Niederhoffer-- A tragic heroe?

Sounds like a niederhoffer. Think he will be a future jessie Livemore one day? A tragic hero of herculean proportions, inspiring traders 20/1000 years from now? Or will he be relegated to the dustbin of history?

 

dustbin

 

His strategy was to sell naked puts when premiums were at historic lows. He got what was coming to him.

 

You may have been bum steered: gambling, or making money -- looking at it either way -- is about the least heroic and least tragic activity I can think of. Granted, I may be contemptuous of what is familiar to me, but ask the vast masses who don't speculate how much heroism and tragedy they associate with the activity. Their answer is the correct one.

 

he got his fees didn't he? have you guys considered that he knew he was going to blow up, but he also knew that the steady income stream that he generates before he blows up is enough to raise a bunch of money and earn him tons of fees?

 

Marketsurfer should be here to suck his....oops, I mean...defend Vic any minute now.

 

As traderbee implies and I have said many times in the past - VN may be a great squash player and a smart guy. But he was either one of the best salesman, con men in wall street history - or he was one of the most insecure, ego driven, self destructive people to ever be in charge of 100s of millions of dollars.

 

Hard to be impressed with a money manager who can't control risk in a professional manner.

I can understand one mistake in a high risk game. The way he played it says he was a dilletante, not a pro. Too bad..

 

I could not have said it better.

 

Trying to achieve anything extremely difficult, at significant risk, has a certain heroic quality. Speculators realistically striving for top notch performance are trying for something difficult, and taking serious risks to do so. Burger flippers, truck drivers, and accountants are not.

To go from being extremely rich and on the top of your field, to near penury and disgrace, within the space of a few months, is rather tragic. Getting fired from a Dilbert job isn't.

Whilst I strongly oppose Niederhoffer's trading approach, I do admire his commitment to excellence, which he has demonstrated succesfully in several fields other than trading.