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Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

wsj.com

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Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#81

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe »

th0raway wrote: post #70
yannickt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> see: https://www.principles.com/ This is a very, very good read. Thanks for sharing.

You might disagree with the read if you actually saw what the implementation of said principles looks like. There's plenty of articles out there about what those principles do to a psyche, but let's forget about those: The culture is still broken because there is no sensible way to have real transparency in an environment with power differentials. In any situation with a broken status quo, openness by those that disa…

After reading some of principles.com what you say seems even more plausible.

I get the feeling his wife never asked if she looked fat. Or he always made the mistake of saying yes. Talk about missing out on reality.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#82

Post by yannickt »

th0raway wrote: post #70
yannickt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> see: https://www.principles.com/ This is a very, very good read. Thanks for sharing.

You might disagree with the read if you actually saw what the implementation of said principles looks like. There's plenty of articles out there about what those principles do to a psyche, but let's forget about those: The culture is still broken because there is no sensible way to have real transparency in an environment with power differentials. In any situation with a broken status quo, openness by those that disa…

> " instant openness in an environment that is against you will ruin you unless you are powerful."

You make some good points, and I especially like this one.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#83

Post by [deleted] »

th0raway wrote: post #70
yannickt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> see: https://www.principles.com/ This is a very, very good read. Thanks for sharing.

You might disagree with the read if you actually saw what the implementation of said principles looks like. There's plenty of articles out there about what those principles do to a psyche, but let's forget about those: The culture is still broken because there is no sensible way to have real transparency in an environment with power differentials. In any situation with a broken status quo, openness by those that disa…

[deleted]

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#84

Post by Terretta »

qwrusz wrote: post #76
Terretta wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

// DISCLAIMER: I work there. For those who've built tech companies up from the 10 to 1000 people range, there's a lot in that link that's very easy to recognize. If you interpret back from the more traditional business lingo, you will recognize key 'iterative development' ideas applied outside engineering. This allows a sizable 30 year old enterprise to handle new ideas much more as a tech startup would. On the main…

//Disclaimer I don't work there. But I know people who do. While there are some articles out there bashing Bridgewater's work culture (similar to how Amazon's work culture got attacked in the press), the people I know who work at Bridgewater like it and find the work interesting and feel they are well compensated. Though, no one I know who works there had any finance background before taking the job and that seems to…

Good questions. These are just my personal thoughts.

I think software engineers from more fields would do well and have fun in this environment than they imagine. You do need to be good, but you don't need a background in finance.

You can read in the link above the idea that people come to the table with values and skills, where it's hard to change what you're like, easier to adapt your skills.

Couple that with the observation that for open minded people who like to learn, effective engineering values and skills seem to translate pretty well across problem domains.

This means it's less about the kind of tech stunts interview folklore attributes to Google, more about trying to understand how you think about problems and get things done.

Sounds trite, but if you think well and do things (need both), you can succeed.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#85

Post by saosebastiao »

ashnyc wrote: post #71

I am a big believer is what he is doing. I worked both in financial firm and now have my own small factory. There is so much wast in financial firms. in the early 1990s, people with MBA where getting 100k a year for just doing spreadsheets. On top of that, it is not a full days worth of work. the work was not rewarding and it was high stress. The paycheck was great, for sure. I am trying to do that same thing now wit…

Why does it have to be an artificial intelligence? The field of Operations Research has basically perfected automated and optimized decision making in pretty much every heavy industry out there, and they've been doing it since before computers even existed by using mathematical modeling.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#86

Post by vitus »

hendzen wrote: post #46
cmurf wrote: post #32

I'm gonna guess these employees have a work for hire contract of some sort, so that their ideas or potentially copyrightable or patentable methods, belong to their employer.

So does every large technology company including Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, etc.

As do a number of major universities (CMU, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and plenty more, I'm sure). If I had to guess, these contracts are generally a lot more prevalent in fields where people are regularly creating intellectual property.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#87

Post by pesenti »

chollida1 wrote: post #18

I think this.... > Mr. Dalio returned to run Bridgewater earlier this year after stepping back to a mentor role six years ago. Is what's driving almost all of his new found desire for a unified AI to run everything. Here you have a man who by any measure has been wildly successful, he tried stepping back and letting other take over but ended up finding that the team he left in charge didn't make the exact decisions h…

David Ferrucci lead the team who built the Watson research system that won at Jeopardy. He left for Bridgewater in 2014, before the IBM Watson unit was created, and way before Dalio came back to run Bridgewater.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#88

Post by nl »

qwrusz wrote: post #75
applecore wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure All Seasons is such a great portfolio... It's way overweight U.S. Treasury bonds (55%) and underweight stocks (30%). And what's with 15% in gold and commodities (which produces no interest or dividend income)?

In fact, Dalio himself just a couple years ago contacted Bridgewater's clients to tell them the firm fucked up, had miscalculated things and was over-exposed to duration risk (basically meaning they owned too many bonds, as you say). The studying of this risk from bonds and how to "mitigate" it is ongoing at Bridgewater. Kinda hard to recommend a portfolio from a guy who admits it is broken and is still trying to fix…

Kinda hard to recommend a portfolio from a guy who admits it is broken and is still trying to fix it.

Honestly, I think that this is probably the only thing that makes me think there could be something worthwhile.

All portfolios are broken in some way. It's refreshing to hear a proponent of one admit it and try to fix it.

(Also, I highly recommend Lewis' "The Undoing Project" if you think this is a problem)

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#89

Post by qwrusz »

nl wrote: post #88
qwrusz wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, Dalio himself just a couple years ago contacted Bridgewater's clients to tell them the firm fucked up, had miscalculated things and was over-exposed to duration risk (basically meaning they owned too many bonds, as you say). The studying of this risk from bonds and how to "mitigate" it is ongoing at Bridgewater. Kinda hard to recommend a portfolio from a guy who admits it is broken and is still trying to fix…

Kinda hard to recommend a portfolio from a guy who admits it is broken and is still trying to fix it. Honestly, I think that this is probably the only thing that makes me think there could be something worthwhile. All portfolios are broken in some way. It's refreshing to hear a proponent of one admit it and try to fix it. (Also, I highly recommend Lewis' "The Undoing Project" if you think this is a problem)

Reading my comment again I should have worded it better and more clearly. Thanks for pointing out what you did. My comment was specifically meant as a response to the portfolio recommended above, that was linked to and that appears in Tony Robbins' book. That portfolio is broken and outdated in that form.

I should have said more clearly, it is hard to recommend that portfolio at this time because the creator of the portfolio, Ray Dalio, has subsequently said there are problems with it and he is still working on fixing those problems.

Especially considering the portfolio is described to regular non-professional investors as a type of "set it and forget it" longer term investment portfolio. One that doesn't need active monitoring and works all market conditions. It is dangerous to recommend as is.

For sure there are merits to the all weather portfolio! Its risk parity structures were a ground-breaking, genius move by Ray Dalio that made him rich and famous (famous in the investing world at least). I have a ton of respect for Dalio, I've read his principles more than once. He is quite private, his achievements and contributions are not as well-known as some other old billionaires of the investing world but he is just as skilled.

Basically, the Tony Robbins/Ray Dalio portfolio has potential. In its current form it offers many lessons to a lay investor just by reading about it and the theories behind it. But before one invests their hard earned money in the portfolio, consider that some major changes have happened to the portfolio recently and other major changes may be in the works. It could turn out great or it could be scrapped and turn out not to work as thought. So a potential investor might want to hold off following that outdated portfolio strategy and re-evaluate once more info about an updated version is available.

Re: Hedge Fund Is Building an Algorithmic Model From Its Employees’ Brains

#90

Post by bitexploder »

brilliantcode wrote: post #62
prostoalex wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle and "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe (applicable to men mostly) contain lifetime lessons on mind and body management. "Principles" is very useful for mental models and just critical thinking (or, rather, structured self-doubting).

just went ahead and 1-click ordered Eckhart's book. I recall listening to the audiobook I torrented 4 years ago but never got to finish it. I'm reading Principles.com and I'm blown away by how similar it is to my own model of the world but without the same confidence and experiences to back it up the way Ray did. I think perhaps I was being too judgemental about Ray by reading the WSJ article. But to be fair, I'm con…

Tolle is full of hand wavy pop psychology junk. At the end of the day Tolle is full of mashed up philosphies he mixed and matched until it tasted really sweet. What are you left with? A loosely defined mess that reads like so many other self help books. I am critical here but with good reason, this is like going shopping at the philosophy store and just buying candy. It comes off as blatantly anti reason in places too.

Read Epictetus, Aurelieus, Minsky (Society of Mind), GEB, even Thoreau. Get inside your thinking machine. Feelings are okay. Thinking is okay. Orient around what you will create. Learn to meditate a little. Read Tolle if you are set on it, but I say most thinking people are better off with more original sources that challenge and ask more of their readers.

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