Realism in returns

Recently there has been a discussion on our mentor forum regarding trading for income versus trading for capital growth. I have been party to many such discussions over the years and one thing that tends to be common in all of them is the notion that returns are linear. For example if a CAGR of…

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Reading List

Okay blogophytes time to makes yourselves a little smarter. I am currently ripping through the following books – Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives Revised edition (Financial Times Series) The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis Michael Lewis wrote one of my favourite books of…

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Summation of the Dow

Dow Jones Industrial Average Long term data · Highest intraday level (12419.71 at 12:08:49 on 4.1.11) since June 6, 2008. · Down 1787.81 points, or 12.62%, from its record close of 14164.53 on October 9, 2007. · Up 13.27% from 52 weeks ago. · Up 89.04% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 on March…

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Japanese Engineers.

I have a leaking pipe on my nature strip and it has been leaking for ages. I reported the problem to Yarra Valley water six months ago and they sent out a bloke who in a somewhat disinterested manner stuck a wooden stake into the ground with a little flag on it. When asked what…

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Irrational Beings

Within the world of trading one would have an expectation that rationality was a key underlying feature in not only the decisions we made, but also the underlying philosophy that guided market participants in general. As a poor example of this expectation that markets are rational and therefore predictable consider this somewhat inane little puff…

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