โดยกองทุนจะซื้อสัญญา Put Options ประเภท Far Out-of-the-Money หรือก็คือ Put Options ที่มีราคาใช้สิทธิต่ำกว่าราคาหุ้นในตลาดมาก ๆ เพื่อเป็นการทำประกันให้กับพอร์ต
Antifragile: The Principle of Turning Crisis into Portfolio Growth through Risk /By Longtunman
Normally, most people fear risk. However, there are some investors who actually seek out and look for that very risk.
Take, for instance, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former trader famous for his concepts regarding world uncertainty.
He is especially known for his "Black Swan" theory from the book The Black Swan, which explains rare events that have extreme impacts—events that humans often try to explain retrospectively as if they were predictable.
A key concept expanding from this is Antifragile, or the ability to grow from risk and uncertainty.
So, how did Mr. Taleb transforms risk into investment returns?
Longtunman will explain.
Mr. Taleb’s concept is based on three related systems: Fragile, Robust, and Antifragile.
1. Fragile This refers to a system that fears uncertainty because it has more downside than upside. An example is someone who plans their life in one exact way; if even a small thing goes wrong, their entire life collapses.
2. Robust This is a system that is indifferent to uncertainty. No matter what happens, it remains the same but does not benefit from the chaos. An example is someone with a very strong mind who doesn't give up during a crisis, but they simply "survived" in their original state—they didn't get wealthier or more skilled from the event.
3. Antifragile (Getting stronger from obstacles) This is a system that "likes" and "benefits" from disorder and uncertainty. An example is someone who fails but stands back up to learn from their mistakes, making them more skilled and wiser than before.
Mr. Taleb believes that humans often try to build "Robust" systems but neglect to create "Antifragile" ones.
The Antifragile concept can be applied to investing through a proper risk diversification portfolio called the Barbell Strategy. It is designed to reap benefits from catastrophic events, and this is the exact method Mr. Taleb uses it for his investments.
The Barbell Strategy is compared to lifting a barbell that has weights attached to both extreme ends.
In investment terms, it means splitting your portfolio into two polar opposite sections.
The majority of the money is placed in very safe assets, such as government bonds or money market funds.
Meanwhile, a small portion of the money is invested in high-risk assets that have the potential for massive returns, such as high-growth stocks, alternative assets, or even Options that can provide astronomical payoffs.
So, how does the Barbell Strategy balance risk and return?
For example: Suppose 80% of the portfolio is in cash or safe debt instruments, while the other 20% is invested equally across 20 technology startups.
If 19 companies fail, you only lose the investment in those 19 companies.
But if just one company becomes a "Unicorn" and its stock value increases by 100 or 1,000 times.
The return from that 1% in that single company is enough to compensate for all the losses and generate a handsome profit for the entire portfolio.
As you can see, applying the Antifragile principle through the Barbell Strategy ensures that when a "Black Swan" event occurs.
Not only are we protected from heavy losses during a crisis, but we actually gain returns from that very event.
There is a hedge fund called Universa Investments, managed by Mark Spitznagel—a close friend of Mr. Taleb.
He applied the Antifragile concept as an investment strategy and achieved returns higher than 1,000% during frequent periods of crisis.
The fund buys "Far Out-of-the-Money" Put Options, which are Put Options with a strike price much lower than the current market price, acting as insurance for the portfolio.
Options are derivative contracts that give the buyer the right to "buy" (Call) or "sell" (Put) an underlying asset at a pre-set price and time (Strike Price).
The buyer pays a "Premium" but has the right to choose whether to exercise the option or not. This differs from the seller, who is obligated to follow the contract if the buyer exercises their right.
Buying a Put Option means you believe the stock price will decrease in the future, so you buy the "right to sell the stock" at a fixed price in advance.
The reason this fund buys Put Options with a strike price much lower than the current market price is that the lower the strike price, the less likely the stock will fall to that point. Because it's unlikely to happen, the premium (cost) is very cheap.
Using this investment method, Mr. Spitznagel’s fund will lose small amounts of money continuously over time, similar to paying insurance premiums.
But if one day a "Black Swan" event occurs, causing a market crash where prices plummet far below the strike price, the fund makes a massive profit.
It is comparable to receiving a huge payout from an insurance claim.
This profit can cover all the small accumulated losses and still leave a significant surplus.
The most notable event occurred in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused global financial markets to fluctuate wildly.
Universa Investments had positioned itself in advance by buying Put Options on the S&P 500 index—contracts that would profit if the stock market fell.
When the index crashed due to market panic, the value of these Put Options skyrocketed, resulting in the fund making a profit of as much as 4,000% in a short period.
It’s clear that the core of the Antifragile principle and the Barbell Strategy isn't about predicting the future; it's about being prepared for the unexpected.
Besides having built-in resilience against a crisis, it can actually find benefits from chaos and uncertainty.
Antifragile, therefore, isn't just about enduring problems; it’s about knowing how to "use problems as fuel" to make yourself better.
In an investment context, it's about turning a crisis into an opportunity—an opportunity that can generate returns at a level of 10 or 100 times over.
You can see that the heart of the Antifragile concept, which leads to the Barbell Strategy.
Does not lie in trying to predict the future with perfect accuracy, but in structuring yourself to be ready for what no one expects. Antifragile isn't just about surviving problems; it’s about using the problem as momentum to become stronger than before.
In the world of investing, a crisis isn't just something to dodge—it's the moment you must be ready to seize.
Because sometimes, the day a crisis arrives, it might just turn into an opportunity that changes your portfolio forever.