Misc other posts

My proudest moment: being quoted in Private Eye

From the about me page; what turns me on:

  - Systematic and quantitative trading and investing
-  giving more people the tools and understanding to do their own investing better
  - Making the investment industry function better and serve the interests of society as a whole
  - Trying to promote a more correct and complete use and understanding of quantitative economic research in coming to better decisions, eg in policy making.

On this page I've collected posts that fall into the 3rd and 4th categories of the above list. For posts on category 1 systematic trading see here. For posts on category 2, vanilla investment, see here.

LIBORgate

Truth and Liebor

LOBOgate

"LOBO's" (Lender option borrower option) are a type of loan that UK local authority and housing associations used to borrow money. These loans have embedded derivatives within them that the borrowers may not have understood. There are serious concerns about the way that these loans were arranged.

I started blogging about LOBO's in early 2014; in September they were mentioned in private eye, and in Summer 2015 I appeared in a Channel 4 Dispatches episode about the issue. This was followed by a UK parliament select committee hearing where I gave evidence.

My first post (good place to start)

Private Eye

Channel 4, and select committee hearing


After the programme I wrote a couple more posts rebutting the arguments put by both lenders and borrowers in the documentary.

A fairly technical rebuttal post

A simpler rebuttal post


The Financial Times and the Evening Standard covered LOBO's in March 2016 (I'm quoted)

The Independent also did a series of articles in March 2016: first part, second (I'm quoted) and final (TBC).

Promoting a better understanding of statistical significance

A story of poor statistical intuition

Brexit as negative skew event

Making the investment industry function better

If fund managers are overpaid so are chefs

Why hedge funds are less evil than banks

So you want to be a trader?

Can a small retail trader beat a large fund?

Humans or computers - which make better traders?

Promoting a better use of economics in political decision making

Fixing education inequality in britain

UK politics through the looking glass of finance and investment

Politics and taxes, why language matters