Harley Bassman Presents: ‘Seeking Treasure with Convexity’
And while I am being honest, let me further reveal that my membership in the 1% is mostly owed to making every effort to be long Convexity – both personally and professionally. So, I beg you not to be fearful as we traverse the topic; I promise, if you can drive a car you already appreciate the concept, even if you cannot speak a word of Greek.
Seeking Treasure with Convexity
A Commentary by Harley Bassman
Long-time readers of these Commentaries are well aware that modesty has never been my
I have a Strategic Plan for my life that I use to inform my decisions about how to spend my time and efforts. It begins with what I want look back and see as my life, assuming I’m alive and cognizant at, say, 85. It has five pillars — e.g., health, finances, etc. — and each year I make a yearly plan for each of those five pillars…then each month I choose things for that month…then each week…until finally each day has one or two or three small bricks that go into building the ultimate construct.
Understanding convexity has been one of those things I’ve been wanting to tackle for some time. But every time I try, I run into mountains of gibberish. Convexity is one of those issues that reminds me of Wittgenstein’s comment: ““The atmosphere surrounding this problem is terrible. Dense clouds of language lie about the crucial point. It is almost impossible to get through to it.”
This piece by Harley Bassman is a masterpiece of pedagogy. It doesn’t answer all my questions, but it provides a great foundation on which to build. If I had not liked one single post on this blog over the years I’ve been reading it, this particular post would make up for all the time spent (although rest assured, I’ve absolutely loved many of the posts).
Thanks a million for posting this.
Hear! Hear! Why the hell didn’t someone tell me this 25 years ago? Not sure what would have happened that was different but I think overall I would have felt better about what would have happened. Thanks H for reading what we haven’t and showing it here. This is a keeper.
I too am a big Harley Bassman fan. When I used to speak to analysts I said I would like the Daily News version, not the New York Times version
+1 to both.
thanks for the superb article!
I read this on Twitter a couple days ago. Bassman’s handle is ConvexityMaven should anyone care to follow.
really appreciate this informative article – guessing it will require at least 3 reads at the minimum for this subscriber …