The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: A Year Marked to Market
Manveer Sahota’s one‑year Substack review shows a strong macro‑driven performance built on forced‑flow trades. Calls on gold versus the dollar, Japanese bond dynamics, vol‑control strategies and a European bank re‑rating generated outsized gains, with the gold trade alone delivering over 40% return. Two mis‑timed positions—a September bear flattener and an SPX put structure—accounted for the only notable losses. Overall, the winners outweighed the losers, reinforcing the author’s disciplined approach to forced‑flow and forced‑re‑rating mechanisms.
What’s the Deal with Iran? The Asymmetric Energy Trade Markets Are Missing
The article argues that while the immediate price shock from the Strait of Hormuz disruptions has been absorbed—Brent briefly spiked toward $120—the real trade opportunity lies in a structural asymmetry within energy equities. Two macro scenarios, either prolonged regional tension...
2s10s: The Trade Hiding Inside Hong Kong's 140bp Headline
The article argues that the popular notion of shorting Hong Kong 10‑year bonds against long US 10‑year Treasuries is impractical, and instead recommends a 2s10s steepener trade within the Hong Kong curve. The suggested position is DV01‑neutral—long the 2‑year and short the...
The Arrival Fallacy
The piece revisits a popular, albeit unverified, Buddhist anecdote in which the Buddha reduces the quest for happiness to a practice of shedding ego and desire. It argues that craving and self‑attachment generate suffering and cloud judgment. The author links...
Why Genius Is No Longer Enough
The hedge‑fund myth that a single genius trader drives alpha is eroding. Recent examples—BlueCrest, Soros, Druckenmiller, Paulson—show top managers moving to internal capital or family offices to eliminate client‑fund constraints. Aligning capital, removing redemption risk, and redesigning incentives now provide...
The Contrast Protocol
The article introduces the “Contrast Protocol,” a mental shift that occurs after travel, where ordinary surroundings suddenly feel vivid and significant. It argues that this heightened perception isn’t just metaphorical; it mechanically rewires how we view our environment and self....
Does Spacetime Exist?
Gravitational waves detected by LIGO in 2015 confirmed Einstein’s prediction but did not resolve the long‑standing debate over whether spacetime exists as an independent entity. Philosophers distinguish substantivalism, which treats spacetime as a material container, from relationalism, which sees it...
No Notifications, Meetings, or Mercy: How to Engineer Deep Work
The article argues that deep work is not a personal trait but an outcome of a deliberately engineered environment. It explains how constant notifications, meetings, and digital noise increase cognitive load, leading to stress and low‑value output. By removing these...
How to Upload Any Behaviour to Your Brain
The article argues that habits are driven by structural systems rather than motivation. It explains how environmental cues, pre‑commitments, and social accountability turn desired actions into automatic behavior. The author shares a personal example of preparing gear the night before...
Human Architecture: The Operating System For Elite Performance
The Meta Manv framework proposes a systematic "operating system" for elite performance, replacing ad‑hoc motivation with a structured architecture of twelve interdependent systems spanning biology, cognition, environment, and execution. By automating habits and decision‑making, the model aims to eliminate decision...
Only Sleep & Sex: How to Engineer Perfect Sleep
The article argues that chronic insomnia stems from trying to force sleep, which raises cognitive arousal, and proposes a permissive approach that treats sleep as an allowed state. It outlines a five‑point framework—circadian alignment, sleep pressure, environmental setup, stimulus control,...