The tiny shapes on these works are visual representations of our hedge fund’s main algorithm. The works were painted with pieces of cardboard similar to ones a homeless person might use. This choice hopefully reminds the viewer when thinking of economic issues the abject poor must be considered.
VIX above 40 points to some market participants blindness to the possibility that the VIX could greatly exceed 40 during the fall of 2008 (“VIX” is abstractly written in braille above 40). Over the prior decade the VIX spiked in response to events such as the 9/11 tragedy, the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, the financial crisis in South East Asia in 1997, the extensive corporate fraud in 2002, etc. In all of these cases the VIX’s ascent was halted in the 40s (official closing price). With this historical back drop some had as a rule of thumb to get long stock and short the Vix when volatility hit this artificial barrier. Both of these trades played out badly in October 2008 as stocks continued to fall and the VIX almost hit 90.
Icarus Strangled focuses on a financial derivative termed the "strangle;" its payout is focused on the wings of an asset's distribution. The Greek mythological character Icarus died from his wings falling off after he arrogantly travelled to close to the sun. In finance, it is the height of hubris to not protect your portfolio from an event in the wings of its distribution (a strangle is capable of doing this). In order to reference this incident, this piece was baked in a UV oven for a period equivalent to 10 years of solar exposure
#Flashcrash uses Deep Blue’s historical defeat of world chess champion Garry Kasparov to comment on the use of computer systems in high frequency trading and their roll in flash crashes.