00:00Let's talk about the new venture. I can figure out my current worth and I can maybe figure out my
00:04potential worth and maybe see what that gap is. I'm not sure I want to know that. Maybe I do.
00:11How does that work? Yeah. A lot of data. Yeah. A lot of data points and a lot of historical
00:16data
00:16and a lot of funky calculations. But it's lost. I was designed to give people context around their
00:25their net worth or their value, because we have a fundamental belief that most people are underpaid
00:32over the course of their careers. And that's why we have this huge wealth gap. And in order to narrow
00:38the wealth gap, we have to you can't mandate it, can't legislate it, you have to do something
00:42special. And so we're trying to solve it through technology. Well, when you look at the world of
00:46finance and how it's changed and a lot of people now looking at the retirement space and the wealth
00:51management space is the next big inflection point. I think back to the creation of Thinkorswim,
00:55which is to, you know, I would just say arguably has become probably one of the most prolific trading
01:00platforms out there now, of course, under what is it, TD, now Schwab. Now Schwab. What was sort of the
01:06impetus for that? And I guess my other question for you is, why did you sell it? Well, it's funny.
01:13So,
01:14I mean, looking back at it, you know, Thinkorswim was an amazing time in my life. I was standing in
01:18the
01:18S&P 100 pit in 1999 and I turned to a buddy partner of mine and said, you know, let's
01:24try
01:24something different. And we built Thinkorswim somehow. And it became kind of this cult firm
01:29and it was an amazing piece of technology. And after 10 years, there were a lot of people interested
01:34in buying it. And we felt like, you know, we're interested in trying something new. We like building
01:39stuff. And then we went out and built Tasty. I mean, the reason we sold it is because we were
01:46a public
01:46company and multiple companies tried to buy us. And it was a nice win, I guess. And we thought,
01:53you know what? It's on to the next project. I mean, how do you view kind of that rise of
01:56the
01:56retail trader? I mean, you mentioned Tasty Trader, which, of course, brought options to the forefront
02:00for a lot of folks that maybe weren't aware of them. How much has that changed over the years?
02:04And has it changed in a good way? Oh, yeah. When we first left the trading floor to build
02:09Thinkorswim, 9 percent, 9 percent of the retail volume, notional volume, was traded in derivatives,
02:16options, futures, futures, options. When you look at the markets today, it's about low 70s. So,
02:22I mean, the marketplace has exploded. We did 100 million contracts on Friday of options alone.
02:27Wow. I mean, these are insane numbers. We were doing a million contracts 25 years ago.
02:31Are you still trading? I only made about 100 trades today.
02:34Just 100. So you must be loving kind of the volatility that we've been seeing in the market
02:39over the past few weeks. Love it. Yeah. Love it. I mean, this is this is a I mean,
02:43traders love uncertainty. They love fear. They love action. Yeah. There's a lot of action.
02:49A lot of action. We actually saw that certainly with the big banks obviously showing up in their
02:53earnings. When it comes to the retail trader or the individual trader, I should say,
02:57is there more risk in the system for those folks now or is it maybe a little bit more,
03:02I mean, insulated? Maybe that's not the right word, but you know what I mean?
03:05Well, I think there's less risk today because for a couple of reasons.
03:09First of all, the markets are better. The fees are lower and the technology is better.
03:13So the front end technology, you know, you mentioned it. Thinkorswim, Tasty.
03:17I mean, every firm out there, the technology is incredible. And so individual investors like you,
03:23me, everybody, we have access to every single marketplace from a single platform.
03:28The risk is way down. Yeah. When you look at the rise of prediction markets,
03:32do you see that as being a formidable competitor to, and I'm talking primarily in the financial
03:38space, not with sports and other stuff, a formidable competitor to the traditional trading
03:42platforms, a compliment to that? It's a compliment. Definitely. How so?
03:46Well, it's a tiny marketplace. I mean, now, the event-based marketplace, I look at it a little
03:51like maybe like the digital asset marketplace. I mean, I think it's probably at best a multi-trillion
03:57dollar asset class, but it has a lot of market inefficiencies right now, widespreads. It has very
04:05high fees. So I don't think it's a serious competitor yet. When all the high-frequency
04:12firms get involved and they go exchange-based, I think there's a better chance of becoming a bigger
04:17competitor. But a binary marketplace is too one-dimensional for me. It's not strategic.
04:23So I don't see it as a long-term major player. I see it as a small-time player.
04:28But even with some of those short-term contracts, the idea that people can make these ultra,
04:32ultra short-term bets in a way, at least in this environment, has the potential to really pay off.
04:36Oh, it's fun. I mean, binary bets are fun and they're liquid. They just have to be cheaper.
04:43In other words, the markets have to be tighter and the fees have to be lower.
04:47And just before I let you go, I am curious about Lost Dog and just kind of the approach you're
04:51taking with it. A lot of people know you from Tasty Trade, but they know you from
04:55the live program that you did. You're actually doing this again with Lost Dog. Why?
05:01Because I'm a sick human and I love the pain. We have a show called One Lucky Dog. We do
05:09it
05:09every day from 9 central time to 10. And it's myself, my partner Scott, and another woman named
05:16Sol Espinoza. And we do this fun show. We talk about careers. We talk about markets.
05:21And, you know, I just, I guess I love talking.
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