Welcome to Super-Spiked!

The energy transition is getting unnecessarily messy...it doesn't have to be this way

Welcome to Super-Spiked by Arjun Murti, a newsletter that aims to make sense of what looks like an increasingly messy energy transition. Throughout my 30 year Wall Street career researching and analyzing global energy markets, I have found mainstream media, political, and even institutional investor narratives often badly miss the mark on what drives energy markets and prices. The political left and right (USA), in particular, often create false binaries that mis-inform the public, unfortunately amplified by non-energy experts in the media. I have a deep disdain for partisan politics and this newsletter is not about supporting one side or the other.

My hope is to use whatever platform my Wall Street career has enabled to shed light on the efficacy (or not) of various energy & climate policies, market developments, and related topics and how they impact all of us, in particular the least fortunate. The world needs abundant, available, affordable, and secure energy, ideally with as small of an environmental and carbon footprint as possible. But I don’t see how we will ever solve climate without first, or at least simultaneously, ending energy poverty and securing energy access for all.

I am American so undoubtedly have the biases and perspectives that come with this great country that I have been truly blessed to have been born, raised, and live. Even as some of the views will imply a bullish or bearish energy macro, no one should make the leap to any particular investment conclusion or trade. This is not an investment newsletter and I will not be evaluating the merits of particular trades, sector, or stock calls.

Constructive comments and pushbacks are welcomed. My Wall Street track record provides indisputable proof that I am often wrong even if I come across as a never-in-doubt know-it-all as I was recently described. In my career I have made some good calls as well, but there is no guarantee I will ever be right again. So be forewarned: you may well get what you paid for here. I do reserve the right to charge for a subscription to Super-Spiked in the future, as there is no certainty I will be able to afford my Bloomberg terminal into perpetuity.

I do not miss working full-time as a Wall Street analyst, but I do miss the interaction, debate, discussion, pushback, friendly and sometimes less friendly back-and-forth with many of my former institutional investor clients. It was the best part of my old job. It is one of the reasons I started Super-Spiked. I hope some of you will start reading this and reach out via the Comments section or on Twtitter or via my former colleagues.

I am writing in my name to reflect only my personal views. Nothing I write should be attributed to any affiliation I have, past or present. Like anything on the Internet, read with skepticism and assume this author has real or perceived conflicts of interest. However, my analyst certification to you is that everything I write 100% reflects my strongly held personal views at the time of the original posting. I write on no one’s behalf except my own.

By publishing without charge, I remain free to write without any set frequency and only on topics or at times where I feel I have a differentiated view. I never liked maintenance research. Think of this as a long-form version of my Twitter feed (@ArjunNMurti). The goal for both is to get my point across with as few words as I can hold myself to; it’s what I love about Twitter: character-count enforced discipline. I better end this post soon. It’s already too long!

Regards,

Arjun