Ben Hunt
Co-Founder and CIO
Ben Hunt is the creator of Epsilon Theory and inspiration behind Second Foundation Partners, which he co-founded with Rusty Guinn in June 2018.
Epsilon Theory, Second Foundation’s principal publishing brand, is a newsletter and website that examines markets through the lenses of game theory and history. Over 100,000 professional investors and allocators across 180 countries read Epsilon Theory for its fresh perspective and novel insights into market dynamics. As Chief Investment Officer, Ben bears primary responsibility for determining the Company’s investment views and positioning of model portfolios. He is also the primary author of materials distributed through Epsilon Theory.
Ben taught political science for 10 years: at New York University from 1991 until 1997 and (with tenure) at Southern Methodist University from 1997 until 2000. He also wrote two academic books: Getting to War (Univ. of Michigan Press, 1997) and Policy and Party Competition (Routledge, 1992), which he co-authored with Michael Laver. Ben is the founder of two technology companies and the co-founder of SmartEquip, Inc., a software company for the construction equipment industry that provides intelligent schematics and parts diagrams to facilitate e-commerce in spare parts.
He began his investment career in 2003, first in venture capital and subsequently on two long/short equity hedge funds. He worked at Iridian Asset Management from 2006 until 2011 and TIG Advisors from 2012 until 2013. He joined Rusty at Salient in 2013, where he combined his background as a portfolio manager, risk manager, and entrepreneur with academic experience in game theory and econometrics to work with Salient’s own portfolio managers and its financial advisor clients to improve client outcomes.
Ben is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (1986) and earned his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1991. He lives in the wilds of Redding, CT on Little River Farm, where he personifies the dilettante farmer that has been a stock comedic character since Cicero's day. Luckily his wife, Jennifer, and four daughters, Harper, Hannah, Haven and Halle, are always there to save the day. Ben's hobbies include comic books, Alabama football, beekeeping, and humoring Rusty in trivia "competitions".
Articles by Ben:
I’ve rarely seen a more powerful political and market Narrative – we’re going to trigger a recession and that’s a good thing! – flowing just beneath the surface of financial news media.
The Road to Serfdom is not an endless road, but its path and duration, what I call the Great Ravine, is not up to us to choose. While we walk this road the only thing we can save is our souls, and we do it with one simple sentence: It was never going to be me.
Some quick thoughts on the inflation data out this week, along with the unusual market reaction to same.
On February 2nd we published DeepFreak, an analysis of DeepSeek narratives in global news media. For Epsilon Theory Professional subscribers only, we are publishing a…
We’ve analyzed DeepSeek narratives in global news media over the past week to evaluate how they’re evolving. What started as a dominant narrative focused on “AI tech fundamentals” went quickly to “impact on Nvidia” and over the last few days has started to transition to “national security threat”.
In Meme-world and videogames and pop culture, you ‘one-shot’ an opponent when you kill him with a single, devastating attack. Everyone is all set for an epic, protracted battle and then WHAM! … you decapitate the monster with one swing of your vorpal blade.
DeepSeek one-shotted the entire mega-tech world this week, and I figure compressed S&P 500 multiples by … 3 or 4 turns?
Today I know that the meaning of the American Presidency is dead, and like the loss of a beloved family matriarch it’s a loss I’ll never get over. I know that I have to accept it, but I’ll never get over it. And right now I’m still pretty angry at ALL of them.
Every so often, things fall apart.
In the words of those who lived it, here are the vibes and the semantic signatures of the twentieth century’s most devastating social collapses.
From the meaning in their words, wisdom for our future emerges.
As much as our modern day Number Six – Fed Chair Jay Powell – may protest that he is a free man with lots of wiggle room on the pace of future rate cuts and being data dependent on inflation and blah blah blah, he has no degrees of freedom whatsoever. He has two choices, both of them terrible.
I think the scrum is a great metaphor for what’s happening everywhere in the world right now, not just in Washington DC for the domestic US political implications of Trump Part Deux – This Time We’re Serious, but also in Seoul, Paris and Berlin for the domestic South Korean, French and German political implications. (btw, I think there’s a scrum happening right now in Tehran, too, it’s just not something that makes it onto Western media)