[yieldcrv]

vanilla options (edit: pricing model) were invented by LTCM and they blew up on degenerate bets too

looks like it just comes with the predisposition

[1retep]

I don’t think vanilla options were invented by LTCM. But the pricing model and thereafter the popularity was.

[VagueMag]

Vanilla options are hundreds of years old, but Myron Scholes (of the ubiquitous Black-Scholes pricing model) went on to be principal at LTCM.

[anonymoushn]

we need not confuse blowing up one's own portfolio with stealing ten billion dollars

[VagueMag]

Far more money has probably been stolen with the "heads I win, tails you lose" approach -- just put on massive leverage and stick someone else with the bill if it blows up -- than has been stolen by all the Ponzi schemes in history.

[yieldcrv]

we need not confuse the legitimacy or illegitimacy with the characters involved, since they both mismanaged capital and business