This book, an irreverent view of the role of luck in the markets, elicited a gamut of emotions. Primarily this was a feeling of admiration. Admiration for a man who has the wonderful job title of "Professor of Uncertainty", admiration for a man writing about the markets but framing it with copious references to classical philosophy and a sprinkling of Latin (sorry - but I did study classical history at Cambridge and am slightly reactionary when it comes to this!), and admiration for the chutzpah he shows in his irreverent views of many in the financial world. However, as I got through the pages I was left feeling somewhat deflated as the book could so easily have been a classic if it were not for certain things....

My main gripe with the author was one of arrogance. Mr Taleb is clearly an intelligent and well read man. Nothing woring there. He is also indubitably a man who likes to break down the ivory towers many in the financial world have built around themselves. Calling economists no more than "entertainers" made me howl with laughter and his (constant) scorn for MBAs is something that I have long held dear myself. However, partly because of his lilting prose style, and partly because of his seemingly driven need to partonise this often came over as unduly arrogant and unpleasant.

The basic premise for the whole book is that we should (in the markets as well as in wider life) substitute luck for skill in much of what we do. In this bracket he places virtually every trader and fund manager he has come across as well as such behemoths of the industry as the "Sage" of Omaha Warren Buffett (much to the horror of many an American reviewer, immured as they are within the tradition of hero worhsip). To back up his theories of "Life as Brownian Motion" he cites several real-life anecdotes as well as a number of enlivening statistics. I was however slightly disappointed that he did not spend more time talking about his own brand of trading philosophy above and beyond the use of Monte Carlo simulations and his belief in "Black Swans" (the supposed 10 sigma events that caused the 86 and 98 crashes as well as others. I guess however this will be expounded further in his subsequent book "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable".

My advice to potential readers would therefore be thus. If you want a book that can enlighten and give an alternate view of the world of trading and the markets, then read this book. You need to be aware though that few people come out well - seemingly the only people he has much respect for are Karl Popper and Georg Soros - and part of the enjoyment in reading the book is Taleb's irreverent attitude to all those around him. This book is not a trading bible and may well put off many by his constant allusions to philosophy and the classics, but if you can ignore some of the fuss and bluster then you will surely enjoy the ride.