The Macro Ops Hub

Above is a depiction of the killing of Spartacus. He’s the famous Thracian slave who dominated as a gladiator and eventually led a rebellion that nearly brought down the entire Roman Empire.

Impressive dude.

When I read of stories like Spartacus’; where a person rises from nothing and excels to amazing heights, I’m fascinated by the how.

The nature vs nurture debate has long been settled. Experts have clearly shown that achieving enormous success in the mastery of a craft (like killing Romans or playing the violin), has little to do with the embued qualities of the person, and everything to do with their environment and how they trained.

That’s why understanding the how is such an interesting question. If you can dissect a framework, then you can replicate it. If you can replicate it, you can apply it.

Simple.

In Spartacus’ case, you can trace much of his success to the gladiator school where he trained. You have to be one of the best fighters in the world to become a champion gladiator and rebellion commander. And as we know, you aren’t born a great fighter, but rather become one through intense training.

Spartacus was lucky enough (remember he was a slave) to end up at the House of Vatia. Here he trained in the Ludi Gladiatorium (Gladiator School) of Batiatus in Capia — one of the most highly regarded schools in Rome.

It was under these auspices that Spartacus was exposed to not only one of the best gladiator training programs, but also to his fellow gladiators who stemmed from all over the known world, practicing numerous deadly fighting styles.

Combining these two environmental factors: quality instruction and multifarious training partners, created an environment that enabled Spartacus to rapidly evolve to the point where he nearly became the ruler of the known world…

Spartacus benefitted from having a Ludi advantage.

Since I’m a trader who lives to master the art of speculation, I asked the question: what is the trading equivalent to the Ludi Gladiatorium of Batiatus in Capia?

The answer, without a doubt, is Commodity Corp (or CC as it used to be called).

For those of you unfamiliar with CC, I suggest you read this Fortune article from 1981 and then pick up a copy of Mallaby’s book More Money Than God.

CC was a trading operation founded by Helmut Weymar and Amos Hostetter in 1977 in Princeton, N.J. The firm was established to raise money to trade in the commodities market.

It’s story is impressive not because of the unbelievable returns the fund produced (which were astronomical) but because of the long list of legendary traders who came out of it. The CC alumni list reads like a 20th century trader hall of fame. Some of the names include:

  • Ed Seykota
  • Michael Marcus
  • Bruce Kovner
  • Paul Tudor Jones
  • Jack Schwager
  • Craig Witt
  • Louis Bacon

It’s not happenstance that all of these gifted traders came from CC. They all benefited from similar environmental advantages to Spartacus: quality instruction and multifarious trading partners.

The quality instruction came from Amos Hostetter who was one of the best traders of his time, and an early pioneer of trend following.

The multifarious environment came from their exposure to each other’s different thinking, trading styles, theories and so on. In trading and investing there are many ways to skin a cat and these guys got to share the best of these different means with one another.

On top of that, when you put together a bunch of extremely motivated people all working towards mastering the same craft, you create numerous developmental feedback loops. This is where iron sharpens iron and rapid evolution is spawned.

CC traders benefitted from a Ludi advantage.

I always wanted to work at Commodities Corp. I dreamed of training with and learning from like minded traders who were as passionate about the markets as myself.

But unfortunately, CC was acquired by a Giant Vampire Squid (Goldman Sachs) in 97’. And nothing of comparison has existed since… until now.

The Macro Ops Hub

My teammates (Tyler and Anish) and I started Macro Ops (MO) with the aim of creating the site we always wanted, but which didn’t exist.

We wanted to build a virtual Commodities Corp. We wanted a place where traders from all over the world could come together and share ideas, theories, trade approaches, knowledge and so on. A place where those driven by mastery and a deep respect for the game could push each other to grow and evolve — where iron would sharpen iron. The site would contain the highest quality trading education, research, and discussion, all of which would combine to create spontaneous developmental feedback loops leading to rapid evolution.

This is what we’ve done with the Macro Ops Hub. We’ve created a Ludi advantage for traders.

Similar to Bridgewater, the Hub is like an “intellectual Navy Seals” for those wanting to reach a deeper understanding of the markets and how to play them.

And the best thing about it is that we’re just getting started. The Hub is like the Juggernaut just starting his jog.

The more quality members we accumulate, the more trade ideas and theory shared.

The more training material we put out, the more quickly the Hub becomes the internet’s largest private database for high level trading materials.

The more you learn, the more we learn, and the better the P&L for everyone involved.

Access to the Macro Ops Hub includes:

  • A growing and evolving set of global macro tools and resources
  • Direct access to the Macro Ops team and our years of experience in the hedge fund world
  • A front row seat to every trade we make in both our model portfolios
  • Entrance to the Comm Center, an elite private forum with Operators from around the world
  • A key to the trader’s Vault which includes all our training material including our two trading courses

Currently enrollment to the Hub is closed.

We only open seats periodically when we believe our community is ready to expand. We purposely limit our growth to ensure we have the highest quality Operators in our circle.

If you’d like to be alerted to when we open the Hub, just sign up below. You’ll be put on our free mailing list where we’ll contact you when seats are available

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Brandon Beylo

Value Investor

Brandon has been a professional investor focusing on value for over 13 years, spending his time in small to micro-cap companies, spin-offs, SPACs, and deep value liquidation situations. Over time, he’s developed a deeper understanding for what deep-value investing actually means, and refined his philosophy to include any business trading at a wild discount to what he thinks its worth in 3-5 years.

Brandon has a tenacious passion for investing, broad-based learning, and business. He previously worked for several leading investment firms before joining the team at Macro Ops. He lives by the famous Munger mantra of trying to get a little smarter each day.

AK

Investing & Personal Finance

AK is the founder of Macro Ops and the host of Fallible.

He started out in corporate economics for a Fortune 50 company before moving to a long/short equity investment firm.

With Macro Ops focused primarily on institutional clients, AK moved to servicing new investors just starting their journey. He takes the professional research and education produced at Macro Ops and breaks it down for beginners. The goal is to help clients find the best solution for their investing needs through effective education.

Tyler Kling

Volatility & Options Trader

Former trade desk manager at $100+ million family office where he oversaw multiple traders and helped develop cutting edge quantitative strategies in the derivatives market.

He worked as a consultant to the family office’s in-house fund of funds in the areas of portfolio manager evaluation and capital allocation.

Certified in Quantitative Finance from the Fitch Learning Center in London, England where he studied under famous quants such as Paul Wilmott.

Alex Barrow

Macro Trader

Founder and head macro trader at Macro Ops. Alex joined the US Marine Corps on his 18th birthday just one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He subsequently spent a decade in the military. Serving in various capacities from scout sniper to interrogator and counterintelligence specialist. Following his military service, he worked as a contract intelligence professional for a number of US agencies (from the DIA to FBI) with a focus on counterintelligence and terrorist financing. He also spent time consulting for a tech company that specialized in building analytic software for finance and intelligence analysis.

After leaving the field of intelligence he went to work at a global macro hedge fund. He’s been professionally involved in markets since 2005, has consulted with a number of the leading names in the hedge fund space, and now manages his own family office while running Macro Ops. He’s published over 300 white papers on complex financial and macroeconomic topics, writes regularly about investment/market trends, and frequently speaks at conferences on trading and investing.

Macro Ops is a market research firm geared toward professional and experienced retail traders and investors. Macro Ops’ research has been featured in Forbes, Marketwatch, Business Insider, and Real Vision as well as a number of other leading publications.

You can find out more about Alex on his LinkedIn account here and also find him on Twitter where he frequently shares his market research.