Latest / Financial Survival Network / Think Small, Win Big Globally - Ryan Floyd #6296

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Think Small, Win Big Globally - Ryan Floyd #6296 · Financial Survival Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The legacy dinosaur companies are the ones in exchange traded
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: funds are sometimes huge, huge, huge mutual funds in many cases,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in general, a lot of them haven't really gone anywhere
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in a decade or two or three decades, if you
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: can believe this, So a lot of people, I think
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the standard investment advice in the United States to do
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: this or that thing doesn't always apply in other places.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: You are listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, where
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: to thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: dot com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Survival Network now more than ever.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: And welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Survival Network.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: I'm your host Carrie.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: With us today is Ryan Floyd, who runs an investment
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: fund out of Boston. Interesting where he's investing these days,
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  Speaker 3: rather surprising to hear, but makes complete sense. He's in
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  Speaker 3: India checking things out there, and evidently there's some great
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: opportunities there. If you got a question for Ryan myself,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: shoot me an email. Klatkerrielets dot com. Ryan, it's great
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  Speaker 3: to have you on the show. So what tell us
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: first about you? You've been investing for a long time
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  Speaker 3: running funds.
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  Speaker 1: Sure. Great to be on the show, Kerry, thanks for
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  Speaker 1: having me. I love your podcast, lots of interesting guests,
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  Speaker 1: a great breadth of information. So I've been managing this
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  Speaker 1: investment advisor for almost twenty years. Actually I got into
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  Speaker 1: the business without knowing too much about modeling. I was
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  Speaker 1: working on the cell side and launch this business in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, if you can believe it. It
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: was a crazy time to start a financial services firm.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But it's gone. I think it's gone pretty well. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: this compliance wise is not an offer to buy or sell,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: but it's been nice being able to do this for
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  Speaker 1: so long. Really, we focus outside the United States, primarily
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: with an eyeball on all kinds of different countries, trying
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  Speaker 1: to invest in things that a lot of people aren't
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  Speaker 1: paying attention.
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  Speaker 4: To, and so what aren't they paying attention to?
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of you could flip it on its side
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  Speaker 1: and say what are people paying attention to? You could
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  Speaker 1: sort of guess, like large, big American companies that have
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  Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of cell side, analysts covering them. They're
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  Speaker 1: always in the cover of the newspaper. People are texting
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  Speaker 1: to them all the time. I think what I found
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  Speaker 1: over my time in the market is that a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people don't look at small companies. And with the
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  Speaker 1: United States really being a big portion of investable assets globally,
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  Speaker 1: there's a tremendous home market bias. And you kind of
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  Speaker 1: couple those things together with some difficulties investing outside the country,
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  Speaker 1: and it means sometimes smaller, more unusual companies are the
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  Speaker 1: ones that folks are not really looking at. And I
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  Speaker 1: think I've traveled to something like one hundred countries every
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  Speaker 1: continent but Antarctica, turning over all kinds of stones to
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  Speaker 1: look for interesting opportunities.
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  Speaker 3: He Antarctica, h well, maybe not one hundred. A lot
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  Speaker 3: of frozen opportunities there, huh.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully not. Hopefully not mining companies in our lifetime
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  Speaker 1: with all the snowmounting, but I guess so. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: all the other continents, you know, it's been a great
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  Speaker 1: breadth of investment experiencially.
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  Speaker 3: So India, you know, it's kind of it's always had
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  Speaker 3: tremendous promise, largest population in the world, but systems really
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  Speaker 3: seemed to be holding it back. Their judicial system makes
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  Speaker 3: ours look efficient, public services, all these things.
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  Speaker 4: How is it changing?
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  Speaker 1: It's a good question. So I lived in Bombay or
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  Speaker 1: Mumbai a little less than two years. This is right
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  Speaker 1: out of college. I wanted an adventure and to do
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  Speaker 1: something very different from what other people were doing. This
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  Speaker 1: was the early two thousands, I think. At the time,
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  Speaker 1: then and even now, the general perception of India was
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  Speaker 1: something like this, that the bureaucracy was not the best,
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  Speaker 1: and gosh, there's so many different languages and different states
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  Speaker 1: and regulatory systems, how does it work. But beneath all
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  Speaker 1: of this was an incredibly it was true then and
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  Speaker 1: true now too, an incredibly hard working population, a real
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  Speaker 1: respect for entrepreneurial spirits, many many different companies doing all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of different things, a sophisticated manager, a fairly good
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  Speaker 1: regulatory framework. And as you said, it went from having
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  Speaker 1: large households to smaller households, which means a real explosion,
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  Speaker 1: and an explosion a number of households, and that means
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  Speaker 1: people buying things like furniture and household goods and all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of things because they're not having many children like
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  Speaker 1: many parts of the world, and it's been a lot
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  Speaker 1: of fun having lived there. I speak a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of Hindi, although it's kind of faded away, But as
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  Speaker 1: a guy raised in suburban Baltimore knowing a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of Hindi, having traveled to some thirty cities, it's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of fun poking around India and visiting here and
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  Speaker 1: there and staying in touch with the country and the
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  Speaker 1: capital markets. I would say I can't really call make
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  Speaker 1: a call visual country, but just in terms of demographics
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  Speaker 1: in general economic growth prospects, it's probably one of the
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  Speaker 1: better stories because it has a large rural population and
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  Speaker 1: people become more productive when they move from rural to
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  Speaker 1: urban areas. The funny thing, I guess is that in
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  Speaker 1: the eighteenth and nineteenth century in the United States, we
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  Speaker 1: had similar problems with our judicial system and believe it
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  Speaker 1: or not, bureaucracy ability to do things. Yeah, we still do, right.
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  Speaker 1: I think kind of each place has to be understood
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  Speaker 1: in its own terms, and in many cases the results
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  Speaker 1: speak for themselves. It's need going back and seeing giant,
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  Speaker 1: giant bridges and a lot more material progress and also
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  Speaker 1: honestly warm and fuzzy things like infant mortality dropping and
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  Speaker 1: longer life spans, and it's a great fout women's rights
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  Speaker 1: and such. But no place is perfect, of course, as
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  Speaker 1: any human knows.
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  Speaker 3: And so we're yeah, of course, So what do you
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  Speaker 3: think the greatest promise of India is here? Your most
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: optimistic put on your most optimistic pah. If I were
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  Speaker 3: talking to an AI system right now, would it tell me?
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's an interesting point. I mean, different countries have
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  Speaker 1: different challenges depending on their historical trade, their historical regulatory environment,
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  Speaker 1: who generally runs the show and why. I've found that
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  Speaker 1: the political system, as noisy as it is in India
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most interesting in the world because
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  Speaker 1: it's so vibrant. It's pluralistic. It's not perfect, it's really
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  Speaker 1: not perfect, but people really get to vote and express
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  Speaker 1: their preferences across many different dimensions, classes, languages, religions. It's
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  Speaker 1: like a giant quilt that somehow comes together and it works. Really,
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  Speaker 1: the thing I find just most inspiring and encouraging is
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  Speaker 1: this demographic issue that the working population continues to grow
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  Speaker 1: and productivity increases as people move from rural to urban areas.
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  Speaker 1: There are other countries where you would say well, the
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  Speaker 1: per capita GDP is kind of similar, but it's much
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  Speaker 1: more urban. It's a lot harder to drive productivity growth
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  Speaker 1: and income growth and GDP growth. Frankly, when people are
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  Speaker 1: already all connected to the internet, they're all connected to
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, urban transportation networks. They all have high
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  Speaker 1: speed internet, not all of them, but they largely have
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  Speaker 1: high speed Internet. So then it's a different game. You
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  Speaker 1: have to be able to export much more sophisticated goods
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  Speaker 1: in order to grow more rapidly, which is more difficult.
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  Speaker 1: So I think for India to grow more rapidly economically
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  Speaker 1: is just lower hanging fruit. I think countries like Vietnam
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  Speaker 1: and Bangladesh a somewhat similar to Even though that might
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: sound funny to an American ear, I think it's sort
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  Speaker 1: of real that people really do become much more productive,
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  Speaker 1: just like they did in the United States. It's nothing
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  Speaker 1: against farmers. I have ancestors who were farmers, in great
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  Speaker 1: respect for farmers also, but when you're selling your agricultural
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  Speaker 1: goods on a small plot of land to one market,
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  Speaker 1: it's very risky, challenging existence. When I was living in Bombay,
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  Speaker 1: you could see people who were first generation people living
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  Speaker 1: in cities with tremendous energy and vibrancy. They wanted so
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  Speaker 1: much more from life. Now that puts pressure on the
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  Speaker 1: political environment. That's great from an economic perspective because suddenly
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  Speaker 1: they're these consumers, but politically also it puts pressure on
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  Speaker 1: the political system because they ask more. When you're not
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  Speaker 1: connected necessarily you live in a far rural area, you
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  Speaker 1: have certain political demands. But suddenly when you're much more connected,
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  Speaker 1: you might ask for much more, which is great in
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  Speaker 1: many cases. And then that's the real test of a
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  Speaker 1: country is whether it can filter these increased demands in
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  Speaker 1: some relatively productive way without I don't know, earthquakes. It's
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  Speaker 1: easier said than done. But yeah, well, okay.
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  Speaker 3: Change comes slowly. It's come slowly to India. But once
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  Speaker 3: it starts, there's really nothing that can stop it, is there.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good that's a good insight. I would say,
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  Speaker 1: there are some things that can stop this kind of progress.
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  Speaker 1: It's not unique to India, but it goes for lots
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  Speaker 1: of different countries. Tremendous debt can make it very difficult
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  Speaker 1: or not anywhere near there. But when no one has
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  Speaker 1: a mortgage, just having a mortgage to buy some properties
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  Speaker 1: suddenly unlocks all kinds of economic opportunity. When the reverse
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  Speaker 1: is the case, like maybe the United States in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and seven, when everybody has two or three or
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  Speaker 1: four mortgages, then that could really make for a challenging
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  Speaker 1: decade or two. India and other you know, lots of
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  Speaker 1: other countries are nowhere near there, but that could be
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  Speaker 1: a risk, right as if everyone suddenly takes on tremendous
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  Speaker 1: amount of leverage. Instead of helping to fund your cousin's business,
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  Speaker 1: you're spending a decade paying down debt. Of course, governments
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: throughout centuries and millennia can also just I call it
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: like own goals or maybe like getting a safety in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: football American football, And this happens more than you would think.
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  Speaker 1: Of course Americans know this too, but there are hard challenges,
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  Speaker 1: hard decisions to make, and believe it or not, having
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: traveled to so many different places around the world, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: officials don't you know, they don't make the right decisions.
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  Speaker 1: That can be bad. At least in my experience. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't happen as often as would happen, but as maybe
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  Speaker 1: you would think. But certainly things can happen like this,
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  Speaker 1: they're not so good.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I've learned in my brief time on
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  Speaker 3: the planet never never ever underestimate the ability of politicians
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  Speaker 3: to screw everything up right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good, wise comment. Yeah, it's helpful in
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  Speaker 1: investing in different countries around the world, where it's very
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: important to know the political system and what's going on
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: in different countries and have some sense of humility that
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  Speaker 1: different countries can operate in different ways, and they can
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: operate in ways that maybe are different than the United
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: States or different than one's home country. Sometimes that might
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: be charring or uncomfortable, but in other cases it might
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  Speaker 1: be a humbling I suppose that. Well, it kind of
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: works there, even though the system is slightly different, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I have to kind of put some of my let's
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: call it, I don't know if bias is a word,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: but I have to put some of my experience on
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  Speaker 1: one side and understand this local culture and system on
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  Speaker 1: the other. And of course you can't do that exactly.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: They have to interact with one another. But this is
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: kind of the great fun of looking for investments in
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: different parts of the world.
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  Speaker 4: Fascinating, fascinating times.
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  Speaker 3: We're living in that it is you can actually learn
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  Speaker 3: a lot, way more than you used to be able
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: to and actually do your due diligence all the way
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: on the other side of the world. So, for a
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: little piece of advice to individuals looking to invest in
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: different places, what do you tell them?
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  Speaker 1: It's a good question. I don't know. I don't have
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the best advice. I would say, be humble and not
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: so aggressive. I kind of worry about the world of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: day traders looking for this or that hot thing, And
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of course this is just for informational purposes, and I
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: recommending my fund in the United States. The world of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: et aps is pretty interesting because there are lots of
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: new companies each decade that populate them and so many
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: other places, I believe it or not, the legacy dinosaur
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: companies are the ones in exchange traded funds or sometimes huge, huge,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: huge mutual funds. In many cases, in general, a lot
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: of them haven't really gone anywhere in a decade or
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: two or three decades, if you can believe this. So
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of people, I think the standard investment advice
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: in the United States to do this or that thing
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: doesn't always apply in other places. And this makes it
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a little challenging, so I always say that my it's
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: like to my kids. I think saving is very good,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: you know, personally, saving is a very good process, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: being diversified certain only helps. But not, let's say, not
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: with the kind of knee jerk dra knee jerk. I
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: must be in this place, or I must own this,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: or I must have this type of investment. I guess,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: for better or for worse, Investing out side of the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: hugest markets of the world just requires a lot of discernment.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Let's say, all right, I'll buy that.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Hey, how do we find you and how do we
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: connect with you on the web?
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: There, Ryan, thanks for asking.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: My firm is Barka Capital, so the website is www
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: dot Barkocapital dot com. Feel free to sign up for
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: a newsletter and I am linked in. My name is
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Ryan Floyd like Pink Floyd, and the firm is Barker Capital.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Feel free to reach out. I know that reference dates
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: me now a lot of people. I have to say
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Floyd Merriweather. Maybe for some people because a lot of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: people don't know the Pink Floyd reference. But I feel
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: free to reach out. And I always like book recommendations
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and suggestions of interesting data sets or news sources or
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: anything like that.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: All right, Hey, well, we really appreciate you coming on. Ryan.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Thatn's good lightning, very interesting. If you got any questions
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: for Ryan myself, shoot an email to Klatcarrieluts dot com.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Link is in the show notes to this interview on
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Financial Survival Network dot com. We just ask if you
• 16:18
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  Speaker 3: seventy five thousand, eighty actually it's over eighty thousand, but
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: seventy five thousand Cramp subscribers, and you get a lot
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: of interesting info that you're just never going to find
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: anywhere else.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Ryan. Good luck, we'll talk to you again soon.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Sounds good. Thanks, Gerry, appreciate it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: ever