Hacker News Reader

Seems like a bad idea. Why did people give him billions of dollars? Did he ever make money on his trades? When markets are going up every one is making money. I am wondering how many of the super rich are smart or hard working or just got very lucky.

View on HN

> Why did people give him billions

Let’s not blame the people too badly. He was going out of his way to commit fraud. I’m sure the data he presented made FTX/Alameda seem great.

> Did he ever make money on his trades?

He’s famous for making a lot of money on one Bitcoin arbitrage. Other than that I have no idea.

I think it's reasonable to ask if the Japanese arbitrage actually ever took place, particularly at the scale he claimed it did. It comes off a lot like Charles Ponzi's postal coupon story.

A story to tell as part of the confidence game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com