A Story of Thales of Miletus, the Ancient Greeks, and Olive Trees — Buckle up! This week, you will build up an intuitive understanding of options. To do so, we must travel back in time to the 600 B.C. Ancient Greeks… The Origin Story of Options Trading Once upon a time, there was a philosopher named Thales. Thales was annoyed by people taunting him about the uselessness of philosophy…

Why Insurance Is the Only Negative EV Bet You Should Take — This week, I will help you understand how insurance policies really work without you falling asleep. This will enable you to make better informed decisions as to what insurance coverages you should get, and what are simply a waste of money. TLDR: Insurance is a negative expected value, but asymmetric…

A Primer on Exotic ETFs — With the popularisation of passive investing via ETFs, it has led some individuals to speculate in the market through exotic ETFs — including leveraged and inverse ETFs. If there is something to take away from this edition, it is that you should not hold exotic ETFs long-term as its risk…

Principles Underlying High-Frequency Trading Firms — Previously, we discussed how market makers function as middlemen in exchanges, acting as both a willing buyer and seller. These offer a variety of benefits such as improved liquidity, greater market resilience, thereby saving investors $3.6B in trade execution fees in 2020. Today, I will walk through some basic concepts…

Misconceptions around Citadel, Gamestop, and HFTs — With the ongoing Gamestop short-squeeze saga, the practice of market makers paying brokers for order flow has been under public scrutiny. Some claim a potential conflict of interest between Citadel and Robinhood, while others blame HFT funds for market manipulation. …

The Unintuitive Relationship Between Stocks and Rates — With the recent drop in stock prices, it is important for me to begin this week’s edition with a public service announcement. …

Going from 0 to 30,000 views on my Substack Debut in 24 hours Last Sunday, my post “Are You Trading or Gambling?” hit #1 on Hacker News. This happened during the debut of my substack newsletter — Investing Lessons. …

Turning $65 into $12,000: Positive EV Asymmetric Payoff — You might have heard that purchasing lottery tickets is a bad idea, and that you are almost certainly going to lose money on it. However just because it gives you an improbable chance of hitting the jackpot, doesn’t mean it is a mistake. If it was, then purchasing insurance would…

A guide on how to not be a degenerate trader — Thanks to the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, we have all heard of infamous tales where retail traders have profited millions of dollars. Accompanying this is often a cult-like worship by individuals who wish to do the same, and are desperate in finding the secret to such success. Greed afterall, is human nature. …