Interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author of The Black Swan, a book I'm afraid to say is still on my to-read list, was interviewed at Portfolio. Great read. I feel like I just read an interview of Howard Roark.

The full interview here. A few interesting quotes:

N.N.T.: ...I have a sense of security, and it produces income, but it's uncompromising. It so happens that being uncompromising has worked for me so far—more than worked.

The point is, I don't give a flying damn about the public eye. I care about ideas, all right? So I cannot be divorced from my ideas.

-----

N.N.T.: Maybe, but I'm not playing a role. If someone asked me for an op-ed, I wouldn't write it. Harper's asked me for an op-ed, "Can We Save Capitalism?" you know, and I told them, "Listen, no editing, these are my rules, this is the style."

L.G.: Did they do it?

N.N.T.: No, they stopped talking to me. But at this point, my books are read by more people than any journal.

-----

L.G.: I'm just curious, how much in lecture fees have you turned down?

N.N.T.: I turn down things all the time. I've definitely turned down $60,000 for something.

L.G.: Because they wanted you to talk on a topic that didn't interest you?

N.N.T.: No, because the crowd didn't interest me, I'd rather stay home and work in my library.

Sailing blog

Just came across an old friend's sailing blog this morning, via Peter Mello's Sea-Fever blog. The new one, Sailscape, is written by another friend I met through ASTA a few years ago.

Looks like I need to get back up to Newport sometime soon.

More of my clients mentioned on Bloomberg

Hunter, Touradji Hedge Funds Gain as Commodities Sink

Peak Ridge Commodity Volatility Fund in Boston, advised by Hunter, the former Amaranth Advisors LLC energy trader, returned about 24 percent, leaving it up at least 230 percent this year, according to an investor.

Not a bad return. Just goes to show that you can get back into the game, even after losing $6.6 billion on the H/J spread.

Saracen Energy Partners LP, a Houston-based energy fund, gained about 3 percent in July, trimming its loss this year to about 29 percent, according to two investors. The fund, run by Neil Kelley, 49, had lost 22 percent in February alone.

Not bad, considering they nearly blew up several months ago.

Traders that lost money last month included BlueGold Capital Management LLP, a $800 million fund co-founded in February by 31-year-old Pierre Andurand in London. The fund declined about 19 percent in July, paring its return this year to 109 percent, according to investors.

Christian Levett, 38, a former Moore Capital Management LLC commodity trader who started the $2.5 billion hedge fund Clive Capital LLP in London, lost 8 percent in July, cutting his return this year to 25 percent, investors said.

Clive has been one of the largest players in crude oil options the last few quarters, primarily trading the June and December expirations.

I'm surprised BP Capital and Citadel were not mentioned in that article. I was hearing last week that they were both getting hit pretty hard by the fall in natty and CL. Apparently Boone has been buying front on the way down, and Citadel has been bidding CL puts, so will be interesting to see where they stand in next few months.