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Category Archives: Investing

A Quant’s Apology: Bar Humbug – The Talebian Bar-Bell Portfolio, Part I

In the end I added  this to the ‘haters’ category. Especially after I read this post. He seems to be writing anonymously. Anyone know who it is? According to philosopher Taleb we can have heuristics, but not optimization. Optimization leads to airport delays. It also leads to cheaper tickets and in this exciting two part [...]

Janet Tavakoli: Where Were Drama Pundits — Whitney, Taleb and Gasparino — When It Mattered?

I’m in receipt today of a collection of emails from Janet Tavakoli. You may recall some controversy around figures NNT was quoted to have said in a GQ article. I believe I’ve posted about this elsewhere on the blog. It’s from 2009. As you know, I have no relationship with Nassim Taleb, I’m simply collecting, [...]

The Markets, Economic Data, and My Black Swan Approach – Scala Volpe Capital

At this point I think it would be helpful to illuminate what I’ve been doing both in reaction to the economic data and to be proactive to what I think is still to come.  As you may have read already on my Portfolio page, I do employ black swan prote…

Tumor is still in the system – Nassim Nicholas Taleb part 1 & 2

I was a trader for 21 years, and anyone taking markets seriously needs to consider the following… You remember the day when Kervial was liquidated? The SocGen rogue trader… ‘the hero’ in France. They sold $50 billion dollars worth of stock. How much did capitalization drop world-wide, based on that? Markets went down 12 percent! With a $50 billion order, you drop markets by 12%. We lost 7, 8 Trillion. A huge amount. So it tells you, don’t pay attention to stock markets. They’re driven by the marginal buyer. It means nothing. Short term markets mean nothing.

Nassim Taleb Interview – The Brian Lehrer Show 052110

HatTip to Dave Lull Nassim Taleb Interview – The Brian Lehrer Show 052110 WNYC-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, former hedge fund advisor, professor, and author of the best-selling book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2 edition, 2010), continues his exploration of randomness and the unpredictability of markets with the new edition [...]

Nassim Taleb Bloomberg 05/13/10

HatTip to EG! NNT was also on CNBC yesterday. The interviewers get in the way somewhat but it’s worth watching.

The World's Craziest Trade | www.bullfax.com

Shared by JohnH

Anybody read The Big Short? Would love to understand the details of making the kind of trades NNT talks about. I wish someone would write a ‘How To’ with specifics built around NNT’s Moscow Forum strategy outlined here: http://www.bl…

The Russian Forum Debate: Marc Faber, Hugh Hendry, Nassim Taleb

Aha! Made it to YouTube.Nassim Taleb (Synopsis): Go no-risk with a small percent and high-risk with the rest. For the speculative component, short the S&P and be long in precious metals; bet on hyperinflation with OTM calls on gold and puts on bonds; short USTs as long as Bernanke and Summers are in office; trade [...]