RWH071: Risk, Ruin, Reinvention & Resilience w/ Victor Haghani
The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast NetworkShow Notes
In this episode, William Green speaks with Victor Haghani, founder & CIO of Elm Wealth & author of The Missing Billionaires: A Guide to Making Better Financial Decisions. Victor’s journey is among the most remarkable & instructive in modern investment history. As one of the founders of Long-Term Capital Management, he experienced dazzling success & devastating failure. Today, he oversees billions of dollars using a low-cost, diversified, index-driven strategy that reflects hard-won lessons about resilience, humility, simplicity & risk management.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:17) How Victor Haghani’s tumultuous family history shaped him.(00:14:02) What he learned as a star trader on Salomon’s famed arbitrage desk.(00:22:56) How he honed his skills by playing high-stakes games of Liar’s Poker.(00:30:35) How Long-Term Capital Management hit the jackpot—for a while.(00:46:04) How Russia’s default in 1998 sparked a cascading disaster.(00:49:18) Why he defends the fund’s enormous appetite for leverage & risk.(00:52:20) What he views as the real lessons of the fund’s collapse.(00:58:21) How the concept of expected utility can improve our financial decisions.(01:11:09) Why he fell out of love with exotica like private equity & hedge funds.(01:13:22) What troubles him about the traditional, static approach to indexing.(01:18:52) Why he favors a “dynamic asset allocation” based on risks & rewards.(01:27:21) How his firm’s current allocations reflect a wary view of US equities.(01:40:45) What he’s learned about overcoming adversity & finding happiness.
Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
Inquire about William Green’s Richer, Wiser, Happier Masterclass.
Victor Haghani’s investment firm, Elm Wealth.
Victor Haghani & James White’s book “The Missing Billionaires.”
Michael Lewis’ book, “Liar’s Poker.”
Roger Lowenstein’s book, “When Genius Failed.”
Daniel Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling on Happiness.”
Viktor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
William Green’s book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book.
Follow William Green on X.
Related books mentioned in the podcast.
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