LATEST BLOGS

Welcome To Iceland

Kviabryggja Prison in western Iceland doesn’t need walls, razor wire, or guard towers to keep the convicts inside. Alone on a wind-swept cape, the old farmhouse is bound by the frigid North Atlantic on one side and fields of snow-covered lava rock on another. To the east looms Snaefellsjokull, a dormant volcano blanketed by a…

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The Tide Turns

FOR decades looking after other people’s money has been a lucrative business. Profit margins in the asset-management industry were 39% in 2014, according to BCG, a consultancy, compared with 8% in consumer goods and 20% in pharmaceuticals. The industry’s global profits in 2014 were an estimated $102 billion, allowing firms to pay those picking stocks…

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals

The ongoing saga of Valeant and its capacity to make dickheads out of apparently the hedge fund industries best and brightest intrigues me because it displays the power of the narrative over rational decision making. Consider that hedge fund managers are the highest paid individuals in the world and for their multi billion dollar salaries…

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Hedge fund closures return to crisis highs

Here is my idea for running a hedge fund – open the fund- take everyone’s money – buy an index ETF and then bugger off. I will be hailed a genius because I will trounce 99.9% of all other hedge fund managers. More hedge funds closed their doors in 2015 than at any time since…

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Be Careful What You Wish For

There is an old saying that goes along the lines of be careful what you wish for, it might come true. From my recent conversations with traders it seems as if this philosophy has started to creep into their psych. The local market seems to have stabilized and commodity prices seem to be moving in…

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On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit

Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound bullshit, which consists of seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous. We presented participants with…

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