players

“Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” whined the Winner, devastated, watching his odds fall faster than some drunk dude at the Trump Taj. You see, the Donald knows odds don’t lie. But they do change. His odds to win the Presidency were 3-1 before Iowa; leading Republicans by a mile. Today they’re 8-1; trailing Rubio (2-1), and Hillary (1-1). Now, if the strongest horse lost his first of fifty races by a nose, should h

“We need a resolution in China,” said Eagle, soaring high above Gotham. “Can’t be sure what it is, or when it will happen, but we’ll know it when we see it.” The pressure on China to devalue is building. They can’t ease aggressively without letting the currency go. But a big devaluation risks Beijing’s political credibility. Social stability. “When a system comes under stress, frauds surface. The scale of corruption

“It’s a very beautiful game with extremely simple rules that lead to profound complexity,” he said, marveling at the defeat of man by machine. 19yrs after IBM’s Deep Blue checkmated Gary Kasparov, Europe’s champion conceded defeat in the infinitely more complex game of Go. Google’s Deepmind AlphaGo system triumphed in this game with more board configurations than there are atoms in the universe. Another s

Hope all goes well… “If you got through Jan unscathed it’ll be a great year,” said Roadrunner. “Markets will really move around, there’s going to be lots to do,” continued the market’s biggest equity volatility trader. “But guys who got hurt are trapped.” He stepped calmly aside, dodging an anvil. “They’ll be chasing this thing up and down, trying to get back to even.” Last January’s Swiss franc trap bagged a handful

“Apologies in advance if I seem unfair,” he said. I smiled, curious. “Your ideas seem, well, consensus, unoriginal.” Nice way to start a conversation. So I apologized in advance if what I was about to ask seemed unfair, “Is it possible to deploy such a large pool of capital to people who invest only in original ideas?” He smiled. There’s no such thing as an original idea. Einstein’s theory of special relativity is th

“Always despised this day,” I said fifteen times. “Distilling a year of my life to a single number made me feel cheap,” I continued, starting each bonus conversation. “In my twenties and thirties, my perspective was narrow. I thought the bonus was my compensation. But at 49, having endured ups and downs, good luck and bad, I’ve discovered real compensation comes in the form of opportunity. Because with opportunity co

“Do or do not, there is no try,” said Draghi to the mirror, psyching himself up for the press conference. “Judge me by my size, do you?” continued the European Central Bank’s most powerful Star Wars fanatic, refining his intonation, drawing inspiration from Yoda’s words. “Fear is the path to the dark side.” Draghi fell back in his chair, weary, worn thin by the Empire’s unrelenting assaults. No sooner had he launched

Hope all goes well… “I’m just going to warm them up in my mouth,” said Charlie, blanketed in his first blizzard, cheeks red, cramming ten fingers into his gob. “Works great,” I think he said, but can’t be certain. He’d insisted pajama bottoms were plenty warm for sledding. Why bother arguing? He declined my offer of mittens. I smiled, shrugged, happy to let him learn. Wolfie and Shackleton bounded, tails wagging, cha

Hope all goes well… “Capital preservation time,” whispered Vice, sitting on his chair, atop the world’s highest heap of private wealth management moolah. “Advisors are fighting back tears.” The S&P 500 closed last year -0.8%, supported by a handful of big stocks. But diversified portfolios were down closer to 5%. Then the S&P fell 8% in 2 weeks. “For three years clients bought every dip. Then they bought the