Ok, let's try this again: Have you ever seen pictures of Vic's old silver collection? (Not the angel, but other pieces. ) If so, where did you see them?
Gee, you have to even ask the question? Does Vic live in Wayne, PA? No, didn't think so. But the imbecile you know who does. So now Surf gets to pawn off the collection of his hero. What a pathetic f'ing site.
It seems that it was a rather exceptional collection was auctioned off at Soethby's for a cool 2.5mm. Vic's Garage Sale And that was only from the first auction, so I seriously doubt it was tawdry (it actually took at least two more auctions to liquidate his holdings) :eek: *** Niederhofferâs collection, says Sothebyâs Tierney, was unique. âVictor was obsessed by talent and success. It was a personal thing in his life. As a young man growing up, he really proved himself, becoming a champion in squashâtraditionally a conservative, Waspy sport. He reflected in his silver the idea that these items were given to mark a moment of remarkable achievement, and as a result, they themselves had to be of special quality. It was a two-pronged theme.â I
Like Surf and RM are saying, it seems that Vic was "all that and a bag of chips". A Hedge Fund Meltdown Reading over the article, I could only see two (fatal flaws) which contributed to being his Achielle's Hell. (1) The first is that he overleveraged his positions. At least one of the reasons he may have overleveraged his positions was because he designed mathematical models that worked on every market in the world that conducted legitimate trade in securities. What I mean by that is that if a market does not conduct legitimate trade in securites, it can be priced wherever a brokerage/financial institutions/government wants it to be, and at that point, you can throw all of your analysis out the window. This may account for why he said he no longer traded the Phillipine markets .. I don't know, as I haven't spoken to him about this. This leads to the next point. (2) He did not factor the human element into his equations. His models were based on a rather "pure" world of mathematical certainty. It was rare for price action to fall outside of its parameters, and even when it did, it would eventually just rebound with even more ferocity in the direction that he had originally anticipted it would go. But what he left out of his analysis is that human beging (that's a typo, but I'll leave it) operate on greed, so whenever his position experienced weakness, the opportunistic brokerages took advantage of him. This is in part fact, and in part conjecture on my part, but I have no doubt that it is true. His only flaw was in believing too much in his mathetimatical models, models which have never been wrong, when conducting his trades. If he had played it only a little more conservatively, he would still be extremely solvent, and he would still go down as one of the very best traders to ever play the game. I
1. A ssets U nder M anagement 2. highwater mark one must always improve their performance to the next level with increasing capital. why return the capital? whe one is doing what they are paid to do--win or lose. 3. yes--investors invest in hedge funds for certain results. obviously, VN would be chosen as high risk/high return strategies--- many hedge fund investors are in effect traders of hedge funds--- the one's that don't perform simply get culled out and replaced on a continuing basis. the pressure to perform is fierce. retail guys can't fathom it as evidenced in yours and others comments. furthermore, fund's paperwork generally outline the strategies to be employed, style drift is frowned upon and in and of itself a reason given to redeem at times. 4. if your just average, you will never understand. VN has returned far more to his investors as a whole overall, than he has lost.
very well said, icarus. most of the traders here just don't understand--- thanks for laying it out in simplistic terms. regards, surf
Last but not least, here's an article from some guy named David Goodboy which goes in-depth in trying to understand Vic, what shapes his opinions about the marketplace, and why he trades the way he does. Not for noth'in, it was Dave who made the forshadowing statement of Pride Going before a Fall during the interview. The Biggest Stock Market Cons Aside: Great read on many different levels, and one of the best arguments of all for never showing anyone how or why you trade the way you do, as it pretty much gaurantees you'll only be competing with yourself ... this is once again, a human attribute. I