Before he lost it all—all $20 billion—Bill Hwang was the greatest trader you’d never heard of.
Starting in 2013, he parlayed more than $200 million left over from his shuttered hedge fund into a mind-boggling fortune by betting on stocks. Had he folded his hand in early March and cashed in, Hwang, 57, would have stood out among the world’s billionaires. There are richer men and women, of course, but their money is mostly tied up in businesses, real estate, complex investments, sports teams, and artwork. Hwang’s $20 billion net worth was almost as liquid as a government stimulus check. And then, in two short days, it was gone.
The sudden implosion of Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management in late March is one of the most spectacular failures in modern financial history: No individual has lost so much money so quickly. At its peak, Hwang’s wealth briefly eclipsed $30 billion. It’s also a peculiar one. Unlike the Wall Street stars and Nobel laureates who ran Long-Term Capital Management, which famously blew up in 1998, Hwang was largely unknown outside a small circle: fellow churchgoers and former hedge fund colleagues, as well as a handful of bankers.
Too much of a convoluted back story to get a true sense of what actually happened to cause his demise. As it didn't seem none of the back story pre 2020 had anything to do with how he lost his fortune. But it happened after Trump was removed from office. If I had to guess, I would say Xi, didn't like a Han Bloke with billions and billions of dollars, flourishing and using his proceeds to promote Christianity and undermining Communism.
Way to much time was spent by the author trying to assure the reader, that he was under the radar and unknown to the institution what he was doing. What a huge load of horse shit. Xi knew!
Before he lost it all—all $20 billion—Bill Hwang was the greatest trader you’d never heard of.
No, Bill's not a 'great' trader.
The greatest trader, believe it or not, was a junior partner of my hedge firm, prior to him cashing out and moving onto the big show in the City of London.
For the sake of simplicity, let's say him Alex.
Alex was a young graduate of the London School of Economics & got a handle of now control systems could predict zones of entry/exit and congestion. Alex, a control engineering friend, and I put together a system which could make these calculations real-time using concepts in applied chemistry.
Alex, however, didn't always depend on the 'quant' solution. He always kept 4-5 numbers in his head and knew exactly what his risk profile was, for each and every trade.
So yeah, he could have risked more, perhaps gotten a hit ratio of some 75% but instead, took a 60% hit ratio just to show how he could control those 40% losers to have less than half the loss of any winning position.
Guess what? Our strategy worked. The senior partners were floored at the risk management side of our portfolio and our firm was born.
A few years later, Alex cashed out on the tune of some $15-20M USD, and then, worked for a bigger firm in London, earning in the 100s of millions, retiring with a mansion in Kensington/next to Westminster (London's happening area), one in the English countryside, and a third in the Caribbean.
He still does a bit on the side today, as a hobby, but for the most part, he's into sports, traveling, and all that jazz.
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