AWM Insights Financial and Investment News

Join Chief Investment Officer Justin Dyer and Portfolio Manager Mena Hanna as they break down the latest market moves following new tariff headlines and a turbulent start to the year. This episode tackles the real impact of geopolitical volatility, gold’s surprising surge, and why disciplined, long-term optimism is the ultimate winning strategy. Whether you’re anxious about market headlines or curious about what fuels lasting wealth, you’ll find clarity and fresh perspective in this insightful conversation. Tune in for seasoned guidance on seeing past short-term noise and playing the long game.

Chapters
(00:07) Tariff Tensions and Market Jitters
(01:58) Importance of Discipline Over Prediction
(04:21) Market Reactions in Gold, Silver, and Bonds
(06:58) Long-Term Perspective on Volatility
(09:13) Optimism in the Face of Negative News

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Creators and Guests

Host
Justin Dyer
Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer at AWM Capital
Host
Mena Hanna
Senior Investment Analyst at AWM Capital

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.

I'm your host, Justin Dyer, chief
Investment Officer here at A-W-A-W-M

Capital, joined as always and from afar
today by, uh, Mina Hana portfolio manager.

Uh, and my right hand man here for
a WM Insights, uh, Mina, I guess

jumping right into it at least.

Um.

Today, the day we're recording,
which is earlier in the week,

Tuesday, uh, January 20th, um.

Day after a long weekend, and certainly
getting started with the bang.

Uh, hopefully, hopefully the rest
of the week doesn't necessarily

continue like this, but lots of sare
rattling over the weekend around new

tariffs, you know, could this be,
I guess, tariff tantrum, uh, 2.0,

tariff tantrum 2026 version.

Uh, what do you say?

Mena Hanna: I, I don't think so.

I don't think we, we get there,
honestly, we've already gone through

it once and we've had some jitters
of going through the tariff tantrum.

In the back half of 2025.

Yeah, this is all being generated
obviously by Greenland and potential

tariffs towards EU members and countries.

I don't, I, I think this is a blip.

I think this is kind of not
converting on fourth down.

It's not.

The, the game ending interception that we
saw Carson Beck throw last night, which,

which I'm still still grieving about.

Justin Dyer: can't get over.

Mena Hanna: Yeah.

Still can't get over.

Um, I think this is a blip and
it's not, it's not anything that's

gonna be that bad in my opinion.

What's what's your take?

Justin Dyer: Yeah, I mean, I,
I'm the, the forever optimist.

I think markets, uh, you know, if
you're betting on that, markets

go up or down, you generally win
if, if you bet that they go up.

Now, certainly that's a, a long-term,
um, a long-term proposition there,

but certainly, you know, in times
like this, it's, it's, it's very.

Captivating is very tempting to try to
predict and then act on that prediction.

I think those are two very, very
important, uh, distinctions, right?

Yeah, no, it's totally normal to, to
pay attention and you should be paying

attention to what is going on in, in
the world around, uh, around us all.

However, then

that further to an actual act is a full.

Another step, another ball game.

And we know that that is generally
speaking, not a recipe for success, right?

That is letting emotions generally get
in the way of a discipline process.

We know that discipline.

Process leads to better long-term
outcomes, very much into the future.

And, and I think, you know, not
trying to go down that rabbit hole

too much today, but this is no
different really, is, is how I would

frame the answer to that question.

Yeah.

Like, could we have some,
uh, volatility over the next.

D few days, if not weeks.

Sure.

In fact, I think that would
be potentially healthy.

I, I use that term, um, somewhat
cautiously, but I, I do truly

mean it because markets, right?

We've talked about this
on the podcast, right?

Markets are rewarding risk.

Equity markets reward risk.

Part of risk.

Risk is multidimensional, but
part of risk is volatility.

Stock's going up, stock's going
down based on relevant information.

Um, we don't just want to see a, you
know, straight line up into the right.

And, and that would give us more pause.

I, I would say, than, than these
various, uh, market moving events,

whatever they may be, geopolitical or
actual economic, that, that are always

potentially right under the surface and
or out there like we're seeing right now.

Um, you know, I think, again, I, I'm kind
of the much more of the forever optimist.

One, one thing to note, just to
put a, a little bit of a bow, at

least on my prediction here, in
agreement with you, Mina, is like.

The World Economic Forum is going on.

Trump will be there.

I, I hope cooler heads will prevail.

Who knows what this outcome will
be around, around Greenland,

certainly, but I think.

In person, right?

Is, is a recipe generally for
success in cooler heads to prevail.

Um, but adding to this
conversation, Mina, right?

We're seeing gold and silver continue
to, uh, continue to, to skyrocket here.

So, um, you know, revisiting that
past conversation, like what,

any, any unique take there, any
good, good reminders for folks?

Mena Hanna: Yeah, I was actually
gonna say, I think one of the unique

things today, and we definitely did
not see that, you know, 2025 was

a great year for gold and silver.

Today was actually a good day
for gold and silver again.

and that day for pretty much every other
asset class, whether they be risk on

asset classes, like stocks like crypto,
crypto, got absolutely hammered today.

Or risk off asset classes,
uh, like treasury bonds.

Treasury bonds sold off, I would say
pretty hard today, for the most part.

That is.

It's, it's a little, it's a little
surprising that gold did well, but

I also think that adds the narrative
that this little market move might be

different because during the tariff
tantrum, you did see both gold and

silver sell off pretty aggressively,
kind of in line with markets there.

So that's one thing that makes
me think that this is, this

is a little bit of a rotation.

It's a little bit of a fear-based.

Intraweek trade, and this
isn't going to have long term

impacts, but, but we'll see.

At the end of the day, if you look at,
you know, we talked about this last

episode, long term performance, and
you don't focus on, on the short term.

You'd rather have your money in,
in stocks and the general equity

markets, then you'd have them in coal.

Now I'm gonna put up some slides here.

Today actually wiped out all
of our gains for the year.

So we are, yeah, we're 20 days
into the year today, by itself,

wiped out all of the gains, and
now the s and p's down 0.9%.

Obviously, if you look at the chart of
gold, which all throw up right here in

silver, those are both up on the year
and they're up pretty solid percentages.

But if you push those timelines back.

Um, the, yeah, the, the, the use
case and the investment case for gold

and silver both become a lot weaker.

Justin Dyer: Yeah, maybe those are good
points to, to try to land this ship on.

Right?

Number one is you, it's always
good to zoom, zoom out, right?

There's, there's.

Been a lot going on so far in 2026,
about three, three weeks in, um, like

you said, we're about where we started.

So from an actual absolute earning
standpoint, okay, we're flat, uh, but

then, hey, we're long-term investors,
so let's go back even further.

2025 was a phenomenal year.

Um, and then more importantly
than 2025 being a great year,

we'll always take those.

It's the reminder that we are.

Uh, in order, when we're investing in
equities, when we're investing in general,

but equities or public stock markets in
particular, we are doing so with expected

higher returns well into the future.

Part of that.

Trade off, if you will, in order
to, uh, to expect those higher

returns is that there's risk on
the other side of that equation.

There's risk driving it.

Risk again takes many
different shapes and forms.

Certainly what we're seeing, um, so far
to year to date is a form of risk there.

It's a lot.

Been a lot more geopolitical
at this point in time, and

there's heightened uncertainty.

That is a, I would say, a sub-bullet
or sub component to risk as well.

And we always need to remind
ourselves that, that, you know,

especially when we start to see, uh,
a little bit of market gyrations.

Market dislocation is a word
that is thrown out a little bit.

You know, it, it is a
little bit unsettling.

What's going to happen?

Is this gonna escalate into
a new full-blown trade war?

Um, is it.

Is, uh, is there going to
be more military strikes?

You know, the list can
go on and on and on.

The, the reality is we don't know.

Uh, we can, we can guess, we can
make educated opinions, have educated

opinions around that, but then we need
to combine those educated opinions

with the discipline and the data that
shows us that predicting these things

is, is not a recipe for success.

It's not a profit.

Driven process, process driven solution
to long-term multi-generational

wealth, uh, wealth accumulation.

So, um,

Mena Hanna: your point actually,
yeah, about being the, the constant

optimist, I think is so, so
valuable and the way that human.

Beings are, and this is a maybe
philosophical conversation, but if

you look at market reactions, market
ty markets typically overreact

on both ends of the spectrum when
things get really, really bad.

You saw, we saw this with
the tariff tantrum in 2025.

We saw this with COVID markets
really sold off aggressively and then

bounced back up extremely quickly.

There was extreme pess
pessimism, and I would say.

Markets were too pessimistic and
then there was a rebound on the

other side because of all of the
information that we actually get in.

One of the headlines I saw this
morning was, and obviously we have

some beef with Denmark right now, but
Denmark's selling a hundred million

dollars worth of our treasury loans.

And the article was going into
like how this would impact markets.

A hundred million dollars of
treasury bonds is a drop in an ocean.

From a, from a relative standpoint,
that is an inconsequential amount and

the fact that that gets a headline
and also potentially triggers a

response is what contributes to
this call it polarizing behavior on

both ends when when we do see it.

So yeah, just like you were saying, not
reacting, potentially being overly po

positive and optimistic is typically.

What works out for us and actually how
you make dollars in a situation like this

Justin Dyer: Yeah, the unfortunate
reality is positivity doesn't get the

same, uh, same media coverage, but that's
a whole nother podcast for another day.

Um, it certainly, it certainly
pays though to stay, stay the

course, be be the optimist.

'cause markets do go up over time if
you're disciplined and understand, uh,

really what, what's at the heart, uh, of.

Of this, you know, wonderful
wealth creation engine.

Uh, but like I said, that's a whole
nother podcast for, for another point.

Uh, and we can jump into that.

If you're at all interested in any
specific topics, what's going on in

the world, shoot us a text message.

I mean, I

Mena Hanna: 2 6 8 6 2 0 3 5 5.

Justin Dyer: Awesome.

And until next time, own your wealth.

Make an impact, and always be a pro.