Long or Short Capital

One of three teenagers charged with attempting to rob illusionist David Copperfield as he left a performance has pleaded guilty.
…
Copperfield, 50, and two female assistants were walking from the Kravis Center to their tour bus when they were approached by the teens April 23. The assistants handed over money and a cellphone, but the illusionist turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing, although he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“He said in depositions that he had things on him, but it wasn’t difficult to make it seem like there was nothing there,” prosecutor Sherri Collins said.

-From Copperfield Tricks Thief on CNN.com

Copperfield may be pulling down $10’s of millions per year from but he could make far more as a Chief Magic Officer at a hedge fund or as a CMO on retainer for multiple funds. What would it be worth for Amaranth to have been able to say, when presented with massive losses, “Are you sure about that?”, at which point investors would recheck and the massive losses would have disappeared.

Or take Jeffrey Epstein, of “manage private money to make billions so I can have Eastern European sex slaves and also have Palm Beach teenagers massage me for cash” fame, who is charged with felonies related to soliciting teenage girls for sex. A Chief Magic Officer could make those charges suddenly vanish. (Apparently he does have a CMO because the charges and bail were amazingly light)

Le Nature’s was a company which focused entirely on its CMO core competency. How else can you turn $30mm of revenues into $300mm of revenues and make the founder millions in the process?

Recommendation: Firms of all stripes can benefit from beefing up their executive team with a Chief Magic Officer and a couple of tastefully attractive assistants. Avoid the “For the same reason you should believe a hundred dollar bill is no more than one hundred pennies!” variety.