Kristen Scholer:
From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week, we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world. Now, let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.
Lance Glinn:
Each month on the Inside the ICE House podcast, we engage in insightful conversations with business leaders, CEOs, and executives of NYSE-listed companies, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. We explore their journeys, the challenges they've overcome, and their aspirations to shape the future. You can tune in every Monday on all major podcast platforms to catch these discussions, and watch full video episodes on tv.nyse.com and on the NYSE YouTube channel. Inside the ICE House in March, we aired five new episodes covering a diverse range of topics, including the state of the stock market, meteorology's impact on finance, e-commerce fraud, law enforcement technology, and the life of an NYSE legend. We kicked off with episode 460 featuring Phil Rosen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Opening Bell Daily. Building the platform with Anthony Pompliano to one that reaches 200,000 inboxes every day, Phil joins the podcast to share insights on the market, crypto, and AI.
Phil Rosen:
What will be in that reserve? We don't know if it's going to be just Bitcoin or if it's going to be multiple other cryptocurrencies, and I think there are rumors that there are other people in the president's year that are incentivized to get their tokens into this reserve because that obviously will be very good for those tokens. But a lot of the long-term Bitcoin holders don't think that's the best possible path because there really only is an original cryptocurrency, which is Bitcoin. And once you start putting in these secondary currencies, which are not so deregulated and there's companies behind them and individuals behind those companies, the whole idea, I think, becomes less and less core crypto philosophy because it's not so decentralized. So that'll be something that I'll be watching for sure, what goes into that strategic reserve.
Kristen Scholer:
Mm-hmm. So I want to talk more about that strategic reserve because it was in late January that President Trump ordered the creation of a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing, of course, regulations and exploring the creation of this national cryptocurrency stockpile. So, there's been a lot of discussion about the need for a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Do you think that would be wise for the government to create a reserve? And how would it impact cryptocurrency?
Phil Rosen:
I think the question here might be... It's not so much, "Is it the right decision for the government?" It's, "What are the consequences if they don't?" And I think there are many, many company... or countries already that have been buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin. And if the U.S. doesn't do it, they're not even playing the same game. So, I think just game theory, the game theory of it, they have no choice but to participate, and that's really... I'm sure Trump and his team realizes that. So, it wouldn't surprise me also if they've already started buying to some capacity and then they'll just announce it after the fact. Because in one sense, you don't want to tell everyone when you're buying because then the price will just go up when other countries start buying, too. So, it might be something worth doing quietly.
Generally, if the U.S. comes out and announces, "Hey, we're buying Bitcoin and maybe other cryptocurrencies," all of those will almost be very strong likelihood of going up. Because once the U.S. government gets involved, it almost becomes an idea of too big to fail, which is a dangerous idea to throw around these days. But it's very hard to bet against the U.S. government, and buying what the government is buying is usually pretty solid returns.
Lance Glinn:
Episode 461 features Dave Margolin, meteorologist for Intercontinental Exchange, that's NYSE ticker symbol ICE. You may wonder about the role that meteorology plays in markets, but Dave joins us Inside the ICE House to expound on weather's impact and how positions like his provide firms a competitive advantage.
Dave Margolin:
Yeah, and that's a very fair question. I've gotten that question quite a bit over the years, and especially for folks who are not in the financial or energy sector, but it turns out that weather and climate really have a significant impact on the economy. I think the latest numbers I saw was weather can impact or change the GDP by as much as 5% each year, so that's over a trillion dollars. And of course, if you think of a company like ICE, very much tied to the economy through the exchanges, through our data services, through the mortgage, so you see that connection there. And more specifically, when you think about energy, I think the relationship is even stronger, right? Because what do people do in the winter in terms of their thermostat, their heating bill, or the heating in the house? You turn the heat up when it gets really cold, and when it's a little bit warmer, maybe you turn it down and such, and that phenomena is going on all over.
And so what they're trying to do, what the energy community in particular has done, is realized, "Hey, listen, if we can get weather information and weather guidance, days, weeks, or maybe even months in advance, there's a lot of opportunity for us and ways that we can mitigate our risk."
Lance Glinn:
Inside the ICE House for episode 462, we were joined by Aglika Dotcheva, CFO of Riskified, that's NYSE ticker symbol RSKD. E-commerce fraud is surging, putting businesses and consumers at risk in an increasingly digital world. Agli goes Inside the ICE House to share her insights and reveal how Riskified is making online shopping safer and more seamless for everyone.
Aglika Dotcheva:
A lot of changes in a lot of different area. Let's just think about our product to start with. When we beginning, when we started, I think there were so many aspects that were even manual. Before I even started the company, the first transactions that were approved were approved by a few analysts, just looking at the data and trying to do what potentially they created for a model to do. So, thinking about a few years later, serving some of the merchants that we started, which were much smaller. And then once we became more accurate and our product became better, starting to get traction with some of the enterprises of the world out there. So, there's some of these changes around developing the product was driving everything else in the company. The requirements came in from the external world, but you had to really create the team and shift the technology and shift your priorities internally in order to adapt to the market and being able to deliver the solutions that our clients were looking at at the time. So I would say the product was definitely one of the biggest things that's changed over time.
And thinking of some of the new products that we also developed in the last couple of years, we started with our chargeback guarantee, and this is still our core product today. But especially after COVID, we understood that our merchants are facing a lot of other difficulties. For example, one of our newer product is called Policy Protect, and it deals with a problem that a lot of merchants are seeing in terms of service being abused and some of their policies being abused. And this is something that we had to evolve over time to make sure that we have solutions for all these areas that are important for our clients with the one goal in mind, how to help them approve more, increase their revenue, and ultimately optimize and minimize their costs.
Lance Glinn:
For episode 463, we were joined by Flock Safety founder and CEO, Garrett Langley. Law enforcement technology is evolving fast, transforming how agencies prevent and tackle crime. With cutting edge tools, officers now have real-time intelligence at their fingertips. Garrett goes Inside the ICE House to share how his company is driving innovation and fighting to make crime a thing of the past.
Garrett Langley:
Yeah. So one of the things, I have the fortunate benefit of knowing a lot of police chiefs and a lot of mayors. We've got about 5,000 or so cities and counties that we work with, and one of the problems that Flock has created for our customers is an abundance of data, right? So we deploy sensors in the field, these are cameras, audio devices, and this new problem is created then, which is, "Never been a problem for local government," which is like, "What do we do with all this data?" And so what Flock Nova is able to do is to take all of these disparate data systems, smash them together in a simple common data model.
And the example I'll give you is we were working with one of our healthcare partners, and this is one of the largest healthcare systems in the country. They have almost 30,000 security incidents a year across their network, and they manage and log those across 18 different systems. So, system-wide, they actually have no idea what's going on. It takes them weeks to run reports. And now with Nova, all of those systems get merged together in one database, in our database, and they can understand how is crime evolving, how are incidents changing. They can run more sophisticated investigations. And so whether you're a city, like Manhattan, or a healthcare provider, you have this problem where data is just spread across too many systems. And with Nova, we can bring them together in a single pane of glass.
Lance Glinn:
March's final podcast, episode 464, remembers an NYSE legend, Art Cashin. Few eyes have witnessed as much of the life of the New York Stock Exchange as his did. Despite all that changed around him at the NYSE during his tenure, you could always count on his wit and insight, as well as his ability to lead the trading floor every Christmas season in the singing of Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie. Friends and colleagues, Jay Woods, Bob Pisani, James Rutledge, and Neil Catania, go Inside the ICE House to uncover the moments that defined Art's career, the lessons he taught without ever giving a lecture, and the indelible mark he's left on the culture of Wall Street and beyond.
Jay Woods:
He embodied what the floor was all about. His morning newsletter was must-read material. We would walk in the building, and every trader, every floor clerk, every floor staff member would grab that mimeograph piece of paper with Cashin's comments. And what he said was very simple, but he told a great story. He put market terms into relative terms, relatable terms, and he's been a huge influence on me, whether he knew it or not, as I pivot into a career where I get to talk to the media. And the way he can just take a big approach on something very complex and make it simple to an audience was something that, to the CNBC viewer that got to know him over time, was invaluable.
As a member of the floor community, he was our North Star. When something was going wrong, when there was a market situation we were unaware of, when there was a little panic, he was the person that would be the calm in the storm, that beacon of light. I didn't really ever bother Mr. Cashin. He was someone that I looked up to and I listened. I didn't bother him with any trading strategies or any problems of mine, but when I wanted to go and listen, you could listen on the floor. But the best place to listen was across the street at the bar. It may not paint him in a good light, but he liked to marinate some ice cubes across the street, couple drinks, and he would take on an audience. And he would tell stories and he would put things in perspective when he was going through the ranks.
Lance Glinn:
You can listen to these episodes, along with all past and future Inside the ICE House episodes, wherever you get your podcasts. Full video episodes are also available on tv.nyse.com and on the NYSE YouTube channel. Be sure to join us every Monday for inspiring conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Thank you so much for listening.
Kristen Scholer:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen, and follow us on X, @ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE, nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein. All of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.