I need a vacation.
I have been working nonstop for decades and desperately need a break. It seems that the older I get, the more I know, and the more in demand I become.
You can tear up your Rolodex card for me, unfriend me on Facebook, designate my email address as SPAM, and block my X account. It won’t do you any good.
If I don’t take some time off, I am going to start raving MAD!
Over the last 16 years, I have worked the hardest in my entire life. And the last six months I have had to work with a bullet wound in my hip courtesy of the Russian Army in Ukraine. Whenever I have free time, I go fight a war. That’s who you want calling your trades.
So far in 2024, I have brought in a total return of +20.00%, versus +11.00% for the S&P 500. If you got half of my performance, you beat virtually everyone else in the industry, even the best hedge funds. In other words, I underpromised and over delivered….in spades.
If you wonder why I do this it’s really very simple. Read my inbox and you would burst into tears.
Every day, I learn tales of mortgages paid off, student loans dealt with, college educations financed, and early retirements launched. I am improving lives by the thousands. That’s far better than any hedge fund bonus could offer me, although I wouldn’t mind owning the Golden State Warriors.
At this late stage in my life, the most valuable thing is to be needed and listened to. If that means becoming a cult leader that’s fine with me. After all, the last guy to try this route got crucified.
When horrific uncontrollable wildfires broke out in California, I flew volunteer spotter planes for Cal Fire, holding the stick with one hand and a pair of binoculars with the other, looking for trouble and radioing in coordinates, and directing aerial tankers. Nobody can fly wildfires like I can.
I lost access to my Lake Tahoe house when the big fire hit right in the middle of a remodel. All the contractors disappeared chasing much higher-paying insurance work. At least we now have a 20-mile-wide fire break to the southwest of the lake.
On top of all this, I was on speed dial at the Joint Chiefs and the US Marine Corps. A major? Really? And now I’m a major in two armies, the US and Ukraine. Seems you’re not the only one in desperate need of global macro advice.
The best compliment I received last year was when my commander in Ukraine told me I was the bravest man he ever met. I told him all Americans are like me. Whenever I enter the Marines Club in San Francisco they call me a hero. In a building full of heroes that is a big deal.
So, I will spend the next two weeks on Cunard’s Queen Elisabeth reading the deep research, speaking with old hedge fund buddies, the few still left alive, and trying to come up with a game plan for the rest of 2024. One thing is certain: We are at the beginning of a bull market that could last five or ten years.
Instead of sending out urgent trade alerts, emergency news flashes, and more research than you can read, I’ll be hosting my Seminar at Sea in my owner's suite, practicing my foxtrot, fencing, playing my banjo, and watching for orcas off the bow deck.
In the meantime, I’ll be running some of my favorite research pieces from the past over the next two weeks. Hot Tips will publish as usual.
John Thomas
CEO and Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Cunard’s Queen Elisabeth
