"Life demands both sacrifice and risk. A life that asks nothing of you, no skin in the game, no real possibility of loss, is no life at all."

— Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes (paraphrased)

My current thesis is that most investment strategies are built on models that mistake the map for the territory. This stems mostly from my observation of incentives for institutions operating in financial markets, and the heuristics and biases that plague human decision-making (we aren't very rational after all).

Drawing from Nassim Taleb's Incerto series, this project builds a philosophical and practical case for tail-risk investing: six essays that move from first principles to a full, backtested implementation of a strategy inspired by Mark Spitznagel's Universa Investments. I've adapted the strategy for a retail trader who doesn't have a billion-dollar fund behind them.

As with all my content, I hope you find this useful.

Tail Risk Hedging

To be continued...