Book Club: Why Stock Markets Crash

I don’t know why I bought this book.  It reads very much like an academic paper about the markets, and I’m not interested in academics. They have no ‘skin in the game’ a concept from Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile  (among other books) that I should have written reviews for instead of actually reading this book.  

Skin in the game essentially refers to people that talk about things that they have an actual vested interest in.  For example, if your income comes from book sales and research grants then you’re not qualified to write about the stock market and how to trade it.  If your financial success has come from risking your own money in the stock markets day in and day out, then please write about the markets because I’d love to read it.

The truth is market crashes are extreme events and are ‘off the charts’ of statistical predictability.  If you want to become a better trader, work to understand crowd (and personal) psychology.  Then stop getting caught up in the noise of ‘bubbles’ and ‘crashes’.  If you had held your stock index funds through the crash in the 80s, 90s, and 2008 you’d be profitable right now.

Verdict: Anyways I’d pass on this one.  Read ‘Antrifragile’ by Nassim Taleb and ‘Fooled By Randomness’ instead.