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🤖 Everyone wants to find "the next NVIDIA." But most investors had already moved on before NVIDIA itself had finished running.

🎙️ In this episode of UNLOCKED, Evelyne Pflugi explains why impatience destroys more returns than bad stock-picking, how Applied Innovation filters hype from real long-term value creation, and why the companies nobody discusses, photomask makers, energy infrastructure players, custom chip designers, are often where the actual money gets made.
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Global equities are charging to fresh highs, led by a handful of technology giants, even as inflation remains elevated, yields keep rising, oil hovers near uncomfortable levels and geopolitical tensions refuse to fade. From SoftBank to Samsung, SK Hynix, TSMC and Micron, investors are piling into the AI trade with growing urgency. The most striking signal is South Korea’s volatility index surging alongside the Kospi, suggesting investors are no longer buying with confidence, but with fear of being left behind.

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Ipek Ozkardeskaya has begun her financial career in 2010 in the structured products desk of...

Markets continue to climb to fresh record highs, but beneath the surface, warning signs are multiplying.
From narrowing market breadth and rising investor leverage to stretched valuations, the signs of excess are becoming harder to ignore. 7
So the million-dollar question keeps coming: is this a bubble?

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Ipek Ozkardeskaya has begun her financial career in 2010 in the structured products desk of the Swiss Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. She worked at HSBC Private Bank in Geneva in relation to high and ultra-high net worth clients. In 2012, she started as FX Strategist at Swissquote Bank. She...

Oil prices are rising again, inflation fears are back and the Strait of Hormuz is once again at the centre of global market tensions. Latest twists in US-Iran negotiations are reshaping inflation expectations, Fed rate bets, bond yields and risk appetite across financial markets.
But while the broader world economy appears increasingly “stuck in Hormuz,” tech stocks continue sailing through the storm, fuelled by relentless AI optimism, strong semiconductor demand and abundant liquidity.
Investors will be watching the latest growth and inflation figures from today, to assess the Fed’s next move.

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Ipek Ozkardeskaya has begun...

Big Tech is still carrying global markets higher — but beneath the surface, the picture is becoming far less comfortable. In this episode, we explore the extraordinary rally in AI and semiconductor stocks, Micron’s explosive surge, narrowing market breadth, and why the latest gains in indices like the S&P 500 and Kospi may be masking growing fragilities underneath.
We also discuss the risks tied to rising borrowing costs, slowing economic activity, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and even a potential helium supply shock that could quietly become a bottleneck for the AI revolution.
Is AI creating a permanently stronger...

Global markets are entering a dangerous phase where war, sticky inflation and rising debt are colliding at the same time. As the Middle East conflict drags on, oil prices remain a major threat to the inflation outlook just as global central banks are struggling to contain already elevated price pressures. Meanwhile, rising bond yields are tightening financial conditions and exposing the fragility beneath the AI-driven market rally.
In this episode, we explore why a handful of Big Tech companies may be masking deeper economic weakness across global markets, why oil prices remain the key macro variable to watch, and why...

The next IPO wave could become one of the biggest speculative moments in market history. SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are attracting enormous investor excitement as AI and space infrastructure reshape the future economy. But behind the breathtaking valuations lies a much more fragile reality: these companies are burning billions of dollars while betting on technologies that may take years — or decades — to become sustainably profitable.
In this special episode, we explore the opportunities and risks surrounding the coming tech IPO boom, the race for AI dominance, the enormous infrastructure costs behind artificial intelligence, and whether investors are witnessing...

Markets keep climbing as if nothing can go wrong. While oil prices remain volatile, global yields surge, economic data weakens and recession risks build beneath the surface, investors are once again chasing the AI dream. Reports that SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing massive IPOs have reignited the speculative frenzy, even as market breadth deteriorates and companies outside tech struggle with rising costs and weaker demand.
But markets appear increasingly detached from economic reality, AI hype, and spending are masking mounting macro risks, raising questions about what could happen once the euphoria fades and reality catches up.

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Nvidia once again crushed expectations, but this time the biggest gains spilled far beyond Nvidia itself. From Samsung to LG Electronics and Hyundai Mobis, investors are increasingly betting that the next phase of AI will move beyond data centres and into the real economy through robotics, autonomous driving and “physical AI.”
But beneath the AI euphoria, the macro backdrop is becoming increasingly fragile. Rising global yields, surging oil prices, geopolitical tensions and deteriorating market breadth suggest that the rally is standing on increasingly shaky foundations.

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Ipek Ozkardeskaya has begun her financial career in 2010 in...

Geopolitical uncertainties persist, energy prices remain high, global yields rise. Market focus has been shifting from strong Big Tech earnings to rising borrowing costs.
It’s in this challenging context that Nvidia goes to the earning confessional today, so even strong results may not reverse the tide.

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Ipek Ozkardeskaya has begun her financial career in 2010 in the structured products desk of the Swiss Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. She worked at HSBC Private Bank in Geneva in relation to high and ultra-high net worth clients. In 2012, she started as FX Strategist at Swissquote...