In Robert Wright’s first book, “The Moral Animal,” Wright examines how evolutionary forces influence the behaviour of individuals, and the impact this has on the human psyche. Though not necessarily billed as a follow-up to ”The Moral Animal,” in “Nonzero,” Wright explores whether there could be a scientific reason to believe that history is directional,…
Tag: Book Review
Bad Blood
Theranos was once considered the darling of Silicon Valley (for an overview, see our past insight here). As a private technology company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2003, Theranos purported to have revolutionized blood testing by requiring only a fraction of the blood needed in traditional tests. The company was able to raise more than…
The Man Who Solved the Market
Until recently, stories about the investment management firm Renaissance Technologies and its flagship Medallion fund were relegated to hedge fund mythology and investor folklore. Unverifiable anecdotes around performance numbers trouncing the S&P 500 left many wondering if the team at Renaissance had managed to “crack” financial markets and whether the rumors were too good to…
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
For anyone that is familiar with the commonly used finance phrase “Black Swan”, you can thank Nassim Taleb, who popularized the term in 2001 with his book “Fooled By Randomness”. The main theme of the book is that the scientific methods utilized in financial theory tend to lean towards empirical observation, while deductive reasoning is…
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
For entrepreneurs trying to build their own businesses, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight should be on the top of their reading list. The co-founder of Nike Inc., Knight gives the reader an in-depth look at the grit and determination it took to launch the company back in its early years. He also details the trials…
The (Mis) Behaviour of Markets
As any investor will know, there are no defined set of rules in financial markets; investment management is a far cry from a hard science where normal distributions and other statistical methods work well. While it’s common knowledge that many concepts in modern finance have massive shortcomings (e.g. Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory and the efficient…