Niederhoffer In Trouble..... Again !!

"But regrettably, duplicity is very, very important in life. The direct approach always creates tremendous obstruction and friction from the adversary, so often the indirect approach is necessary."

Thoreau, "the eagle"
 
beautiful reply and straight to the ACTUAL point, the rest is meaningless...

Quote from Gabfly1:

Your concern is most touching. Suddenly, this thread is about me and not about a man who has arguably succumbed to moral hazard by gaming the system to the full under the pretense of scientific observation and calculated risk. As it appears to me, the only calculating being done is on performance compensation with little or no regard to the inevitable and catastrophic downside associated with overleveraged risk taking.

Yes, what is wrong with me? Only flawed people would find such conduct, coupled with crass attention-seeking behavior, to be distasteful. :p
 
Taleb has never been considered a highly talented trader, never has he been portrayed as such either. Niederhoffer has fallen victim to his own overblown ego and arrogance, someone who failed that often and blew away the investments he was supposed to safeguard and still believes he is completely misunderstood by the rest of the world is probably supposed to be hammered down by his creator like a nail each time it sticks out. At least he comes across as a guy who has an extremely hard time to learn from mistakes because he does not believe those were mistakes in the first place.

So much about two people who both will never end up in the traders' or investors' hall of fame.

Re your comment on the correlation between consistent gains and the application of scientific and statistical approaches to trading, I think you are a little too naive. Could you have possibly forgotten some other elements? What about prudent risk management, patience, the correct reading of fear and greed (something that I have thus far not seen properly priced by any algorithm that I have ever come across), among others. That is precisely the point why Niederhoffer goes down time and again, because he thinks he has it all figured out with his competitive character and Harvard degree and S-Plus and Spreadsheet statistical approach to markets, while being completely ignorant on proper risk management, alas pulling the emergency exit string.

P.S.: Its utterly funny how a guy still believes a huge dump in global markets was connected in whatsoever way with his positions he was holding at that time.


Quote from thoreau777:

I found the referenced New Yorker article to be unfairly biased against Victor Niederhoffer, and I took mild offense to it. I am familiar with the article and so do knowingly object to its inferences. If you base your trading entirely on the notion of black swans, you will fail. As Nassim once told me, he is determined not to "blow up", but then his fund has consistently underperformed. He spoke to me two years ago and continued to purchase puts at the lows of the 2008 meltdown... before the S&P vaulted up nearly 80%. What do you think happened to the value of the puts he purchased then? Please read Francis Galton's works on the "Art of Travel" and his works on Meterology 1855 to gain a better understanding of the current times of the markets. The article just cut and pasted quotes from Victor Niederhoffer to paint his theories in the worst possible light. Taking a scientific and statistical approach to the markets to exploit and capture gains is the true method to consistent gains.
 
Quote from 1outernational:

What you (Asia and thunderfly) are missing is victor wasn't paid to safeguard assets.

Doubt it.

You perceive investors wanted to "take a flier and go for broke" with the money they had with him. And if they lost it all, oh well. They may have SAID that in the beginning, but what they REALLY meant was "make me a BIG return, but don't lose my money"...
 
Quote from 1outernational:

Sure. No one wants to lose money. Just some sophisticated investors understand that risk is needed to make big returns and are willing to take that risk with a small portion of there assets. Victor produced outsized returns for years.

So what? If he blows up and loses it all, having made bank in prior years means nothing.

I can tell that you have never managed OPM. You're all talk and no experience.. just like Obama and his administration.
 
So, let me see whether I understood you correctly: You understand the risk-return relationship, bravo. And diversification is no foreign term to you, even better. That things can go bad is a probability certain sophisticated investors take into account, agreed with you. However, Magic Vic fuxxed up 3 times to such large order that he lost his investors hundreds of millions of dollars. There is something that is called maximum draw down. That is why Tiger closed certain funds, thats why Soros closed certain funds because max drawdown was reached.

Vic, however, could not overcome his ego and had to double down and rather go for total defeat. After all he applied what he learned. There are only winners or losers, nothing in between. Not only did he do it once, not twice, three times, and thats only what is documented in popular media. The problem I have with this guy that he is blaming the rest of the world for his mistakes, yet he learns fuxxing NOTHING. He is not even aware of his statistical fallacies. He steadfastly believes that he is right and the markets figured it all wrong, thats the funny part. What I DONT UNDERSTAND is people who still entrust this guy with a dime. From now on, those who invest with him deserve to lose. Enough said!!!

Quote from 1outernational:

What you (Asia and thunderfly) are missing is victor wasn't paid to safeguard assets.

He gets paid to take risks with small portions of the ultra wealthy's and some institutional money. That is his job that is his role. Allow me to place this into words that you can understand as thunderflys mind is clouded with the virtues of socialism and disdain for those who excell and reach high.

If you buy penny stocks with 5% of your portfolio for the chance of outsized returns. Are you being irresponsible? Or is this wise allocation because the upside Is so huge.

Although what victor does is far more sophisticated and contains less risk. It is what he is paid to do. Paid to create outsized returns. There are 1000s of funds tgat could be chosen if you want to market safe returns. I don't get the hate. Other than the clear philosophical difference.

You seem like a smart guy Asiaso ease let us know if you can figure out a way to make outsized returns without taking big risk. I have not been able to figure that out. Thanks.
 
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