RJ Hamster
You Can Still Hedge the Next Energy Shock
Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999
Blockading the blockade… The last oil tankers from the Persian Gulf are arriving… Energy crisis protection… Brush your teeth… Stocks keep going up… Weathering the chaos…
My, how the tables have turned…
We’re back from the weekend, and now the U.S. is shutting down the Strait of Hormuz…
Twenty hours of U.S.-Iran negotiations in Pakistan failed to produce an agreement. As President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “There is only one thing that matters – IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS!”
So Trump’s next move was to announce a U.S. “blockade” of the key strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. And with that, the Iranian military said the ceasefire announced last week is off, as far as Iran is concerned.
The idea from the White House is that the U.S. Navy will only permit tankers traveling to and from ports outside Iran. The plan went into effect at 10 a.m. Eastern time today.
That doesn’t mean Iran won’t keep attacking these ships… or that they won’t strike a mine. Iran says it doesn’t even know where all its mines are.
According to Trump, 34 ships passed through the strait yesterday. That’s up from the handful that have reportedly trickled through over the past six weeks. But it’s barely a third of the typical daily pre-war traffic.
In other words, we’re a long way from “normal.”
An important point ahead…
The disruption in Persian Gulf energy shipments is about to hit home.
War has been raging in Iran for the past month and a half… But tankers move slowly. Some ships that passed through the strait before the war began, and they still haven’t reached their destinations. Their oil and gas will feed the global market like usual.
The last of those ships will reach their destinations this week. And this time, there won’t be a steady supply of tankers behind them.
That’s when energy supplies will start drying up in some parts of the world…
Meanwhile, oil production in the Middle East has been drastically cut in nations like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
In all, OPEC’s March production was down 27% month over month, or 8 million barrels less per day. And attacks on energy infrastructure in the region have continued this month. So supply is likely to remain unstable in the months ahead.
We wrote last week about how high oil prices could go the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains “closed” – as much as 70% higher from current levels if the situation drags on six more months.
An energy crisis hedge…
Even before all this latest news over the weekend, Stansberry Research senior analyst Bryan Beach sent a new, timely “Energy Crisis Hedge” recommendation to his Stansberry Venture Valuesubscribers…
We’ve been writing about Energy Crisis Hedges since February 2022, when we introduced the concept as “Putin Hedges.” The core idea is that rising geopolitical instability – especially in Eastern Europe and the Middle East – would weaponize energy. This would push oil prices up and shift global demand toward relatively safe jurisdictions like the U.S. So we’ve been investing in the domestic companies that are poised to soar from this shift.
The White House has echoed our Energy Crisis Hedge thesis in recent weeks.
Then came the weekend, and a blockade today… For some really good reading on the “weaponization” of energy and Bryan’s stock recommendation to hedge an energy crisis, existing Venture Valuesubscribers can find his full issue here. As he writes…
Now, you might be wondering if it’s too late to hedge. After all, it seems like the current situation would already be priced into every stock even remotely exposed to U.S. energy production.
The answer is that hedging is always a smart move when chaos looms like it does today. Plus, by carefully shopping around, we can still get some Energy Hedge “insurance” for a reasonable price.
The new recommendation from Bryan is one such opportunity. He says it gives folks “full exposure to U.S. energy, but its shares won’t collapse if [oil] falls further.” Plus, as Bryan continued…
The company trades for a bargain right now, but it’s about to hit a major inflection point that will fundamentally change its stock’s trajectory…
And, as we’ve pointed out before, it’s not just oil and gas…
Oil price swings have driven much of the overall market volatility lately. But other commodities – including some most people wouldn’t think of – are seeing their supplies disrupted as well.
Here’s one “unexpected” consequence… In our neck of the woods, the city of Baltimore announced today it will lower fluoride levels in its drinking water by 42%. The war in Iran has disrupted supplies of the hydrofluorosilicic acid the U.S. imports from Israel and China.
At the risk of encouraging a fluoride debate in our mailbag… brush those teeth, kids.
A ‘mixed’ day…
Oil prices moved higher again, between 1% and 4%. No surprise there. But they also were off their highs of the past 24 hours as we write, with Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate around $98 per barrel. They were both above $100 earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, the major U.S. stock indexes held onto the “ceasefire” bounce from last week… even though Iran declared the ceasefire over. The indexes were higher today across the board, with the tech sector of the S&P 500 Index leading the way.
The AI universe got a boost as Oracle (ORCL) shares popped nearly 13% today after the company touted some of its AI platforms for utility companies.
Optimism abounds, it appears…
The S&P 500 Index traded above its 200-day moving average for a fourth straight trading day. And the CBOE Volatility Index (“VIX”) dipped below 20, trending down from its highs last month closer to 30.
But world events have hardly settled down. It’s a lot to follow.
If you’re struggling to keep up with the developments in Iran or have even given up trying, you’re not alone…
As Whitney Tilson and Alan Gula wrote in this month’s The N.E.W. System update sent to subscribers on Friday…
Earlier this week, the president of the United States warned that an entire civilization could be wiped off the map… Oil spiked above $117 a barrel… And a ceasefire was reached and violated.
That was just on Tuesday.
We know the feeling. We were here, writing about it. And fortunately for their subscribers, Whitney and Alan were putting together the latest update on a terrific market solution they offer in the AI-aided N.E.W. System portfolio.
Their AI system culls their model portfolio from a selection of 1,000 stocks that are first filtered using our proprietary Stansberry Score. It chooses a complementary selection of 20 top-quality stocks to form a risk-adjusted portfolio to weather exactly the kind of chaotic, unpredictable environment we’re living through right now.
As Whitney and Alan wrote…
Thankfully, our system doesn’t care what Trump happens to post on a Tuesday morning. Our algorithms don’t have an opinion on whether the ceasefire is real or destined to fall apart. Nor do they care about the next $10 move in the price of oil.
Our algorithms don’t trade on headlines, panic, or hope. They don’t read the news. They just run the math every quarter, using the same rules.
So in today’s issue, we’ll review how The N.E.W. System works and explain how our portfolio is set up to profit no matter what happens next…
Subscribers can find their latest update here. And to learn more about The N.E.W. System, and to get started with a 70% discount, click here for a full presentation from Whitney.
The N.E.W. System may not be tracking the blur of daily headlines, but we are.
And, as we could have written a lot lately, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Recommended Links:
Until Tomorrow: ‘Rapid Fire Doubles’ System Now Available to Regular Americans
He built it over 14 years – and it now has 442 winners since 2017, according to back tests. He turned down venture-capital money to keep it private. But until tomorrow – Tuesday, April 14 – for the first time, a mystery hedge-fund insider is making his breakthrough stock system public… and issuing an urgent warning about what happens next in U.S. stocks. See a free demo here.
Do You Own the Worst Stock of 2026? (Name and Ticker)
He issued warnings for RingCentral (RNG) before it crashed 89%, Beyond Meat (BYND) before it crashed 90%, Teladoc Health (TDOC) before it crashed 84%, and Fiverr International (FVRR) before it crashed 86%. Now, he’s stepping forward to name the popular stock that could go down as one of the worst-performing tickers of the year. It could be the most dangerous stock of 2026. Click here for its name and ticker, 100% free.
New 52-week highs (as of 4/10/26): Applied Materials (AMAT), Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box Fund (BOXX), Ciena (CIEN), Ecovyst (ECVT), EnerSys (ENS), FirstCash (FCFS), GE Vernova (GEV), Hubbell (HUBB), iShares Convertible Bond Fund (ICVT), Lumentum (LITE), Lynas Rare Earths (LYSDY), Tenaris (TS), Telefônica Brasil (VIV), and State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor Fund (XSD).
In today’s mailbag, thoughts on fuel hedging, which we covered in a mailbag last week… and thoughts on Dan Ferris’ Friday essay… Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
“It is very easy to in hindsight chastise airlines for not having hedges in place when fuel prices [go] up dramatically.
“It is also very easy to chastise airlines when fuel prices go down dramatically, and their costs, profits and stock price don’t adjust commensurately because of their hedging.
“I can only imagine how challenging this is for airline management, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
“Ultimately if your bonuses were tied to ‘steady slow growth’ you might hedge, and if you only cared about the next quarter or year, you’d probably look at oil prices going down and take the hedges off. Can’t blame anyone for that, except perhaps the boards and how compensation is structured.
“Either way, there will be costs, and they will be passed on to consumers, either as slow and steady growing costs, or with dramatic swings when oil and fuel prices have dramatic swings.” – Stansberry Alliance member John W.
“Subscriber Jeff C. succinctly describes Milton Friedman’s view on inflation – too much money chasing too few goods. Could it be, then, that today’s inflation numbers don’t yet reflect downward pricing adjustments by companies that are seeing their sales drop because Americans are now spending more on fuel? I guess we’ll see down the road.
“I also loved this paragraph from Dan’s report [on Friday]:
My job isn’t to make you agree with me. My job is to give you the tools to make sound investment decisions. If you think I’m an idiot but come away from this Digest with a clearer idea of how to handle market volatility, I’ve earned my paycheck.
“You’re the man, Dan.” – Subscriber Sherwin R.
“Stop calling oil & gas ‘fossil fuels.’ They don’t come from fossils. Watch Fletcher Prouty explain here.” – Subscriber Warren W.
Corey McLaughlin comment: Cool clip, Warren. Thanks for sending.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
April 13, 2026
Stansberry Research Top 10 Open Recommendations
Top 10 highest-returning open stock positions across all Stansberry Research portfolios. Returns represent the total return from the initial recommendation.InvestmentBuy DateReturnPublicationMSFT
Microsoft11/11/101,291.9%Retirement MillionaireMSFT
Microsoft02/10/121,196.4%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryCIEN
Ciena10/20/22801.5%Stansberry Innovations ReportBRK.B
Berkshire Hathaway04/01/09772.0%Retirement MillionaireADP
Automatic Data Processing10/09/08743.4%Extreme ValueGOOGL
Alphabet12/15/16682.1%Retirement MillionaireALS-T
Altius Minerals03/26/09676.9%Extreme ValueSII
Sprott01/11/18672.7%Extreme ValueWRB
W.R. Berkley03/15/12610.4%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryLITE
Lumentum04/15/21574.0%Stansberry Innovations Report
Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any Stansberry Research publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio.
Top 10 Totals3Extreme ValueFerris3Retirement MillionaireDoc2Stansberry Innovations ReportEngel2Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryPorter
Top 5 Crypto Capital Open Recommendations
Top 5 highest-returning open positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolioInvestmentBuy DateReturnPublicationWSTETH/USD
Wrapped Staked Ethereum12/07/181,800.3%Crypto CapitalBTC/USD
Bitcoin11/27/181,782.7%Crypto CapitalONE/USD
Harmony12/16/191,006.3%Crypto CapitalPOL/USD
Polygon02/26/21638.4%Crypto CapitalQRL/USD
Quantum Resistant Ledger01/19/21560.9%Crypto Capital
Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 5 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the Crypto Capital model portfolio. The buy date reflects when the recommendation was made, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if it’s still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber and refer to the most recent portfolio.
Stansberry Research Hall of Fame
Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all Stansberry portfoliosInvestmentDurationGainPublicationNvidia (NVDA)^*5.96 years1,466%Venture Tech.Microsoft (MSFT)^12.74 years1,185%Retirement MillionaireInovio Pharma. (INO)^1.01 years1,139%Venture Tech.Rocket Lab (RKLB)^2.35 years1,034%Venture Tech.Seabridge Gold (SA)^4.20 years995%Sjug Conf.Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B)^16.13 years800%Retirement MillionaireIntellia Therapeutics (NTLA)1.95 years775%Amer. MoonshotsRite Aid 8.5% bond4.97 years773%True IncomePNC Warrants (PNC-WS)6.16 years706%True Wealth SystemsMaxar Technologies (MAXR)^1.90 years691%Venture Tech.
^ These gains occurred with a partial position in the respective stocks.
* Editor Dave Lashmet closed the first leg of this Nvidia position in November 2016 for a gain of about 108%. Then, he closed the second leg in July 2020 for a 777% return. And finally, in May 2022, he booked a 1,466% return on the final leg. Subscribers who followed his advice on Nvidia could’ve recorded a total weighted average gain of more than 600%.
Stansberry Research Crypto Hall of Fame
Top 5 highest-returning closed positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolioInvestmentDurationGainAnalystBand Protocol (BAND)0.31 years1,169%Crypto CapitalTerra (LUNA)0.41 years1,166%Crypto CapitalPolymesh (POLYX)3.84 years1,157%Crypto CapitalFrontier (FRONT)0.09 years979%Crypto CapitalBinance Coin (BNB)1.78 years963%Crypto Capital
You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to Stansberry Digest. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from Stansberry Digest click here.
Published by Stansberry Research.
You’re receiving this e-mail at pahovis@aol.com. Stansberry Research welcomes comments or suggestions at feedback@stansberryresearch.com. This address is for feedback only. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, call 888-261-2693 (U.S.) or 443-839-0986 (international) Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern time. Or e-mail info@stansberryresearch.com. Please note: The law prohibits us from giving personalized financial advice.
© 2026 Stansberry Research. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Stansberry Research, 1125 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201 or stansberryresearch.com.
Any brokers mentioned constitute a partial list of available brokers and is for your information only. Stansberry Research does not recommend or endorse any brokers, dealers, or investment advisors.
Stansberry Research forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security they recommend to our subscribers. All employees of Stansberry Research (and affiliated companies) must wait 24 hours after an investment recommendation is published online – or 72 hours after a direct mail publication is sent – before acting on that recommendation.
This work is based on SEC filings, current events, interviews, corporate press releases, and what we’ve learned as financial journalists. It may contain errors, and you shouldn’t make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. It’s your money and your responsibility.
