Sam Burns – Understand What You’re Really Betting On

<p><strong>BIO: </strong>Sam Burns is Chief Investment Strategist at Mill Street Research, an independent investment research firm based near Boston, MA. For 25 years, he has focused on global asset allocation and quantitative stock selection, primarily for institutional investors.</p><p><strong>STORY:</strong> Sam decided to short-sell options that went horribly wrong after the Russian default. Even though he knew how options work in principle and that he could lose money, Sam didn’t have a plan for what if some geopolitical event happened, causing the market to fall suddenly. And so he lost a whole lot of money in the trade.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> Understand what you’re really betting on. Every option trade is about volatility. Have a plan for what could go wrong and what you’ll do about it before you look at the headline to see what’s happening.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“There often are hidden drivers of an investment that are not what you think they are.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Sam Burns</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/millstreet/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Sam Burns</strong></a> is Chief Investment Strategist at <a href="https://www.millstreetresearch.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mill Street Research</a>, an independent investment research firm based near Boston, MA. For 25 years now, he has focused on global asset allocation and quantitative stock selection, primarily for institutional investors. After spending many years doing research at firms like Oppenheimer &amp; Co, State Street, Brown Brothers Harriman, and Ned Davis Research, Sam founded Mill Street in 2016 to be able to bring all of his best work together and offer it to clients without any constraints or conflicts.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>Sam had been trading options for a while, mainly from the long side, buying puts and calls, which, at the very least, ha