Shoutout to Matt Levine Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm summering at a firm that does a lot of cap markets stuff and Levine's stuff has been a godsend on sounding smart about finance. Former Wachtell guy. Just a quick shoutout if anyone wants to get up to speed on that world.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/autho ... w-s-levine

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/busi ... mberg.html

[showusyourtorts]

+1. Matt's great.

Does anyone have other resources they'd recommend that are similar to Matt's in style and approach? I.e., discussing difficult technical concepts in an approachable and interesting style?

[unlicensedpotato]

Agreed, his newsletter is one of the only things I read every day (and I'll catch up on old ones if I was slammed that day).

[Anonymous User]

Trashfuture comedy podcast often just turns his columns into segments on the show. pretty good.

[attorney589753]

Nothing is on the level of Matt but if in EC/VC space, I would recommend Stratechery from Ben Thompson. A bit pricey I guess.

[Anonymous User]

He’s an absolute legend. His newsletters are a good litmus test - if you enjoy reading Matt, you probably will enjoy most areas of corporate law (at least in terms of substance, if not practice-wise)

Matt Levine also makes you wonder...is everybody at Wachtell that smart & knowledgeable??

[beepboopbeep]

He’s an absolute legend. His newsletters are a good litmus test - if you enjoy reading Matt, you probably will enjoy most areas of corporate law (at least in terms of substance, if not practice-wise)

Matt Levine also makes you wonder...is everybody at Wachtell that smart & knowledgeable??

My sense having read his newsletter for many years is that a significant amount of his knowledge comes from having worked at Goldman, which he did after leaving Wachtell. Not to say that Wachtell attorneys aren't generally impressive and knowledgeable, but he doesn't talk about his time there nearly as much as he references stuff he did at Goldman.

[Anonymous User]

He’s an absolute legend. His newsletters are a good litmus test - if you enjoy reading Matt, you probably will enjoy most areas of corporate law (at least in terms of substance, if not practice-wise)

I feel like reading what he writes about what I do is so much more interesting than what I actually do.

[sms18]

He’s an absolute legend. His newsletters are a good litmus test - if you enjoy reading Matt, you probably will enjoy most areas of corporate law (at least in terms of substance, if not practice-wise)

Matt Levine also makes you wonder...is everybody at Wachtell that smart & knowledgeable??

My sense having read his newsletter for many years is that a significant amount of his knowledge comes from having worked at Goldman, which he did after leaving Wachtell. Not to say that Wachtell attorneys aren't generally impressive and knowledgeable, but he doesn't talk about his time there nearly as much as he references stuff he did at Goldman.

To be fair to Wachtell, Matt worked at the firm for only a couple years or so, so probably didn't get that much substantive experience (despite being at Wachtell). There was one newsletter where he described working on a deal while at Wachtell - the main thing that he mentioned is that the partner that he was working with was hyper focused on making sure that the firm got paid when the deal closed (and literally called Matt every couple hours to confirm whether the wire came through).

[motojir]

I just read his coinbase/spac article, the most recent one on his website. Same stuff you see from other "I earn a penny for each click" folks, but with too many platitudes, too much verbiage and too little substance. Most of these are garbage (no one worth a damn gives their finance knowledge away for free) but the most useful penny-per-click finance authors are on seekingalpha.com. Occasionally you'll get actual diligence there.

When I was a junior lawyer at a very lucrative law firm, the standard move, during or after a particularly difficult deal, was for the partner to say to the associate “take your significant other out to a nice dinner and put it on the firm’s card.” After sending, like, a $4 million bill for merger advice, this was a rounding error for the firm’s finances, but it was a nice, grown-up, gesture.

That's from his most recent article. I can't imagine what sort of douche one would have to be to try and impress his audience with this sort of anecdote.

[Solstice95]

+1. Matt's great.

Does anyone have other resources they'd recommend that are similar to Matt's in style and approach? I.e., discussing difficult technical concepts in an approachable and interesting style?

Fortune has some pretty good ones depending on your topic of interest: https://mynewsletters.fortune.com/subscribe. Some are a bit shorter and broken up. Term Sheet (EC/VC/PE), for example, has an intro blurb topic but then mostly just lists out related deals.

[Auxilio]

I just read his coinbase/spac article, the most recent one on his website. Same stuff you see from other "I earn a penny for each click" folks, but with too many platitudes, too much verbiage and too little substance. Most of these are garbage (no one worth a damn gives their finance knowledge away for free) but the most useful penny-per-click finance authors are on seekingalpha.com. Occasionally you'll get actual diligence there.

When I was a junior lawyer at a very lucrative law firm, the standard move, during or after a particularly difficult deal, was for the partner to say to the associate “take your significant other out to a nice dinner and put it on the firm’s card.” After sending, like, a $4 million bill for merger advice, this was a rounding error for the firm’s finances, but it was a nice, grown-up, gesture.

That's from his most recent article. I can't imagine what sort of douche one would have to be to try and impress his audience with this sort of anecdote.

I mean, I don't think he's trying to "impress his audience" with, he just put it as an example in a footnote...

But on a broader point (1) he's not trying to give out like financial advice, so your first paragraph seems a bit off and (2) his real value to me is explaining relatively complex financial shit in very approachable and readable ways, like the Greensill situation or some of the games played with CDS.

[beepboopbeep]

I'd also be pretty surprised if Levine were getting paid "penny-per-click" by fricking Bloomberg given how gigantic his readership is. Dude's on salary.

I just read his coinbase/spac article, the most recent one on his website. Same stuff you see from other "I earn a penny for each click" folks, but with too many platitudes, too much verbiage and too little substance. Most of these are garbage (no one worth a damn gives their finance knowledge away for free) but the most useful penny-per-click finance authors are on seekingalpha.com.

Billionaires read Money Stuff. “Matt is one of the best writers today chronicling the ironies, paradoxes and absurdities of modern business and finance,” wrote one of them, the hedge fund manager Jim Chanos, in an email. “His work is some of the most sophisticated analysis of what is really happening on Wall Street,” said Bill Ackman, another billionaire fund manager.

(from his NYT profile, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/busi ... mberg.html)

[ExpOriental]

I just read his coinbase/spac article, the most recent one on his website. Same stuff you see from other "I earn a penny for each click" folks, but with too many platitudes, too much verbiage and too little substance. Most of these are garbage (no one worth a damn gives their finance knowledge away for free) but the most useful penny-per-click finance authors are on seekingalpha.com. Occasionally you'll get actual diligence there.

When I was a junior lawyer at a very lucrative law firm, the standard move, during or after a particularly difficult deal, was for the partner to say to the associate “take your significant other out to a nice dinner and put it on the firm’s card.” After sending, like, a $4 million bill for merger advice, this was a rounding error for the firm’s finances, but it was a nice, grown-up, gesture.

That's from his most recent article. I can't imagine what sort of douche one would have to be to try and impress his audience with this sort of anecdote.

Oozing with bitterness

[Necho2]

Lol I was gonna spring to Matt's defense but Beep's got it covered. Been reading him since Dealbreaker- always interesting and humorous. Some great deep cuts:

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/05/the-tal ... -of-a-fail

https://dealbreaker.com/2012/04/marvel- ... -to-itself

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... nd-options (first section is one of my favorite, most oblique post-Trump election takes ever)

https://www.thebillfold.com/2012/07/how ... oes-money/

[cheaptilts]

Matt Levine’s the best writer on finance (and FinLaw**, for lack of a better term) for a broad audience, period.

[Anonymous User]

LMAO @ the post comparing a Bloomberg columnist who's built a large, devoted following (including, for whatever it's worth, billionaire finance bros) to random people shilling pump & dump penny-stock schemes on seekingalpha.com

[motojir]

How do you think Levine is paid at Bloomberg? I don't know his deal, but I'm pretty sure he's a penny per click writer. That's how almost all of them get paid, either directly or implicitly. That's why, every day, thousands of finance articles come out purporting to explain aspects of the market. Publish n words, get your eyeballs, repeat. Another day another dollar.

If you want actual insight, facts you didn't know before, seekinalpha.com is the best place I have found so far. Most of the articles there are bad too, but sometimes the authors do actual diligence and dig up useful information.

And LOL at citing Bill Ackman, one of the biggest bullshit artists on wall street as proof of anything. If you believe anything that comes out of Ackman's mouth when he writes or speaks in public you're a fool. Last March, he gave the ultimate "sky is falling" interview as he secretly shorted the market. The market fell significantly as a result of his interview, putting money in his pocket at other people's expense, and CNBC was railed for allowing that. If 90% of finance articles are unhelpful and written only for pennies per click, 9% of them are written by super rich people trying to move the market in their favor at other people's expense. If Ackman wants you to read Levine, then it's probably because he wants you occupied with bs rather than learning useful information.

If you want to place value on douchebag stories about the fancy restaurant he went to at his firm (literally copying steroid-cringe douchebag David Lat's playbook), and public praise from people like Bill Ackman then go ahead. If I'm going to waste time wading through the swamp of articles, I'd like to have a chance of gaining some insight.

Edit: I'll read more of Levine's stuff, though. I only read one.

[motojir]

I read a few more of Levine's articles. I'm going to stand by my original assessment. Compare his article on Coinbase with Seekingalpha's page on Coinbase.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... -for-banks

https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COIN

Also, here's a link to the article about Ackman in March 2020 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/bill-ac ... ilton.html

[Anonymous User]

How do you think Levine is paid at Bloomberg? I don't know his deal, but I'm pretty sure he's a penny per click writer. That's how almost all of them get paid, either directly or implicitly. That's why, every day, thousands of finance articles come out purporting to explain aspects of the market. Publish n words, get your eyeballs, repeat. Another day another dollar.

If you want actual insight, facts you didn't know before, seekinalpha.com is the best place I have found so far. Most of the articles there are bad too, but sometimes the authors do actual diligence and dig up useful information.

And LOL at citing Bill Ackman, one of the biggest bullshit artists on wall street as proof of anything. If you believe anything that comes out of Ackman's mouth when he writes or speaks in public you're a fool. Last March, he gave the ultimate "sky is falling" interview as he secretly shorted the market. The market fell significantly as a result of his interview, putting money in his pocket at other people's expense, and CNBC was railed for allowing that. If 90% of finance articles are unhelpful and written only for pennies per click, 9% of them are written by super rich people trying to move the market in their favor at other people's expense. If Ackman wants you to read Levine, then it's probably because he wants you occupied with bs rather than learning useful information.

If you want to place value on douchebag stories about the fancy restaurant he went to at his firm (literally copying steroid-cringe douchebag David Lat's playbook), and public praise from people like Bill Ackman then go ahead. If I'm going to waste time wading through the swamp of articles, I'd like to have a chance of gaining some insight.

Edit: I'll read more of Levine's stuff, though. I only read one.

You flamed out in another thread recently by equating 1-to-1 the difficulty of a practice area with the level of compensation.

By your own logic, Bill Ackman (NW: $3B) and Jim Chanos (NW: $1.5B) have jobs that are far, far harder than whatever it is you do; their opinions are far, far more insightful and valuable than yours. By orders of magnitude. Their collective $4.5B opinion that Matt Levine is worth reading every day far outweighs the fact that you (NW: ???) like reading robo-generated headlines on seekingalpha or "analysis" showing that COIN offers indirect exposure to bitcoin.

[ExpOriental]

I read a few more of Levine's articles. I'm going to stand by my original assessment. Compare his article on Coinbase with Seekingalpha's page on Coinbase.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... -for-banks

https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COIN

Also, here's a link to the article about Ackman in March 2020 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/bill-ac ... ilton.html

You're impressively dedicated to embarrassing yourself in every thread you post in.

[beepboopbeep]

I stand by my original assessment of

This is decent schtick, carry on

[motojir]

I read a few more of Levine's articles. I'm going to stand by my original assessment. Compare his article on Coinbase with Seekingalpha's page on Coinbase.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... -for-banks

https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COIN

Also, here's a link to the article about Ackman in March 2020 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/25/bill-ac ... ilton.html

You're impressively dedicated to embarrassing yourself in every thread you post in.

You thought Levine's analysis of COIN was better than the stuff on SA? OK. The links are right there for anyone to see.

[motojir]

By your own logic, Bill Ackman (NW: $3B) and Jim Chanos (NW: $1.5B) have jobs that are far, far harder than whatever it is you do; their opinions are far, far more insightful and valuable than yours. By orders of magnitude. Their collective $4.5B opinion that Matt Levine is worth reading every day far outweighs the fact that you (NW: ???) like reading robo-generated headlines on seekingalpha or "analysis" showing that COIN offers indirect exposure to bitcoin.

You totally missed the point on Ackman's public statements. He's not sharing his sincere thoughts. The CNBC article was linked right there for you. He shorted the market, told everyone the market will collapse, after which it did, as a result of his statement, and then exited his shorts at a profit.

[beepboopbeep]

You thought Levine's analysis of COIN was better than the stuff on SA? OK. The links are right there for anyone to see.

Just for fun, here's some highlights of "Editor's Pick" articles on the SA page you linked:

As technology improves, one could argue Bitcoin processing will improve. However, if Bitcoin were to get used for payments, the conversion of crypto holdings into US dollars will dramatically increase overall network transactions. We are big believers in the concept of..."if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

brilliant stuff

This is a pretty simple one. If you believe that crypto is going to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency, then you should buy crypto. The purpose of buying Coinbase instead eludes me.

maybe think about the answer before writing an article on it?

Definitely, I am not a crypto expert. I work from the basis that I should be able to explain in simple and conveying terms why an investment makes sense. For COIN, I cannot because of the underlying asset class, the trading platform is easier. Anecdotally, most institutional clients of investment banks talk now mostly about 'how to get exposure' to cryptocurrencies, not 'what is it exactly and how does it work'. This means we want to get in. This alone tells me that COIN's valuation could be fueled by potential madness.

literal clown shoes

1) Are you actually standing behind this shit as investing advice? lol
2) The function of armchair investment advice & the function of pithy newsletters summarizing financial news for a broad audience are totally different