Cliff Sosin

If you'd gone all the way back to when I was in high school, I thought I would have been an inventor. I sort of modeled myself as an Edison in my mind or something. But when I went to school and I studied engineering, a lot of inventing is kind of obsessively debugging real things. And nature is pretty unforgiving. And so what I learned about myself was that I didn't love that process.

If you'd gone all the way back to when I was in high school, I thought I would have been an inventor. I sort of modeled myself as an Edison in my mind or something. But when I went to school and I studied engineering, a lot of inventing is kind of obsessively debugging real things. And nature is pretty unforgiving. And so what I learned about myself was that I didn't love that process.

It just wasn't as fun for me. Um, and so I was sort of casting him up for what I wanted to do. And I ended up doing an internship at a big private equity firm. And, and I just thought it was really neat that I could use. And I discovered I could use a lot of these things I'd been learning in school, like game theory, apply them to these situations.

It just wasn't as fun for me. Um, and so I was sort of casting him up for what I wanted to do. And I ended up doing an internship at a big private equity firm. And, and I just thought it was really neat that I could use. And I discovered I could use a lot of these things I'd been learning in school, like game theory, apply them to these situations.

And that, that brought novel insights that these people who've done this for so long weren't using. And I was hooked, like the idea of like, you know, being able to do that. From there, I was trying to kind of get into investing. I thought I was going to do private equity.

And that, that brought novel insights that these people who've done this for so long weren't using. And I was hooked, like the idea of like, you know, being able to do that. From there, I was trying to kind of get into investing. I thought I was going to do private equity.

I knew the path into private equity was through a banking analyst program, but I didn't want to do a traditional sell-side analyst program. So I ended up going into financial restructuring because I didn't want to do as much marketing. So I worked at a place called Houlihan Loki, which is a leader in financial restructuring, and I did that for a time. I still wanted to get to the buy side.

I knew the path into private equity was through a banking analyst program, but I didn't want to do a traditional sell-side analyst program. So I ended up going into financial restructuring because I didn't want to do as much marketing. So I worked at a place called Houlihan Loki, which is a leader in financial restructuring, and I did that for a time. I still wanted to get to the buy side.

So I went to a place called Silverpoint for a year. And then from there, I went to UBS, where I spent five years before I started my business. And while I was there, that was really where I think I did a lot of my maturing. And I thought a lot about, I'd come from a lending and finance background. And at UBS, I was involved in trading, investing in stocks, trading in stocks.

So I went to a place called Silverpoint for a year. And then from there, I went to UBS, where I spent five years before I started my business. And while I was there, that was really where I think I did a lot of my maturing. And I thought a lot about, I'd come from a lending and finance background. And at UBS, I was involved in trading, investing in stocks, trading in stocks.

UBS at the time, it was their proprietary investing business. It was the bank's own capital. Think of it as a hedge fund with 1LP. And it did a lot of the traditional things that I think a lot of hedge funds do. There was a lot of focus on short-term performance.

UBS at the time, it was their proprietary investing business. It was the bank's own capital. Think of it as a hedge fund with 1LP. And it did a lot of the traditional things that I think a lot of hedge funds do. There was a lot of focus on short-term performance.

There was a desire to have, yes, we want things to be misvalued, but we want to have a bunch of catalysts that are going to cause the price to go up. There was a lot of trading around events. There was a lot of hedging. And Um, as I was involved in that, there was sort of an effort to teach me how to do it. And it, I, I didn't like it.

There was a desire to have, yes, we want things to be misvalued, but we want to have a bunch of catalysts that are going to cause the price to go up. There was a lot of trading around events. There was a lot of hedging. And Um, as I was involved in that, there was sort of an effort to teach me how to do it. And it, I, I didn't like it.

I sort of discovered that, you know, they would sort of say, well, we should, we should do this and do this. And I'd sort of say, well, why? And that doesn't make sense. And, you know, I don't know why this stock has a three beta. Why do I have to, why do I need to short $3 of S and P for every dollar, you know, of stocks we're going to buy here? That doesn't make any sense.

I sort of discovered that, you know, they would sort of say, well, we should, we should do this and do this. And I'd sort of say, well, why? And that doesn't make sense. And, you know, I don't know why this stock has a three beta. Why do I have to, why do I need to short $3 of S and P for every dollar, you know, of stocks we're going to buy here? That doesn't make any sense.

And this led to like a really vigorous debate. between me and some of my former colleagues there. And to their credit, I mean, I was young and incredibly difficult to have as someone working for you. And I just hounded them about it. And eventually this debate went on and on and it became pretty clear to me that I was right.

And this led to like a really vigorous debate. between me and some of my former colleagues there. And to their credit, I mean, I was young and incredibly difficult to have as someone working for you. And I just hounded them about it. And eventually this debate went on and on and it became pretty clear to me that I was right.

And I was naive enough to think I would just explain to them that I was right and they would just do it differently. Further occurred to me that they couldn't change. And they couldn't change because they had a principal agent problem. The problem was that they had to deliver steady profits to the bank. And if they had big drawdowns, that they would lose their money.

And I was naive enough to think I would just explain to them that I was right and they would just do it differently. Further occurred to me that they couldn't change. And they couldn't change because they had a principal agent problem. The problem was that they had to deliver steady profits to the bank. And if they had big drawdowns, that they would lose their money.