because he's able to articulate the reality that we experience... and from that draw inference which not only is profitable, but changes the way we perceive the trading-marketplace dynamic simply put, if you were to condense the useful commentaries from Elite Trader threads minus the nasty and useless verbiage, and then have the relative authority to show either social, psychological or emotional reasons "why", then you would see the benefits and clarity he brings to the marketplace... Trading is best stated as a contest between yourself, the dynamic of the markets, the economic winds of change and opportunity... Success in trading is often associated with good fortune, luck, right place/right time dynamic and other word quips... the reality is we will never really be able to define a constant "state" in the middle of chaos or dynamic markets. the best we can do is define "islands in the stream", as it were, and Niederhoffer does that best
i've read my share of his stuff and I can tell you I sometimes enjoyed the reading, but there is NOTHING usefull for trading.
Taleb vs VN on selling or buying options... Taleb says that he will never blow up and suffer the devastating loss that those selling premium will... But to me its all a matter of velocity or rate of this loss of capital. Taleb is draining capital at a slow rate, and is funded only on big events. VN is gaining capital at a slow rate, and would blow up on a big event. It's still true that in either case, events could unfold which collapse both. In VN's case, its obvious. For Taleb, he could slowly drain his capital down to nothing if he never gets that big event. Like he himself says, everything and anything is possible and usually does occur. So if this happens to Taleb, he will blowup. It will just happen in slow motion. Or that even with one of his expected "unexpected events", it still isn't enough to stem the persistent bleeding of capital. What's the difference? Maybe not much. At least VN lives or lived like a king and was the US Squash Champion.
I never know where my next idea will come from. The more I know, the more connections occur in my brain...I just file it away... nitro
From the article you posted: The fund is "a combination of a strategic and tactical leveraged fund" and its strategy is "to take advantage of the unholy avoidance of risk that people are so prone to after a series of bad years," he said. "I provide insurance to those who are fearful of the Dow dropping 50 per cent the way it did in 1930". This confirms my earlier post. He is still selling naked index options. Good for him, good for his clients.
thanks for posting. i was scouring the news stands searching for FT. they seemed to have stopped selling it here. best, surfer
Excerpt from FT article on VN: I guess Vic doesn't have a sense of humour, or he's misinterpreting WB's words on purpose. What WB said in a PBS special entitled "Warren Buffet Talks Business" was that the airline industry has made no money and tongue in cheek he suggested that a capitalist would do us all a favour if he had stopped this evaporation of capital and shot down Kitty Hawk. This was an obvious joke as the audience laughed and WB chuckled at that comment. What you have to realize is that he was at the time of the comment recently burned on an investment in USAir. Further, if anyone has any doubt as to WB's committment to innovation and aviation, they only need to look at his investment in the phenomenally successful www.NetJets.com