Chess Grandmaster turns hedge fund manager

Ever wonder what would happen if a chess Grandmaster became a fund manager? Here's you chance to find out first hand with an Opalesque interview with Patrick Wolff. Patrick Wolff is the founder of equity long-short hedge fund Grandmaster Capital, seeded by PayPal founder Peter Thiel. His investment approach is "4 parts Warren Buffett, 1 part Peter Thiel" with a sprinkling of global macro insights. Patrick's background includes time as a chess champion, working the dot com world in Silicon Valley, and then onto work at Clarium - a global macro hedge fund. Wolff is an interesting individual and is well worth listening to.

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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/04/chess-grandmaster-turns-hedge-fund.html

Bulls & Bears - SFE

This is a promo for the documentary "Bulls & Bears" - a documentary about futures traders on the old Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE - now part of the ASX, and now digitally traded following the closure of the open outcry trading pits). The documentary follows the plight of a group of local traders around the time of the Asian financial crisis; seeing what works and what doesn't in the high stakes world of futures trading. Much of the trading was interest rate futures e.g. bets on rates going up or down, or changes in the shape and structure of the yield curve. This type of trading requires large amounts of capital and can see rapid gains or losses based on global macro events, changes in sentiment, and central bank policy announcements, among other things. Note, I will try to track down the full documentary - please comment it below if you have it.

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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2013/04/bulls-bears-sfe.html

George Soros - Markets are Always Fallible

George Soros is one of the most interesting, inspiring, and influential investors of our time. From his upbringing during World War 2, to his large hedge fund positions that broke the Bank of England. George Soros is a self-made billionaire, hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and philosopher; certainly an individual we can learn from. This Bloomberg video, "Eye to Eye", features an engaging interview with George Soros and profiles his life from his formative years - his inspirations, learnings, challenges, through to the years where he wielded significant power and influence as an investor. The video also talks about his work toward "open societies" and what he sees as the irreversible decline of the west, he also talks about how the old way of thinking about economics needs revamped and reviews his theory of reflexivity as a concept for understanding global financial markets and economies. Watch and learn from the master.

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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2012/11/george-soros-markets-are-always-fallible.html

Risk Takers - Michael Burry

This edition of Bloomberg's 'Risk Takers' profiles Michael Burry, founder of the Scion Capital LLC hedge fund which he ran from 2000 until 2008. Michael Burry actually started out as a medical student, but worked on his lifelong hobby of investing in the evenings; eventually he had his key moment where he decided that he would start an investment company and make money for investors by buying undervalued stocks. He was one of the few investors who predicted the housing bubble would burst as early as 2007, and he acted on his high conviction call by betting against subprime mortgages. Michael Burry was profiled in the book: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - by author Michael Lewis. Burry has described his "natural state" as an outsider who "just likes to find my own ideas", saying, "no matter what group I'm in or where I am, I've always felt like I'm outside the group, and I've always been analyzing the group." This documentary is well worth a look for aspiring investors and hedge funders - also see: Jack Schwager - 15 Hedge Fund Market Wizards

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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2012/09/risk-takers-michael-burry.html

American Greed - Insider Trading

Insider trading is an ugly and unfortunate reality of the stock market - information is power, and if you have better information faster than anyone else you will have an edge in making money.  Insider trading is unfair and distorts the functioning and confidence of markets, as such it is illegal in most jurisdictions and considered unethical by most.  Raj Rajaratnam proved with his meteoric rise to wealth and power in the hedge fund business (Galleon Group) that good connections can be better than good analysis.  Raj grew an influential network of contacts, and tempted a few close contacts to sell their souls - becoming key conduits of insider information for Raj's hedge fund trading operation.  In the end, unsurprisingly, Raj attracted the attention of the authorities and inevitably slipped up and was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined $150 million.


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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2012/07/american-greed-insider-trading.html