We love it when Thanksgiving comes around, because we get to post one of our favorite charts of all time: 1000 and 1 days in  the life of a Thanksgiving turkey

This wonderful image was recreated from the turkey analogy used by Nassim Taleb in his equally wonderful book The Black Swan. Mr Taleb tells us how the well being of the turkey builds each successive day leading up to Thanksgiving, being fed and nourished so that he grows fat and happy.

Mr. Turkey builds confidence that every day he gets fed makes it more likely that he will be fed again tomorrow.  The problem, of course, is that all that fattening and making the turkey happy are a means to an end – the end being THE END for the turkey.

What does this have to do with managed futures, you ask. Well, this turkey lives a pretty good life right up until the days before Thanksgiving, when he is slaughtered in order to be served up at the feast. That is strikingly similar to investors who live a pretty good life right up until they are served up unexpectedly to a market correction.

For more on how to protect against being the turkey – please read our past newsletter which gets into more detail on how option sellers are at risk, and what you can do. Click Here to read the newsletter.