We did a family mission yesterday.
Did a nice little snowshoe hike on parts of the Gamble Oak Trail and then up to the summit of what I believe is Masonic Hill in Park City.
Great views of Park City and surrounding areas.

We did a family mission yesterday.
Did a nice little snowshoe hike on parts of the Gamble Oak Trail and then up to the summit of what I believe is Masonic Hill in Park City.
Great views of Park City and surrounding areas.
As an Associate in an investment bank more than a decade ago, I had to clear all trades with our compliance department. If we started to do business with a firm, regardless of whether I knew anything about it, I could get locked into or out of a position indefinitely. And trust me, about the only thing I was influencing was Excel.
Senators can’t rely on ‘my adviser did it’ excuse to dodge insider-trading questions
So, yeah. This is total bullshit.
I would pay to see Martha Stewart go batshit crazy on these people.
In my experience, the velocity of change is much more impactful than the magnitude. Most systems, companies, species, can adjust to most changes if provided enough time.
Climate change on the scale of centuries is manageable. Climate change on the scale of years is much more problematic.
It’s the velocity, then, that has the more significant impact. If the change happens too fast to adapt, then you have issues.
The velocity of the economic impacts of the coronavirus are almost incomprehensible. It’s been so fast, there’s barely any real data available yet.
Act accordingly…
You don’t see trends like this every day.
I’m not sure what it going on, but something isn’t right: 41% discount to NAV; 120% yield.
Oh, just sitting around trying to prove the negative.
Proving the negative is very difficult. Photo by João Silas on Unsplash
We flew from Columbus to Salt Lake City on Saturday.
I think Mrs. SFTE and I did a decent job of evaluating the risks and potential scenarios and making a rational decision to go on Spring Break. We’re prepared to be stranded here in Utah. We didn’t count on all the ski resorts closing. Still waiting on the news that they’re closing all the country clubs and golf courses too.
Ironically, I think we’re safer here for the moment. We’re much more socially isolated than if we were home. Picture snotty nosed neighbor kids knocking on my back door and asking my daughter to play. Good luck stopping that one. And I am not going into work – probably the second riskiest action aside from my daughter going to school (I think the latter won’t be a problem for the rest of the school year).
Side note: Figure out which insurance companies provide private school tuition insurance and short the #$%@ out of them. You know I’m reviewing that contract when I get home.
The fear is palpable. That’s a cliche. But a true one. Don’t cough on the plane. You’ll be treated like someone wearing a turban on a flight back in the early 2000s.
Lots of suspicion behind everyone’s eyes. That’s all you could see on us. We wore surgical masks. We know the experts said you didn’t need to. We figured they just said that because there weren’t any masks to be had (or hoard).
Instead, please hoard toilet paper and water. Rookie preppers. Now the rest of the country knows what it is like to prepare for a hurricane.
I do not mean to marginalize anything here. These are historic times. Another cliche. I commend the public officials taking bold actions. I don’t even mind that you cut my ski season short (I was going to get 30 days in this season).
However, it does demonstrate the downside of deploying a policy of saying whatever you feel like will get the response that you want. It’s called an erosion of trust. Nobody believes a word you say. Or maybe more precisely everyone knows that every word that comes out of your mouth is based on your own personal agenda of getting what you want at that moment. But might not be grounded in any truth or facts. Thank you, Mr. President.
Unfortunately, we need truth and facts right now. Or else the fear is going to escalate.
Patience is not a virtue I possess in great quantities. However, I’m working on it.
It’s hard. Things are happening fast. And look like big moves.
But are they big moves?
Right. Patience. Working on it.
Chart Source: CEFConnect.com
I’ve been through some interesting times. That trend seems to be continuing.
1999 – Moved to San Francisco and worked for a software company through the bursting of the .com bubble (commute times got significantly better).
2000 – Sold some stock and paid off my first car (only good trade I made that year – still have the car!).
2001 – September 9th – Flew to Australia to work for an extended period of time (airport security was much stricter on the way home).
2005 – Bought my first house (Federal Hill area of Baltimore).
2006 – Sold my first house (whew!).
2007 – Moved over the Leverage Finance team from Corporate Investment Banking (had a front row seat to a credit market meltdown).
2008 – Moved over to team managing some institutional CLO assets (at least we had work to do until our employer collapsed).
2010 – Joined a private equity backed business (figured it would be a two year stint).
2017 – Sold private equity backed business.
2018 – Joined SaaS based software company (I just follow bubbles around).
2020 – Global pandemic…?
What’s the most important thing?
6:36
Read another book – look at me: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. I owe you a book report.
Updated stats through February:
Here are my most influential reads – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.