Editor's Note: Executive Order 14330 instructed the Labor Department to open America's 401(k)s to private markets. Almost $10 trillion sits in those accounts, held by 70 million Americans. Very few of them have heard a word about it. One 40-year trading veteran has — and he isn't waiting. Here's what he's doing about it, below.

Dear Reader,

See this document?

It brings sweeping changes to your 401(k) — and yet almost nobody knows about it.

Hidden inside it is what one 40-year trading veteran calls the "biggest opportunity he's seen in years."

It's all right there in Section 3.

That's where Washington opens your retirement account up to a group of companies that have grown as much as 10,000%... 325,000%... and even 600,000%.

These are the fastest growing companies in America, previously off-limits to everyday folks.

But no longer — and yet that's not even the best part…

Because hedge fund legend Larry Benedict has spotted something in this executive order that almost nobody else has...

This executive order is about to transfer as much as $1 trillion of retirement money from one corner of the market to another…

And Larry has found the one ticker sitting in the path of this movement.

Click here to get the ticker positioned to capture a slice of that $1 trillion — free.

Regards,

Lauren Wingfield
Managing Editor, The Opportunistic Trader

P.S. The last time Washington rewrote the retirement rules, Larry's readers had the chance at 188% gains. Now it's happening again — on a far bigger scale. Get the ticker before the money starts moving here.

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

The shortage signal arrives only after contracts break.

China began licensing graphite exports in 2023. By late 2025, it added cathode and anode materials to the restricted list. European prices for restricted minerals hit three to five times Chinese domestic prices. The IEA documented the spread. No futures market gave warning before the squeeze hit.

The same pattern is forming again. This time, the material is high-purity manganese sulfate, known in the industry as HPMSM. It is the precursor chemical used to build battery cathodes. Not for one battery type. For nickel-cobalt-manganese cells, called NCM. For lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate cells, called LMFP. For sodium-ion. Every next-generation chemistry runs through it.

Most investors have never tracked it. The forces around it look familiar.

Three structural forces crushed graphite and rare-earth supply chains. A single-country processing monopoly. No exchange-traded market to broadcast price signals. Western policy working against its own stated goals. Those same three forces are now aligned around HPMSM. All three are already in place.

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The full strategy is revealed in this free interview.

China refines 95% of the world's HPMSM. The IEA and the U.S. International Trade Commission both confirm that number.

This is not mining dominance. Manganese ore comes from several countries. This is processing dominance. China converts raw ore into the battery-grade chemical that cathode makers require. The same chokepoint structure made graphite controls effective. Control the refining step and you control the supply.

The IEA flagged refined manganese as an emerging bottleneck. Not because demand is uncertain. Because demand is broad. NCM batteries need it. The newer LMFP chemistry needs it. Sodium-ion batteries need it. HPMSM sits underneath nearly every cathode technology being scaled today.

Observation: China holds 95% of global HPMSM refining. The chemical is required across NCM, LMFP, and sodium-ion cathodes.
Interpretation: This is a single point of failure for the battery supply chain. Not a niche exposure.

There is no futures contract for HPMSM. None. Pricing depends on specialist reports from firms such as CRU Group, project-specific scoping studies, and bespoke market-research estimates. When supply tightens, no public signal fires until contracts are already broken.

The IEA projects announced supply will cover only 55% of 2035 demand. CPM Group, a commodities research firm, sees a 475,000-tonne deficit by 2031. They use a different methodology and reach the same conclusion. Without new projects, CPM says the gap hits one million tonnes by 2037.

A deficit that size in copper or oil would dominate front pages for months. In HPMSM, there is no price chart to react to. No ticker. No daily close. The gap builds in the dark.

Observation: No futures contract exists for HPMSM. The IEA projects announced supply covers only 55% of 2035 demand.
Interpretation: The market has no mechanism to price this shortage in advance. The signal arrives only after supply fails.

Washington knows there is a problem. It has started to act, but on a small scale. The DOD awarded $20 million to South32's Hermosa project in Arizona. It was the first Defense Production Act award for manganese. The DOE added $166 million at the same site. Combined, that is $186 million for one project in one state.

The broader incentive structure is shrinking underneath it. The IRA's Section 45X tax credit covered 10% of production costs for critical minerals. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, phases that credit out. By 2031 it drops to 75%. By 2034 it hits zero.

Hermosa is the only advanced U.S. project for battery-grade manganese from domestic ore. South32's own filings confirm that. The credit that could close the gap with Chinese refiners is vanishing on schedule.

And there is a second clock. The Busan agreement paused U.S.-China export controls on rare earths and battery materials. That pause expires January 10, 2027. If it lapses, controls on batteries, battery components, and production technology go active. The Council on Foreign Relations names manganese among nine materials Beijing could target next.

Observation: The 45X tax credit phases to zero by 2034. The Busan truce expires January 10, 2027.
Interpretation: U.S. policy is pulling its own production incentive while the window before potential Chinese restrictions closes.

The graphite playbook ran in three stages. Processing concentration gave China structural leverage. No transparent pricing meant no early warning. Western policy moved too slowly, in some cases against itself.

HPMSM fits the same architecture. The concentration is higher. The price infrastructure is weaker. The one incentive designed to change the math is being phased out.

Two signals are worth watching. The first is any movement around the Busan truce before its January expiration. An extension holds the status quo. A lapse activates controls that could touch manganese directly. The second is whether the 45X phaseout triggers legislative pushback before 2031.

The IEA wrote in 2026 that "2025 marked the year when the economic risks of highly concentrated supply chains materialised at scale." That sentence was about minerals already restricted. The same three forces are now present around HPMSM. Whether the timeline rhymes is a question of policy and geopolitics, not chemistry.

Three forces, one pattern. China holds 95% of HPMSM refining. No futures market exists to price the gap. U.S. policy is pulling its own incentive for domestic alternatives. The signals to watch are the January truce date and the 45X phaseout schedule.

Until next time,
The Navigator