The Vampire Squid

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Today, we have brought on Jesse Felder, who is the author of The Felder Report, that educates and informs individual investors about the issues most important to success in the financial markets. Jesse used to work at Bear Stearns and then broke off to help start his own hedge fund. I hope you enjoy this episode! * Jesse Felder’s background at Bear Stearns * How studying English and literature instead of finance can be valuable * Shakespeare * Human Behavior * How I wish I studied philosophy in School! * Books that Jesse recommends * The Dao of Capital * Jesse’s Hedge Fund * Paying attention to insider selling and trading * Looking at Longs and shorts but using insider trading to confirm trades As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid  

This week’s episode will be on early stage employee stock options, an episode very critical for anyone interested in joining an early stage company that offers them stock options. We talk about the valuation, tax liability, and questions to ask about the company to make sure you are getting the best compensation package possible. I hope you enjoy! * How do employee stock options work? * Compensation and share in the company * Vesting Schedule * Exercise dates * Taxes * Example of an employee stock option package * Paying millions in tax liabilities for high growth technology startups * Making it difficult for employees to leave * Retaining Talent * New law proposed in Congress * H.R. 5719 – 114th Congress * Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership Act * Why is this important to you? * Negotiating your stock option package * Monthly vesting * Longer exercise period * Shorter vesting cycle * Additional options on performance * Questions to ask * Fully diluted basis * Further rounds needed before going public * Any Debt? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Today’s episode is on one of my favorite TV shows, Shark Tank which is about entrepreneurs pitching the “Sharks” which include the likes of Mark Cuban, Daymond John, and Chris Sacca. We will go over the most common types of investments that are made on Shark Tank, the pros and cons of different investment structures, and one of my favorite episodes! * Overview of Shark Tank * The Sharks * Common industries represented * Different Investment Structures * Cash for Equity * Debt (loans) * Royalty * Shark Tank vs. Venture capital Investments * Similarities and Differences * Valuation ranges * Questions asked * Coffee Meets Bagel Review * How is this applicable to you? * Creating your own company * Pitching Angel Investors and VC’s As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Today’s episode is on Activist Investing, something that has become quite prolific over the last decade with the induction of the internet, media, and smartphones. Activist investing is contrary to passive investing, which we discussed at length previous episodes. I hope you find this episode both informational and entertaining! * Difference between Passive vs. Active Investors * Activist Landscape * Notable Activist Investors * Proliferation of Activist Investing * Technology * Public Information and Research * Activist Investor Toolbox * Operational Improvements * Corporate Governance * Financial * Strategic * M&A * Steps Activist Investors take to implement change * Acquiring shares * Public Announcement * Working with Company or Proxy Fights * How is this applicable to you and me? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Happy early Halloween! Part II of the Trading Options episode with Kirk Du Plessis. This episode covers a lot of great information on questions that I had for trading options and Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit for starting his own company, Optionalpha.com, after working on wall street. Please enjoy! * What happens if you forget about your options, and they expire in the money? * Do you have to have enough money in your account to buy all the options? * What happens during a “margin call” * What were the steps and mindset for starting Optionalpha? *   What were some of the challenges that you faced while starting Optionalpha * Playing to your strengths and researching your customers * What if you are a millennial and don’t have necessarily the amount of time or capital, how do you suggest they trade options? *  Why more money doesn’t necessarily make you a better trader *  Are you more busy than someone who builds 150 homes a year? * Being consistent and persistent As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Today’s episode we dive deeper into trading options with Kirk Du Plessis, who is the founder of Optionalpha.com, an educational option trading site. This episode and Part II are packed with great nuggets of information on how to trade options, calculating success of trades, and even Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit in quitting banking and starting his own platform and company trading options. I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Kirk. Kirk also runs a successful options trading podcast which I used while learning to trade options. * Kirk’s background in college, investment banking, REITs, and then starting trading options * How to Calculate the success of a trade for options * Implied Volatility * Time Decay * Calculating the standard deviation of stock price movement – (Stock price) x (Annualized Implied Volatility) x (Square Root of [days to expiration / 365]) = 1 standard deviation * One standard deviation = 68% chance * Mistakes to avoid while initially trading options * Option size – 1-5% of portfolio size * The frequency that you trade to hit law of large numbers * Not being a net option seller * How insurance companies are basically option sellers * Warren Buffet selling over $5bn of options over the last few years * Indicators to look for as a beginner trading options * Aggressive vs. non-Aggressive strategies As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Hey everyone! Just got back from California so apologies for the late post. Today, we are going to be talking about a very important subject, managing stress and maintaining a positive attitude. I know that in my career as well as in school, I have had to deal with stressful situations, and felt that this is an important topic to talk about. Also, before we start, if you’re interested in helping out with TVS, please shoot me an email at alan@thevampiresquid.com. I haven’t thought of the complete structure of how it will work, but would love to see how much interest there is in helping out with producing TVS. * What is stress in work? * Not enough time to finish the work that needs to be done * Not understanding how to do the work that needs to be done * Preventing stress * Saying no and managing expectations * Not being afraid to ask questions * Hypothetical scenarios and how to deal with them * Thinking I understood what needed to be done when I didn’t really * Client giving 7 days of work that needed to be done in 4 days * Other Tips for managing stress * Taking a walk outside * Eating Clean * Having a go to music playlist * Talking it out with a friend As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

In Part II of the Venture Capital Overview with Charlie O’Donnell, we continue our conversation about VC, entrepreneurship, and more! Please see note details below, and hope that you enjoy

For the 20th episode of The Vampire Squid, we had to bring on a very special guest. Please welcome Charlie O’Donnell! Charlie is the founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the first analyst at Union Square Ventures, writer of one of the most popular VC blogs This is Going to be Big, and I could go on and on. This was one of the most fun and informative interviews that I have conducted and Charlie is extremely funny, insightful, in-depth, and down to earth as he shares his experience and learnings with all of us. Email: charlie@brooklynbridge.vc * What was the decision making process of majoring in Finance, and then going to work at GM? * How did you transition from GM to Union Square Ventures and how did you meet Fred Wilson? * Since they were only a 2 – person fund, how did you evaluate making the decision to join Union Square Ventures? * What was the biggest takeaway from your two years at Union Square Ventures, what did you learn? * How Charlie has helped build the New York tech community (blog, host dinners, events) * How was doing the entrepreneurship route, starting your company Path 101? * What advice do you have for people in finance going into entrepreneurship? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Disclaimer: “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.” Andre Agassi “Open” – http://cpor.org/ri/Agassi-Open-An-Autobiography.pdf Investment Checklist – http://mebfaber.com/2011/01/20/hedge-fund-analyst-checklist/ * Two pronged thought process for investing in Stock * Is this a fundamentally good company? * Is this the right time to invest? * My favorite questions * Do you understand this business * What is the competitive advantage of the business * How is this company going to grow? * What are some reasonable events that could cause this investment to drop? * What is your edge, investment thesis, hypothesis? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Welcome back to another episode of The Vampire Squid! Today, we’re going to be talking about trading options. For compliance reasons, please note that “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.” Also, shout to Val and Geoff who contributed $100 and $20 per month respectively, you guys rock :)! * What are options? * Call Options * Put Options * What comprises the value of an option? * Underlying stock value * Time Value * Including Volatility * What are Strike Prices, Expiration dates, and premiums on Options * Examples * How to actually trade options * Margin account * Selling a naked call option * Selling a covered call option * Strangles, straddles, butterflies, etc. that we will cover in another episode * Power of Options * Trading option example vs. purchasing underlying stock * Things I wish I knew before trading options * People don’t usually exercise the option contract * Trading options is really hard * Getting direction correct but still losing money due to time decay * Never trading over 5% of your portfolio in any single option * Conclusions As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Welcome to episode 17 of The Vampire Squid! Today, we will be talking about Banking vs. Consulting since I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me about the differences between the two as well as my decision to pursue banking over consulting. Also, if you guys are interested in helping support The Vampire Squid, please check out my Patreon page here! https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid * Recruiting * Recruiting for both banking and consulting * How to make a decision between the two industries * Going to the best firm that you can possibly get into regardless of banking or consulting * Lifestyle * Work hours differences * Traveling differences * Getting Business school paid for and the caveat that you should know!! * Work * Tools used in both banking and consulting * Differences in financial modeling and operational analysis * Exit Opportunities * Fortune 500 companies * Startups * Private Equity Firms * Starting your own business * My decision between banking vs. consulting * Upcoming episodes (venture capital) stay tuned

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! Today we are going to be talking about Leveraged Buy Outs, another form of valuation and modeling. As promised, please see a link to the actual model of an LBO, and a more detailed explanation in case you are interested. LBO Model LBO Detailed Overview * LBO Drivers * Purchase Price * Debt Quantum * Interest Rate * Synergies * Exit Price * Dividend Recap  * Walk through of an LBO * Types of companies that are good LBO Candidates * High Cash Flow Generating * Stable and predictable business * Companies where you can cut costs * Low CapEx business * How buying a home is similar to an LBO transaction As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

New York vs. San Francisco! Two of my favorite cities that I have ever lived in. In this episode, we will dive deep into the major differences between New York and San Francisco from a career perspective and a lifestyle perspective. Overall, I would say please don’t be nervous to move to a new city if you have a great opportunity to do so. It will be difficult at first but it will force you to step outside of your comfort zone but you will quickly adapt and make new friends and get to enjoy a completely new city! Finimize – Great for digesting finance in a easy to understand way * Career * San Francisco vs. New York * Technology * Proximity to Silicon Valley * Range of products from IPOs, Private placements, M&A, Financing * Exit Opportunities * Lifestyle * Weather * Bar and Clubs * Weekend trips * Food Scene * Pace of both cities As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

Today’s episode will cover another one of the most common valuation techniques, Comparable Companies Analysis, which is an extrinsic form of valuation that people use for companies. Hope that you enjoy the episode and takeaway understanding how this method is used! * Extrinsic Valuation * Ratios * Common Comps Multiples * EV / Revenue * EV / EBITDA * Price / Earnings * Drivers and lever that go into Comps * If two companies are identical in terms of size, industry, technology, etc. but one grows quicker than the other, which company would you be more willing to pay for? * Why are comparable companies analysis useful? * Valuing private companies – Snapchat * Determining valuation in an M&A situation * Things to be careful about when performing this analysis * Picking the right set of comparable companies * Using the right multiples i.e. EV / Rev vs. Price / Earnings * Pros and Cons of this type of analysis * How can this be applied to everyday life? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1