ajuc comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: bogdanb 27 March 2012 06:07PM

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Comment author: ajuc 28 March 2012 10:14:49PM *  0 points [-]

And there is leverage, so you can invest 100 $, but get profits or loses like you invested 10000 $. So if theres 100x leverage, and 1% profit to make on currencies each day, you can double your money every day.

So to turn 100 galeons to 100000 galeons Harry would need 10 transactions with 1% profit each.

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/forexleverage.asp#axzz1qS7tVBFp

Comment author: Alsadius 29 March 2012 12:52:46AM *  0 points [-]

True, but there's no way an 11 year old would have access to 100:1 leverage, even with derivatives. LTCM wasn't much higher than 100:1, and they're just about the all-time kings of leverage. There's things like regulatory limits and credit checks to contend with here.

Edit: Silly me, I should actually have read your link. I'm used to limits on equity leverage, apparently forex works damn near an order of magnitude higher. Disregard the above.

Comment author: Percent_Carbon 29 March 2012 05:58:26AM 3 points [-]

Harry has a father who is quite respectable. He could act through his father.

Comment author: Alsadius 29 March 2012 07:57:03AM 1 point [-]

I was in an equity mindset, where the rules are much tighter, because the underlying assets are so much more volatile. Doing that sort of leverage there would require you to post some pretty hefty collateral(likely beyond the means of Prof. Verres) and be in a low-regulation jurisdiction for it to even be legal(which the UK is not).