Casino Math & Wall Street Probability

By Kevin Cook | July 25, 2008 | 11:18 PM | 3 Comments

Have you read The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb?  I highly recommend it for investors, traders, and anyone who likes to think about ideas.  I've read it three times, and will probably read it again.  It's not about markets as much as it is about our philosophy of knowledge and how we should proceed to live in the reality of endless "unknown unknowns."

I'm a sucker for the philosophy of science and all things relating to how we get stuck in endless feedback loops of perception driven by world-views driven by psychological "heuristics and biases."  I wrote about heuristics and biases for investors and traders in the July issue of Stocks, Futures, and Options Magazine (SFO), and a link to that article can be found in my bio, thanks to the graciousness of our host here at greenfaucet.com Jim Slagle.

You will not be surprised to hear, then,  that I have also written a short book review of The Black Swan in the August edition of SFO, due out next week.  And it should be a "known known" that I will be back here discussing the book in more detail.  But meanwhile, please visit this video-essay I did at ONN.tv as part of my series "How Not to Be a Sucker--or Probability 101."

Here's the link:

From The Strip to The Street, I hope you enjoy it!

Kevin Cook