The Importance of Being a Short Seller

Grant Williams cut his teeth in the world of finance during one of the greatest speculative manias in history. As a prop trader at one of the largest firms in Tokyo, he had a front row seat to the epic Japanese twin bubbles in equities and real estate in the late-1980's which endowed him with a healthy skepticism towards herd behavior in the financial markets. Eventually, he would go on to a serve in similar roles in nearly all of the world's largest financial centers but not before he learned what he believes to be one of the most important lessons in the investing game: simply surround yourself with brilliant people and just listen. Today, he does this full time for RealVision where his long-form interviews with some of the greatest minds in the industry are produced and aired. He also shares much of what he learns through this process in his nearly decade-old publication "Things That Make You Go Hmmm...." In this conversation, we discuss some of the parallels between the bubbles of the past and the bubbles in today's markets, his evolution as a trader and how it was shaped by his careful listening to so many brilliant people over the years and much more.