Bottlenecks and outliers: How we are evolving the Debasement Trade for the AI Abundance Shock
VMF Research - Top 10 Positions – March 2026
Since VMF Research’s inaugural issues in May 2024, we have been positioned for one of the most important trades of this cycle:
The Debasement Trade.
Gold.
Silver.
Miners.
Real assets.
Scarce claims.
Selected geographies and companies positioned to benefit from a world of excess debt, record deficits, fiscal dominance, and monetary fragility.
That trade has worked.
Our updated Leaderboard makes that clear.
Several of our Top 10 positions are still direct expressions of that original thesis. Some have doubled. Some have tripled. Some have been partially monetized. Some remain open because we believe the story is not over.
But here is the more important point:
The Debasement Trade is not dead.
But it is evolving.
Why?
Because another secular force is now colliding with it:
An Abundance Shock.
AI is making intelligence cheaper. It is compressing tasks. It is lowering the cost of software creation, analysis, content, coding, and workflows.
But cheaper intelligence does not make the whole system cheap.
Quite the opposite.
In a world where more things can be copied, automated, and generated at near-zero marginal cost, what is truly scarce becomes even more important.
Power.
Compute.
Copyright.
Licensing.
Regulatory permission.
Trusted data.
Physical infrastructure.
Embedded workflows.
Cultural IP.
Tollbooths.
That was the real theme of our April publishing cycle.
In VMF’s Strategic Asset Allocation, we published “The Great AI Washout” - explaining why the market’s panic in high-quality software had gone too far.
In VMF’s Security Selection, we published “The Best Seat in the House” - presenting a royalty-like business built on scarce music rights.
And in Alpha Tier, we published “Bottlenecks” - tying it all together: the next winners may be the businesses that capture AI-driven abundance while sitting on scarce assets, rights, rails, or permissions.
The Leaderboard shows what has already worked.
But beneath it, we are already planting the next generation of potential outperformers.
Because in markets, yesterday’s winners matter.
But today’s bottlenecks may become tomorrow’s outliers.
Stay tuned.
Vasco
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Disclaimer: This is general information, not personalized investment advice. It’s not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Investing involves risk, and past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. Do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed/authorized professional who understands your objectives and risk profile.”