At home in Southern Germany, the passionate stock exchange expert has been accompanying the capital markets for about twenty years. With a soft spot for smaller companies, he is constantly on the lookout for exciting investment stories. That it depends thereby less on large names, but on the future potential and whether the market also recognizes these perspectives, was one of its first learnings at the stock exchange.
On these pages, Nico examines current events at listed companies and takes a closer look at companies that are traded under the radar of the market, in addition to well-known securities.
In order to be able to take advantage of speculative opportunities on the stock exchange, Nico not only focuses on a balanced asset allocation of defensive and opportunity-oriented securities, but also on an intact risk management. "In addition to position size and entry in several tranches, investors should also develop a sense of timing and get to know a stock better before investing," says the columnist.
Commented by Nico Popp
Commented by Nico Popp on February 2nd, 2026 | 07:25 CET
Energy from waste, as at Verbio: CHAR Technologies as the savior of the steel industry – competition for market leader SunCoke Energy
The steel industry is facing a severe test that is often glossed over in ESG reports. While politicians, the media, and futurologists dream of green hydrogen, this vision collides with harsh reality: steel, the basic material of our modern civilization, cannot be produced in existing plants without solid carbon. It serves not only as an energy source, but also as a chemical reducing agent to extract oxygen from iron ore and as a support structure in the furnace. Against this backdrop, it becomes clear that decarbonization cannot be achieved by completely eliminating carbon, but only by replacing its fossil origin. In this billion-dollar market, the Canadian company CHAR Technologies is positioning itself as a key problem solver. While the established market leader SunCoke Energy still relies on fossil coal and is increasingly under margin pressure, CHAR's biochar is an immediately available, climate-neutral solution. At the same time, Verbio's success in Europe shows that scaling up waste materials to energy works – a logic that CHAR is now applying to the steel sector.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on February 2nd, 2026 | 07:15 CET
Not all nickel is created equal: How Power Metallic Mines stands out from the crowd – Talon Metals and Magna Mining as role models
The nickel market has been experiencing a split for some time now, forcing investors to rethink their strategies. At first glance, there is enough of this important industrial metal available, as Indonesia has flooded the markets in the past with material from its huge laterite deposits. But appearances can be deceiving. There have long been two markets for nickel: a market for bulk nickel, which is produced primarily in Indonesia with high energy consumption and questionable environmental standards, and a premium market for high-purity, ESG-compliant sulfide nickel, which is indispensable for the high-performance batteries of the Western automotive industry. While prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) are capped by the Indonesian oversupply, strategists such as Tesla and GM are paying significant premiums behind closed doors for material that is not only chemically pure but also geopolitically and ecologically sound. In this exclusive club of North American nickel projects, Power Metallic Mines is positioning itself as one of the most exciting stocks. With its high-grade NISK discovery in Québec, the Company occupies precisely the niche that Donald Trump has declared a matter of national security through the US "One Big Beautiful Bill" legislation.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on February 2nd, 2026 | 07:00 CET
Uranium rush in the Athabasca Basin: Stallion Uranium follows in the footsteps of NexGen Energy – an opportunity for Cameco too?
The global energy industry is currently experiencing a renaissance that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Driven by the insatiable appetite for electricity of AI data centers and the geopolitical imperative to become independent of fossil fuel imports, nuclear power is making a comeback as an indispensable source of base load power. However, the nuclear power comeback is facing a harsh reality: the supply of nuclear fuel is lagging behind demand. While reactors are running longer and new ones are coming online, suppliers' inventories are running low. This structural supply deficit has sparked a race for the few remaining world-class deposits. The center of this search is in Saskatchewan, Canada, more specifically in the southwestern Athabasca Basin. A clear hierarchy has emerged here. Industry giant Cameco must produce, developer NexGen Energy has proven the geological potential, and explorer Stallion Uranium has secured the strategically crucial land package to cause a sensation with the next big discovery. We get to the bottom of the details.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 30th, 2026 | 07:25 CET
The hunt for the cancer pill from BioNTech & Co.: Why Eli Lilly's billion-dollar bet is a wake-up call for Vidac Pharma
It is one of the oldest rules in the biotech sector: when the big pharmaceutical companies can no longer grow on their own, they open their coffers. The latest billion-dollar deal between US giant Eli Lilly and Dresden-based startup Seamless Therapeutics is more than just a headline – it is a wake-up call for the entire industry. Eli Lilly, now one of the most valuable companies in the world, is desperately seeking innovations to secure its pipeline beyond its booming weight-loss injections. This hunger for new mechanisms of action inevitably focuses attention on small, specialized companies researching revolutionary approaches. In this environment, Vidac Pharma is becoming the focus of strategic investors. The Company is working on an approach that is as elegant as it is radical: it aims to starve cancer rather than poison it by manipulating its metabolism. While Eli Lilly and BioNTech are spreading their billions across a wide range of areas, Vidac is delivering precisely the kind of specialized "deep science" that is often lacking in the pipelines of the big players.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 29th, 2026 | 07:40 CET
Flight to substance: How Chevron, Hapag-Lloyd, and RE Royalties are weatherproofing portfolios
Many investors are currently experiencing a vague sense of unease when they look at their portfolios. On paper, the returns of recent years look fantastic, driven by an unprecedented boom in artificial intelligence (AI). But when taking a closer look, one can see the cluster risk: The MSCI World, once synonymous with broad diversification, is now effectively a technology fund. Giants such as NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft dominate the indices to such an extent that a correction in the tech sector would drag down the entire portfolio. In this phase of market saturation, with valuations running high and global politics seeming more unpredictable than ever, investors are returning to an old virtue: cash flow. Dividend stocks are back in vogue – not as a boring addition, but as an indispensable anchor. We analyse three companies that promise stability in this environment: the indestructible energy giant Chevron, the logistics group Hapag-Lloyd, and the Canadian energy specialist RE Royalties, which has established a particularly smart model.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 28th, 2026 | 06:55 CET
The Amazon effect in the commodities sector: Why Almonty Industries is on the path to strategic invulnerability
There is an exclusive league of companies whose business models have developed such appeal that they are beyond traditional competition. When consumers think of online retail today, Amazon is almost inevitably the first port of call. When it comes to athletic performance, Nike is the global leader. These corporations have created so-called economic moats that are based not only on marketing, but also on deep integration into our everyday lives. A similar development is now emerging in the strategic raw materials sector, albeit largely unnoticed by the general public. Almonty Industries, a Western producer of the critical metal tungsten, is in the process of establishing a position that is structurally reminiscent of the dominance of the big tech giants. While China has historically controlled the global tungsten market, Almonty is building its Western counterpart with its Sangdong mine in South Korea and other projects. The Company holds the largest tungsten deposit outside China. It combines this geological uniqueness with technological foresight that transforms it from a simple mining company into an indispensable partner for the defense and high-tech industries.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 27th, 2026 | 07:25 CET
Double dividends for Amazon & Co.: How CHAR Technologies combines the business models of Clean Energy Fuels and Carbon Streaming
The global energy landscape is currently undergoing a quiet but tremendous change. While electric trucks are still often discussed in the headlines, the titans of the logistics industry have long been making progress on a completely different track. Driven by the need to improve their carbon footprints immediately, giants such as Amazon and UPS are investing heavily in renewable natural gas (RNG). This trend has triggered strong demand for green molecules that can use existing infrastructure without having to wait for the expansion of the power grids. But parallel to this physical market, a second, purely financial sector is booming in the background: trading in certificates for the permanent removal of carbon dioxide. Investors are now willing to pay premiums for verified, high-quality certificates. The Canadian company CHAR Technologies is positioning itself in both of these markets. CHAR combines the best of both worlds. Its plants produce the RNG urgently needed by the logistics industry and, at the same time, generate the premium certificates that are currently the most expensive on the carbon market through the production of biochar.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 27th, 2026 | 07:10 CET
Perpetua Resources and Mandalay as role models: How Antimony Resources is closing China's antimony gap
There are raw materials that have led a shadowy existence for decades, only to suddenly become a matter of national security overnight. Antimony is just such a case. The shiny silver semi-metal was invisible to investors for a long time, but geopolitical shifts have catapulted it into the spotlight. Without antimony, there would be no armor-piercing ammunition, no night vision devices, and no high-performance batteries for the energy transition. Alarm bells have been ringing in Western defense ministries ever since China, which dominates the market, drastically restricted exports of this strategic material, effectively using it as a geopolitical weapon. In this scenario, where physical availability is suddenly more important than price, a huge supply deficit is emerging. While the big mining companies often ignore this niche market, Canadian raw materials company Antimony Resources is positioning itself precisely in this gap. With a strategic project in stable Canada, the Company offers the answer to the question of where the West should source its antimony in the future.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 23rd, 2026 | 07:15 CET
Revolution in agricultural chemistry: How MustGrow Biologics is benefiting from the plight of Bayer and Corteva
Global agriculture is at a historic turning point, driven less by a belief in technological progress than by regulatory necessity. For decades, global food security has been based on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, but that era is rapidly coming to an end. Authorities from Brussels to California are tightening the screws and banning established active ingredients one after the other because their ecological collateral damage is no longer tolerated. For the agricultural giants, this poses an existential threat: their full warehouses are in danger of becoming worthless if they do not find effective biological alternatives quickly enough. In the current extremely hectic environment in industry, which is characterized by billion-dollar acquisitions and strategic alliances, new power structures are emerging. While Corteva Agriscience is aggressively buying market share with its chequebook and Bayer is pushing ahead with its portfolio restructuring, the Canadian company MustGrow Biologics has carved out a position that is considered the "sweet spot" in the industry. The Company is the technology partner whose active ingredients have already been validated and licensed by the market leaders.
Read
Commented by Nico Popp on January 23rd, 2026 | 07:05 CET
The battle for resources is being fought in the data room: How Aspermont Uses AI to Boost the Returns of Rio Tinto, Alamos Gold & Co.
It is the greatest paradox of the modern economy: while demand for copper, lithium, and rare earths is exploding due to trade wars and the insatiable appetite of the AI industry, building a new mine has never been more difficult. Large mining corporations are increasingly failing not because of geology, but because of bureaucracy, environmental regulations, and, in remote regions of the world, geopolitical pitfalls. In this new era, where a legally binding permit is often more valuable than spectacular drilling results, validated information is becoming the most critical resource in the commodities sector. Analyst firms such as McKinsey and the International Energy Agency (IEA) warn of a massive structural supply deficit, as the development of new mines in the West often requires more than a decade of legal wrangling. It is precisely in this area of tension that the Australian media and tech company Aspermont is positioning itself as the decisive problem solver. With a treasure trove of data spanning centuries of industrial history and a new alliance with industry giant Rio Tinto, the Company is transforming itself from a media company into a kind of "Google of mining" – offering investors an opportunity based on intelligence rather than luck.
Read