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 4th, 2026 | 07:05 CET
Solution to a billion-dollar problem: MustGrow Biologics validates business model – Revolutionary news also for Bayer and Corteva Agriscience
Canola is to Canada what oil is to Saudi Arabia: an economic driver of enormous proportions. With an estimated production value of around CAD 14 billion in 2025, the yellow-flowering crop is the "green gold" of the prairie. Yet this billion-dollar market is in danger: clubroot, an aggressive soil-borne disease, threatens crops and is already causing annual losses exceeding CAD 500 million. Previous solutions have reached their biological limits, but now the Canadian AgriTech company MustGrow Biologics is reporting a decisive success. As the company announced on Tuesday, its proprietary TerraMG™ technology has not only suppressed the disease in large-scale field trials, but also significantly increased yields. For agricultural giants like Bayer and Corteva, this could be the decisive lever to protect their high-performance seed varieties over the long term.
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Commented by Nico Popp on February 3rd, 2026 | 07:20 CET
The gold correction is irrelevant here: Why Desert Gold is the missing piece of the puzzle for B2Gold and Allied Gold
The gold market is in a phase that analysts now refer to as a supercycle. With prices breaking historical records, smart capital is turning its attention to the world's most productive regions – even after the recent correction in precious metals. West Africa, and specifically the Senegal-Mali Shear Zone (SMSZ), is considered the geological heartland. This is where some of the largest and richest mines on the planet are located. But the business follows an inexorable logic: even the largest mines are emptying, and the processing plants need to be kept busy. This is true in the south of the zone for Canadian giant B2Gold with its world-class Fekola mine and in the north for Allied Gold, which is revitalizing the historic Sadiola asset. Desert Gold is considered a potential supporter of both companies. The company controls the largest non-producing land parcel in the entire region, located precisely between the two giants. This makes Desert Gold extremely interesting for investors.
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Commented by Nico Popp on February 3rd, 2026 | 07:10 CET
New Options for Agnico Eagle and Barrick Mining: How RZOLV Technologies Supports the Gold Industry’s Next Processing Frontier
Gold continues to command global attention. In a period marked by economic uncertainty and geopolitical tension, demand for the metal remains strong, reinforcing its role as a store of value and a strategic asset. For gold producers, this environment highlights not only opportunity, but also the importance of operational flexibility as ore characteristics, permitting frameworks, and processing requirements evolve.
For decades, cyanide leaching has been a reliable and indispensable foundation of the gold industry, enabling the economic development of countless deposits worldwide. Today, however, producers increasingly encounter specific ore types, jurisdictions, and operating conditions where supplementary or alternative processing approaches can add value alongside established methods. It is within these clearly defined contexts that RZOLV Technologies is positioning itself—as a technology partner to the industry, not a disruptor of proven practices.
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Commented by Nico Popp on February 3rd, 2026 | 07:00 CET
Crash as a reality check for AMD and First Majestic: Why silver and AI are correcting while Almonty stands firm on rising tungsten prices
Market sentiment has shifted sharply in recent weeks: what began as profit-taking has developed into a real stress test for investors' nerves. The sectors most celebrated in recent months – AI stocks and precious metals – have taken a beating. Yet amid this turmoil, one phenomenon is emerging that should make investors sit up and take notice: the tungsten market is completely decoupled from the crash and, seemingly immune to Wall Street panic, is hitting new highs. Tungsten, the indispensable backbone of Western defense and heavy industry, is becoming more expensive while almost everything else is falling. In this environment, Almonty Industries is emerging as a quasi-monopolist with excellent prospects to deliver long-term gains for its shareholders.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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