Very serious philosophical workNovember 1, 2008 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have been trading markets for long time and have been exposed to volatility and its devastating impact on portfolio. I have been trading professionally too (in a bank, different markets). I read numerous books before on trading (technical analysis, strategies, etc..). But trading is more than just fundamental and quantitative analysis. Good trading skills have deep roots into psychology and philosophy. I decided to buy the book and read it after noticing so many negative reviews and I became curious. I can say , that the book was above my expectations. The author confirmed and reinforced many interesting aspects I knew with very nice and interesting examples. This work also broadened my horizons into history, philosophical thinking and gave me new ideas how to improve my own trading. Now, it is time to say to all who say negative things about the author: you are all wrong...Look at the financial crisis and blowouts by hedge funds and banks. Thats because those idiots didnt even understand things covered in this book. After long way of schooling (MBA at NYU) and long years of work, I met a lot of people Taleb talking about (traders, strategists, analysts,and professors), and many of them have wrong way of thinking. Taleb exposes all of this in his book. It is an excellent book for experienced traders (not so experienced ones are unlikely to appreciate the book to its full extent or even understand the concepts covered). Great book to complement someone's quantitative training. To make the long story short, the book is going to benefit everyone and make everyone smarter.
It will encourage you to look at things differentlyOctober 30, 2008 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The first cautionary point I would make the prospective reader of Nassim Taleb (in any form) is that he can definitely come off as extremely arrogant. He pulls very view punches in sharing his opinions, particularly about people, be it groups or individuals. His fellow Wall Street professional are vilified, as are those who can be considered the luminaries of financial theory and plenty of others. Taleb is free with his criticism, though he does also offer complimentary words for some others, like George Soros, whom he clearly respects.
My second cautionary point is that Fooled by Randomness is not a handbook or scientific treatise of any sort. The author is actually pretty upfront about that. Taleb classifies it as an essay. I'll call it an expression of personal observation, opinion, and philosophy.
The main thrust of Fooled by Randomness is quite simple. It's that people are fooled into believing that what are likely random things have instead some meaningful causality. Taleb talks about all the different ways this can happen, and they are fairly numerous. This is probably the aspect of the book which upsets the most readers (or prospective ones), because he essentially says that we cannot necessarily assume the success someone has in trading or business or whatever necessarily has anything to do with that individual's intelligence or skill or whatever. It might just be luck, good or bad.
This is not, as I understand it, to say that Taleb believes everything is a matter of luck. Rather, he suggests that certain ventures (trading, for example) are much more influenced by randomness and uncertainty than others (dentistry, to cite his favored example). Naturally, the idea that randomness may be more important than our decision-making abilities is something that's not going to sit well with many people.
Something I would have liked to see as a compliment to the uncertainly discussion was a bit of practical talk about the implications of uncertainty in how one operates, for example in how one develops a trading strategy. Aside from highlighting the requirement to account for that uncertainty, though, Taleb is mostly silent on the application side of things. Nor does he bring in much specific science or math into the discussion. I would have liked more of that, but the author states from the beginning that such will not be the focus, and he's supplied a number of notes and references in the back of the book toward that end.
It's worth noting that the randomness angle isn't the only one in the book. There are plenty of other philosophical ideas discussed in the text as well.
In terms of writing style, I found Taleb generally engaging and easy to read. There are some complex concepts he discusses which necessarily slow you down, but as I noted about, he doesn't get into stats and math and stuff like that, so the text is generally fluid. Grammar sticklers might be a bit put off by the relatively frequent use of sentence fragments at the start of paragraphs, but the ideas are communicated effectively nevertheless.
As for the overall presentation, I personally found the latter part of the book to get a bit scattered, causing me to wonder where the author was going. Generally speaking, however, it was an enjoyable read. Taleb certainly triggered in me a number of different thoughts and ideas. Given that Fooled by Randomness is above all else a philosophical exposition, that is exactly what should have happened, so I would say the book definitely achieved it's objective. I definitely recommend it
Author Self Love DefinedOctober 18, 2008 2 out of 9 found this review helpful
The points this author attempts to make in this book are completely lost on the reader due to the poor quality of writing and the authors total love affair with himself. It is shame. Unless you can overcome his short falls as an author, you'll be challenged to get any value out of this book.
Great thoughts--could have been written in 10 percent of the pagesOctober 17, 2008 1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Taleb has some good thoughts, and is occasionally witty and amusing. However he drones on and one about the same thing. Could be truncated, and then offer (more) thoughts on execution.
one of the "bestest" book everSeptember 28, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is definitely one of the best books ever...I claim to be a mathematician somewhat having gained straight A's in pure and applied mathematics and advanced mathematics with (a boring) engineering degree at a number of UK univerisities, and after years of dabbling in options trading and having experienced first hand; Black Monday (black swan?), the Asian Economic Crisis, living in the epicentre of SARS (lucky to avoid it), and being in this market whilst we have one of the greatest financial crisis ever since the great depression..this book in my opinion is a real diamond and i reckon Taleb is a genius. I agree with his logic and found his book so good I just could not put it down.. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to find "direction in life"(there is none cos it may be random) or those who are going thru major change in life, or simply those who are bored with life and need another " angle"...I agree totally with his analysis of noise vs market movements, and his view of how so many people misunderstand probablility and statistics...and yes I do have an MBA and did find the degree useless...this book "probably" would have been more useful in my career for sure! brilliant book!! Well done!
