The Intentional Investor #23: Kevin Muir
February 19, 2025·1 comment·In Brief
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Comments
a preview on my post on this one - and, if you’re a market maker, trader, macro thinker in any way shape or form (or, if you just like to laugh) this episode is so good. So many details I had no idea about. Life does not go in a straight line.
You never really know what you’re meant to do until you stop listening to what you’re supposed to do. Take Kevin Muir, for instance. He’s my latest “the backstory really is the best story” interview on The Intentional Investor for Epsilon Theory. When you listen, you might notice how much he had me laughing - not just at the stories, but at the beautiful irony of how lives unfold when we finally get out of our own way.
Picture young Kevin, growing up in the shadow of a hockey prodigy younger brother (who, spoiler alert, would go on to win a Stanley Cup).
Every time his brother laced up his skates, it was poetry in motion. For Kevin, watching his younger sibling effortlessly dominate him despite a two-year head start, the message seemed clear: he must really suck at sports.
But while Kevin was busy believing he wasn’t cut out for athletics, he was unconsciously carving out his own arena. Board games became his battlefield, and he was unbeatable. While other kids were enjoying games at a surface level, he was devouring science magazines about Monopoly statistics and expected values. His father, a research analyst at a major Canadian finance firm, watched this with knowing eyes - seeing not a failed athlete, but a natural-born trader in the making.
Life has a funny way of dropping breadcrumbs. A college part-time job at a retail trading call center turned into a “why even bother graduating” career launch. He moved from the call center to try his hand at what had become a pit trading fantasy in Chicago. But once he got there, those ideas crashed and burned, sending him back to Canada - right where he needed to be. It was there, on an institutional trading desk in the '90s, where everything finally clicked. Those childhood obsessions with math, computers, and games weren’t just hobbies - they were ALL preparation.
When Kevin started automating trading operations, several of his colleagues thought he was crazy to trust computers with basic tasks. That was, of course, until they saw the numbers. Sure, you could say he was in the right place at the right time. But maybe he was built for that exact moment, shaped by every “failure” and deviation from the expected path. A few years earlier and those skills don’t matter yet. A few years later and CompSci grads would skate lil-bro circles around him. But at that exact moment in time, it all lined up.
Today, whether you’re reading his Macro Tourist insights or catching him on Market Huddle, you’re experiencing someone who found their true frequency. But what you might not see is the garden of abandoned expectations he had to clear before his authentic path could grow. I’m so happy to be able to capture Kevin sharing the non-straight line his life has traveled.
Want to hear all the stories, including some absolutely hilarious skiing adventures? Check out Kevin Muir on Intentional Investor, available now wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me - watching someone discover who they really are is way more entertaining than watching them try to be who they think they should be.
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