Tom Basso on The Making of a Trading Legend

Sep 14, 2021

“Don’t hide from risk; find it and attack it.”

We were joined this week by none other than Tom Basso (Enjoytheride.world), trend following legend, author of Panic-Proof Investing and The Frustrated Investor and known as ‘Mr Serenity’ from his depiction in Jack Schwager’s best-selling Market Wizard series. From his ten-dollar a week paper route, to earning enough money to buy his first mutual fund, our conversation spanned a few decades and included:

• A chemical engineer’s approach to capital markets
• Commodity futures as the ultimate training ground in the 1970s
• Black Monday, Dotcom Crash, GFC and Covid – a career shaped by ‘crisis alpha’
• A business mindset to asset management, and early struggles as a salesman
• Retiring from money management, and smiling ever since
• Taking much more risk in retirement than when he managed funds
• Improving his techniques and the evolution of his edge
• Solving the investment puzzle – codify your rules, size trades appropriately, and most important, work on your mental game

We dug deeper into the latter point, discussing the benefits of stoicism, meditation, journaling and other techniques that can improve one’s mental game, both in trading and in life. Tom also shared insights into some of the different strategies he runs and parameters he watches closely, as well as his friendship with Eric Crittenden and becoming chairman of Standpoint Funds.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

 

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

 

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.