DailySpeculations.com is Victor Niederhoffers blog. It started because he has long had an e-mail list named “the spec list.” He is the man who runs it but everyone from the spec list contributes to it. So what do they talk about? You might think that because it is called Daily Speculations and the owner of the site runs a hedge fund that it only deals with stocks and other tradeable securities but you would be wrong. DailySpeculations deals in stocks, bonds, futures, options, statistics, software, philosophy, literature, history, people. world events, etc. Basically Victor has a bunch of really intelligent people contribute whatever they feel like. The result for the most part a very insightful blog where you can learn something or at least get a different perspective on something almost every day.
So who is Victor Niederhoffer? If you have been trading for a long time you have heard of him. He was one of the most successful hedge fund managers for about 15 years ending in 1998 when he had a series of unfortunate events and a case of overleverage leading to his fund “blowing up” and the saying goes. He then came back and had a wonderful three year run but once again getting hit very hard back in August. A lot of people do not like listening to him because they don’t want to hear anything from someone who has blown up twice but there are a few reasons to read his writings. First if you have read his two books “Education Of A Speculator” and “Practical Speculation” you have learned a lot. You have learned to question and test everything if nothing else (and I would venture to say you have learned a lot more). Second is that you can look at the other fruits of his labor, namely that his shop has helped produce such trader legends as Monroe Trout, Toby Crabel, Roy Niederhoffer, and several other successful traders. So why has he blown up twice you might ask. I am not totally sure but I think it is probably the psychological aspect of trading that has gotten him and not his processes for finding trades. Basically a little overconfidence now and then when you are leveraged can wipe you out in a short time. Enough about Vic and back to the blog.
Here are some fairly recent insightful posts.
Vic on Practice
Levered ETF’s
Fired
Capitalism In Schools
These are illustrative of the types of writings you will find over at DailySpeculations.com It is a treasure trove of insights into all sorts of things. Go and read it and then go and read more of it. There is a lot of content and lot of good content.
Happy Blogging,
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