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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets |  | Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Creator: Sean Pratt
Publisher: Your Coach In A Box
List Price: $39.98
Buy New: $21.35
as of 11/22/2009 01:45 CST details
You Save: $18.63 (47%)
New (20) Used (11) from $19.99
Seller: ---greatbookdeals
Rating:  432 reviews
Sales Rank: 501649
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.1 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 159659201X
Dewey Decimal Number: 123.3
EAN: 9781596592018
ASIN: 159659201X
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this look at financial luck, hedge fund manager Taleb (Dynamic Hedging) addresses the apparently irrational movement of money markets around the world. Using his own investing experience and examples of others' successes and disappointments, he discusses theories like Monte Carlo math (easy; considered cheating by purists) and the concept of Russian roulette. Taleb tells interesting, well-wrought stories about individual behavior: "While Nero has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, both personally and intellectually, he is starting to consider himself as having missed a chance somewhere." While serious investors and mathematics enthusiasts will be intrigued, readers looking for practical investment strategies will be disappointed by this rambling intellectual discourse.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Amazon.com Review
If the prescriptions for getting rich that are outlined in books such as The Millionaire Next Door and Rich Dad Poor Dad are successful enough to make the books bestsellers, then one must ask, Why aren't there more millionaires? In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professional trader and mathematics professor, examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill. This eccentric and highly personal exploration of the nature of randomness meanders from the court of Croesus and trading rooms in New York and London to Russian roulette, Monte Carlo engines, and the philosophy of Karl Popper. Part of what makes this book so good is Taleb's ability to make seemingly arcane mathematical concepts (at least to this reviewer) entirely relevant in evaluating and understanding everything from the stock market to the success of those millionaires cited in the aforementioned bestsellers. Here's an articulate, wise, and humorous meditation on the nature of success and failure that anyone who wants a little more of the former would do well to consider. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 432
 Great insight September 28, 2009
C-diddy (California)
Taleb changed the way I thought about skill and luck. The book was not made to prove things one way or the other but to get you to think. Don't take anyones supposed skill to your bank. You need to be aware of the risk of what you are purchasing. This book applies not only to investing but to life in general. The book is easy and fun to read.
Anecdotes and science September 17, 2009
Helge Ogrim (Norway)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Found the book strangely absorbing and innovative. Myself, I have very little knowledge of things mathematical or statistical, but a rather strong interest in them. Nassim Taleb delivers a spirited defence of skepticism, which I always like. His examples from the world of financial trading (and gaming) are entertaining and probably(!) illustrative, as are his anectodes from other fields of life and his obviously very extensive reading.
I should have liked to read a non-polemical discussion of his thesis. But it would have to be written in the same and wonderfully popular and humorous vein that runs thru this fine book.
 some interesting provocative ideas but the book is quite bad September 10, 2009
Victor Melamed (CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There are some interesting ideas in the book. That's why I would give it 2 stars and not 1.
Other than that the style is quite bad (IMHO of course) but the one biggest problem for me is that
the author lacks even a single smallest drop of humility. Most of the book is about how smart
the author is and how stupid everybody else is. I did not need all that.
The message of the book if there was any is lost in all this bragging.
Fooled by Ramdomness September 4, 2009
Peter G. Maclean
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A book that all of the overpaid egomaniacs on Wall Street will hate. Answers to the questions about what role luck plays in our financial lives. A must read before you overpay for financial advise.
Interesting Content in an Easy-To-Read style August 30, 2009
Brian P. Bernard
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The topics are very engaging, and the author's style is very verbal (write's the way people talk). Highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 432
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