Charlie Gasparino opens with the headlines he's been breaking: the Paramount-Skydance bid for Warner Bros. getting a pass from the Trump administration, why two progressive state AGs could still tie up the $81 billion deal, and the puzzle of why Cory Booker is fighting Trump's bipartisan college sports reform.
Then S3 Partners founder and managing partner Bob Sloan makes the case for "the seventh category of market data"—the daily battle between passive flows, active managers, and short interest that's quietly reshaping how stocks move. The pair dig into Q2's biggest short squeezes, why energy left an "air pocket" below the April top, and the live Micron earnings playing out as levered hedge-fund dollars square off against record passive ownership.
Plus: the "Magnificent Ten," why space shorts only target pre-revenue names, and SpaceX shedding $250 billion in a single day.
Broadcast June 24, 2026.
Chapter Breakdown
00:00 — Intro
01:34 — Paramount-Skydance, Warner Bros. & the Antitrust Fight
07:09 — TikTok, Media Consolidation & the AG Lawsuit Threat
10:07 — College Sports Reform & the Cory Booker Puzzle
12:11 — Space Falls $250B in a Day — The Size of Alibaba
20:47 — Lockup Overhangs, Supply & Short Interest Spikes
22:04 — The Seventh Category of Market Data
25:33 — Energy: No Shorts, One-Way Bet & the Air Pocket
28:23 — Micron & Qualcomm: The Levered vs. Unlevered Dollar
30:40 — Qualcomm's Widening Ownership Gap & 5-Year-High Shorts
33:38 — The "Magnificent Ten" and the AI Proxy Trade
37:24 — Space Sector: Shorts Target Pre-Revenue Names
39:50 — Reading the SpaceX S-1: A $28 Trillion TAM
47:13 — Kevin Warsh, AI at the Fed & the Data Mandate
50:04 — The $6 Trillion Balance Sheet Problem
52:38 — Where to Catch Bob Next & Wrap
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