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 HubMy 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.