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In the unlikely event that you can’t find a loved one the perfect present in our merch shop, here are some more gift ideas from the Alphaville team.
General Theory first edition
John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is arguably the foundational text of economics, and this is a flawless first edition and first impression from 1936.
Perfect for: Economists (and FTAV, tbqh)
Estimated price: £13,750
GPU purse
The ultimate accessory for AI bagholders.
Perfect for: That friend who yolo’d Nvidia options in 2020 and became a zillionaire.
Estimated price: $1,024–$65,536
An original Liberty Loan
Sadly, all the Mozambique tuna boats are now off the market, so if you want to secure yourself a high-end bit of bond market history then this fourth Liberty Loan certificate — with all the uncollected coupons — might be your best bet. If it’s good enough for Charlie Chaplin, then it’s good enough for us. You can also check out one of Ireland’s first sovereign bonds or a Louisiana bond from 1871.
Perfect for me: Fixed income nuts
Estimated price: $4,350
The FTX Investors’ TombstoNFT
We’ve reopened bidding for our virtual tombstone of FTX investors, after initially not attracting an offer that fully reflects the value of this incredibly scarce monument to stupidity. We’ve now marked the value up by 10x, because private markets are amazing.
Perfect for: Anyone who works at Sequoia, SoftBank or Tiger Global.
Estimated price: $4,000+
Bernie Madoff trade confirmation in Lucite
Madoff’s investment fund seemingly never made any actual trades. This trade confirmation might be from its related market-making operations, but it remains wonderful monument to a previous golden era for frauds.
Perfect for: A lot of investors in the coming decade.
Estimated price: $175
Romanée Conti 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Part of a batch of rare wines coming up at Sotheby’s this week. Irn Bru for private equity types, basically.
Perfect for: Anyone in the three-commas club.
Estimated price: €38,000–€55,000
A 2x leveraged MicroStrategy ETF share
Little sums up 2024’s zeitgeist more than a smattering of leveraged single-stock ETFs tracking one of the world’s most insane stocks taking in over $5bn of assets (there’s another $110mn in triple-leveraged funds). Who wouldn’t want to find something so . . . exhilarating in their Christmas stocking?
Perfect for: People who thought February 5, 2018 was a blast.
Estimated price: $114.7 at pixel time
Mark Hanna’s suit
Do you know a finance bro who thought The Wolf of Wall Street was actually an inspirational tale? Then get him the suit worn by Matthew McConaughey’s coke-huffing, humming Mark Hanna.
Perfect for: Anyone who aspires to have a Wharton MBA (but doesn’t actually have one yet).
Estimated price: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Chalcedony, diamonds and gold bear riding a bicycle
What better way to show your love for the chippy short seller in your life than by gifting this beautiful Andreas von Zadora-Gerlof designed sculpture? They may not get into the Forbes 400, but at least they can surround themselves with beauty like this.
Perfect for: Activist shorts.
Estimated price: $5,000-$6,000
Signed photograph of Harry Markowitz
The OG quant Mac McQuown once argued that Harry Markowitz is the true father of modern finance. The Nobel laureate passed away last year, but any financial economist would love to have a signed snap as the centrepiece of their own personal shrine.
Perfect for: All University of Chicago grads.
Estimated price: $165
An actual tin hat
Because the uniformly bullish consensus is a little unnerving?
Perfect for: Anyone worried about stocks puking next year.
Estimated price: £495
https://www.ft.com/content/72b31d96-4474-4748-a5af-989213acd756
