AWM Insights Financial and Investment News

In this episode of AWM Insights, Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna trade rapid-fire takes on the week’s headlines—from the astonishing surge of Figma’s IPO to the risks and realities of market speculation. They break down what every athlete and investor should know about protecting wealth in short earning windows, demystify crypto, and tackle common market myths with seasoned perspective. Whether you’re curious about the latest trends or looking for playbook-driven advice to grow your legacy, this discussion offers practical wisdom and timely insights for navigating today’s financial landscape. Tune in for expert opinions, relatable stories, and a fresh take on owning your wealth.

Connect with us

Chapter Outline
(00:00) Rapid-fire market Q&A format
(00:45) Surging IPO market activity
(01:39) Athletes and financial discipline
(03:26) Decoding crypto in plain language
(04:52) Investment myths and realities
(06:51) Interpreting surprising economic data
(08:11) Staying disciplined amid market hype
(09:38) Nuanced stance on crypto assets
(10:55) Opinion versus emotional reaction

What is AWM Insights Financial and Investment News?

A bite sized discussion on timely financial news and investment topics, to help you maximize your net worth and wealth for the next generation with Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna of AWM Capital.

Justin Dyer: Hey everyone, welcome back
to another episode of a WM Insights.

Uh, appreciate you taking
the time to listen in today.

We're gonna try a, a slightly different
format today, mixing it up a little bit.

We will, we'll keep, uh, experimenting
here and, and try new things with

the hope that, uh, that some things
resonate, uh, for you all, but.

We're gonna do kind of a
quick fire round q and a.

Just go back and forth, what's going on
in markets, what are we seeing, what's

our, our quick take, uh, et cetera.

So, uh, without further ado,
let's jump right into it.

Uh, Mina, what's the biggest
market highlight this week?

Alright,

Mena Hanna: some recency, biased, but
I think fig MA's, IPO is the big one.

Figma today was up 250% IPO
today on its first trading day.

Partial trading day, I should say.

It's up 250% in the after
hours, it's up another 25%.

Justin Dyer: and

Mena Hanna: at that scale in totality,
it's up 340% since IPO, which is wild.

Um,

Justin Dyer: yeah,

totally, man.

Yeah.

Which gives me some pause, like some
excitement because it's great to see

IPOs coming, uh, coming back to the
market, uh, after, gosh, a couple

years of very slow, slow, uh, activity.

But it's also.

A crazy valuation, which, which makes
you scratch your head a little bit,

but happy to see it at least today.

Mena Hanna: Happy to see it.

Yeah, we have some exposure in
that, so it's a win, but, but

yeah, pretty, pretty crazy times.

Justin Dyer: Totally.

All right.

Um, financial headline
our listeners cannot miss.

I

Mena Hanna: I think there's been a
lot, especially on the podcast side,

um, just a lot of news around players
that are either either being scammed

or going broke and just making bad
financial decisions in general.

Lou Williams, um, has spoken
about it, the NBA player a lot,

and I think it just goes back to.

Being a pro when it comes to
your investing and, and also, you

know, you say it on at the end of
every podcast, owning your wealth.

There's owning your wealth when it
comes to actually saving money and

not overspending and buying crazy
things, and there's also owning

your wealth when it comes to making
the right financial decisions.

With, with your earned income and your
saved income and investing it properly.

So just avoiding that, I think is
a, yeah, it's been in the headlines

and we obviously don't want any
of our clients to get there.

So we make, we make good financial
decisions here and invest

properly, but hopefully that, uh,
that bleeds into all ventures of

Justin Dyer: sports.

Yeah.

100%.

I mean, so much of this comes down to
discipline and, and that's just an easy

word to say, but it's really hard to
implement when you're talking about a

short earning window and then money that
should last for multi gener generations.

Right.

Those, those are, those are hard, um,

Mena Hanna: um,

Justin Dyer: uh, balance hard
aspects, hard facts to balance,

Mena Hanna: if you will.

Yeah.

The earning windows is so, is so hard.

You know, we're gonna work for 40, 50
years, some players, unfortunately.

Unfortunately.

Yeah, yeah.

Some players are not
gonna get a 10th of that.

So.

Have to think about that.

Alright, can you break
down crypto in 60 seconds?

Justin Dyer: Oh man.

Uh, pro

Mena Hanna: I can't loaded question

Justin Dyer: in 60 seconds,
but this one's hard.

I mean, well, first of all, the term
crypto is a very broad, is uh, is a

term that covers a very broad set of
assets, but specifically get a, getting

a little technico technical here is.

Crypto, um, basically encompasses anything
that uses blockchain or cryptography,

which blockchain is technology, um, to, to
represent, uh, an asset, uh, effectively

or can represent anything, I shouldn't
say, represent an as asset, um, to,

to, uh, um, to record keep something.

That could be a token like Bitcoin,
that could be actually a physical asset

that, uh, is tokenized, if you will.

So, uh, that's the quick and
dirty definition of it, right?

Cryptography to document
via ledger, uh, ownership.

That's it.

Mena Hanna: That's it.

Yeah.

And have 60 seconds.

No, that was it.

There's a lot of good use cases too.

Um, we look at just financial services and
how it takes multiple days to send money

around via the traditional banking system.

Crypto could upend that, but obviously,
uh, a lot of different avenues

to go and a lot of technologies
around that that actually support

cryptocurrencies in general.

Totally.

Justin Dyer: cool.

Mena Hanna: Uh, what's one financial
myth you're hearing and the reality?

Justin Dyer: Yeah.

One thing that's been popping up
in my mind a lot recently, or I

shouldn't say a lot recently, just
over the last couple years, is,

um,

Is the experience of
relatively new investors.

This is both through conversations
I've had, but also just kind of

paying attention to, uh, the media and

that is.

The, and, and, and the current market.

I, I would say as well, that
markets really kind of go up into

the right and that's all they do.

Um,

you know, I'm, I am, I guess fortunate if
you want to call it, I can say that now.

Um, at this point in my career, I, I
started my career through the great

financial crisis and, uh, that was
certainly not up into the right, and

I've been through quite a few, uh,
downturns for, for, for a variety

of reasons, whether it be even the

pandemic.

We can say a lot of new investors
lived through that, but that was so

short

in, um, in duration and I mean, it
was intense, but it was so short

that I think, I don't think a
lot of investors today appreciate

the, the market dynamics enough.

Um, and that's not to the listeners here.

I think this is, this is a broad
based commentary around market

participants and you kind of see

that both.

In, in the bad parts of crypto,
to your point, there's, there's

good, very good parts of crypto
and we've talked about that.

You see that in meme stocks, right?

These people are just like,
they're playing games, right?

It's, it's, it's turning, um,
investing into gambling in a sense.

And not to say that hasn't
happened in the past.

It certainly certainly has, but
there's a lot of, uh, uh, of, I

guess similar activity and behavior.

If you study the history of markets
that we've seen in the past, it.

Generally speaking doesn't end well.

And that, that's certainly, uh, if
you want to call that a myth, um, it's

kind of a trend activity, behavior.

I'm, I'm observing and I, I just, I, I
believe truly that, that those are bad

Mena Hanna: behaviors.

Yeah.

No, I agree.

What's an economic data
point that surprised you

Justin Dyer: recently?

GDP.

So GDP, it's basically the scoreboard,
uh, of our, our economy or any economy,

if you wanna call it that, right?

The US GDP is our, our scoreboard,
uh, the global economy global.

GDP is, is what's going
on, uh, around the world.

We just got our number
for the second quarter.

Um, and, you know, on the surface you
could say it's, it was surprising.

It was.

3% I believe, on an annualized basis.

Um, but, uh, why it's surprising in
this kind of a, uh, uh, uh, I guess

leading question that you asked
is that, uh, the first quarter was

actually really, really, really weak.

So things are bouncing around
quite a bit because of what's going

on, on with tariffs, exports and
imports are part of GDP and they're

really skewing those numbers.

And so you gotta remember, you can't
just look at the headline data.

We're in such a, a tension.

Um, uh, starved world that
soundbites and headlines are

often all people pay attention to.

But you see something like that
and you're like, oh, interesting.

Great.

We're growing really well and
actually in reality, um, we're not,

we're we're seeing slower growth.

So that's, that's one thing that,
uh, both surprised me this week,

but also just a great reminder.

Hey, the, the devil's in the details.

Absolutely.

All right.

Uh, we're gonna wrap it up here
with a couple more questions.

Uh, what's your single best tip for

Mena Hanna: clients this week?

Well, with all, all the craziness
going on, IPOs that are up 340% in a

day, um, and just all the speculation
around crypto currencies I would

just say run, run the playbook.

Uh, trust the playbook, run the playbook.

Don't really deviate from it because as
you were saying around the speculation

piece and just people gambling with, with
their actual savings and with money that

they need, it typically doesn't end well.

Um.

Justin Dyer: Um,

Mena Hanna: We have been living in
a period of time where everything

has been up, up to the right.

So not a lot of investors know
what it actually feels like

to get punched in the teeth.

Um, so, so yeah, running
the playbook avoids that.

It also increases your probability
of success over the long term.

And, and yeah, I would avoid a
lot of the speculation, especially

right now given the, the media hype.

Um, and typically what happens when.

Assets get

Justin Dyer: overhyped.

So

yeah, 100%.

And, and also, right, we,

Mena Hanna: we are exposed

Justin Dyer: to, to some of the
hype, but in a disciplined, uh,

well thought out way to, to really
take advantage of it and not get

overextended or, or go chasing returns.

Right.

There's a, there's a process that that
is set up ahead of time to, to make

sure we are, um, we are getting some
exposure to, to all types of markets,

including, including those that are going
through some hype cycles to an extent.

Mena Hanna: Um,

awesome.

And then last question, are you
bullish or bearish on crypto?

I know that is a, that

Justin Dyer: is a loaded

question.

That is a very loaded
question, but I'll answer it.

Uh, it depends, you know, given the good
old kind of professorial answer, but,

um, what I mean by that is it depends on
what part of crypto you're talking about.

If, if it's the part where, you know,
people are issuing or creating new

coins or tokens and just trying to
pump them and, um, and, and turn those

into memes as well and pump and dump
type schemes, like absolutely not,

it's a negative, uh, of the broader.

Blockchain technology that I kind
of tried to define, probably not

super well earlier, but I am bullish
on the technology side of it.

Uh, we really like the picks and
shovels approach, which we talked about.

I think that was the last week.

And, and we've, we've
had some decent outcomes.

In that part of the crypto world.

So I would say in general, bullish on the
technology, um, the way it's being used

and whatnot, it, it is the wild west.

So it's kind of expected.

But you also, going back to the,
the comment, the question I just

asked you around a hype, you have
to be, you have to tread cautiously

as is I guess how I would phrase it.

Um, but overall bullish.

Mena Hanna: Awesome.

Cool.

Justin Dyer: Um, so we'll wrap here.

Uh, we've talked a lot
about some opinions we have.

Uh, and one thing we challenge ourselves
on quite a bit is it's actually

really good to have an opinion, pay
attention to markets, but we also need

to know the difference between our
opinion and whether it's an emotional

reaction to the present day and or if,
is it something that's, uh, that's.

Backed up by data and something we
should act on in a very fundamental,

uh, disciplined wise way.

And so, uh, a lot of what we talked
about, I think potentially could go

either of those two ways today, but
it's just a good reminder for all of you

listeners that just 'cause you, someone
has an opinion or we're talking about

something, a hot take here or there.

It could just be that a hot
take and you actually shouldn't.

Act on it.

So, uh, with that, I'll wrap
with our, uh, our closeout here.

Own your wealth, make an
impact, always be a pro.

And thanks as always for listening.