that would be last year's feature guest, David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Reagan, telling our audience specifically why Doge would fail and what the consequences of that would be. A macro guy who spoke from the belly of the beast. He had been the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He knew how politics derailed the budget. That's what we try to do. Nomi Brins talking about the corrupt nature of Wall Street, not as a journalist, but rather as a former partner at Goldman Sachs.
Daniela DiMartino Booth talking about how the Fed works because she'd been a researcher for the Fed. That's what we try to do. We try to bring people who have been players, yourself, a trader. You can talk about the guts of big banks because you lived in the guts of a big bank.

**Grant Williams** (4:01)
Sadly. Too long.

**Rick Rule** (4:03)
It's important that our macro speakers speak literally from the belly of the beast. We proceed from there to analysts and portfolio managers who are industry veterans. First of all, not veterans of other industries. I don't want a supermarket analyst telling my people how to buy oil stocks. But I also don't want a newsletter writer who has built his or her reputation in 18 months of a bull market. I want an Adrian Day or a John Hathaway who has been making money consistently for four or five decades through Good Markets Are Bad. A person who is able to call company CEOs because he or she has known them for three decades, that's important. I don't mind if the person is young, but I don't want someone wet behind the ears pup.