Your slavish devotion is so cloyingly strong it almost induces a physical reaction. The lemmings comment was clearly oriented to Niederhoffer's "pseudo-alpha" strategy (your alter-ego fat cat's characterization), i.e. raking in the premium until disaster hits. Of those Niederhoffer students you just listed, how many of them made their name selling volatility as a core strategy? How many of them have blown up spectacularly with no discernible change in habits? How many are deeply prone to pathological self-aggrandizement? In fact, is there ANYONE out there with a great long term track record centered around selling volatility? Anyone at all? It would seem the long term viability of Vic's favorite play is one big empirical canard.
We should tie this thread in with the trend following thread at some point. Its interesting how these market times always seem to blow certain kinds of traders up, but the trend followers are the only ones that live to tell the tail. Neiderhoffer needs a 42.857% return to get back to even for the year.
The mind boggles. Words cannot describe. Remember a little thread called "trend following delusion shattered?" Remember how quick a certain someone was with the shovel, even as some of the trend followers being buried were making their way to new highs? I can see why you are so fixated on Vic. You're both deluded to the point of no return.
I have a deep admiration for Niederhoffer, consider him to be a genius. The fact that he went belly-up and his been able to restablish his hedge fund makes him more admirable. This guy has been on top of the world and on bottom of the ladder and now his moving back to the top. Read his two books and visit everyday his website and have nothing to say thanks to this guy for changing the way I understand trading. Following the advice provided on his website I bought "Secrets of Professional Turf Betting", which might be among the best books on trading. I highly recommend it.
That's not how it works. High water marks are normally based on monthly (sometimes quarterly) results, not yearly. This is from one fund's offering documents: Prospective investors should note that even though Incentive Allocations are computed and allocable as of the end of each calendar quarter, such Incentive Allocations will accrue monthly.
great book, pope! for those of you who don't know who we are talking about, or would like more information on VN's ideas, here's the transcript of a discussion i had with him several months ago: http://www.dailyspeculations.com/vic/goodboy_interview.html enjoy, surfer
Point taken. If anyone knows anything about basing conclusions on incomplete and/or erroneous information, then you certainly do.
my first post here - but to go belly up indicates a very poor risk manangement strategy. I would say.. If it has happned once - it will happen again!! what happened to cut your losses...... does anyone understand risk/reward ratio...... These are sound principles. The mind boggles at gulibility of people.- there is a saying" sell the shovel - not the gold"
surf - please tell me what I do not know. I have posts from years ago explaining the business model and how it is really just a scam in which you collect fees to you blow up. You are just hoping you start taking in lots of customer money for a period of time before you blow up. You are betting that the black swan hits later rather than sooner. By the way I asked you to explain why I am wrong when I made the same accusations in the past. Before you even mentioned matador. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=72680&highlight=swan#post72680