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Fooled by Randomness
Book

Fooled by Randomness

The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Thomson Texere, 2001

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

The past decade has witnessed the release of many books about risk management and assessment, but none have managed to illustrate the role that random events play in life and markets as well as Nissim Nicholas Taleb’s latest work. Writing in a leisurely and personal style that makes his complex subject utterly accessible, Taleb instructs us on how to account for randomness in our decision making, and illustrates the many ways in which we confuse luck with skill. getAbstract highly recommends this book, which many investors will wish they had read in, say, 1994.

Take-Aways

  • People confuse luck with skill, probability with certainty and belief with knowledge.
  • Recognize the role of randomness in investing and in everyday life to avoid becoming a victim of superstitious foolishness.
  • A single, random event can destroy the success of lucky fools.

About the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the founder of Empirica Capital LLC and an adjunct professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. He held senior trading positions in New York and London, and worked as a floor trader in Chicago. He is the author of Dynamic Hedging, and was inducted into the Derivates Strategy Hall of Fame in 2001 for his record of debunking myths and false gurus. He received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has a Ph.D. from the University of Paris Dauphine.

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