Not only did he love to sell puts, he also loaded up on on ES futs after his stat models gave their buy signals for an upcoming rally after N consecutive down days. These work 49/50 times until you get swept away by a tsunami in the 50th trade. Buying dips and exiting with a profit target delivers the exact same risk profile and equity curve as being short premium. Niederhoffer was not only a gambler, but a gambler with a huge ego. He publicly pissed on anyone subscribing to a different methodology than his own, arguing there was no 'statistical merit in momentum trading, technical analysis and value investing'. Traders that engaged in them were delusional sheep to him.
You need to realize that he has the calculations, testing and data to back up the claim of their being no edge to...... in other words the math proves it-- now you can argue that stats isnt' relevant or the testing is flawed but that's another story.... surf
I worship no person, i just like some better than others. I really have no idea what happened with Soro's son--- would be interesting to find out! surf
Huh? May I suggest this to you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innumeracy_(book) I am far from an advanced math guy, but at least I know enough to hire, work with and associate with others that have the skills I lack rather than dismissing it. surf
Save your suggestions, I've aced every math course I ever took, up to and including advanced calculus. So I'll make this simple even for someone as admittedly challenged as you are.: A trend is directional bias. A drift is directional bias. It's not rocket science. You can actually figure out some of this trading stuff yourself, surf. Nit everything has to come like a proclamation from some "guru" imitating Moses descending from Mount Sinai with stone tablets.
"Robert Daniel Soros, Managing Partner and Co-Chairman at Soros Fund Management LLC, has been with the company since 1994. He is also a partner at Soros Private Equity Partners and is responsible for private equities and real estate investing for the Quantum group of funds."
Anybody in search of a hero, here is the summary of Soros' fund's story for a Sunday reading: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/soros-fund-management-llc-history/ Relevant part to this discussion: "When the currencies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea came under assault from speculators in the summer of 1997, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused Soros and other money managers of deliberately destabilizing Asian regimes. Soros replied that his company's funds had made only minor trades in Southeast Asian currencies over the last two months. Druckenmiller added that Quantum had sold the Thai and Malaysian currencies short, but in the early spring, before the crisis. Ironically, he--and other Soros fund managers--bought as much as $1.8 billion worth of the Indonesian rupiah. "The IMF program [to support the currency] was as comprehensive as any I've seen," he explained, "but [Indonesian President] Suharto just reneged on it. I was naive about the level of corruption there," he told Riva Atlas." Best part: "Quantum Fund posted a 17 percent return in 1997..."