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The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

pranshum.yarn.tech

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Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#41

Post by Ozzie_osman »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: 1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of "A/B testing for engagement" at Facebook that turned social media into a tribalistic, outrage generating machine (nothing engages like hate), and that the rest of SV essentially copied. I think this trajectory would have happened regardless, but he was first, s…

The interesting thing is a few years ago (before becoming the "SPAC King") he did a media tour where he criticized Venture Capital as being a "massive Ponzi scheme". [1]

Then he went all-in on SPACs... Which ended up being the ultimate Ponzi.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/start-up-economy-is-a-ponzi-...

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#42

Post by calgarymicro »

lvl102 wrote: post #36

Wall Street banks made a lot of money off of that craze and that’s really the reason number one the Fed didn’t tighten its policy when inflation was flashing red. Never trust the Fed. They merely exist to facilitate monetary policies for Wall Street banks.

If the sole purpose of the Fed is to facilitate easy monetary policy for banks then it sure is odd they're continuing to hike interest rates even though most banks are massively underwater on their bond portfolios (some to catastrophic effect) .

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#43

Post by VirusNewbie »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: 1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of "A/B testing for engagement" at Facebook that turned social media into a tribalistic, outrage generating machine (nothing engages like hate), and that the rest of SV essentially copied. I think this trajectory would have happened regardless, but he was first, s…

I’ve listened to him speak, it was amazing. He came across like someone who could barely pass biz school.

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#45

Post by quickthrower2 »

yellowstuff wrote: post #35
quickthrower2 wrote: post #15

Median? Who cares. $1 bet. Roll a dice. If you get 1,2 you get zero Otherwise $1.3 Median return is 30% plus prinicpal.

I’m a quant. If all you care about is the realized return of a equal-weighted portfolio than sure, just look at mean return. If you’re trying to understand a strategy in depth you’ll want to look at the entire distribution of hypothetical returns, precisely because financial returns are fat-tailed and portfolio returns are often driven by outliers. I don’t know about SPACs, but for common stock often the outlier retu…

Sure. What I mean is there is only so much space in a headline. Give one stat to report the success, the weighted mean is best. It represents the laymens idea if what did I get out if I put $1 across all of it. Imagine a headline about the median SPY company growth in 2022. That number isn’t how much the SPY went up.

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#46

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

nwienert wrote: post #37
throwaway4736 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was also a huge bully at Facebook —- it’s well known that everyone strongly disliked him personally —- and his behavior at SocialCapital was so bizarre that every other partner in the firm quit.

[flagged]

Your comment pretty much highlights my point. I've seen Chamath interviewed talking about the evils of Silicon Valley and social media. Meanwhile, I'm like "Queen, please, you were a primary architect of it, and it made you wildly rich!" Why isn't he challenged more often when he talks about the negative impacts of stuff he created?

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#47

Post by ProAm »

nwienert wrote: post #37
throwaway4736 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was also a huge bully at Facebook —- it’s well known that everyone strongly disliked him personally —- and his behavior at SocialCapital was so bizarre that every other partner in the firm quit.

[flagged]

Who else? Im curious

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#48

Post by __loam »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: 1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of "A/B testing for engagement" at Facebook that turned social media into a tribalistic, outrage generating machine (nothing engages like hate), and that the rest of SV essentially copied. I think this trajectory would have happened regardless, but he was first, s…

All the All In pod guys are awful people, with the possible exception of Friedberg.

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#49

Post by zitterbewegung »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: 1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of "A/B testing for engagement" at Facebook that turned social media into a tribalistic, outrage generating machine (nothing engages like hate), and that the rest of SV essentially copied. I think this trajectory would have happened regardless, but he was first, s…

He also headed the Facebook Phone and Facebook Beacon where the phone is something no one remembers and Beacon had a public apology from Zuckerberg after many lawsuits. But all of this is on his Wikipedia page…

Now he even regrets his impact on social networks due to unintended consequences … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamath_Palihapitiyawprov=sfti...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Beacon?wprov=sfti1

Re: The median return of 2022's SPAC mergers: -82%

#50

Post by majormajor »

nwienert wrote: post #37
throwaway4736 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was also a huge bully at Facebook —- it’s well known that everyone strongly disliked him personally —- and his behavior at SocialCapital was so bizarre that every other partner in the firm quit.

[flagged]

But none of the criticism here is about what he said it's about what he did which is 99.9999% overlapping with standard "fuck you got mine" neocon/liberal SV/Wall Street status quo.
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