The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

               

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

8.1/10

READ

The book is very interesting and lays its main premise early enough: it is idiotic to make assumptions about how the world works when just one observation can render them useless (assuming black swans don't exist when finding just one destroys the assumption). 

In finance parlance, a black swan is just a rare event that happens unexpectedly and can cause material damages. 

This argument is laid in the first pages of the book, making it straightforward to the reader. The remainder expands on this, offering real life examples and personal experiences of Taleb (who actually worked as a trader). 

A very interesting read, albeit more difficult and less improtant than Fooled By Randomness.

READ IF: You want to get more details as to how one-off events affect markets

PASS IF: You want an easy read

Find the book on Amazon