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6/20/04
Dr. Brett Steenbarger
Speculation and Father's Day

This week my daughter Devon finished the final exams for her freshman year of high school. I took time away from work, the markets, and the ardors of relocation to study with her. I've generally found that the learning goes best if we work together, making the review enjoyable and interactive. Parents may think that I am unusually altruistic, spending hours a night on my children's schoolwork. They don't realize that the pleasure of helping a young person expand their mind, master challenge, and ultimately succeed is as selfishly gratifying as any earned market profit.

For these exams, two of her friends joined us for the studying. We spent time at home and then in a supermarket cafe (a medical student haunt for studying) quizzing each other, reviewing, and keeping each other going until late at night. At one point, I was ready to pack it in, concerned that I was keeping the kids up too late. Devon argued with me that they were not finished and wanted to understand everything in that unit before ending. That's when I realized that I wasn't just helping with studying. I had imparted something of my *values* concerning achievement, effort, and persistence.

That realization was further confirmed when all three girls joyously reported after the Regents test that they had done well. I had expected their reaction to be one of relief that their exams were over. Instead, theirs was a response of pride in having done something well. One girl commented that she learned more in those few days of review than in the entire prior school year.

Ayn Rand, in The Virtue of Selfishness, wrote that "The principle of *trade* is the only rational, ethical principle for all human relationships...A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange--an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment." (p. 31).

When we raise children, mentor young professionals, and exchange ideas with each other, we are acting as Speculators of the human spirit. We are investing something of ourselves in an asset--a human being--that strikes us as capable of appreciation. I have never thought of fathering--or my counseling work--in terms of Speculation, but that's exactly what it is. I have essentially made a bet in my relationships--my marriage, my children, my friends and colleagues--that the effort I expend in sustaining those ties will be more than repaid in the joy of their companionship and development.

On Father's Day, I look at my balance sheet of my relationships with pride, humbled by the profits I have accrued. The Spec List has continued for years because of Ayn Rand's ideal of the *trader* as a model in human relationships. In mentoring--and in receiving mentorship--we are all fathers and fathered. There is much that is ugly and wrong in the world today, but as long as there are Speculators of the human spirit, life's beauty and joy will always prevail.