2 years old but I have just ran into this: https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/38onec/i_am_nassim_nicholas_taleb_ask_me_anything_on/ He got real offended when asked about his HF closing and never really answered the question... Well, he directed the question to newspaper articles saying he can not promote. Except he left in 2010, so it would be discussing historical performance, not promoting... Anyhow, here is a free book from him: http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/FatTails.html
...I didn't thoroughly read all that, just skimmed it quickly -- But what's the bottom line to all this? I hate reading sleepy, boring Question and Answer theory sessions. Is he a very successful guy whose ship has come in, or did he crash his own Titanic, Reddit is a place for losers. All weird 2-bit stories, and people, arise from there usually,
When you read someone such as Taleb, I think you have to keep it in the abstract. ie: events are more random than many perceive. Not, everything in life is random. Specifically on trading.... I took a lot from his point that if a trade is not working, you do not need to figure out the why before you get out. Just get out.
I don't know...I don't like this guy. He's waffling about his abstract mindfarts, yet all he achieved is writing books and papers. He's just like Black/Schools/Merton who sit inside their multi million dollar appartments, musing over their "adventures" with LTCM, although they almost caused a market meltdown. I read Black Swan and Antifragility (or at least I tried to) and handed both of them over to the fireplace, because I could no longer take the BS. There are people in this industry who made millions although they can barely write their own name. And this moron pulls useless math out of his ass while doing nothing but burning money... Sorry guys, but Taleb always makes me fume
Yes, he is a best selling author of the Captain Obvious books. When the theory was put to practice, not so much. Apparently he wasn't very proud of his 2 decades performance as a HF manager because he didn't care to share it... And no Reddit is not for losers, it is the biggest message board on the internet with 50 million monthly users. Where else can you have a conversation with Taleb or Arnold then on Reddit?
Yeah...it's not that it was difficult to read or to understand what he's trying to say. But if your inner response is either "so what?", "Don't you say" or "how is that usefull" after every 5 sentences, you slowly...very slowly feel the rage growing inside you. Untill you end it by burning the book. And because I try to be free from prejudice, I bought his second "bestseller"...and ended up burning it, too