Yes. They are very important. Notice how he claims to be the best performing hedge fund manager on Earth (might as well have said in the solar system since there are very few hedge funds on Jupiter) over a period of time just before his first blow up. That's words, their meanings and connotations at work...
Hmmm. You are missing the fact that he was the number one ranked hedge fund manager on earth for a number of years by the folks who rank such things. You need to get your facts straight. surf
An excerpt from a 2010 interview of VN: It sounds like you wish you'd taken more risks as a squash player. In my market career, I took too many risks. In my squash career, I didn't take enough. I'm surprised. I would have expected risk to be an-across-the-board characteristic—that an aggressive, risk-taking investor would be an aggressive, risk-taking squash player. I wish I had applied my squash methods to my speculating. I'd be a very wealthy man if I had. http://www.slate.com/content/slate/...libis_victor_niederhoffer_on_being_wrong.html
Anyone remember this 2007 article? http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/15/the-blow-up-artist A few excerpts: In the 1963-64 season, Niederhoffer, now a senior, was captain of the Harvard squash team, which went undefeated. He also won the individual national collegiate title, and his aggressive playing style attracted the attention of a reporter at Sports Illustrated, who wrote, “Niederhoffer thinks he is unbeatable and clamors loudly for justice when his shots go awry. Consequently, on those rare occasions when he loses a tournament, squash lovers are delighted.” Evidently his attitude evoked a visceral response in others, and it carried into other arenas. Niederhoffer turned to Castaldo. “This day is far from over,” he said. “Doc, what happens when the market is down twelve points at one o’clock and it has been down significantly the previous two days?” A few minutes later, Castaldo handed him another computer printout. “Most of the time, these computer analyses don’t work, but it gives you an anchor,” Niederhoffer said as he scanned the sheet. You listening, QuantMaster Surf? Niederhoffer doesn’t claim to be able to say what the Dow or the S. & P. 500 will do next week or next month, but he believes that over shorter periods—hours or days—there are sometimes predictable patterns that can be exploited. That sounds right to me. I have had better reliability with short time horizons rather than longer ones. Conventional wisdom is that longer time frames are more "predictable." I have not found this to be the case in my own experience. The longer the term, the more the variables. I asked him whether hubris had contributed to his downfall. “Yeah, I’d say,” he replied. “In those days, we always wanted to be No. 1 in the ratings. There was a Canadian firm, Friedberg—they were having a good year, and we wanted to keep up with them. It was always nip and tuck between us and them.” Niederhoffer was silent for a moment. Then he spoke quickly: “You asked for reasons—I could name another ten. We had no stops. We... He was commenting on the 1997 situation, during the portion of the interview that preceded the 2007 meltdown.
In the final analysis, I think both VN and NNT are fascinating, polarizing, highly intelligent, breathtakingly arrogant and opinionated, attention-seeking, flawed men, who only occasionally rein themselves in with false modesty. They may be many things, but boring is not one of them. We may not necessarily agree with their world views or trading styles (!), but I think we'd be hard-pressed to call them empty suits.
Mr. Niederhoffer took a huge risk without setting a stop loss. Black swan arrived and he went bancrupt like Nick Leeson.
The one thing I admire above all others with Dr. Niederhoffer is his kindness and teaching skills. Heck, he was the first hf manager who Allowed me to observe and ask questions then made himself available in person or email for conversations, arguments and general chat at anytime over the last decade plus. Furthermore, the folks i met who are his friends and associates are an amazingly interesting group. Everyone from a train hopping hobo veternarian and grandmaster chess players to MIT's top financial mind and billionaire fund managers and investors. I am grateful to VN for the initial access he freely provided this hick from Pburgh who graduated from a no name school with zero connections or pedigree. Via his connections, i was able to raise substantial funds and it truly benefitted my life n numerous ways. Peace surf