Untitled episode

Jamie seriously thanks for being here thanks a lot for having me risk is a funny thing because it freaks some people out me included but there's also something about it that is so attractive and so tantalizing why have you been so drawn to it risk is a funny thing because when when people say risk especially when you frame it that way the implication is either there's

risk in that in that sense it's not that I'm attracted to to these thrill seeks it's I think this is worth it right I think I can identify these are the probabilities or possibilities and sometimes I can't but at least I can map them out and this is what the possible outcome is and I'm like let's do this okay Le let's let's do this let's let's

really talk about that because what you're saying is you're really talking about what it means for something to be risky when you started Wall Street bets MH the way you've talked about it is that you said you wanted a place where people could talk about risky ideas and they could talk about it kind of proudly risky trade ideas you were enabling other people to take risks

so can you tell us like what worries what worries did you have at the time that things potentially could could go wrong for them you know my my definition my my understanding and my position on risk has evolved right it's it's become clear as the years gone by and early on I Justified this by saying well look they're all adults you have to be 18 by

the you know in order to open up rage same thing if you go to a casino you know everyone can go through and when I said I want to be able to discuss high risk I wanted to discuss high risk High return right it was isn't just high risk is throwing your money out the window and having it go away with 100% certainty this was high

risk with the possibility of making money and those two obviously go hand inand there are some that are irresponsible with it but I can't make myself responsible in much the same way that there's gambling addicts right but outside of that what I start seeing is a learning process much like the one that I personally went through I lost tons of money but I walked away with

so much knowledge and understanding and hands-on experience that a textbook can never EXP explain to you I want to ask you about someone who sort of counts as your really really complete opposite Jack Google he was the founder of Vanguard he helped popularize the very vanilla very boring idea that if you're an investor you can diversify your bets he ended up popularizing the index fund how

did it feel that you in in some ways were kind of singularly responsible for changing the way that just millions of people think about investing what did that feel like it was humbling for sure you know it was unexpected to see the enthusiasm I if I were to have predicted the outcome of it it would have been people looking down at this particular type of activity

uh secretly it was almost a goal of mine but the the beauty of it is what conservative investors do Bogle Buffett you know whatever it might be is no different than what gamblers that literally go to C really let the table do the changes in the vision That Wall Street bets were it was it it demystified the idea of Finance to people that might otherwise think

it's just Excel sheets and discounted cash flows you also took a different kind of risk and you sued Reddit and you lost will you tell us a little bit about what that felt like terrible yeah that was probably in the top five riskiest things if not three you know I get kicked out and and the stubbornness behind Reddit the you know they never answered I tried

pleading and sorries and threats and back channels and lawyer they would just be like no you're done here they got to a point where they said no we're done trying to negotiate we want to take you to court with this and I said all right well I guess now now I have to actually go to court and so this is when I decided to to counter

sue them it didn't feel like a risk it felt like just some something you had to do I needed to do it for closure I still had a chip on my shoulder and I couldn't fully commit to anything and I'd still kind of look at every time I'd see Wall Street bets on the news or people talking about it I would it would still have that

kind of sour feeling and so and I need to get past that I'm like look if I lose I lose and then it was it was it is what it is and it would have been the fight of the century for me or my lifetime for me but but but then I can be at peace right is that how you feel now are you at peace

unfortunately not um because it's not over yet yeah um I would have liked the I I would have liked for the judge to have been like no dude you lose and it's over you know I don't want to cish too much on the legal side of things but the judge let's just say they they left plenty of room for maneuvering um so so unfortunately it's not

over I was told um I really don't know what it is I was told you brought an object I think that maybe encapsulates risk I think Natasha my colleague is going to is going to pass it to us I do believe what is this okay all right tell tell us about tell us about this familar with this yeah remind remind me so this is a uh

this is from a meme right it says this is fine it's a little dog and and this encapsulates so much of both my life and my ability to handle emotions especially with the the volatility of markets but also life in general it gives you so many ups and downs and so many ways to go through it often times when faced with adversity my composure resembles this

it's like yeah don't worry about it can I see him yeah absolutely all right well this is mine now uh Jamie thank you so much for being here love having problem thank you very much for having me watch the business week show Thursday nights 10:30 Eastern on Bloomberg television or 8:30 on bloomberg.com or the Bloomberg app on connected TVs