GM81: What If Everything You Believe About Markets Is Wrong? ft. Demetri Kofinas
Top Traders Unplugged
Reflections on Global Change and the Role of Engagement
In this concluding segment, the speakers reflect on the importance of asking difficult questions amidst a shifting global landscape. They encourage listeners to remain informed and engaged, emphasizing their role in shaping a better future.
What if the biggest risk in markets today isn’t volatility, inflation, or geopolitics - but the stories we believe to be true? In this unfiltered and thought-provoking episode, Demetri Kofinas joins Cem Karsan and Niels Kaastrup-Larsen for a piercing conversation that challenges how we process information, construct narratives, and make decisions in uncertain environments. This isn’t about market forecasts - it’s about how easily our thinking can be hijacked. From the corrosive incentives of financial media to the quiet ways conviction becomes cognitive quicksand, Demetri argues that investors today are drowning not in data, but distortion - misled by institutions built to entertain, not enlighten. Yet this episode is more than critique. It offers a path forward - one grounded in introspection, discomfort, and the discipline of intellectual honesty. For anyone managing capital - or simply trying to see clearly in a noisy world—this is a conversation that may shift not just your positions, but your perspective. Because the greatest edge in markets isn’t a model. It’s clarity when others are lost in the fog.
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Episode TimeStamps:
03:21 - Introduction to Demetri Kofinas
04:39 - The era of financial nihilism
11:44 - The birth of a radical optimism?
20:10 - The risk of not heeding the call
26:16 - The dark side of smoothing the business cycle
29:14 - What have we lost in the vacuum of consequence?
33:39 - The collapse of the social contract
38:25 - The importance of a unified narrative
47:16 - Technology - a driver of unity or disunity?
50:05 - The role of government in libertarianism
53:12 - How far are we from a fourth turning?
56:25 - Crisis is a perception relative to where you are
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