Reader’s Choice

Reader's Choice

 

The very best of Epsilon Theory as chosen by our readers. If you think there's something missing, head over to the ET Forum to let us know your favorite.

How Gold Lost Its Luster, How the All-Weather Fund Got Wet, and Other Just-So Stories

By Ben Hunt | June 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

In some periods of history gold is money. In other periods of history gold is not. But gold is always something, and that something is defined by the Common Knowledge of the day.

Today our Common Knowledge is that gold is an insurance policy against central bank error.

Parasite Rex

By Ben Hunt | January 12, 2014 | 0 Comments

The most effective alpha-generating strategies are, technically speaking, parasites. I say this with love and admiration.

The Three-Body Problem

By Ben Hunt | December 21, 2017 | 4 Comments

What if I told you that the dominant strategies for human investing are, without exception, algorithms and derivatives? I don’t mean computer-driven investing, I mean good old-fashioned human investing … stock-picking and the like. And what if I told you that these algorithms and derivatives might all be broken today? You might want to sit down for Part 9 of the Notes from the Field series.

Too Clever By Half

By Ben Hunt | February 5, 2018 | 3 Comments

The inevitable result of financial innovation gone awry, which it ALWAYS does, is that it ALWAYS ends up empowering the State. When too clever by half people misplay the meta-game, that’s all the excuse the State needs to come swooping in and crush them, just as they are with Bitcoin today they did with Bear and Lehman in 2008. Installment #10 from Notes from the Field.

Things Fall Apart (Part 3)

By Ben Hunt | October 24, 2018 | 23 Comments

The Fed, China and Italy are the Three Horsemen of the Investment Semi-Apocalypse. They’re major market risks, but you’ll survive.

There’s a Fourth Horseman. And it will change EVERYTHING about investing.

This is Water

By Ben Hunt | April 17, 2019 | 16 Comments

Capitalist productivity has become capitalist financialization.

Wall Street gets something to sell, management gets stock-based comp, and the White House gets re-election.

What do YOU get out of financialization? You get to hold up a card that says “Yay, capitalism!”.

Do The Right Thing

By Ben Hunt | March 19, 2020 | 29 Comments

Bailout the airlines and their rank-and-file employees? You bet.

Bailout the CEOs? Not a chance.

But that’s what we’re gonna do.

A New Gilded Age

By Rusty Guinn | May 24, 2020 | 22 Comments

A Gilded Age isn’t an age of prosperity. It is an age of the Narrative of prosperity, and narratives of prosperity are always top-down political narratives.

There is but one way to tear down top-down political narratives: action.

AMA? BITFD!

By Ben Hunt | November 24, 2020 | 23 Comments

The American Medical Association is not a charitable organization.

The American Medical Association is not an educational organization.

The American Medical Association is a tax-exempt hedge fund and licensing corporation, designed from the ground up to enrich its executives and serve its own bureaucratic interests.

Burn. It. The. Fuck. Down.

An Old Joke

By Rusty Guinn | December 9, 2020 | 23 Comments

So an agent for a new over-the-top variety act finally gets a meeting with the biggest producer in the world. I mean, maybe ‘the world’ is selling it short. Word on the street is this guy’s even got God’s ear, if you can believe it.