PROTECTING “MENTAL CAPITAL" - Thread on DRAWDOWNS + Risk mgmt in theory and practice - the evolution of my own framework/philosophy driven by LOSSES and fuck-ups - Self-mastery, attitude, discipline, humility, careers, answering Q&A from prior posts. LONG THREAD (10-15 min read). INTRO/Feedback from prior thread:

“You’re putting effort into these threads that I really should be putting in, but I’m not.” – appreciate older/wiser pros who reached out with some version of this...if you are "real" you can still help the reader by putting your stamp/co-sign on what you deem good advice, doesnt have to be mine, can be anyone. A name/CV plus "co-sign" goes a LONG way in helping readers cut through the noise on here.

For jr analyst DMs, you are asking excellent questions…I was hoping to tweet about something besides markets, but many of you have correctly identified what appear to be gaps in my logic, inconsistencies or contradictions, and I am compelled to answer. (last thread: x.com/gregoryblotnic…).

That, and I also just know that if you get 3 DMs asking about something, there are 30 people who have the same question and didn’t reach out. As for the non-markets material, I will just have to gracefully weave it in..."trading in the key of life," you could say...although anyone with experience in both endeavors knows that they’re really two sides of the same coin.

As always, in the event you disagree with anything written here, “you’re wrong” doesn’t really help the reader...show us what “right” looks like, write up your own philosophy and post it, I will gladly point to yours as superior. Like I said before, I’m bottom 10% of this industry, I KNOW the upper 90% are lurking on here somewhere, and they have wisdom that I need.

But until they surface, we remain firmly in the land of “those who speak don’t know, those who know don’t speak.” Where am I, you may ask? Just as philosopher-king Gerry Rafferty once sang...stuck in the middle with you.

advice I wish I'd been given at a younger age - "stock pitch" thread Q&A - modeling - the L/S industry - answering DM's en masse - a brief note to the professionals - discipline, process versus outcome, general career shit, path for "outsiders," and other FAQs...Very long thread. (1/12) A HUMBLE NOTE

One brief note to the professionals...allow me to make an observation, which is that there is a severe imbalance on here of students vs teachers.

It's possible I'm just an antiquated fossil from the days of old FinTwit, where posting your work in real-time, pitches and models, respectful discourse, "poke holes in my thesis," like, that was just the norm...clearly we lost that...Gresham's law but for tweets, where the bad drove out the good.

That said, I'm definitely not "that guy" nor am I fit to be... meaning, I started in the hf industry in 2009, I've met thousands of equity analysts since then, and I know where I stand...somewhere in the bottom ~10% of intelligence and ability. But those other 90%, they're all definitely on here - in 2016 trump got elected and twitter became de rigueur...moves markets...ya gotta be on it.

I haven't posted anything special, jr/mid-level pitches and analysis...but to have 10-20 new DMs each time I log in, something is off...answering them doesn't bother me, I wouldn't be posting if it did, but my reaction each time is sort of just, like...really?...where the f is everyone lol

Plus, having been on here for a while...as soon as someone gets engagement, it awakens the crabs in a bucket...like..."oh he wants to be THAT GUY? F him...I'ma get his ass." Bro... I do not care about this twitter shit, trust me...I'm not here to be somebody. The brattlestcap account had a pretty big following, and the only thing it taught me is that this nonsense, grown men playing "engagement games," spending 9 hours a day chasing anonymous clout and defending imaginary avatars of themselves...the whole snippy, snarky, faux-intellectual "gotcha" subculture... its a gigantic jerkoff. "Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas."

To spend all day on here arguing with people...as if you're going to singlehandedly eradicate ignorance from the internet...is no different than when Caligula declared war against the sea. I look back at all the hours I've ever pissed away on "scrolly apps" and am hard pressed to think of a bigger waste... literally jail is a more productive use of time.

I pop in a few times each week here to try and share something helpful, but I'm 99% in DMs, I stay off the feed and I become more anti-social media...anti-internet really...each day. This shit rots your brain and destroys your attention span, and if you try reading a paperback after a day of scrolling, you'll see what I mean...as the great philosopher-king George Carlin once said, "It's bad for ya"...and rarely a day goes by where I don't think about just hucking my phone into the intercoastal.

The times I do post, out of my 630 tweets, 620 have nothing to do with markets. The other ten are all prefaced by some degree of "FYI, I'm absolutely fucking retarded"... to borrow Seneca's analogy, I'm speaking from the hospital bed next to you... no answers to give, just another sick patient searching for cures. Even putting aside my own fuck-ups, every single year I watch guys 10x older and wiser than me, my old role models and idols, continue to get blown out or fired. Trading markets is eternally humbling, an absolutely brutal way to make a living...L/S in 2025 exponentially harder than 2015...it's been 16+ years since I started, yet many times I feel like I'm stupider than when I began.

anyway, look...to the professionals who are lurking...this app has a major "those who know dont talk, those who talk dont know" issue. I'm not "that guy," but I know many of you are...if you ever decide to take 2 mins of your day and scribble some shit out, it will be VERY well-received on here, because the supply of wisdom is vastly outstripped by the demand to learn. There's an entire galaxy of potential content that doesn't even touch "compliance land."

You can write out "10 things I've learned about L/S", or about risk mgmt, about port construction..."the time I blew up my PA"...advice on getting hired....how to pitch a stock...traits of good vs bad analysts...SM vs pod, generalist vs sector focus... "what I learned dating a girl with 232k insta followers"...what I learned mixing leverage with stimulant abuse...theres endless stuff to write about that will help the 21-year old version of yourself, who is on here desperately searching for it.

to sum this all up: I'm 38 and no different than many of you - disillusioned and cynical, the inevitable toll of trading markets for a living - but you gotta step outside yourself, my brother...the 18-25 yr olds, they still have that fire that many of us lost lol.

And for those of you "old heads" of fintwit, yes, the vibes have drastically deteriorated, and yes, the last chopper out of Saigon took off a bit ago...think Obama was still in office...but complaining and whining is lame as fuck, and its foolish to ask the universe for energy that you arent putting out first...whatever this app may be, you may as well carve out a slice that "is" whatever you make of it.

To wrap this note up... if you believe in karma, believe in God, believe in paying it forward...twtr, as much as I'm burnt out on it, is like democracy in that it is "the worst form of internet except for all the others." It remains an incredible force multiplier...and while I know you're busy, I will gently plant the seed...if a time should ever come where you feel like sharing, it takes only a small effort on your part to have a large impact.

/fin

for jr/mid-level analysts, or IB/PE going into L/S equity, or "outsiders" trying to get a seat...I pulled together a handful of "live" investment pitches from back when I was interviewing for HF analyst roles...there is a lot in here that may be of use to you, take what you need. as a disclaimer, these are all 5+ years old, they're probably not actionable, I'm not involved in any of them, do your own due dili -- educational/informational use only. They are most valuable from the standpoint of process, template, formatting, checklist/criteria, and how to organize your thoughts in an "industry-standard" way... some are better than others, I'll point out weaknesses/flaws in each

Mostly, as I was going through these, I asked myself: "If I was in my mid-20's, would I have found these useful?" And the answer is ABSOLUTELY...back in 2012 or 2013, I was on Twitter as a young analyst trying to step my game up...these pitches would've saved me a ton of time, because most of what I know, I learned from getting laughed out of interviews. pitching stocks is EVERYTHING in L/S, and it's all reps...even if you're coming from IB/PE and understand basic biz analysis, there's still a multi-year learning curve to the "pitch"...PM's are busy and you really have 60 seconds verbal or one page written to drive your point home.

lets get into it >>

assorted thoughts on fintwit, on L/S equity, fund management, analyst vs pm, knowledge of self, mental capital…some lesser known, underdiscussed parts of the game…long, loooong thread. (1/10) first...to be clearr, I’m not a talented investor/analyst/PM, and in HF world I’m a nobody…I’ve been in the industry since 2009, I've had the honor to work for and work with a lot of unbelievably talented PM’s, I've made an enormous amt of mistakes, and that’s really all I can offer. Having a good attitude, being humble, loyal, relentlessly optimistic and having passion for the game is the only reason I ever got anywhere…God knows how many doors were opened for me that I didn’t deserve. I say this as not to be held in any higher esteem than is merited.

ultimately my #1 rule of FinTwit is below...and so a lot of the discourse on here, I don’t participate…I haven’t earned the right to x.com/gregoryblotnic…

long-ass thread on health, habits, discipline, mindset and attitude...adjustments that changed the trajectory of my life..."put yourself first" "HARD CHOICES, EASY LIFE"

in their late thirties men embark on two entirely separate paths: guys who commit to their physical health, and guys who don’t. This decision basically determines what your life looks like from age 50 on

the guys who committed, they all look way younger than their age and are full of energy. The guys who don’t look like absolute shit, their bodies, faces, demeanor, physiognomy... at worst, the entry of health problems that plague you until you die