6 ms·

Harvard professor is surely very connected to both administration, regulation, technology and everything else. It's literally impossible for an outsider to ach

Harvard professor is surely very connected to both administration, regulation, technology and everything else. It's literally impossible for an outsider to achieve this feat even if he has the initial money at his disposal.

MiroF 6y ago
You don't get a 17,000% return even with the best insider trading in the world. You get it with luck.
- phkahler 6y ago
  And to become a billionaire you'd have to bet over $5M to start with. If I had 5M I'd go mostly dividend stocks and retire.
  - Thrymr 6y ago
    Yes, but if you had $100M you could retire and take some risky bets.
    - bjonnh 6y ago
      Some jobs are not just about getting enough money to retire, they can also be about making the world a better place (or sometimes just believing that's the case), just living a passion, just having a social activity and many other reasons.
    - dkarl 6y ago
      His stock was worth $320 million after the IPO, and he let it all ride. On a single stock in a two-year-old company. Nobody could afford to do that unless losing most of $320 million wouldn't affect their lifestyle. Being wealthy explains most of it, but I suspect being 72 years old was a factor, too.
  - antsar 6y ago
    Sounds like his net worth was over 100M at the time. I guess past a certain point, you’ve got enough dividend stocks and want to gamble on something more exciting.
    - RedBeetDeadpool 6y ago
      yeah, also 5m out of 100m is nowhere close to an all in. There's a good chance he just had it lying there amongst a bunch of other stocks he was gambling with and didn't even think much of it.
- ASalazarMX 6y ago
  This is the wet dream of every investor, not something anyone can achieve with hard work.
azhenley 6y ago
I recently heard on a podcast (Planet Money or The Indicator, I think) that insiders generally don't do much better at beating the market. I think that is for the "average" case though. Sorry I don't have a citation.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Trick is to scale up that inside knowledge via a 20 and 2 hedge fund. Don’t worry about beating the market after fees, enough fools will see you have a winning strategy and assume it will continue to get better and exceed the fees.
valuearb 6y ago
In the mid 1950s a young investor fresh from a Walk Street hedge fund pitched his investment partnership to doctors and dentists in Omaha, Nebraska. Those who participated earned an average 35% annual return for the next 12 years, increasing their investment by 35 times. Then around 1970 investor shut down the partnerships and switched to running a public company he controlled. Investors who rolled over their investments could buy into the company for around $12 per share IIRC. By the late 70s the stock traded for hundreds of dollars per share. In 1990 it hit $7,000, and $70,000 in 1998. There is a group of Omaha residents who invited this young kid named Warren Buffett into their living rooms in the mid 50s, liked what he said enough to give him $10K, and ended up as billionaires because they believed in him.

MiroF 6y ago

You don't get a 17,000% return even with the best insider trading in the world. You get it with luck.

phkahler 6y ago
And to become a billionaire you'd have to bet over $5M to start with. If I had 5M I'd go mostly dividend stocks and retire.
- Thrymr 6y ago
  Yes, but if you had $100M you could retire and take some risky bets.
  - bjonnh 6y ago
    Some jobs are not just about getting enough money to retire, they can also be about making the world a better place (or sometimes just believing that's the case), just living a passion, just having a social activity and many other reasons.
  - dkarl 6y ago
    His stock was worth $320 million after the IPO, and he let it all ride. On a single stock in a two-year-old company. Nobody could afford to do that unless losing most of $320 million wouldn't affect their lifestyle. Being wealthy explains most of it, but I suspect being 72 years old was a factor, too.
- antsar 6y ago
  Sounds like his net worth was over 100M at the time. I guess past a certain point, you’ve got enough dividend stocks and want to gamble on something more exciting.
  - RedBeetDeadpool 6y ago
    yeah, also 5m out of 100m is nowhere close to an all in. There's a good chance he just had it lying there amongst a bunch of other stocks he was gambling with and didn't even think much of it.
ASalazarMX 6y ago
This is the wet dream of every investor, not something anyone can achieve with hard work.

azhenley 6y ago

I recently heard on a podcast (Planet Money or The Indicator, I think) that insiders generally don't do much better at beating the market. I think that is for the "average" case though. Sorry I don't have a citation.

Scoundreller 6y ago
Trick is to scale up that inside knowledge via a 20 and 2 hedge fund. Don’t worry about beating the market after fees, enough fools will see you have a winning strategy and assume it will continue to get better and exceed the fees.

valuearb 6y ago

In the mid 1950s a young investor fresh from a Walk Street hedge fund pitched his investment partnership to doctors and dentists in Omaha, Nebraska. Those who participated earned an average 35% annual return for the next 12 years, increasing their investment by 35 times. Then around 1970 investor shut down the partnerships and switched to running a public company he controlled. Investors who rolled over their investments could buy into the company for around $12 per share IIRC. By the late 70s the stock traded for hundreds of dollars per share. In 1990 it hit $7,000, and $70,000 in 1998. There is a group of Omaha residents who invited this young kid named Warren Buffett into their living rooms in the mid 50s, liked what he said enough to give him $10K, and ended up as billionaires because they believed in him.