Anti Book Review: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

On June 26, 2008, In Book Reviews, By admin

After reading fooled by randomness, I was very keen to read Taleb’s follow up The Black Swan. I really had high expectations of The Black Swan it was one of the best selling non-fiction book on Amazon.com for 2007. After reading The Black Swan it is very evident that no words I can write in this review will do the book justice. It is once again very thought provoking and confronting materiel that Taleb presents. This really is a must read book not just for pseudo financial professionals.

Contents

Prologue

Part One – Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary, or how we seek validation

  • Chapter One: The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic
  • Chapter Two: Yevgenia’s Black Swan
  • Chapter Three: The Speculator and the Prostitute
  • Chapter Four: One Thousand and One Days, or How Not to Be a Sucker
  • Chapter Five: Confirmation Shmonfirmation!
  • Chapter Six: The Narrative Fallacy
  • Chapter Seven: Living in the Antechamber of Hope
  • Chapter Eight: Giacomo Casanova’s Unfailing Luck: The Problem of Silent Evidence
  • Chapter Nine: The Ludic Fallacy, or The Uncertainty of the Nerd

Part Two: We Just Can’t Predict

  • Chapter Ten: The Scandal of Prediction
  • Chapter Eleven: How to Look for Bird Poop
  • Chapter Twelve: Epistemocracy, a Dream
  • Chapter Thirteen: Appelles the Painter, or What Do You Do if You Cannot Predict?

Part Three: Those Gray Swans Extremistan

  • Chapter Fourteen: From Mediocristan to Extremistan, and Back
  • Chapter Fifteen: The Bell Curve, That Great Intellectual Fraud
  • Chapter Sixteen: The Aesthetics of Randomness
  • Chapter Seventeen: Locke’s Madmen, or Bell Curves in the Wrong Places
  • Chapter Eighteen: The Uncertainty of The Phony
  • Chapter Nineteen: Half and Half, or How to Get Even with the Black Swan
  • Epilogue: Yevgenia’s White Swan
  • Acknowledgements
  • Glossary
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tagged with: • •
 
1 Comments
Leave A Response

Book Review: The Four Hour Work Week

On April 21, 2008, In Book Reviews, The Four Hour Work Week, By admin

How would you like to work only four hours a week whilst maintaining or even increasing your income? I have to say I would and that is what lead me to purchasing this book. I had heard about this book but wasn’t convinced. So when I saw the book on special at my local supermarket I thought I would give it a read.

The book is written by Timothy Ferriss and he certainly practices what he preaches. He is another individual that is impossible to label. According to his biography he has been a cage fighter in Japan, holds a Guinness world record in tango, national Chinese kickboxing champion and actor in a TV series in China to name but a few of his achievements. Did I mention he is only 29 years old? You can see some of his media appearances and interviews on his website The Four Hour Work Week. The book is around 300 pages in length and is a straightforward read. From a trading perspective chapter six The Low-Information diet: Cultivating Selective Ignorance is a must read.

Contents of the Book

(more…)

Popularity: 11% [?]

Tagged with: •
 
3 Comments
Leave A Response

Trading Book Review Way of the Turtle

On October 17, 2007, In Book Reviews, Way of the Turtle, By admin
Amazon.com: Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders: Books: Curtis FaithISBN: 007148664X
ISBN-13: 9780071486644

Way of the turtle begins with an explanation of the initial Turtle Trading experiment. This experiment came about after a dispute between Richard Dennis and Bill Eckhardt on the issue of weather great traders were born or made. Dennis had the view that an individual could be taught to be great trader while Eckhardt thought great traders required genetics and aptitude. In order to settle the matter ads were taken out in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Barron’s. The ads were for the position of trading apprentices and after an initial training period the trainee would be given an account to trade. Out of a thousand applicants 13 were selected, these trainees were known as the Turtles.

Curtis M. Faith, the youngest member of the original Turtle group, wrote way of the Turtle. It contains 278 pages not including the index forward and preface. The well-respected trading coach Van K. Tharp authored the preface and stated, “[Way of the Turtle] is one of the five best trading books ever written, and I will recommend that all my clients become familiar with its contents”.

Way of the Turtle Contents (more…)

Popularity: 17% [?]

Tagged with: • • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response
Go To Top »