Mark Spitznagel

Mark Spitznagel is an American hedge fund manager, stocks and commodities trader, and author. Spitznagel is known for his pioneering “tail-hedging” (or “safe haven investing”), his hugely profitable billion dollar derivatives bet on the stock market crash of 2008,and for having allegedly caused the stock market crash of 2010.

Spitznagel “gained credibility in the investment world by predicting two market routs in the past decade, first in 2000 and then in 2008,” as well as predicting the “2000s commodities boom.” Despite his reputation as a “financial guru” and “one of Wall Street’s most bearish” as well as “biggest and boldest investors,” Spitznagel has remained a very secretive hedge fund manager, writing or speaking only very vaguely about his investing and always deflecting questions about the particulars of his positions and funds.

Spitznagel is the founder, owner, and Chief Investment Officer of the multibillion-dollar hedge fund management company Universa Investments, L.P., based in Miami, Florida. Prior to becoming a hedge fund manager, Spitznagel had been an independent pit-trader at the Chicago Board of Trade and a proprietary trader at Morgan Stanley in New York.

He is the author of the 2013 book The Dao of Capital, called by Forbes magazine “one of the most important books of the year, or any year for that matter.”

Spitznagel has been a significant supporter of the Republican Presidential campaigns of U.S. Congressman Ron Paul and U.S. Senator Rand Paul—including as Senior Economic Advisor.

He has a graduate degree in Mathematics from New York University (the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences) and undergraduate from Kalamazoo College.