Spreading his wings
November 01, 2011
Jan Alexander
Universa founder Mark Spitznagel is looking to apply the skills he learned managing black swan funds to macro investing
| | |
| | Mark Spitznagel: I wanted to be away from Wall Street
Photograph by Catherine Ledner |
In the late 1990s, Nassim Taleb had a radical new idea for an investment strategy: He wanted to start a hedge fund designed to lose money when the market went up. The appeal would be that the fund would generate huge gains any time the market took an unexpected hit. Taleb — a trader, writer, professor and all-around renaissance guy — had the clout to get financial backing for his idea, but he needed a partner of like mind to help execute it. He found that in Mark Spitznagel, a young trader known for his skill at minimizing losses. Spitznagel was studying at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, where Taleb was teaching. In 1999, the two founded hedge fund firm Empirica Capital, which at its height had nearly $500 million under management.
To continue reading please, take a free trial, subscribe or log in to Institutional Investor's Alpha.
*free trial allows access to online content excluding research, rankings and data.
Subscribe
Subscribers have unlimited access to all online content inc rankings. Start your subscription today - click on the button below.
Subscribe now
Free trial
Taking a free trial will give you access to online content one week (excludes research & rankings). Start your trial today.
Free Trial