While agricultural markets face challenges such as weather, variability, geopolitical issues, trade disruptions, and supply chain concerns.
Currently prices for corn and soybeans are near production costs with historical data suggesting a limiting downside and potential upside.
Now Ag has also historically offered diversification benefits during periods of stock market volatility.
And of course crypto.
Recent regulatory developments from the SEC and CFTC have clarified the landscape, but the full impact of blockchain tech and crypto on global finance remains uncertain.
While joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange is Sal Gorde, who's the CEO of T2gram Trading, and focuses on all assets, including a commodities and crypto.
Sal, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you, Remy.
Good to be here.
Well, I think if we look back to the beginning of 2025, we saw so much volatility, and this is based on a lot of uncertainty, but when it comes to diversification, how do ags fit into the picture?
Ags Really good diversifier because people eat no matter what, so they don't care what the iPhone is.
They don't care who the president is.
They don't care what the economy is even doing.
So the demand for eggs is very steady and their supply and demand fundamentals are very unique to eggs.
It either rains or it doesn't.
Basically.
Farmers, all farmers are subsidized and so there's usually plenty of production.
The only thing that can stop that is a lack of rain.
And when that happens, people still eat their bagels here in New York and the price goes up.
And so.
You see the price of agriculture going down towards its cost of production, it tends to be a good portfolio stabilizer.
People add it, corn, for example, I think in the last 8 times that the S&P 500 has pulled back 10% or more, corn markets very specifically outperformed the S&P 500.
So that's that's a good diversifier.
Yeah, and so you bring up an important point of course humans do need to eat, but when we think about agricultural production, there are some challenges. as well as some uncertainty.
So when it comes to portfolio allocation as well as exposure, what is your take on this for investors who are watching right now?
Sure, I think investors should watch the charts and when they see agricultural prices at chart points that are historically low and they start moving sideways, that's generally a good time to allocate because your downside is very limited.
The farmer simply won't plant anymore if you're at break even and so you have a.
Do have a limited downside, and when it doesn't rain 3 times in the last 17 years again, the price of corn, using that as an example, has doubled from the same price, basically between $350.04 dollars a bushel where it is now, where it is right now, yeah, and you're here on this Wednesday and we have about a week to go until the Federal Reserve meeting and all of us, not just stateside but also overseas, we're keeping a close eye on what the central bank does and what they will say, but A commodities, give us your take on how they're influenced and what sort of catalysts affect eggs.
I think that the catalyst again is whether we do see some, some temporary disruptions in ant pricing specifically in specific areas like the United States when China and the United States are having dispute and China won't buy.
You'll see the price of soybeans in the United States go down, but that.
It's an opportunity because China still needs to buy soybeans.
They may buy them from Brazil, but if they buy all Brazil's soybeans, then the people who used to buy from Brazil, the China front ran, they have to buy from the United States.
Either way, those soybeans get sold, just not quite in the same time window that you would expect.
Yeah, and when we're thinking about geopolitics as well as what's happening not just here in the US but overseas, we have to continue to monitor those headlines.
But at the same time, we're monitoring what's happening in the nation's capital and that brings me to regulation and crypto.
So that's also an area that you have been getting into as well.
So what do you make of what we're seeing in crypto, not just with the crypto majors?
We're very, very happy with the administration in Washington's stance on crypto.
The the the SEC was very adversarial toward crypto um prior to the Trump administration.
Now there's been a change and that that's really good and more importantly, the CFTC and the The ICC issued a joint statement last week basically saying that they would work together to support the crypto ecostructure, if you will, inside the United States, and that is terrific news that's going to benefit everybody, particularly blockchain development, which which we're all watching because that's going to affect how the financial system operates more smoothly and more efficiently.
Yeah, and we're here at the New York Stock Exchange, and I remember the day back in the beginning of 2024 when the first spot Bitcoin ETF was launched here, and I think you have an interesting story.
Is that correct when it comes to Bitcoin?
How did you first get into this space?
We are a futures company.
We are a derivatives based company.
That's what our And when we saw futures be listed on Bitcoin, we filed for the first futures-based Bitcoin ETF.
We did it on the 33 Act, which is kind of compliment getting the weeds.
Bottom line, the rules changed in between and we ended up not having the first Bitcoin fund, but we did open a Bitcoin fund which we later sold.
Yeah, and right now we are looking at Bitcoin prices above 114, and that is up over 2% today in the session, and we're still off record highs, but do I understand that there's a story about how you could have possibly gotten at a very cheap cost for Bitcoin?
Wow, I don't know that.
Yes, back in the day I had a computer guy when I worked at the bank who said to me there's this Bitcoin thing, and he explained it.
Me and I'm a supply demand person.
I said, Wow, that's a really good idea.
If I give you $100 how many will it buy?
And he said, $400.
It's worth 25 cents.
And I said, Well, explain it to me again, and he explained the whole thing and I said, you know what, I'm going to lose that thumb drive or lose the code, so no, I'm not going to do it.
So heck, it's OK.
Yeah the bridge.
You would have had a pretty penny or pretty bitcoin at prices being elevated the way they are.
I'm not sure I would have held it all that time.
Well, finally, Sal, before I let you go, give us your take on the role that you think crypto will play long term as we're talking about this here at the New York Stock Exchange.
So crypto specifically, I think by and large will be a store of wealth.
It'll be like Bitcoin is digital gold, but I think more importantly, the blockchain, what supports crypto.
That's going to change the industry.
So when you have things like Ripple and you have things like stablecoins, you know, technologies like the Ripple Ledger that are going to move money around, which is what matters here on Wall Street, and you have stablecoins that are going to basically allow people to blockchain everything, meaning once you go on these ledgers.
Things will be instantaneous, so things that happen now in 1 to 3 days will happen instantly or near instantly.
That's going to make Wall Street a lot more efficient.
It's going to free up capital at the banks, and that's going to be good for the economy and Wall Street as a whole.
What's good for Wall Street is what's good for Main Street, so that will be really important.
Crypto is good for them both.
Well, great to have you on the show.
We'll have to have you back so we can do a deeper dive into crypto.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
