Options, Macro and the Road Ahead

Hi everyone,

I’ve technically been the “organizer” of this group for the past few months—but not by design. I noticed a message on Meetup inviting anyone to take over the group after it had been inactive for a while, and I clicked it out of curiosity at what the next step would be. That was it—no next step, no confirmation, and no way to back out.

That said, I’m now stepping away from Meetup due to their recent pricing and platform changes. If anyone here would like to take over as organizer, the group is available—just follow the prompts or reach out to Meetup—but make sure you really want the role—there’s a fee involved, and Meetup doesn’t make it easy to step down as organizer.

In the meantime, you’re invited to join me for a final event hosted via my other long-standing Meetup group, Victoria Investment Ideas & Stockpickers’ Roundtable, which I’ve organized for over 7 years.

We’ll discuss how we might continue engaging outside of Meetup, and I’d love to hear what kind of content or structure might be of help or interest to any of you going forward.

A bit about me:
I’m a CFA charterholder and Portfolio Manager with extensive experience managing proprietary options and risk-mitigation strategies. I’ve managed portfolios for some of Canada’s most sophisticated investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the Jim Pattison Foundation, and Manitoba Teachers’ Society. A hedge fund that I co-managed was one of three finalists for Morningstar’s Best Opportunistic Hedge Fund award in 2012.

I’ve been a guest lecturer on options strategies for the 4th year Strategic Investing course at the Richard Ivey School of Business, and I also teach investing courses at the University of Victoria’s Continuing Studies program.

I’ve been encouraged to launch a dedicated options course to share my knowledge—possibly this fall, time permitting. Since most of the events for this Meetup have been options related, I thought this might be of interest to some of you.

I recently launched a Substack publication called MacroCurate, where I plan to publish my first post later this month. The goal is to deliver curated briefs of the most insightful macroeconomic thinking from the world’s top strategists to help investors make sense of a never-ending stream of information, distill it into knowledge, and begin the harder journey of transforming that knowledge into wisdom.

It’s in early development, so don’t pay (I’ve set it up with the minimum payment of $5/month just to see how it works for now)—just join for free, as all the content will be available for free for the next couple of months as I refine the content, understand what readers want, and balance this with my full-time job (and two young kids!) to see what I’m capable of delivering with the time I have.

We’re living through a period of profound change—one in which the investing playbook of the past 40 years no longer applies. The world is entering an era shaped by massive debt burdens with few credible exit strategies, fiscal dominance, persistent inflation, a shift toward a multipolar world, and what Strauss and Howe described as a 'Fourth Turning'—a generational cycle marked by upheaval, institutional breakdown, and eventual realignment.

For investors, this backdrop makes medium- and long-term asset allocation decisions uniquely difficult. Rather than contribute to the noise, I’m hoping to highlight and clarify the most insightful macro perspectives to help us navigate and make sense of a rapidly changing world.

If that resonates, I hope to see you on July 3rd, or on MacroCurate. And don’t worry, no sales pitches—just an honest effort to share what I’m thinking and learn what’s helpful to others.

If not, no worries...wishing you all good luck in the years ahead!

Warm regards,
Ian Johnson, CFA

P.S. If you’re just interested in the options course, which I’m hoping to roll out in the fall, drop me a line at [macrocurate@gmail.com](mailto:macrocurate@gmail.com) and I’ll keep you in the loop.