Nov

16

Tells

November 16, 2022 |

i have been asked what signals Mr. Bankman gave of wrongness. khaki shorts, effective altruism, tremendous gifts to 46 and hope of giving 1 billion more, entire family interconnected in supposedly altruistic causes…virtue signaling - what else?

smartest guy in room, stanford professors in family, lover of video games, naming rites. frequent use of curse words. first name basis with head of sec. wanted to be first trillionaire, use of standard of silicon valley " it sucks" in "heartfelt" apology. walked out of meeting with regulators with one crucial demand " need more ubers".

Mr. Bankman's activities and interconnected firms has been compared to Enron, and Madoff, but I would add it to Bernie Cornfeld at IOS. the only thing missing is sex.

Barry Gitarts writes:

- Renaming Miami stadium to "FTX".
- Running a crypto company but sponsoring anti-crypto legislation.
- Talked about how they made so much money arbitraging the "kimchi premium", when no one else in the industry could get around the capital controls of South Korea.
- Badly out of shape and was always visibly shaking (now known to be a result of strong stimulants).
- Goes to congressional hearings with his shoelaces untied.
- Arrogant against critics online, tweets out: "Sell me all your SOL at $3 than F*CK off" in response to an account that asked him what is going on with the price of Solana which he is a big backer of.
- Only achieved a bronze level after playing the video game League of legends for years.
- Playing the video game he is so bad at while on important calls like trying to raise money from Sequoia capital.
- Claims to be frugal only driving a toyota corolla but lives in a $40M condo.

Big Al adds:

Misleading statements?

FTX US, Four Others Ordered to Correct FDIC Insurance Claims
Agency ramping up efforts to crack down on misleading comments
Follows similar action against bankrupt crypto firm Voyager

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued letters to five companies, including crypto exchange FTX US, demanding that they take immediate steps to correct “false or misleading statements” about certain products being eligible for insurance protection.

John Floyd asks:

I find it interesting delving into how this can help us become better traders in large part by recognizing the human psychology at play here. Is it as simple as if it looks to good to be true it is? Or a filter on linguistic frequency relative to price movement? Or a filter on price movement relative to one's expectations of prospective fundamentals? I can remember being in a room of 10-20 people in 1998 and saying we all own 85% plus of Russia's local currency debt….is that a bad thing and what can go wrong?

Clearly there were smart and successful investors/traders who waived their usual safeguards….what can we learn from this?

Nils Poertner suggests:

I think every company, every group, etc should have at least one person (better a whole team) which only job is to constantly imagine the complete opposite of what the group is doing or thinking.at the moment…

Big Al again:

It also helps to have experienced people on board:
Ultimate Bet Scandal Lawyer Daniel Friedberg at Centre of FTX Crypto Crash

The poker world was shocked to learn that one of the main players in the FTX crypto crash is none other than Daniel Friedberg, the attorney who was in it up to his neck in the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandals of the late noughties.

Easan Katir writes:

An anecdotal tell with a sample size of one: When I was managing an emerging markets fund, while doing due diligence on the island of Mauritius I met a young fellow who looked a lot like SBF who was guaranteeing his investors that he would profit 50% each year. I advised him to never guarantee anything, since markets are…well, y'know, fickle. He didn't listen and kept repeating his guarantee, with the predictable result: big losses, angry investors.

What strikes me is the same body type: large round head, gangly, same slightly vacant expression… probably coincidence…

Penny Brown suggests:

All movie stars (Matt Damon) and celebrities (Giselle & Brady, Naomi Osaka) the new shoe shine boys Joe Kennedy warned against?

Vic's twitter feed


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