http://gladwell.com/2002/2002_04_29_a_blowingup.htm Are good fund managers simply lucky fund managers? About stocks,
Nassim Taleb is sure of only one thing: that the probability of
exceptional events—S11, say—is invariably
underestimated.
This is a New Yorker piece, so as well as
arguments you get pretty flourishes:
“He was always so conceptual about what he was doing,”
says Howard Savery, who was Taleb's assistant at the French bank
Indosuez in the nineteen-eighties. “He used to drive our floor
trader (his name was Tim) crazy. Floor traders are used to precision:
‘Sell a hundred futures at eighty-seven.’ Nassim would
pick up the phone and say, ‘Tim, sell some.’ And Tim would
say, ‘How many?’ And he would say, ‘Oh, a social
amount.’ It was like saying, ‘I don't have a number in
mind, I just know I want to sell.’ ”
(I suppose a similar observation is behind index funds.) 17:21
dobedo (dobedo.org):
… not remains to be seen. What is already proven, is that a single decision can completely change the market. A small difference making all the difference. For those of us with far too much time for reading, here’s an oldie but goldie blog post fromMalcolm Gladwell, about among other things, how to turn the inevitability of disaster into an investment strategy. And, from now on, perhaps this can be extended, to the inevitability of benevolence as well. Pronoia even? …
The Maanga (themaanga.com):
… hedge funds are “Blow up” type, the best example being Victor Neiderhoffer, whose demise was admirably chronicled by John Cassidy. Taleb did start a “Bleed” type hedge fund, called “Empirica Capital” whose rise was admirably chronicled byMalcolm Gladwell. Empirica Capital, ahem, bled to death in the few years after that article was written. So Taleb had the time to take a sabbatical and write his second book, Black Swan. Taleb probably realized that taking his ideas to the logical extreme (if you …
The Financial Hodgepodge (financialhodgepodge.blogspot.com):
… The piece is done by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of great books like The Tipping Point and Blink which gives it a more outsider prespective because Gladwell does not work in the financial industry. The article is bit long but well worth the read.http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_04_29_a_blowingup.htm …
The Slender Loris (theslenderloris.blogspot.com):
… (in the same league asthisone) …
Dye Junior (dyejunior.blogspot.com):
… I listened to this as an audiobook and I liked it. It made me think. I liked that Taleb has spent his whole life on this idea. He had another book about the same idea, but more specific to finance.This articleby Malcolm Gladwell explains Taleb's investment strategy, which is interesting, too. …
The Slender Loris (theslenderloris.blogspot.com):
… Nassim Taleb is notBlowing Up. How Nassim Taleb turned the inevitability of disaster into an investment strategy. The Slender Loris …
TraderFeed (traderfeed.blogspot.com):
… Ritholtz on housing: no end in sight. * Consumer May Not Be Down and Out - Gallup survey on holiday spending prospects. * Disaster as an Investment Strategy - Thanks to a reader for the heads up onthis New Yorker piece on Nassim Taleb. …
Money Jungle (moneyjungle.wordpress.com):
… Blowing Up …
Mostly Yes (mostlyyes.tumblr.com):
… Spitznagel plays the piano and the French horn and has appointed himself the Empirica d.j. He wanted to play Mahler, and Taleb does not like Mahler. "Mahler is not good for volatility," Taleb complained. "Bach is good. St. Matthew's Passion!"Link. Also: Nassim Taleb's homepage has a wealth of articles, papers and such, the ChangeThis manifesto he wrote: Few and Far Between: Black Swans and the Impossibility of Prediction. …
FutureBlind (www.futureblind.com):
… For anyone who has read the book Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the name Victor Niederhoffer may sound familiar (if you haven’t read the book, check outthis articleby Malcolm Gladwell). “The Blow-Up Artist,” a great article in The New Yorker, discusses Niederhoffer’s most recent financial troubles. Although Niederhoffer and Nassim Taleb are friends, after the events of the last two months I believe that …
The Data Mine Shaft (datamineshaft.com):
… inspirational people” I list in my sidebar is Nassim Taleb. He’s a trader by profession, but refuses to be pigeon-holed as such, calling himself both a philosopher and a “skeptical empiricist”.Hereis the obligatory Malcolm Gladwell profile on him (Malcolm Gladwell is another “inspirational person” of mine, of course.) Besides all that, Taleb writes about and teaches statistics, which is where this blog comes in. …
Pater Familias (philipschaefer.com):
… he was an undergraduate. He went on to be a very successful investor (unsuccessful investors never get the opportunity to lose that much money just as only good pitchers get the chance to lose twenty games in a year). Malcolm Gladwell tells the storyhereof how he lost the one hundred thirty million dollars. Gladwell’s article is built around the intellectual conflict between two erudite professional speculators who have diametrically opposed world views. The two are Victor Niederhoffer and Nassim …
I Had a Surprise Birthday Party (gocards44.wordpress.com):
… I have these four books in my room, maybe I’ll have time to read them, maybe I won’t: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This book is about how bad we are at predicting unpredictability.Malcolm Gladwell has more.The Persistence of Poverty, by Charles Karelis. More at MarginalRevolution. Blue Blood, by Edward Conlon, because of this blog post at Freakonomics. And finally, The Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, …
Not all who wander are lost (cosmicwanderlust.blogspot.com):
… Malcolm Gladwell on Taleb in the New Yorker …
Greg A. Brown (www.gregabrown.com):
… of natural destruction from events like hurricanes or earthquakes. John Seo, the protagonist of our tale, figures out just how likely and just how costly such events are, risking billions of dollars in the process. The subject dovetails nicely withMalcolm Gladwell’s profile of Nassim Taleb, a guy who sought to do the same thing with catastrophes that were merely financial in nature. Taleb has since written The Black Swan on the commonness of catastrophes in general. …
skynet loves you (arakyd.livejournal.com):
… rippling through the markets over the last week or so. Apparently this goes back to all that subprime mortgage stuff that you've probably been hearing about in the news. Now some hedge funds are biting it and people are saying this may be anotherLong Term Capital Management …
Short-Term Trading (short-termtrading.blogspot.com):
… LINK …
Half Full (www.blog.steig.com):
… bookstores etc) but "hype" and "Taleb" aren't natural partners. What captures me is the earnestness, the passion, the obsession of Taleb as he tries to make sense of the randomness he sees in the world. If you read the New Yorker article on him (LINK) you know how influential his childhood growing up in Lebanon has been--seeing his world go from paradise to hell in six months. A deep rooted need to understand how this could have occurred drives him. Stay with the interview because although he …
Someone Say Grace (someonesaygrace.blogspot.com):
… My point was simple and straightforward. The ideas are readily available in N.N. Talab's books Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan and can be read about in a New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwellhere(cf., here). My deleted post was as follows (italicized quotes from Cline, cited by me in the censored post): …
Dr. Mezmer's Blog of Bad Psychology (mezmer.blogspot.com):
… happens in the positive expected value gamble - a series of small losses and one big gain. Even thought they lose money, those 4 small gains are so valuable to people that they persist in choosing to play from that deck of cards. It seems to supportNassim Taleb'sstrategy of investing for catastrophe payouts. ( http://www.marketpsych.com/blog/blogger.html) …
