Kingsview CIO Scott Martin on Fox News | The Will Cain Show – 5.15.25
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WILL CAIN: Joining me now is Scott Martin from Kingsview Asset Management. Scott, it’s great to see you—thanks for being here.
SCOTT MARTIN: Great to see you too. We haven’t been live since ’84, so that was our year. Good to know—great historical reference.
WILL CAIN: It just shows—I’m not sure it’s panic or short-term economic thinking, which affects a lot of people. It might simply be that they had a narrative in mind they wanted to come true. And unfortunately, that narrative didn’t survive even one month.
SCOTT MARTIN: Not even a month. And really, if the narrative was spun the right way, Will—and the way we manage money—we took advantage of that panic. Dave Portnoy gives advice on pizza, bad advice on betting sports, and even worse advice on selling out of your 401(k). When I hear people like that going nuts in the streets, I say, “You know what? I’m doing the exact opposite.” So we started buying into the sell-off. Because that’s what you have to do as an investor: take advantage of panic and take advantage of opportunity. And that turns into something like what you just saw—this month-long rally. I mean, look at the Nasdaq—up 6.4%.
WILL CAIN: The Nasdaq—
SCOTT MARTIN: The Nasdaq was practically dead 30 days ago.
WILL CAIN: Right. And President Trump—and also Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent—have been upfront that this is a long-term vision. There will be rocky roads in the short term. I’m no financial expert, and I disagree with Trump on a lot of politics, but in my lifetime, the smartest investor has been Warren Buffett. He has never been one to think short-term—always long-term. And Trump has told us: this is about the long game.
SCOTT MARTIN: He did. And he’s making moves that say the long-term is locked in. He even said there would be some short-term pain—and if we can’t deal with 30 days of that, well… those 30 days weren’t even that bad. There were like five rough days, 20 okay days, and maybe five more that weren’t so great. That’s not bad. If you want to talk about bad times—Jim Cramer, we talked about him—go back to 1987. He freaked people out on CNBC talking about Black Monday after a nasty Friday. Those were painful days. What we’ve had this spring? That was a cakewalk.
WILL CAIN: Don’t you think, too, Scott, that the story isn’t over? We’re not at the end of the parade with the band playing. Trump, Bessent, Lutnick—they still have a long-term vision at play. There will be more rocky roads ahead over the next 9 to 12 months as they try to literally reorganize the global economy.
SCOTT MARTIN: Yeah—probably forever—because we’re dealing with massive, indiscriminate trade policies from other countries, including China. And you’re right: “rocky road”—you mentioned my favorite ice cream. We should get some after we start a new band—once we get back to all-time highs in the S&P and Nasdaq, which are right around the corner. Because here’s the thing: we’re acting like this is all said and done, and it’s not. It’s not time to grab a bag of mushrooms and go listen to the Grateful Dead like Janet Yellen apparently did in China a few years ago—when she was either Treasury Secretary or Fed Chair, if she even remembers. The point is, those happy times aren’t quite here yet, but the arrow is pointing much higher than it was six weeks ago.
WILL CAIN: And it’s certainly not pointing down, like the panic suggested.
SCOTT MARTIN: Exactly. Everybody panicked—which I love. I’m a fan of mannequins, and now kins too, if I can say that. But here’s what happens now, Will: we’ve kind of seen the framework for how Trump is going to lay out his playbook. And now we’ll hopefully start to see more countries come together. Even though Trump can be brash, a little heavy-handed with his language—he wants to make deals. He wants to be fair. He wants everyone to work together. And that’s pretty awesome, considering that over the last four years, we didn’t do much of anything.
WILL CAIN: Awesome stuff. Scott, you’re welcome back anytime.
SCOTT MARTIN: Thanks, man. I appreciate that—I’ll take you up on it.
WILL CAIN: That was a bit of a feminine handshake. I preferred the—
SCOTT MARTIN: Right hand was a panicked handshake, I think. I shouldn’t have done it—next time I’ll go left-hand down. I’ll do better.
WILL CAIN: Alright, coming up…
