such a leftist rag. Home to leftist movie reviews. Leftist fiction by the likes of John Updike. Leftist photographs of the WTC disaster by Joel Meyerowitz. Leftist propaganda by the likes of John McPhee about geology. Extremely leftist profiles of Afghani warlords, a great left slanted article on the former (now dead) chief of security for Morgan Stanley who was a real hero even before the disaster. What a POS rag. I knew it was a mistake to subscribe to it for the last fifteen years. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the freakin' leftist cartoons. They must really work, cause I'm a totally warped commie pinko creep.
You said all that, I didn't. I'm simply describing the theme of the article. Even the title is shot at Victor Niederhoffer. They never fight fair. I picked up NY a coupla months ago with high hopes. I was disappointed by the spin. Another contradiction. They diminish the applicability of aggregate probabilities on page 167 (1st column) and appeal to them on page 170 (third column, upper). I'm sorry, it's the tactic of a mudslinger, makes everyone else seem mundane but makes the hero a hero for saying 2+2 is four.
Thanks for posting this article...it was a bit pretentious and wordy but still good. Taleb is definitely a force to be reckoned with. I recently read his book 'Fooled by Randomness' and must say that he whetted my appetite for philosophy and the arts.
it really is an amazing account. Of course I shred the media, because it's so darn shreddable. I don't appreciate the casting of Niederhoffer as they have. He's a fine human being. I hope he has the last word. I look forward to Taleb's book because I share similar hunches about randomness (hey, that's a funny, isn't it?)
I never expected so many responses. I couldn't care less if this article is leftist or whatever. I am now reading Taleb's book, and I have to say that it is probably the singe best book I've read so far about trading. I started trading full time in 1999, I remember how difficult it was during that time. I started with 10k and the bull market carried me and sometimes even forgave my mistakes. During this time I've met people that were making $30-40-50 thousand per month not knowing anything about trading what so ever. I remember being up about 6k for the month while an acquaintance of mine was up about $40k and was telling me how successful he was. I, on the other hand was learning how to trade and had an idea that the strategy of buying on dips and doubling down one day will come to haunt him, since the person was clueless about taking losses. Well, it's 3 years later, I still make a living out of trading full time, still have the original $10k I started with, while almost everyone I know is no longer trading for a living or even investing, having lost all the money. I think the article speaks to that (book much more). shneed
By the way. Niederhoffer's was the first book that I've read about trading, and one of the very few that I still have. He is by far one of the best traders out there. The question is, should he be judged by the sum of all his successful years as a trader, or by that one incident that blew him away. Was he good all those years, or just lucky, like Taleb implies? Does it matter? shneed
What people call randomness can for or against Dr. Niederhoffer as much as it does for Taleb. Every dog has its day. I think most people are more subject to it than they would like to think.