Gregory Saey

Instagram post,

March 2020: our first client NAV, the week Covid crashed markets

Mid-March 2020, we struck our first NAV for outside investors as European volatility went above 80. What that month taught me about experience and risk.

Until March 2020 we had traded our own money only. Our first NAV for outside investors was struck in mid-March 2020, the week Covid crashed markets. The timing could not have been worse, or more instructive.

The market

European volatility went above 80 that month. The VSTOXX had been there only once before, in the autumn of 2008. On 16 March 2020 it closed at 85.6. The full picture of that week, and of the other shocks from 2008 to 2025, is on the From the desk page.

The book

Our book was arbitrage, on every side: positions on the index, on the banks and on volatility itself. A hard book to manage that month.

What it took

Steady nerves. Knowing exactly what we held, line by line. And years in the market.

The lesson

In a market like that, you do not get time to learn. Without experience, a book can blow up in two days.

2008, 2011, 2018, 2020. Four market shocks, traded from the inside.

The post as published on Instagram

March 2020: our first client NAV was struck the week Covid crashed markets.
Slide 1 of 7
The timing: own capital until that week. The first NAV for outside investors came in mid-March 2020.
Slide 2 of 7
The market: volatility above 80. Europe's volatility index had been there only once before.
Slide 3 of 7
The book: arbitrage on every side. Positions on the index, on the banks and on volatility itself.
Slide 4 of 7
What it took: nerves, clarity, experience.
Slide 5 of 7
The lesson: no time to learn. Without experience, a book can blow up in two days.
Slide 6 of 7
2008, 2011, 2018, 2020: four market shocks, traded from the inside.
Slide 7 of 7

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