Greetings. Um, okay. Um, I'll talk a little bit about postmodern investing and the rise of what I call perfification, which is the conversion of assets into criminals, uh, and their proliferation. Um, and I'll start with a few examples of interesting traders, uh interesting traders, uh , who have been very active on Twitter, who you may have seen if you've been active on CT in the last few months. I want to explain a little bit about why we started the company, uh started the company, uh , and maybe the main macro thesis that drives Auster before I even talk about the product.
Um, and I would describe it this way. Um, the macro news is that macro is the new reality show. Um, so when we started the company a few years ago, it was a very controversial proposition. Um, but the general view that we developed was what we call a new macro paradigm. So the first generation of consumer trading apps, and I'm going to focus on the world outside of cryptocurrency, um, in a sort of in-between period between the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 and COVID of 2020, was characterized by a very, um, unique set of circumstances that set of circumstances that , looking back, were an anomaly.
So, um, and I'm going to highlight three main things. So, first of all, extremely low interest rates, a zero interest rate world, extremely low inflation, hmm, and then very little geopolitical uncertainty, at least looking back. And our belief when we launched Osteum was that we entered this new paradigm with COVID that kind of broke the stereotypes and threw us into this new, brave new world in the markets, um, and that it would be characterized by the opposite of those three things. Hence, a constantly higher and more unpredictable rate policy. You can see this from what has happened in the last few months.
We went from, you know, the expected three rate cuts to multiple rate hikes in one of the most rapid shifts or, you know, changes in expectations for, um, rates. Inflation was temporary, then it was gone, and now it's back. Um, and then obviously the geopolitical uncertainty, I think, uh, it goes without saying for for any of you who follow the news. Hmm, so what does all this mean? Um, well, we were convinced that this would essentially lead to a new generation of traders and a new way of trading.
And to illustrate my point, I'll point to two specific individuals you may have seen on Twitter. Um, one of them is an account called PP Poopoo, um, which very loudly made over $4 million trading oil, uh, during the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, uh, or perhaps the continuation of the closure, it's unknown if it's open. And another one is this guy, Saint Pump on Twitter. One-time huge positions in gold and oil generated, you know, over half a million dollars in profits and losses in less than a day. This is pretty crazy trading behavior.
And to get deeper into what motivates these people and what their trading strategy really is, I'm going to break it down into two, in my opinion, unique and probably opposing views on what they're really good at. And I call it the revenge of the hyperonline revenge of the hyperonline . Maybe just to go back to another slide as a kind of hint at what I think is the driving, perhaps psychological trend, underlying this change in trading behavior. And I would compare it a little bit to a lot of technological cultures, like the revenge of the hyperonline. Um, I think a lot of what's happening right now is like the revenge of the hyperonline.
Uh, not surprisingly–or maybe surprisingly, like spending a lot of time online and chatting in different chat rooms and trading groups from a very early age, um, on different subreddits, is actually a very valuable creative that I don't think anyone could have predicted a few years ago. Okay, so two skills. I think one of them is identifying these reflexive viral loops. Um, so in this, you know, reality show world, macro news is, um, the new reality show. The ability to sense or have a good sense of what will be trending, what people will be interested in, and what the crowd will be focused on is a unique skill that, again, in a less online world, probably wouldn't be as useful, but now it's actually very useful if you're trading the markets.
Um, so identifying reflexive viral loops, the intuitive sense of when you see something, knowing what's going to gain momentum, um, and I think some of that is also honed a little bit in the meme trenches, but now it's seeping into the broader economy. Um, the second one, and this is perhaps an even stranger thesis, but I'll share it anyway, share it anyway, is a theory of mind for unpredictable characters. I think that, uh, a lot of what's moving the markets right now are these headlines in one direction, another, uh, driven by very unpredictable, uh unpredictable, uh , geopolitical activity, and I think having that kind of theory of thought about what an unpredictable character might do, again , is analogous , is analogous to having a sense of what a meme coin developer might do, somewhat analogous to having an intuition about what's going on in the broader macroeconomics, and sort of a headline and a news cycle. Uh, and it's a funny meme that, well, at least I think it's funny, but it's , uh, I think it embodies anyone who's talked ad nauseam about the markets to their family and then has to go home for Thanksgiving home for Thanksgiving . Uh, okay, so what does this mean in a broader sense?
Uh, first of all, asset class-specific trading is collapsing. Uh, you see it all over the news, and you see it in trading behavior on the next generation of trading platforms. The first generation of these consumer trading apps that I mentioned earlier, in this unique interim period between the Great Financial Crisis and COVID, um, was characterized by the world being mobile-first and then, um, very asset class-specific apps. So, the apps were focused on trading platforms that were focused on either stocks, or cryptocurrency, or something else. Um, and you had this very isolated, um, world of traders.
So people have characterized themselves as a currency trader, a stock trader, or a crypto trader, and this whole division between categories is breaking down. Um, tomorrow's day trader, I guess, today's day trader, is someone who seamlessly transitions between asset classes, can trade gold one day, Bitcoin the next, oil the next, Nvidia the new SpaceX IPO the next day, um, and they're very asset class agnostic. They really just want to move, they want to trade what moves, and they chase momentum. Um, and the second big element, besides cross- element, besides cross- assets, ultimately, is the growth of a single tool and a single platform, of course. So, unlike the previous generation of mostly trading apps that were very asset class specific and focused on, say, leveraged trading or taking on more risk on an instrument that would meet the needs of that asset class, let's say, now you have this migration to one platform for multiple asset classes and, importantly, a single tool for people to trade on that.
And now I'm going to turn it back on the criminals themselves. This is where we believe in the growth of refinement, and you see that really being confirmed across the market now. Instead of people trading maybe options, you know, if they're trading stocks and want to take on more risk or dated futures on a different platform and a different asset class, people want to move between all these different assets on one platform. And they might want to do it in one day, and they'll probably day, and they'll probably want to do it the same way. Um, and really all they care about is the ability to buy long or short, take on more or less risk, modulate their margin depending on how much risk they want to take , and then seamlessly switch between assets.
So this broader trend is embodied in what I call perpification. Um, perpetual trading makes it easy to turn to turn any instrument into something that doesn't have an expiration date, or expiration date, or any asset into an instrument that doesn't expire, is settled in cash, um, and that, you know, can be modulated in terms of risk, um, doesn't have an expiration date, and it's a perfect native instrument for that style of trading. Um, that's what we create at Auctus. Um we create at Auctus. Um , and that was kind of confirmed by the market.
Um, we've grown incredibly over the last year, and many others in the market many others in the market , which I'm sure , which I'm sure many of you know, have also grown incredibly. Um grown incredibly. Um , and really, I think what has catapulted this category from a more niche crypto tool to one that is now being taken seriously by the broader financial world is, I financial world is, I think, the rise of this new class of trader and the validation of this tool as, um, one that really fills a real need, not just for what remains a more niche, um, asset class, but ultimately for a broader range of assets that people want to trade. Um, that's all , actually. That's all I can say.
Um, that's what we're building at Auctus, and it's the rise of this new archetype of trader, um archetype of trader, um , clearing, and, um, the rise of the cross- rise of the cross- active trader, the cross-active macro cross-active macro trader, uh, yeah, that's driving the markets today. That's all.
Automatic transcript — names and jargon may be misspelled.