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Stan Druckenmiller Takes Up Clout-Chasing In Semi-Retirement
I don't much care for Stan Druckenmiller.
He's smug. And not smug like I'm smug. He's billionaire smug.
In May of 2021, when too many regular investors were making money in equities for Stan to happily countenance, he went on business television and called everyday people "monkeys."
He'd say that's inaccurate. And maybe it is. But only technically. Let's take a trip down memory lane. It'll be fun.
In May of 2020, as stocks were in the process of logging one of the most spectacular rallies in
I don’t remember Mnuchin taking advantage of relatively low long term rates, either.
If my memory is incorrect, I am sure someone will let me know.
Years ago, while reading through a lot of bilge water of financial punditry, I discovered two guys I now read daily. The first I found on Seeking Alpha and was instantly aware I found someone good. When Musk bought Twitter, I closed that app forever. Now, somehow, in the silence of my office, and with only one friend on Discord, I’m doing better than ever. I haven’t watched CNBC since 2000, and quit watching Bloomberg about 2 years ago. Silence is an excellent teacher, and companion.
hi, care to share who is the other one (btw i got here through SA also)?
Alex Manzara at chartpoint.com. Daily credit thoughts from the Chicago pits.
Janet Yellen has forgotten more about central banking than Druckenmiller will ever know.
I subscribe to the HR for the concise and great coverage of markets and topics du jour, so when I get articles likes this with great humor and merciless commentary on the absurdity of our industry, it is just the cherry on top. This was a really fun read.
I mean, look: I’m not trying to suggest that Janet Yellen is some kind of epic hero deserving of everyone’s admiration, but this notion (popular among market observers) that guys like Stan and Jeff are looking out for Main Street and serving as guardians of the economy against nefarious plots hatched by a little old woman who’s barely 5 feet tall and Jerome Powell, a guy who can barely make it through a sentence without fumbling his words (despite being a successful lawyer) is silly as hell. I’m sure Stan’s a decent guy and all, but let’s face it: If he could get one over on you for $20, he would. He’s a hedge fund manager. It’s how they are. Sure, they’ll give $10 million to charity, but don’t mistake a tax write-off for kindness. These guys are ruthless by nature. It just grates on my nerves when they show up on business television perpetuating this idea that people like Yellen are out to get everybody.
FWIW, I covered the philanthropic sector for two-plus decades and never mistook a tax write-off for kindness.
You are right to stand up to a bully like Stan. The idea that he make money by deluding people into mistrusting the likes of Yellen and Powell is simply repugnant. While your chart above is illustrative in recent times, I will wager that Stan has never made a good public call. Is he taking the opposite trade from his statements?
Don’t get it confused: Druck is — you know — as big as it gets in his world with the exception of Dalio, and they’re not really the same type of investor. Stan made money every year for three straight decades. And, of course, he broke the BoE. If this is your world, he’s a god. Not to me. Because I don’t do heroes, and because I’ll forever be an outsider to this industry (I’m an outsider in general). But to people who are native to Wall Street, he’s a deity. And here, with Yellen, he’s not trying to make money by deluding anybody. That’s not my point. My point is just that he’s a blowhard and he gets on my nerves.
I am certain that I would learn a tremendous amount from speaking at length with, or working for, someone like Druckenmiller or his ilk. But I have seen that I learn nothing – l literally, as in averaging out the learning and dis-learning yields zero – from reading whatever Druckenmiller says in interviews. Since I’m not going to be speaking at length with or working for him, he’s pretty irrelevant to me. That has nothing to do with whether he is or is not one of the great investors. He just makes no difference to me.
I personally feel I learned a lot over the years from Stanley Druckenmiller. I certainly disagree with his politics. But without failure there is no path to success. He is one of hundreds of indicators I keep in mind. Don’t forget, most of the great traders are right 50% of the time. Richard Dennis told the turtles they should expect to be wrong 60% of the time….