This piece is about how to raise children to be more resilient in the face of both natural talent and adversity. However, the following caught my eye as being universal. People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some students give up when they…
For those who do not know who Werner Herzog is GIYF 1. Always take the initiative.2. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting the shot you need.3. Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey.4. Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private…
I awoke this morning to catch the following market move being played out. These numbers were accompanied by the usual hand wringing and they did cause me to drop a long options position of mine since I was getting too close to the nasty part of the time decay curve. However, an options position is…
One of the things I find most interesting about traders is the number of preconceived notions they have about various instruments. For example, FX trading is traditionally associated with trading very short time frames. FX traders tend to have conniptions if you suggest that they trade anything longer than a tick chart. However, this is…
This is my favourite chart of last year. It is my favourite chart not for the reasons that might immediately spring to mind. I do a year end review of trades that come my way – the aim on doing so is to perform a rigorous form of self assessment. Over the years I have…
Anyone who says the American Dream is dead doesn’t work at a hedge fund. Last year, hedge fund employees earned more money for lower performance. The 2015 Hedge Fund Compensation report indicates that hedge fund professionals’ bonuses and salaries increased this year, and that funds plan to boost hiring in the near future. However, according to…
This dropped into my feed this morning and it is intriguing how it is not only in trading that our brain tricks us into doing the wrong thing. The notion that the way you do one thing is the way you do everything still rngs true. One of the curses of being human is that…
A few weeks ago I did a dodgy analysis of oil versus shale and put together a league table of production costs for various oil producers. The Economist has done a much tidier job.
Now I know why I have never done classes – they are full of sad narcissistic dickheads….. Greccia Clausen, a Manhattan accountant, approaches her quest for a front-row bike at SoulCycle like the numbers game it is. Every Monday at noon, when the booking window opens, she and a friend each try to grab two…
Anyone who has ever been to Japan and spent time with the Japanese will know that their definition of odd is very different from ours….. The Wall Street Journal has finally caught on to Tokyo’s “impossibly skinny houses” phenomenon (Remember that 10-foot-wide “lantern” home? And that 9.8-foot-wide wall house? Plus the thinnest “Flatiron building” ever?) Anyway, in a new piece…
Economists at the University of Zurich, Michel Maréchal, Alain Cohn and Ernst Fehr, set out to learn whether bankers are in fact more likely to cheat. They particularly focused on whether people who consciously thought of themselves as bankers (and acted under this moniker) were more likely to cheat than when they had their non-professional…
