The Narranomist Narrative

Welcome aboard, and thank you for reading this introduction to The Narranomist.

I’m a portfolio manager and founding partner of Narranomics Trading LLC, an investment manager trading risk narratives in financial markets. 

I’m also fascinated by the fusion of human behavior, history, and decision-making.While the firm's name is a portmanteau of narrative and economics, this note’s name is a hat tip to the venerable Economist magazine, and since I present myself as a practicing but unregulated narrative economist, The Narranomist emerged.

“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.”

That’s from Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate and a founding father of behavioral economics. He understood the connection between narratives, storytelling, and decision-making. Kahneman and another Nobel Laureate, Robert Shiller (who wrote the long on theory but short on applications Narrative Economics book), are the intellectual rabbis who started me down this glorious, never-ending rabbit hole.

Why do I want to write these notes?

It’s a fair question because I often feel the pain of author Kurt Vonnegut:

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.

Yet I also agree with Daniel Boorstin (author of an eerily prescient 1992 book, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America) who said:

I write to discover what I think. And, after all, the bars aren’t open that early.I like conversations in this format. And truthfully, I don’t have the discipline to consistently rage engage on XTwitter.

What’s my narrative?

Well, a brewing mid-life crisis really accelerated this journey. Thankfully, though, I didn’t blow up my marriage or buy a sports car, and I didn’t need hair plugs. 

I went back to school.

My master’s in Cognitive and Decision Science from University College London is the intellectual foundation for narrative economics - applied. Yes, thank you to Robert Shiller and other brilliant academics (including at UCL) and authors for the beautiful theories but I needed to make a living.

After I finished school, it was abundantly made clear to me that I was unemployable, and few former clients knew wtf I was talking about, what with the stories and all. So, there was really just one option:

Start an investment management firm.

Which I did in late 2021, along with two brilliant, much younger, and smarter, computer scientist partners. We are cognitive diversity, applied, without quotas or committees.

It’s both liberating and terrifying to be judged by performance vs. judged by judges (ie, the sell-side and figure skating).

What can you expect from The Narranomist?

It will be unburdened from the pathetic and draining trap of trying to sound smart. I would rather make money in financial markets than sound smart. 

Each note will share a pithy and punchy take on financial markets from a narrative economics perspective. Source material comes from curiosity-driven observations, books, articles, and conversations. 

Thoughtful feedback is always welcome and needed.

If you see something, say something. That means if you see, say, hear, or read something interesting or variant—like a good story from a narrative economics perspective—let me know. I may shamelessly steal the story but protect your identity.

Please share these notes with anyone who finds human behavior fascinating and collective human behavior even more so (and completely whacked sometimes). They can drop a line to McQ@Narranomics.com and get the notes from me directly. 

So there you have it:

A pithy, punchy, irreverent, humorous, I would rather make money than sound smart – take on financial markets and anything else that impacts macroeconomic (read: human) behavior. 

And a consistent sign-off, which is one of my axes:

Keep Learning,

McQ