Welcome to the Weekly Upside
The Weekly Upside provides up-to-date commentary about investing and markets to tell you what you actually want to know. No bullshit, no ulterior motives, just real advice for people looking to improve their financial understanding.
We publish on Thursday each week. The newsletter will feature a mix of commentary and curated content we think you’ll find interesting. So join us as we demystify finance and maybe even make it enjoyable.
Who is the Weekly Upside?
Ian
Studied finance at University of Illinois because there were no Friday classes. Tricked into being a financial advisor for a year before moving to a startup at the Chicago Board of Trade. Became obsessed with the markets, the Fed, and owning my own business. To this day I don’t know how to use a comma, I just guess, but I can tell you all about option skew.
A love of sports and a lack of athleticism lead to what some might call a gambling problem, but it’s not a problem if I win. Luckily this also led to being (relatively) early to crypto, buying fractional ownership in dinosaur bones, and starting this blog.
Actual financial industry experience includes a decade of experience in options trading with detours into product management for an alternative investment firm and risk management for a major bank.
Jack
The Boston private-school guy somehow ended up with an English Major from world-famous community college Arizona State. Dave Matthews bro with a passion for esoteric pop culture references (it makes him think he’s cooler than he is). Washed out of insurance sales due to actually caring about client-product suitability. Picked up marketing and never looked back.
Actual work experience includes marketing services for traditional asset managers, alternative investment firms, and a top-five independent broker-dealer. Probably the only person on the team actually qualified to run this thing.
Tex
Everything is better in Texas, especially when you grow up in Dallas playing Colonial and cosplaying as a cowboy on the weekends. The University of Texas perpetuated this faux-cowboy tradition while also fueling a love for oil investments and SPACs (fueling… get it?). On SPACs way before they were cool and definitely before Chamath.
Unlike my colleagues, I am actually good at sales. I will nerd out on 10ks and conduct my own investment research because that’s where I’ve ended up in life (those are hobbies, right?). Given this very full schedule, those two do most of the writing.
Actual financial industry experience includes commodities trading for a major bank, slinging alternative investments, and providing consultative services to RIAs and family offices on behalf of a billion-dollar-plus asset manager.
