General Magic

I’ve got a cool story for you about a tech startup that you might not have heard of before. It’s called General Magic, and it was founded back in 1990 by a group of people who went on to create some of the most well-known tech products in the world. When the General Magic alumni…

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Should Investors Trust Their Gut?

Investors often talk about making a decision based on a feeling in their gut. Explaining how some form of unconscious intuition led them to the correct choice.  Although this is an appealing notion – particularly as people only seem to mention it following success – it can also be a dangerous one. Should investors really…

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Why a Secretive Short Seller Is Challenging Reports Made by Peers

When Fiat Lux Partners burst onto the short selling scene in January with a scathing critique of an activist short seller report, rumors surged regarding the identity of the new outfit. Was it being financed by the companies targeted by short sellers? Was veteran short seller Marc Cohodes, a virulent critic of several activist short…

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It Worked Perfectly Yesterday

I have witnessed a disturbing trend in the industry of late: the over-optimisation or curve fitting of trading systems. This practice involves tweaking the parameters of a system to fit the historical data, often resulting in unrealistic and inflated performance metrics. Optimisation is a dangerous and misguided approach that can lead to disastrous outcomes for…

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