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When lock-downs are lifted and the U.S. government re-opens the economy, what does the Other Side look like?

It’s impossible to predict how the other side will look with precision, given the uncertainties and unknowns, but there’s a high probability that life will be very different from the normal that we knew. Throw out the old rule book and unlearn all that we know.

Rethink everything!

As per a Bloomberg report a prominent hedge fund manager is down 14% in just the first quarter this year. According to reports he didn’t do well the previous year either. Obviously, something is not working for this fund manager. Advice to this fund manager – get yourself a great coach! Bobby Axelrod in Billions had one. And every fund manager should too.

How are you different? What’s your edge? How does your fund differentiate itself in a very crowded space? Think about what makes you truly stand out from others. A deep and truthful self-evaluation is a good first step in the right direction. Is your investment strategy true to your core expertise or is your pitch promising investors what they want to hear?

The single most extraordinary thing we can do in the New Year is to invest in ourselves. I’m a coach, advisor, strategist and mentor to senior-level executives, entrepreneurs and investment professionals. A client’s critical thinking partner and a resource in helping them grow from good to great.

Not a single day goes by without several mentions, analyses and debates about Bitcoin on every major media and social media outlet. It’s up over 1200% this year alone and boasts a ‘market cap’ of close to $200 Billion. Retail and institutional interest in Bitcoin is growing by the hour. The crowds want in.

The current global monetary policies of negative yields are destined to destroy the financial system – banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and money market funds. The same financial system they are supposed to protect – and they did everything they could to prop it up back in 2008 – the central bankers are now inadvertently bent on destroying.

Michael Lewis is a masterful storyteller who has done a phenomenal job of portraying the essence of wall street and trading in his books liars poker and the big short. The movie, the big short is as close to the reality of trading, right down to the dialogues and dress codes, and life on wall street as I have ever seen.

It’s understandable that many are skeptical about the value of coaching and resistant to it since there are some misperceptions about what coaching is. Especially among traders, portfolio managers and other high achievers. Coaching is not psychotherapy. It’s not instructional training for the development of technical skills. And it’s rarely about giving advice or simply handing out a script entitled “7 Habits of Successful Traders”.

A private man, without wealth, without property, without official title or office. He was not a commander of armies nor a ruler of vast lands. He could not boast of any scientific achievement or artistic gift. Yet men, governments, dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands and come to pay homage to this brown man in a loin cloth who led his country to freedom. Mahatma Gandhi has become the spokesman for the conscience of all mankind. He made humility and simple truth more powerful than military empires…”

Since 2008 the major central banks have collectively pumped ~ $14 trillion in liquidity AND lowered short-term rates to zero and beyond (negative deposit rates). This has been an extraordinary experiment. The eventual outcomes and unintended impacts are uncertain. Currently, there’s about $8 trillion of global sovereign debt with negative yields.