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Class divide?

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Asp-Z
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07 Dec 2010, 3:06 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:
Asp-Z wrote:
There's also an Aspie hedge fund manger who made a lot from shorting subprime mortgages (and this is the financial world, so by "a lot", I'm talking closer to a billion than a million).


I heard about this guy. He nailed it. It would be interesting to see if he continues to be accurate. It is common among financial experts to get a big one right and never again make such an accurate prediction. Basically, if a host of finance wizards make a prediction, at least one is likely to be right. It's a consistent track record of wins that is important, even better if there are a few bad calls as well. Only frauds get it "right" all the time and then only by cooking the books.


This particular guy ran a blog where he kept making accurate predictions. It got pretty popular and attracted the attention of the professionals, who also started following it and realised his predictions kept coming true, so they rung him up and invested in the hedge fund he'd decided to start.

I believe he's since liquidated his fund, though. He's done what they all do in the financial sector: made his money and got out. I assume he's relaxing on an exotic island right about now ;)



wavefreak58
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07 Dec 2010, 3:19 pm

Asp-Z wrote:
wavefreak58 wrote:
Asp-Z wrote:
There's also an Aspie hedge fund manger who made a lot from shorting subprime mortgages (and this is the financial world, so by "a lot", I'm talking closer to a billion than a million).


I heard about this guy. He nailed it. It would be interesting to see if he continues to be accurate. It is common among financial experts to get a big one right and never again make such an accurate prediction. Basically, if a host of finance wizards make a prediction, at least one is likely to be right. It's a consistent track record of wins that is important, even better if there are a few bad calls as well. Only frauds get it "right" all the time and then only by cooking the books.


This particular guy ran a blog where he kept making accurate predictions. It got pretty popular and attracted the attention of the professionals, who also started following it and realised his predictions kept coming true, so they rung him up and invested in the hedge fund he'd decided to start.

I believe he's since liquidated his fund, though. He's done what they all do in the financial sector: made his money and got out. I assume he's relaxing on an exotic island right about now ;)


Seems aspie-ness could be a real asset in finance. A huge mistake people make is to attach emotion to their financial decisions. An Aspie, obsessed with the data alone, could achieve a very high level of detachment.


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Asp-Z
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07 Dec 2010, 3:22 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:
Seems aspie-ness could be a real asset in finance. A huge mistake people make is to attach emotion to their financial decisions. An Aspie, obsessed with the data alone, could achieve a very high level of detachment.


Exactly right. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in the world of investment is be emotional about it. You need to base your decisions on raw data and instinct, not your feelings towards a certain company.



anbuend
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07 Dec 2010, 3:26 pm

Has to be the right type of autistic person, definitely. Some of us are quite emotional, and some of us (me included) can't understand talk like "hedge fund" and all that investment talk no matter how much we try to learn it. (Although I've been told by several people that the reason I can't learn it might be because I can't learn things that inherently don't make sense. But I don't want to be too sure about that because I'm not arrogant enough to think that the only possible reason I couldn't learn something would be because it didn't make sense. I do have trouble learning things that don't have certain kinds of ties to reality though, so that's one possible reason of many, including that it's just too abstract.)


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Asp-Z
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07 Dec 2010, 3:28 pm

anbuend wrote:
Has to be the right type of autistic person, definitely. Some of us are quite emotional, and some of us (me included) can't understand talk like "hedge fund" and all that investment talk no matter how much we try to learn it. (Although I've been told by several people that the reason I can't learn it might be because I can't learn things that inherently don't make sense. But I don't want to be too sure about that because I'm not arrogant enough to think that the only possible reason I couldn't learn something would be because it didn't make sense. I do have trouble learning things that don't have certain kinds of ties to reality though, so that's one possible reason of many, including that it's just too abstract.)


You can't learn things you have no interest in.



anbuend
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07 Dec 2010, 3:32 pm

That's true too. I've just had a particular hell of a time learning anything to do with the stock market, even worse than my usual stuff I had trouble learning. (Of course being the only kid in the class whose parents didn't invest didn't help either, but that wasn't all of it.)


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07 Dec 2010, 4:11 pm

Yeah, I had a bit of trouble getting my head around it all, but I've learnt the basics fine.

I think the reason for your confusion, and the confusion of many others for that matter, is because the world of finance is crap on top of crap. For example, someone takes out a loan, then someone else can buy insurance on that loan, then someone can take a bunch of these insurance policies, group them together, then sell them to someone else, and so forth.

It does get confusing quite quickly if you're just reading plain facts and figures. If you read books on the subject which present everything in an entertaining way, though, it becomes easier to get.



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07 Dec 2010, 4:27 pm

paigetheoracle wrote:
New research suggests that upper class people are less able to read the emotions of others than those from lower social classes.


Citation and definition of class needed. ^^


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TPE2
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07 Dec 2010, 6:09 pm

I suspect that paigetheoracle is talking about some of these studies:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 89390.html

If there is the case, these studies are made comparing the same person in different situations, then is not a case of "education".

Why I asked «Who are that "we"?»: because, if the "we" are "people with ASD" (instead of "people with AS"), we are not known for being smarter than the average bear (if anything, the stereotype is the opposite).



Craig28
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07 Dec 2010, 6:17 pm

Asp-Z wrote:
anbuend wrote:
Um... no. Just... no. I know this is a joke, but seriously, it has nothing to do with that sort of thing. That's a prejudice, that rich people are smarter than poor people, and it's just not true. :roll:


Yeah, it has nothing to do with intelligence, but in all seriousness, I do think the "Aspie type" is more likely to devote themselves to a venture and get rich then an NT. That's just an opinion, though, and the previous post was just a joke.


I dropped out of college because of the way I was treated. The rest is history, I can seriously relate to your ventures and having more time. Also, me not working means that I get to be where I want to be. By having no job, I am not being distracted from my aims. I may claim benefits, but I am definately not sitting on my ass.



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07 Dec 2010, 6:21 pm

TPE2 wrote:
I suspect that paigetheoracle is talking about some of these studies:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 89390.html

If there is the case, these studies are made comparing the same person in different situations, then is not a case of "education".

Why I asked «Who are that "we"?»: because, if the "we" are "people with ASD" (instead of "people with AS"), we are not known for being smarter than the average bear (if anything, the stereotype is the opposite).


Power corrupts.

They make a good case for proving that power corrupts. But it doesn't sound like quite the claim the the OP's referenced researchers were making. They claimed that rich people don't read other peioples' emotional states as well because they don't have to; they aren't dependent on them. Kim Jong Il and other dictators may not need to be in tune to the emotional states of the people around them. But rich people actually are dependent on their social network and really do need to be able to read the emotional states of others. They may ignore the emotional state of their gardener, but they do need to make an accurate read of business rivals and possible allies.